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Right, well, my last few posts have been very dark and serious so I thought it was time for some levity.
"Central Line" is not my song. It belongs to London-based beat poet duo Project Adorno, whose music, papier mache minotaur, lyrics and outlook on the world I love immensely. It was written for their A-Z of the London Underground show, which involved them doing an alphabetical tour of 26 tube locations in the course of a weekend and writing a song about each place. "Central Line" is the song that goes with Oxford Circus tube station.
Very big thanks to Praveen (the song's author) for permission to post it.
This is my first foray into 80s retro-electropop (though I grew up in that era so I feel at home with it). I've never even sung over a backing like this before, so I put together the music bed without having any idea whether I'd be able to pull off the vocal or not. Double tracking did the trick. The rest is lightly tweaked GarageBand synths.
"Central Line" is not my song. It belongs to London-based beat poet duo Project Adorno, whose music, papier mache minotaur, lyrics and outlook on the world I love immensely. It was written for their A-Z of the London Underground show, which involved them doing an alphabetical tour of 26 tube locations in the course of a weekend and writing a song about each place. "Central Line" is the song that goes with Oxford Circus tube station.
Very big thanks to Praveen (the song's author) for permission to post it.
This is my first foray into 80s retro-electropop (though I grew up in that era so I feel at home with it). I've never even sung over a backing like this before, so I put together the music bed without having any idea whether I'd be able to pull off the vocal or not. Double tracking did the trick. The rest is lightly tweaked GarageBand synths.
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Lyrics
Central Line
Words and music © Praveen Manghani
Central Line
Everybody loves the Central
We know why
It'll get you east to west
The quickest and the reddest
It's the Central Line
No potential deviation
It's flat and horizontal
The line of least resistance
A crime to call it crimson 'cause it isn't
It's the Central Line
Goes from Epping to West Ruislip
Hear it's nice there
It used to be much longer
It used to go to Ongar
It's the Central Line
London's very own equator
But it's not that straight
It's got the sharpest curve along it between
Shepherd's Bush and White City
It's the Central Line
49 different stations
Stationed on it
And as for Oxford Circus
The busiest station on the network, maybe on earth
Words and music © Praveen Manghani
Central Line
Everybody loves the Central
We know why
It'll get you east to west
The quickest and the reddest
It's the Central Line
No potential deviation
It's flat and horizontal
The line of least resistance
A crime to call it crimson 'cause it isn't
It's the Central Line
Goes from Epping to West Ruislip
Hear it's nice there
It used to be much longer
It used to go to Ongar
It's the Central Line
London's very own equator
But it's not that straight
It's got the sharpest curve along it between
Shepherd's Bush and White City
It's the Central Line
49 different stations
Stationed on it
And as for Oxford Circus
The busiest station on the network, maybe on earth
Peter Bauckham
It's so unusual hearing your voice against a synth/pop backdrop - but you've really done yourself proud. It's a cross between Yazoo and Black Box Recorder/Sarah Nixey. Great recording too - very clean and clear.
Peter