Week 3 - A Year

[rockinronnie]

A Wonderfull Song off the Wonderful Piledriver Album. Often attributed as one of the best of the Quo slow songs
The Question - Why? What makes this a standout tune for you?

Written by Alan Lancaster and Bernie Frost - and yet sung beautifully by Francis Rossi

Your thoughts please as to why you like it (or otherwise)

For me it is the first class lyrics. I am not one for listening to lyrics normally, but these are standout class lyrics. They really draw you into the emotion of the song.

And of course, the guitar solo is just epic. Francis at his absolute best in my opinion. Lovely dynamics

[mikmik]

I was going to promise not to be controversial, oh well, forget that.

I don't think Alan Lancaster wrote that song. I think it was Jack Lancaster, ex-Blodwyn Pig and co-writing partner of Bernie Frost.

This went nasty on the old Quo site so I gave up. But here goes.

There is nothing connecting Alan to Bernie I can find. The lyrics are out of Alan's league. He has never written anything like it before or since. He didn't do the vocal. I can find no record of him ever playing it live with his later groups.

He was quoted by a writer on the new fan board saying that he wrote the song and Bernie changed the key. It is played in c/Am with the bridge in Amaj. Why would a bass player write it any other way? So why the change?

It was published by a company AL used. That was the best evidence against the theory.

Alan later claimed he had written Bad Company. Pip Williams claims he wrote it himself with Phil Hutchings.

A Year may be misattributed like Long Legged Linda was for so long (Andy Bown having written it years before he met RP).

Mike

[dennis]

I don't care who wrote it, It's one of the best tracks they ever did, imo.

[mikmik]

I agree with you. A fantastic track. When I was 11 it was really meaningful. A Year was nearly 10% of my life!

Now I am older, less wise, and kind of get fixated with things. A Year is 2% of my life. Before I exhaust the remaining 1% I would love to know who really wrote this song, when and how.

Mike