{"id":280,"date":"2009-03-13T10:03:49","date_gmt":"2009-03-13T10:03:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/funk.co.uk\/music\/?p=280"},"modified":"2009-03-13T10:03:49","modified_gmt":"2009-03-13T10:03:49","slug":"the-road-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funk.co.uk\/music\/the-road-home\/","title":{"rendered":"The Road Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a songwriter I’m prone to journeys of investigation to the Galapagos Islands of my evolving mind, and the songs I find there sometimes determine a future path which has unexpected returns.<\/p>\n

I met Mark Crook when I was 11 years old, and I met Andy Carroll when I was 21, and I have written with both of these talented musicians many times, but this song was the first time I managed to combine both forces. It was very simple. I visited Andy in his studio, he gave me three loops and phrases. I brought them back to the writing studio I shared with Mark and he played some country-tinged acoustic guitar over the groove we constructed. I had free rein to improvise the melody and lyrics.<\/p>\n

The music seemed relaxed and open, warm and welcoming, so I provided an appropriate scenario. I pictured a traveling salesman who misses his wife and yearns to return to the comfort of her arms, making a relationship work in the day to day struggle of life. A song of love and marital fidelity could be a bit of a clich\u00e9 if approached in the wrong manner, and since crass sentiment is something I tend to avoid like the plague (a serious challenge when you’re writing pop songs) I needed to be sincere and write from my own experience of playing gigs, living on the road and missing my partner.<\/p>\n

I tried not to make it too gender-specific, and I included some thoughts I was having from reading Eckhart Tolle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

My lover caught the oblique references to our relationship and this became a favourite. She loves the line “As the evening sunlight softens…”<\/em> and repeats it with a soft look in her eyes. The power of songwriting to seduce will be another post… Another friend of mine who fell in love with this song is Kate<\/a>, and I was very touched when she asked to use the song in a photo DVD she made for her son’s wedding. That’s when music is at its best, embedded in real, life-defining moments.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n

But you have to be careful. When the people around you are aware that at any time they might become the subject of your work<\/em>, it can make things uncomfortable for them, so I try not to analyse or discuss lyrics with friends – I don’t want my normal human relationships to become stilted. You can usually find a way to say things indirectly most of the time, in any case, which is usually better for poetry.<\/p>\n

This song is deliberately long, like the landscape through which our protagonist is traveling to return to his love. I do have a shorter edit, but it doesn’t work. I like the big space in the verses, the pauses which allow the words to sink in, which are great to sing, and between you and me, I think the chorus is one of my finest, because everyone can sing along.<\/p>\n

And even though this road goes on and on
\nCold mornings, nights are weary, days are long
\nAnd though I travel far, we stay so strong
\nThis road leads back to you, where I belong<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you want to use this song or any you find here in your music podcast, blog or broadcast, you probably can, but please ask me first.<\/p>\n

\"Post<\/a> Tweet this<\/a> \"Post<\/a> Share on Facebook<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a songwriter I’m prone to journeys of investigation to the Galapagos Islands of my evolving mind, and the songs I find there sometimes determine a future path which has unexpected returns. I met Mark Crook when I was 11 years old, and I met Andy Carroll when I was 21, and I have written …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[185,74,93,129],"class_list":{"0":"post-280","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-pop","7":"tag-country","8":"tag-guitar","9":"tag-love","10":"tag-song","12":"without-featured-image"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funk.co.uk\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/funk.co.uk\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/funk.co.uk\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funk.co.uk\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funk.co.uk\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/funk.co.uk\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funk.co.uk\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funk.co.uk\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funk.co.uk\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}