The Song
Actions, directions, corners taken, history and present colliding. There is no youth, middle age, death when you look at it coldly and, obviously, subjectively. There is only the Now.
I was rehearsing with Belle and Sebastian and we got into a discussion about keys and whether or not they had distinctive attributes. I thought of this song, it’s in F. I don’t play piano very well but on that instrument F feels like a proper key or at least in my perception, this feels like a proper song, whatever that means.
I had the words written out and was hitting the keys randomly in the company of Roy Moller to see if anything would come. Suddenly we got the idea of pretending to be Elton and the tune came in a flash. I guess something has to become unhinged in your brain to sing lines like “Lovers, friends, let friends be lovers” but there you go, means a lot to me too. I guess you got to approach something like this with a smile. Roy described the piece as “a tasty album cut.” I knew what he meant and we can only live in hope.
The Players
Katrina Mitchell drums
Bill Wells bass
Bob Kildea guitars vocals percussion
Stevie piano organ pedal steel vocals
John Clark elec piano
The Writers
Stevie Jackson / Roy Moller
The Words
Sitting with my lunchbox, plain bread “Mother’s Pride”
Brown crust on the outside
I couldn’t take my eyes off her
She was playing and I was staying
PURE OF HEART
From boy to man, the awkward stance, the guitar chords and also-rans
The brown suede for the 60’s look
The out of timeness, fashion blindness
All the same I remained
PURE OF HEART
Dreaming of Fame and all its glory
The main thing I longed for was Love
The main thing I longed for was Love
The scent of togetherness, the lavender upon her dress
The girl in the garret stepping into time
Lovers, friends let friends be lovers
Now I know, I’ll need no other, I am
PURE OF HEART
Explorations there to find, Ego-tripping on my mind
Too late for the garret, to the garret I said Goodbye
Lavender girl just shook her head and smiled and said
“Where’s the Pure of Heart?”
Flatter all the lovers you call friends
Who knows who is true and who pretends
Back to the starting post, back to what means the most
Take a look at all that I have learned
Need a friend to be my lover
And I know there’ll be other
I’ll be Pure of Heart
Come on take my hand and make me
PURE OF HEART