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changeling
composers
Composers: Kerr / Burchill / MacNeil / Forbes / McGee
Authors: Kerr
(Earlier sleeves simply state:- Lyrics: Kerr: Music: Simple Minds)
publisher
© EMI Music Publishing Limited: (1979 - 2007)
© JKMC-Bucks Music Group Ltd / Hornall Music / EMI Music Publishing Ltd: (2008 - 2014)
© BMG Rights Management (UK) Ltd / EMI Music Publishing Ltd: (2015 -)
background
The genesis of Changeling remains unclear. John Leckie recalled
it was a Derek Forbes riff, one of the few ideas they had when entering the studio.
However Jim remembered that it was the first time that
Charlie and
Mick worked together on a song, cutting a 4-track demo.
Derek's recollections, when talking to Retropopic in 2018, suggested that
the idea of the song started with Charlie. "So I remember
Charlie coming up - 'Got this one - Got this one Changeling.' And
Jim had got a title for it. And we'd gone to the old mill which was
just a rehearsal space that we had. ... [So] Charlie came up to me with three chords - E-minor, A, D - so I
just did the root notes. And then John Leckie the producer said
'Derek. Go in the other room. Here's a tape. Go in the other room and write me a hit bassline.' And
that's how I got it. [Sings the last bars of the song]. You know the line."
So, it's most likely that Charlie and Mick came up with part of
the song and Derek completed the rest.
The final lines were a sly dig at the 'club movement' which was being celebrated by Iggy Pop and others. (Iggy Pop was recording
at Rockfield at the same time).
From an unconventional album, Changeling shone out as a potential single, and
Arista released it as a lone 7" in January 1980. Unfortunately it failed to chart.
It hung around in the touring schedule for several years, a live favourite, until it was pushed out of the set-lists by the recording of
New Gold Dream (81,82,83,84), and the older songs being pushed out of the set-list for the new.
It enjoyed a brief resurgence in popularity for the career spanning tours of
the first part of the 2000s, and was a major highlight of the triumphant 5X5 Tour.
lyrics
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Overground,
Underground,
Pulsating through.
Street parade,
Day arcade,
No cloning you.
Uniform,
Won't conform,
Hero who dies.
Find a boy,
Kill a toy,
Get no reply.
Changeling.
Well changeling for you.
They're coming out of you.
Vision.
Lost.
Out of control.
Lost.
Down in the club,
Beau bells can ring.
Look good in blue.
Help me to sing.
Expose,
Fade away,
Contact erased.
Call a friend,
Tailor made,
Do as I say.
Changeling.
Well changeling for you.
They're coming out of you.
Vision.
Lost.
Out of control.
Lost.
Overground.
Underground.
Overground.
Underground.
Down in the club.
Down in the club.
Down in the club.
Club.
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discography
videography
sessions
live history
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