Easier Said than Done (‘Fear’ Album version)
Easier Said than done (2002 Re-recording)
Easier Said than done (2010 Re-recording)
Song Info
Music : Peter Nuttall
Lyrics : Ian Forbes
Date Written : 23rd July 1994
Album : Fear (Released September 1994)
Between 1991 and 1993, I built up a lot of what I suppose you'd call 'riffs'. These were 4 or 8 bar chord sequences or little melodies which I'd play over and over again. I used a lot of these 'riffs' as bases for songs when it came to writing Fear and Fear 2.
'The 17 year locust' was built from a riff, 'Interlude 1' was a 48 second long riff which never got expanded - both ended up on 'Fear'. You can hear another in the introduction to 'Stranger in the Mirror' from 'Fear 2' but a fourth never saw the light of day because the lyrics were 'My head is spinning, my feet don't touch the ground, the life within me shines for miles around'. Thinking myself a lyrical genius, I recorded the track, listened back and realised that the first part was 'Feels like I'm in love' by Kelly Marie. It was suitably ruined and I've since lost both the backing track and full recording. Weirdly, the exact same synth part (arpeggios) with the exact same chord sequence appeared on an Erasure song two years later called 'Tenderest Moments'. It was like Vince Clarke crept into my imagination one night and stole my thoughts.
'Easier Said Than Done' came from another riff I started playing around the time I was being heavily influenced by Howard Jones' 'The Prisoner' in early '94. Its energy definitely inspired both 'Easier Said...' and 'Fatal Attraction'.
In and around 1993, Ian gave me a stack of stuff he'd written which ranged from full lyrics, half-ideas, diary entries and lyrics from existing songs. Lots of songs came out of those, namely 'Never', 'What a Waste', 'Take the Chance', 'I can Wait', and all of the Citadel EP. The lyrics from 'Easier Said...' appeared on more than one piece of A4 in slightly different forms. Ian takes up the tale :
Sometimes song titles appear out of nowhere and are the obvious choice. Usually it's a case of working back through some lyrics to crystalise the title into an overall representation of the song. Sometimes the title comes first.
Sometime in 1992 or 1993, a friend of ours, Steph Lawton, came round and we compared lyrics. Steph had begun to learn guitar and write songs of his own. His lyrics were pretty good. I was particularly impressed with "Take Drugs" which was a Take That piss-take. We decided to come up with a song title then both go away and write lyrics with that title. Well, I did and Steph didn't. (Steph also suggested the title 'In Extremis' which Ian wrote lyrics to and also appeared on 'Fear' - Peter)
The lyrics are very 'sixth form' so there are no great shakes with it but the song marked a development in Pete's composing. With retrospect it feels like it marked the beginning of the path to Magic. A greater understanding of getting the right sounds out of the keyboards. It also marks a time in my life that was great yet I was usually pretty miserable. This is 'the lyrical tragedies of teenhood' on full display. I generally struggle to write then it all comes at once. I remember this flowing straight out of the heart.
I've never made a secret of the fact I wanted to be Erasure. Me as Vince Clarke and someone else singing and co-writing. Until that happened (so I thought at the time) I had to commit all the songs to tape with my own voice. 'Easier Said' was the song that made me go and get singing lessons; I had to discover a higher range to get near the chorus. I couldn't transpose the song as in those days, the backing track was committed to tape and the keyboard sequencer memory wiped (no save to disc on a PSS-790) to make room for the next song. I had to sing it in the key it was in, plus, transposed down, it sounded weird.
I'm not sure if this is entirely accurate but my misty distant memory tells me Douglas wanted the 'Easier Said...' music for a lyric, 'Fatal Attraction', he'd written. I think he might have heard the backing track and written the lyrics to fit (I may even have given him the music and asked him to write lyrics for it) - but when I got the lyric off Doug, I'd already put Ian's words to the music. Doug also told me that his sister had told him that the 'Easier Said...' backing track sounded like Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers(!)
'Easier Said' and 'Fatal Attraction' were written within a week of each other and they suggested that there was very definitely a songwriter in me trying to get out. 'Easier Said...' was written in July 1994; it took 15 more songs and 8 months before I wrote something that sounded like a single.
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