2025 Competition Entry:
THE THING ABOUT INSPIRATION by JOE GRAHAM
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Genre
Country
Artist
Co-writer(s)
yes
Performer(s)
JOE GRAHAM- VOCALS / JIM GRAHAM – ALL INSTRUMENTS AND BACKING VOCALS
Description
Written in response to the death of John Prine. A story type song that take me back to the time I first heard his album Sweet Revenge and the influence head has had since and indeed the influence any of us have without knowing it
Bio
Jaggy Edges are brothers Jim and Joe Graham. They have been playing together ever since Joe got a guitar for Christmas and Jim learned to play it (Joe never did). All the time Jim was learning guitar, they both played and harmonised in their bedroom creating, even then, a sound that sometimes only siblings can create. They finally got together with another pair of brothers, Iain and Colin McCaig to form the band October performing around Glasgow from1976 – 1980 whilst Joe and Iain attended Glasgow School of Art.
In all the years they have been writing and performing together, they have attempted to bring their songs to life for others to hear, enjoy and hopefully perform for themselves. “We have never really got round to doing it properly until now. We owe a lot to Colin and Iain McCaig for setting us on the road back then. (Don’t think the band has broken up yet though!)”
They finally have two album collections of songs that they are proud of and that do the songs justice.
In all the years they have been writing and performing together, they have attempted to bring their songs to life for others to hear, enjoy and hopefully perform for themselves. “We have never really got round to doing it properly until now. We owe a lot to Colin and Iain McCaig for setting us on the road back then. (Don’t think the band has broken up yet though!)”
They finally have two album collections of songs that they are proud of and that do the songs justice.
Lyrics
There’s a street just off the Fulham Road,
And a makeshift artists’ studio
with a stack of vinyl records on a chair.
Most of them are played to death.
One stands high above the rest.
A memory just shook me back to there.
Three months in that scary place
was all we could afford or face.
The simple fact of living on the line.
I moved around a lot since then.
There’s no need for remembering
the pile of unpaid bills we left behind.
That’s the thing about inspiration,
you don’t know if you’ve got it, till you get it or it’s gone.
One unguarded situation.
It’s gonna hit you if it hits you, it won’t hang around too long.
Pot pourri and playing games.
Three days now it’s still the same one.
Indiana Jones and Sweet Revenge
Some things stick as most things fade.
In my mind those bills are paid.
Too late now to try to make amends.
That’s the thing about inspiration,
you don’t know when you give it, but you give it all the same.
No reason, rhyme or explanation.
You do just what you do to a million little flames.
We won’t go back again.
Enough to have the memory and the songs
Would never be the same.
A moment, but the moment’s come and gone.
It’s been thirty years or more I think.
Three kids and the kitchen sink.
A lot of love, a bit of pantomime.
With all the noise and all the fuss,
at times it’s still the two of us.
Well, mainly me just drifting back in time
to a street just off the Fulham Road,
in a makeshift artists studio
and a stack on vinyl records on the floor.
All but one are broken now.
Nothing stays the same somehow.
Put it on and walk back through the door.
That’s the thing about inspiration,
you don’t know if you’ve got it, till you get it or it’s gone.
One unguarded situation.
It’s gonna hit you if it hits you. It won’t hang around too long.
That’s the thing about inspiration,
you don’t know when you give it, but you give it all the same.
No reason, rhyme or explanation.
You do just what you do to a million little flames.
And a makeshift artists’ studio
with a stack of vinyl records on a chair.
Most of them are played to death.
One stands high above the rest.
A memory just shook me back to there.
Three months in that scary place
was all we could afford or face.
The simple fact of living on the line.
I moved around a lot since then.
There’s no need for remembering
the pile of unpaid bills we left behind.
That’s the thing about inspiration,
you don’t know if you’ve got it, till you get it or it’s gone.
One unguarded situation.
It’s gonna hit you if it hits you, it won’t hang around too long.
Pot pourri and playing games.
Three days now it’s still the same one.
Indiana Jones and Sweet Revenge
Some things stick as most things fade.
In my mind those bills are paid.
Too late now to try to make amends.
That’s the thing about inspiration,
you don’t know when you give it, but you give it all the same.
No reason, rhyme or explanation.
You do just what you do to a million little flames.
We won’t go back again.
Enough to have the memory and the songs
Would never be the same.
A moment, but the moment’s come and gone.
It’s been thirty years or more I think.
Three kids and the kitchen sink.
A lot of love, a bit of pantomime.
With all the noise and all the fuss,
at times it’s still the two of us.
Well, mainly me just drifting back in time
to a street just off the Fulham Road,
in a makeshift artists studio
and a stack on vinyl records on the floor.
All but one are broken now.
Nothing stays the same somehow.
Put it on and walk back through the door.
That’s the thing about inspiration,
you don’t know if you’ve got it, till you get it or it’s gone.
One unguarded situation.
It’s gonna hit you if it hits you. It won’t hang around too long.
That’s the thing about inspiration,
you don’t know when you give it, but you give it all the same.
No reason, rhyme or explanation.
You do just what you do to a million little flames.
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