The Story Behind The Song

[gryphon]

Magna Carta …………The Airport Song


Looking for a hit single to consolidate the sales of their First two albums ( Magna Cart and Seasons) , Magna turned their sites on this song.
It comes from the album “Seasons” and was released in 1970………
In the early days of the 70’s the popular music industry was anything but organized. Deals were often hazy things, managers were flighty to say the least and publicity was a hit and miss affair. Vertigo/Fontana records had been set up quickly to cash in on the new progressive rock which was quickly becoming popular and had only a skeleton structure…………….


It was against this back ground the song was written and “marketed”
At it’s core this is a simple song based on a true story…………………Magna had had quite a bit of success in the UK when they were invited to come to Holland to join a very healthy underground .scene there.


Meanwhile the publicity and promotion machine misfired into life to promote “The Airport Song” They started well by securing a place on the new British Telecom service “Dial a disc” and as such the song got good airplay …………..but despite becoming ”Record of the Week on several national radio stations playlists good old Vertigo didn’t manage to distribute enough copies to ensure the push it needed to get into the top 20! (As a then young record buyer and anxious to get a copy I remember seeing an empty space in the racks where the record should be, despite going to many record shops I could not get a copy. Finally I had to put it on order and after six weeks I got an import copy from The Netherlands!)

So what about he song? Well it is a gentle piece of progressive folk that owes a lot to people like Simon and Garfunkle: The song is a true story with a few pieces of artistic license:


The song starts by talking about “Sitting in the airport lounge I’m waiting for a plane” The airport was Heathrow London and indeed it was not written in an airport . I believe it as written in the home counties of England
.There is mention of a Sunday supplement and a cigarette. “Dozing with a coffee and a drooping Cigarette “Chris Simpson is a smoker, he loves his coffee and there are always Sunday paper supplements to read in UK airports in the 70s.

“And a face in a photograph !”...............This s interesting I know that the photograph is of a lady called “Mary” Chris’s first wife and nearly a founder member of the group .
The trip is supposed to be to Singapore ……………in fact it was to Amsterdam Schipol but it didn’t rhyme .
The fog was not there ………………but the writer had been in this type of situation before.
“With a guitar and a suitcase and a face” The writer is a gypsy like character and always is “on the road” so this is his picture of himself. The guitar always is in a case covered in ravel stickers and shows up on many Magna Carta album covers ………………..


The song was heavily covered :


In the Netherlands it has twice ridden high in the charts as a cover version: One cover by Lisbeth List who is a well respected serious Dutch entertainer.
In Norway the Airport song is the subject of a full orchestral arrangement by one of Norway’s leading classical musicians.
Magna Carta continue to promote the song forty years after its release, in the regular concerts.

So time to give he song a listen and perhaps with a new insight into its meanings :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6rs-Y3P1ew&feature=fvst:cool: