Some ten years ago, I worked with Herman Martin on a track for his album “Pretensions of a Stranger in a Strange Land”. The track was “Nipple” (and it’s a whole story in itself). In 2023, he started telling me about this other song he wanted to do. The piano chords had been knocking around for while. We started talking. A lot of things were going on: a post-Covid depression, war in Ukraine, refugees drowning in the Mediterranean or sleeping in the streets and pretty much misery and gloom all round.
We tried to put these aside. Knowing my pop sensibilities, Herman asked me to “just do whatever I want” (I think this was code for “don’t you dare try and turn this into a Spice Girls song”). In parallel, I was also watching the improbable videos called Crime Pays but Botany Doesn’t. You should also know that both Herman and I are both soul fans, and I in particular was always very impressed by the way Norman Whitfield (The Temptations) could make social issues come alive in the classiest way possible.
Clearly, all this filtered into “In the Shadows” lyrics. We put the song together and I went looking for a singer. We were lucky enough to find Olympia Lyndon in Antwerp, who gave this warm, soulful rendition. Patrick Deltenre on guitar and Antoine Colin on trumpet completed the recordings. Afterwards, Charlie Francis made sense of all this in the mix.
Thanks to everyone for being the talented, positive people they are.
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“In the Shadows” lyrics
I feel like stone / tar and bone / in the sunlight
There’s not a soul / walk alone / through the stoplight
No-one to care / or to share / where I’m going
Just down the line / there’s a road / no-one’s taking
They say that gold / never holds / in this city
Everything chrome / feels like home / in this city
They say that trash / makes you cash / makes it gritty
Chorus
Behind the glaze / there are days / in the shadows
Where people freeze / just to please / the money-men and their sideshow
And way below / not a soul / not a footstep
And not a sound / just the ground / as the sun sets ?
Chorus
Behind the glaze / there are days / in the shadows
Where people freeze / just to please / the money-men and their sideshow
Behind the glaze / there are days / in the shadows
Where people freeze / just to please / the money-men and their sideshow
(fade out)
And there are hearts / torn apart / in the city
As dead as seeds / and the weeds / in the city
And nothing’s free / nothing’s free / in the city
So don’t forget / all you get / is no pity
(ad lib)
No pity, babe. No pity, babe Everything chrome / feels like home
Just hope that trash / makes you cash
(c) Herman Martin/Michael Leahy 2023