Demo of Crystal Heart. Written at the UK Songwriting Festival this year. An exercise in economy. 29 words, 3 chords, under 3 minutes, only the first 5 notes of the major scale... oh yeah and the TRUTH.

Recorded in a shed in the garden at Cherrygrove. Can you hear the grasshopper?

Crystal Heart (Live from a Shed)

For the 100% Real Bothy project. Re-recording of Glenrothes. Better key. Change of melody. Change of last line. See description of Glenrothes V3. 

Glenrothes V4

There are many references to the brutality of the Lochgelly Belt in the Real Bothy... and the display model which is about four feet long.

This is sung from the point of view of a sadistic teacher and incorporates a couple of stories told to me by teachers.

The Lochgelly Belt

During a boxing match in Las Vegas Gabriel Ruelas killed Jimmy Garcia. At a press conference a week before the fight Ruelas had, "Promised to make someone pay." Later that same day he had a premonition that something would go terribly wrong during the fight.

After Garcia's death Ruelas swore that each time he stepped into the ring he saw the ghost of Jimmy Garcia staring back at him.

07 Sweet Science

RIP Guy Clark. Here's my version his song 'Dublin Bay Blues'. I first heard him singing it with Karen Matheson on the Transatlantic Sessions. I sing this song all the time, never at shows, but late at night at parties when I'm pissed. I even got to sing it with Karen Matheson once after a Caperceillie show in Aviemore.

When my folks went to Austin the first time they went into a chilli parlour bar and ordered two Mad Dog margaritas. The waitress looked shocked and asked them to leave. Once they explained that they'd heard about it from the Guy Clark song the waitress explained that they'd had to stop selling the drink as people who drank it usually finished their evening by smashing all the furniture. It's Tequila flavoured with Mad Dog 20/20... proper wreck the hoose juice.

It's supposed to be 'smoking cigarettes' but I like to sing 'rolling cigarettes' because I like to roll my own.

I haven't been to Fort Worth but have been to Maine and I have been to proud to come in out of the rain. I have't seen the David although I saw a really good copy of one in Florence. I've been to the loo in the Lourve but I haven't seen Mona Lisa. I did hear Doc Watson sing Columbia Stockade Blues and Deep River Blues at Phillidelpia Folk Festival a few years ago... and I shook his hand.

Dublin Bay Blues by Guy Clark

Wire Burners 					Findlay Napier & Boo Hewerdine

It’s a regular nine to five
It’s the way that we survive
The only way to stay alive
Wire burners

You might see us on the street
But our eyes will never meet
You will never see us greet
Wire burners

How I came to be this way
I couldn’t care, all I can say
Tomorrow will be like today
And everyday

Followed a rainbow over the Clyde
To the fireplace on the other side
In plain sight is where we hide
Wire burners

Pushing trolleys through the town
With the scrap that we have found
Daylight ghosts that walk around
Wire burners

And I know this much is true
For wire burners old is new
But for the grace of God we’re you

Inspired by a YouTube film called ‘The Wire Burners’ about homeless people in Glasgow who collect and sell scrap metal from building sites.

Glasgow

Wire Burners

There’s More to Building Ships 		Findlay Napier

There’s more to building ships than smashing champagne off the stern
Than royals and the crowds and the blaring of the horn
There’s someone counting pennies and there’s someone needs new shoes
And there’s someone up the pawn-shop buying back their weekend suit

There’s more to building ships than nostalgia, ache and pride
Of watching hulks slide down the dock and turn into the Clyde
There’s ten guys in the hospital, four men in the ground
And everyone worked there breathed that dust into their lungs
And everyone worked there breathed that dust into their lungs


There’s more to building ships than shaping steel into a hull
There’s labourers and managers, flying flags and fighting wars
From the draughtsman in the office to the man who welds the plate
Everyone among them should get fair and equal pay

It’s more than building ships it’s their every working day
They stand there on the dockside and they watch them sail away
There’s someone in the government who wants to make their name
They scupper it and cut it, and the unions take the blame
They scupper it and cut it, and the unions take the blame

They watch them sail away.

From a conversation about reopening Scotland’s shipyards with my Dad. He was a marine engineer and occasional builder of ships. It became clear to me that without a long plan, agreed on by all political parties, we’ll never see industry like that in Glasgow again.

There's More to Building Ships

The Locarno, Sauchiehall St 1928

The Locarno, Sauchiehall Street 1928 	Findlay Napier & Boo Hewerdine

Alex and Cecilia won in 1928
They were the perfect couple in the hall
When the music played it’s like their souls took wing
I could have sworn they floated six feet above us all
I’d do anything if I could win
But I am stuck with you

Locarno, Locarno
Where people come to dance
To get lost and to be found

I chose you for your childlike face, your red and rosy cheeks
Now you look like a butcher who’s been at all the beef
I don’t know why I bother, I thought it would be fun
But you only keep time when you beat the Pope off your bass drum
I’d do anything, to dance with him
But I am stuck with you

Locarno, Locarno
Where people come to dance
To get lost and to be found
Locarno Locarno
There’s only so much love to go around

I know they’re not married, if her husband only knew
I caught them in the cloakroom doing what young lovers do
But there’s no place for jealousy, when you’re dancing for a prize
How can they help falling into each other’s eyes
I’d do anything, to go home with him
But I am stuck with you

The Locarno on Sauchiehall Street was host to the first Scottish Professional Dancing Championships in 1928. The winners were Alex Warren and Cecilia Bristow.

The Blue Lagoon

St Anthony's Digging a Hole

Marchtown 					Emma Pollock

Let’s walk down to Marchtown
Before it became home
To the soil not yet built on
And the factory gates
To the Lands of Westfield while they sit and they wait
For the breaking of new ground

No squalor in Marchtown
Where the sinners repented
To the station dismantled
Through the gate we reclaimed
From the bushes and trees on which we carved our names
With all limbs entangled

She lost the fight in spite of crossing palms with silver
And neither sister nor the bell and fish would save her
In defence of adulterous Queens
It’s goodbye to Marchtown

What have they done Marchtown?
They’ve crowded and cut you up
Pushing in the people till the sirens ring
Hands over their ears cause the walls are too thin
And change makes a strange sound

But I’m seeing signs that I’m losing my mind 
Stuck in Marchtown It’s fine 	   
Just not every day, 
All this green, what a wonderful scene 
But why is it that I only see red today?
Got to get away

In this pocket of plenty
I’m rescued from roaming
I have surely lost count of the houses I’ve known
But this one I count on cause this one is home
No more running on empty

I walk through Marchtown every day. Marchtown is the original name for Strathbungo, an area on the southside of Glasgow. A lot of the street names and locations surrounding Strathbungo relate to the Battle of Langside between Mary Queen of Scots and The Earl of Moray. The place name Crossmyloof refers to Mary’s meeting with a fortuneteller. Cross my hand (loof is Scots for hand) with silver.

Marchtown

King Kong’s Visit to Glasgow 			Michael Marra

Kong’s up in Red Road he wants to mend his ways
He’s using fist fulls of jumbo jets to wipe the tears from his face
And enter an angel with a shamrock on her thigh
And a liking for great big monkeys with tears in their eyes

And she said come and see the Celtic 
You will love the way they play
But if this team is to flourish don’t kill McStay 
She repeated to him pure don’t kill McStay

So he bumps into the floodlights the crowd begin to sing
Why don’t you take him to Ibrox we think he might blend in
And keep away from the People’s Palace with his big and clumsy ways
Come with me to The Perfect Beat but don’t kill Josef K
She repeated to him don’t kill Patrick Cane

The next thing he knows he’s a husband with a wife and children too
Now I’m a husband with a wife and kids and it’s all thanks to you
And he turned and he waved from a jumbo jet, a tear was in his eyes
Down there smiling was this little angel with a shamrock on her thigh
And he waved them all goodbye, he winked and waved them all goodbye 

Michael Marra, The Bard of Dundee, wrote some of the best songs about Glasgow. I found this song when I was looking for something else on YouTube. It’s from a 1989 show called NB present’s Michael Marra. The song was written about a dream that the actress Caroline Paterson had. She and Michael were working on a show together at Dundee Rep. Caroline, who suffered from insomnia, had very vivid dreams when she did eventually sleep. She would tell Michael her dreams in the morning.

King Kong's Visit to Glasgow

Glasgow 					Julia Doogan

Streets get ready for another fight
Between the boys in blue and green and white
And they sing along to the same old songs
Saying one is right, the other is wrong
They want nothing more than the winning score tonight
The will scream and shout and they will drink on through the night

Oh Glasgow
I’m coming home

Wind it whistles all around 
And through the streets up in the town
Past the ballroom and the boats
And the River Clyde as she flows
And the girls and boys they’re all out in force tonight
They will chance their arms for a shot of love at first sight

She don’t make no fuss about the places I have seen
She don’t care too much about where I’ve been


Julia Doogan is a hidden gem of Glasgow’s songwriting scene. I always think of this song when there’s an Old Firm game on.

Cod Liver Oil and the Orange Juice 		Ron Clark & Carl McDougall

Well oot o' the East there cam a hard man
Oh-ho, a' the way frae Brigton
Ah-ha, glory hallelujah
Cod liver oil and the orange juice

Went intae a pub and he cam oot paralytic
Oh-ho, VP and cider 
Ah-ha, what a hell of a mixture
Cod liver oil and the orange juice

Does this bus go tae the Dennistoun Palais?
Oh-ho, I'm lookin' fur a lumber 
Ah-ha, glory hallelujah
Cod liver oil and the orange juice

In the dancin' he met Hairy Mary,
Oh-ho, the flooer o' the Gorbals
Ah-ha, glory hallelujah
Cod liver oil and the orange juice

Aw noo Mary, are ye dancin'?
"Oh no, it's just the way I'm staunin'" 
Ah-ha, glory hallelujah
Cod liver oil and the orange juice

Well then, Mary, yer one in a million,
"Oh-ho, so's yer chances!"
Ah-ha, glory hallelujah
Cod liver oil and the orange juice

Well then Mary, can I run ye hame?
Oh-ho, I've got a pair of sandshoes, 
"Ah ha-ha, ye're hell of a funny!"
Cod liver oil and the orange juice

Well, doon through the back-close, an' intae the dunny, 
Oh-ho, it wasnae fur the first time, 
Ah-ha, glory hallelujah
Cod liver oil and the orange juice

Then oot came her mammy - she was goin' tae the cludgie, 
Oh-ho, I buggered off sharpish,
Ah-ha, glory hallelujah
Cod liver oil and the orange juice

Noo Hairy Mary's lookin' for her hard man,
Oh-ho, he's jined the Foreign Legion 
Ah-ha, Sahara unner ra camels, 
Cod liver oil and the orange juice

Then Hairy Mary's had a little baby
Oh-ho, it’s faither's in the army
Ah-ha, glory hallelujah
Cod liver oil and the orange juice

I once had the pleasure of seeing Hamish Imlach perform this in person. It was a gig in the Pittentrail Inn, Rogart. My Uncle and I left the show around 11pm. When I was picked up for work at 5am the next morning my boss (who had come straight from the gig) said it was still going strong.

Cod Liver Oil and the Orange Juice

A Walk Across the Rooftops 			Paul Buchanan & Robert Bell

I walk across the rooftops
I follow a broken thread
Of white rags falling slowly down
Flags caught on the fences

I walk across the rooftops
The jangle of St Stephen's bells
The telephones that ring all night
Incommunicado

The traffic lights are changing
The black and white horizon
I leave the quiet redstone
And walk across the rooftops

I walk across the rooftops
On graduation day
To look for independence, 
Yeah!

The lights are always changing
The black and white horizon
I leave the redstone building
And walk across the rooftops 

There’s a glorious moment between receiving your final exam results and graduation. I remember those weeks as the sunniest, most carefree I have ever spent in Glasgow. Everytime I hear this Blue Nile song I’m reminded of days hanging out between the City Centre and the West End, barbecues, carry outs and late night sing-songs in tenement flats.

A Walk Across the Rooftops

Findlay Napier is one of the most highly-regarded performers and creative forces on the Scottish music scene – thoroughly active and truly energised with a heart-warming zing.

He made his name touring and recording with multi- award winning traditional Scottish folk band Back of
the Moon. In his more recent projects “Queen Anne’s Revenge” and “The Bar Room Mountaineers” his song- writing took centre stage and was described by The Sunday Herald as “Genuine songcraft and wit following in the Difford & Tilbrook tradition”. Findlay is also well known for hosting Glasgow’s premier open mic night at Bar Bloc, as the host of Celtic Connections’ Late Night Sessions and for his Hazy Recollections concert series which showcases the very best in new roots music.

Findlay Napier

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