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Other Bands | Adamanta Chubb | Basczax | Fast Cakes | Gynaecologists | Makaton Chat | Purity | Skydaddies | Viva La Diva |
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Purity The history of Purity: In between riding on bogies and pushing pianos to bonfires, Michael Charlton and I somehow managed to find the time to play at "groups". The first documented occurence of Michael and I "doing the group" was on Monday 28th November 1966. I know this because it was recorded in Mike's diary the next day. We had been asked by our form teacher, Miss Goodhall, to perform for her at school the following day. This, I suppose, could be regarded as my first proper gig. The original line-up of the band appeared to be Michael, Robert Moss (a school friend), Terry Stevenson, and myself. Mike strummed away on a cherry-red semi-acoustic guitar (no chord/one chord wonder), myself on drums (Crawford biscuit tins) and Robert handled the vocals. (I cannot recall what Terry did). When we rehearsed we set up our gear (?) in Mike's back yard. There was always the constant threat of interruption from next door, where a lad called Ian Turley (nicknamed Dessy Shark on account of his huge nose), who, being older than us, thought our rantings too childish for words, and also too noisy, but we persisted. We even had original material, such gems as "Let's Have A Party Tonight Fred", "Have You Got A Minute Baby", "Each Flower", "I Want To Go Home", "Wow" (pre-Kate Bush), "Rum Truffle", "Tribute To Jimi Hendrix", "Fly Away" (more of that song later), "It's Time To Say Goodbye", "You Say You Love Me" and "Do You Love Me Do You Care", all of these songs were written by Mike and I between 1966 and 1971, a period in which we developed a song-writing partnership which helped to bond our friendship in a rather unique way. It probably sounds corny, but when you write a song with someone, or indeed embark on any artistic endeavour with a collaborator, you quite often have to bare your soul, or at least expose your emotions, which seems to place your friendship with that person on an intellectually higher plane. The quality of our work to start with was understandably poor, We had little natural talent to draw upon, though Michael had a vastly underrated voice, and my vivid imagination made lyric writing and abstract song presentation a little easier to master. We were performing the songs poorly, and Robert Moss performed them worst of all. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get his voice to hit the right notes. Our future as a world famous rock band was in jeopardy if we didn't get rid of him. Out yer bastard, out! There were no hard feelings, and to this day we are still the best of friends, during that year England's glorious football team ruled the world, Managed by Alf Ramsay...1966 and all that. After leaving the group, Robert began to take an interest in forming football teams. He couldn't sing, but he was always passionate about football. So the tale returns to Mike’s back yard, circa 1967, and as it was too cold to practise in the back yard, we asked Mike’s grandfather if we could use the front room to practise in. He wasn’t overjoyed with the prospect of two automatic noise machines setting up in his house, but he eventually succumbed (to his eternal regret) and we started afresh in the warmer environment. Eventually we began to use an old out of tune piano which was in the room. How did we know it was out of tune? Well, for the first time I put my grubby hands on it, it was out of tune. The next obvious step was to get an axe and chop...sorry...the next obvious step was to use the piano to write songs with. This had a lot of teething problems. Trying to get the guitar and piano in tune was one hurdle to overcome. Michael couldn’t really play the guitar anyway, he still can’t. All he did was stick his fingers on some convenient part of the fretboard and strum like crazy. He didn’t play chords, at the time he didn’t know what a chord was. One thing we wanted was a tape recorder, but of course we couldn’t afford one. We were still at school. I was keen to be a drummer to start with, nothing else mattered. Singing was out, I was no good at all. The guitar just confused me, and the thought of playing tunes on the piano made me shudder. I had only played piano once before when I bashed away on one that was in our house. My sister Ann used to practise on it and she went to music lessons and became quite proficient. I also (according to my mother) used to listen to my grandmother play when I was small. So there I was, crazy about drums, taking any cast off tins and turning them upside down to make them into drums. Once I was offered a drum kit, consisting of a hi-hat, a bass drum, a snare drum, and a 10” cymbal, all for £5. Of course at the time £5 was the earth to me, so I reluctantly refused the offer. When I think that nowadays a comparable kit would fetch around £150, I only wish I could turn back the clock. So once I had my tins organised, I had to find something to hit them with. It’ll probably come as no surprise to you that Michael’s house had coal fires, and they always had a good supply of wooden sticks in the hearth, and these are what I first used as drumsticks. As they were about 1” square, they were harder to hold than normal sticks, but they rarely broke. When Michael’s umbrella fell to bits, I used the veins from the inside of it for a while, but I soon returned to the trusty wooden sticks. This is all I can remember of the group before we got a tape recorder, which Michael got as a present around the Summer of 1968. Now we had a chance to listen back to our gallant attempts at music making. The tape was a simple reel-to-reel type, the reels were 3” in diameter, lasting about 15 minutes a side. For a long time (28 years in fact) I thought that all the tapes had been thrown away, but a wrinkled piece about 1 metre long was discovered. With great difficulty I played it to learn that it contained a few seconds of some long lost Purity session, identified by the characteristic bang-crash of the biscuit tins, and Michael’s screaming vocals. A great shame that we didn’t keep them all. We considered many names for the band. The Valiants lasted us a short while, also The Hornets. Both derived from comics of the day. We called ourselves The Elastic Band for a time, until we read in a music paper that there was a band with the same name, and as they appeared to be slightly more famous than us, we gave them the benefit of the doubt and changed our name again. We definitely called ourselves The Citizens for a short period, as an old postcard proves. On it is written a list of songs we performed at the time, there were three self-penned ones, ‘Fire’, ‘Triangle’, and ‘Creep On’. The lyrics for ‘Triangle’ turned out like this:- TRIANGLE (Hodgson - 1969) I don’t want to be a square I don’t want to be a hexagon I don’t want to be a circle I wanna be a triangle Yeah yeah yeah Neat stuff huh? We also did cover versions too. ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ being a typical example. We spent ages dreaming who we could have in the group, no-one famous you understand, just our friends. One of them was Alan Iveson, who used to call us silly buggers for trying to play music. Of course he’s entitled to his opinion, the silly bugger. After much discussion we decided on Purity for our name. I cannot recall any particular reason why we chose it. One thing was for certain, we did’t sound pure! It stood us in good stead for nearly four years. In a few months Michael’s tape recorder had gone to the great recording studio in the sky, and we were back to square one. Michael always seemed to have more money that me, and when we were young, I did do rather well out of the relationship money wise. He was given fivers and tenners with monotonous regularity from his granparents. Even his aunties and uncles chipped in with pocket money. He was always buying me chocolate, paying for bus fares, cigarettes, fish and chips, even music papers. I did feel a bit guilty but I rarely refused. Ours was a very close relationship, and we seldom fell out. On the few occasions we did, it was in a big way. I remember once we had an argument, and suddenly Mike turned round and demanded all the money he had given me over the years. He had sat down and worked out all the money I owed him, and demanded repayment. Of course I couldn’t do this, and our acrimony persisted. This was eventually resolved, but on another occasion, Mike got into a fight. Kevin Danks was one of the ‘hardest’ lads in the school. He was slightly overweight, and coupled with his ‘skinhead’ haircut, he looked as hard as nails. Usually Kevin, Mike and I were thick as thieves (Kevin was just thick) Anyway, one day everybody seemed to fall out with each other, and after school a gang of us congregated in a back alley, just round the corner from our house. Kevin had offered to fight two lads at once, one of whom was Michael. As is normal with these fights, it starts with an almost ritual-like pushing, until one person loses his rag, and dives in with fists flying. The second lad who was fighting on Mike’s side soon dropped out, which left Mike at the mercy of ‘Danksy’. He was soon in command of the situation and was sat astride him on the floor, hitting him repeatedly in the face. As we were not speaking at the time I took Kevin’s side and encouraged him even more. I felt rotten about it afterwards, but as you probably know, kids can be cruel without realising it, and I was no exception. And so Purity became just Michael and I, with occasional guests. During 1970 and 1971 we recorded numerous songs on yet another reel-to-reel tape recorder, but sadly none of these tapes have survived. In 1972 I was given a cassette recorder and we soon set about recording our rehearsals in Michael's front room. Recording sessions would sometimes go on for four or five hours, we would lose track of time and would only be brought back to reality by his grandmother poking her head round the door and saying something like "It's after 10 o'clock, isn't it about time you stopped that racket!" The first cassette we used on the new machine has been preserved for posterity, and there were no shortage of songs to put on. Titles included "Ja Ja", "Dripping Water", "Drink Drunk Black Maria", "I'm In A Jam", "Kill The Myth", "Nobodies Lament (Up The Commies)", "Puke", "We Walked We Talked", "Waiting For Lorna", "You're After My Money", "Not On The Outside", "Have You Got A Minute Baby", "He's Gone To Fight A War", "Racial Wars A-Coming", "The Scarlet Pimpernell", "This Sorry Land", "I Am A Legend Maker", "Love And Life Is Not For Me", " Got A Letter This Morning", "What A Job", "Mellow Waters", "Distressed Mind", "Will Daddy Be Home For Christmas", "Show Your Face When I'm Near", "Texas Johnny", "Land Of Singing", "I'm Gonna Hunt You Out", "To Find Love You Really Have To Try", "Why Don't You Just Act Your Age", "We'll Have To Share", "The Comeback", "Hello Will You Love Me Tonight", "Father On The Farm", "Dear Anne", "The Life For Which I Long", "Crossing The Bar", "Quench The Kindling Fire", "The Clock On The Wall", "I See The Flowers Grow", "Blimey Blimey Blimey", "Carry Your Troubles On My Back", "You Don't Own Me But I Own You", "When Love Is A Crime", "When Is The Wrong Time", "Me Versus The World", "What Can You Do Without Me", "I Wish He Was My Father", "You Up There Me Down Here", "Worst Time" and, last but not least, "Variations On The Death March". Slowly, but surely, I was working out chords on the piano. I didn't know what the chords were called, but progress was being made. One thing I didn't do in those days was play the black keys, it seemed every time I did it sounded out of tune. We messed about on various cassettes but we soon realised we were rubbing over songs and generally making a mess. We decided to record the songs chronologically so we wouldn't erase any by accident. Most of the songs sound primitive when listened to today, but the first cassette did contain some important songs, another major step towards "superstardom" was taken! We decided to call the first organised cassette "Unchanging", taking the pretence of being pop stars seriously by naming our "album". There are ten songs on side one, all written by either Mike and I or both of us together, with the exception of track ten, which was our interpretation of The Beatles 'Get Back'. The chords in our version bear little resemblance to the original, mainly because we didn't have the skill to work out the chords. All we knew was that every time we played at least three different notes on the piano, we were playing a chord of some description. I was writing lyrics all the time and when we went to 'do the group' as we called it, we would 'jam' until we had a tune and then we would attempt to record it. Many times I thought up a tune when I was out, and upon return to the house I would try and transfer my thoughts to tape. Usually the result was less than satisfactory. I had difficulty transferring my idead from my head to the tape. If a song clearly wasn't working, we would sometimes leave it till another day, but more often than not we would complete a song straight away. We had a tendency to make mistakes in the middle of recording so we would start again. We occasionally left minor mistakes in the finished versions, which often improved the song unintentionally. Other times we would try it again and again to get it right, and in the process, rub out a lot of 'out takes' that would have been interesting to listen to today. The first track was called 'Hand', for no particular reason. It consisted solely of an acoustic guitar with the tape microphone placed inside to give it a distorted 'electric' sound. Even at this early stage of my development, I was experimenting with effects, which later culminated in a hero worship of Brian Eno. The song itself was a simple guitar riff, played on a simple guitar, by a simple person! The riff is repeated ad nauseum, with slight variations. This track, even though it is the first on the tape, was recorded months later than the rest. It was taped in my bedroom, most of the others were done at Michael's house. I seem to remember there was a particularly poor track on at the start, and I simply recorded over it with 'Hand'. Track two was co-written with a school friend called Stephen Lathan, we were in his bathroom and got the idea for the song when a bit of stuff walked past... LONELY (Hodgson/Lathan - 1972) As I was looking out of my window I saw a girl a lovely girl She looked lonely her eyes were sad And I was lonely too So I went out to talk to her But she went on her way The very next day I saw her again But she was with another boy And I was lonely again The drumming was pretty sloppy and the guitar was only adequate, but I have always thought that Mike's vocal talents have been underrated, and though he takes a little getting used to, he is listenable. When we performed the song on the tape, Stephen wasn't present but he did contribute part of the lyric, and though he never appeared on any of the tapes, he did put forward ideas for songs which were used. While I was in the fifth year at school I had a paper round, which was very long and boring, and to pass the time away, I strolled around thinking up tunes to record, most of the tunes had lyrics, and one song which was written using this method appeared as a track on side one, it was called 'Why Did You Leave Me?', and here are the lyrics:- WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME (Hodgson - 1970) Why did you leave me why did you go Why did you wander that I wanna know You came to me crying you were on your knees You are forgiven now can you love me please Another song from the paper round was called 'The Ballad Of Scalby Square', with verses about brains and so on, but 'Why Did You Leave Me?' was the only song to make it on to the tapes by this method. Track four was the first one to feature the piano. I played a simple tune over a regular beat supplied by Mike. There were some chords in the middle part, which surprised me. I can remember that at the time, I was pleased with this song. I did attempt some vocal chanting at the end which spoilt what was otherwise a fairly succesful song. We called it 'Sunburst'. Track five had the title 'Variations On A Beginning And An End'. It had (at first) Michael on piano with me on drums. Later on we swopped places. There was nothing much to this song, other than being a comment on a typical 'end of a song' with long screams and drum bashing which went on for four minutes. It revealed another facet to our music which crops up at regular intervals - humour. Track six was an old song of ours, 'Fly Away', which eventually turned out to be a significant song. Michael and I wrote the lyrics and I wrote the music. Here are the lyrics:- FLY AWAY (Hodgson/Charlton - 1971) You fly away to secret places Too high for me to seek your traces I cannot see I cannot reason You lie to me it's surely treason I try the phone it might be better It's still no good I cannot reach you I now give up i'll do without you
Enough of that song for the time being! When we were in Junior school, there was a lad who seemed brighter than most, and his name was David Shephard. He lived at Thornaby New Town, and as expected, he passed his eleven plus with flying colours. He was sent to a high school at Barnard Castle. I knew it was a high school because I once saw him carrying a pair of step ladders to school. He used to stay at the school, and then come home for long holidays. When he was at home, Michael went round his house, and as I didn't get on with him, I didn't see much of Michael. Occasionally, I persuaded David to do the group, and three tracks on 'Unchanging' were evidence of this. Track seven on side one was called 'Bordeaux Party', it was an attempt at writing the most boring song possible, and to some extent it worked. We more or less kept the same beat throughout, and the tune was non existent. It was written in about ten seconds. Next was a song called 'You Know I Love You', this was another song in the same mould as 'Fly Away', with the piano bashing out a tune, and the singer following the notes on the piano. The line-up was Michael on vocals and drums, David on guitar, and me on piano. Here are the lyrics:- YOU KNOW I LOVE YOU (Hodgson/Charlton - 1972) You know I love you You can't say I don't Ask me to leave you You know that I won't I'll stick around you Like paper to glue Anywhere you go I will go too Wowee man! Those lyrics really dig into your subconscious, what with all those double entendres and obscure social comment, they really take the biscuit. The third song David recorded with us had a silly title, namely 'War Between Drums And Guitar With Piano Refereeing', it started off with us trying to play 'Sunshine Of Your Love', the old Cream number, but it soon degenerated (or developed) into a riot of sound. The drums and guitar really did appear to have a 'war' for a few magic seconds, they were replying to each other on every beat. Then the piano joined in, and it slowly rumbled to an end. As I mentioned earlier the last track on side one of the tape was a cover of The Beatles 1969 song 'Get Back'. It was a pretty good attempt considering our musical ability at the time. Mike was on drums and backing vocals, and I was on vocals and piano. Later it developed into quite a different song, and doesn't sound much like the original. Then it returns to the chorus, and then back to the improvisation again. This was quite a tidy track, and as far as proffesionalism went (ha ha) the best track on the first side. The first song on the second side was the traditional ditty 'Shortening Bread'. The drums were bashed out by yours truly and the vocals were courtesy of Mike. It was the first song to feature a grating falsetto voice which Mike developed for a short period. The drums weren't bad but in general the song lacked direction and purpose. Next was a song which Donnie Elbert made famous called 'Little Piece Of Leather'. Mike was on guitar and lead vocal and I was playing drums and supplying vocal support. The vocals were the most interesting thing on this song, Mike started off with his brand of falsetto and then changes to his normal voice. The magic of it was the way the vocals of Mike and I went together. Not only was it nearly always in tune, but the timing and phrasing certainly lifted the song above most of the rest. Number three was called 'Do The Dog'. Mike was on drums and vocals, whilst I played the drums and also sang. It was a messy track with a bad balance of instruments. Again Mike used his falsetto voice to good effect. This song, and in fact the whole L.P. did sound a little sparse, especially the first few songs on side two, mainly because they didn't have any piano on them, why this was I don't know, it must have been out of favour for a few days. The next track changes all that when I played 'My Girl' on the piano. I never actually played it properly, just the opening riff was anything like the original. It was supposed to change a few times in the middle, and that's why Mike's vocals sounded a bit off. The track has a certain charm and it is still one of my favourites. One did get the impression we were running out of ideas for original songs, and at the time of these particular sessions we must have hit a creative nadir. The next track, was, in my opinion, the best song Purity ever recorded. It is a cover job called 'What Does It Take (To Win Your Love For Me)'. This was the moment when everything fell into place, Michael's singing was immaculate, his guitar work was tuneful, and by some miracle I managed to drum my way through the song and make only one mistake. There were signs in this song that we were advancing musically. It is interesting now to play back these tapes and listen to my musical development as it happened. This song gave us heart to finish off the rest of the tape. Before this song we were depressed because of our lack of ideas. Next was an instrumental called 'Exhuma', with Mike on drums and me on piano. Again it was a simple melody, but it differed from 'Sunburst' for example, because it had light and shade. The first riff was repeated for a while until the second one was used to build up the volume and then return to the first riff with a new vitality. At this point the sustain pedal was depressed because he had a week of night shifts coming up. Whoops, slipped in a joke there! At this point the sustain pedal was depressed, the first time that we had used that effect on our tapes. Next was the traditional 'Amazing Grace', which I recorded solo at home. I placed a microphone inside the guitar to get an 'electric' sound, as before, but I played only the bottom two strings. I went through a short period when I thought was Bob Dylan, and I spent hours trying to get some sense out of a beat up old guitar in my bedroom. During this period I recorded the next song. It was a Johnny Cash-type number called 'What About The Workers', and was basically a protest song about people who bleed the state. It was politically naive at the time but that's rock and roll. It went like this:- WHAT ABOUT THE WORKERS (Hodgson - 1972) I once knew a man who lived on a hill He didn't work at all His mother was a fool and his father was ill He didn't care at all He never drew an honest wage In all his living days He went on to live in old age 'Cause national assistance pays Then one day he passed away And no one can deny He went to draw assistance from Those donkeys in the sky What about the workers It's time they knew What about the workers It's time they knew Whether you think the lyrics are stupid or not, it more or less summed up my feelings at the time. I was not a political animal, and over the years I have voted for all three major political parties. In 1972 I still had my parents 'work ethic' influence, and there was an expectation of a job upon leaving school for all but the most stupid of young people. Claiming 'national assistance' was not regarded as a safety net, or bad luck, but pure laziness. Next one was the 'heaviest' song on the tape, an instrumental called 'Crack Up' featuring Mike on electrified guitar and me on drums. Not much at all to this one, just a lot of guitar sounds which sound a hundred times better than they sound acoustically. The last three tracks on side two have contributions from another of my schoolmates, Graham Lester, who I mentioned previously. Graham always seemed to get bullied at school, he wore glasses, which didn't help. Michael didn't care for him much, but I got on alright with him. I remember one day I paid a visit to Graham's house armed with a tape recorder, hoping to have a recording session. To my dismay, Graham didn't possess any musical instruments, so we had to be content with recording double drum solo's on his Mother's pots and pans. For some reason no record of these historic events exist today - pity. On the Purity tape Graham displayed his versatility (not a pretty sight) by playing the piano and guitar on the three tracks in question. As you have probably noticed, some of the cover jobs on this tape are soul numbers, and this gives an early indication of where Mike's musical tastes were heading. He was listening to more and more soul music, and his interest in rock music was slowly waning. This was quite the opposite in my case, I liked the odd soul record, for instance, the early Motown was great, and to a lesser extent Stax and Atlantic as well, but the majority of groups I liked were from the rock mainstream. The first track featuring Graham was called 'Roll Me Down', which was totally unrehearsed. In fact we were just messing about and I switched on the tape recorder. The results were quite good, Mike was on piano and I was on drums. The next one was called 'Scream Rock (Lester Bop)', the reason was the track contained a lot of screaming as opposed to singing. The 'Lester Bop' bit was because Graham wrote it. Graham had an uncanny sense of timing, which was surprising coming from a non-musician. He picked things up in a remarkably short space of time and would probably have become a competent musician if he had persevered. Mike played guitar and I played drums. On the whole it was a good track even though the piano riff was simple, the drums were interesting. At one point we discussed whether we should ask Graham to join the band on a more permanent basis, but we decided we worked much better as a two piece with other people guesting on certain tracks. The last track on the tape was called 'It's All Over Now', the song made famous by The Rolling Stones and written by the great Bobby Womack. Mike was on vocals and drums, Graham was on guitar and I was on piano. The riff I played was different to the record, but it fitted in well. The song ends forcefully with the instruments bashing on the beat until the tape runs out. In my opinion it is one of the best songs on the album. As previously mentioned we decided to call the tape 'Unchanging'. We also gave the tape a label, in this instance the 'Opportunes' label. (A label name I still use to this day) The recording definitely had a freshness we failed to recapture on subsequent tapes. A while after completing it, I typed an inlay card, which in proud capital letters, bore the inscription:- THIS L.P. WAS RECORDED ON A MONO PORTABLE CASSETTE. IT WAS RECORDED AT LANGLEY STUDIOS EXCEPT TRACK ONE, SIDE ONE AND TRACKS SEVEN AND EIGHT SIDE TWO. RECORDED MID-LATE 1972. THIS IS THE EARLIEST RECORDINGS OF JOHN HODGSON IN EXISTENCE. PURITY ARE JOHN HODGSON AND MICHAEL CHARLTON, OUR THREE GUESTS ARE SCHOOLCHUMS. I cannot say which of the early tapes is the best, for they all seemed to be inconsistent, with moments of magic and ten times as many moments of mediocrity. One of the things I do regret is not studying music more at school. We had lessons of course, but at the time I didn't attatch much importance to how many brothers Beethoven had, or if he died of the clap or old age, because it didn't make me play the piano any better. Girls would increasingly get in the way of the band, and I recall several sessions where I was recording and listening back to tapes while Michael snuggled with his new love, a sweet girl called Lorraine. Even I managed to get entangled with the opposite sex, but without Mike's success. I thought it was impossible I didn't give it a thought But you came and said hello You hit me right between the eyes Why should I refuse I had nothing to lose And anyway I felt lonely and alone So I took up the offer You were good to me We hit it off so well You seemed at times heavenly The whole world I wanted to tell Then one night we had an argument I took it too far and you did't want to know I pleaded and said I was sorry But it did no good I went back into my shell When i'd come out no one could tell Only one day passes I knew it couldn't last So I came out of hiding and I went to see you And you knocked me down 'Cause you said that I should stay around But I soon found out I was on the ground again You changed your tune overnight After a hopeless fight And I thought that was that I was free I could see the clouds that I couldn't see before But you came Said "I'm to blame" And I knew there was a surprise in store Here I go again Will it last Or is our love in the past I don't know if the show will end Sometime It probably will That was a song/poem I wrote in 1973. It was written about a girl I met on February 3rd. Her name was Denise. The lyrics are silly and soft, but it was the way I felt at the time. Deep down inside i'm a romantic. There'll be more about Denise later, but meanwhile, I jump back to late 1972 and Michael's front room at 39, Langley Avenue, Thornaby... After we completed our first cassette, 'Unchanging', we did the obvious thing, another bloody cassette. On the first tape we had truly worked as a team, though Michael would be the first to admit I did handle most of the songwriting. For the second tape we decided to split it in half, with one side under his supervision, and the other under mine. This gave us the chance to tell each other what to do and 'arrange' songs to suit each others abilities. My side started with 'Funky Love'. I wrote it while walking home from school. Eddie Coulson starred on mute guitar (thank god!) (I hope you noticed I didn't give god a capital letter, which will give you an indication of my lack of religious beliefs. I think everyone should have there own god, in my opinion, most religions are based on fear of the unknown and the unexplained. People don't think enough about what they beleive in. I can't think of anything so childish as belief in an omnipresent god who does no wrong. People wouldn't believe it if they read it in the papers or something. As far as I can tell the star above the stable was a spacecraft and jesus was an android sent from another world to test our mentality. Well, it's a nice controversial theory, anyway.) It featured Eddie Coulson on mute guitar, (thank god!) 'cause he was a terrible guitar player. Next there is a trilogy of songs all recorded at my house and written in the Summer of 1971 when I was on holiday at Scarborough. All of them were solo efforts, and all of them were on guitar. They were recorded to tape over a rather long track Michael and I had taped but hadn't quite worked out. The first one was called 'I Walk The Empty Streets'. I wrote over thirty songs on holiday that year, mainly because I didn't have anything else to do. Next, a track called 'Why Oh Why', was again written and performed by me. Why, oh why did I record it! The outstanding thing about these three tracks are the vocals, which are awful. I have always thought my voice was bad, but these songs prove beyond doubt, that, at the time, my voice left a lot to be desired. The final track of this trilogy was called 'I Can't Get To See You'. It was equally as bad as the other two. Here is the chorus:- You're so near yet so far I can't get to see you The next track was another milestone in My Illustrious Career, called 'Sea Of Rain'. It was written in a moment of inspiration, after former girlfriend Eileen Ritchie had dumped me. I was sat in my front room, it was raining outside, I felt desolate, and this is what came out:- SEA OF RAIN (Hodgson - 1972) It was a Monday And the rain was long I thought i'd sit myself down And write myself a song The song was nearly over The last line was wrote I read it through again I felt a lump in my throat It reminded me of you And what we'd been through And I felt so blue Every word so different Yet so true As if i'd wrote it just for you
I started to wonder And decide my fate The chorus had a meaning But I know it's come to late The rain just shook the window And inside I felt the pain But I hope that soon you will know That my life's a sea of rain
Maybe one day The rain will stop And the sun will shine Once again we'll make up And you'll be mine For the moment only Grief and pain My life is just a sea of rain My life is just a sea of rain This was IT! A SONG! At last Michael and I came up with all the necessary ingredients, verses, a chorus, a start, a finish, thoughtful lyrics, what more could you ask for (a lot - Ed.) Joking apart, this at the time, was the song we were most pleased with. We were so happy with it I decided, some six months later, to send it to a music publishers in an attempt to get rich and famous. This proved to be my first (but certainly not my last) contact with the 'music biz'. Here is a copy of the letter I recieved:- 30th March 1973 Herbert F. Taylor Ltd Music Publishing House 11 St. Albans Road Bedford Park London Dear Mr. Hodgson, Thank you for sending the lyric. It looks very promising indeed, but we must point out that it would be unacceptable in its present form, and a first class recording artist would not consider it for a 'HIT' record without a first class musical setting, in the form of a top line lead sheet with chord symbols and words. For a fee of five pounds for your complete song we will be pleased to set it to music, a copy of which you will receive in a week, and then we will try to find a recording star or group to feature it on record at no extra cost to you in any way. We are in communication with the record companies, the lyric 'Sea Of Rain' is very good indeed and if set to music we hope it will be succesful. One of the Beatles made a million with the song 'My Sweet Lord', let's hope we have some luck. We have a very good tune for your song. Awaiting reply so we can get on. P.S. The above is on a fifty/fifty royalty basis.
Excitement wasn't the word. We thought we had made it when we received that letter. We realised that it was probably just a racket, but there was always the chance that we would be succesful. I showed the letter off to all my friends and relations, as if to confirm the fact that I was a good songwriter, and, more importantly, that I was serious about becoming a professional musician. In reality all that it meant was that Bert Taylor got £5 of my hard earned wages for writing a shitty piece of music that he probably used on every lyric he was sent. A week later I got another letter:- 6th April 1973 Herbert F. Taylor Blah blah blah Thank you very much for the £5 received for setting your lyrics to music. A top line lead sheet is enclosed. Best wishes and good luck. We will do our best for you. The next day I received another letter from him, with further words of encouragement.That was the last I ever heard from him. Despite everything, it did give us a hell of a boost at the time, so it wasn't all bad. On the version of 'Sea Of Rain' we had recorded, I arranged it carefully in order to get across the meaning of the words. I started with the sound of pouring rain, achieved quite authentically by Michael rustling a plastic bag. Over that I played a chord on the piano, at the same time depressing the sustain pedal. This gave a wistful, dreamy effect that paved the way for the first lines, which were spoken by Michael. The plastic bag resurfaced at the end to round it off. It was at that time, easily the most rewarding song I had written, comparable with my other favourites, 'Fly Away', and 'What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)' Next came a song called 'Do The Funky Bop', with Mike on guitar and myself on lead vocals and drums. It is similar to 'Funky Love' in structure and was a poor attempt to inject some 'soul' into our music. Most people listening would not call it soul music, but areshole music! The next track was in retrospect one of Purity's most adventurous songs. Drugs seemed to influence me in some of my songs at the time. Not from experience, just observation. Track seven, side one, was called 'The Last Trip', and it was a story about someone going to a party and taking drugs. Before the song starts properly I stop playing the riff on the piano and say "This is rather a weak beat don't you think...okay" and then I sing:- The Last Trip (Hodgson/Charlton) I'm out with friends having a ball Off to a party make a friendly call Everyone's happy running around Maybe too happy try to astound Someone's mixing funny punch with my top cigar With this new bunch i'm gonna go far Listen to me go... The song then develops into an instrumental melee which contains my first attempt at overdubbing. I wanted to get the effect of someone taking drugs and then musically take the listener through his trip. This we did by overdubbing four or five times with miscellaneous meanderings. A cacophany of different sounds flood in from all sides, which was an attempt to simulate an acid trip. There are numerous multi-tracking effects of pianos, voices, guitars and drums. As we didn't have two tape recorders we had to place a piece of paper over the head that rubbed off the previous recordings, so we could tape over the top fairly easily. This section of the song lasted for about two minutes with pointless vocal noises (out of context with the song), indiscriminate musical noises, and in general an effect of pandemoneum. In my opinion this song worked well, and was far ahead of its time as far as my musical and social awareness was concerned. In short - a classic. A one-off, which could never be pre-planned. Next is a song called 'Soft Cloud Symphony', which is one of a few piano pieces I was fond of doing at the time. Usually they were quiet and without exception they all contained 'echo piano'. This one seemed to work quite well, I enjoyed doing these type of songs as it gave the albums a balance between loud and quiet songs. The next song, 'Bounce', is a more up tempo tune. This, as in most of our songs at the time, had a total of two chords. Track number ten on side one was a cover version of a song called 'And Then I Kissed Her'. We had Keith Lowery on this one, playing guitar. He never took the group thing seriously though, and this shows, when at the end of the song he casually says to Michael, "What are we going to do (tonight)" The first side finishes off with 'Skunk (Part 1)', which was recorded at my house with an acoustic guitar and believe it or not, a set of snooker balls! I placed the microphone in the body of the guitar to get the usual electric sound, and I proceeded to hit the strings of the guitar with my balls (ha ha ha!) the sound produced is a long series of scraping and twanging sounds which have little musical value. One of the poorer tracks. Side two starts with a song called 'The Letter', which was a hit for the Box Tops, and subsequently a flop for us. It is basically two chords played on the piano (by Mike), and drums (by me) The beat is slow and deliberate, only the vocals partially retrieve it, but it is a bit monotonous. The next one was a golden oldie, 'If I Had A Talking Picture Of You', which consisted of a 78rpm record playing the theme while we sang the vocals over the top. A joke track which worked. After that things got decidedly better. (Could they get any worse folks!) 'Remember Girl (In This World)' has a verse, a chorus, and a concrete (if basic) storyline which all together make up a passable song, if you consider our ability at the time of writing it. Here are the lyrics:- REMEMBER GIRL (IN THIS WORLD) (Hodgson/Charlton - 1972) Will you ley me help you girl I know there's something wrong You're worried about that boy of yours Remember he won't be long Remember girl in this world Every boy is not true But that boy must be a fool When he's got someone like you He was kissing under the street lights You might as well know 'cos it's true Quite simple but effective. I have, over the years, returned to this song, including a solo live rendition in 1978, and a new studio version, done to a ska beat, in 2006. Track four was a desperate attempt at injecting some humour into our music. We wrote a song called 'Fat Fifi'. Top marks for guessing what the subject of the song was, you guessed it, it's about a woman called Fifi who happens to be fat. The lyrics are quite funny I suppose, if you like that kind of thing. By this time, the idea of us having solo sides flew out of the window when we realised it was impossible to work separately. Here are a couple of verses from 'Fat Fifi':- FAT FIFI (Hodgson/Charlton - 1972) I stopped to light a cigarette I thought aha I'm not safe yet I could hear the sound of her feet As she came racing down the street You might think I'm crazy 'cos I'm not prepared to love her But I'm not stupid can't you see I'd much rather be on my own Because she weighs 38 stone We got back to basics with 'Mouth Organ Blues', which was a song written purely to utilize the mouth organ we had just bought. There's no real tune and no real direction. Why did we do it? Because it wasn't there! The next track starts with a piano slowly building up, and eventually grinding to a halt. Called 'Excerpt From A Concerto' for no apparent reason. After that is another version (and arguably the best) of 'Fly Away', whcih is supposed to be recorded live (we overdubbed cheering at the start and finish) it excels chiefly because of the piano solo which is lively and interesting, also helping a lot is the excellent drumming by Mike. Next is an instrumental version of 'Remember Girl (In This World)', which has me on piano and Mike on guitar. After that is another version of 'Sea Of Rain', which turned out well. It is worth noting at this point that the last three tracks were all songs that have appeared before. We must have been stuck for ideas at the time. Lastly (would you believe) is 'Skunk (Part 2)', which is a continuation of part 1, with more guitar string/snooker ball interaction. So there you have it, warts and all. This 'album' in particular captured the spirit and enthusiasm Michael and I had the time. Good things were still to come from Purity, but I don't think anything I do in the future will ever be as spontaneous, naive, exciting, and fresh as this hour of, dare I say, music. During 1973 we continued to record songs on a regular basis, and this was given a boost when I bought a better quality cassette recorder. We started a new "album" which we decided to call 'Time Passes'. There seemed to be a discernable change in our style of writing on this tape. The songs were more like normal songs in that they had verses and a chorus. (a full review of "Time Passes" to be added here) July 1973 arrived and I was getting bored. On July 1st, and 2nd, I made a series of short notes which illustrated how boring my life had become:- "...there may be a follow up to 'That'll Be The Day'...going to the flics tomorrow...Denise is off tomorrow and Tuesday...have got ?3.45 left...beat Denise at darts...Keith Emerson on telly on Wednesday...blisters on my feet due to shoes...Denise likes my shoes and trousers...like Dr. John's new record...Slade straight into no.1...may be getting my piano soon...middle of the year midnight last night...total eclipse of the sun last Saturday (visible only in Africa)...bonus this Thursday...taking day off to visit school..." Yes folks, even a total eclipse of the sun visible only in Africa warranted an entry in my diary. My boredom made me think, what am I going to make of myself? I had a boring job with boring people and no prospects. I had to do something. Make something of myself. Even if it didn't work out, at least I would know I had tried my best. It was not in my nature to let things get into a routine. I liked change, I liked music. a lot, in fact it was the only thing in my life that mattered (apart from my girlfriend, Denise) but even though I treat my music making very seriously, I could sense that I would never be a brilliant musician, but the little talent that I did have enabled me to write songs, however crude, and maybe given time they would develop into something, time alone would tell. Music making increasingly took a back seat as 1973 wore on, and this was evident in the fact that after 'Time Passes' I recorded only one more tape during that year, originally called 'You've Goff To Face It' and later re-named 'Nice Girls Don't Try'. What's more it was a pretty shabby affair anyway, with many songs well below our already low standards. The actual playing had improved, but the quality of the songs hadn't. We started the tape with slightly less enthusiasm than usual. 'Prelude' was interesting, mainly because we had unwittingly discovered major 7th chords, in this case C. Mike alternated it with Dminor7th and I played a melody over the top. Another musical development evident on this tape was my discovery of 12 bar blues. I knew what they sounded like but it took me a while to work out the correct notes. This swaggering bluesy riff became the main constituent of no less than three songs on the tape, 'St.Louis Blues', 'Freewoman Blues' and 'Confusion Blues'. Here are the lyrics to the first two:- I told my baby while I was in St.Louis I said darlin' how you doin' She said honey I'm doin' fine Baby said she'd meet me at the railway station I was looking forward to seeing her My heart was really aching As I pulled into the railroad side I realised my woman had been lying My baby was supposed to meet me at half past eight I decided I would have to wait I looked across on the side of the line My baby was leaving on the train next to mine My baby said she could be true to me I said honey I don't believe you It's plain to see While I'm working in another town You'll be playing Always messing around Baby you can't be true I've been married to you for six years I'll release you knowing you You like being with every man in town Baby said to me You can depend on me She said baby I'll stay with you Really free I said woman don't you give me none of that talk You just be with me when I want She said darling I'm not gonna come where you're going I said honey I know why Because you don't wanna know That you know that I know You just go where you wanna go Freewoman you're a freewoman You're just as free as the wind in the trees You're a freewoman You just go where you wanna go Freewoman you're a freewoman You're just as free as the wind in the trees You're a freewoman
Eddie Coulson, our school friend who had appeared on 'Funky Love' from 'Unchanging' a year previously, popped up again on this album with 'Confusion Blues' and 'Fly Away (Slight Return)' both of which were well below par. There is also a lengthy section on side one which was recorded at my sister Ann's house in Billingham. I managed to play organ, guitar and percussion by overdubbing, but again the results are poor. There is one track that I recorded with a lad called Goff Pragnell (who had inspired the original title for the tape - 'You've Goff To Face It'.) who was a friend of Ann's. One night we were both at a party at Ann's (she often had parties) and after the whole thing had died down a bit we got talking about songwriting and I showed him a song I had written the previous day called 'I'm Writing This Song', and as Goff was a good guitar player, (having played in many groups) I was elighted when he started to play my song on his guitar. We worked together on the song until about 4a.m. and then we decided to record it. Two versions have been kept, the first one wasn't too good but the second one was much improved and sounded fuller because I played tambourine as well as handling the vocals. Here are the lyrics:- I'm Writing This Song (Hodgson/Pragnell - 1973) I'm writing this song To tell you I'll be along If you think that it's true Will you please say that you do Letting you know is the hardest thing to do Making words rhyme just to fit my point of view And it won't make me blue at all I never really saw Goff again after that night, and I was upset to discover he was found dead, alone in his flat on December 19th 1994. The word on the street was he commited suicide. There are three other tracks which aren't really worth mentioning, so I won't. So that was it for 1973 as far as recording goes. And after this, Purity, in essence, split up. For some reason I continued using the name for most of 1974, but for all intents and purposes, Purity was no more. |
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