THE CIRCULAR GROOVE

They had a music - but it wouldn’t stay.
You couldn’t call it back to hear another day.
Recordings - were for symphonies
And operas and cantatas, and for things like these.
‘Till one man said ‘There’s something in Jazz
That the public at large might approve...’

So the needle vibrated in Amberol wax,
And the sounds of the cornet, the banjo and sax
Were pulled down behind it and trapped in its tracks
As it chiselled a Circular Groove

The sounds of a hundred, hot, bordello nights,
The sounds that accompanied speakeasy fights,
Music played by the Blacks and adored by the Whites,
And it came on a Circular Groove,
A fragile, black, Circular Groove.

Then we had a music - that was all guitars,
And drumbeats that were loud enough to shake the stars.
We had heroes - Oh, the songs they sung.
It was so sad, so many of them died so young.
And the music reached magical heights
With a sound that could not be improved...

But it was often played by complete psychological wrecks,
As accountants embezzled their royalty cheques,
But you heard all the booze and the drugs and the sex
As it flowed in the Circular Groove,
The fabulous Circular Groove.

My friends and I - said, ‘That’s what we’ll do.’
The record companies said, ‘Kindly form a queue.’
They hadn’t got a clue - about what bands to choose,
So they signed every spotty Herbert who could play a blues.
But we all of us gave our best shot,
‘Cause we felt we had something to prove.

They recorded our songs onto reels of rust,
That’s the sort of technology someone can trust,
And the girls thought that going with us was a must,
‘Cause we’d sung on a Circular Groove.

And some of us tried to be Beatles or Stones,
And some of us tried for a sound of our own,
But we all wanted Tony Visconti to phone
To invite us to lay down a Groove,
A Number One Circular Groove.

Some guy from Marketing - said, ‘Digitise.’
They thought that they were smart, but they were most unwise.
The master-plan - of those greedy men
Was to make us buy our music all over again.
But they could have had no idea
Just how fast I.T. science would move...

And a digital file is a treacherous beast.
It will breed like a germ, and there isn’t the least
You can do about it, once the thing is released.
Wish they'd stuck with the Circular Groove,

And what kid is going to buy my CD,
He can download the music that’s on it for free,
And this might well suit him, but it doesn’t suit me.
Wish they’d stuck to the Circular Groove,
Better off with the Circular Groove.
And now we’re going to play a little Circular Groove.