Song of the week #15
Hampshire Born
Hampshire Born, which I wrote in May 2019, is currently my most-watched video on YouTube with over 1,300 views (as of December 2024). I wish I knew what has made it so popular; I suspect that the YouTube algorithms look kindly on the title for some reason, and include it in their lists of recommended videos.
The origins of the title Hampshire Born lie in a rhyming couplet which is also applied to people who were born in Yorkshire, Somerset, Cornwall and Derbyshire. The Hampshire version is:
Hampshire born and Hampshire bred
Strong in the arm and thick in the head
but I remember it being used by my sister to describe Hampshire people.
I recall thinking that James Taylor had done a very good PR job on promoting the place where he grew up, with his song Carolina in my Mind so perhaps I should do the same with my home county. Although perhaps now is the time to admit that I was actually born a mile or two over the border in the Surrey town of Haslemere as the hospital there was the nearest to where my family lived! But bear in mind that James Taylor was actually born in Boston, Massachusetts so at least my white lie has an illustrious precedent!
The line “I think I’ll never get closer to heaven till the day I die” arrived faster than I could write it down. I was convinced I had stolen it from somewhere but to this day I haven’t found another song which uses the line so, as Paul McCartney did with Yesterday, I’m claiming it as my own.
The first chorus contains the line “My heart is tougher than an English oak”, which is a deliberate reference to the 18th century song Heart of Oak which I remember singing at my primary school back in the 1950s. So for the next two choruses I needed two other Hampshire iconic symbols. The Needles in the Isle of Wight and the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth fitted the bill perfectly giving me the two lines:
My mind is sharper than the Needles stack
and
My soul flies higher than the Spinnaker Tower
The first verse also contains a reference to Winchester Cathedral where all the Roman roads in the area meet – Winchester was once England’s capital city or “cornerstone”.
One of my favourite lines of the song is the alliterative “The salty tang of the Solent Sea” where the repeated S's suggest the sound of the tide breaking on a shingle shore. I didn't plan the alliteration; the line arrived fully formed.
The verses of the song are in A minor and the chorus is in D major so there is that same sense of lift when the chorus arrives that there was in my song Up on the Downs. The tune of the chorus keeps returning obsessively to the note D each time the word “Hampshire” is sung. George Ezra's song Shotgun uses a similar trick - Ezra's song was played everywhere at the time I was writing my song so it inevitably had an influence. The piano solo is in the slip-note style of American pianist Floyd Cramer whose On the Rebound was one of my favourite tracks back in the early 1960s.
I am proud to say that Hampshire Born was a semi-finalist in the 2019 UK Songwriting Contest:
Click the image below for the YouTube video of Hampshire Born:
Hampshire Born
I’m Hampshire-born and I’m Hampshire-bred
I’m strong in the arm; they say I’m thick in the head
Oh but I’m Hampshire through and through
I wouldn’t care if anyone knew
And my heart is tougher than an English oak
And anybody could tell you why
Though I say it with a tear in my eye
I know I’ll never get closer to heaven
Till the day I die.
If ever my wayward footsteps
Should lead me to far-off foreign shores
I know that my heart remains here
Among the green forest and purple moors
Cos I feel something calling me back
Way over there on the downland track.
Because I’m Hampshire-born and I’m Hampshire-bred
I’m strong in the arm; I may be thick in the head
Oh but I’m Hampshire through and through
I wouldn’t care if ev’ryone knew
And my mind is sharper than the Needles stack
And anybody could tell you why
Though I say it with a tear in my eye
I think I’ll never get closer to heaven
Till the day I die.
If ever I lose direction
I know I can find my way back home
I’ll follow the old straight track
To take me to England’s cornerstone
The salty tang of the Solent sea
The only perfume there ever need be
Yes I’m Hampshire-born and I’m Hampshire-bred
I’m strong in the arm; they say I’m thick in the head
Oh but I’m Hampshire through and through
I wouldn’t care if anyone knew
And my soul flies higher than the Spinnaker Tower
Anybody could tell you why
Well I say it with a tear in my eye
I know I’ll never get closer to heaven
Till the day I die.
I said I’ll never get closer to heaven
Till the day I die.
