In 1986 May was asked to write a couple of songs in English and Japanese for established Japanese singer Minako Honda, who he had met when she was already a star, even though she was still young enough to have to be chaperoned when she traveled to another country. He quickly wrote 'Golden Days' and 'Crazy Nights', and sent her the demos, and it was arranged for her to come to London to record them. As well as writing the songs, May played most of the instruments on the recordings, and although Minako didn't speak the language, she managed a pretty good English version of both songs. She sadly passed away in 2005, aged just 38. In 1988 May teamed up with band-mate Roger Taylor to add some un-credited guitar to 'Love Lies Bleeding' from The Cross's 'Shove It' album, and in 1989 he again contributed an un-credited solo to 'Self' by Fuzzbox, and when it was released as a single it charted both in the UK and the US. Lastly, for this album, he was invited to help out Holly Johnson with his debut solo album 'Blast', where he added a solo to 'Love Train', which was then released as a single, resulting in a top 5 UK chart placing. You can immediately recognise May's contribution to all of these songs, as his guitar sound is unique, making him one of the UK's best and most well-respected musicians.
Track listing
01 Man From Manhattan (single by Eddie Howell 1976)
02 Circles (b-side of 'Stoking The Fires Of Hell' single by Quartz 1980)
03 Digging My Potatoes (from 'Puttin' On The Style' by Lonnie Donnegan 1978)
04 Two Wrongs Don't Make A Right (from 'Stay With Me Tonight' by Jeffrey Osborne 1983)
05 (Another) 1984 (from 'Signs Of Life' by Billie Squier 1984)
06 A Shift In The Wind, Parts 1 & 2 (from 'Radio Voices' by Chris Thompson 1985)
07 Golden Days (single by Minako Honda 1986)
08 A Time For Heroes (single by Meat Loaf 1987)
09 Love Lies Bleeding (She Was A Wicked, Wily Waitress) (from 'Shove It' by The Cross 1988)
10 Self! (from 'Big Bang' by Fuzzbox 1989)
11 Love Train (from 'Blast' by Holly Johnson 1989)
'world-famoous'? LOL
ReplyDeleteThat's what comes of posting without proof-reading first.
ReplyDeleteThat was the most obvious, but I see you went over the text with a fine-toothed comb and got rid of any others I could've pointed out, but that was the funniest and first LOL
ReplyDeletecheers for the May, his debt to Hendrix is clear, but he is probably one of the finest guitarists the UK has produced.
ReplyDelete