“Whenever I think I know you better
Better than I know myself
Ooh, I open up and give you everything
Then you say, “Okay, what else?”
And when I run away, you always cry
You always overreact
But I don’t know if you know how you really feel
But you better know before I get back…”

© Collins/Stuermer, from the album “No Jacket Required”, 1985

Well, this one just walked in pretty much fully formed and was gestated from some spare lines that I figured that I wanted to use that had managed to avoid the sift so far. There were a few things that prompted it really, some of it from seeing a couple of very old (well, nearly 40 years old now) videos on YouTube, one of them being REM’s Everybody Hurts, with some of the lines being inspired by some of the subtitles in the video. It is one of the most devastating videos I’ve ever seen and one of only three that I have ever seen where I have got what the video director was trying to say immediately. The main other one being Alanis Morissette‘s ThankU, but there are others.

Anyway. Before I start diversifying too much, this one has kinda crept in quite late and so long as the music manages to meet the spec, should be able to see its way on to Time Demands, probably smack bang in the middle of the listing. I have been giving some thought to how the album should run, but I’ll come to that in future updates.

The subject matter is one that was prompted by a line in a song now that I cant even remember – where the premis is that a writer’s songs are full of pointers and what are effectively open secrets about the person that they’re written about. I mean, Patti Boyd can write an encyclopaedia on the ones that have been written about her by Eric Clapton, Wayne Hussey has had a few as well from Children and Gods Own Medicine that were about the same particular muse, the mother of his daughter… Jimmy Webb most famously did, most eloquently and uniquely with McArthur Park as well… and where Steve Hogarth is concerned, fuggedaboutit….. Neverland, Somewhere Else, Games In Germany… his muses whether they be women that he has been close to, like his first wife or a good friend of his from his childhood in Doncaster who joined the army, are never far from the surface.

And I guess as well, going back over the three albums I’ve been writing, I’ve not hidden where the muses have inspired me either. And I guess, this song is a way of saying, if you hear this song and listen to it carefully, you’ll recognise bits of us in it, secrets that only you and I will be aware of. Everyone else will sing along but will be completely oblivious… The first verse referring to close time together where a couple will recognise intimate moments by a seashore and the second verse descends to tongue in cheek wordplay, where it refers to a suitcase full of the wrong clothes and straws to break a camels back, because its the only thing he knows how to do, is to push her to her limits.

There are some slightly odd lines in there. No more arguing in the house of God, funnily enough came from a Steve Hogarth Christmas gig in Oxford in 2021 when he had to tell someone to wind her neck in as she was prattling away when he was trying to speak to the audience, which I know he tries not to do…Tell the shivers to subside was heard in a film, dont ask me which one though, but I thought that is brilliant, I’m having that... stream the songs of the angels through the blandness… well, that one is pretty self explanatory really. Given how much bland noise there is these days out there on the likes of Spotify and others, when we hear what are the sounds of angels, or great songs that we love like diamonds amongst the coal, we should sing them louder to make sure everyone hears them.

Music-wise, all up in the air at the moment, although something is telling me Tears For Fears “Seeds Of Love” era… trying to have polished high production values, but its almost like there is bits of Neil Finn-isms in there as well, like Locked Out from Together Alone. I guess if I can pitch a metaphorical lyrical tent somewhere between Neil Finn and Roland Orzabal, I should be happy.

Lets see how it turns out… I’m in the process of building all the songs at the moment and it is likely to take some time to bring these things into a recognisable state but things are quite promising at present…

Only You And I Know…

Verse 1
My songs all contain secrets about you In every line,
the look in your eye or the warmth of your hand
The sea between your toes, barefoot in the sand
 
Chorus
And only you and I know, the truth in the songs and the lines
A seed of love sown with tears, flowers in the spring with joy
And only you and I know, You’ll hear your name in this song all the time
Only you and I know what it is all about, theres no reason for us to be so coy
 
Verse 2
My heart’s been dragged around like a suitcase
Filled with all the wrong clothes
Its full of the straws to break your camel’s back
In the only way that I know (and how..)…
 
Chorus
And only you and I know, the truth in the songs and the lines
A seed of love sown with tears, flowers in the spring with joy
And only you and I know, You’ll hear your name in this song all the time
Only you and I know what it is all about, theres no reason for us to be so coy
 
Middle 8:
No more arguing in the house of god,
No more seeking the truth in wine
An unfinished jigsaw on the kitchen table
Shouldnt be the story of our lives
Tell those shivers to subside,
Scream out loud to be let in from the cold
Stream the songs of angels through the sea of the blandness
Did we really say goodbye thinking we’d never get old?
Chorus x 2 to fade

© Music and Lyrics, Steve McCarthy-Hunt 2025