Lyrics & Analysis: Once More For The Road

Instrumental intro.

I’m in love with you, baby
But you don’t love me
I’m in love with you, baby
But you don’t love me
Oh, why don’t you love me
Like old times used to be

I hear bad things
Like you’ve been playing ‘round town
I hear bad things
Like you’ve been playing ‘round town
You’ve gotta stop your messing
‘Cos it’s bringing me down

Guitar solo 4 verses

She live at home with her momma
But my baby’s on my mind
She live at home with her momma
But my baby’s on my mind
Won’t you come back home
Love me all the time


Jim Pembroke 1967

Artist: Blues Section
Line-up:
       Jim Pembroke, vocal
       Hasse Walli, guitar
       Måns Groundstroem, bass
       Ronnie Österberg, drums
       Eero Koivistoinen, saxes
Release: From the album BLUES SECTION, Love Records LRLP 3, 1967
Studio: Finnvox
Producer: Atte Blom, Otto Donner
Engineer: Erkki Hyvönen

General comment: This is the seventh track (Side 2, Track 2) on Blues Section’s one and only ‘real’ LP. For more general comment see ‘Only Dreaming’.

The Music: It was John Mayall’s visit to Sweden in 1966 that inspired Måns Groundstroem to form Blues Section. However, this track sounds more like that other British Blues Revival group, Savoy Brown. Still (or perhaps: consequently), it doesn’t work the way it should. First, the rhythm section doesn’t gel. Second, you can hear that Walli has been listening to black bluesmen and knows a few nice licks, but his playing simply doesn’t move you the way Blues music should. He is so obsessed with being technical that he ends up playing with his head, not his heart. There is also the constant feeling that he can’t quite bend the strings enough, so some notes end up sounding slightly flat, and on top of that there are some real bum notes that simply should not have been left in. Pembroke’s singing is great, and the group had an excellent musician in Eero Koivistoinen, but he doesn’t solo on this track, and if he had it would probably have been a jazz solo. It’s hard to understand why Otto Donner didn’t take Österberg and Groundstroem to one side and had them rehearse together for a few weeks until they got the rhythm going properly, because this is not the only track suffering from what appears to be Groundstroem’s interacting with guitarist rather than the drummer. Meanwhile Walli could have worked on being less technical and trying to lose himself a bit more. Once again, a lot of missed opportunity here I’m sad to say.

The lyric: Not a lot to write home about here, either. The everyday phrase ‘one more for the road’ (meaning ‘let’s have one last drink before we go home’) is changed slightly and juxtapositioned with another everyday phrase – but I fail to see what the intention is. Otherwise, Pembroke is just going through the motions and, unsurprisingly, it ends up being a song about some evil, unfaithful, unloving ‘baby’. Well, if she’s such a creep, why bother? You have to conclude that poor grammar doesn’t automatically make for a good Blues lyric. Further probing into this lyric would end up like Peter Cook’s hilarious analysis of ‘Bo Dudley’, so I better get me coat.