Text straight from my YouTube video…
Made this wee video in January (nearly 10 months ago) to show friends on Facebook and hadn’t intended it for public consumption when it took me two days to pluck up the courage even to post it there, but took another listen the other night and thought ‘why not?’
Sometimes I write songs, though not for me because I’m not a singer! This (tiny as it is) is probably my favourite, written for a Kinlochleven High School mini-production of ‘Kidnapped’ in November 2007 and sung by two offstage girl singers as a kind of Greek chorus at the point at which a sick David and Alan quarrel and make up. The cue lines from the book are:
“Alan,” cried I, “what makes ye so good to me? What makes ye care for such a thankless fellow?” “Deed, and I don’t know,” said Alan. “For just precisely what I thought I liked about ye, was that ye never quarrelled:— and now I like ye better!”
Afraid you have to make do with my voice here because no-one else has sung it for years, but I still liked it well enough to try it myself. The balance could be better when it’s just straight-from-camera on a tripod at the end of the piano, but I was actually playing much quieter than it sounds and at least you can still hear the voice!
Lyrics (also by me):
Angry words may cut you deep
And quarrels make you cry,
But though true friends can make you weep
They’ll still be standing by.
Bitter though your mood may be
At times of needless strife,
Your friends in need are friends indeed
And surely friends for life,
And surely friends for life.