WRD BBC OMG etc / Cryin’ In The Morning

We Won!

Big thanks to all who voted for us for the Radcliffe and Maconie show. WRD is now on every night this week here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/the-radcliffe-and-maconie-show/

Cryin’ The Morning

Photo:Pingüino

I was saving this for a dark and bitter post the day after the vote but, seeing as we won, it changes the tone a bit. Never mind though, I’m a miserabilist so I’ll carry on.

Down at the bottom of the page is the b-side to ‘WRD’, ‘Cryin’ In The Morning’. It was the first song written after ‘The Great Unwanted’ album and was this close to being on our new album. Sadly it swopped places with ‘Southern Melancholy’ whilst on a bus ride to play the SWN festival in Cardiff. I was a bit sad about it to be honest as when I wrote it I came out thinking “I’ve just written my first classic”. Still it was only left off the album because it didn’t quite go with the flow, nothing personal, like and it’s dep is also brilliant. It was really important to make the album work as a whole listenable piece, so sorry, ‘Cryin’, I still love you but it’s just never gonna work. Let’s just be friends.

Anyway ‘Cryin’ In The Morning’ paraphrases an old flat mate of some college friends of mine in Liverpool. When asked if would be coming out for a drink that night (most nights) he would invariably reply “No, I’m rowin’ in the morning”. It became his catchphrase after a while and was second only to stories of his mate back home, ‘Shapes’, who would drink 10 pints get into some scrape and come ‘rollin’ downhill’. “And then your man, Shapes, came roooolllin’ down the hill”. I’m surprised the guy had any knees left.

Much as Shapes’ adventures became almost herculean in my imagination as the years went on, the song’s not about him, or Liverpool. As usual about loss and longing and resignation, themes that run heavily through our new album. I wanted to write something like Patsy Cline’s ‘Crazy’, which is a beautiful and paranoid at the same time. The lyrics make me laugh, they’re so fatalistic. It was also the first tune written on Barbara, my honky piano and features the Stockholm strings in all their glory. I believe they call it a torch song.

I hope you enjoy it.

Andrew

Cryin’ In The Morning by Ruffa Lane