The X Album Notebooks

Compiled from original posts July 6th - September 30th 2021 with additional comments and editing March 5th 2024

• In Constant Flight

• Songs Ideas August And September 1988

• I Confess

• The English Weather

• Notes For Leaving London

• Carnet 1988, Microphones

• Shelly I Do

• Quine + 2

• Sweetheart

• 4th Time Down Riff Chart

• A Long Way Down

• Notebooks Missing!

• I Know You Too Well

• Ice Cream Girl

• To The Church

• Don’t Look Back

• $150, Maybe Not

• Downtown

• Undressed

• Mercy Killing

• Holier Than Thou

• Akai 1212 Track Sheets And Notes

• The L Word

• Mannish Girl

• Blame Mary Jane

• No Blue Skies

• X Album Recording Schedule Notes

• X Album Track Check Lists, Guild Songbird

• Album Running Order, B-Sides

• Album Credits

• 1990 Set List Notes

• When I was 28, It Was A Very Good Year

In Constant Flight

Or so it seems, now, looking back. So, maybe I shouldn’t be surprised that I lost a few notebooks along the way. It’s funny how easily chaos can be managed when you have a little money, and people are invested in you not fucking up completely.

It was never the plan to stay in NYC. In fact my accountant said I shouldn’t. Management were initially excited about the move until they realised that much of the attraction of NYC was that it was NOT The UK, and my embracing of New York Culture didn’t exactly time well with Madchester, Screamadelica, etc. But I loved it, and once I’d met Fred, Quine and then my wife to be, I knew that it was the right place for me, at that point in my life, anyway.

This project feels very different to the preceding ones. And it’s as much a series of snapshots of that life as it is an album case study. With that in mind I’ve added my 1989 diary, as an addendum to an already long list of chapters.

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Songs Ideas August And September 1988

August 19th, 2021

I'm always keeping notes of what I've got for each project, even today...

These two lists, I think, show the songs I was working on before and after leaving for New York.

Drive On, Or Driving Song, became 4th Time Down.
Skye One (Blair's working title is my guess, maybe also called Blair's REM by me?) became Ice Cream Girl.
Yet another attempt to write a song called Right Track... not sure what happened to that.
Euro Blair became I Confess.
Blair Happy Pop became The English Weather.
I'm guessing E9 theme is the beginning of Holier Than Thou.
And maybe my earliest try to write a song with Arlene in it... I tried again around The Negatives.

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I Confess

July 6th, 2021

The first writing I did, post Commotions, was with Blair. The songs weren't intended for me to record, but I did end up singing on demos, in Glasgow, and we did rework the Shelly I Do recording for what became The X Album, it was ultimately released as a b-side.

These notes are from two notebooks, which seem most likely to have been filled concurrently. The first image is from book A, the rest from book B. The second image is dated 23/12/87. The Commotions were on Christmas break from touring, but we were still 'together' (we knew it would be our last tour). I guess I was already moving on. I'm happy to see evidence that I did something more than just drink away those final months.

Note the 6th image - I had already begun thinking about Sweetheart, it seems...