Mad Bad World was written in 2008 and has been a staple
of my live appearances since then, pretty much becoming my ‘signature’ song. It
was the only number I managed to complete for an aborted musical I planned to
write called Murder On The Dancefloor.
An independent television producer who had seen my musical Postcards from God approached me to write a vehicle for enfant
terrible drag sensation (and former dancer) Jonny Woo – and the resulting story was a murder mystery with Jonny
as enfant terrible drag sensation (and former fashion designer) ‘Marc La Mode’.
Part Paris Is Burning, part Theatre Of Blood, the outlandish and
highly unlikely story followed Marc and his entourage being picked off by a
sinister killer in a series of grisly and incredibly camp murders. The
treatment caught the eye of a producer from the Arcola Theatre’s Grimeborne festival and we hoped to present a
semi-staged version of selected songs featuring Jonny and several rising stars
of the alternative gay cabaret scene. Mad Bad World was written for the
character of ‘Mahogany’, a larger than life (and perpetually stoned) ukulele
wielding bearded drag queen to be played by Le Gateau Chocolat. The song was Mahogany’s ‘torch song’ where she
looks back at her wasted life after the murder of another of her close friends
(and just before being battered to death with her ukulele and thrown into a
canal).
The song is a little unusual as it is written very low in the voice (I am a bass baritone and Le Gateau has an even lower range than I do) and originally the song stayed in that register throughout. My musical collaborator Michael Roulston suggested switching an octave higher two thirds of the way through the song which certainly added a lot of drama to what could have been a bit of a dirge otherwise. The song was always meant to be reminiscent of the music from Twin Peaks and the other soundtracks composer Angelo Badalamenti has composed for the films of David Lynch and think we’ve managed to capture that ‘dark jazz’ feel. I sang the song as one of my audition pieces for a vocal course led by world renowned vocal coach Mary King at the South Bank Centre as part of her Voicelab programme. It felt great to sing the song again when I was invited to perform at Paul Burston's Polari at the same venue. I had spread my wings and so had the song.
This recording is actually the third version of the song. We made a demo version that I used as a backing track for live gigs, but I felt like it needed a different treatment and started an alternative version. The original demo was recorded ‘colla voce’ – the musicians follow the tempo of my singing – and in this song, the tempo varies quite a lot throughout . The new version was done to a strict tempo and didn’t really work. We tried adding drums to the original demo but it was very difficult to keep everything in time, so we decided to record the song live at Shock and Awe Studios with Michael on piano, Tom Mansi on double bass and James Johnston on drums. Synths and strings were added on afterwards by myself and Nick Trepka. This was the third and final take and I was very pleased with the result, which has been described as the soundtrack to a drinking competition between between Nick Cave and Tom Waits, a great compliment I think.
If you haven't done so already, you can get a free download of Mad Bad World by joining the mailing list at my website. Visit: http://www.reevescorner.co.uk/music.html
The song is a little unusual as it is written very low in the voice (I am a bass baritone and Le Gateau has an even lower range than I do) and originally the song stayed in that register throughout. My musical collaborator Michael Roulston suggested switching an octave higher two thirds of the way through the song which certainly added a lot of drama to what could have been a bit of a dirge otherwise. The song was always meant to be reminiscent of the music from Twin Peaks and the other soundtracks composer Angelo Badalamenti has composed for the films of David Lynch and think we’ve managed to capture that ‘dark jazz’ feel. I sang the song as one of my audition pieces for a vocal course led by world renowned vocal coach Mary King at the South Bank Centre as part of her Voicelab programme. It felt great to sing the song again when I was invited to perform at Paul Burston's Polari at the same venue. I had spread my wings and so had the song.
This recording is actually the third version of the song. We made a demo version that I used as a backing track for live gigs, but I felt like it needed a different treatment and started an alternative version. The original demo was recorded ‘colla voce’ – the musicians follow the tempo of my singing – and in this song, the tempo varies quite a lot throughout . The new version was done to a strict tempo and didn’t really work. We tried adding drums to the original demo but it was very difficult to keep everything in time, so we decided to record the song live at Shock and Awe Studios with Michael on piano, Tom Mansi on double bass and James Johnston on drums. Synths and strings were added on afterwards by myself and Nick Trepka. This was the third and final take and I was very pleased with the result, which has been described as the soundtrack to a drinking competition between between Nick Cave and Tom Waits, a great compliment I think.
If you haven't done so already, you can get a free download of Mad Bad World by joining the mailing list at my website. Visit: http://www.reevescorner.co.uk/music.html
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| Photo by Robert Piwko (c) 2010 |
Look around
At all the madness
going down
Sometimes you’ve
got to find a way
To drown your
sorrows
Maybe get a little
high
To chase the
dragons all away
I drink and I
drink and I drink and I drink
‘Til I’m drowning
From crying and
crying and crying
The whole night
through
‘Cause it’s a mad
bad world
It’s a mad bad
world
It’s a mad bad
world
That makes me blue
When friends have
two faces
And they tear your
heart apart
Life starts
splitting at the seams
You feel like
you’re crawling
On your hands and
on your knees
Down that
boulevard of broken dreams
Night after night
after night after night
I’m still falling
From trying and
trying and trying and trying
To make it through
But I can’t break
on through
‘Cause it’s a mad
bad world
It’s a mad bad
world
It’s a mad bad
world
That makes me blue
If you ask me
‘What’s your poison?’
I wouldn’t know
quite what to say
‘Cause I’ve been
killing myself for all these years
Dying slowly,
slowly
Every day
‘Cause it’s a mad
bad world
It’s a mad bad
world
It’s a mad bad
world
That makes me blue
That makes me blue
Blue
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