Song of the week #9
Supermarket Queue
I wrote Supermarket Queue in March 2019 for my fourth album “mE” which was released in December 2019. It's another of my “what-would-happen-if…” experiments where I set myself the challenge of writing a song in the style of another songwriter. The model here is Bus Stop, written by Graham Gouldman, of 10cc fame. It was famously recorded by the Hollies in 1966 and went on to become a world-wide hit. Gouldman later admitted that the first line of the song was actually written by his playwright father Hyme Gouldman who also suggested the titles of two others of his son's songs: No Milk Today (Herman's Hermits) and Art for Art's Sake (10cc).
I turned the melody of the opening verse of Bus Stop upside down and decided that the lyric would be a boy-meets-girl story, like Bus Stop, but with a different setting - a supermarket rather than a bus stop. The idea of the boy and girl looking for a pizza in the supermarket, only to find there was just one left in the store, seemed like a good catalyst for a relationship.
As the song developed I intentionally put in some close harmony lines in the style of Graham Nash and Alan Clarke (of the Hollies) especially in the line “Well that evening at eight I arrived for the date”. When it came to mixing this section I gave the two parts (Nash's and Clarke's) equal prominence in the mix to reflect the Hollies' signature vocal sound.
The lines I am most proud of, though, for their very English coyness, are near the end of the song:
With a last glass of red she retired to her bed
I'll admit not entirely on her own.
Those lines still make me smile when I read them!
For the drum part I studied the style of Hollies drummer Bobby Elliot whose drum fills are very much jazz-influenced; Elliot has said that Benny Goodman's drummer Gene Krupa was a major influence on his drumming style. I also enjoyed playing the bass guitar for this track, giving it a swing to match the drum part
For the video I broke new ground for me which involved a a very steep learning curve in computer animation. I used Adobe Character Animator and found a fully-animated digital puppet online of a boy (Linden) playing a guitar and his girl friend Cassandra. Many thanks to Dave Werner (Okay Samurai) who generously allows his fabulous work to be used free of charge and with no credit needed. (Notice my "Easter Egg" album covers on Cassandra's wall)
Supermarket Queue received a Highly Commended certificate in the Retro category of the 2019 UK Songwriting Contest:
Click on the image below to view the animated cartoon video on YouTube:
Supermarket Queue
So I met this girl in a supermarket queue
Slap in the middle of town
And we both confessed that we didn’t have a clue
Where frozen pizzas were found
So we searched ev’ry aisle and she gave me a smile
When we found what we both came for
But imagine our plight when the fact came to light
Just one pizza left in the store
Supermarket queue.
We didn’t have a clue.
Supermarket queue.
Now what are we to do?
And I don’t recall who suggested the idea
The pizza could be shared
So I asked her address and she seemed to live quite near
So a date was hastily prepared
Well that evening at eight I arrived for the date
With a bottle and a bunch of flowers
She invited me in and I said with a grin
I’ve been waiting for hours and hours
Supermarket queue.
We didn’t have a clue.
Supermarket queue.
Now what are we to do?
Supermarket queue.
We didn’t have a clue.
Supermarket queue.
Now what are we to do?
So we smiled and talked while we drank and we ate
And we laughed and giggled away
And the hours flew by and the time was getting late
And I swear she was leading me astray
With a last glass of red she retired to her bed
I’ll admit not entirely on her own
But imagine what we’d do in the supermarket queue
If the shoppers would leave us alone
Supermarket queue.
We didn’t have a clue.
Supermarket queue.
Now what are we to do?
Supermarket queue.
We didn’t have a clue.
Supermarket queue.
Now what are we to do?
