In God's Shadow

Keith Reid, recorded by John Waite

Keith Reid on John Waite, 2009 (from the Dutch JW website))
'The thing about John is he’s incredibly soulful. You know, he’s got an exceptionally ... he’s got like a unique voice, in as much as, you know, it’s very identifiable. Not in a kind of an R&B kind of way, but he just ... [he's] kind of almost like a country singer, you know. He sings just very directly, and you sort of really feel that he’s experiencing the emotions. I was introduced to him by a mutual friend, a guy called Frankie LaRocca, who was a friend of mine from New York, a drummer. And we got together one, John and I and Frankie and a few other guys, and we went out and had a couple glasses of wine, and started talking about the meaning of life — putting the rights and the wrongs of the world together — and you know, it was just one of those great evenings, and I just went home and kind of wrote it all down. I just put down what had been happening, you know, the first few lines of the song “You speak out like children/the dreams we chase and pursue,” and ... it was kind of in some ways laying down what had happened. And then I turned to the thought that, basically, at the end of the day, as I put it in the song, we lie down in God’s shadow, but by that I mean that, you know, the kind of whatever sort of spiritual feelings one has in the face of ... we kind of lie down in the face of the unknown. And it was one of those magical things, and the song sort of came out of that direct experience.'

In the 70s John Waite was a Chrysalis artist, who inherited producer Bob Ezrin when he and Procol Harum could not work together (see here):

"Chrysalis had invited Bob Ezrin to come to London to talk about producing an album for Procol Harum. But several members of Procol Harum didn't agree (see here and search for 'Ezrin') and that was it. While in London, Ezrin, just for the sake of curiosity, decided to look and listen to The Babys. He saw a future for the band, especially for the US market, and our sound was varied, heavy but still melodious. Also the image of the group was right, so Bob offered us to produce our début album."

Thanks for information, Sam