Long before decisions are made about instrumentation, final tempo, the addition of instrumental breaks etc, there is just the song. The Beautiful Prison ended up being one of my favorite songs on Looking At Life – a piano based tune featuring my good buddy Peter Farrell. I was also lucky enough to get the great Waddy Wachtel to play several electric guitar parts. The band was completed by Sam Bevan on upright bass, Andy Korn on drums, and Jane Deaux providing backing vocals.
But, as I said, before all that there was just the idea. The lyrics, the melody, me and guitar. I don’t often post these early versions but when I stumbled on this in my archives I felt there was a vulnerability to this simple voice/acoustic guitar/drum loop that was pleasing. It certainly throws emphasis on the words, as you’d expect.
So, here’s the seed that grew into The Beautiful Prison. This is an unmastered recording so you may have to turn your volume up a bit.
The album version.
Both versions ©2020 Dave Tutin / openDmusic