OK, so the first candidate for Behind The Song is one of the Sink songs that I’m proudest of, Big Red Car; taken from the debut album, Another Love Triangle.

• Download the album version (5.17MB)

Recorded in 1989
Ed: vocals & guitars - Paul: Bass - Memphis J: drums & vocals

• Download the live version (5.63MB)

Recorded live in Otwock, Poland in 1990
Ed: vocals & guitar - John Ruscoe: guitar & vocals - James Kermack: drums & vocals - Dave Turner: bass*

Big Red Car stands out for several reasons; the tune is bouncy and catchy, but still interesting and not just punk-by-numbers as there are several layers going on, the words take me back to a time and a place and when I bother to think about what they mean I’m right back there scribbling down the lyrics on a piece of scrap paper at 7AM in a German service station (but more about that later), it’s a tour song (more about that later too) and finally, I like it because the recorded version is deliberately different to the way we played it live.

Music

I can’t really remember where the music for this one came from. I think I wrote most of it by myself, but the album credits ‘Sink’ with writing the music so I can only assume that we arranged it as a group (i.e. myself, Paul & Memphis). The swirly middle section definitely has that DC thing going on (Rites of Spring, One Last Wish, Embrace…the bands that I shamelessly pilfered from for years), but the rest I’m not sure about. The Senseless Things had a track out around that time with a chugged riff looping over a descending bass line (I think it was called Too Much Kissing) and I liked that a lot, but Big Red Car may have been written first so I doubt it was a direct influence. The chorus has the inevitable Husker Du feel that all of us Ipswich boys had beaten into us at Rock School. One thing I remember is that the Replacements’ Don’t Tell A Soul album was knocking about at that time I nicked a production tip or two from there when we came to mix Big Red Car. OK, you can’t really tell all these years down the line, but the delay on the lead guitars and the chorus effect on the acoustic (something I generally steered clear of and have never used since, but it kind of works here) is straight out of the Don’t Tell A Soul playbook.

Lyrics

In early 1989 we had the massive good fortune to be asked to tour Europe with the Instigators. It was a very formative time for me as I’d recently left the Stupids to strike out on my own with Sink (little did I know that my ‘career’ in the music biz had already peaked at the age of 23!!). Whilst the Stupids had toured the UK, the US and even Australia we’d only managed a few shows in Europe and I’d always wanted to tour there properly; this was my chance. Throughout the mid/late 80’s and very early 90’s the scene in Europe was awesome. It was massive, it was scary, it was fun, it was chaotic, it was dangerous, it was organized and disorganized at the same time, it was full of amazing people (most of them insane), it was tiring and it was fucking hard work, but the crowds were enthusiastic and seemed to like Sink which was great. Above all it was an education and provided very good raw material for songwriters with a diaristic bent. That first tour in ‘89 lived up to all my expectations and as a result we came back from Europe with a fresh crop of songs ready for Another Love Triangle which we recorded a few months later; Hard As Hate, Backwater, On The Tracks and a few others were written on or about that tour.

I think all of Big Red Car was written on the Instigators tour. It’s a standard ‘Ed song’ of that period in that it’s not about a single subject, but is instead a series of loosely related verses all thrown together. My deal at the time was that I’d rather have a song where each verse was well written and interesting - even if they were about something different - rather than a song that stuck to one subject, but ran out of steam creatively and resorted to repetition or just got boring. A lot of Sink songs have this mixed subject matter approach to lyric writing. These days I’ve learnt to write better lyrics, but at the time it was a good way round a problem.
Anyway, whilst on the tour I’d had a dream about how my girlfriend of the time had driven off in a flashy American car with none other than Milo of The Descendents. I called her and told her about the dream and she said she’d had a one that same week about how she and I had been locked in prison together, but that every time she went near me, I magically turned into Henry Rollins. She, being a big Rollins fan, probably didn’t object to that one little bit, but it was weird coincidence since neither of us made a habit out of dreaming about punk rock singers.

A lot of Sink lyrics also contain a reference to something that was going on at the time I was writing the song. In the case of Big Red Car, we’d stopped early one morning at a service station on a German motorway and I noticed a bloke having problems getting fags out of a ciggie machine; it reminded me of home and how in London people were always losing money in the chocolate machines they used to have on the platforms in the Underground. Since I was sitting at a nearby table working on the song, the cigarette man made it into verse 2.

The chorus I’m not so sure about, but I think it’s probably a bit of youthful defiance thrown in for good measure. A sort of, “we’re poor and scruffy, but we’re nice people really and anyway we’re young so the future is ours”….that sort of thing. Oh yeah, and it fitted in with the car theme from verse 1.