With a career spanning 55 years and counting, revered singer-songwriter Gilbert O'Sullivan is still delighting fans with new music and performing internationally at age 78. The Irishman first found mega success in the UK and the US with '70s hits "Alone Again (Naturally)," "Clair," and "Get Down.' His latest album, Songbook , pays tribute to those earlier songs by including pared-down versions of 11 tracks from his outstanding catalogue and one new one, 'A Kiss Is A Kiss.' We were lucky enough to sit down with him to talk about it--as well as his current tour and what's next. This is a LifeMinute with Gilbert O'Sullivan.
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00:00Hello, this is Gilbert O'Sullivan and you're watching Life Minute TV.
00:05With a career spanning 55 years and counting, revered singer-songwriter Gilbert O'Sullivan
00:11is still delighting fans with new music and international performances at the age of 78.
00:17The Irish-born musician first found mega success in the UK and US with 70s hits Alone Again
00:24Naturally, Claire and Get Down.
00:26His latest album Songbook pays tribute to those early songs by including pared-down
00:31versions of 11 tracks from his outstanding catalogue.
00:35And one new one, A Kiss is a Kiss.
00:38We were lucky enough to sit down with the illustrious artist virtually to talk all about
00:43it as well as his current tour and what's to come next.
00:47This is a Life Minute with Gilbert O'Sullivan.
00:52Well, it's a stripped-down version of many of my best-known and well-known songs, plus
00:58one new one.
00:59It's just a project that started last year.
01:01We did a concert in London at the Barbican, which is a well-known theatre, and the head
01:05of the record company was there.
01:07And the concert consisted of myself on piano and the guitar player, Bill Shannon, just
01:10doing it this year, and we do it again next year.
01:13After the concert, they really enjoyed it and they felt that it would be nice to replicate
01:17that on record.
01:19So that kind of led to us spending a couple of days in a small theatre in London, no audience,
01:24and over two days, a couple of versions of each song, so it was pretty much live.
01:29Very little overdubbing then.
01:30Mixed, and there it is.
01:32Then it's out.
01:33It's me on the piano singing, Bill on guitar playing and backing me and stuff.
01:38That's the set-up, and it works really well.
01:40The stripped-down versions are kind of nice for people because they get to hear the words
01:44clearer.
01:45And you get criticism with the band a bit too loud and people say, you know, we didn't
01:49get to hear it, we'd like to hear the words.
01:50So in that sense, it's worked out really well.
01:53Well, you'll see there's 12 songs, 11 of them are a mixture of old, and then we have one
01:58new song.
01:59There's no Get Down, which of course was a big hit in America.
02:02It's just an interesting collection, I think, that you've got your Nothing Rhymed, you've
02:06got Alone Again, and you've got Claire.
02:08There's a couple of album tracks people are not used to hearing from particular albums
02:12and stuff.
02:13I think the mix is quite good.
02:15I hope so, anyway.
02:25It's generally the melody first.
02:27I think that will dictate pretty much how the lyrics will go.
02:30Occasionally you have a title.
02:32I mean, there's a song on this album called Dance at Dreams and 45s.
02:35I always had that lying around and stuff, so by picking up on that, when I felt it was
02:40a good melody to go with it, that kind of led to me doing that.
02:44But mostly it's the melody that will kind of set out how I want to approach it lyrically.
02:50To be able to write music, you have to hear and like good music.
02:52I don't think you can be a good songwriter if you don't like what's going on around you.
02:56I'll buy everything, because you're always learning.
03:00The way the marketplace is today, the way the business is today, it doesn't bother me.
03:04What I do isn't rocket science.
03:06I mean, there are more songwriters today than there ever were when I first started and stuff.
03:10I used to say in an audience, how many people in the audience are decorators and stuff?
03:14So maybe three hands would go up in a 1,500 theater.
03:18I'd say, how many songwriters in here?
03:21Hundreds would go up, because everybody writes songs these days, which can be no bad thing
03:25if they're good songs.
03:26That's the thing I enjoy.
03:27It's the key to everything I do.
03:29Without the songs, I wouldn't be talking to you.
03:31Yeah, I love the craft of songwriting.
03:32You don't know if it's a great song.
03:34What you do is, when you've finished what you think is a good song, that in a way is
03:38success, because that's you, just you.
03:41Nobody's heard it.
03:42Nobody's involved in it other than you.
03:44So when you've written what you think is a good song, that's a nice feeling, because
03:47that's something you have control over.
03:49Whereas, when the record is released, it's in the hands of record companies and many
03:53other things.
03:54That's the important factor.
03:55As I did on my own, alone again, naturally.
04:01With all my songs, the writing is there.
04:03I was happy with Alone Again.
04:05I liked the subject matter.
04:06I didn't experience it, but I had an understanding of what somebody might be going through to
04:10contemplate suicide.
04:11I know the sadness you feel when you lose a relative or a parent.
04:15So those kind of issues are interesting as a lyricist to be able to write about them.
04:18There are other songs which are just simple little rock songs or straightforward pop songs.
04:24When I got interested in music, it was just like what I heard on the radio.
04:27The Everly Brothers are fantastic.
04:28Early Beatles, fantastic.
04:30Those are the big buzz, the influences you have as you go through your life.
04:34So it's always about music you hear, certain tracks by certain people.
04:38As I said earlier, I buy everything just to like to learn from it.
04:41That's how you keep in touch with what's going on.
04:43You can't be a contemporary songwriter if you don't like what's going on around you.
04:47Sabrina Carmander, her two albums, the production is great, very contemporary production.
04:52That's a cool song.
04:53Please, Please, Please is a really good pop song.
04:55She's a very good pop songwriter.
04:58Just like I'm a huge fan of Bonnie Raitt.
05:00I always loved Bonnie Raitt.
05:01Joni Mitchell, I'm a huge fan of Joni Mitchell.
05:04But I buy out, you know, all the contemporary stuff.
05:06The Beatles were the catalyst for wanting to be in a band.
05:09When they came on the scene, they could write great songs and they couldn't read music.
05:13So we kind of identified with that and you kind of felt, well, if they could do it, maybe
05:16we could do that kind of thing.
05:17So that led to it.
05:18Then you join a band.
05:19I was a drummer in a band, drummer in a second band, drummer in a really good band.
05:23That didn't quite work out, which led to me going off on my own to try and break into
05:28the music business, coming to London, big London.
05:32Making my first record in 1967 was a thrill.
05:35It wasn't a hit, but it was an experience that I hadn't had at that point.
05:39A big time producer, musicians.
05:41So I enjoyed the experience, learned from that.
05:43Went through to a point in 1969, after failure here and there on the way up, that I needed
05:50solo representation.
05:52So Gordon Mills, who managed Tom Jones, Hang About Humperdinck, I wrote to him as the manager
05:56for the biggest solo artist in the world to see if he would be interested in me.
06:01He's an ex-songwriter.
06:02He co-wrote his novel, Unusual, for Tom Jones, so he knew about song.
06:06So while he didn't like how I looked, he liked the songs and he invited me to his home.
06:10I had to play more than he had heard on the tape to be sure that I was good enough for
06:14him.
06:15And that led to the first success that I had in 1970.
06:19So that was a major good decision.
06:22Claire, the moment I met you, I swear.
06:28I think it's the fact that I write songs which are, people seem to like them.
06:32I'm not dependent on the past.
06:34If I couldn't write songs now, I wouldn't be talking to you.
06:37I'd become a gardener or something, I don't know.
06:40But it's the songs that keep me going, it's the songs that interest me.
06:45People seem to like them.
06:46Which is, you know, when you're making new albums, I've done, I think somebody told me
06:50I've done about 21 albums now.
06:52So it's nice that the current albums you're putting out in the last couple of years and
06:57this year, they're critically well-received, so I think that's a positive thing going forward.
07:02I go right back to the first record, that was a highlight.
07:05The first cover of one of my songs by a very well-known American singer called Tom Rush.
07:10He promoted people like James Taylor and stuff.
07:12So he did one of my early songs.
07:14That was a big thrill.
07:15But I suppose the best thrill would have been to have the first success with a song called
07:19Nothing Rhymed, which was a major hit all around Europe.
07:21Not in America, but pretty much everywhere else.
07:23So that was an incredible feeling to get that.
07:31So the variety is the key factor too, because when we do a concert, it's a two-hour concert,
07:35all the songs are mine.
07:36God forbid, if somebody out there didn't like them, I'd be in trouble.
07:40Well, they get a mixture of fast, slow, medium, funny, serious, over two hours, break in the
07:46middle.
07:47The simplicity, the up close and personal approach seems to work really well.
07:52Audiences seem to like that approach with us.
07:54Oh, may that continue.
07:55Yeah, well, no alcohol.
07:58So alcohol is out.
07:59Exercise is important.
08:01I do voice exercises, which I have on a screen given to me by its teacher.
08:05So I do those every day, because the voice is the key factor.
08:08Without the voice, you're in trouble.
08:10I'm 77 years of age.
08:12As one gets older, it becomes more difficult.
08:14You have to work really hard, and I do work hard to retain that good vocal element, because
08:19without that, I think I would stop.
08:20It's the most important factor after writing the song.
08:23We'll carry on promoting this.
08:25We start concerts again on the 12th of this month.
08:27We go back to Liverpool, Birmingham, Glasgow, a few other places.
08:31And then next year, we'll have a new album, which we'll start recording in the new year.
08:35Most of the songs for that, I have written.
08:37The 12th song on this album, which is a new song, that was meant to be on the next album,
08:41but we decided that for the live album, we would put a new song on this album.
08:47So that's pretty much the imminent future.
08:53To hear more of this interview, visit our podcast, Life Minute TV, on iTunes and all
08:57streaming podcast platforms.