4.52am Issue: 052 21st September 2017 - The Waterboys Issue

And then of course you write a song
like 'New York, I Love You' which
feels as though it should be a movie
and is yet somehow the perfect pop
song despite being 7-odd minutes
long. How do you go about writing
a song like that?
“NEW YORK I LOVE YOU started with the
first line of the lyric - "She waited at the
door till all his saddest words were
spoken, then she threw them with some
seasoning in his face" - which I'd written
for a relationship-break-up song called
"In The Shadow Of Your Love". That
song didn't make it, but I loved that line
and so set about developing it into a
narrative. Then one thing led to
another. Characters started to arrive in
the song and "Duke" is based on a tailor
I knew in the Lower East Side called
Savoia, who made zoot suits, 40s gear,
and drowned one night in the East River
after who knows what misadventures. I
can't remember how I wrote the riff.”
You seem to still be enjoying the
creative process at a time when the
money from that side of things has
gone to a larger extent, but is that
the driver for you now or is the
playing live side as important?
“I'VE NEVER DONE IT FOR THE
MONEY!”
How much of a buzz was it to have
David Hood play on “Hammerhead
Bar” when he had played on Etta
James' 'Watchdog' which you had
sampled?
“BEAUTIFUL. I asked him to play it the
same, and he did!”
For anybody thinking this is a simple
collection of love songs, you need to
hear “Kinky’s History Lesson”. Can
you tell us the background to that -
he seems to have pissed you off?
“KINKY FRIEDMAN wrote an essay about
a visit to the UK during the second gulf
war, and how he encountered a lot of
anger about the war, some directed at
George W Bush. His response to that was
to churlishly and petulantly label the
British as "Neville Chamberlain Surrender
Monkeys", which as a phrase isn't just
offensive but rides somewhat roughshod
over the facts. I figured Kinky needed a
fucking history lesson.”