John Watts is Fischer-Z's frontman and has also released some material unde… Read Full Bio ↴John Watts is Fischer-Z's frontman and has also released some material under his own name. Another band he lead was The Cry (John Watts).

John Watts is from a family of singers. He progressed through school and college bands inspired equally by the late 60s Trojan catalogue and great maverick artists, from Alex Harvey to Lou Reed, Captain Beefheart to Tom Waits and the ‘Hunky Dory’ David Bowie. Watts moved to the point where punk, art-wave and reggae crossed over. With college friend Steve Skolnik and rhythm section Steve Liddle and Dave Graham, Watts landed a record deal as Fischer-Z with United Artists in 1978 alongside the Buzzcocks and the Stranglers. They became well known throughout continental Europe and achieved chart success as far abroad as Australia.

Watts has amassed a considerable body of creative work since. His quality song-writing has evolved steadily against a variety of musical colours. It has encompassed written word, poetry and humour as easily as rap-scape, rare groove and indie guitar influences, all with a characteristic singing and written ‘voice’. The original Fischer-Z split up in 1981.

The double worldwide release of the Real Life Is Good Enough and related It Has To Be albums represents a fresh new era for John; a return to more organic music-making and humorous writing. He is touring extensively solo and in a three-piece format with drummer and multi-instrumentalist Sam Walker and Matthew Gest on keyboard.

The album Morethanmusic was released in october 2010, with the songs he used to play on the MoreThanMusic live shows in the prior year.
In 2010 he had a couple of shows as Fischer-Z with Sam Walker on drums, Matthew Gest on keyboards and Matthew Wear on bass. This appeared to be a quite succesful revival. In april 2011 he released a remix album of the most succesful Fischer-Z songs via crowd funding site PledgeMusic.com. This album was titled Fischer-Z.

Relax
John Watts Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

There's a tape deck intro....
A standard I know....
The singing chicken is clearing her throat....
Everybody is trying not to laugh....
Everybody....
My friends all eating....
There's nothing to fear.
My worlds worst enemy....

And I'm lonely out here.
Everybody living on their nerves.
Everybody....
RELAX - Just sit back....

Oh, it's easy....
Oh, it's time to pay.
The London evening is settled again.
I look behind me but I've lost those grey men.
Everybody is trying not to Iaugh....
Everybody....

RELAX....Just sit back....
0ooh. It's easy

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of the song "Relax" by John Watts depict a situation in which there is a tape deck intro and a familiar song begins to play. The first few lines talk about a singing chicken trying to clear her throat, and the people listening are trying hard not to break into laughter. The scene then shifts to a group of friends eating together with nothing to fear. However, the singer mentions that his worst enemy is in his life, and he feels lonely. The chorus then repeats - everybody living on their nerves, and the instructions to relax and sit back.

As the song progresses, the singer talks about how things are easy for some people while others have to pay the price. He mentions the London evening settling once again, and how he looks around but can't see the grey men. The people around him are still trying not to laugh as everyone is living on their nerves. The chorus repeats once again, urging everybody to relax and sit back.

The lyrics of "Relax" by John Watts suggest a sense of tension in the air, with people trying to control their laughter and living on their nerves. The song can be interpreted as a call to slow down and take a break from the stresses of life. The repeated chorus of "relax" encourages listeners to de-stress and take a chill pill.

Line by Line Meaning

There's a tape deck intro....
The song has a tape deck intro.

A standard I know....
The song is familiar and known to the singer.

The singing chicken is clearing her throat....
The singer is describing the oddities he hears around him.

Everybody is trying not to laugh....
Everyone around the singer is trying not to laugh.

Everybody....
Everyone in the scene of the song is behaving a certain way.

My friends all eating....
The singer’s friends are eating.

There's nothing to fear.
There is no need to fear.

My worlds worst enemy....
The singer’s worst enemy is himself.

And I'm lonely out here.
The singer is lonely.

Everybody living on their nerves.
Everyone is on edge.

Everybody....
Everyone is acting in the same way.