Nick offers up a variety of decent songs. Excellent work, sir
“I SURRENDER
BY RAINBOW could be the song that got me into rock music - definitely one of the first I heard. It gets played on the tour bus regularly because it’s great to sing to after a few drinks! I wasn’t really into the dad rock stuff when I was young because I was more into death metal. People are always surprised when I talk about discovering one of those bands now - like, ‘Don’t you remember this?’ Well no, I was more into Venom! Them and MERCYFUL FATE were an enormous part of me getting into metal; Don’t Break The Oath is my favourite album of all time. I got it when it first came out and haven’t stopped listening to it regularly since - I still have as much enthusiasm for songs like A Dangerous Meeting as I did when I was a kid.
Wichita Lineman is another tour bus favourite - it’s the kind of track we’ll pull out when people are really getting into condition. It was originally written by Jimmy Webb but I absolutely love the GLEN CAMPBELLversion. MacArthur Park is much the same, actually; it was originally by Donna Summer but I love the version by RICHARD HARRIS. I don’t know if he’s drunk or not, but I’d like to think he is as it’s got this really hammy, drunk dad at a disco sound and the lyrics are insane - ‘Someone left the cake out in the rain/I don’t know if I can take it, cause it took so long to bake it’!
There are certain songs that come on in TV shows, movies or adverts and they just take you to another place. Like Goodbye Horses by Q LAZZARUS - you can’t hear it without picturing Buffalo Bill in Silence Of The Lambs. It’s been completely transformed by that film; I can’t hear it now without finding it really creepy! I was catching up with all the Clint Eastwood movies even before the lockdown - it’s almost a midlife crisis for people my age to get into those movies - so ENNIOMORRICONE’s The Good, The Bad and The Ugly soundtrack has been on a lot in my house lately. The Ecstasy Of Gold is an astounding piece of music, even if people do just associate it with Metallica now; there’s a bit where he fires a cannon at The Ugly as he’s running through a graveyard and the music starts - it’s one of the best cinematic scenes ever. It’s so over the top, with the guy rolling out the way of cannon fire, almost like something out of Bottom!
“I CARRIED MY SCREAMING DAUGHTER OFF A ROLLERCOASTER”