Time To Listen: Badly Drawn Boy picks 5 songs that have had an impact on his life
The final episode of the series
Last updated 14th Feb 2020
Hat-wearing indie icon Badly Drawn Boy – aka Damon Gough – has appeared on the final instalment of Absolute Radio’s series Time To Listen to open up about the songs that have had a profound impact on his life.
Since last autumn, Absolute Radio has opened up the conversation about mental health by inviting some of our best-loved musicians and comedians on Time To Listen to talk about the songs that mean the most to them.
Wilko Johnson, Ash’s Tim Wheeler, Miles Kane, U2’s Adam Clayton, Tom Walker, Sam Fender, Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody, Skunk Anansie’s Skin, Ultravox’s Midge Ure and comedy icon Jo Brand are among the celebrities who have taken part.
An ever-engaging orator, 2000 Mercury Prize winner Badly Drawn Boy has now told the story behind 5 tracks that have provided the soundtrack to significant moments during his 50 years on the planet.
Having picked Bruce Springsteen as his specialist subject on Celebrity Mastermind in 2015, unsurprisingly The Boss makes an appearance among Badly Drawn Boy’s choices – in fact, he credits Springsteen with inspiring him to become a songwriter.
Elsewhere, Badly Drawn Boy reveals the songs that have soundtracked break-ups, giving up booze, moving house to a quiet village as a teenager, and his wedding day.
Listen to Badly Drawn Boy on Absolute Radio’s Time To Listen:
The 5 songs that soundtracked significant moments in Badly Drawn Boy’s life are as follows:
Bruce Springsteen – ‘Thunder Road’ (Live at the Hammersmith Odeon, 1975)
“When people talk about a life-changing moment, it can be corny (picking) a song that changed my life, but this literally as a song, ‘Thunder Road’, changed my life. I was 14 roughly and I was sat watching this documentary on TV and I didn’t really know much about Bruce Springsteen. I kept flicking channels – there was only four channels in those days. I flipped back (and) Springsteen was talking and I wasn’t really interested and then this song came on the screen, the intro to ‘Thunder Road’, a live version. Something prompted me to put a blank video cassette into the video player and record it and I just watched that footage for weeks and weeks. It just fascinated me as a song, I don’t know why. It was just a moment – if I’d missed it and never seen that documentary, I may never have become a songwriter. That’s how important this song feels to me.
“There’s just something about the energy of the performance of it, the song itself the lyrical content is amazing. It’s a song about escapism – the last line of the song is “It's a town full of losers / I'm pulling out of here to win”. It’s a song about hope so for me as a 14-year-old it somehow connected (with) me, it made me feel alive, it made me feel as though there’s something out there in this world; something I can do. I didn’t know at that point I’d turn out to be a songwriter either, I just liked music, I didn’t know I had the talent to write songs at that point but it made me believe. It set me off on a path. ‘Thunder Road’ is such an important song, it’s just about believing in the spirit of the romance of getting out somewhere and doing something with your life I suppose.
Red Hot Chili Peppers - ‘Under The Bridge (1992)
“Your early twenties, I’ve kind of called it ‘the last chapter of your formative years’ because you’re meant to be an adult by now, you’re meant to be sure of yourself and not many people are – you’re in your early twenties, you’re an adult and you’ve got your freedom, so this song captures my early twenties from 20 to 25 perhaps when I lived in Leeds for a couple of years. I went to Leeds College of Music. I had a girlfriend at the time, we had a relationship and we were more like brother and sister to be honest – we made music, it was just a magical time.
“Her father passed away in this period - I think it was ‘94/5 - and it kind of signalled the end of our relationship. She moved to Berlin. It was devastating because it was like a bereavement, a friendship ending. The magnitude of that feeling at that time and just her father passing away, it was the first significant person in my life that I’d lost as well, because I was close to him, and it just hit me like a brick.
"That ended. We had a band that ended. Our relationship ended at the same time. It all just imploded on me at once, but what it did do was it kicked me into action as well. All these messages I’m trying to give today on this interview is that there’s always been a silver lining – if something happens that really hurts there’s always for me, if you wait long enough and patient, a silver lining. I moved from Bolton to Chorlton after this relationship ended and my life started to begin again - I met people - and that was just before I started doing music and set up a record label. So, it prompted something in me, you’ve got to respond to things when they hurt you and get on with it. This song means a lot because it captures all of that in a nutshell.”
Lana Del Rey – ‘Video Games’ (2011)
“The song ‘Video Games’ by Lana Del Rey is the most recent song that I’ve picked. It’s the soundtrack of my last year of drinking. It was a song that I listened to night after night when I was still drinking and staying up late. I realised I needed to do something about my drinking because my depression was getting worse and I thought ‘well I’ve got to try something, I’ve got to do something about this’. So, this song just takes me back to then. On a positive note, it doesn’t remind me of those (drinking) days, it kind of makes me feel good about how far I’ve come because giving up the booze has been a really positive step.
“I gave up drinking four years ago exactly. You don’t get all the solutions at once by doing something like giving up the booze, but you definitely get on a road where you can deal with certain things. My mental health has improved dramatically because I’ve had time to think, I’ve had time to be clear – my brain’s a lot clearer, I can deal with problems.
“People can’t believe that I gave up the booze, people that know I was a pretty big drinker. It went with the territory, touring the world six times like I did. I just became a habitual drinker. Now my life has improved dramatically and I’m dead happy, and I’ve still got issues I need to deal with all the time – like everybody has – but I feel a lot clearer and better about life. This song (by) Lana Del Rey reminds me of those (drinking) days but also reminds me that I’ve got more to give.”
The Smiths – ‘Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want’ (1984)
“This song by The Smiths, ‘Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want’, is such a great, beautiful song. The main reason I’ve picked it is because we ended up using it… I got married last year to Leanne so it’s a tribute to her really. She’s helped me turn my life around in the last several years, helping me with all these tough decisions, giving up boozing, she was dead encouraging helping me and she’s just such a brilliant person.
“We had this string quartet playing various songs at the wedding, but this was the song that the quartet were playing a version of as she walked down the aisle. So, it has kind of let me get what I want – which was us being happy and moving on in life.
“There’s also a memory of it… I played it in Italy of all places a few years ago and the crowd went berserk. It was a small gig in a club in Italy and I just decided to play this song, the first time I’d ever learned it and played it on stage and the crowd just sung every word. It went so well I played it again and they sang it again even louder. I think I played it three times on the trot (they were) going crazy – they didn’t cheer any of my songs in the same way but it’s just such a beautiful song and it’s got so many positive connotations. Like any Smiths song, it’s kind of miserable but uplifting. That’s what Morrissey and (Johnny) Marr were so good at.”
The Lotus Eaters – ‘The First Picture of You’ (1983)
“I think it was the summer of 1983, we’d just moved house my mum and dad to a small village, so I was leaving behind friends that I’d grown up with in the housing estate we lived in. My mum and dad were trying like mum and dads do, they were trying to be responsible and give us a better life. It was a bittersweet thing for me as a 13-year-old, moving away from your friends to a nice village, it took a bit of adjusting to.
“This song by The Lotus Eaters, when I hear it now it takes me back to that part of my life where I was confused. It was a tough thing to accept moving to a smaller song. This song really takes me back there – I was full of hope as a young teenager as you might be but I didn’t know what to do with my life, and I became more isolated and focused really because of the move. I now thank my mum and dad for it in retrospect because without that move I don’t think my life would have taken the path that it did in some ways. This song just somehow takes me back to that moment in my life of being optimistic about the future and it still does that for me because it’s still such a great song.”