A friend asked me to write a song for her. That, simply, was the origin of this track and the opening line (“Every time I see the sparkle in your eyes”) came to me easily. The second line was originally “I’m convinced they’re shining for me” but I realised that a more wistful effect could be produced by turning it into a question: “Could it be they’re shining for me?” I liked the rhyme of “eyes” with “what I surmise” and used it in other verses where it doesn’t rhyme, but the hook line is strong enough to bear repetition. I used “what it implies” as a variant of this line. This resulted in the type of verse which can easily be transformed into successive verses by altering a word or two, with the focus of the lyrics linked by the senses: seeing, hearing and tasting, respectively.

I then played around with alternative meanings of the word “curious” for the middle section of the song. In the verses, it means “strange” or “foreign” but in the middle eight section it takes on the meaning of “inquisitive”. This section took only slightly longer to write than it does to sing; I have never known a middle eight arrive so easily. As soon as I sang the line “if you string me along” I knew the section would end with “sing this song” with a pleasing double rhyme.

The section also includes some of my trademark alliterative phrases in “founded on fact”, “sheer moonshine” and “sing this song”. This is not something at which I consciously work, but I acknowledge it when it arrives and welcome it as an old friend.

The instrumentation for this track was borrowed completely from Paul McCartney’s “Wanderlust” – an unjustly neglected Macca masterpiece. On that track, the conventional band of piano, bass, guitar and drums is augmented by the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble – specifically two trumpets, French horn, tenor trombone and tuba – and I have used that exact instrumental line-up here. As with the string parts on “Tell Them I’m Gone” I was keen to ensure that the parts could be played by real musicians even though I have used virtual instruments. So the parts never venture beyond the compass of the instruments and I have used the style of brass contrapuntal writing found in the symphonies of Haydn and Mozart, before valves were invented for trumpets and horns.

If the sound of the piano on this track seems vaguely familiar then it’s because I used a virtual instrument based on the Challen piano from Studio III at Abbey Road Studios. The list of tracks on which the original instrument was used reads like a litany of Beatle music from 1966 to 1970. Here goes:

“Paperback Writer”, “Tomorrow Never Knows”, “Penny Lane”, “With a Little Help from my Friends”, “All You Need is Love”, “Magical Mystery Tour”, “Your Mother Should Know”, “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”, “Lady Madonna”, “Martha My Dear”

Oh, and some band called Pink Floyd used it in the mid-1970s when they recorded “Wish You Were Here”!

This was the first track (and the only track on this CD) on which I used my Variax bass guitar; previously I have used virtual basses. I have been using a Variax 6-string at gigs for the last 12-or-so years as it can emulate just about any electric (or acoustic) guitar that you can imagine. When the focus of my musical life turned to home recording a couple of years ago, then my Variax came into its own. Likewise, my Variax bass has been and will be invaluable in my home recording setup with its ability to emulate every major bass guitar ever used (including an upright acoustic bass).

The drums, as is the case with all my recently recorded tracks, are a virtual set of drums recorded in Abbey Road studios and I used an effect here which I have been longing to use ever since I knew it was available. This is the so-called “tea towel” drum effect – originally created by spreading official Abbey Road tea towels over the skins of Ringo Starr’s snare and tom toms to muffle them. “Come Together” on the Abbey Road album is a classic example of their use – the towels deaden the drums and take away the boominess that can so often drown out the rest of the mix.

Instrumentation: All instruments played or programmed by Brian Parks:
Line 6 Variax electric guitar (simulating Martin 6-string acoustic guitar), Line 6 bass guitar (simulating Rickenbacker 4001 bass), programmed Premier drumkit recorded in Abbey Road studios, programmed brass quintet( two trumpets, French horn, tenor trombone and tuba), programmed Challen upright piano recorded in Abbey Road studios, lead vocals, backing and harmony vocals.