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Sleeve Notes
There is an old song which says: "Some take delight in the fishing and the bowling. Others take delight in the carriages a-rolling … ."
Well, to tell the truth, I take great delight in singing. When I'm all alone I sing to while away the time, and when I'm with a crowd of friends I sing to try and entertain both them and myself. Many a long mile I have shortened, with a verse of a song, on my travels, and my singing has taken me many a long mile around the world. In all the places I have been, I've found that people generally like to sing. Isn't it great that even in this age of push-button entertainment, no matter how lavish and wonderful it may be, most people still prefer to sing a song themselves?
I also take a great delight in writing songs. I'll be jogging along through life humming some nonsense to myself, when suddenly a line starts skipping here and there through my head, and then it's joined by another line, and the two lines seem to fit together like a hand and glove. Then I try to add more lines and a melody, and when I have the song completed, it's usually completely different from the original thought with; which I started. I must say though that I really enjoy it tremendously.
This particular record is a combination of my singing and writing, but the lovely sounds produced by the instruments are all products of the mind of Teo Macero, who produced the record, and I want to thank him for adding so much to the songs.
We recorded this album in London. I remember getting to the studio about 9:45 a.m. for a recording session which was scheduled to start at 10:00 a.m. Teo was already there pounding out things on the piano, changing things on paper, working — working, working. Then when the musicians arrived, getting them set up, rehearsing with them, changing this, that and the other thing as he went along, trying one thing after another until he got what he wanted. Besides all this, he had enough energy left to stimulate the enthusiasm of the musicians and myself to such an extent that we didn't feel like we were working at all. Once again, much thanks to Teo for all his hard work and enthusiasm.
Well, anyway, here is the finished product. I hope you like it. If only one person likes one of the songs enough to start singing it for his own enjoyment, it will all have been worth while.
Tommy Makem
