Embarrassment
Lee says...Not written over cups of tea and donkeys,but in the sleepless hours of a drunken morning after hearing of my sister's pregnancy - by post, by phone, by word of mouth from a few relatives in all 8 corners of the world! I thought I'd write a song on the reactions I got from some folk towards young girls having half cast babies.
Shut Up
Chris says...Many people say :"Why Shut Up", when "Shut Up" is not in the verse or anywhere else, well, now I can tell. When suggs originally wrote the lyrics it was a ten minute opus and it had the words "Shut Up" in the chourus, These were surgically removed to give the song three minute classic value but kept as a titel for sentimental reasons. O.K.?
My Girl
Mike says...Well this song is about a phonecall I had while I was trying to write a song. It's my favourite song of One Step Beyond. I've just listened to it agian and it sound really good. Quite often when I write a song, I sort of get an idea from another song "Watching the Detectives" by Elvis Costello doesn't sound like this at all, I'm sure you'd agree with me on that point. Anyway I'm having trouble with this although it's good I don't have a lot to say about it so that's my lot then, and I wish you all well, well all the ones who deserve it and the rest I'll just pray for your souls.
Baggy Trousers
Suggs says...A song about school, school in London. I wrote a list of everything I could remember about the one that I went to. I ended up with about six pages, some good and a lot of it boring, all from my own experience.
I then thought how boring it must have been from a teachers point of view particularly in that school where there were 2000 boys and a very smaal percentage intrested in anything other than going home
It Must Be Love
Mark says...On a very cold November Sunday, the Madness Touring Party, fresh from a gig in Bridlington, pulled up outside a very small terraced house in the back streets of Durhan.
We met Clive Langer an Alan Winstantly standing outside and expecting the unexpected we ventured in. We found a tiny living room with some microphones scattered around the floor...My God! It was a recording studio. Nine hours later the backing tracks for "It Must Be Love" were finished"
Originally the band were going to record the song for a Richard Skinner Show session but we didn't have time to work it out. So we decided to play the song on the last Brittish Tour and it became a firm favourite.
We finally finished "It Must Be Love" in London (on odd days off). The video saw an appearance from Labi Siffre, who gave his blessing on our version, and was heard to say he'd like to do one of our songs (Labi Siffre fans watch out for a come back!). And by the way, Lee played the bee and woody played the bird. "It Must Be Love" reached number 4 in the charts exactly ten years to the week of it's first release. It must one of the most widely liked Madness singles
The Prince
Lee says...Being as time is at the moment on my side and the sun is beaming down on this cold Monday, midday outside Alley Palley, echoes of "Wanderin Star", "Young, Gifted and Black", Saturday morning skaters in stomping rhythm to "Liquidator" and many other tunes...
Anyway! near on one decade later I found myself writing a 'right gem', which was to be released in Sept '79 on 2 Tone (an old pal's lable). A tribute to yours and mine, ruler of Blue beat, F.A.B. & Dice recordings, for those of you who just walked in I'm talking about P.B. Mr Rude Man himselff! "The Prince" was wrote over a cup of tea and dunkies late one evening round Carls'.
I'll get to the point, I've waffled on for the past 150 or so words. The moment I heard there was a Mod rival in the pipe line I splashed out on some 45's and a bike, ripped a few chords & lyrics, jumped on the back of the train, and have hung on since.
Bed And Breakfast Man
Mike says...Well, this song was in fact started off by Chrissy Boy who made up the first line "There's a man I know". So anyway after he got a bit stuck I took over. It's about John Hasler who used to be our drummer and also used to go round Chris's house round about dinner time. originally the idea I had was for it to sound a bit like Smokey Robinson's "Tears of a Clown" but it didn't. We were a bit amature then if you notice. I think it slows down at the start of the piano solo.
Night Boat to Cairo
Suggs says...Mike had written a very Eastern sounding tune in the heydey of the off-beat, which inspired me one evening to tosh-out a verse (at which it stayed) in a simular vein.
The Nile, Cairo an old barge and a toothless oarsman.
A feeling of no beginning and no end, just (hopefully) a few mysterious images conjured up in the brainbox.
House of Fun
Chriss says...I'm not sure about this one...I think it's about coming of age, I cant remember much about because when it happened to me it was along time ago. You could by a packet of fags, a pint of beer and a three piece suit for half a crown and still have enough left to go and see Rudolf Valentino at the Gaulmont! I can't afford to go to the pictures these days but I hear they talk in them now.
One Step Beyond
Carl says...This is our second release, it was written by Prince Buster and was released on the B side of Al Capone - that's the one that sounds like gangsters, if the Mads had never covered this one I probably would not be writing this now, you see a long time ago Lee asked me to introduce the Mads so I made up the intro and because I could shout loudest they let me shout On Step Beyond a few times before they'd kick me off, after a while I got well pissed off at being kicked off so I started moving about avoiding them , everybody thought 'Wow a new dance' ha ha. I haven't stopped moving yet.
Cardiac Arrest
Carl says...On my way to work one day (I worked in an Office) on the tube, a bloke just kneeled over and died of a heart attack and years later on when Chrissy Boy came up with the music I knew that I should write a song about a heart attack victim, it seemed the right subject for the feel of the song. It's a hard subject to cover and the moral of the story is to slow down, what's important work or health? We'll see you, Enjoy the album and life.
Grey Day
Mike says...This song was written a long time ago. we used to do it when we first started. It was alot different then, a bit like Roxy Music's "Bogus Man" if you heard it. Anyway we had this echo machine that Lee bought quite cheap and he was doing a lot of heavy breathing and percussion in it and it sounded really good. We only did it live once. Somewhere someone forgot something so after a bit of discussion it was dropped. Then at a rehearsal on day we tried doing it again in a diffrent way and it sounded really good straight away so we recorded it. Luckily I still had the lyrics on a scrap of paper or you would never have heard it.
Take It or Leave It
Lee says...Cutting through the clouds in a 737, touch down, Turin I think. Our first and only tour of Italy . First thing I noticed was the way the police or army (I don't knoe they all look the same), paraded the airport with their battons at the ready. Seeing what I hoped I wouldn't. I thought there was nothing like turning up to a gig with a dozen or so Police or Army escorting you through tose big iron gates with machine gun cockes, puts you in the right mood for a show! I longed for home in my extreme state of wind, Chorus says the rest.
In The City
Mark says..."In The City" was born round a piano in Tokyo, It is the theme tune to a Honda car commercial which the band appeared in.
This version was recorded in London and was made into a 3 minute song. The original version was recorded in Tokyo and was 15,30 and 60 seconds long to fit the commercial. We went into the studio in the daylight and and came out into the tokyo rush hour the next morning. I felt ten years older, I mean how can you say "Can I have more trebble on the bass drum" in Japanese?! "In The City" has now been released as a single in Japan and Honda are selling 10.000 "City" cars every week. Perhaps we should make people buy a single with every car.
Madness
Woody says...There they stood with names flying from all sides of the room. When they had stopped insulting each other they discussed a name for the seven-piece entourage. A smaal voice from somewhere in the room suggested the band should select a name from the songs played in the set. The set list was inspected and the one who calles himself Devilishy Handsome (Chrissy Boy) said: Madness. The band said yes but Chris said: - "Oh no" but Madness it was.
Return Of The Los Palmas 7
Woody says...Mark and I thought we had done all we had to do on Absolutely - but we were wrong. The album had no instrumental on it. This meant there was one more backing track to do, but we hadn't found out what it was. This was a job for Mike B. Soon he got to work on the piano, and as if by magic a song appeared. Mark added the bass and I the drums. A masterpiece in our lunchtime (and that's about the time it took to write). It was my first credit for writing a song and I'm still not sure If I really wrote as much of it as Mark and Mike give me credit for.
