Songs: The Girl Who...

notes / gigs / releases

One last look
Before she surrenders her swipe-card
She's gone for good
To somewhere where flexi-time's almost unheard of
She got ten pounds worth of vouchers
To be redeemed in Boots

She wanted more than that

Something to shout about
To care about
To prove that she's part of the planet
To put away
So on Judgement Day
She can say "This is what I did with my life"

She's on that train down South.
She's gone to find out
What all the fuss is all about
She'll make her way in society
And be on the scene

You'll see her in the Sunday Supplements

Someone to laugh about
To chat about
To prove that there's life on the planet
To put away
So on Judgement Day
We can say "This is what I did with my life"

My life, my life
Does even she know she's a part of
My life, my life
We'll know her history and say
"She put her heart on her sleeve
And then she blew her nose"

She wanted more than that

Something to shout about
To care about
To prove that she's part of the planet
To put away
So on Judgement Day
She can say "This is what I did with my life"

My life, my life
I wanted so much more from
My life, my life
At least I wasn't ignored
In my life

Published by Wipe Out Music Publishing

I LOVE this song, I really do, and I love it more and more the longer I know it. It's been pretty much the runt of the litter of these sessions, and it's needed a LOT of attention to get this far, as we shall see...

The song's first fortnight of existence nearly saw harm come to ME, as I spent the entire time humming the tune to the chorus at work, much to the distraction of Karen, who i shared an office with at the time. When I EVENTUALLY sorted out some words they were immediately followed by "She put her heart on her sleeve and then she blew her nose" which then caused me several weeks of distress trying to work out where on earth I would go next, eventually realising that it was about a sort of Kelly Brook (who had just been PILLORIED in the press for her stint on The Big Breakfast) figure, and me feeling sorry for her. It also PREDICTED some things that'd happen to me a couple of years later, at least the leaving work with vouchers bit, and it was very strange on my last day to Surrender my Swipe-Card and discover myself in one of my own songs.

It got played live a few times, but always got overshadowed by other songs. "Easily Impressed" was written around the same time, for instance, and later I tried playing it after "Everything's Turning Out All Right" and it got hidden again. We played it with the band at Emma's first gig, because she liked it and it gave her a chance to sing on her own, but it was right in the middle of a set of our Rockier Numbers so sounded a bit weak, and got dropped for the next time.

Recording was even more delicate. My original GRATE IDEA was to do it in a Boy Band Stylee, by having each of us in the band sing a line or two each. The four blokes would take most of the verses, we'd all variously sing the choruses, and Emma would take over at the end, so it'd seem like she was answering a whole crowd of men, but, to be honest, it sounded bloody awful. Tim sings pretty much like me, we discovered to our surprise and glee, but Tom and Rob seemed to be a bit too Proficient for it to work in that context, so I ended up doing the verses on my own, with EVERYBODY singing on the choruses.

We spent a LONG time recording it (there were FOUR seperate acoustic guitar tracks at one point!) and a whole evening mixing it. I should have taken this for a SIGN, as the finished version sounded particularly lacklustre and swamped by attempts to make something of it - even including Mr Reverb on Guest Tambourine. After much ANGUISH I resolved to go back into the studio and RE-DO it. We took off all of Rob and Tom's vocals and removed Emma from the Choruses. I re-did my vocals, and double-tracked ME on the chorus, and did a MUCH better, PUNCHIER single guitar track. Away went all the trumpets, we took the rhythm section completely OFF the first verse, and Tom recorded a DELIGHTFUL bit of keyboards. Finally we added a whole CHUNK of echo to Emma's vocals at the end, and I'm not ashamed to say that, when we listened to that last bit for the first time in its new guise, I shed a MANLY TEAR. It's LOVELY.

And there it is, finally done. It sounds like one of the easiest, least fussy songs on the whole album, but MY WORD it took a lot of doing.