T-Shirt

She wants me to throw out my favourite T-shirt
‘How many favourite T-shirts can one man have?’
I said, ‘That’s like asking me to lose my memory’
She just looks at me like I’m an alien

Ferguson/Shillabeer

That’s the first bit of the song T-Shirt that I wrote with Grant Shillabeer back when we were performing as Sideways Glance. It’s one of the first songs we wrote together and one of the few from that era I still really like. I recently dusted it off and wrote out a chart in a (lower) key so Kym could have a bash and it remains a great, 3-minute pop tune*.  This originated in 2000 when — much to the surprise of a few people who had stocked up on baked beans and ammunition — the world hadn’t ended.

Rumours that the second line is a direct quote from Andrea, my wonderful, long-suffering wife, have some basis in truth. Rather a lot of basis, actually, since it is completely true. And the answer to her question, of course, is ‘Lots’. Surely I am not alone in understanding this?

This is the first in a series of posts that will meander around the creation of some of my songs without shedding any real light on them. Not through a desire to be clever and mysterious; merely a lack of anything particularly intelligent to say. I’ll eventually get around to creating a lyric archive up here too.

I still have the shirt. The concert was only … um … 22 years ago.

*I can’t believe we used to do this in A; I can’t reach half the melody notes and I’m pretty sure I’m singing higher these days.