I wrote this song. ..

1982. All this stuff was going down – a close friend of mine was in an abusive relationship – I was in a relationship with a strange girl that turned to pus when this other boyfriend of hers emerged out of nowhere. So I had a wild one night stand that I escaped from at sunrise and walked home around Oriental Bay to Hawker St. It all came into my head – I collapsed and wrote it down. I was kicking my legs around when I put those guitar chords to the chorus.

I took it to the band and we have played it at every gig we’ve ever done since

After Caroline Easther had left the Spines, Tim Robinson took over on drums. Then Wendy Calder replaced Rob Mahoney on bass. With Neill Duncan on sax and percussion, this line up went in to Marmalade Studio with the late great Ian Morris to record.

We recorded a song called Punch. It was in 5/4 and about a Punch & Judy show.

As a B side we just put down Your Body Stays in pretty much one take.

Karen Hay and Simon Morris realised the better song and we made a Radio with Pictures Video of Your Body Stays.

By this time Ross Burge was the drummer and he had to mime Tim’s drum parts in one of his diabetic comas….

25 years later I record a remake with Riki Gooch on drums and Peter Robinson’s piano arrangement and I need a bass player. In those times I used to frequent Bodega and through Sva I met AK Goss.

AK had been in prison when Your Body Stays came out and he recorded it on cassette off Barry Jenkins late night radio. He told me the song kept him sane – got him through his years inside. The strange thing was I had seen him play bass in a couple of bands in the 70s at Hamilton lake gigs and I’d always remembered him – he could sing and play stonking bass.

I managed to get him to play bass on the new version only a couple of years before he died.

R.I.P. Ian and AK

As a footnote: When John Campbell came to present some award for the best thousand songs in NZ whatever, he said…. “My favourite song isn’t even here. It’s Your Body Stays by Jon McLeary and the Spines”

The Ghost of Electricity – War Stories by Jon McLeary is a new initiative at Off The Tracks, a series of stories and reflections from painter, writer and musician Jon McLeary

To read War Stories # 1 click here

To read War Stories # 2 click here

To read War Stories # 3 click here

To read War Stories # 4 click here

To read War Stories # 5 click here

To read War Stories # 6 click here