Restless Natives - Released April 1986; B-side of Look Away
That was brilliant. I'd like to do more soundtracks, but we're not hip enough to get offered film stuff now Restless Natives is a great story about two guys living in Edinburgh who start robbing American tourist buses in the Highlands to make some money. And by a twist they end up giving a lot of this money away and end up becoming latter-day Robin Hood figures.
The Teacher - Released July 1986
This was like The Shadows meets The Velvet Underground! I don't know where the song came from. I just wanted to write a weird song about a guy who sat up all night stoned, thinking he had a great idea when he actually didn't. [Way to let me down, Stu! - AOU ED]
One Great Thing - Released August 1986
Tony and myself had a whole load of folky licks which we were almost scared to use because people would say, Och, that's the same old Big Country. Then we just said, Sod it, it's no less valid just because it comes naturally to us. With One Great Thing I cast aside my inhibitions about my folk roots. I dinnae think growing up in Scotland being exposed to and influenced by the ethnic music of Scotland is any less valid than some black guy living in detroit. It's what i am. I just wanted to write loud folk songs that give people a shiver up the back. I canna play One Great Thing anymore cos it was used in an advert and it just makes me laugh now Some people are a bit precious about rock music being in adverts - come off it, most bands are signed to multinational companies.
King Of Emotion - Released August 1988
I grew up playing R&B music and hadn't played any for ages, so with King Of Emotion we just cranked out a Stones riff and gave it some, y'know? The whole of the Peace In Our Time album had a different sound. We tried to emphasise the songs rather than just have the instruments blaring. In the end we actually robbed the band away too much. Of all our four albums, that's the one I'd change most.
Broken Heart - Released November 1988
I think it's the best song I've ever written. it works great on acoustic or electric. When you go back to your work and do things like that and Peace In Our Time (the song) acoustically, you can see what's at the heart of those songs. i like that emotive quality when songs are played like that. Thirteen Valleys is the one that got away, totally. I'll play that song, always. I'd put it up against any song.
Peace In Our Time - released January 1989
I think we caught a mood when we went to Russia. If only we in the West could become as free as they are! Maybe that trip was one of the Great Rock Disasters Of All Time, but you have to try things in the spirit of The Grand Rock Gesture, y'know? I do feel music can be more than a three-minute adrenaline rush, but there's a great danger in viewing a song with too much weight. Peace In Our Time was written with irony, but you can be too smart-assed for your own good. People like to put rock music in a big perspective, especially after Live Aid. Peace In Our Time was called a plea for peace when it was really much smaller than that.
Save Me - Released April 1990
Save Me is a more blues-based thing. Last year I played a lotta songs with a few mates from Dunfermline. It was stuff l hadn't played since I was 15 years old, and Save Me sorta grew out of that. I wanted the lyrics to have this quasi-religious gospel feel. And I like the loud guitars. All I ever wanted to be was a loud guitar player...
