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Low Spark: Behind The Scenes

Low Spark: Behind The Scenes

Jim Capaldi speaks about the making of The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys:

"I remember the "Low Spark" session vividly. I had written the lyrics for the title track and had given them to Steve. On the way to the studio he said he'd written something that was so so. When he sat at the piano and first played it through it took awhile to sink in- but you instinctively knew that you'd just heard a classic.

We got the track down, and it was time for the vocals. While Steve was singing, Chris Blackwell noticed that we intended to repeat a verse because I didn't have enough for a last verse. Chris said there definitely should be one, and I agreed. I wrote the last verse while I was sitting outside the recording studio and Steve was singing inside. I went into the studio and slipped the new lyrics on the music stand, and Steve just ran it off- and that was the take.

Then we were listening through, and all getting very excited because by now we'd become very familiar and very intoxicated with the track. That's what it does to you. I wanted the album cover to reflect this very special and unusual piece of music. It was unanimous that the cover would have to be the title track.

So I was thinking about this while doodling with a chinagraph pencil on the control desk. The thought came to me that although people had for a time tried everything imaginable on album covers, they were all basically square in shape. I had been drawing a cube as millions of people must do every day. But looking at it, I realized that if you were to chop two opposite corners off an album jacket diagonally, and draw in the relevant lines you would be holding a cube in your hand. Chris Blackwell gave to Tony Wright. When I saw what he'd done with it, I was totally knocked out. The rest is history."

-Jim Capaldi