The Things We Said
You can watch the video just below
Or listen on spotify by using this link: https://open.spotify.com/album/6gVLLW55CcEc9uJSrT2WZI
About the song
I belong to an arts club in London called The Chelsea Arts Club, and about 8 years ago I gave a couple I’d been chatting with there a lift home, and in time became friends with them. The husband was someone called Andy Roberts who amongst many other credits played in the live version of Pink Floyd’s The Wall tour (he was the lead guitarist in the mask who struck the very first note of the concert each night). As time went on we did a few jamming sessions together to see what might come about and one day he started playing a riff which was very pretty so I started to sing along whilst we recorded what came to mind. Afterwards I said “That sounds a bit like Romeo and Juliet by Dire Straits” to which he said, “No it doesn’t, it’s completely different chords”. Given his pedigree I didn’t argue. So, I took the recording home and worked on it a bit, but it then got left behind as I started to delve in to virtual musician technology. Along with about 10 other songs I’d written for an album called Fluid Air it got shelved for close to eight years. But recently I thought I must finish those songs off and rather than spend a few years recording an album and then releasing it I’ll release each song as I complete it, so this is the first song of that collection to go online.
If Dire Straits’ Romeo and Juliet spoke of romantic adolescent love, then this song comes from a more jaded perspective, it’s easy to see it as a cynical view of people not keeping to their word, and being a bit cruel with it too, but for me it’s an acceptance of the ability of many of us to be fickle at times, and once that’s understood it’s easier to forgive those who don’t live up to our expectations. So, in a way it’s a song about forgiveness, not only of others, but ourselves. The song is not particularly autobiographical, although I can see elements of it that reflect some relationships I had, but the names have definitely been changed so as to allow me to live a bit longer! The picture used for the cover does feature an ex-girlfriend, though we were 17, and at the time her mother banned me from seeing her, so that was our own Romeo and Juliet moment. But now, almost 40 years later we are still friends and laugh about it. We live calmer lives now.
In terms of recording this I was also joined on this song by Steve Dumelo, Patou Soult and Jayne Broadhurst. Revisiting it in 2019/2020 allowed me to add Patou’s vocals as a featured artist which hadn’t been considered in the earlier version. If you’re interested in technology you might want to see if you can hear where the joins are between her voice and some samples I intertwined with it.
In terms of technology I used Cubase to produce the song on, and then mainly UAD Plugins, along with FabFilter ones. The drumming was recorded using a virtual musician plug in, and the mastering was done using WaveLab and a whole host of other plugins. It took me about a month to mix, correct, and master this one song, partly because it had over 120 tracks to wade through so it was a nightmare at times, but one that taught me a lot. And you know what they say “No pain…. Good”
Lyrics and Credits
Mary was going on her way
Tripped through life
But she came my way
Didn’t want to hurt her
Didn’t want to make her cry
Sometimes you got to take
What you didn’t want to hide
Suzie came my way
I didn’t want her to see
All the things I knew she could be
But the words I said
Were true at the end of my bed
But the things I did
Weren’t the things I said
Up on the see saw
Around the merry-go-round
On a bed
And upside down
But the words I said
Were true at the end of my bed
But the things I did
Weren’t the things I said
Annie was a poor girl
When I caught her eye
Never wanted me
To say goodbye
All I ever did was wave
At her from the end of her bed
Whispered all the words
She never wanted said
[When the love has gone away
We’ll remember the words we say
And how it seemed perfect to me]
Sometimes I’m the one
Who hurts you in side
[Guess it was meant to be]
Never wanted me
To say goodbye
[When the love has gone away
We’ll remember yesterday]
But the words I said
Were true at the end of my bed
But the things I did
Weren’t the things I said
All the things you said
La, la, la,
All the things you said
But the words I said
Were true at the end of my bed
But the things we did
Weren’t the things we said
Outro
Copyright Simon Mark Smith 2012 and 2020
Credits
Vocal Melodies and Lyrics written by Simon Mark Smith
Original Musical Idea by Andy Roberts of www.andyrobertsmusic.com
Guitars and High Bass Andy Roberts
Low Bass Patou Soult
Drums programming Simon Mark Smith
Percussion Patou Soult and Simon Mark Smith
Pianos Simon Mark Smith and Steve Dumelo
Keyboards Simon Mark Smith and Steve Dumelo
Choral Keyboard Steve Dumelo
Main Female lead vocals and second backing vocals Patou Soult
Main female backing Jayne Broadhurst
All other vocals and instrumentation Simon Mark Smith
Mixed by Simon Mark Smith
Arranged by Simon Mark Smith.
©Simon Mark Smith 2012 and 2020
Come to www.simonmarksmith.com for further information and free downloads
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