Sometimes our lives are filled with the kind of beautiful synergies you just can't make up. The time on a train, many miles from home,
when someone mentions your old school and it turns out you were there together.... you know the kind of thing. It really makes your day.
Well, Track 10 on 'Kiss and Tell' is based on such a coincidence. I was in the Midwest of USA, talking at a conference and I met Carol, whose mother grew up in Wales. Not just in Wales but in Cardifff not far from my office and in fact on the same street (Habershon Street) as a good friend of mine..
Carol sent me a copy of her mother's biography, "Through the years" and this song was born. The song owes everything to Carol and her mum whose journey from growing up in Wales, marrying a GI husband, upping sticks and settling (and raising a family) on the east coast of US, is so beautifully remembered in her touching memoir.
The line:
"The fortune teller told her he'd be there
From overseas with flowers in his hair"
Comes directly (with a little artistic interpretation) from the memoir. I also (with typical British assumption of correctness...) changed Ladybug for Ladybird.
Note: There may be a whole other blog post on this issue because of course, a whole load of listeners
are going to ask what a ladybird is now - Don't worry, They are one and the same thing 🐞
The memoir is so well written it was just a matter of picking the parts that would make the song work really... I had to leave out some parts that were such strong memories, only because there's a time limit to people's attention spans with album tracks... otherwise, this some could have gone on for 10 minutes quite easily...
As the song neared completion, Carol sent me a new memory she recalled from shortly after her mum passed. This became an ad lib section during recording of the outro of the song and I'm very grateful because it's probably the singing part I'm most happy with on the whole album... It just came into my head from Carol's email and seems to fit the song...
"The time I saw the morning dove
I felt surrounded by your love
I knew with every beating of my heart
That you will always be with me
The light that I will always see
To show that we will never be apart…."
Lastly, the element of this song that raises it further above the ordinary is the amazing saxophone playing of Patricio Böttcher. We have never met. In fact we have only corresponded. Trawling the internet one evening, I found Patricio on a freelance platform and sent him a copy of the song with the simple instruction... "do what you want". He did, and it exceeded my expectations. 🙏
It's another one of those beautiful synergies that touch our lives and make us human... I drive down Habershon Street in Cardiff quite often and every time I do, I think of Carol and her family... I think of the many thousands of miles they travelled to make their family history in the USA, the part they played on all our histories, and the kindness and trust they showed me by allowing me to record their very personal story in this song.
🇺🇸 🏴
Diolch yn fawr / Thank you so much ❤️
Crispin x
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