Part Of Steel

This song was one of the first songs I ever wrote.  I was living in a squat at the time near Regents Park in a Crown Commission property, an old Carriage House.  My manager at that time, Paula Adams, was friends with Poli Palmer and persuaded Poli to give me time in his home studio in Fulham, London.  I recorded 5 demos at Poli’s place.  There were some difficult songs in my repertoire then, but Part Of Steel was one of the better ones.  Poli was a very gracious guy, both he and Mitch Mitchell  gave me great support in those early days.  Part of Steel was one of the songs Simon Draper at Virgin Records heard that got me a recording contract.    I don’t really know much about writing this song, it just happened, seemed to work live, and by the time we got to record it at Advision Studios, Dennis MacKay, Laurence Diana and Evan Hughes made the recording shimmer with outboard gear like this Eventide Harmonizer.

Here is the lyric:

behind a piece of glass
out of this world i’ll pass
they will annihilate
darling don’t seperate
oh my emotion
slide down to the ground
my lonely frame
exterminating change

i’m going to crash inside
when lovers eyes are wide
i’ll play my part of steel
rolling with fortune’s wheel
for vanity to break up little me
my devotees just love the very sound

i sing a lonely song
i sing it all night long
here comes my broken cup
my love we’ll patch it up

i’ll play my part of steel
rolling with fortune’s wheel
i’m going to crash inside
when lovers eyes are wide
oh my emotion
slide down to the ground
my lonely frame
exterminating change

they will annihilate
darling don’t seperate
here comes my broken cup
my love we’ll patch it up
for vanity to break up little me
my devotees just love the very sound

i sing a lonely song
i sing it all night long
sometimes i’m tired of it
and when i’m tired of it
it just goes..

Copyright © 1979 EMI Virgin Songs Inc