'Bombshell' is a song that I wrote and recorded back when I was just twenty one. It's just a cheap electric guitar and my voice recorded in the height of summer under my doona in an attempt to sound proof the space. I added lots of reverb and the sound of city traffic to make it sound like it was recorded outside a New York City subway. It's got about 4 x key changes and 40 x different jazz chords. I could never play it live as I could never remember that many changes. Anyway, its slow, soulful and languid and I think Sade would do far more justice to it than I do :)

Bombshell
Words & Music by:
Adrian Elton © Feb 1992

Intro

Verse 01

You dropped a bombshell
I've been sunken, I've been hit!
I thought that I'd find safety in your shores
But I was dumped by the waves long before
I could tell you
I'd drown with beamin'   smile
If you'd hold me close
For a little while

Verse 02 

Thanks for the presents
Though all I want is you
The hat and the bag were really swell
But they serve to remind me
That you've broken the spell
That held me
Captive unto its will
Will someone speak
This night's too still
Too still for me

Chorus 01

And I'd dance, in the street
I'd shout your name
To the clouds of rain
I'd do anything
I mean I'd even cut my hair
And I'd run, through the wind
And shout so loud
That the raining clouds
Would do anything
To strike me down in flames

Verse 03

Time has gone by now
And still you make me cry
It's not that I haven't found another girl
It's just that she don't do none
To soothe my soul
The way, that you calmed my raging sea
But now the storm's returned
Yeah! It's come back to me

Verse 04

Sometimes I panic
When there's nothing else to do
I lie in my bed
I stay in my home
And though the walls are just plaster
They still feel like stone
Crashing down on my empty heart
Now it's full again
With these ruins of art

Chorus 02
 
And I'd dance in the street
And though my feet are bare
I couldn't really care
Find me some broken glass
And I'll crush it into wine
Yeah I'd run like a bird
Whose wings are tied by a single word
I'd do anything
To fly with you again

Finale

But I can handle this
Yeah! I can handle this
I don't need you around
'Cause I like myself
More than you ever could  
More than anyone else
I'm gonna bury myself 
In a hole in the ground
And play with the earthworms
All the ones that I've found
And I'll learn to adapt
To a life in the dark
'Cause if you can't see
You can't crave the spark
And I can handle this
Yeah I can handle this
No I can't handle this
Can't handle my love…

Bombshell by Adrian Elton

Just remixed this little track of heartbreak that I wrote when I was 18. It's called, 'Things Could Be Worse', and it was surprisingly jazzy given that I hadn't had a solitary jazz lesson at that point. It was recorded on my Tascam 4 track tape recorder in 1991 and featured me singing and playing piano together with a brilliant Israeli trombonist called Danny who I met on AUJS summer camp. I have no idea what his surname was, but he really brought a melancholic quality that captured the mood of the song so perfectly. I wrote the song standing in the rain outside of 7-Eleven on Waverly Rd :P

Things Could Be Worse By Adrian Elton

This is a song I wrote back on 28 April 2007 following a break up at a time when I was filled with existential dread of being alone once again. Thus the tragic spectre of a fully grown adult dreading the prospect of becoming an orphan.

The song pretty much wrote itself and ended up having quite an early Elvis lilt to it. It wasn't intentional - but really seemed to reveal itself when I recorded it and the arrangement found it's feet. I played/produced everything - and to that extent it is in many respects still a demo. Certainly the lead vocal is rough as guts.

After seeing (and being wowed by) Baz Luhrmann's 'Elvis' last night I thought I'd give it a bit of a remix and upload it.

Funnyish story. After I wrote it, I got the idea that Nick Cave would do a pretty good version of it - not that he exactly needs help in the song-writing department. Long story short; With an even rougher demo version of it, I popped a CD with cover letter and lyrics into the most expensive looking registered post-pack that I could find. He was playing at The Forum in Melbourne that night, so I went during the day, and holding a very official looking parcel was able to walk purposefully up onto the stage, leaving the envelope on his piano stool. Very bolshy of me. Sadly I never heard back from him despite my very articulate and charming cover letter. 

Here are the lyrics, which are some of the best I think I've ever written >

Orphan
Words & Music by Adrian Elton
28 April 2007

Intro

Verse 01

My twenties came and went
And every dime was spent
And when I look back on my life
Well all I got’s regrets

Chorus

Oh, please don’t leave me
You’re all that I got left
Ma and Pa are growin’ old
And I don’t want to be an orphan yet

Verse 02		

My thirties were a blur
Like broken furniture
Like broken rhymes, a million times
Lie torn up on the floor

Chorus 

Verse 03		

My forties drawing near
And my stumblin’ career
Leaves me feeling shame faced
As I drown myself in beer

Chorus

Solo

Chorus

Verse 04

My fifties lie ahead
By then will I be wed
You can lead a horse to water
But that horse gots to be fed

Chorus

Fade

Orphan By Adrian Elton

Okay

YOUTUBE TUNDRA
https://youtu.be/pdzcNPb83tM

The Tundra (full version)

PeopleMover (Remaster)

All the way back in 2012 my childhood home was demolished.

Being hopelessly sentimental this was a considerably traumatic experience. Not only had I lived in this triple-fronted brick veneer since I was four, but I had also lived there for the three and a half years prior to the demolition with my now wife, Rachel.

That being the case there was the full gamut of associations that tied me to this place, both ancient and new. And even though in the hard light of day, it the house was well past its prime, it held all of the joys and secrets of some of my earliest memories, right through to teenage fumblings with the girl next door, and beyond.

I wrote this song, as a form of cheap therapy, while sitting in my childhood bedroom, contemplating the fate of this much loved refuge, which like a sinking ship, was taking on water fast.

It's called "Sweet El Camino" as it was located in a street that is called Camino Terrace.

The "El Camino" part was a passing reference to the iconic Black Keys album of that same name.

The track artwork features a photo I took, of a sea captain’s hat, resting on a brick pier at the front of the property. Meanwhile in the background an out of focus crane like creature is reducing my childhood home into a disfigured pile of rubble.

Though it's not been edited yet, I had the entire demolition process filmed by my film making buddy, John Leonard. In addition to some incredible footage, there were also time lapse cameras too which make for fascinating visual sequences.

This recording was made as a rough demo at the time, but in order to submit it to my monthly 'Song Club' (whose theme for May 2024 is 'nautical') I figured I should finally finish it.

This has involved a lot of overdubs and intensive mixing which has taken place over the last few weeks so as to get it to this 'finished' point. It's certainly finished enough to now shift my focus to cutting the film clip.

Ultimately I'd like to have one of my talented drummer collaborators to provide some live drums too. But one step down the briney plank at a time :)

SWEET EL CAMINO 
Words & Music by: Adrian Elton
Copyright © 22 Febraury 2012

Intro
 
Verse 01 

Staunch like a captain
Whose ship’s going down
It’s the final horizon
Before she must drown

Chorus 01

And I wanna thank ya
For being my anchor
For being my heart and my home
With sacred devotion
We’ve sailed through life’s ocean
And weathered the storms it has thrown

Verse 02

My Sweet El Camino
So humble and true
Built like a galleon
From paper and glue

Chorus 02

And I wanna thank ya
For being my anchor
For being my heart and my soul
Yeah since I was just four
I have stood at your door
While we watched history unfold

Bridge

But it’s time
To say goodbye
To the ghosts of drunken sailors
Yeah it’s time
To let it go
‘Cause this ship has got no saviour
And it’s time
Yeah it’s time

Verse 03

The sun sets in the west
Day after day
And for our sins the world spins
While we fade to grey

Chorus 03

And I wanna thank ya
For being my anchor
For being my fortress of stone
From these grey waves
To your watery grave
I salute the love you have shown

Outro

Coda

Sweet El Camino

Amazing

With my dear brother Wayne Brown in the studio early '90s - on a break while recording the Earth Wind & Fire horn section. Great times!

Amazing

Funkuncle

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