Exactly where songs come from remains a mystery to me even after writing them on and off for 40 something years. This one, however, is an exception…… after I played the final version of “Goodnight Mary Ellen” to a friend who’d heard it in various stages of its production he said (something like),
“That’s come on a lot, really like it, you must be really pleased how that’s turned out,”
“To tell the truth,” I replied, “I’m just glad it’s out of the way.”
“Now that, ” he said, “Is a great punk song title.”
Sometimes phrases do hit you and you think they might make a good song line and he was totally right about this. As soon as he suggested it I set to work on it. A little bit of storyboarding over a couple of days and the song was born…… cheers Oli!
Love it! And the ending is so 1978.