Introduction With Thanks To The Writing

Richard C

Hayley

I know I should have stayed
But I lost all my reason
The day I left you Hayley
Was the day that lead me to prison

I believe in The Devil and I believe in God
I believe in fluffy sheep and I believe in cod
I believe in the chips we ate
Together on the back of the bus
And I, I, I . . I believe in us

I believe in your red moped
And your long wavy hair
I believe in your bad cooking
And the way you just don’t care

I believe in The Devil and I believe in God
I believe in fluffy sheep and I believe in cod
I believe in the chips we ate
Together on the back of the bus
And I, I, I . . I believe in us

Your calm kept me from harm
I love you my dear Hayley
I let you go far too easily
And now I think of you daily

You believe in the Devil and you believe in God
You believe in fluffy sheep and you believe in cod
You believe in the chips we ate
Together on the back of the bus
But you don’t. . . …believe in us, or do you?

 

This song by Richard encapsulates the project. It also began from a writing exercise called ‘I believe’, then became a poem, then was developed to have more story, to suit the radio, then became a song to fit with the whole ballads theme. Here, Richard describes meeting Hayley (not her real name) again:

‘On one of the days we were working on the poem, I bumped into her in town. She came running over to me and threw her arms around me and scared the living daylights out of me. I told her I’d written a poem and that it might be turned into a song. The initial reaction was shock, but then she was delighted I’d been thinking about her.

‘We’ve decided we’re going to meet up again in a few weeks time and just be friends from now on. We’ve both moved on a lot since we were together. And me in myself am a lot better.

‘The reference to ‘fluffy sheep’ – by the way – is when I used to have hair, it was fluffy like wool, and people used to call me ‘sheep’.’