Images Of Peter: Finding Peter Godwin, Part Two

Peter Godwin: This is strange to me. Because all the new music I know of—whether the creators are 16 or 60—it’s made by people who spend and will spend most of their lives broke. There’s always been a lot of great music that isn’t made by millionaires, believe me.

I’m sure every young musician has a moment when he or she thinks, “Am I going to be like Buddy Holly or Robert Johnson or Vincent Van Gogh and all the money will flow into somebody’s pockets from this, when I’m long gone, just a memory?” Poor old Vincent, quite a talent, never sold a canvas while he was alive.

Steve Winwood, 1968
Photo © Baron Wolman

Well, to come back to that Johnson “make history” prophesy, he was spot on. In the middle of us recording Sunset Rise, Johnson was working as associate producer on the latest Steve Winwood album, the second one he’d done with Steve (the first was the preceding album, About Time). And he did something quite extraordinary in this business. He recommended me to write with Steve.

And I will love that generosity of his forever. You see most people won’t endanger a precious musical relationship with a recommendation, in case it goes wrong somehow, and comes back on them.

Not Johnson. He is actually the Master of bringing people together to create. He has a fine instinct for chemistry and alchemy in music, and for who will rhyme and shine together.

I ended up as co-writer on the whole of that album. It flowed effortlessly between us. As usual Johnson saw the vision; and the result Nine Lives was actually Steve’s biggest success in the US in 20 years. Made number 12 in the album charts, Eric Clapton played on the single “Dirty City”. . . so there was some kind of history made there for sure. . .

And, who knows, Nuevo may make some more?! History, I mean. We’ll definitely make more albums!

I have to say that even if Nine Lives had sold nothing or never been released, it would have felt like history to me. I have always felt that Steve Winwood has one of the great voices in music. Ever since he was 15: truly soulful, such an authentic and unique voice for expressing so many levels of emotion and meaning.

When I heard Steve sing “Fly”—the first song we collaborated on—with my lyrics and that voice, I was already blessed.

Certain voices also allow you to create a broader lyric canvas, certainly a different lyric world than I might explore in my own work. I wanted it to reflect my feeling for his passions, his way of seeing, his heart. Well, you can listen and judge for yourself if I succeeded.

The whole process was definitely a joy and a high. . . and in a parallel universe, scrawling dark and sweet melodies around familiar Godwin poetics and obsessions to Johnson’s grooves and sensual canvases with Nuevo. A heady time!

Click here to read more from Peter Godwin on. . .

Music Video Influences
Maturing inspirations
Poetry and Collaboration
Artistic suffocation
Chemistry and Alchemy
Old souls
Catharsis
Changes
Transcending technology
Everything Is Possible

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