Chords for Thomas Dolby on BBC Breakfast - 3rd November 2011
Tempo:
89.25 bpm
Chords used:
C
F
Eb
Bb
Gb
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
[B]
He did, [Gb] he blinded us with science.
The electro-pop [G] pioneer Thomas Dolby released his last single
20 years ago.
He's here to tell us why he's back with a new album and a UK tour.
It's been 20 years since electro-pop musician Thomas Dolby made his last solo album.
During
his break from the industry he headed to California's Silicon Valley where he used his technological
talents to create a synthesizer which plays ringtones in mobile [Dm] phones.
So it's all his fault.
He's returned to the UK now and the recording studio where he's written a very
personal album [Eb] reflecting on his life.
[C] And before we meet him let's hear his new single Toad Lickers.
[Bb] [C]
[Bb] [C]
[C]
[F] [Fm] [Dm]
[F] [C]
[F] [D]
[G]
[Bb] Toad [C] Lickers.
Yes.
[F] Hello Thomas.
Hello.
Who are they?
They're Toad Lickers.
A tribe of eco-hippies hold up in the Welsh mountains who sneak into town at
night when they get the munchies and raid skips behind supermarkets.
True?
Absolutely, every word.
What's the evidence for it?
My song of course.
But I don't know, is there some kind of urban myth
surrounding them?
Well there is actually, licking toads.
I mean it's more likely to put you in the
emergency room than in Cloud 9.
There's a wonderful anthropologist called Wade Davis who wrote a
chapter of his book about licking toads.
We should say welcome back because it's been a long time since
we've had an album from you and it's lovely to hear it again.
Why so long?
Why do you take time out of
I thought I'd take a couple of years off at the beginning of the 90s because I was very interested in
technology and I went to Silicon Valley where the action was.
The music business was not doing well
and it turned into about 15 years and it was a bit of a fluke really because my company Beatnik
started out making very cool music apps, a bit like the ones you can download now to your iPad
or your iPhone, interactive music experiences for regular people which were very very popular and
made no money whatsoever.
And we would have probably gone up in smoke like so many other dot-coms at
the end of the 90s but by accident Nokia came along and licensed the synthesizer that we'd made and put
it in their phones and it's been in every phone that they've made since 1999 and most of their
competitors as well so it adds up to about three billion phones.
Do you get a royalty for every
synthesizer that goes into each phone?
It's a very personal question.
So is that a yes?
So every time we hear
That's you?
Yes but it's not, I mean you can't blame me for that.
And you go ka-ching.
No, I mean it was an obscure waltz written in the 19th century so you can't blame me for that.
And we remember in the 80s from let me see one of our submarines and then the track you did with
Magnus Pyke, Splendidly with Science and things like that when you were very much a technical
pop guy.
What brought you back to the studio?
I needed to get back to music which is my first love
really.
I wanted to come back to England, I've been living in California for over 20 years,
I've got three kids and I wanted them to have the experience of growing up in England, going to
English schools and I wanted to get back to music and get in front of audiences again.
So I'm
absolutely loving that and you know about to go out and do that in Britain for the first time since
1990 something.
You [Ebm] mentioned your children and one of the songs is very [Eb] personal because it concerns
one of them.
Tell us what it's about.
So there's a song on my new album called Simone and it deals
with quite a tricky issue which is transgender and when I was writing the song I had no idea
but the oldest of my children Harper is a transgender kid.
Harper is now 20 and in his
second year at university and was a biological [N] female and lived as a female until age 16, 17
and then came out to myself and my wife and said I'm in the wrong body, I want to live as a man
and it was quite a shock at the time but he has now gone through transition and is living
very very happily and happy really for the first time in his life.
16 did you say?
It's about that
[Gb] age when we found out.
And it [Bb] came as a surprise to you at the time I suppose that it happens to
quite a lot of people who feel that they are in the wrong gender body if you [Eb] like.
We were amazed
I mean Harper educated my wife and I about 200 years of history, social, medical, legal history
surrounding transgender issues and recent genetic studies which show that there's a whole spectrum
really of gender in our species and about indigenous island [F] cultures where there are multiple
genders and it was all fascinating but it's a new frontier really because I don't think our society
is very equipped yet [Eb] to deal with it.
How long did it take you as a family to deal with it?
I think it was easier [F] for Harper's siblings and for his friends.
I think that kids these days are
generally more relaxed about gender and sexuality than my generation so it was a little bit
harder because you know we'd grown up with him we'd changed his nappies you know but so you know
it's good now.
It's great to see him happy that's the main thing you want for your kids
more than anything and I think that for other families you know I think it's very difficult
for a lot of families to accept this.
The album's called A Map of the Floating City and your projects
is never straightforward is it with your work?
You don't just go out and buy them because you
you released it as three different EPs if I remember correctly and there's a map of the
Floating City game.
Where is the Floating City?
How do I get there?
I suppose the Floating City's in my
mind really but I do my work I live in East Anglia on the coast and I do my work in a converted life
boat and I stare out through my periscope at container ships going in and out of a nearby port
and so I've got this idea seeing these sort of archipelagos of floating cities going out to sea
to come up with the album and with a game surrounding it and it's a new way to reach
out to fans because you know a lot of younger fans.
You play online can't you?
Yeah you can
play it online at floatingcity.com but [Eb] a lot of younger fans have never heard of me they were too
young to remember so now that I'm going on tour which starts tomorrow I'm hoping that you know I'll
get some younger fans in having connected with them via the game and the website.
Thomas thanks very much.
A Map of the Floating City's out now tour starts tomorrow is it?
Starts tomorrow just down the road at Shepherds Bush Empire at Terry
He did, [Gb] he blinded us with science.
The electro-pop [G] pioneer Thomas Dolby released his last single
20 years ago.
He's here to tell us why he's back with a new album and a UK tour.
It's been 20 years since electro-pop musician Thomas Dolby made his last solo album.
During
his break from the industry he headed to California's Silicon Valley where he used his technological
talents to create a synthesizer which plays ringtones in mobile [Dm] phones.
So it's all his fault.
He's returned to the UK now and the recording studio where he's written a very
personal album [Eb] reflecting on his life.
[C] And before we meet him let's hear his new single Toad Lickers.
[Bb] [C]
[Bb] [C]
[C]
[F] [Fm] [Dm]
[F] [C]
[F] [D]
[G]
[Bb] Toad [C] Lickers.
Yes.
[F] Hello Thomas.
Hello.
Who are they?
They're Toad Lickers.
A tribe of eco-hippies hold up in the Welsh mountains who sneak into town at
night when they get the munchies and raid skips behind supermarkets.
True?
Absolutely, every word.
What's the evidence for it?
My song of course.
But I don't know, is there some kind of urban myth
surrounding them?
Well there is actually, licking toads.
I mean it's more likely to put you in the
emergency room than in Cloud 9.
There's a wonderful anthropologist called Wade Davis who wrote a
chapter of his book about licking toads.
We should say welcome back because it's been a long time since
we've had an album from you and it's lovely to hear it again.
Why so long?
Why do you take time out of
I thought I'd take a couple of years off at the beginning of the 90s because I was very interested in
technology and I went to Silicon Valley where the action was.
The music business was not doing well
and it turned into about 15 years and it was a bit of a fluke really because my company Beatnik
started out making very cool music apps, a bit like the ones you can download now to your iPad
or your iPhone, interactive music experiences for regular people which were very very popular and
made no money whatsoever.
And we would have probably gone up in smoke like so many other dot-coms at
the end of the 90s but by accident Nokia came along and licensed the synthesizer that we'd made and put
it in their phones and it's been in every phone that they've made since 1999 and most of their
competitors as well so it adds up to about three billion phones.
Do you get a royalty for every
synthesizer that goes into each phone?
It's a very personal question.
So is that a yes?
So every time we hear
That's you?
Yes but it's not, I mean you can't blame me for that.
And you go ka-ching.
No, I mean it was an obscure waltz written in the 19th century so you can't blame me for that.
And we remember in the 80s from let me see one of our submarines and then the track you did with
Magnus Pyke, Splendidly with Science and things like that when you were very much a technical
pop guy.
What brought you back to the studio?
I needed to get back to music which is my first love
really.
I wanted to come back to England, I've been living in California for over 20 years,
I've got three kids and I wanted them to have the experience of growing up in England, going to
English schools and I wanted to get back to music and get in front of audiences again.
So I'm
absolutely loving that and you know about to go out and do that in Britain for the first time since
1990 something.
You [Ebm] mentioned your children and one of the songs is very [Eb] personal because it concerns
one of them.
Tell us what it's about.
So there's a song on my new album called Simone and it deals
with quite a tricky issue which is transgender and when I was writing the song I had no idea
but the oldest of my children Harper is a transgender kid.
Harper is now 20 and in his
second year at university and was a biological [N] female and lived as a female until age 16, 17
and then came out to myself and my wife and said I'm in the wrong body, I want to live as a man
and it was quite a shock at the time but he has now gone through transition and is living
very very happily and happy really for the first time in his life.
16 did you say?
It's about that
[Gb] age when we found out.
And it [Bb] came as a surprise to you at the time I suppose that it happens to
quite a lot of people who feel that they are in the wrong gender body if you [Eb] like.
We were amazed
I mean Harper educated my wife and I about 200 years of history, social, medical, legal history
surrounding transgender issues and recent genetic studies which show that there's a whole spectrum
really of gender in our species and about indigenous island [F] cultures where there are multiple
genders and it was all fascinating but it's a new frontier really because I don't think our society
is very equipped yet [Eb] to deal with it.
How long did it take you as a family to deal with it?
I think it was easier [F] for Harper's siblings and for his friends.
I think that kids these days are
generally more relaxed about gender and sexuality than my generation so it was a little bit
harder because you know we'd grown up with him we'd changed his nappies you know but so you know
it's good now.
It's great to see him happy that's the main thing you want for your kids
more than anything and I think that for other families you know I think it's very difficult
for a lot of families to accept this.
The album's called A Map of the Floating City and your projects
is never straightforward is it with your work?
You don't just go out and buy them because you
you released it as three different EPs if I remember correctly and there's a map of the
Floating City game.
Where is the Floating City?
How do I get there?
I suppose the Floating City's in my
mind really but I do my work I live in East Anglia on the coast and I do my work in a converted life
boat and I stare out through my periscope at container ships going in and out of a nearby port
and so I've got this idea seeing these sort of archipelagos of floating cities going out to sea
to come up with the album and with a game surrounding it and it's a new way to reach
out to fans because you know a lot of younger fans.
You play online can't you?
Yeah you can
play it online at floatingcity.com but [Eb] a lot of younger fans have never heard of me they were too
young to remember so now that I'm going on tour which starts tomorrow I'm hoping that you know I'll
get some younger fans in having connected with them via the game and the website.
Thomas thanks very much.
A Map of the Floating City's out now tour starts tomorrow is it?
Starts tomorrow just down the road at Shepherds Bush Empire at Terry
Key:
C
F
Eb
Bb
Gb
C
F
Eb
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [B] _
He did, [Gb] he blinded us with science.
The electro-pop [G] pioneer Thomas Dolby released his last single
20 years ago.
He's here to tell us why he's back with a new album and a UK tour.
_ _ _ It's been 20 years since electro-pop musician Thomas Dolby made his last solo album.
During
his break from the industry he headed to California's Silicon Valley where he used his technological
talents to create a synthesizer which plays ringtones in mobile [Dm] phones.
So it's all his fault.
He's returned to the UK now and the recording studio where he's written a very
personal album [Eb] reflecting on his life.
[C] And before we meet him let's hear his new single Toad Lickers.
_ _ [Bb] _ _ _ [C] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ [F] _ _ [Fm] _ _ [Dm] _ _
[F] _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [F] _ _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Bb] Toad [C] Lickers. _
Yes.
[F] Hello Thomas.
Hello.
Who are they?
They're Toad Lickers.
A tribe of eco-hippies hold up in the Welsh mountains who sneak into town at
night when they get the munchies and raid skips behind supermarkets.
True?
Absolutely, every word.
What's the evidence for it?
My song of course.
But I don't know, is there some kind of urban myth
surrounding them?
Well there is actually, licking toads.
I mean it's more likely to put you in the
emergency room than in Cloud 9.
There's a wonderful anthropologist called Wade Davis who wrote a
chapter of his book about licking toads.
_ We should say welcome back because it's been a long time since
we've had an album from you and it's lovely to hear it again.
Why so long?
Why do you take time out of_
I thought I'd take a couple of years off at the beginning of the 90s because I was very interested in
technology and I went to Silicon Valley where the action was.
The music business was not doing well
and it turned into about 15 years and it was a bit of a fluke really because my company Beatnik
started out making very cool music apps, a bit like the ones you can download now to your iPad
or your iPhone, interactive music experiences for regular people which were very very popular and
made no money whatsoever.
And we would have probably gone up in smoke like so many other dot-coms at
the end of the 90s but by accident Nokia came along and licensed the synthesizer that we'd made and put
it in their phones and it's been in every phone that they've made since 1999 and most of their
competitors as well so it adds up to about three billion phones.
Do you get a royalty for every
synthesizer that goes into each phone?
It's a very personal question.
So is that a yes?
_ So every time we _ hear_
That's you?
Yes but it's not, I mean you can't blame me for that.
And you go ka-ching.
No, I mean it was an obscure waltz written in the 19th century so you can't blame me for that.
And we remember in the 80s from let me see one of our submarines and then the track you did with
Magnus Pyke, Splendidly with Science and things like that when you were very much a technical
pop guy.
What brought you back to the studio?
I needed to get back to music which is my first love
really.
I wanted to come back to England, I've been living in California for over 20 years,
I've got three kids and I wanted them to have the experience of growing up in England, going to
English schools and I wanted to get back to music and get in front of audiences again.
So I'm
absolutely loving that and you know about to go out and do that in Britain for the first time since
1990 something.
You [Ebm] mentioned your children and one of the songs is very [Eb] personal because it concerns
one of them.
Tell us what it's about.
So there's a song on my new album called Simone and it deals
with quite a tricky issue which is transgender and when I was writing the song I had no idea
but the oldest of my children Harper is a transgender kid.
Harper is now 20 and in his
second year at university and was a biological [N] female and lived as a female until age 16, 17
and then came out to myself and my wife and said I'm in the wrong body, I want to live as a man
and it was quite a shock at the time but he has now gone through transition and is living
very very happily and happy really for the first time in his life.
16 did you say?
It's about that
[Gb] age when we found out.
And it [Bb] came as a surprise to you at the time I suppose that it happens to
quite a lot of people who feel that they are in the wrong gender body if you [Eb] like.
We were amazed
I mean Harper educated my wife and I about 200 years of history, social, medical, legal history
surrounding transgender issues and recent genetic studies which show that there's a whole spectrum
really of gender in our species and about indigenous island [F] cultures where there are multiple
genders and it was all fascinating but it's a new frontier really because I don't think our society
is very equipped yet [Eb] to deal with it.
How long did it take you as a family to deal with it?
I think it was easier [F] for Harper's siblings and for his friends.
I think that kids these days are
generally more relaxed about gender and sexuality than my generation so it was a little bit
harder because you know we'd grown up with him we'd changed his nappies you know but so you know
it's good now.
It's great to see him happy that's the main thing you want for your kids
more than anything and I think that for other families you know I think it's very difficult
for a lot of families to accept this.
The album's called A Map of the Floating City and your projects
is never straightforward is it with your work?
You don't just go out and buy them because you
you released it as three different EPs if I remember correctly and there's a map of the
Floating City game.
Where is the Floating City?
How do I get there?
I suppose the Floating City's in my
mind really but I do my work I live in East Anglia on the coast and I do my work in a converted life
boat and I stare out through my periscope at container ships going in and out of a nearby port
and so I've got this idea seeing these sort of archipelagos of floating cities going out to sea
to come up with the album and with a game surrounding it and it's a new way to reach
out to fans because you know a lot of younger fans.
You play online can't you?
Yeah you can
play it online at floatingcity.com but [Eb] a lot of younger fans have never heard of me they were too
young to remember so now that I'm going on tour which starts tomorrow I'm hoping that you know I'll
get some younger fans in having connected with them via the game and the website.
_ Thomas thanks very much.
A Map of the Floating City's out now tour starts tomorrow is it?
Starts tomorrow just down the road at Shepherds Bush Empire at Terry
He did, [Gb] he blinded us with science.
The electro-pop [G] pioneer Thomas Dolby released his last single
20 years ago.
He's here to tell us why he's back with a new album and a UK tour.
_ _ _ It's been 20 years since electro-pop musician Thomas Dolby made his last solo album.
During
his break from the industry he headed to California's Silicon Valley where he used his technological
talents to create a synthesizer which plays ringtones in mobile [Dm] phones.
So it's all his fault.
He's returned to the UK now and the recording studio where he's written a very
personal album [Eb] reflecting on his life.
[C] And before we meet him let's hear his new single Toad Lickers.
_ _ [Bb] _ _ _ [C] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ [F] _ _ [Fm] _ _ [Dm] _ _
[F] _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [F] _ _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Bb] Toad [C] Lickers. _
Yes.
[F] Hello Thomas.
Hello.
Who are they?
They're Toad Lickers.
A tribe of eco-hippies hold up in the Welsh mountains who sneak into town at
night when they get the munchies and raid skips behind supermarkets.
True?
Absolutely, every word.
What's the evidence for it?
My song of course.
But I don't know, is there some kind of urban myth
surrounding them?
Well there is actually, licking toads.
I mean it's more likely to put you in the
emergency room than in Cloud 9.
There's a wonderful anthropologist called Wade Davis who wrote a
chapter of his book about licking toads.
_ We should say welcome back because it's been a long time since
we've had an album from you and it's lovely to hear it again.
Why so long?
Why do you take time out of_
I thought I'd take a couple of years off at the beginning of the 90s because I was very interested in
technology and I went to Silicon Valley where the action was.
The music business was not doing well
and it turned into about 15 years and it was a bit of a fluke really because my company Beatnik
started out making very cool music apps, a bit like the ones you can download now to your iPad
or your iPhone, interactive music experiences for regular people which were very very popular and
made no money whatsoever.
And we would have probably gone up in smoke like so many other dot-coms at
the end of the 90s but by accident Nokia came along and licensed the synthesizer that we'd made and put
it in their phones and it's been in every phone that they've made since 1999 and most of their
competitors as well so it adds up to about three billion phones.
Do you get a royalty for every
synthesizer that goes into each phone?
It's a very personal question.
So is that a yes?
_ So every time we _ hear_
That's you?
Yes but it's not, I mean you can't blame me for that.
And you go ka-ching.
No, I mean it was an obscure waltz written in the 19th century so you can't blame me for that.
And we remember in the 80s from let me see one of our submarines and then the track you did with
Magnus Pyke, Splendidly with Science and things like that when you were very much a technical
pop guy.
What brought you back to the studio?
I needed to get back to music which is my first love
really.
I wanted to come back to England, I've been living in California for over 20 years,
I've got three kids and I wanted them to have the experience of growing up in England, going to
English schools and I wanted to get back to music and get in front of audiences again.
So I'm
absolutely loving that and you know about to go out and do that in Britain for the first time since
1990 something.
You [Ebm] mentioned your children and one of the songs is very [Eb] personal because it concerns
one of them.
Tell us what it's about.
So there's a song on my new album called Simone and it deals
with quite a tricky issue which is transgender and when I was writing the song I had no idea
but the oldest of my children Harper is a transgender kid.
Harper is now 20 and in his
second year at university and was a biological [N] female and lived as a female until age 16, 17
and then came out to myself and my wife and said I'm in the wrong body, I want to live as a man
and it was quite a shock at the time but he has now gone through transition and is living
very very happily and happy really for the first time in his life.
16 did you say?
It's about that
[Gb] age when we found out.
And it [Bb] came as a surprise to you at the time I suppose that it happens to
quite a lot of people who feel that they are in the wrong gender body if you [Eb] like.
We were amazed
I mean Harper educated my wife and I about 200 years of history, social, medical, legal history
surrounding transgender issues and recent genetic studies which show that there's a whole spectrum
really of gender in our species and about indigenous island [F] cultures where there are multiple
genders and it was all fascinating but it's a new frontier really because I don't think our society
is very equipped yet [Eb] to deal with it.
How long did it take you as a family to deal with it?
I think it was easier [F] for Harper's siblings and for his friends.
I think that kids these days are
generally more relaxed about gender and sexuality than my generation so it was a little bit
harder because you know we'd grown up with him we'd changed his nappies you know but so you know
it's good now.
It's great to see him happy that's the main thing you want for your kids
more than anything and I think that for other families you know I think it's very difficult
for a lot of families to accept this.
The album's called A Map of the Floating City and your projects
is never straightforward is it with your work?
You don't just go out and buy them because you
you released it as three different EPs if I remember correctly and there's a map of the
Floating City game.
Where is the Floating City?
How do I get there?
I suppose the Floating City's in my
mind really but I do my work I live in East Anglia on the coast and I do my work in a converted life
boat and I stare out through my periscope at container ships going in and out of a nearby port
and so I've got this idea seeing these sort of archipelagos of floating cities going out to sea
to come up with the album and with a game surrounding it and it's a new way to reach
out to fans because you know a lot of younger fans.
You play online can't you?
Yeah you can
play it online at floatingcity.com but [Eb] a lot of younger fans have never heard of me they were too
young to remember so now that I'm going on tour which starts tomorrow I'm hoping that you know I'll
get some younger fans in having connected with them via the game and the website.
_ Thomas thanks very much.
A Map of the Floating City's out now tour starts tomorrow is it?
Starts tomorrow just down the road at Shepherds Bush Empire at Terry
Facts about this song