Today, I have released ‘Good / Brian Silk … the best of’ – a compilation of what I considered to be the best songs I had written and recorded up to 1999. 14 tracks, written over a period stretching back to my teenage years!
None of the tracks on Good enjoyed wide-spread distribution or audience at the time, or before or since. This was before the internet took off, so I had to mainly rely on CD as a way of people hearing my music. Very few did. I had sent off demo after demo to record companies, but drew a a blank. I used to gig some of these songs on the west London pub circuit, but that was to small audiences.
Listening back to the tracks, in preparation for publishing Good, I think some of them are … good. The chords, the structures and arrangements, and some of the musicianship on many of the tracks are pretty deft, in my opinion. But, without a proper ‘band’ sound, they probably fell short of what record companies felt they could build on. Then there are the lyrics – sometimes painfully introspective and somewhat naïve. And all delivered with a ‘tinny’ vocal. I can see why I never made it as a recording artist.
Perhaps some of these and my other songs and pieces of music will finally be recognised as being as good as tracks that have been successful. I’m not claiming to be a Lennon or McCartney, just that some of my music is as good as much that has been featured in mass media. I recognise that no record company or music promoter is going to be interested in me as an artist, now; I’m at least 25 years too old for their image of what they believe people would be interested in. I could be wrong.
I’d be delighted if young artists or bands were interested in my songs in some way… with my permission of course.
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