Song Writing
- jamesisham
- Jan 13, 2015
- 2 min read
Heading Out West…
Lyrics originally written December 2013. Chords and arrangement some time after that.
I wanted to write a song that evoked images from the late fifties / early sixties, of Hollywood during the last days of the big studios. I also wanted to put a line in that mentioned one of the most striking commercial aircraft of the time: The Lockheed Constellation. “Jayne took a Silver Constellation…” The Jayne in question is a mid-western girl who married too young before leaving her husband and flying out to L.A. to try make it as a movie star.
As with most lyrics it came together quickly in an hour or so. It gave me a chance to throw in peach coloured convertibles and houses on the beach. I write songs with an old-school, almost tin-pan alley method. This one was no different. I guess I’m still trying to emulate an old school-boy hero: Bernie Taupin.* He used to write out words long-hand then mail them to Elton John and Elton (Reg) did the rest.
I still start with the words; get a basic structure down then thrash away at the guitar to come up with a few chords and an idea of a vocal line. This can get changed around quite a bit when Justine puts her spin on things.
The chorus with its ‘doo de doo’ backing vocals is meant as a small homage to another hero of mine: Lou Reed. I still count “Walk on the Wild Side” as a top five all time favourite song.
*If you want to see more of how Bernie works he has a very interesting website:
We’re currently working on ‘Heading Out West’ in the studio and should have something to show for our efforts very shortly.
Cheers, P
