Come English Settlement, I had it in my head that I didn’t want to tour.

I’ve always liked the idea of improvised music. Improvised anything. It’s what conversation is.

By the early ’70s I had gotten reasonable and I started to get in hundreds of groups that rehearsed and never played at all. I mean, the most important thing was to look good and have a great name.

Now that I’m out and I’m shouting in doorways Freed from a love more like murder I should be singing but in liberation Feel like a ship with no rudder.

The early gigs were pretty panicky – and great, sweaty fun. We were brand new to most people, and they were willing to take anything brand new, for the first time in years.

I leaned right over to kiss your stoney book A little jealous of the ships with whom you flirt A billion lovers with their cameras Snap to look and in my fantasy I sail beneath your skirt.

It’s sort of what jazz would be if it stopped being snobby and what rock would be if it stopped being stupid.

Other lands became a larder full of all the good things All we had to do was go and take Blood the colour of the rain that grew our wicked harvest Black the colour icing on our cake.

If it’s a good LP, you’ll get that tingle that makes you put it on again no matter what your initial reaction was. On the other hand, if you don’t get that tingle, you’d better take it straight down to the record exchange.

You know, I was such a big Beatles fan, and when I’d buy a new album I’d invariably hate it the first time I heard it ’cause it was a mixture of absolute joy and absolute frustration. I couldn’t grasp what they’d done, and I’d hate myself for that.