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FEAR OF FLYING Matt Hales says: Musically, Fear of Flying has always been very strong. I've always liked choruses where the hook stays the same and the chords change underneath, and this is a prime example and I like the unexpected keychange into the verse and the bridge is all pretty and was written in Ilford in a dull and smelly house where I was living and having a dull and smelly time. The lyrics are about what it's like being a boy. I wrote the versies and the bridgy and Ben wrote the chorusy but they all joined up like the Channel tunnel and now you can go across to France whenever you like. Stephen says: Fear of Flying was the first song that RUTH ever played as a band. I remember we all met up in this little church hall near Eastleigh for our first rehearsal. It was really excellent. From the moment we struck those chords we knew something was up. As the long time RUTH fans among you will know, I originally sang the lead vocal on this. However, as it became obvious that we would be releasing it as a single, it seemed only sensible that Matt as the lead singer should do the lead singing. But I don't feel bad about it. In fact I DON'T CARE, EVERYTHING'S FINE... GOOD LUCK TO HIM... AND ALL OF YOU. GOODBYE. I'VE HAD IT...THAT'S ENOUGH. Ben comes along to help: Fear of Flying was actually written at the end of 1991 when going bugbugbah, bahdebugbah was absolutely the thing to do, as was playing guitar all strummy and filling it up with big synth strings. For some time Fear of Flying was a pariah in the RUTH camp because it represented a sound and a style that we had moved on from. When you hear the album, you'll notice that big guitar strumming songs don't come into it anywhere else. However it was always very popular amongst the evil record company people because of it's undeniable single appeal. We were always worried that it might be a one-hit band song but it's too late now. We want that hit. Matt V-B 's results and conclusion: So we've established that this is a particularly good song; musically it has the special magic ingredient to make those important radio people think "hang on a minute, what do we have here then," and it means something special to each individual member of the band (RUTH) (- just in case you forgot the name). So you may be wondering what it means to me. Well that doesn't really matter. What matters is what it means to you? I think it's wonderful.
TOLD YOU SO Matt H says: If you were to carry out a pitch-class analysis on Fear of flying and Told You So you would soon discover that they both employ the same trick of augmenting the classic pop progression of 1 to 4 with a rising bass line that implies a shift to chord 6 (the relative minor). So you will see that the two songs, whilst superficially appearing worlds apart in style and content, are actually brothers. Is this the sort of thing you meant Ben? We wrote this for a laugh a long time ago with our pal Matt Simmonds before RUTH had even been thought of. Never thought it would get on a CD not ever. But put in a dragster sample and a few sleigh-bells and things soon change. Et viola. Stephen says: When the Matt Hales boy sent me a cassette of some songs that he'd done, this one was THE BIG SINGLE. Amazing really how the band has come on since then. Well done. Funnily enough (Matt H reckons I should write "not funnily enough") this was also one of the first songs that we all played together and incredibly it's survived 4 years of writing far better songs. Mind you it's had a few changes along the way. For example, it was in a totally different time signature originally. Or was it? Hang on, no it was just a different feel. But it seems like a different time signature. Anyhow, it's certainly turned out nice again. Ben: Eagle eared RUTH fans will be able to detect both the RUTHSongs and Birdworld versions of Told you so in this one. We did it in B-side mode when we'd gone mad and imposed a one-take rule, so all the vocals on it were kept however bad they were. We did loads of parts on the "Yeah" bit - there are at least two octaves-worth there. We also broke a lot of unspoken rules in the mix, but it was Matt VB's birthday and we're crazy enough to push those faders ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Matt V-B
continues on a more serious note: Profound ,deep and very very meaningful are just some of the
words that people like to use in everyday conversation. It's not necessarily the way I would like
to describe this song. It's fun, It's jolly, it's life, it's death are other ways of describing it. I prefer
the word nice.
SOMETHING GOOD Matt H says (and I bet you're all looking forward to this): We wrote this because we were cold one day in our tent that we lived in and needed to get our hands moving about lest they freeze off leaving only frosty stumps. Did the trick and Ben and I are still able to perform manual tasks with dexterity as a result. For its part in this amazing rescue, Something Good was awarded a certificate for outstanding courage by a fireman. Cheers. Stephen says: When I first heard this, I really thought it was better than Fear of flying, and at the time we didn't have any songs better than Fear of flying. It's always a really enjoyable song to play live and deserves to be on the single. I think the recording of it that we did at Chapel is the song presented as it should be. So often you have a great live song and when you try to recreate that feeling on tape it sounds like a bad thing not very good and rubbish. Thank you. Ben: The only thing I like about this are the "Yeahs" at the end by me and Steve which sound like they were cleverly produced but they weren't. And the bass drum sounds pretty good.
Matt V-B's
nearly finished final analysis thing: Cold tents, firemen, recreating that live feeling on to tape,
pretty bass drums and the word yeah is what Something Good is all about.
If you listen carefully there's a Christmas element to both this song and Told you so.
See if you can find them. I can't promise you anything in return, except for the enjoyment of
listening to the songs.
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