Beginning a dream

It was during a steamy recording session late one summer’s night in 1989 (Armadillo Studios in Perth, now metamorphed into gold dust construction) that I had the idea of illustrating the words of some of my favourite British songs of the sixties and seventies.

15 years later I actually got round to doing it - and I guess it was much much harder than I expected it to be.

What was the meaning behind Jagger’s epic ‘Sympathy for the Devil? Was Lucy in the Sky really John Lennon’s spoof on LSD?

Did Bowie have his own past in mind when he wrote ‘Rebel. Rebel’?

These fascinating conundrums and many more awaited me back in 2005 when I started the first series of paintings. I will shortly be starting a new set and hope, through this blog, to gain more insight into the subject and more feedback on the work already done.

So - here goes - I shall begin with ‘Sympathy’ as in many ways it is the most intriguing lyric. I think Jean Luc Goddard’s film of The Rolling Stones recording the song interspersed with those dark, enigmatic sequences of Black Panther inspired urban evil is incredibly powerful.

Testing, One, two, TU

Do people think about the words of rock songs? And if they do what do the songs conjure up for them?

I am a professional artist - I make most of my living painting pictures. Years ago I also ran a 24 track recording studio in Perth, Western Australia and learned then, not to just enjoy the music, but to listen carefully to the words of the songs as well. The main reason I did this was that the bands recording in my studio were usually putting down songs they had only recently written and were consciously trying not to imbed in their lyrics, forever, anything daft or inane. I was called upon to listen out for such devastating statements as “when I’m not here I’m somewhere else!”

At about the same time I also ran a 3 hours a week radio programme on Perth’s 6UVS FM called ‘Stoneground Words’, a title I culled from a line in a song by Melanie Safka. In this show I explored the lyrics of songs while at the same time indulging in the playing of records by my favourite bands. From the astute observations of Ray Davies to the lustful, chauvinistic and often salaciousness of the rocking doggerel penned by Chuck Berry, Rod Stewart and the like.

I had a wonderful time trying to decipher or unravel the meanings, innuendos and sometimes deep and meaningful messages often hidden by the music.

Many years later I returned to the subject.......