This week’s blog is going to be about “Crazy Love”. I already tell a background story on the DVD, so I won’t repeat that here. So for something different, I want to take you to the time when we cut it originally for the “Beyond The Tears” album.
I’d only played it acoustically up to then so it was wide open to any arrangement I could come up with. All the songs off that album were basically arranged on the spot (i.e.) in the studio. This one was no different. We had the added advantage of having Pat McManus in the control room of the studio with us, so while we were laying down the basic backing tracks he was already adding some overdubs on guitar. All his guitar work on that track is right off the top of his head!
We thought we were finished with it and later we brought Mark Feltham in to do some harmonica work on the songs “Rollin'” and “Arthur”. He dutifully did his thing and while we were sitting around in the studio talking afterwards the tape continued to roll. He heard the intro to “Crazy Love” and stopped talking immediately. He listened for a little bit and then said – “I could add some harp to that if you want”. Now that’s not an offer to ignore, is it? He went into the studio, the engineer rolled the tape and Mark laid down the most beautiful harp work you could ask for – all in one take! It was more than I could have asked for and a real nice addition to the track. He wrote about it in one of his blogs and here’s what he had to say;
“I was humbled recently to be asked by Barry to contribute to what turned out to be a cracking record in the making. One of the songs was a kind of Celtic boogie (Rollin’), the second a fabulous acoustic Irish self-penned instrumental (Arthur) and the last a great Dylanesque type song (Crazy Love). I love the fact that I am lucky enough to get the opportunity to play on other people’s records, as I honestly enjoy the buzz, and this one was no exception”
Mark Feltham (ex-Rory Gallagher Band)
Like I said earlier, I started off playing “Crazy Love” acoustically so it was nice to play it that way again with Ralph & Bas. I think this stripped-down version helps to keep it delicate and in my opinion it is a very beautiful song with beautiful lyrics, so why not give both the room to breathe. I hope you’ll enjoy this version from the Troubadour DVD. You can view the video here
I’ll talk to you next week when I’ll be writing about the next song on the DVD – Fine, Fine, Fine!