Category: Albums

Michael's debut album released on Polydor and now a bit of a collector's item along with the two singles released off the album, The Midas Touch/Sleepwalking and Hooky's Little Eyes/Foolish Boy. Plus some other artistes covers of songs from The Midas Touch plus tracks from Michael's unreleased Polydor album
produced by Mike Vernon.

The album is dedicated to Alice

http://www.musical1.com/uploads/1/midas-touch- album.jpg" alt="img" title="img">

http://www.musical1.com/uploads/1/midas-touch- album.jpg" alt="img" title="img">
Have a listen to

Michael's first ever performance in Oldmeldrum Town Hall with its unique village hall piano[ some notes were missing] which added to the fun.

also gives you an opportunity to hear Michael debut: a number of songs which went on to become firm favourites on his setlist.

The answers to the lyric quiz set by Mary Masson -

1. By his side his adze and compass - The Lonesome Death of Francis Clarke - Posted Sober 2. On the dark side of Dunoon - Big Wide World Beyond The Seedlies - The Mill Lavvies 3. Due to isotopes of Thorium and Alpha types of ray - Silence - Silence 4. Deeved about the life they choose - Niel Gow's Apprentice - On Stolen Stationery 5. Will you breathe our air and witness our efforts - The Angus Man's Welcome to Mary Stuart - Gaels Blue 6. I'd rather be in Elgin, it's a better class of cold and wet - I Don't Like Methil 7. The best laid plan between Men and Mice - Pius Porteous - Posted Sober 8. Stalwart and brave Caledonian Hotel - Under The Ullapool Moon - On Stolen Stationery 9. Batten down the four leaf clover - Like Another Rolling Stone - On Stolen Stationery 10. That the gowd in the tike has taen a thin disguise - The Bawbee Birlin' - On Stolen Staionery 11. He takes a deep breath and he seethes - Beefheart and Bones - Pax Vobiscum 12. Let them gather up their brows and their old wives tales - Chain Up The Swings - Pax Vobiscum 13. The leaves kept falling before they were due - Dear Hank Williams - Pax Vobiscum 14. I want to dance with Jimmy Howie in the pale moonlight - Frida Kahlo's Visit to the Taybridge Bar - Posted Sober 15. They very seldom jump over the moon - BSE or Cows Don't Eat Sheep 16. Peace on earth and earth on piece - Baps and Paste 17. Did you think it was the quality or preference of beer? - The Homeless Do Not Seem To Drink In Here 18. I'd wheel my wheelbarrow up Kilimanjaro - If Dundee was Africa - The Mill Lavvies 19. His fingers painting what his soul receives - Schenectady Calling Peerie Willie Johnson 20. I'd sing a song of Thomas Paine - If I was An Englishman - High Sobriety

A magical tour of America heralds a new album from Michael Marra. This was the byline used by Sunday Times journalist Ian Black back on the 12 May 1996. The new album was Pax Vobiscum

 Three weeks ago the fickle finger of fate reached out, tapped Dundee singer/songwriter Michael Marra on the shoulder and handed him a giant lollipop in the shape of an all-expenses-paid trip to America. It was his first visit and one he has fantasised about since he can remember. Marra's musical roots are intertwined with rock, country, jazz and accordion bands, as well as his own working-class background. His gritty voice and unforced delivery blend with his broad Dundee accent to create a blunt honesty, combined with colourful language - songs much beloved by American country fans and not a few Scottish folk fans. Marra is 44 and very much a cult figure on the verge of national fame. He's played a range of music for which the word eclectic isn't broad enough, from early Dundee rock legends Skeets Boliver to recently touring Europe with Deacon Blue. He acknowledges his American influences and hopes to get another album from the experience of his magical freebie. "Where I grew up, what you learned at your grandfather's knee was Elvis songs off the radio. It was an unusual thing to happen." Unusual but true. At school, the children collected pennies for "the black babies in Africa", says Marra. "It was called the Holy Family and when you had collected 2s 6d you got a picture of them and you got to give them a name. We called all of ours Elvis. I think of them sometimes, all these guys in Africa called Elvis..." Marra has a wealthy fan, a man whom he had never met, called Roderick Cameron. He's originally from Glasgow, but now lives and works in California. He served his time as a toolmaker at Rolls-Royce, studied engineering at Cambridge and then emigrated to America where he designs and builds things like the University of Mexico City. "He likes my songs for one reason or another," says Marra, "and he wanted to make a journey with me to show me what he calls 'the soft underbelly of the real America'. He paid for the ticket and I flew out to San Francisco where he collected me. Then we spent two weeks at a different motel every night rehearsing with these two other guys he'd brought along. We finished the trip back in San Francisco and I did a solo gig and one with the guys." Where did he go? "All over the place. I did a gig in Mendecino - one of the Byrds, Gene Parsons, was it. He played the drums for Randy Newman - one of my heroes. That was fabulous." Energy and excitement pour from Marra's mouth, his normally laidback crinkly eyes shining with remembered joy, as he relives the trip. "Unbelievable, eh? We went to the Grand Canyon, to a wee town called Lone Pine, and then up into the mountains to a ghost town called Bodie, a wee mining town. It was really wonderful. We learned a three-part harmony for a song called Grand Canyon Line, one of the few songs that Burl Ives wrote, and we sang it going down the Grand Canyon. And we sang Route 66 going down Route 66. It was just what every Scottish laddie wants." They took a day off on Cameron's 59th birthday when he took them to Las Vegas. "The Man from Kansas (one of his musician companions), he said, when he saw me watching the people pouring money into the machines, 'That's how the Mob likes it, a quarter at a time'." The Man from Kansas was a language learning experience for him. "He would say things like, 'I'm as jittery as a seven-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.' Maybe Roderick hired them to teach me American." He's going back to America as soon as he can. "I know I'll need to do a thousand wee gigs but I'm game for that." His new album, Pax Vobiscum, is out at the end of the month. Copyright The Sunday Times May 1996

A wee selection of Michael's songs old and new, borrowed and blue, just for you.

Listen to this selection at

[size=16]MARRA MUSIC MONTH! It's Here!!!![/size]

[color=red] From Christmas breakfast to Burns supper


The waiting is over and it's that time of year again when the now annual Marra Music Month is again revealed in all it's glory. Hope you like the new format and the upgrade to the site. We have over 325 songs presented in a new "album" format which replaces the old radio station method of grouping common themed songs together. The new system will hopefully make it easier for you to listen to Michael's music. You should be aware that the majority of these "albums" are not available commercially. There are also 25 video performances and over 60 photos in the gallery section. We have trawled the Marra archives for some more exclusive gems. Michael has also been contributing his own comments on individual songs in the song information sections. There is more than enough to satisfy the appetite of every fan of Mr Marra's music. We have tried to include as much of Michael's portfolio of work as possible, so Christmas visitors can expect to hear some 'Hidden Gems' like unreleased studio recordings, and even some recordings of Michael in his studio at home. Remember there is a lot of stuff so it does take a while to load so be patient. If you saw Michael performing live last year be it in Aberdeen to Australia we hope you enjoyed his show and thanks for the supporting his music. It is greatly appreciated.

If you like what you hear, please remember to rate the songs and the Artist. Also let us know what you think of Michael Marra's music by completing the comments section.

Enjoy.


[img]http://www.musical1.com/image.php?band_id=1&image_id=230&mode=photo_image&height=128[/img]

Michael will be starting work on his latest album within the next few weeks. The album is to be named...
HIGH SOBRIETY
As soon as there has been further developments with the album, we'll post the latest news here!

If you were fortunate enough to catch Michael and Liz Lochhead's recent tour of In Flagrant Delicht you would have heard Liz recite her wonderful poem " Ira and George" about the songwriting Gershwin brothers which she has dedicated to Michael. We think it is so good that we thought you might enjoy reading it for yourself.

The poem, along with others that featured in the recent show, can be found in a collection of Liz Lochhead's poems titled " The Colour of Black & White - Poems 1984 - 2003" published by Polygon and available at all decent bookshops. Ira and George for Michael Marra 'First the phonecall' as the man said - and he sure said a mouthful - to that 'which comes first,words or music?' question. Who knows? Except: for every good one there are ten in the trash, songs you slaved over that just won't sing, in which no lover ever will hear some wisecrack twist itself to tell his unique heatbreak(so sore, so personal) so well he can't stop humming it. The simplist three chord melody might have legs once it's got the lyric, not tunesmith's ham-and-eggs. Each catchphrase, colloquilism, each cliche each snatch of overheard-on-the-subway or street can say so much, so much when rhymed right, when phrased just-so to fit its own tune that was born for it. A Manhattan night in twenty-nine or thirty, It's late, you're reading Herrick. Just back from a party, your brother calls out 'Hey let's work!' You watch him shuck his jacket, loose his black-tie and grab your book. 'Gather ye rosebuds' he says, and slams it shut. He's right. Hard against the deadline and at night - shoes off, moon up (just daring you), piano open - that's when you two can make it happen. The tune that smells like an onion? Play it very slow, then the one that sounds like the Staten Island Ferry till you hear the words - brother, they're already there under the siren and the train and the cab horn blare of his jazz of endless possibilities that will only fit its own fine-tuned lyric that is born for it Copyright@Liz Lochhead 2003

Michael has given many interviews in the past and we hope to feature a few from the archives in the next wee while to give you an insight into what inspired him. Things like Goalkeepers and Elephants.

More songs about GOALKEEPERS & ELEPHANTS PERPETUAL MOTION IN BROUGHTY FERRY, FRANKENSTEIN, AND THE INVENTOR OF REVERSE, GEAR. MICHAEL MARRA IS THE SONGWRITERS' SONGWRITER. HE LOVES ELVIS, HATES BJORN FROM ABBA, AND TAKES HIS WORK SO SERIOUSLY THAT HE THOUGHT HE MIGHT DIE FOR IT. AS PARTNERSHIPS GO IT SOUNDED HEAVENLY. Abba had split, ending a sequence of 25 hits, and Bjorn Ulvaeus (the clean-shaven one) was looking for a co-writer. Dundonian Michael Marra, to his eternal regret, got the job. The break came at a frantic time. Marra, a songwriter of considerable versatility, was working on two shows at the Edinburgh Festival, one about Gilbert and Sullivan, one on music between the Wars in America. Unable to eat before or after performances, he found himself feeling sicker and sicker as the Festival went on. 'At the end of the last week I got ill, terrible pains,' he recalls. 'It was so painful that I thought, that's it, I'm on the way out, so I'd better get this Bjorn thing done so my family will have some money. 'I decided not to see the doctor until I'd finished the job. I went up to Dunkeld, where my mother has a hide out. I had a backing track and was working on the lyrics for three songs. I'd call him from a phone box, play the backing track and sing the number. I hadn't realised his English is very poor. He learned it from Elvis records, but didn't know what half of it meant - he was just making those sounds. All he wanted was lyrics which fitted mathematically with the music. I just said, "That's what you're getting', and went to the doctor.' An ulcer was diagnosed, which came as a great relief. But the experience left a deeper scar. 'I never saw any money at all, I hate that attitude: you're under contract to write songs, you don't care what they're about. It's the music business as beans.' Largely due to his contractual ill fortune, Marra's talent remains something of a secret. Yet he has some well-placed admirers - Hue and Cry covered his Mother Glasgow, and Ricky Ross has invited him to support Deacon Blue on their European tour. In song writing terms, perhaps only the Proclaimers can match his easy way with the Scottish vernacular, while his taste for bizarre story lines places him up there with Tom Waits and Randy Newman. Marra's lyrics locate simple human truths in unlikely moments. Commissioned to write for the civic bicentennial of Ullapool, he conjured a song which mixes the romance of the klondykers with wife beating. Australia Instead of tbe Stars uses odd facts about Dundee to comment on the self-destructive side of the Scottish psyche. The title laments the experience of inventor Sandy Kidd who developed a perpetual motion machine in his Broughty Ferry garden shed, but had to emigrate to perfect it. Also celebrated are the ferryboat designer who invented reverse gear; the Dundonian who, in 1680, performed the world's first dissection of an elephant; and the fact that Mary Shelley dreamed up Frankenstein while gazing out over the Tay. Many of his songs are about football, 'one of the great things in this world. I remember they ran a competition to write a football song on Nationwide. The one that won it, called "Were Are You Now, Joe Ackroyd?, was gorgeous - an old guy talking about what football had meant to him, in its biggest sense. I never found out who wrote it, but I remember thinking good on you, football deserves that. People love it, and it is important.' His own football songs are a long way from the bathtub chanting of Back Home or Ally's Tartan Army. Tbe Wise Old Men of Mount Flotida recalls the shock waves which came when the players of Queen?s Park revolutionised the game by passing the ball to each other. 'Before that you just dribbled,' he explains. During the fanciful King Kong's Visit to Glasgow, the famous ape goes to Parkhead, where upon the crowd chants, 'Why don't you take him to Ibrox, we think he might blend in.' And, perhaps most memorably, there is Hamish, a hymn of praise to the former Dundee United goalkeeper Hamish McAipine. It records how Grace Kelly attended his testimonial match at Tannadice. 'It's true,' Marra laughs. 'Very Dundonian, Grace Kelly coming among us. She didn't go to Ibrox.' Music has always been a part of his life. His mother played piano, and his father was a big fan of Duke Ellington. Young Michael's interest was first awakened when a baby-sitter played a copy of Jailhouse Rock. 'Elvis Presley's the first thing I remember. Unforgettable.' He hums the calamitous opening bars of the song. 'Later, the big thing that happened in Dundee was soul music, early Motown. Coming from John Lennon'. in fact, the early stuff the Beatles did. it was ours, it sat perfectly with us. The Four Tops, Temptations, Stevie Wonder. After that we went back to rock'n'roll, but the Dundee disease was soul music, still is.' Marra's first efforts were in a Rolling Stones-type school band called the Saints, and he progressed through folky groups Hen's Teeth (with fiddler Dougie McLean) and Skeets Boliver. 'That did very well. It got us down to London and used to the usual music business thing - we were robbed. I don't worry about getting robbed any more, I just accept that that's what they do. Our job is to be as good as possible, not to make as much money as possible.' Contracted to Polydor as a solo artist, he entered one of his blackest periods. He signed up with manager Bernard Theobald, who also had Barbara Dickson, and the 16-yearold Gary Clark (later of Danny Wilson) on his books. He recorded one LP, The Midas Touch, then started work on what was to become the independently released Gaels Blue. The songs had a heavy Scottish content, partly to annoy his manager. When the LP did emerge, to critical acclaim, its impact was diminished by a dispute with the distributors, who held onto the master tapes. 'What Gael's Blue did was make people think that I was a folk artist, and I got uncomfortable with that.' Folk, he says, is not just a ghetto, it's an absolute compartment.' Contractual problems forced him into the theatre, where he worked on Billy Kay's They Fairly Mak' You Work and Communicado's A Wee Home From Home. He also co-ordinated the music for the television series Your Cheatin' Heart, an experience of which he has painful memories. "I didn't like the BBC building, I was sharing an office with John Byrne, which was all right if you're going to share with anybody, but the building nearly killed me. It was like being in a post office.' He maintains that it was only constant playing of the LP Miss America by Canadian Mary Margaret O'Hara that got him through his year there. These days he spends all his time writing. 'Now, I think it's because of the age that I am, I can play piano without a piano. I used to insist on writing in my studio. Now I'll do it on trains, any place.' When he Is in his studio, he uses an electronic notator as a writing aid. As he plays, the notes appear magically on a stave. 'If Mozart had one, we'd be centuries ahead. It's Interesting because it leads you to do things you wouldn't do if you were sitting with a guitar.' Nevertheless, songs sometimes take him up to six months to complete. 'There might be a month on one line just being wrong, and staring at it. The bulk of what they call Inspiration will maybe give you two lines, enough to know it's worth the effort. The rest Is the effort. "I like to think I could write on any subject. It's the same for comedians - nothing should be barred, everything's up for grabs. I certainly would like to write more love songs I decided after a family tragedy that I would write as many as I could, because that's what's best for people. With a new LP, On Stolen Stationery (Eclectic Records), just out, and the Deacon Blue tour in the offing, Marra has some cause to be optimistic. Yet he is almost stubborn in his reluctance to think in terms of a career. 'I'd rather keep quiet and have other people doing my songs. But when Ricky Ross mentioned this tour, I wrote and said I had a definite interest - I've never played in Paris or Rome. That Is the pushiest I've ever been. Other than that I would have cheerfully stayed in the house, writing songs.' Marra also views the tour as a way of reaching an audience without Involving London-based record companies. 'I hope we get a decent music business here, that's not relying on them, or being told what to do by them. Why go to London when you could get robbed in Glasgow? We could all rob each other, and then we wouldn't have all this transport expense." The elephant surgeon would surely have understood. Report by Alastair McKay SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY MAGAZINE

Lyrics for some of Michael's songs from Gaels Blue album including General Grant's Visit to Dundee and Happed In Mist , one of his most covered songs to date. Also a couple of songs from On Stolen Stationery -

[size=14] The following songs can be found on Michael's albun Gaels Blue THE ANGUS MAN�S WELCOME TO MARY STUART Hail Mary, if the Lord is with thee Why is your charger so down at the knee? Are there maids who embroider For our lieges who bleed? And in what grade of fettle You will to succeed? Will you flounce around in a trifling court With a Frenchwoman�s ways And a crimson code? Or will you breathe our air And witness our efforts Pray for our children and shoulder our load? Oh! Mary, if your beauty be true Shine down on the bearded one Before he rains down on you Hail Mary, if the Lord is with thee Beg Him to send me a bushel of seed. Copyright Michael Marra KING GEORGE III�s RETURN TO SANITY Clap hands, let the people sing The word is out that we no longer have to wear these things The King took some breakfast, he sat up in bed He made no attempt to put his breeks on his head Clap hands for the joy of life It�s no longer a major offence to make love to your wife If the King can not do it then nobody may Tomorrow I feel will be a turbulent day Clap hands, we may kiss our wives Let us praise him with grateful respect for this gift to our lives James Watt the Scotsman and brave engineer Came from the palace with a flea in his ear The King said,"Good morgan und danke schoen, I hear you invented the aeroplane" Clap hands, he can fly on his own He�s no longer a dumkopf he knows how to sit on that throne He may lunge to the west or lunge to the south But sooner or later the spoon hits his mouth Clap hands,we�re going to jump for joy He really has proved to the court he�s a clever boy This morning it�s there for the sceptics to see One King one toilet,it was trouble free Oh the King is well but I don�t know about you and me He�s got his mental health but I don�t know about you and me. Copyright Michael Marra GENERAL GRANT�S VISIT TO DUNDEE When U.S. Grant paid a visit to my home town, They spruced it up with a lick of paint And then they showed him round, Two bands played in fierce competition As the rain came down, And the General said, "What a mighty long bridge To such a mighty little ole town." A man called Walsh hung from a window With the stars and stripes, And the orphan boy sang �Alouette� It was sweetness and light, But as they sang the fire bell rang And they ran for their lives, "What well trained little orphans, such a precious little song." Said the Generals wife A carriage was called to the Magdalen Green, Before the darkness fell, With a short stop over for the ladies convenience At the Royal Hotel, And the General frowned Through the last of the speeches, Though he took it well, "What a pretty little bandstand, what a lovely little steeple, What charming little houses And such cheerful little people, But what a mighty long bridge To such a mighty little ole town." Copyright Michael Marra GAELS BLUE We were talking to a fellow in the room last night He came down from Elgin with an appetite Somebody told him he would be all right Among the millions When he began to sing he took the place apart He was dealing aces from the very start It was a gift from heaven to a humble heart We were embracing Oh he told me that his papa was a rolling stone Who had a gig at Dingwalls so he felt at home And all he really needed was a telephone To be in business Gaels blue, we�ve been weighed up And found to be true Though we never had the Chevvys Or the Baptist Church We had a choice of colours for a broken crutch We�ll do, whatever it is that we do You can ask the driver on the glory train We�ll sing it up to heaven and home again Gaels blue Well I know that everybody has to have their tale And have a clean one ready when the old one�s stale Just as long as all the little details pale into the distance We kept straight faces when we heard him say "I�ve been drinking up with Marvin Gaye" Ah well, every hound dog must have his day Sing your confession Copyright Michael Marra HAPPED IN MIST Happed in mist these twenty-five eventful years Seem to me now And all but one a friendly haze, A ghost of gladness by my side With horse and plough I marched with pride Of the purest kind Then a blink of light and it�s Flanders field And the end of time. Through the flash and cannons roar I saw my Christine�s smiling eyes And with no more thought of blood or shell I made my way to hold her near But Truth and Honours henchmen found me Leaving here A madman�s rave and cowards grave For the volunteer. And in his eyes flew snipe and curlew And in his nose blew moistened air And in his mind the wood the king stole That robbed the land and laid it bare But in his heart his lovers memory Singing on their wedding night Where once the parks flowed thick with corn That sullen tune was with him now Happed in the mist the Kings Own Rifles Ready Aim The flooers o� the forest are wede away. Copyright Michael Marra These songs are from On Stolen Stationery UNDER THE ULLAPOOL MOON Under the Cumbernauld sky Jimmy and Moira were wondering why He loved her so much that he blackened her eye Under the Cumbernauld sky. Under the Ullapool moon Jimmy and Moira were bathing their gloom The palm trees were sulking The gulls were in tears She threw a tantrum and he disappeared But a light shone to help her back up to her feet Saying "Stalwart and brave Caladonian Hotel Please to transport me from this place to hell" Under the Ullapool moon. Then down by the post office Enter a sailor Fresh from the queue for the coffee he smiles And they laugh by the job club And he throws down his coat And palm trees are swaying And gulls they are singing And Moira is smiling with stars in her eyes Under the Ullapool sky. Under the Cumbernauld sky Janice and Raymond are saying goodbye He loved her so much that he blackened her eye Under the Cumbernauld sky And neither was cumbersome Neither was auld Angels were singing and orphans found parents Who spread all their wages around and around Under the Ullapool moon. Copyright Michael Marra HAMISH Up at Tannadice Framed in woodwork cool as ice Keeping out the wolfs in his particular way A smile and a wave, a miraculous save they say Out runs Hamish and the ball�s in Invergowrie Bay Up at Tannadice as they gently terrorise Call the sentry, Oh Hamish give us song Raising the voices as high as the bridge is long Nasser said hello and did you miss him while His voice was gone I remember that time it was an evening game A European tie in the howling rain Gus Foy pointed to the side of the goal And said "There�s Grace Kelly by Taylor Brother coal" In Tannadice Up at Tannadice Watching as the fortunes rise Smiling when he hears "Ah it�s only a game, Win lose or draw you go home to your bed Just the same" But Hamish stokes young mens dreams into a Burning flame. Copyright Michael Marra If you ever wondered why Michael sometimes opens his set in Italian, here's the reason why. In January 2000 Michael was invited to play a gig in Milan. The club that he played produced translations of five of his songs. Here is the Italian translation of Frida Kahlo's Visit To The Taybridge Bar - LA VISITA DI FRIDA KAHLO ALLA TAYBRIDGE BAR Ci ha caperti una luce rossa arrivata dalla finestra, c'era la pioggia fuori. Cera un silenzia totale E pai e apparsa una visione can un rosa nei capelli ed un onella all'orecchio. Ha detto:"Buenos dias ragazzi, mi sembra il posto giu- sto per fare rientro nella razza umana, Eccomi qui e qui staro fino all'Hasta la Vista' e poi me ne andro per la mia strada. E Vince ha detto: "E' una donna con cui la vita e tata crudule, viveva con un uomo grasso della scuola naif che amava la birra e faceva il furba con le donne. Ma lei lo amava davvero fino a quando la luce si e spenta. Pai ha camminato fino ai cancelli di perla Ha trovato San Pietro, che stava facendo i pesi e le ha detto: "Prenditi un passaggio su questa stella cadente e raggiungi la Tay Bridge Bar. D'ara in poi niente bugie, niente piu lacrime; mai piu ascoltare attraverso le arecchie dei ciccione: niente piu lacrime e niente piu bugie Mai piu guardare tramite gli acchi del ciccione, Diceva di nan essere stata cosi felice da tanto tempo: la testa era rilassata e il corpo stava bene Ha detto:"Metti su Perdido, stasera, stasera e sera giusta Vaglio ballare con Jimmy Howie al chiaro pallore della luna"... Niente piu bugie, niente piu lacrime.... Ci ha coperti una luce rossa Copyright: Michael Marra Guitar Tablature for another of Michael's popular songs is also available. [/size]