As I dust off the old studio equipment to begin recording new works, it stands to reason I'd come across old scribbled notes in amongst the technical plots, charts and templates. Like cookie crumbs leading me back through a forgotten trail, I can't help but walk back down the path in wonder.
Coming across old hand-written lyric sheets, particularly for songs I've long ago released, is exactly what happened to me tonight. The songs have been played a thousand times; whether in the studio, during practise, or live on stage. So when snippets that fell on the editing floor resurface, they can really send my mind reeling.
These are from "Better Learn to Climb" and would have been the second verse and a bridge landing right where the solo now is:
"Years go by but the words hold true
Cross a dope and a slope, make a fool outa you.
Jack & Jill rambled up that hill
With an itty-bitty bucket they just had to fill.
(The grand ol' Duke had you play his game...
...if you were one of his men he'd likely drive you insane!)
And there's only three things
can bring this rock to its knees...
An earth quake, a volcano,
or a bull-headed youthful dream."
And, of course, all these years later I wonder if I could fit them back in. ;)