Single Review - Other People’s Eyes - Feenstra and Simpson

Single Review - Other People’s Eyes - Feenstra and Simpson

Pete Feenstar wears many hats, he is a promoter, he is a DJ on Let There Be Rock digital

radio station, he is a reviewer for Let There Be Rock blog and also much to my surprise he is a great lyricist and recording artist with Feenstra and Simpson.

I became aware of this two singles previous to this new one, before I was writing reviews

myself, and I loved them. The songs always tell a story Feenstra and Simpson have released 10 singles including this one which are all due to appear on forthcoming album Smash Hits.

Seven of these ten singles have made the Mike Read Heritage chart, and the Netherlands Hit Tracks Top 100. And it’s not surprising as the ones I’ve heard are really catchy pop songs like they used to do in the old days, with real instruments and melodies and middle eight passages. As Sting said, a lot of songs by young artists totally bypass middle 8 passages and are just verse chorus verse chorus with no resolve. The middle 8 resolves the song and brings it around. For those of you who don’t know what a middle 8 is it is the bit in the middle where the melody and quite often the groove change, and then it comes back to either a verse or a chorus.

So this here song is heavily influenced by the Beatles, but with good reason. Pete wrote the words about street buskers, of all types – musicians, people who stand like statues for hours on end, magicians, any body really who stands outside, demonstrating their talent, in the hope that somebody will put a bob or two into their hat, or guitar case or bucket.

Pete was writing the song when he heard a rumour, an urban myth if you will, that Paul

McCartney went busking, and nobody recognized him and he didn’t make much money,

hence the reference to Macca in the chorus and the Beatlesque melody and middle 8.

You see there was a reason I was banging on about middle 8’s. Anyway it is a fun pop single with a storyline, they make a fabulous songwriting team, and it’s well worth checking out, and buying.