🎶‘The Living Legend’: The Story Behind The Song

Hi Friends.

Following my recent post The Living Legend: A Birthday & A Doncaster Adventure!. I thought it was time to share a little more about the song I wrote and created especially for him, ‘The Living Legend’.

As I mentioned previously, trying to squeeze somebody’s entire life into a few minutes of music is quite a challenge, particularly when that somebody has lived a life containing so many adventures, experiences, achievements and stories! I had conversations with Sarah about her memories of growing up with her Dad, alongside plenty of stories Steve has told me over the years. Between them, there was an awful lot of material to work with! The challenge wasn’t finding things to write about. It was deciding what on earth to leave out! I wanted this to be more than just a collection of nice things about somebody celebrating a birthday. I wanted to create something that genuinely reflected the man himself: his family, his sense of humour, his interests, his adventures and all those little details that make him who he is. And, importantly, I wanted him to recognise himself in the lyrics as he listened to the songs. So, let’s take a little journey through some of the stories behind the song, because practically every line has a memory attached to it.

“A lovin’ Dad, still got that spark“

“Still got a story and a wise remark“

I wanted to start with the person rather than simply listing all the things he’s done. Because, behind all the adventures, motorbikes, cars, RAF stories and everything else, there’s a loving Dad who has clearly accumulated plenty of memories to share. And judging by some of the stories, he’s certainly not short of a wise remark or two! We then get straight into a couple of his motoring favourites:

“Bonneville days and a Cosworth glow”

The 1968 Triumph Bonneville was one of his favourite motorbikes, and I really wanted to include it. It’s such an iconic British motorcycle, and for somebody who enjoys bikes and cars, it’s a lovely piece of personal history to capture in a song. Then there’s his beloved Mark One Ford Granada Cosworth. These aren’t just vehicle names thrown into a song to fill a line. They’re part of Steve’s personal history, and I wanted to give those memories a little musical recognition. The next line,

“He told the whole wide world, Now watch me go”

seemed a fitting way to capture somebody who has never been particularly short of confidence or enthusiasm for getting out there and doing things! One of the things I discovered when putting the lyrics together was just how many different chapters there are to Steve’s life.

“He taught English, lectured all day”

Refers to his career as an English lecturer. And here’s something quite remarkable: he still reads around FIVE books a week! That’s quite some reading habit. In fact, when Sarah and I are walking around Doncaster, we regularly bump into people who turn out to be former students of his. I think that’s wonderful, and it says something about the lasting connections he’s made throughout his working life. Then we have

“Brewing fresh coffee in that easy way”

This is one of those little personal details that I really enjoyed including. Sarah remembers going to local cafés with her Dad when she was younger, and coffee was always something he loved. These days, whenever we visit, he makes us fresh coffee, and it’s absolutely lovely. It’s funny how something as simple as a cup of coffee can become such a familiar part of family life. Those are exactly the sorts of memories I wanted to capture. Not everything needs to involve a motorbike or a helicopter to deserve a place in a song!

“Spain in the sunshine, violin and guitar“

“Nevada played, where the good times are“

Steve actually lived in Spain for several years, and during that time he formed a band called Nevada, where he played both violin and guitar. I thought this was a particularly lovely part of his history to include because it brings together his love of music and his time living abroad. There’s something brilliant about imagining those years in Spain, enjoying the sunshine and making music with friends. Then we arrive at a character who absolutely had to make an appearance in this song!

“Cynical Sid with a wink and a grin“

“Writing his column, sharp as a pin“

While living in Spain, Steve wrote a column under the name Cynical Sid. It was a great opportunity to capture his sharp mind, knowledge and rather distinctive sense of humour. I love the idea of having a character like Cynical Sid appear in the middle of a birthday song. It adds another dimension to the story and gives the lyrics a little personality of their own. Then comes the line:

“Funny on paper, but underneath it all”

“He’s not just another brick in the wall”

Now, Steve has always had something of a rebellious streak, so I couldn’t resist slipping in that little reference to Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall. It seemed rather appropriate! I liked the idea of using a familiar musical reference to describe somebody who has always done things in his own way rather than simply following the crowd. And that brings us rather nicely to the chorus.

“It’s such a perfect day, and we’re all here with you“

“For all the crazy things you’ve done, and all that’s still left to do“

There’s a little more to the opening of this chorus than might initially meet the ear. Steve’s favourite song is ‘Perfect Day’ by Lou Reed, so what better way to begin the chorus than with those three words? I thought it was a lovely connection, particularly because the sentiment fits exactly what we wanted to say. This wasn’t supposed to be an ‘end of life’ song looking back at everything somebody had done. Far from it! Steve isn’t finished yet, and I wanted the lyrics to recognise that there’s still plenty of life to enjoy, more adventures to have and more memories waiting to be made. The rest of the chorus really says what I wanted to express:

“Here’s to the stories, we hold so dear“

“Here’s to the laughter year upon year”

And then…

“You’ve lived your life in your own special way“

“And you’ve given us stories we’ll tell every day”

I think this says it all really. It’s a lovely sentiment, especially when sung, and a way of saying everything that sometimes feels difficult to put into ordinary conversation. The final lines,

“We all love you, what more can we say”

“We wouldn’t have you any other way”,

They’re probably the simplest words in the entire song, but they’re also among the most important. Sometimes you don’t need to overcomplicate things. You just need to say what you mean.

“Mark One Transit, beds in the back”

“Road-trip dreams on a bluesy track“

This is another lovely memory that came from Sarah. She remembers her Dad’s Mark One Ford Transit van, which had beds fitted in the back, and the family road trips and holidays they enjoyed together. I thought that was a brilliant detail to include because it gives us a glimpse of family life and those adventures that become treasured memories as the years go by. We then move into Steve’s RAF days:

“Air Force grease on a chopper blade“

“He got the whole hangar laughing, memories made”

Steve served in the RAF (Royal Air Force) and I wanted to recognise that important chapter of his life. He also met one of his best friends, Marshall, during his time in the Air Force. I particularly wanted to include that connection because I was interested to see Steve’s reaction when he heard all these personal details appearing in the lyrics. After all, I’d been quietly gathering stories and memories from Sarah and putting them together without giving too much away. I hope he was suitably surprised! The helicopter also makes an appearance on the EP cover artwork, featuring a 1960s Westland Wessex, which connects the visual design directly to the aircraft Steve used to work on. I wanted the artwork to tell its own little part of the story rather than simply being a photograph with a title on it. And then we get to his sporting days:

“High jump days and the Fosbury Flop”

“He went up high and he never would stop”

Yes, Steve used to do the high jump! The Fosbury Flop is the famous technique where an athlete goes over the bar backwards, head first. Quite a contrast to somebody sitting comfortably enjoying a coffee, isn’t it? LOL! Golf also features, including weekends away at golfing hotels with friends. But I think one of my favourite memories in the entire song comes next:

“Rockin’ out at Rotherham swimming baths”

Now, this one deserves a little explanation! Steve has played guitar for years, and he once rocked out at Rotherham swimming baths. Apparently, the crowd was jumping up and down so enthusiastically that the whole place was shaking! I absolutely had to include that one. I mean, how many people can claim to have played guitar loudly enough to make a swimming baths shake? Forget the local music venue, Steve clearly had other ideas about where to put on a rock show! 🤣

The song then brings back Cynical Sid and the chorus, reinforcing the themes of humour, personality, family and everything that makes Steve who he is. But there’s one particular section that I think is the emotional heart of the whole song. It’s the bridge, which pulls together all those individual stories and looks at what they mean when you put them together:

“All of the roads and the places you’ve been“

“All of the stories and the people you’ve seen”

“When you put it all together, one thing shines through“

“This family’s a whole lot richer because of you“

I don’t know about anyone else, but when I hear that final line of the bridge, I start to well up! And that’s before anyone else has had a chance to get emotional! It just hits me. There’s something about taking all those individual memories, adventures, friendships and experiences and bringing them back to the one thing that really matters: family. And what’s particularly interesting is that it hits differently across each of the four versions I created for the EP. The musical arrangements give each version its own character, but that sentiment remains just as powerful. I think that’s when I realised this project had become much more than simply writing a birthday song. It was an opportunity to bring together memories from different generations, stories from different stages of Steve’s life and all those little details that might otherwise just remain conversations around the dinner table.

When I started this project, I knew I wanted to give Sarah’s Dad something personal. But as the lyrics developed, it became an opportunity to create something that he could listen to, share and keep. Alongside the four-song EP, I also created the artwork, which we used on his birthday card and had printed on the back of his very own ‘The Living Legend’ T-shirt. I wanted the cover to reflect his RAF history, his love of music and some of the adventures that have made up his life. So, there we have it: a loving Dad, an English lecturer, a reader of five books a week, a coffee lover, an artist, a musician, Cynical Sid, an RAF man, a high jumper, a golfer, a motorbike enthusiast and a rock guitarist who once made Rotherham swimming baths shake! And I suspect we’ve only scratched the surface.

So, here’s to Steve, The Living Legend! Happy Birthday. I hope you enjoyed hearing your own adventures brought to life, and that the music gives you something special to look back on. And, of course, thank you to Sarah for sharing so many of those memories with me and helping me piece together the story behind the man. ❤️

Listen to “The Living Legend”… Wherever You Stream 🎧

If you’ve enjoyed reading the stories behind the lyrics and would like to listen again, you don’t have to keep coming back to YouTube. The Living Legend is also available on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and many other streaming services.

The EP features four different musical interpretations of Steve’s story, each bringing its own character to the memories, adventures and personality that inspired the songs. Whether you’d like to add them to your favourite playlist or simply listen on the platform you already use, you can choose your preferred service using the link below.

Listen to: The Living Legend wherever you stream music!

Thank you for listening, sharing and taking the time to discover the stories behind the songs. I know this is a very personal project, written especially for Sarah’s Dad, and much of its meaning comes from the memories and experiences of our own family. But I wanted to share it with you guys too, because sometimes the most personal stories are the ones that remind us all of the importance of family, friendship, laughter and the memories we make along the way. Most of all, thank you for joining me in celebrating a very special man and a family full of wonderful memories. ❤️