I recorded this stripped back version of my brother Ian's song a few years ago.   A fabulous tune, it always brings a lump to my throat...miss you bro...

'This Thin Desire' - Piano & Vocal (c.Ian Morris)

Right B4 My Eyes.WAV

Written and recorded at The Bus, Devonport back in 2003... lost, searching, confused...what are these...feelings?   

You'd Better Go Home

Written on a flight from Auckland to Hong Kong, July 2014.

Somewhere In The Distance

I found this on a cassette in a box under my mother-in-law's house!   The original demo of a song I wrote called 'Nobody Else, which went on to top the NZ charts in October 1988.   Recorded in my bedsit at 222 Richmond Rd Grey Lynn on a Tascam Porta One.   All instruments & vocals by me.   I love the monologue near the end!   How very Hank Wangford of me, even if I say so myself!

Nobody Else (original demo)

A song I wrote back in 1996...a waltz, possibly a first for me?!  Played almost entirely on my Korg M1 keyboard...apart from the guitars of course...a one take vocal it sounds like...

You (Demo 1996)

Another demo from 1996.   Recorded on an old Fostex R8 reel to reel.   Featuring perhaps my finest lyric ever...'It's rude to speak with your mouth full'!!

Jealousy Demo 96 - Edit

Another slushy ballad from a batch of demos I recorded in 1996.  I gave this song to Ainslie Allen to record but nothing came of it...

Waited All My Life

I wrote this song in Melbourne in 1990 and recorded this demo in Neil Finn's 'turret' studio next door in East St Kilda.   Neil had a wonderful old 8 track, a Tascam 388.   I particularly like the 'slapping my knees' percussion in the bridge!  And oh those M1 sounds!   

Perfect World demo 91

A demo I recorded in Neil Finn's 'Turret' studio in Melbourne, late 1990.   Based on a true story!

'Ballad Of A Lonely Man' - Edit

So I've been archiving dozens of old demos and out-takes over the past few weeks...I came across this track which I wrote with Les White (he wrote the lyrics, I wrote the tune).  'Steel Rain' was one of 14 songs I recorded for my 1996 album 'Everest'...but it didn't make the cut.   This sounds like a rehearsal to me.   It's certainly a live take.   Eddie Rayner on hammond organ, Wayne Bell on drums, Clinton Brown playing bass and Mark Bell on guitar.   I'm doing my best to remember the lyrics...something about the Gulf War from memory...recorded at Revolver Studios.

'Steel Rain' (Revolver Rough) 1995

Here's a song I wrote with ace lyricist Les White (bass player with Th' Dudes) back in 1990.   We used to write songs by mail.   I'd write the music and melody in my house in Melbourne and send a cassette of a rough sketch by post to Les in Sydney!   'Don't Say Know' was recorded and produced by my late brother Ian Morris at Soundtrax and Marmalade in Wellington NZ.   It was the b-side to my only Mushroom Records release, 'I Can't Give You Anything'.   All instruments and programming by Ian Morris.   Lead guitar by Gary Verberne.   Vocals and organ by Rikki Morris.

Don't Say No

I wrote this song in 1999 with the late, great Kevin Smith.   Kevin was not just a fabulous actor...he could sing like a bird and co-wrote the lyrics to this song.   I imagined Kevin singing it as a duet with Debbie Harwood...alas, he left us before we could organise some time in his busy schedule to record a vocal...I tried taking his place, but those boots of Kev's are pretty hard to fill...God bless ya Kevie!

(copyright R.Morris/K.Smith 1999)

Rikki Morris

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