A sorrowful contemplation on the pursuit and arc of love.
Randolph Cliff is a corner block of flats overlooking the Water of Leith on the western edge of Edinburgh’s New Town. If you peer over the heightened parapet of the Dean Bridge there’s a sitting statue of a troubled-looking sailor staring up at you from one of the gardens. I took this as inspiration for the track. I read somewhere that he and another 160 people committed suicide, jumping from the bridge. That’s why they heightened it and put spikes on top, in the 1800s.
The song mentions a few other places around Edinburgh – St Bernard’s Well on the Water of Leith, St Margaret’s Loch in Holyrood Park, and The Citadel in Leith. Landscapes I’d been in love in.
The recording is really quite beautiful. The guitars play to one another, there’s no bass, and just a single bass drum beat, that switches to the off-beat on the choruses. Lots of space. Lace-like strings appear from the ether, as do a koto, and a sombre ukulele in the closing few bars. Occasional finger bells resonate higher frequencies at start, middle and end.
For the main vocal we patched the mic through the effects unit of an old portable studio. It transformed the feel, akin to pressing a sound-like John Lennon button. I seem to have pulled my soul out of the depths for this vocal. I was deeply in love when I wrote it, and channelling 80s Hall and Oates in parts. For once it feels authentic. Underneath, Steve talks a breathy, bassy drone which adds more intensity to the piece.
I think we really bagged this one.
The finger-picked chords are C⁶, Fmaj⁷, B♭, Dm⁷, G, Am.
Lyrics
Oh Randolph Cliff
Perched upon the edge of town
Prince of the abyss, below
Oh Randolph, Randolph
The river flows beneath the bridge
No matter where you are it is
Forever changing
A mirror and a thousand million songs
She drank from St Bernard’s Well
A potion profound
Hand in hand ’round St Margaret’s Loch
He thought he was found
Oh Randolph Cliff
Contemplating separation
Cutting himself adrift, again
Randolph
Will you ever reach the shore
Heed the word for more than
Just a day or two?
In a garden ‘neath The Citadel
Their love grew in the sun
Midst the dark of a New Year’s Day
The weight was a tonne
The universe is nested
In fingertips
That touch the earth, the air
The sunlight in her hair
She drank from St Bernard’s Well
A potion profound
Hand in hand ’round St Margaret’s Loch
He thought he had found her
Supporting music is life support:
Buy 24-bit/44.1kHz .WAV of Randolph Cliff for £2 on Bandcamp
Written, produced and recorded by The Suns Of Albert in a Seafield flat on a Mac Book Pro (2012), an Mbox 2 Pro A/D, and Adobe Audition CS6.