JACK O THE GREEN: TRACK NOTES

 

Thank you for taking an interest in my new record Jack O The Green.

I must thank all the people who have contributed and, as I reflect, I realise there is an amazing range of music and musicians of all ages and styles – from Jimmy Scott, in his eighties, to the Sugababes, in their teens, from David Gray to Shane MacGowan. I hope you will enjoy this record. You deserve an explanation so here it is; I'll start with the title track and then go through the others.

Jools Holland, November 2003.

 
I wrote Jack O The Green with Suggs. He witnessed an ancient ceremony in Whitstable, which celebrates the coming of Spring with the Jack O The Green parading through the streets to an old English folk melody. Each year Suggs has heard this and has been much taken with it. He then went on his holidays to Tuscany where, in a small village square, a band of local musicians gathered with traditional Tuscan instruments. Their own Green Man appeared and to Suggs' amazement they played the same folk melody. We have taken this theme, put a variation on it, then added our own ska rhythms and stride piano and created our own Jack O The Green.
 
Track 1: Buddy Guy's She Suits Me To A Tee. One of the original great Chicago blues men, when Buddy first started working it was playing back up guitar for Muddy Waters in Chess Studios in the early sixties. He went on to play with all of the blues greats. It has now been a privilege for me and my orchestra to play with him.
 
Track 2: Misfit. When new R'n'B diva Terri Walker first appeared on Later... I was completely blown away. I had enjoyed her single Ching Ching but had no idea (as is the case with so many people) how great she was until I heard her sing live. I had written the song Misfit about people with learning difficulties who find it hard to socialise. Originally I had planned it to be a big band swing number but when Terri agreed to do it we realised we needed to be a bit more aggressive with the arrangement. I suspect, and hope, we will be hearing a lot more from Terri Walker.
 
Track 3: You Really Got A Hold On Me. When I was growing up I used to buy all the Beatles records and all the Motown records. Smokey Robinson had always been a hero and one of my favourites. Bob Dylan described him as one of the greatest poets America has ever produced. It was on a Beatles record that I first heard them cover You Really Got A Hold On Me. I fell in love with the song and would never have believed it if you had told me back then that I would get an opportunity of recording it with Smokey Robinson himself.
 
Track 4: I Think It's Going To Rain Today. I was delighted when David Gray agreed to participate in this record and I wondered what we would do. Would it be one of his songs, one of my songs, would we write a song? I discovered that, like me, he was a huge fan of Randy Newman, so I was delighted when he suggested that we make a version of I Think It's Going To Rain Today. Like much of the record it's done entirely live. It made me realise what a fantastic voice David Gray has and what a brilliant songwriter Randy Newman is.
 
Track 5 & Track 20: Solomon Burke and Eric Clapton – Message To My Son and Mabel. The first thing I must explain to the uninitiated is that Solomon Burke is really the king of soul. His style of singing was copied by Otis Redding and Van Morrison. He is also a preacher, an undertaker and an extraordinarily kind and wonderful man. We sat down in Greenwich to write a song and wrote three. The two songs that appear on this record are both about children. On the day that the session was to take place the Rhythm and Blues Orchestra's guitarist, Mark Flanagan, had an appointment which could not be cancelled so I was trying to think of somebody who could sit in. I called Eric Clapton and, amazingly, he was able to come. Eric's guitar and presence help redefine these songs. To hear his solo on the end of Mabel with Solomon's ad lib driving one another along is to hear the "Shout For Joy" in music.
 
Track 6: Just To Be Home With You. I have always been a Shane MacGowan fan. He is a poet, he is charming and a true gentleman. I wrote Just To be Home With You almost as a sea shanty and I think Shane takes it even more in this direction. His voice makes a song like this become outstanding.
 
Track 7: Play It Sam. When I left a message for Steve Earle asking him if he would like to be a "Collaborator", we got a message straight back saying "Count Me In". There are three things you need to know about this track: 1. Steve Earle is a giant who tells the truth in a world of fibbing pigmies; 2. We wrote this song about Lightnin' Hopkins, who Steve used to see in Texas. We are both big Lightnin' Hopkins fans; and 3. I play the guitar on it.
 
Track 8: Kiss Of Love – Nick Cave and Sam Brown. I wrote this song with Sam in a top floor hotel suite in Amsterdam. From the window over the top of the piano we could see the gabled tops of the old buildings and on one them there was a stone frieze of sailing ships. Sam had her ukulele with her and these are all of the elements that created the song. I have always admired Nick Cave and we were so pleased when he agreed to do it as a duet with Sam. I would also draw your attention to Phil Veacock's arrangement which, for me, turns the song into a filmic wide screen event.
 
Track 9: I Told The Truth – Paul Rodgers. Sam and I originally wrote this for Ray Charles but Paul Rodgers heard it first and asked if he could do it. We couldn't say "No". I have always loved Paul Rodgers' voice. I bought the sheet music to My Brother Jake hoping it would make me sound like him. It didn't. I went on and bought other records by Free and Bad Company and now I feel so honoured that I've made a record with him.
 
Track 10: Please Can I Talk To You – Sugababes. I wrote this song with my brothers, Richard and Christopher. I had always been impressed with the Sugababes since they had been on Later.... They have got a vibration about them which is exciting, lively and slightly dangerous. When they came to the studio to record this they had a film crew filming them and we had a film crew filming us. This led to a lot of confusion but the Sugababes performed brilliantly and, as you can hear, sing brilliantly.
 
Track 11: Boys. Ringo Starr was famously in a group which you may know. It is one of the few groups in the world that everyone knows the names of all the members. To say that I loved his solo work and his work with them would be an understatement. The one thing I have in common with Ringo is that we are both keen boogieists and I believe this comes across in this track, which he first did with his other group.
 
Track 12: When I Get Home. Ruby Turner is very much a part of our Orchestra. I wrote this song with her and Chris Difford and originally it was almost operatic, like the way the song begins. Then we realised we had to take it up a gear. So Gilson counts us in and off we go.
 
Track 13: Enjoy Yourself – Prince Buster. It is a privilege for us to work with one of the original voices of ska music. Also this track is a wonderful opportunity for you to hear our band member Rico Rodriguez on Trombone who, like Prince Buster, is also one of the originators from Kingston, Jamaica. The words to this song, although simple, have an ancient meaning. One of the oldest known songs known to man is the Zagwill, which was taken from the stone grave of a fisherman in the Lebanon in 2000BC. They are: "Laugh while you may. Keep toil and trouble at bay for soon the dark night of death comes and takes us away". Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think.
 
Track 14: Sweet If You Like. I set the words of a 17th century poem by Francis Davidson to music. I was trying to think of somebody very English to sing it. There is nobody with better credentials, or a better voice, to sing a song of this sort than Eliza Carthy. Her parents are great musicians and she has followed in their footsteps. I often look back to the roots of the music of New Orleans, or Jamaica, or other places around the world, but we must not forget to look back to our own roots. Eliza sings this beautifully and her fiddle playing is like a symphony orchestra.
 
Track 15: Cry Myself To Sleep – Michael McDonald. When Michael McDonald sings a song he elevates that piece of music immediately. I first wrote the outline of this song twenty years ago and could never quite finish it off. Michael McDonald brilliantly helped the song to be completed and then put his mind-blowing vocals on it. We welcome the Dutch genius, Candy Dulfer, who put sax on it.
 
Track 16: Shutting The Doors – Kirsty MacColl. Kirsty MacColl was a genius. In 1983 I worked with her producing five tracks for a record label, which never used them. The one at the time that we both thought worked out best is the one you hear on the record. The other thing that happened on the session was that Kirsty introduced me to Rico Rodriguez who you can hear on this early recording. It was an awful tragic loss when she died and I'm pleased this track has now seen the light of day and I hope it will remind us all just how great Kirsty was. At that time in recording studios they used to have small speakers on top of the mixing desk called Auratones. People would check their mixes on these small tinny sounding monitors. I remember listening to something back on these Auratones when Kirsty came in the room and she said with a beaming smile, "Ah, you're using the horrid tones". This is how I will remember Kirsty.
 
Track 17: Washing Of The Water – Peter Gabriel. People know Peter Gabriel for his electrifying live performances and brilliant records. We can sometimes forget what an amazing singer he is. When we recorded this there was electricity in the air and I am very pleased we have now made a record with the great Peter Gabriel.
 
Track 19: Ooh La La. Ronnie Wood is an amazing man. Everyone knows he is a Rolling Stone and one of the reasons for this is that he has very individual and fantastic musical energy. Whatever he plays, no matter how simple, sounds very clear and has a great ring of truth about it. He has a beautiful family and I was so pleased that he brought his son, Jesse, to help him on guitar and his beautiful daughter, Leah, to help out with the backing vocals. Any room where Ronnie Wood walks in, the vibrations become positive. If I ruled the world I'd make him head of the United Nations. It was a pleasure when he came to Greenwich to record because for those few moments we were on planet Ronnie Wood.
 
Track 21: I'll Be Seeing You. Jimmy Scott was Marvin Gaye's favourite singer. Ray Charles worshipped him. He recorded and toured with Lionel Hampton and Duke Ellington. Therefore, it was a great honour for my Big Band to be able to record with him. Now in his eighties, he still delivers a song with amazing timing and feel. I'll Be Seeing You is one of the greatest standards of all time and a lot of other great singers and bands have done it. So I was a little worried when we went in to cut it. The words are brilliant and when Jimmy finished singing after the first take the band all stood up and applauded. I hope you feel the same. I asked him what it was like recording with the big band back in the forties. He shrugged and smiled and said, "Just the same as this".

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