The LA Times said in January 2007 'David Ford digs down deep in the heart-and-soul tradition: an English and male Lucinda Williams? He puts everything into every note, every word.'
Ford recorded his debut album 'I Sincerely Apologise For All the Trouble I've Caused' on his own in his cellar flat in Eastbourne during 2005 thinking he was just "doing a bunch of demos". However, the strength of these recordings led to magnoliaMAM taking him on for management and shortly thereafter licensing the 'demos' as a finished album to Independiente for the UK and then, in April 2006, to Columbia Records in New York for the USA and the 'rest of the world'.
The album was widely acclaimed and featured in the best of lists for 2006 in the LA Times, The Sunday Times, The New York Post, The Word and The Toronto Star - who said 'you have to go back to Dylan's 'Idiot Wind'/'Blood on the Tracks' to find such an impressively sustained, bile-soaked round of invective'.
Ford toured extensively in the USA, the UK, Canada and Australia during 2006. When performing live, Ford makes use of a 'looping pedal' which allows him to build up layers of vocals, guitars, percussion and keyboards to create extremely powerful and beautiful layers of sound; most notably when playing the song "State Of The Union". (live footage can be seen on both his myspace page and his old archived web site - www.myspace.com/davidford & www.davidford.mu - current website is at www.davidfordmusic.com)
2007 saw the release of his critically-aclaimed, yet widely ignored, album Songs For The Road. Ford spent the most of 2008 in the US promoting it.
February 2010 saw the release of his album, Let The Hard Times Roll, coinciding with a tour of the UK, with dates in the US too.
In April 2011 Ford released his autobiography, I Choose This, covering his musical experience from high school through to touring the United States as a solo artist.
Ford's musical honesty and passionately melodic songwriting has seen him compared to the likes of Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Neil Young, James Taylor and Elton John.
A Long Time Ago
David Ford Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
It was a Hollywood sky,
I sat on the wall, 'til your parents drove by,
And I walked to you door,
And remember how you smiled,
Well that was a long time ago.
Your fault or mine,
Do you one day look up to see your innocence fall,
From a twelve story window, to the concrete below,
It was all such a long time ago.
Now your path and mine,
They never seem to converge,
And now sat here in god-knows-where with a mouthful of words,
Well they just sound like noises,
If you say them enough,
It was all such a long time ago.
Now was it though?
In some underground saloon,
Where you can always get a drink,
There's a girl by the cigarette machine,
And I think I'll strike up a conversation,
But I wouldn't know how,
Doesn't seem such a good idea now
With the clouds on the moon,
Another Hollywood sky,
It's time I dragged myself home and to wonder just why,
I still think of you know,
Only as you were then,
It was all such a long time ago.
Now was it though?
The song "A Long Time Ago" by David Ford is a melancholic reflection on past experiences and lost opportunities in love. The opening lines "Clouds on the moon, it was a Hollywood sky" evoke a sense of dreaminess and make-believe, reinforcing the idea that the singer is looking back on a moment in time when everything seemed possible. The image of sitting on a wall and waiting for someone's parents to drive by adds to the feeling of youthful innocence and anticipation.
The song then shifts into a more introspective mode, as the singer wonders whether the failure of the relationship was their fault or their partner's. The line "Do you one day look up to see your innocence fall, from a twelve story window, to the concrete below" is a powerful metaphor for the pain and loss that can result from a failed love affair. The repetition of the phrase "it was all such a long time ago" underscores the sense of distance and detachment that the singer feels from this past experience.
In the final verse, the song takes on a more surreal tone, with the singer imagining himself in an underground saloon and contemplating striking up a conversation with a girl by the cigarette machine. The chorus then returns, with the singer still trying to make sense of his feelings about the past: "Now was it though?"
Line by Line Meaning
Clouds on the moon,
The sky was overcast during that particular moment in time.
It was a Hollywood sky,
The sky seemed reminiscent of the kind usually depicted in Hollywood movies.
I sat on the wall, 'til your parents drove by,
I waited for your parents to leave in order to have a moment alone with you.
And I walked to you door,
I went to your front door to see you.
And remember how you smiled,
The memory of how you once smiled is still vivid in my mind.
Well that was a long time ago.
That moment occurred a long time ago and much has changed since then.
Your fault or mine,
It's difficult to determine who is at fault.
It's such a tough one to call,
It's a challenging situation to navigate through.
Do you one day look up to see your innocence fall,
Did you ever realize that you lost your innocence and purity?
From a twelve story window, to the concrete below,
You fell drastically from a height, diminishing your view of the world.
It was all such a long time ago.
That moment occurred a long time ago and much has changed since then.
Now your path and mine,
Our paths seem to have diverged in life.
They never seem to converge,
Our paths never seem to cross again.
And now sat here in god-knows-where with a mouthful of words,
I am in an unknown place with much to say but struggling to put it into words.
Well they just sound like noises,
My words come out as meaningless sounds.
If you say them enough,
Through repetition, my meaningless sounds may eventually make sense.
It was all such a long time ago.
That moment occurred a long time ago and much has changed since then.
Now was it though?
But was it really that long ago or does it still feel like yesterday?
In some underground saloon,
I am now in an underground bar.
Where you can always get a drink,
You are able to drink here easily and often.
There's a girl by the cigarette machine,
There's a woman smoking by the machine that vends cigarettes.
And I think I'll strike up a conversation,
I consider starting a conversation with her.
But I wouldn't know how,
I don't know how to go about starting a conversation with her.
Doesn't seem such a good idea now
The idea no longer seems appealing to me.
With the clouds on the moon,
The moon is again obscured by clouds.
Another Hollywood sky,
The sky is again reminiscent of the kind usually depicted in Hollywood movies.
It's time I dragged myself home and to wonder just why,
It's time for me to leave and ponder why I am still thinking of you.
I still think of you now,
I still think of you but not as you are now.
Only as you were then,
I remember you the way you were during that specific moment a long time ago.
It was all such a long time ago.
That moment occurred a long time ago and much has changed since then.
Now was it though?
But was it really that long ago or does it still feel like yesterday?
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: DAVID FORD
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@lindahertel1365
Clouds on the moon,
It was a Hollywood sky,
I sat on the wall, 'til your parents drove by,
And I walked to you door,
And remember how you smiled,
Well that was a long time ago.
Your fault or mine,
It's such a tough one to call,
Do you one day look up to see your innocence fall,
From a twelve story window, to the concrete below,
It was all such a long time ago.
Now your path and mine,
They never seem to converge,
And now sat here in god-knows-where with a mouthful of words,
Well they just sound like noises,
If you say them enough,
It was all such a long time ago.
Now was it though?
In some underground saloon,
Where you can always get a drink,
There's a girl by the cigarette machine,
And I think I'll strike up a conversation,
But I wouldn't know how,
Doesn't seem such a good idea now
With the clouds on the moon,
Another Hollywood sky,
It's time I dragged myself home and to wonder just why,
I still think of you know,
Only as you were then,
It was all such a long time ago.
Now was it though?