This track was my public response to an unexpected and devastating family tragedy which came “like a lightning strike from a clear blue sky”. There was also a private response but that song was for family and close friends only, and is not for release into the public domain.
“One Day” is an expression of the emotional paralysis and anger that are an inevitable part of the grief process and also of reconciliation which can only ever be temporary. My treatment of the song owes a lot to Phil Collins – and Genesis who have always been my favourite prog rock band (including their early albums with Peter Gabriel and Steve Hackett). So I couldn’t resist beginning the song with an 80s-style drum machine. Although it might be thought that “In the Air Tonight” was my influence here, I was thinking more of “Fading Lights” and “Dreaming While You Sleep” from the “We Can’t Dance” album and “Mama” from the 1983 Genesis album.
I enjoyed recreating Phil’s classic drumkit from the 80s with its, over-the-top, four rack toms and two floor toms. I also couldn’t resist using his signature gated snare drum, first heard, of course, on “In the Air Tonight”, a sound which became ubiquitous throughout the 1980s. This is the most powerful snare sound I have ever created – I used two different layered snare drums (and two kick drums) and all sorts of dynamic processing to produce it. Originally the Phil Collins drum kit only entered in the last verse but Mark Thomas persuaded me to make more use of it earlier on in the song and also to include some cymbal swells, timpani rolls and tubular bell hits. As always, his instinct was spot on! However, I resisted the temptation to use a Vocoder on the vocals (which technically I could have done) as this would have been too close to “In the Air Tonight” for comfort!
Other influences crept in as well, including the Bee Gees (in the harmonies of the chorus), Sting (for some of the lyrics) and, most notably, Pink Floyd for the closing minute-or-so where the influence of David Gilmour is unmistakeable in the soaring slide guitar solo. For the musos out there, I recorded this solo completely dry – no effects at all –then created the long, sustained notes by editing them in a piece of software called Melodyne, which gives complete control over every note in an audio file. I turned to the Guitar Rig effects plugin to create the massive delay and reverb and it was almost by chance that I hit on the correct setting here. But as soon as I heard it I knew it was the one I wanted. This guitar solo is like a huge outpouring of grief: one which never fails to give me goose bumps when I listen to it.
The Great War references in the first and last verses are metaphors for reconciliation where both parties know that it cannot last, that it is truly for “Just one day”. Perhaps also my “When the Rich go to War” was still in my mind and its influence spilled over into this track.
The line “It arrived like a lightning strike from a clear blue sky” did just that. I didn’t have to think about it; it arrived fully fledged and all I could do was acknowledge that it was the perfect expression of my feelings, and those of my family and friends.
I knew that the song had to end the way it started, with the drum machine’s loop playing out for a couple of bars on its own, but achieving the fade-out of everything else, once it had reached its searing climax, was not something that was easy to achieve – the timing of the fade-out was crucial. I think I learned more about recording and production in these few bars than I have ever done
As to its placing on the CD, I had originally thought of making this the final track – I even printed out a few CD inserts with it as track 10 – but I eventually bowed to my instinct and wrote and recorded something lighter and more wistful to end the CD. Not a throwaway track like “Her Majesty” on “Abbey Road” but something with a more positive message.
Instrumentation: All instruments played or programmed by Brian Parks:
Programmed Roland TR808 drum machine, Line 6 Variax electric guitar (simulating Gibson Les Paul and Rickenbacker 12-string guitars), programmed Rickenbacker 4001 bass guitar, programmed Pearl Reference and Drum Workshop drumkits recorded in Abbey Road studios, programmed Yamaha DX7 electric piano, programmed Korg Polsynth, programmed tubular bells, programmed timpani, lead vocals, backing and harmony vocals.
Lyrics
For just one day call a Christmas truce
And we’ll kick around the ball in the Great War trenches. One day
This time there’ll be no excuse
As we trample down the wire in the enemy defences. One day
One day when we swallow our pride
Put our arguments aside with the world as witness. One day
‘Cos it arrived like a lightning strike
From a clear blue sky. Don’t know why
It was just one day. Nothing that words can say
And it was just one day. What could anyone do?
For just one day as in years gone by
We shall be there together standing side by side. One day
This time in the cold, cold sun
There are tears to be shed and a song to be sung. One day
‘Cos it arrived like a lightning strike
From a clear blue sky. Don’t know why
It was just one day. Nothing that words can say
And it was just one day. What could anyone do?
But don’t tell me how I should feel
It’s all too vividly real
Can’t tell the nightmare from the day
So don’t tell me how I should cry
It all happened in the blink of an eye
Those tears are real and here to stay
One day maybe years away
We shall look back in sorrow at this sad sad story. One day
One day walking hand in hand
Into No Man’s Land through the fields of glory. One day
Ooh but I doubt it. I have to say that I doubt it
I don’t know why but I doubt it
Cos it was just one day. It was just one day.
Baby it was just one day
It was just one day