1. This Is It (Your Soul) 3:53
2. One Tongue 4:29
3. An Emotional Time 4:27
4. Be Good 3:52
5. Good For You 4:04
6. Isn’t It Amazing 5:48
7. Thing Of Beauty 5:26
8. Your Nature 5:07
9. Spirit Of The Land 4:18
10. Gypsy Fair 3:47
11. Stand Beside Me 6:35
All songs written by Hothouse Flowers except tracks 1 & 3 – Hothouse Flowers/Dave Stewart. Track 10 written by Ó Maonlaí /O’Toole/O’Braonain/Jennings.
THE LADS AND WHAT THEY PLAYED
Liam Ó Maonlaí – Lead and backing vocals, Piano, Hammond Organ, Wurlitzer, Low Whistle, Bodhran, Yodaki (Didjeridoo)
Fiachna Ó Braonáin – Electric and Acoustic Guitars, Bouzouki, Backing Vocals
Peter O’Toole – Bass Guitar, Bouzouki, Backing Vocals
Leo Barnes – Saxophones, Hammond Organ, Backing Vocals, Wurlitzer
Jerry Fehily – Drums
Produced by Stewart Levine
Recording & Mix engineer Daren Klein
Dempsey – Cover Design
Mark Farrell – Studio Personnel
Mark Irwin – Studio Personnel
Daren Klein – Engineer, Mixing
Darren Kline – Engineer, Mixing
Stewart Levine – Producer
Dan McLoughlin – Studio Personnel
Lewis Mulatero – Photography
Marnie Riley – Assistant Engineer
Matt Snowball – Studio Personnel
Todd Vos – Studio Personnel
John Yates – Assistant Engineer
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Once again when we came off the road we went into The Factory for a period of time. Soundcheck tapes were listened to and any hint of an idea was worked on. At this stage the idea of co-writing came up.
Liam, Peter and Fiachna went to Los Angeles to meet possible producers and to write with a man called Will Jennings.Will already had a long list of hits including the award winning ‘You Lift Me Up We Where We Belong’, ‘Streetlight’ and ‘You Might Need Somebody’. The man surprised us. A Texan with a real love for good coffee, W.B Yeats, rebel yell and, of course, music. He told stories that made us laugh, sang songs that made us cry and brought out a side of us that was suppressed. A new way of writing and we wrote ‘Gypsy Fair’ with Will. Also he played us demos he had done with Roy Orbison just before he died.
Will suggested we meet Stuart Levine while we were in L.A. Stuart produced most of Simply Red’s stuff as well as The Commodores, Lional Richie, Hugh Masacala and more. He listened to our stuff with great enthusiasm and had some very positive energy that felt fresh. Maybe it was the jive talk which he is famous for. So we went home feeling good with new songs, a possible producer and a new lease of life. Co-write number two was with Dave Stewart. He came over to Dublin with a riff in his head. Started playing it and suddenly ‘Your Soul’ was on the go. He is forever being creative – be it music, photography or practical jokes. A fun person. ‘An Emotional Time’ and one other song were composed.
So eventually we split the recording into two sessions, taking a break for some other committee to approve or not. To get the ball rolling we set off to London to Air Studios’ top floor which overlooked Oxford Street. Here we set up with Stuart Levine who grooved in the playing room with us. We spent most of four weeks here, away from the hustle of the street below, a much more relaxed session compared with our first visit years beforehand while working on ‘People’. Next stop was upstate New York. Woodstock to be precise. Here we lived in a five-bedroom bungalow just outside of Woodstock. The studio was called Dreamland and was a renovated church with stained glass windows presence and had loads of great instruments to inspire. But in after thought I feel we were only going through the motions. Getting as good a job done in the time we were there. Tiredness and frustration hovered. Loneliness and yearning. Thank God for the Tinker Street Cafe in Woodstock town. We used to go there after a day’s work, have a few drinks and get up and play some songs.
Here we met Hugh Masacala who came to blow on ‘One Tongue’. Eventually, it was mixed and we moved on across the globe again singing our songs until one day the stop sign went up and we were able to walk by ourselves for a while….
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COMMENTS
See also the story behind ‘This Is It (Your Soul) here.
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Label: SIRE/WEA
Release date:
23rd March, 1993
Catalog Number: 35046
ASIN: B00004T4B4
UPC: 643443504621
Limited Edition release date: 15th July, 1999. Reissue of 1993 release
Label: Universal/Polygram
ASIN: B00004RKII
Additional images and extensions
‘Songs From The Rain’ CD Sampler:
01. An Emotional Time
02. One Tongue
03. Thing Of Beauty
04. This Is It (Your Soul)
05. Stand Beside Me
Japan release only with bonus tracks
01. Let Him Know
02. Same Song
03. Getting Too Much
‘Songs From The Rain’ Songbook