Uriah Heep's Phil Lanzon is releasing his new solo album, '48 Seconds,' tomorrow (August 9th) and to celebrate we asked him to tell us about the song "You Can Make A Livin'". Here is the story:
This song was born around 1998/99. It was a comedy spoof in Frank Zappa style that was designed to take the mickey out of musicians who never achieved their dreams.
I never really intended to do anything with it, it was just a funky groovy skit that had a rocky chorus (which, by the way, I never changed).
I sent a copy to my son Dominic, who thought it was great, but it was certainly no use for Heep and I had no interest in writing a solo album in this style, so on the shelf it sat, until:Fast forward to 2018.
During the formation of my latest album 48 seconds, I blew the dust off the old cassette and made a digital version of the song which was originally entitled, "Can you make a living."
I presented it to Simon, my producer, and Richard, my arranger, with a view to having a comedic track on an otherwise serious album... well, after they heard the lyrics I had written all those years ago, I was given a little of the cold shoulder treatment regarding its content. I was, in a nutshell, reminded that lyrically it was not a particularly pleasant scenario to present on record, so I decided to re-write the verses and recreate a more positive and inspirational lyric.
So I scrapped the old verse and replaced it with the inspirational tune I remember my mother singing when I was just starting out. She always had such faith in me and my future that she said - You can make a living out of rock n roll if you work hard enough. So I changed the original word "Can" to "You" and it's a message that will echo down the generations and is so true: if you work hard enough, you can do anything!!!
"You Can Make A Living."
Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more about the album right here!
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