Song Lyric Sunday: P For Persuasion

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For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday Jim’s post – Common to All Members of a Family – is inviting us to play a song that starts with the first letter of our surname. So in my case ‘Pilcher’ gives me a P to work with. This is quite possibly the easiest SLS in which I have taken part, as it took me no more than a nanosecond to choose my song. When you’ve been a fan of someone’s music for more than 55 years and he has something as beautiful as this one in his catalogue it is a bit of a no brainer, really.

As the uploader says, the “video quality isn’t great but the performance sure is!” This is my choice for today’s theme:

That was Richard Thompson and his son Teddy playing Persuasion, on a broadcast from Scottish TV in 1999. The lyrics run:

You and ITempted by the promise of a different lifeTime has fledThere’s a constant battle running through my head
 
I don’t know what to do‘Cause I still believeAfter all the foolish things that we’ve been throughI will always be a man who’s open to…..
 
PersuasionBlind romanceThere’ll be no half measures given half the chanceBut we never learn
 
Trusting in the fire while the cruel flame burnsAnd we need to rebuildWhat was never thereWhat got left behind
 
After all the foolish things that we’ve been throughI can always make a start on something newAnd I’ll always be a man who’s open to…..Persuasion
 
And it’s written in my heartSo that everybody could see itAnd it’s written in my soulAfter all I still believe it
 
I still believe it
I still believe it yeahI still believeI don’t know what to do, ’cause I still believe
 
After all the foolish things you put me throughI can always make a start on someting newAnd I’ll always be a man who’s open to…..Persuasion, persuasion
 
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Tim Finn, Richard Thompson, Peter Filleul
Persuasion lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
 
The tune of Persuasion was originally written by Richard Thompson and Peter Filleul for the soundtrack of a movie called Sweet Talker, which was a joint Australian/American production, released in 1991 and starring Bryan Brown and Karen Allen. It wasn’t a great success, and I don’t think it was ever shown other than in those two countries – I can find no box office stats from anywhere else. Its Executive Producer was Taylor Hackford, Helen Mirren’s husband, and he kept changing the movie around and making it a nightmare for the two musicians, so much so that Richard said afterwards that he would never do another soundtrack. He did relent and do two more, though it took him a while to change his mind as the others were in 2005 and 2019!
 
Out of interest, this is the movie soundtrack instrumental version:
 
 
A nice relaxed feel for a soundtrack, but I prefer it with lyrics! These came about when Tim Finn (of Crowded House) wrote them and released his version in July 1993 on his album Before And After. Richard liked them and has regularly played the song in concert, both with and without Teddy – and there is a video of him playing it with Tim’s brother Neil. It has been included on two of his live albums – Celtschmerz, in 1998, and Live From Austin, TX in 2005. He has never included it on a studio album, but he and Teddy did record a studio version for a compilation, Action Packed, in 2001, and a solo version was also on his 2014 album Acoustic Classics. It is such a superb song that any version is worth hearing, but I’m closing with the studio version with Teddy, which is simply lovely:
 
 
A slightly unusual one for me today, in that I’ve played you three videos but they are all of the same song, and none are cover versions. It is such a staggeringly good song that I think it is worth it, though: a piece of musical beauty.
 
See you again for Tuesday Tunes 😊

 

34 thoughts on “Song Lyric Sunday: P For Persuasion”

  2. Pingback: So Long, July | Take It Easy

    • Maybe it did. The album made the top thirty here and this as a single made our top fifty. I don’t recall hearing his version before I put this together: I was planning on including it in the post but it is nowhere near as good as Richard and Teddy’s version.

      As you say, RT has a whole catalogue of great songs, and Teddy has made some fine albums too.

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    • You really have missed out there, Glyn. He has a huge back catalogue of great music. Sandy was wonderful, and a tragic loss. RT is still friendly with FC, and is playing at their annual Cropredy festival the weekend after next.

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  10. What a beautiful song, which I’ve now included on a Spotify playlist. At first I didn’t see your explanation of the Tim Finn connection, now it makes sense, and a gorgeous lyric.

    Thanks for bringing it to me attention Clive.

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      • As I said, thanks for bringing it to ME attention. Me attention? What’s that about?? My attention I meant of course…:)

        You’re right, Teddy’s voice is great and they compliment each other perfectly.

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    • It’s a lovely song, isn’t it. Someone made a similar comment about Teddy on the YouTube posting of this – he has a great voice and has made a number of albums of his own, all of which are worth a listen.

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