Ride

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I’ve always been very keen on collaborating with other musicians (an idea that has stayed with me ever since I heard Roy Harper sing ‘Have A Cigar’ on ‘Wish You Were Here’ by Pink Floyd) but the notion of getting someone well known in to strum a bit or do a solo just to help boost sales sticks in my throat somewhat so it’s a bit of a double edge sword.

I’d sung this on the live DVD and wasn’t really convinced I was really adding anything to it so I started to cast an eye about for singers that I knew and respected with the notion of letting them have a crack at it instead. I contacted an old mate of the band called Geoff Wootton who’d sung in Jim and Paul’s previous group Charlotte’s Web and asked him if he’d be up for giving the song a go. I think Geoff’s voice is sublime and his performance on the track is great. Couple this with Jim’s simply brilliant solo (the only part he plays on the song, which proves to me that our Mr Sanders understands the art of Less Is More), it just goes to show that good musicianship is all about picking your moment.

Simon

Bill Hicks has long been a hero of mine. I saw him on his last ever tour, and I remember thinking ‘he doesn't look well’ (he died of pancreatic cancer about a year later - but had kept it secret). He had a routine where he’d talk about life being “just a ride” and how we think that ride is real, because that’s how powerful our minds are. So that’s what the song’s about. Also contains Plato.

Robert

Just pretend it’s just a ride by
To come much closer to the truth
To tell the story – it may be a lie
Stories don’t demand a proof.

Bankers, jailers, salesmen
Try to steer you wrong
Choose your rules and freedoms
Wave your hands –
They’re gone –

We can ride,
We are carried inside
Carried along without a plan
We can ride,
We are carried inside
Carried behind a burning sun.

The things that sparkle as we ride by
The things we think we recognise
Are all just shadows
From outside this cave
Choosing to believe our eyes.

We can ride,
We are carried inside
Carried along without a plan
We can ride,
We are carried inside
Carried behind a burning sun.

Bye bye me
So long you
Change my clothes
Something new
And don’t spare the –

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