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You've been compared to numerous songwriters, like Cole Porter, probably a lot more than you'd like... One reason why your songs are so extraordinary is the way they are performed, with the horn arrangements, the blue notes, and the way the voice is used as an instrument. What is your inspiration for this type of technique?
I think that comes from the fact that I got a little disillusioned with rock 'n' roll as such a few years ago, and just decided to build myself a couple of bridges back to kinds of music — well, not necessarily back, sideways if necessary — to kinds of music other than rock 'n' roll, still employing them with the rock 'n' roll instrumentation. Whenever people try to incorporate other styles of music in pop music, it's often pomposity, self-importance — "Look at us, we're classical rock — why isn't everybody impressed?"
Without making too much of a fuss of it, I was just trying to find some new musical ideas. So I did start listening to a lot of pre-rock 'n' roll music — a lot of jazz ballads and the sort of songs of that era — and I even wrote a couple of songs which were after the fashion. The song structure of "Almost Blue" from Imperial Bedroom, for example. But obviously I'm not from that era. I can't really just make myself turn into that kind of thing. And also the world has changed as well, so it would be inappropriate and a bit of a sham, really. You end up being some show-business recreation of it, like Manhattan Transfer: technically correct, but they always seemed to be devoid of any feeling. So this was the challenge in doing that — trying to employ some musical ideas which were exciting and fresh to me, ones I hadn't used before — incorporate them into my own sound and try to mold them into something new.
How about the country material? The country album, Almost Blue, came out of a rock background. Do you think there's any more country in the future for you?
I don't know. I think that was a very punk thing to do, to go to Nashville and make a record with Billy Sherrill. I've had a liking of country music. It's a style, obviously, which is not natural to me. It's something I've learned, but something I really fell in love with quite a few years back. I've ended up incorporating it in different degrees.
There was a country song cut at the very first session I ever did — "Stranger In The House" — although it didn't come out for a few years. There was a country song on Trust, a quite pronounced one. There's country influence on quite a few of the guitar sounds on other songs. So I think there's always a possibility we may cut another song. I don't know whether we'd go and do another album. If we did go to Nashville, it would be to record our own material, or if we were to record another country record, it would be songs that I wrote. There would be little point in doing another covers album.
At the same time, I sometimes play "I've Forgotten More Than You'll Ever Know About Her" — the Davis Sisters song — as a solo number at the end of the show. So it's not like I've run away from country music because it wasn't commercially successful over here — it was quite commercially successful in England. That should never be the consideration of why you do anything, anyway. I did it because I simply wanted to make that record, and if the mood took me again I would, you know. It would be less of a surprise now, 'cause people kinda know that we have an interest in it.
What about people covering your songs? How do you feel about it, and which one is your favorite?
Uh... I've been very... ungracious in the past about the covers. I suppose I could've been more generous. I don't actually like hardly any of the covers, technically speaking. Edmunds's cover is good. I'm proud of the George Jones record that I did with him, but I think he would be the first to say it's not his greatest performance and it's certainly not mine. But the thrill of doing it with him kind of precluded me...uh, the nervousness...
Well, the appearance on George Jones TV special was wonderful, but you had the mumps, right?
I've never seen that, 'cause I felt so awful and looked so dreadful. I probably sang better on that program than I did on the recorded session. I was more confident about singing that kind of material by then, and he put me at ease, because he'd been very generous over the making of that program. Everybody was standing miles away from me. I occasionally hear interesting versions of my songs. I only have knowledge of one mercenary cover — where I know for a fact that the producer of the record strong-armed the group into recording one of my songs. That was the Outlaws. I believe they've no interest at all in that track ("Miracle Man"), they're totally embarrassed by the fact that they were made to do it because it's so out of what they normally do. I only heard it for the first time very recently. But the rest of the versions, whether I like them or not personally, the people did them with sincerity because they liked the song. I think that's as much of a comment as I should make. If I personally have reservations about their ability to interpret the song, that's my personal feeling. Theirs is that they could, otherwise they wouldn't have attempted it. There are versions which I find quite interesting.
How about the songs that you cover? For instance, last year you were throwing in the O'Jays' "Back Stabbers" in the middle of...
"King Horse." There are songs that are like musical references because there'll be something in the songs — a riff — that suggests throwing in another song. I mean, in "Pump It Up," there's "Ain't Got A Lot Of Love|I Ain't Got A Lot Of Love," the Sam & Dave song. It also has "Tears, Tears And More Tears" by Lee Dorsey in it now, which is something that we just started to work up. And then there's always a ballad. Every year there seems to be a new ballad I really want to sing that we do on the road. Last year it was "The Bells," the Originals' Tamla-Motown song, which is a very weird song for me to sing, but I took a liking to it. And we've done Joe Tex numbers, and Joe Stampley & The Uniques numbers. Things like that. And Bobby Womack songs. You can throw them in the middle. We did a song last night, "Young Boy Blues," a Ben E. King number. I think that's quite good, 'cause if the audience is generous they're not going to be howling to hear the most obvious selections of our repertoire. They will listen to me do a Ben E. King song, whereas they probably wouldn't have to listened to Ben E. King do it.
You've covered other people's songs, Nick Lowe's "What's So Funny 'Bout Peace, Love, And Understanding," for example. What kind of feedback do you get from other people when you cover their material or borrow their styles?
I met Booker T. Jones in Atlanta this year, but he's moved onto so many other things — production and that — he hopefully looks back fondly on some of the great records he was involved with. Same with Allen Toussaint — when we worked with him last year, he looked back rather bemused by the fascination that these English guys have with these records that he made 20-odd years ago. There's a lot of that. I met the Holland Brothers in Los Angeles two years ago, and they were of the same attitude — "You know that song?" You mention some song, some obscure composition of theirs. I'm usually struck by the humility of these people. They're not overwhelmed; they often appear very surprised anybody should take an interest in stuff they did so long ago, but they don't have an overwhelming ego about the fact that somebody is doing the material.
I've met quite a few of the writers. I met Doc Pomus once, who wrote "Young Boy Blues" -- I think he wrote it. He wrote "Little Sister," which we've done in the past, and "His Latest Flame." Again, a very modest man. I've never really heard any reaction on style. I think that the country fraternity was completely bemused by our making a country record. It got no airplay by country radio, and the people that were there were very confused. Even Billy Sherrill was completely confused as to why we wanted to cover all these very old, well-worn songs. Most of the songs had been recorded at least two or three times, sometimes by the same artist. So he was rather confused.
You've worked with a lot of different artists. Just out of curiosity, isn't that you on the backing vocals of Nick Lowe's "American Squirm" from Labour Of Lust?
Absolutely, yeah. The irony of it was that, when it came out as a single in England, that was the A side, and the B side was "What's So Funny 'Bout Peace, Love, And Understanding," credited to Nick Lowe And His Sound. Everybody was completely taken in that it was Nick Lowe except for the fact that it appeared to be me singing the lead vocal. But they completely overlooked the fact that I'm all over the other side, quite prominently. Nick had me deliberately on the session to sing as much like me as possible, 'cause it was the sound of the two voices, to use certain words. I'm very recognizable singing certain words — it's just a quirk of my voice. So we used that technique, but nobody ever noticed it. We did a track together again recently — "Baby It's You," a Shirelles number...
Is there anything planned in the future with the new Difford and Tilbrook project?
We're still good friends, but we've never talked about doing anything else. At the moment, anyway. I'd always be happy to work with them if they ever needed an outside influence, other than
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