When I'm Weakened

Hey All

I've been thinking of John Lennon, 30 years since his murder. I thought on this day I'd upload one of the songs that I've been holding back from the time of my MHS album recording sessions. This has never been heard before. I'll explain further down the page why, and also of its relevance to Lennon. 

Removing the crazed fan/fame element from his death, the added cult the years have piled up, and also the horror of the incident, it just seems ultimately so sad – especially when you read the personal accounts of those close to the events of that day. I've no idea what he would have been like to meet but I remember my first visit to NYC to perform there and making a beeline for CBGB's and the Dakota building. Lennon's time in NYC still fascinates me and I wanted to see where it happened, where he lived, and of course Strawberry Fields. I could tell I wasn't alone on that day. On the next block on the way back downtown I encountered the New York Historical Society's offices, and wondered if I should knock on the door to compare notes or discuss exchange programmes for our respective 'societies'… 

I have almost an album's worth of MHS material that was lost in my attic! Some of these songs I'll make available in 2011 as part of my New Album release which comes during my 10th anniversary year (10, yikes!), which you'll hear more about soon – but this song was never considered for any of those albums because it owes far too much to Lennon's song 'Love'. I called it 'When I'm weakened'. It was about my life rapidly changing at the time. 

I'm not saying my song is comparable to Lennon's, but it is (albeit, genuinely subconscious at the time) a bit of a pastiche. It's not the best song I've ever written at all, which is why it hasn't appeared anywhere, but I've always liked the closing 'I want it now!' section, some nice brass stabs! And this song has always been most notable to me because my solo in the middle was recorded on a child's £8 fake guitar that I bought at Woolworths on Byres Road in Glasgow on the day of the recording! (I just liked the look of it, and before I knew it I was tryign to mic it up – all two loose fishing-gut strings of it).

R.I.P. JL

Colin