Last weekend my good friend, Marcin Kovacs and I shot the above new video to an old song that’s very dear to my heart: Live Before We Die is a song that came to me in a dream in about 2000 or 2001. It’s the first time and one of only two or three times that a song has ever come to me in a dream.
In the dream I heard and saw the legendary singer, Stevie Wonder singing this song. He was singing it in his trademark elastic tenor voice, riffing the song with remarkable emotion – as only he can.
I woke up with the song going through my head. In my mind I swiftly went through all the Stevie Wonder songs I knew to try and place it. But after going through a good number, I realised that it had not been recorded! I quickly and shrewdly recoded it on a simple recording device – I can’t even recall what type now, but fortunately I got the vocal melody down and the lyrics. I so especially remember that opening lyric as it was sung in the song:
‘Years are gonna crawl and then fly by, the first and last they’ll do for you is cry. It’s up to you what you will do meanwhile, let’s live before we die. Let’s live before we die.’ From what I recall the rest of the lyrics came through really easily.
I very much feel that this song was very a gift from Stevie. In fact I’m not even sure that I’d say. It was a gift but also feel as though this song belongs to Stevie. In the event that our paths should cross either directly or through those I meet in entertainment then I must pass this gift back to him and play it to him. For me it would be a dream to hear him sing it. While I’m very proud of how I’ve sung this I can very much here how he would sing it in his trademark register.
While the song emerged early in the 2000s it was a long time before I came to record it. A few years later – while I was briefly having some piano lessons which I really should have kept up – I learned the chords and how to play the song. (I’m very rusty these days and it would take me a while to find all the chords). But then in 2009 around the time when I started recording music with John Hamilton of EQ Studios I decided to – at last – record the track. I will have played it to John and then John played the version you hear here. There’s a chance that a tiny bit of my playing may be here on this but essentially the musicianship and the wonderful string sequence is the work of John. He captured what I had always heard in my heart perfectly. In fact the only thing I did not hear is that fantastic opening piano and string line and the closing string line that John ‘channelled’ by hearing what I was describing. He’s absolutely brilliant and a joy to work with.
Overall this is one of the songs I most proud of and it’s probably one of my best vocals to date. I sing it it really utilising my baritone voice and the lower areas of the tone especially which I often under-utilise But here it’s used to good effect. It’s great when all the elements of a song really come together. Not something I really achieved much earlier in my career due largely to the fact that I still had so much to learn and improve.
The last, but by no means a big thanks to the very talented Marcin. This is our fifth video together. We recorded it last weekend. What you see is a one take and shot. Anyway I hope you enjoy it. Best wishes, R.