Songs: Walkman In My Head

notes / gigs / releases

I haven't had a walkman
For many many years
I found the foam in headphones
Would play havoc with my ears
I needed entertainment
That was non-aurally led
And by happy chance i happened on
The walkman in my head

Walkman in my head
Walkman in my head
In-house, in-car, in bed
Press play

It has no need of batteries
It cannot chew your tapes
It can't be dropped upon the ground
And thus it never breaks
It'll play you ageing vinyl
8-track, DAT, or DVD
It's compatible adaptable
Robust technology

Walkman in my head
Walkman in my head
Aloft or on sea-bed
Press play

Walkman in my head
Walkman in my head
On Planets Blue or Red
Press play

Every song you've ever heard of
Every tune you've ever hummed
It can play them all, but do be warned,
Some words may come out Rum
It puts profanities in Carols
Which is quite Morally Wrong
But on the plus-side sometimes it writes
New songs like this one.

Walkman in my head
Walkman in my head
OBEY ME, it said
Press play
OBEY ME, it said
Press play

Published by Wipe Out Music Publishing

If you've been reading these notes in sequence you might have noticed something of a trend when it comes to me and records on other people's labels i.e. if someone asks me if I've got a song I ALWAYS say "YES!" and then run home and write it. This one's slightly different, in that I was never actually asked, I just wrote it anyway.

I heard about a compilation that Moo From Twinkie was putting together for his new label, which would be all a tribute to the Walkman. Not wanting to be left out, I decided that I'd be on it, wrote the song, and gave it to Rob to play to him. I can't remember much about the writing of it, other than, as usual, I'd decided to try and write something about the subject of Walkmans that nobody else would write. Moo seemed to like it, and the apparent need to get it SORTED was one of the reasons I used the previously mentioned session (when I also did HIBBETT'S GOLDEN RULES OF BEER and I'VE GOT WHAT YOU NEED) to do some recordings instead of mastering.

The song had come out quite DAINTY, and as Tom had appeared to be getting into the idea of doing similarly DAINTY orchestrations, I asked him to sort something out for this one. BY GOLLY he did, and we both got quite excited about it - he rang me one night to play the computer version of it down the phone to me, and we CACKLED together across the ETHER.

I'd just moved to London at the time, and so rather than head NORTH for the evening just to sit in Kev's whilst Tom played lots of violin parts, I left the two of them to get on with it without me. It's the only time I've ever done this, and I spent the evening WORRYING that everything was OK, and especially whether Tom WOULD do the backing vocals I'd asked him to. As you can hear, he very much DID do them, and everything turned out LOVELY - it sounds really nice, I reckon.

I'm not actually sure if this compilation ever IS coming out, to be totally honest - the catalogue number is from the listing for the Frankie Machine track on HIS Rest Of compilation, and I have a sneaking suspicion he made it up - but it's such a lovely sound I didn't want to hide it away any more, so here it is.