Afternoon in february (Goodson/Wadsworth)

  • Artist: Illinois
  • Session: Front Bedroom, 42 Greville Street
Listen on Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/snowmoon/afternoon-in-february

I wrote this in the front bedroom at 42 Greville Street, after Matt had moved back to Nottingham. I remember strumming the chords and having some sort of melody and needed to sing words, I'd been reading a collection of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poems and was struck about how bleak and nearly modern the words to Afternoon in February seemed, even though they were written a hell of a long time ago. So I used these to work out the melody.

I remember strumming this to Matt, and him saying at the end that, yes we could play it in illinois, provided I changed all the words and made them more urban. Think I was thrilled. Not sure it ever worked amongst the illinois songs, and think Matt knew this, and was just being nice.

Anyway I couldn't manage to change/update all the words; or maybe I did, but the only version I can find seems very close to the original. I'm reminded of the Walt Berkman character in the film 'The Squid and the Whale' justifying the passing off of the Pink Floyd song 'Hey you' as his own, by saying 'he felt like he could have written it' :-)

Think I worked out the bass line whilst listening to this recording; but sadly this isn't recorded anywhere. 

Matt and John did a stirling job to make this sound all shimmery and Galaxie500 esque when we played it with the band.

It was Glen who said, this is just 'Melt Away' when he first heard it; and I can confirm this is merely coincidental.

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