The Save Us Story

Sometime in 1992, I thought it would be a good idea to write a Rock Song in Waltz time because of my love for the Sensational Alex Harvey Band’s live album, which featured a brilliant version of Delilah (the Tom Jones classic) which is in Waltz time or ¾ in musical terms, and in my opinion better than the Tom Jones original version.
Taking that as a start point, I then commenced writing a chord progression that would go with the ‘Um pa pa’ rhythm of a Waltz as I needed a set of chords that would inspire a Chorus. At that time I would have been politically minded with regards to the greed and meglomaniac behaviour of World leaders that were hiding behind democracy as an excuse for totalitarianism and through their corrupt leadership would condemn millions of people to poverty and starvation.
So, because we needed saving from these monsters I came up with the words ‘Save Us’ as a plea to the world to react. As it happened those words fitted perfectly with the set of waltz chords I had put together and so the hook and chorus were written. I then started on the verse lyrics in keeping with the rhythm of the groove and came up with three verses of poignant lyrics to match the angst of the chorus eg “Sitting round tables, we talk about those who have none””We paint ourselves white and say look what a good job we’ve done” written with contempt and irony towards the hedonistic leaders they refer to.
As soon as I had the skeleton of ‘Save Us’ written, I took it to rehearsal to get the band playing the basic structure which then developed fairly quickly into a full arrangement which included a bass and drums break down section that mimicked the break down section in the SAHB’s version of ‘Delilah’. ‘Save Us’ came together really quickly as it was one of the songs I had basically written before I took it to the band combined with the knowledge that I knew exactly what the arrangement and delivery was going to be.