Curious Daylight

I’ve spent most of the evening retagging MP3s in my iTunes library in an effort to get them all cleaned up. I tried this with a bit of software before but it did more damage than good so I’m just slowly working my way through by hand and, as it turns out, it’s quite fun for no other reason than it is allowing me to revisit some music I’ve not played for ages.

It’s also kicking off a bit of nostalgia at times as well, as I pick over different eras in my music taste, particularly when I stumbled across an old Kevin McDermott Orchestra album which I played so much the CD started to wear through!

There was a time, in my late teens, when I was heavily into the Scottish music scene, Simple Minds, Love & Money, The Silencers, The Humpff family and Del Amitri, and given that I was ‘growing up’ at that point it’s fair to say that a lot of the lyrical content seemed to resonate deeply with me.

Now I’m not saying that any of the aforementioned bands were particularly adept at song writing but remember, I was a bag of hormones and emotions so even the simplest line of melancholy had me proclaiming it as the best song EVER.

However what took me by surprise, as I flicked through some of the tracks, was how deeply they STILL resonate. One perfect example is on the Kevin McDermott album, Bedazzled, a track called Curious Daylight:

I hope this song makes sense tomorrow,
My words keep falling on the floor,
It’s nearly dawn and soon I’ll follow,
It’s time you helped me to the door.

So now we know that something’s wrong.
We’ve been on this ship too long.

I can’t wait, til we’ve got it made,
I can’t wait, til we turn the tide,
I can’t wait, cos I see everything,
and it sure looks strange in this curious daylight.

Wish we could talk about the weather,
Fall asleep and wake as friends,
but I can’t talk about forever,
and I’m the villain once again.

We’re getting further from the shore,
but I’ve sailed this sea before.

But I can’t wait, til we’ve got it made,
I can’t wait, til we turn the tide,
I can’t wait, cos I see everything,
and it sure looks strange in this curious daylight.

Though I need you more than ever,
Because the cards I have are always wild,
I’m trying to keep this ship together,
so try to understand the thankless child.

I don’t expect to be forgiven,
There’re things that I could never be,
No well intentioned break upon the shores of heaven,
No endless refuge.

I’ve been on this ship so long,
and I’ve never felt this strong,
Now I can’t wait, til we’ve got it made,
I can’t wait, til we turn the tide,
I can’t wait, cos I see everything,
and it sure looks strange in this curious daylight.

Nothing special, for sure, but it still made me stop and sit back and just listen to the music. Not something I do all that often, and it evoked a powerful set of memories, of people and places, laughter and tears.

It also reminds me that memories, good ones, are very important and I should try harder not to leave them to tarnish.

Comments

  1. Oh my goodness, I LOVED the KMO when I was young. I saw them about a hundred times, and at one stage even shared a clinch with Kevin himself – what a groupie. My preference, however, would be for the first album, and Suffocation Blues as my track of choice. I might dig that out later!

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