Song of the week #26
Caught in the Glare of the Headlights
My first album “Better Late..” was something of an experiment. With the benefit of hindsight, I now see that I was trying out different music genres to find those that suited my songwriting style. Fifty-plus years of playing in cover bands meant that I was very familiar with a wide range of rock and pop songs from the last 50 years of the twentieth century and my three years at music college studying classical composition meant that I had the technical means to reproduce those styles. So I tried my hand at pastiches of the Rolling Stones (Better Late..) , Led Zeppelin (Call Me a Stranger), James Taylor and Mark Knopfler (I Wish I Was), Paul McCartney (Butterfly's Wing and Curious Idea) and even a Dylan-influenced protest song (When the Rich Go To War).
I also included what is often called a "diss song". Most usually associated with hip-hop, this is the very opposite of a love song. Famous examples include Bob Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone and Carly Simon's You're So Vain.
Caught in the Glare of the Headlights is a song about karma and reaping what you sow. Its lyrics were inspired by an article about the then Secretary of State for Education, Nicky Morgan, in which she was described as
looking stunned like some fluffy bunny caught in the headlights of a truck.
I often mull over ideas for lyrics while on walks in the countryside and I remember trying out the phrases in my mind: "Did you think? Not at all!" set to precisely the tune it now has. "Did you think?" goes up, the way questions do, and the answer, "Not at all", goes down. I didn't plan that; it just happened. It was only when the song was finished that I realised what I'd done.
I chose to arrange the song in the jangle-pop style of the Beatles in their 1964 Hard Day's Night and 1965 Help eras. Even though the unmistakeable sound of the Rickenbacker 12 string was also used by the Byrds, it is with George Harrison that it will be forever associated - the Hard Day’s Night album is full of its jangly arpeggios. The John Lennon track Anytime at All, from that album, is a classic Ricky-12 song and it is the doubling of piano by the 12-string on that track that I have used here.
The George Harrison Something chord sequence that I used in Fallen on my Feet puts in another appearance here, and I have also borrowed one of John Lennon’s finest chord patterns, which he used in the middle section of It Won’t Be Long (“Since you left me, I’m so alone…” etc) so there is a constant chromatic downward motion in the run up to the chorus which takes a side-step at the last minute into an unexpected key. This is a technique that Paul McCartney often used – most notably in Lady Madonna.
The structure of the lyrics borrows something from Paul McCartney’s Here There and Everywhere. In that song, which Paul has often described as his finest song, he begins each verse successively with the words “Here”, “There” and “Everywhere” and then combines them in the final chorus. In Caught in the Glare I have started each of the three sections of the verse with “Did you think?”, “Did you care?” and “Did you worry?” then those three phrases are conflated just before each chorus.
A Hammond organ phrase introduces the middle-eight (“And did you coldly calculate…”) which features a passing nod to the Beach Boys in the backing vocals – the “Ba ba baa” vocals are close relations of those in God Only Knows. Actually, this section is more of a middle-eleven; I'm rather proud of the odd phrase lengths in this song – a very Lennonesque touch!
The internal rhymes and alliteration were very deliberately put in, but when I scanned through the completed lyrics I thought "I'm not going to be able to sing this; it's too wordy." However, I surprised myself with just how easily it DOES sing. The rhymes and alliteration make the words trip off the tongue more easily, if anything.
A friend of a friend made this comment about Caught in the Glare which I rather like:
[He] impresses with his ability to trace a direct and effortless line from Gerry and the Pacemakers
to The Las - no mean feat at all! The Merseybeat is strong with that one, Master Obi-wan!
Click on the link below for the YouTube video:
Caught in the Glare of the Headlights
Did you think nobody would see through the size
Of the lies you spread in their name?
Did you think they all would agree to be fooled
By the rules made up in your game?
Did you care what they thought
When at last you were caught
And you showed no capacity for shame.
Did you worry what they’d say
At the end of the day
As you spread around the blame
(Did you think?) Not at all.
(Did you care?) Don’t be a fool.
(Did you worry?) Not what you would call.
Now you’re caught in the glare of the headlights
And a lesson’s about to be learned
Like a rabbit that’s hypnotised
Staring with sightless eyes
Wondering which way it should turn
Did you think your curious take on the world
Was observed not only by you?
Did you think if anyone questioned your views
You’d abuse them until they withdrew?
Did you care what they felt
About the hand that you dealt
Ev’ry stage of your crooked little game
Did you worry ev’ry day
That they might not wanna play
So you’d blacken their name
Did you think? (Not a lot)
Did you care? (Not a jot)
Did you worry? (Gonna tell you what)
Now you’re caught in the glare of the headlights
And a lesson’s about to be learned
Like a rabbit that’s hypnotised
Staring with sightless eyes
Wondering which way it should turn
And did you coldly calculate
Ev’ry word that you said
And then proceed to fabricate
All the drama you need
To feed the hunger in your head.
Did you care what they thought
When at last you were caught
And you showed no capacity for shame.
Did you worry what they’d say
At the end of the day
As you spread around the blame
Did you think? (Not at all)
Did you care? (Don’t be a fool)
Did you worry? (Not what you would call)
Chorus: Now you’re caught in the glare of the headlights
And there’s only place you can go
Caught in the glare of the headlights
Caught in the glare of the headlights
