Grumpy old tuber

Since my last journal entry, we have used Soundout to review two further songs: Grumpy Old Man and Sad Boy. Hopefully Grumpy Old Man speaks for itself - it’s really just a wry riposte to a passing comment... Don’t you hate being told to cheer up? It’s so easy to make snap judgements about people based on the way that they look, and you can’t change the face that you’re born with, can you?  (Yes - I know that you can, but that’s a different story.)

Sad Boy was written following two terrible, unrelated murders that happened within a couple of months of each other in the sleepy Georgian city of Bath. As time passes these stories become old news and the public begins to lose interest and move on. I didn’t personally know the people involved, but it did touch the local community, and in the spirit of the traditional folk song I wanted to record what happened.

I have to say the Soundout reviewers are very sharp – two of them immediately identified the fact that the idea for the melody of Sad Boy came from an old Julian Cope song called Reward, and in an interesting twist we’re meeting Julian Cope’s old manager, Paul King next week to discuss possible business interest. I’ll shortly be putting both songs on YouTube and Myspace.

On a completely different, lighter note I always credit children as some of the best critics. They are honest, direct and to the point. My seven year old son has recently been demonstrating his astute powers of observation:

“Dad you look different... your beard's gone – you look like a Jersey Royal potato.”

Thanks for small mercies; it could have been a Maris Piper or a King Edward. The beard will be back.

Warren Cole
Grumpy old tuber

Warren is on MySpace, Bebo and Facebook - check them out to listen to his music and be part of the story.
 

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