thinking about the swans

Wide Wednesday / Wild Wednesday: ... thinking about the swans

"Thinkin' 'bout the times you drove in my car.
Thinkin' that I might have drove you too far.
And I'm thinkin' 'bout the love that you laid on my table.


I told you not to wander 'round in the dark.
I told you 'bout the swans, that they live in the park.
Then I told you 'bout our kid, now he's married to Mabel.


Yes, I told you that the light goes up and down.
Don't you notice how the wheel goes 'round?
And you better pick yourself up from the ground
Before they bring the curtain down,
Yes, before they bring the curtain down.


Talkin' 'bout a girl that looks quite like you.
She didn't have the time to wait in the queue.
She cried away her life since she fell off the cradle."


Badge ~ George Harrison/Eric Clapton


I've always liked this track since learning to play and jam it with a group of friends many years ago - it brings back such good memories of those days.  I've never been too sure what on earth the lyrics are supposed to be about but they somehow work in the context of the music, so let's not be too picky of rhyming table with Mable etc! This song was written by George Harrison and Eric Clapton in the late 1960s when they were (I beleive) best friends.

Given that this was the late 60s, and given what we know about Eric,  Harrison and Clapton were unlikely to have been that sober/straight when they wrote this piece, which may explain the lyrics.  

The song originally had no title.  In one story Clapton misread Harrison's handwriting thinking the word "Bridge" was "Badge" which he took to be the name of the song.  The other story suggests that the name comes from the chord structure B,A,D,G,E - but that seems unlikely as those chords never appear in that order in the song.  

Harrison was in the Beatles and Clapton in Cream at this point.  As they were both on different record labels etc there were contractual difficulties in their writing and playing together. So George is not directly credited for the song, instead the co-writer is one "L'Angelo Misterioso".

Not too long after this Eric would find himself besotted with George's wife Patti and that famous song of unrequited love "Layla" would be the result.  Eventually she and George went their separate ways, and some years later in the late 70's, she and Eric married.  Sadly it was not to be forever: drugs, alcohol and infidelity all had a part to play in the estrangement of Eric from his Muse.  But somehow, despite Patti having come between them, Eric and George still managed to remain friends

There is an absolutely cracking version of this song by one of my favourite guitarists Robben Ford, so that's the version that I've linked for you above.  If you've not heard Robben before and you are at all interested in guitar its worth a listen - his playing is sublimely tasteful, but so hard to get anywhere close to.

Its been a healthy day today - January and the traditional post Christmas health kick is under way.  The lurgy that ruined Christmas has relented and I've felt fit enough today both to go back to doing some exercise and taking a walk around the docks here in Bristol during my lunchtime. So all in all not a bad day at all, despite it being a work day.

I took a range of shots but have chosen this one, as it gives me both a Wide Wednesday entry and a Wild Wednesday entry - how about that?  Two for the price of one :-)