Walking Back Home

Last updated

Walking Back Home
DBWalkingBackHome.jpg
Studio album by
Released11 October 1999
Genre Pop, rock
Label Sony Music Entertainment
Producer Deacon Blue, Jon Kelly, Steve Osborne, Warne Livesey
Deacon Blue chronology
Riches & More
(1997)
Walking Back Home
(1999)
Homesick
(2001)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [1]

Walking Back Home is an album by Scottish pop rock band Deacon Blue released in 1999. It was their first album since reforming that year after disbanding in 1994. A part studio/part compilation album, it contains nine of their earlier songs coupled with eight brand-new or previously unreleased songs.

Scotland Country in Europe, part of the United Kingdom

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Sharing a border with England to the southeast, Scotland is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, by the North Sea to the northeast and by the Irish Sea to the south. In addition to the mainland, situated on the northern third of the island of Great Britain, Scotland has over 790 islands, including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides.

Pop rock is rock music with a greater emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude. Originating in the 1950s as an alternative to rock and roll, early pop rock was influenced by the beat, arrangements, and style of rock and roll. It may be viewed as a distinct genre field, rather than music that overlaps with pop and rock. The detractors of pop rock often deride it as a slick, commercial product, less authentic than rock music.

Deacon Blue Scottish band

Deacon Blue are a Scottish pop rock band formed in Glasgow during 1985. The line-up of the band consists of vocalists Ricky Ross and Lorraine McIntosh, keyboard player James Prime and drummer Dougie Vipond. The band released their debut album, Raintown, on 1 May 1987 in the United Kingdom and in the United States in February 1988. Their second album, When the World Knows Your Name (1989), topped the UK Albums Chart for two weeks, and included "Real Gone Kid" which became their first top ten single in the UK Singles Chart.

Contents

Track listing

All songs written by Ricky Ross, except where noted:

Ricky Ross (musician) singer

Richard Alexander "Ricky" Ross is a Scottish singer-songwriter and broadcaster. He is the lead singer of the rock band Deacon Blue.

  1. "Love Hurts" (Bryant, Acuff-Rose) — 4:24
  2. "Jesus Do Your Hands Still Feel the Rain" — 5:14
  3. "The Very Thing" — 3:35
  4. "The Day that Jackie Jumped the Jail" — 3:55
  5. "Love and Regret" — 5:02
  6. "Christmas and Glasgow" — 5:12
    • from the Oscar Marzaroli tribute album The Tree and the Bird and the Fish and the Bell

    Oscar Marzaroli was an Italian-born Scottish photographer of post-World War II urban Scotland. He was born in Castiglione Vara in northwest Italy and came to Scotland with his family at the age of two.

  7. "The Wildness" (Ross, Prime) — 5:48
  8. "When You Are Young" — 3:49
  9. "Love's Great Fears" — 2:44
  10. "Chocolate Girl" — 3:17
  11. "Plastic Shoes" — 3:40
  12. "A Brighter Star than You Will Shine" (Ross, Prime) — 4:38
  13. "Beautiful Stranger" (Ross, Prime) — 3:55
  14. "All I Want" — 4:44
  15. "When Will You (Make My Telephone Ring) [Edit]" — 4:21
  16. "Walking Back Home" — 5:01
  17. "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" (Bacharach, David) — 2:46

Jon Kelly is a British audio engineer and record producer, who began his career as an engineer at Air London Studios. He has produced albums and singles for Chris Rea, The Damned, Kate Bush, Pele, The Beautiful South, Prefab Sprout, Deacon Blue, Heather Nova, Rosalie Deighton, The Levellers, Fish, Lynsey de Paul, Mickey Joe Harte, Nolwenn Leroy and Richard Ashcroft. He also mixed several tracks on Tori Amos’s debut album, Little Earthquakes.

Stephen John "Steve" Osborne is a British record producer, living in Bath, England. He has worked with a wide variety of musicians, including A-ha, New Order, Elbow, U2, Happy Mondays, Placebo, Gregory Porter, Doves, KT Tunstall, Vanessa Carlton, Simple Minds, etc.

Personnel

Deacon Blue

Lorraine McIntosh Scottish singer and actress

Lorraine McIntosh is a Scottish singer best known as a vocalist with Scottish band Deacon Blue. She has also achieved success as an actress, starring in River City and appearing in Taggart among her most notable roles in television.

James Prime is best known as the keyboard player for Deacon Blue. He also lectures at the University of the West of Scotland. Known as a Hammond/piano player, his talents have been sought after by John Martyn, Johnny Hallyday, Phil Cunningham, Eddi Reader and Little Richard..

Ewen Vernal Scottish musician

Ewen Vernal is a Scottish musician.

Other personnel

Song Commentary

Quotes from Ricky Ross included in liner notes:

Jesus Do Your Hands Still Feel the Rain

"'Jesus Do Your Hands Still Feel the Rain' was written for a film commission in 94 just as the band was about to fold. We did have a go at recording it but, in hindsight, didn't make the best job of it. The song was dropped from the film and despite visiting it occasionally in the years between I've never found a good arrangement. This time Ewen was on holiday and it seems to have made all the difference... Listen carefully and you hear him putting 10p in the phone as he drops in a bass part (turn it up very loud and you'll hear the organ at Blackpool Tower)."

Christmas and Glasgow

"'Christmas and Glasgow' was recorded at CaVa — Robin Rankine must have been involved — and I'm sure Rachel Smillie played that whistle. It was only available before on the Oscar Marzaroli tribute record — you can see his work on this sleeve and a few others from our early days."

When You Are Young

"'When You Are Young' was recorded as part of Fellow Hoodlums and played a good deal live at that time. Most of this is the original live take with Gavin Wright's fiddle added before we mixed."

Beautiful Stranger

"'Beautiful Stranger' was recorded in a mill in Cookham and finished in Eden . . . that's in London . . . around 1993. It was only previously available to vinyl junkies . . . and predates any Madonna song of the same name and mentions the island of Gigha which no Madonna song I know ever did."

All I Want

"'All I Want' started life as a possible track for the last studio album [ Whatever You Say, Say Nothing ] then got left behind. For technophobes this is from a rough mix, an old DAT and no one remembers when we recorded it or who pressed the red button — but it's as good as anything else here"

Walking Back Home

"'Walking Back Home' was recorded at CaVa . . . that's in Glasgow with Ewen, Doug and myself and later Graeme and Lorraine overdubbing. Where was Jim? . . . I want to dedicate this to two of the people mentioned on the track: Warbeck and Linda . . . we all sang and we'll keep on singing."

Related Research Articles

Graeme Hunter Kelling was a Scottish musician and the original guitarist with the Scottish pop band Deacon Blue.

<i>Raintown</i> (album) 1987 studio album by Deacon Blue

Raintown is the debut album by Scottish pop band Deacon Blue. The album, written largely by lead singer Ricky Ross, was released in the United Kingdom on 1 May 1987. It proved a commercial success and has to date sold around a million copies, peaking in the UK Albums Chart at no. 14 and remaining in the charts for a year and a half.

<i>When the World Knows Your Name</i> 1989 studio album by Deacon Blue

When the World Knows Your Name is the second album by the Scottish rock band Deacon Blue. It was released in 1989 and attained the number 1 chart position in the UK Albums Chart.

<i>Fellow Hoodlums</i> 1991 studio album by Deacon Blue

Fellow Hoodlums is the third studio album by the Scottish rock band Deacon Blue, released in 1991. It includes four singles; "Your Swaying Arms", the Top 10 hit "Twist and Shout", "Closing Time" and "Cover from the Sky".

<i>Whatever You Say, Say Nothing</i> 1993 studio album by Deacon Blue

Whatever You Say, Say Nothing is the fourth studio album by Scottish rock band Deacon Blue, released in 1993. Changing from producer Jon Kelly to the team of Steve Osborne and Paul Oakenfold, this album presented a change in musical style for Deacon Blue. While the band's songwriting remained based in rock and blues, many of the tracks moved into alternative rock territory in their presentation.

<i>Ooh Las Vegas</i> 1990 compilation album by Deacon Blue

Ooh Las Vegas is a compilation album by the Scottish rock band Deacon Blue. It contains B-sides, unreleased tracks, and songs written for William McIlvanney's television play Dreaming.

<i>Riches</i> (album) 1988 compilation album by Deacon Blue

Riches is a limited edition compilation album that was temporarily included with the Raintown album by the Scottish rock band Deacon Blue, starting in February 1988. Only 20,000 copies were made.

<i>Our Town – The Greatest Hits</i> 1994 greatest hits album by Deacon Blue

Our Town – The Greatest Hits is the first greatest hits compilation album by the Scottish rock band Deacon Blue. The album reached the top spot of the UK Albums Chart in May 1994 for two weeks, and has been certified Platinum. It was also their second and final number one album to date. It is also notable for being the 500th number one album since the charts inception in 1956.

<i>Riches & More</i> 1997 compilation album by Deacon Blue

Riches & More is a compilation album for the Scottish rock band Deacon Blue. It combines the Riches limited edition bonus album that was temporarily packaged with copies of Raintown with the Four Bacharach & David Songs EP. However, this compilation does not include the piano version of the song "Raintown", which was the fifth track on the initial release of Riches.

<i>Homesick</i> (Deacon Blue album) 2001 studio album by Deacon Blue

Homesick is a studio album from Scottish rock band Deacon Blue. Released in May 2001, it was the band's fifth studio album. It was their final album to feature guitarist Graeme Kelling, who died in 2004.

<i>The Very Best of Deacon Blue</i> 2001 greatest hits album by Deacon Blue

The Very Best of Deacon Blue is a greatest hits compilation for the Scottish rock band Deacon Blue. It is composed of singles and album tracks from the band's previous albums, plus two B-sides, "Indigo Sky" from the "Hang Your Head" single, and "When You Were a Boy You Were a Beautiful Boy" from the "Everytime You Sleep" single.

<i>Singles</i> (Deacon Blue album) 2006 greatest hits album by Deacon Blue

Singles is a singles compilation by the Scottish rock band Deacon Blue. It contains three new tracks, "Bigger than Dynamite", "Haunted", and "The One About Loneliness", that were recorded by the band in March, 2006.

Dignity (Deacon Blue song) 1987 single by Deacon Blue

"Dignity" is a song by Deacon Blue, which was the band's first official release. It is one of their most popular songs and it is usually played as the final song at concerts. It received the most public votes for the 1980s songs in the Scotland's Greatest Album contest run by STV in 2011, and was featured on the 12 track compilation. It was also sung at the closing ceremony at the 2014 Commonwealth Games held in Glasgow.

Chocolate Girl (Deacon Blue song) 1988 single by Deacon Blue

"Chocolate Girl" is the fourth song released as a single from the album Raintown by the Scottish group Deacon Blue. The single version differed from the album version of the song. It is a remix by the American mixer Michael Brauer, which adds a longer musical interlude in the middle of the song and gives greater emphasis to B.J. Cole's pedal steel guitar in parts of the song.

Closing Time (Deacon Blue song) single by Deacon Blue

"Closing Time" is the third single from the album Fellow Hoodlums by the Scottish rock band Deacon Blue. It peaked at No. 42 in the UK Singles Chart.

Only Tender Love 1993 single by Deacon Blue

Only Tender Love is the third single from Deacon Blue's album Whatever You Say, Say Nothing. The song on the single is an edited version of the album track. The track reached No. 22 in the UK Singles Chart in May 1993.

<i>Four Decades of Song</i> compilation album by Shirley Bassey

Four Decades of Song is a three-CD compilation from Shirley Bassey issued in 1996. This set features 54 songs recorded between 1959 and 1993. In 2008 EMI repackaged and retitled this boxset as Shirley Bassey The Collection; the new version had six extra tracks.

References