Songs: Easily Impressed

notes / gigs / releases

When I buy a pint of milk on the way home from work
I think "I bought that with the money I earnt"
"Working all week long in a job I like"
And it leads me to think about my whole life
Like the friends I've got and the flat I have
And the fact that I am acting like a full-grown man
And the best thing about this Babylon I've built
Is that I got it all out of a pint of milk

And I guess
That I am Easily Impressed
Oh Yeah yeah yeah, yes YES
Easily Impressed

I like a posh cup of coffee with a plastic spout
The ease of navigation of the London Underground
A Remington Strimmer for a hairy nose
The futuristic possibilities of Mobile Phones
Email! Dinosaurs! Washing Machines!
The trams of Sheffield! Vegetarian Cheese!
It's a string of epiphanies every day
That's my philosophy, although some might say (or suggest)

That I am Easily Impressed
Oh yeah yeah yeah, yes YES
Easily Impressed

(Oi! Hibbett!)
�����How may I help you?
(You don't really mean that)
�����Well, I'm afraid I do, you see
Given the chance to choose or pick
Between despairing of life or taking delight in it
I'll take the latter
Because it makes me happy
And surely that's what it's all about?
The wonders of the world
Be it mountains or taking a taxi
Childbirth or real draught bitter in a can
Love or microwaved popcorn
Oh yeah yeah yeah, yes YES.
I guess I'm Easily Impressed
Oh yeah yeah yeah, yes YES
Easily Impressed

Published by Wipe Out Music Publishing

I'm a happy sort of person, you can probably tell from the songs on the album. Being Generally Happy is GRATE, and I take a Happy Demeanour to be a sign of someone who's SORTED, although GOODNESS KNOWS enough fuckwits seem to reckon that acting Fed Up, slagging everything off and being a Miserable Sod will make them look clever. I've always thought (or hoped) that that only works with other fuckwits, but I've also found that many sensible and pleasant people of my acquaintance also subscribe to this opinion. For instance, over the Christmas of 2000 i was in an especially good mood which I tried to share with loads of people, often detailing at LENGTH how I thought the world was a Good Place with (mostly) Decent People in it who, given half a chance, would tend to do the right thing. The more I said this, the more people would look at me as if I had gone BARKING MAD, and when I went on to offer a list of The Little Things In Life as evidence of the Grooviness Of Existence many of them reached for the LOONY ALARM, with one being moved to say "You must be Easily Impressed!"

Well, yes, and what's wrong with that? What's wrong with being HAPPY? I think people are SCARED to admit it when they like something - the sad truth is that it's EASIER to say something's rubbish. There's less risk in saying you DON'T like something because thenyou don't have to commit to it, don't have to worry about other people NOT liking it. You won't look UNCOOL, and you certainly won't have to display any real emotion, or stand up for something you actually believe in. Well, bollocks to that.

This song is a list of brilliant things that I like. The first verse is a feeling I always used to get walking back from the corner newsagent's shop (see FACTMAP) to my flat, while the second verse is a selection of Things Enjoyed And Talked About on Rob's 30th birthday, when we spent a brilliant weekend in London. On the Sunday morning Rob was SO hungover he got a NOSE BLEED, that's something you don't see every day!

The final verse is, yet again, an attempt to write a song of my own that'd have the Audience Participation ACTION of my version of "Boom Shake The Room", and usually it does pretty well. It's also another example of my ongoing attempts to shake myself free of the bounds of the verse/chorus/middle-eight structure. The whole song's based on a single riff, playing a G Chord, then moving it way up the NECK, then playing a D in the same place (technical speak). I'd been playing that riff for YEARS, just waiting for the right words to come along, and it sounded so cool when it finally came together that I didn't feel the need to sneak a chord change in anywhere.

As far is I can remember, the recording was pretty straightforward, and when we talked about putting out a single it was bloody obvious which one it'd be. When we finished "Say It With Words" I hoped that I could write a song as good as "Born With The Century" (which I thought was Pretty Good), but I never expected it to be overtaken in the Best Song I Have Written (According To Me) STAKES by something so jolly... I guess I ALSO was taken in by the Miserable=Clever MYTH, eh readers?