Songs From The Dress Rehearsal 1977 ~ Cornucopia Records
Cornucopia Records, no number (LP, UK, 1977)
Market Square MSMCD132 (CD, UK, March 7, 2005)
Tracklist:
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---|---|---|---|
01 | Do What You Please (Hey Girl) | 3:45 | Do What You Please |
02 | Face Of A Friend | 3:46 | Face Of A Friend |
03 | She’s The Woman | 3:20 | |
04 | The Greening Wind | 5:26 | |
05 | Impressions | 3:51 | |
06 | In The Light Tonight | 2:49 | |
07 | Make Time For Love | 3:07 | |
08 | Coming Into Love Again | 3:28 | |
09 | Fairground Rock ‘N’ Roll | 6:05 | |
10 | Rain All Around | 3:51 | |
11 | Help Yourself To This Song | 3:05 | |
CD Bonus Tracks | |||
12 | In Limbo | 3:35 | |
13 | Man Of Mystery | 3:05 | |
14 | Mr Dreamer | 3:12 | |
15 | Sing For Salvation | 2:56 | |
16 | Love’s An Illusion | 2:55 | |
17 | I’ll Be There | 3:16 |
All tracks written by Steve Tilston
Steve Tilston, vocals, guitar
Rupert Hine, keyboards
Mike Giles, drums, percussion
John G. Perry, bass
Keith Warmington, harmonica, backing vocals
John Renbourn, second guitar [4]
LP produced by Rupert Hine in 1976 at Verwood Studios, Hampshire, England;
Engineered by Mike Giles
CD bonus tracks [12-17] produced by Stefan Grossmann in 1979 at Livingston Studios, London, England;
Engineered by Nick Kinsey
SONGS FROM THE DRESS REHEARSAL
An Introduction by Steve Tilston …
All of these songs date from the 1970’s. To the best of my knowledge the earliest was started in 1973, and the most recent 1978, or thereabouts. The first 11 songs make up the original ‘Songs From The Dress Rehearsal’ album, released on my own (short-lived and therefore highly-collectable!) Cornucopia label and recorded in the blistering hot summer of 1976 at King Crimson drummer Mike Giles’ studio in the New Forest of southern England.
I remember it being so hot that trees were spontaneously combusting in the not too far distance. I also remember at first being frustrated at the sound of the fire engines punctuating the recording session, but after witnessing a tree, barely a hundred yards away, crackle and turn into a giant Roman candle, I became (swiftly) more circumspect.
At first, it was daunting having to take a backward step into the mental murk. It’s akin to finding an old dusty diary, that causes sneezing and some little orbital discomfort on the first re-opening.
I freely admit to being a little apprehensive, as quite simply, a lot of these songs document a period in my life that was not the happiest. That said, the more I delved, the more I remembered some wonderfully joyous times and some great people – some of whom I still see, some I don’t and some I can’t.
Apart from the odd chord or two I wouldn’t change a bit of it.
1. Do What You Please (Hey Girl)
I was 22 and locked into a short intense, but painful relationship, made more piquant from the outset with the knowledge that come the summer, she was going off on o pre-arranged trip around the States with her ex. As the departure date approached the shadow grew longer, but when the time arrived for goodbyes and the plane disappeared in the clouds, the shadow lifted, the actuality being nowhere near as bad as the apprehension.
Oh the look in your eyes cuts me quite by surprise
I can see you’re determined to leave
and the words of the song they have lingered too long in a head that had
hoped for a reprieve
Is your flight number fixed in between and betwixt?
the arrangements all carefully made
by the look in your eyes it is time for goodbyes
yes it’s time for illusions to fade
Chorus
But I”m not about to go down on my knees
There’s nothing new ‘neath the sun you must do what you please
hey girl what more can I say girl
having come all this way girl you must do what you please
And summer returns though it never quite learns
the best times to shine or to rain
everybody’s making plans for acquiring sun tans
while we exchange our postcards and our pain
(Chorus)
2. Face Of A Friend
A love song wrapped up in a resigned yet joyous acceptance of personal insignificance when compared to the mind boggling enormity of the universe. The opening guitar figure was lifted from Foure’s ‘The Dolly Suite,’ which most people of my generation will remember as the theme tune for ‘Listen with Mother,’ “Are you sitting comfortably children?” I certainly was when this first came to me, sitting on the rocks near St Just, Cornwall in the summer of 1973, with good company, bottles of sweet Sauternes (this was all we could lay our hands on) and some duty free grass cuttings, watching the most beautiful sunset slipping down behind the Atlantic. I held on to those images for a couple of years trying to coax out the song, but whenever I’d play those opening bars I was transported back to childhood and I’d get side-tracked. In the end, I gave myself a good talking to and knuckled under. I love Rupert Hine’s spare but perfect use of piano on this one.
The sun will kiss this day good bye forever
though tomorrow it will shine again
as sure as we are standing here
twice tongue tied it will rise be yours and mine again
I won’t ask you forever for that’s a well worn story that has no end
So if I took you for my lover
your face
for the face of a friend
Hey don’t we think were precious
electricity deliver us from the dark
though dark conspires to cover all the faces
that will leave this world without a mark
oh forever is a star that lights the firmament
long after its life does end
So if I took you for my lover
your face
for the face of a friend
chorus
Kick out sophistication I’ve had a belly full of that
gotta find what’s real
oh its been so long since I have felt the tears flow
I am wondering do I still feel?
Oh but as this perfect sunset bathes our faces
oh it somehow makes my sadness end
I’ll kiss the face of my lover
know the face of my friend
3. It’s A Straight Road
I’ve written more sad songs when I’ve been feeling happy and vice versa, This love song was, I think started when I was unattached. Although it sounds as if I’m being specific here, to my ears it has gained a universal quality. I think John’s bass and Mike Giles’ drumming knit beautifully with my guitar part.
Today is a day for praising my love
I don’t compare her to the moon or the stars above
she’s just the woman I love
she’s just the woman I love
Our loves the only cloak I wear
to keep me when the bitter air falls just everywhere
Right now she’s just everywhere.
chorus
Its a straight road much further than the eye con see
cos she’s bringing out the best in me
so easily oh so easily
And where to end, where to begin?
to say it in this song I sing.
right now she’s everything
she’s just everything
chorus
chorus
It’s a straight road.
1st verse
4. The Greening Wind
I was brought up in a village where people smiled and nodded in acknowledgement, so I remember it being quite a culture shock moving to London at the age of 20; grinning inanely at strangers, getting the blank look in return. I must have glowed fluorescent-green on arrival. I left after a couple of years looking slightly mildewed. This one’s about the casting aside of innocence and the growing of extra layers of hide in the big city. Sam Charters, the American musicologist, re-discoverer of bluesman Furry Lewis, and also producer of my second album (‘Collection’, Transatlantic Records 1972) sent me a book of his poems. One of them was called ‘The Greening Wind,’ and I freely admit to taking the title from that poem. John Renbourn plays lead guitar with his usual razzle-dazzle.
As I grow older cast over my shoulder the lies
life gets no clearer as it draws nearer my eyes
knowing what I know to be true
concerning me and concerning you
sent a friend to catch a friend across the crowded memories
There in the greening wind lost them both to purgatory.
lost them for themselves to see
what would pass and what would be
In the greening wind
In the greening wind.
Village born village bred left to take the city on
City sounds got in his head and he said that he will be gone
then he said that he might stay got used to those city ways
In the greening wind
in the greening wind.
Over the green grass over the hills
got time for growing , got time to kill
gotta find something something that stays
gotta find a way out of this maze.
signed and delivered
out on the plate
held onto nothing died a death worse than fate
gotta find me something something that stays
gotta find a way out of this maze
Write me down your favourite lines
see if its true that we disagree
I tell you now I’m not like you an it’s oh so plain that you’re not like me
But we both share the air we breathe
alone we come and alone we shall leave
In the greening wind oh
In the greening wind
As I grow older cast over my shoulder lies
5. Impressions
This is about being locked in a relationship, whereby both patties know it’s dead in the water, but are still trying to keep it afloat. Again John and Mike’s bass and drum perfectly compliment the guitar.
I was under the impression that you were gonna get along with me
just a simple listening in two port harmony
there are no more tears to cry my eyes are dry
I could get along without you girl but I don’t wanna hove to try
It’s just like some problem page in a magazine
I must of come of age I’ve seen this kind of thing on the moving screen
things are said that we don’t mean an the doors they slam
Oh I could get along without you girl but sometimes I
think I can
We are on the sometimes road sometimes nowhere
If I had a place to hide then I would go there
You said you were under the impression that I was gonna change my ways
I have no confessions to make I’ve learnt confession never pays
but I will take the blame this time if you would take your turn
I see we are making the some mistakes again
When will we ever learn
We are on the sometimes road to sometimes nowhere
If I had a place to hide then I would go there
Oh I was under the impression that you were gonna get along with me
just a simple listening in two part harmony
there ore no more tears to cry my eyes are dry
Oh I could get along without you girl but I don’t wanna
have to try
oh I could get along without you girl but I don’t wanna
have to try
6. In The light Tonight
Van Rooyen was a larger than life character from my schooldays, who after hitch-hiking to Tangier, became a nineteen year old living legend amongst those of us still banged up in school. Three years younger, I was tolerated because I could play the guitar, but at that age, three years was a gulf – after all, I’d only hitched to Cornwall. I was instructed to travel more! As time went by our paths would cross every few years or so and the meetings would pretty much go the way the song suggests. Much later, long after this song was written, we met again, I’d out-travelled him.
Oh the last time I saw him Van Rooyen was wearing a smile I’d no way of sharing and the highway were stood on was split by embarrassed tongues goodbye the road needs repairing
chorus
In the light tonight I saw the lines of time under our eyes
why ain’t we wise?
time has took us by surprise
Oh the books that were chosen the passed with the songs that we all sang
with a voice that now frozen
and the fires in the forest and youth they were fanned by the truth
‘hey
men I see its still smouldering
chorus
There ore bars on the windows and chains on the doorways of every place
that I linger
Oh I sing songs to please a song to release
for a good song is the key for my fingers.
(chorus x 2)
7. Make Time For Love
Looking back now, this song seems naively simplistic and on reflection it is naively simplistic, but no more so than Lennon’s ‘Imagine’. I con however cheerfully say, with hand on heart, that the pursuit of untold pecuniary riches, has not been the main driving force in my life. Bloody good job!
Make time for love
make time for laughter
there is much more to life than just looking after yourself and counting
your wealth
Whisper the names of the ones you have befriended
forgetting the games and the ways you descended into
if you make time for me I will make time for you
chorus
There’s no special dreams there’s no special answers
I just pick my way between all the dancers I see
if I make time for you will you make time for me
chorus
What could be easier than saying please to a friend
just watching the world go by
gets you nowhere in the end
8. Coming Into Love Again
I think in my early 20’s I was in danger of becoming addicted
to failing in love. Or was it lust? “Shout it at the ocean, shout
it from the chimney tops.”
Coming into love with my eyes wide with wine
wear it like an emblem like a coca cola sign
shout it from the ocean, shout it from the chimney tops
coming into love and I don’t intend to stop
chorus
It’s more than the face that’s right
oh it’s more than the time and place tonight
stepping out into that light
coming into love again
coming into love again
I talk about this woman with every word I care to speak
feeling quite romantic
yes I’m feeling quite unique
reeling and rolling like a fairground gigolo
coming into love and I don’t intend to go
chorus
9. Fairground Rock ‘n’ Roll
Every year a fair would come to the next village … It was a big deal as for back as I could remember and an even bigger deal at
the age of 13. I still remember those wonderful songs blaring out as a backdrop to all those adolescent dramas spinning round in a technicolour blur. As the song says .. .”you must pay your dues on the whip & the waltzers.”
On the weekend around the fair ground
The bad boys are kicking up the cans
outside the laughter the young lovers wander
linger behind the caravans
You must pay your dues on the whip and the waltzers get used and confused by the girls
chorus
In that rock and roll
don’t it get your soul
round an round the fair ground we go
wo wo wo fairground rock and roll
On the weekend oh around the fairground
The bad boys are hunting in their packs
losing their loose change and their looking for plunder
school girls in green gaberdine macs
high as a gym slip on bottled sweet cider
used and abused by the boys
chorus
Try your luck three shots for only a shilling
for punch-drunk fish in plastic bags
under the floorboards see the young kids are crawling
searching for fortunes and fags
I fell in love on the whip an the waltzers
It was not her smile or her curls
chorus
On the weekend oh into the fairground
the girl of your sweet dreams she descends
your heart’s beating faster you must go up and ask her
or how can you face your laughing friends?
Just as you move in some fairground Philanderer
with tattoos he whisks her away
chorus
On the weekend oh away from the fairground
picking up your foot steps and your pride
leave behind the smells of the hotdogs and the onions
don’t look back or you’ll take one last ride
I got bruised on the whip an the waltzers
Tryin’ to impress some well blessed girl
(chorus)
10. Rain All Around
A bluesy piece played over a rolling guitar pattern. I thought that it rained a lot in Bristol. That was before I moved into the Yorkshire Pennines.
chorus
There’s a rain all around me glistenin everywhere
there’s a rain in my shoes darlin rain fallin’ from my hair
when they dished up the blues I got the lion’s share
there’s a rain all around me glistening everywhere
Fast cast cars they fly by
watch them come and go
there’s always one more darlin’ that soaks you through and through
oh if i were a fish I know what I would do
I’d dive right to the bottom and come up real slow
chorus
11. Help Yourself To This Song
I do love a good strum! My good friend Keith Warmington plays some great bluesy harp on this one.
If the rain should slap your face
drive you to another place
where all the people that you know
are replaced by ones you don’t
If that radio wont play
The kinda music that you crave
hey what you need without a doubt
something to drive that city traffic out
chorus
Oh help yourself to this song
Oh if your gonna be gone for long
you better help yourself to this song
If the ladies cause you pain
you know its hard to refrain
from being what you really are
If things should take you just a little too far?
chorus
Where you’ve been and where to go
are things you do not really need to know
hey what’s a song between two friends
it’s just a link to join loose ends
(chorus x 2)
Extra Tracks
These tracks were recorded as demos for a projected album for Stefan Grossman’s Kicking Mule label, sometime in 1979. They are unreleased until now (about time too).
1. In Limbo
A bluesy piece in A, with a rolling bass figure interspersed with octave runs. It almost has an Elizabethan tinge to the lyrical content. Apparently, the first documentation of people having ‘the blues,’ was from this period, though not the 12 bar variety.
Oh I’ve got to get out of limbo.
Oh I’m feeling worst for wear.
Faces they come and they go in limbo
Someone lead me from despair.
Time ticks slowly by in limbo.
Time is never that good to me
Every hour seems a day in limbo
Someone please set me free
Looking over the ocean, all the new worlds been discovered
Curses and love potions, sirens and dream lovers
Oh let me go
Feel the force rise between my toes
Bad dreams and vertigo
Who cares I just gotta’ go.
I’ve got to get away from limbo.
Daylight its seldom shines in limbo.
Daylight making the garden grow.
Flowers they never bloom in limbo.
Only seeds of doubt ore sown
Looking over the ocean etc.
2. Man Of Mystery
A quasi Darwinian question session along the lines of ‘what does it all mean, where’s it all leading to?’ type of thing. This time a rolling bass pattern around a G chord. Versatile or what?
Where too now my friend?
We’re near the end of what we are
we have come far from the sea
Hey look at me man of mystery
Will we ever know which way the wind does blow
the fruit free from the knowledge tree?
Hey, look at me man of mystery
When are past and gone
Will we be frozen in the stone?
Just like a dinosaur yeah just like a dinosaur
just like a dinosaur hmmmm ……….
3. Mr Dreamer
A song I wrote for o friend (KW) who was ‘going through the mill,’ at the time. I wonted to write a country sounding song with a ‘pianoistic’ accompaniment.
The rain that weeps on the window tells a story
the wind that robs him of warmth tells a tale
though truth and youth they seem to rhyme
a child of the times he could not stay
awake awake Mr Dreamer its today
The games of chance he had played
turned against him now
an so he turned to the lady by his side
we have loved and we have lived
you’ve taken now can you give a little love in return
oh mr dreamer when will you learn
The way she laughed in his face
cut him cruelly just like a knife it cut the strands that binds the hearts.
“You hove wasted all my time
gonna get you off my mind
away, away, away, away
you’re just a dreamer and it’s too late.”
Out of her door out of her life
he retreated with just his suitcase, his guitar and a smile
To have loved and to have lost
Who cares what the cost and who counts time?
Yeah who counts time Mr Dreamer friend of mine?
4. Sing For Salvation.
I have no problem with any of the world’s religions as they all contain at least one ‘beautiful idea’. But right from the word ‘go’ I had a gut wrenching mistrust of religious fundamentalism of any description. It has not changed one jot.
Down on your knees and sing for salvation sing …
for your souls
Me, I make no claims just sing for my supper let the song fill the bowl
Down on your knees and sing for salvation,
but please
if you please one more time.
Did I see your face in some place, weren’t you once a friend of
mine?
Down on your knees and sing for salvation. If that’s what you
really need?
Catch a rose pluck a thorn even Jesus would certainly bleed
Down on your knees an sing for salvation see what you think you should see.
By the way that you pass I know you never would never see me
5. Love’s An Illusion.
I must have been going through a period of cynicism. But even so, I sounded quite happy about it.
chorus
It’s an illusion true love it’s not what it seems
look at the confusion everybody’s chasing after dreams
look out the window true love hits you in the eye
but its an illusion true love will only make you cry.
Close all the curtains, pull down the blinds
There’s too many people who can make up their minds
which one to love and which way to choose
Too many people giving each other the blues
chorus
Sweet cinderella a rags to riches tale
it’s a well worn story and you know it never fails
but I’ve scoured the backstreets and polite society
looking for some lover who was looking out for me
6. I’ll Be There
This song was written at a time when I was doing all my travel via train. It was at a time when it was possible to get late night
trains (what were affectionately known as ‘milk trains’) home. I remember train travel as being very conducive to getting song
ideas. I get lots of ideas in cars, but having to stop to jot ’em down quite often spoils the flow.
I am on a fast train coming home I’ll be there
fidget like a fish upon a pole till I’m there
if the train should stop I’ll lose control
but I’ll be there
chorus
And every place we pass
reflected in the glass
I see her face
oh train chase that light
oh train chase that light
oh train chase that light
I’ve gotta see my baby tonight
Seven cities down one more to go
I’ll be there
twenty cigarettes down one a glow
I’ll be there
Soon familiar sites will start to show
cos I’ll be there
chorus
1st verse
chorus
Credits:
Songs From The Dress Rehearsal
Tracks 1-11
Produced by Rupert Hine in 1976 at Verwood Studios, Hampshire, England
Engineered by Mike Giles
Guitar/Vocals: Steve Tilston
Keyboards: Rupert Hine
Drums/Percussion: Mike Giles
Bass: John G Perry
Harmonica/Backing Vocals: Keith Warmington
2nd Guitar (‘The Greening Wind’): John Renbourn
Unreleased
Tracks 12-17
Produced by Stefan Grossman in 1979 at Livingston Studios. London, England
Engineered by Nick Kinsey
Guitar/Vocals: Steve Tilston
All songs written by Steve Tilston
Published by Market Square Music Ltd
With thanks to Molly for transcribing lyrics from vinyl
Compilation project supervision: Peter Muir
Artwork by Chris Sands
A Market Square Record
MSMCD132
www.marketsquarerecords.co.uk
® 2004 Market Square Music Ltd
© 2004 Market Square Music Ltd
Made in England