Fly Like A Bird
The first track that I ever wrote for Tinyfish. This song was kicking around of a few months before I broached the subject of forming a prog band with Jim. We used to do a lot of acoustic floor spot gigs which were great, but they never let you play any longer songs (plus any sniff of progginess in your material and you’d suddenly lose your slot in next weeks show). In the light of this, I was trying to disguise a prog song within the guise of a ballad which only partially succeeded. However when we decided to form Tinyfish, I dusted this one off and showed it to the guys and they loved it.
I didn’t have a middle eight at the time so Jim came up with the chords and the neat Steely Dan wah wah solo. We also stuck a recording of Franklin D. Roosevelt over the top which we thought complimented the lyrical theme of imperialism run amok very nicely.
Incidentally, one of the main similarities between politicians and musicians is that we both campaign with lyrics but are forced to govern with prose. Hence, this song by song commentary.
Simon
A workmate of mine bought the album and asked me “Is that you in the middle of Fly Like A Bird?” I said “No, that's Franklin D. Roosevelt.”
He thought for a moment, and said: “He does a very good impression of you.”