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about
"Magic Island" is a song written by my good friend Dan Miles.
Danny Boy is an incredibly gifted songwriter and we share a big love for Music and exploring the tropics. He wrote this tune while chilling on a solitary beach in Mauritius Islands and since he played it to me i fell in love with it.
Although Danny Boy often rearranges this song in a different way i recorded it trying to make it sound like the original version that i hear that very first time.
It's a song i use as an opener to almost every show as it's got a great way to unfold and set the mood. I guess its a swing tempo with few slighlty Mambo-ish accents, tons of slide guitars and plenty of good old spring reverb.
The original demo of the song was recorded in a small fishing village in South Goa, India, where birds and car horns were a perfect background for this lo-fi jewel.
It's also a song where i wanted to play every musical instrument: a cajon, a cheap folding travel bass guitar, my loyal Guild acoustic and a rough vocal take wich im pretty happy with and made it to the final mix without any editing, just like in the old days.
Once back in the UK i recorded some guitar overdubs in order to get a more 60's feel, turning an old wooden staircase into an echo chamber, using a bunch of old electric guitars, my vintage amplifier, and abusing the tremolo pedal and the glass guitar slide.
For the singing i just imagined how Frank Sinatra would sound while recovering from a sunburn, sipping a Margarita under a coconut tree, lost in some...Magic Island!
lyrics
Oh magic island in the sun, with magic trees for anyone
the children leap and play upon the sand
and in the sea so clear and warm the waves lap gently on the shore
and this is where i know that i'm home
there's nowhere i would rather be than here
and though im on my own i think of you
Oh magic island in the sun we play guitar we drink the rum
the simple things in life are all we need
oh magic island in the sun the wisdom of the fisherman
brings happiness to anyone we meet
credits
released July 23, 2021
Vocals, backing vocals, Acoustic and electric guitars, bass and cajon played by Miserable Man.
Additional percussions by Jose McGill
Recorded by Miserable Man in Canacona, Goa, India
Additional recording and mixing by Jose McGill, Norwich, UK.
Miserable Man is just a skinny white man with a big black heart.
Reggae, Rocksteady, Ska and Roots music...from Africa to Caribbean and back!
He's walking upbeat and his heartbeat is on the two and the four
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