Once I Loved The Torn Ocean's Roar - 80s/90s demos Vol. 2
This album is at Bandcamp and itunes now. Demo versions of songs recorded to four track cassette in the late 80s to early 90s. Mostly acoustic guitar and vocals.
Once I Loved the Torn Ocean’s Roar is a collection of demo recordings from 1987 to the early 90s. We came out of the underworld in 1993 with Night Of The Wolverine and I went on a tv show and in response to a question about what I was to do next boasted that I didn’t need to write any more songs and that I had a drawer full of them. It was true! I had stuff to burn for a decade.
These songs are raw and rough. Mostly the first time I’d ever sung any of them. I never wanted to be a guitar playing songwriter. I wanted to stand there with a band and sing.
I was impatient for shit to happen. I needed someone to find me. We made the White Buffaloes album in Melbourne, while saving up all the songs we'd gotten together with our original, London based Coral Snakes in 87/88. We eventually got it together to make this album, which then took two years to come out. I kept writing stuff and tinkering.
The title of the collection comes from a line in Byrons “Childe Harolds Pilgrimage". I read a lot of Byron in 1991. I loved it.
2015 has been a very retrospective year. Shows with the Coral Snakes around Australia, The idea to release these demos came when I uncovered them while looking for some tracks for a CREATION records collection that was going to include some Moodists songs. I found these songs I’d written and recorded just after that time. It seemed to tell an interesting story.
photo taken by Kristyn Jones in Mt Gambier 2011
Once I Loved the Torn Ocean’s Roar’
TRACK BY TRACK
1 We're Here to Go (90s demo)
A song that was eventually recorded and released in 1994. Title taken from a quote from the BEAT writer Brion Gysin “ what are we here for? We are here to go!”
2 I'm Gonna Release Your Soul (90s demo)
Acoustic guitar and vocal demo for a song that was eventually released in 1994. The chords were really meant for an Al Green type of groove. The lyric was inspired by a line from an old cowboy song called “Wild Bill Jones”. It said “I pulled the trigger of my gun and I released Wild Bills soul…”
3 A New Life in a New Town (87 demo)
After the Moodists finished in late ’86 or early ’87 I started to breathe in a lot more music and demoed some songs with a friend in London. Playing acoustic guitar which I had bought from Robert Forster for 20 quid and enjoying the freedom of life outside a band.
4 I Want You Back (90s demo)
The chords of this eventually ended up in a song called “Villainy” which was released in 1999.
5 You Wanna Be Loved (90s demo)
Acoustic guitar and vocal, recorded and released with the Coral Snakes later in 1994. My songs were always pretty complete, I had a lot of ideas banked up.
6 I'm Not Afraid to Be Heavy (90s demo)
Major sevenths to the fore! Later recorded in 1995 for the Soft ’n’ Sexy Sound.
7 You Ain't No Country Song (90s demo)
Re-recorded and released as more of a duet with Clare Moore as an extra track on a single in 1995.
8 Dandies Are Never Unbuttoned (90s demo)
The original conception of the song that appeared on The Soft ’n’ Sexy Sound in 1995. Not much changed.
9 You Wanna Be There but You don’t wanna travel (90s demo)
A very early demo – guitar and vocal sung to a cassette player.
10 Deep Inside a Song (90s demo)
This was demoed a couple of times and later appeared on The Soft ’n’ Sexy Sound in 1995.
11 The Dolphins (87 demo)
After the Moodists finished I sat around and took in a lot of music. Fred Neil and his electric, East Coast, folk rock sound gave me some sparks of direction. Seemed more abstract, urban and blue collar than the West Coast James Taylor style.
12 The Birds and the Goats (90s demo)
The demo of song that later appeared on The Soft ’n’ Sexy Sound in 1995. Not much changed, down to the low note at the beginning. I was thinking of the bent note at the start of the “Happy Trails” album by The Quicksilver Messenger Service.
13 The Pre Revolutionary Scene (90s demo)
Demo of the song that appeared on The Soft ’n’ Sexy Sound in 1995. Seventh chords and a lyric about working people in jobs that paid the bills but not the spirit.
14 The Extraordinary (90s demo)
Unreleased. An instrumental, just starting to bust out of the major seventh chords into sixths and 9ths and flat 5s. There was a dopey “Ripleys or Not” style show on tv at the time called THE EXTRAORDINARY!.
15 World Full of Daughters (87 demo)
This was recorded and reappeared on the first recordings with the Coral Snakes on Fire Records in the UK in 1988. Very JG Ballard influenced. I loved minor seventh chords for their shimmering open qualities.
16 Daddy Was a Clown (90s demo)
Demo song for a female singer. I saw my future as a songwriter more than a performer. #### Only on the itunes version.
17 It's Between Times (87 demo)
The first demo of this song. On a four track tape machine in London in 1987, could have been earlier. Mark Fitzgibbon helped, I’m sure but there’s not much keyboards going on. The lyric was an attempt to put James M Cains “the Postman Always Rings Twice” into a song.
