I… Read Full Bio ↴1. Wood is an experimental noise/ambient music project started in 2023
2. Traditional Rock and Americana from James Maddock and company.
He's just an ordinary guy. We know that because he's forever telling us he's just an ordinary guy in that likable, down-to-earth, "fancy a drink, pal?" sort of way.
But how many ordinary guys do YOU know who amble nonchalantly on stage looking as if they're about to pick a fight with a karaoke machine and then sing with a sublime power that charms and chills in equal measure? How many ordinary guys do YOU know who write a whole catalogue of songs with such emotional depth that they sound like classics the instant you hear them?
He's a Midlands lad called James Maddock from the English city of Leicester, famous for... well, Leicester's not famous for anything at all really. But for years, he's had this unfeasible dream of making wonderful music under the name of Wood and, hey, dreams come true.... "We used to be called 'The Gift Of Love,'" he remembers, "and we were talking one night about music and I said, 'On all the records I really love -- like Dylan and The Band -- you can picture the room they're playing in and you can hear the wood.' And it suddenly hit me. WOOD! That was the name I wanted for my band."
James picked up his first instrument -- the ukulele that his granddad used to play in wartime bands -- at the age of eight. His dad, an optician, filled the house with jazz and if you venture into Leicester on a wet weekend you might still find Mr. Maddock playing in a jazz band in some remote corner.
"By the time I was 14, I started thinking seriously about being able to play the guitar," James recalls, "and I was pretty good at it. I had this great guitar teacher and at the end of a lesson he'd say, 'You should check out this record by Neil Young.... ' I worked on a market stall on a Saturday and I'd go in, get my wages, and then go and buy a Neil Young record. And the next week he'd say, 'have you heard Ry Cooder...?,' and it went on from week to week... The Eagles, Jackson Browne... and all the West Coast stuff...."
"Then I found Born To Run at a friend's house and it completely blew me away," he continues. "I was a big Bruce fan, still am. The Band's second album was a seminal influence on me too. Bob Dylan is a big hero for me."
James Maddock moved to London when he was 20 and served his apprenticeship in covers bands working the ...ahem... boisterous London Irish pub circuit. He played in the Arsenal Tavern, North London, every weekend for several years, an achievement that surely merits some sort of long service gold medal award. It was hard, the audiences took no prisoners and you could play there for a hundred years without being discovered, but James wouldn't have missed it for the world. And besides, from this unglamorous environment of beer, tobacco and loud covers of old standards and the hits of the day, the first splinters of Wood began to emerge about three years ago. "I took over as singer and started doing my favorite songs -- Creedence Clearwater Revival and Bob Marley stuff -- but all the time I was also writing my own songs."
They even recorded some demos of his material (at Abbey Road Studios, no less, where they fantasized about being rich and famous as they arrived to be gawked at and have their pictures taken by Japanese tourists) and waited for unspeakably lavish offers to flood in. Strangely enough, they didn't. But James somehow knew his music's spiritual home was America. "Two of the albums I most identify with are Late For The Sky (Jackson Browne) and Harvest (Neil Young). I love songwriters and I try to combine melodies and story. I've always liked my music to be quite gentle, with an acoustic, friendly feel...."
At a time when nothing got signed in the UK unless it came with nasal voices and loud twanging guitars and could be marketed as "Brit pop," James suddenly found himself flown to New York where a chance play of the demo sufficiently impressed Columbia Record executives to offer him a record deal. Classic songs. Beautiful melodies. Great lyrics. Choruses just made for dancing on the ceiling. A voice to sell your grandmother for. Where had this boy BEEN all their lives?!
"They got me to fly out there and do a gig in their offices!," James exclaims. "It was pretty scary! You spend all your life trying to get to this point and suddenly you're standing there with your guitar and it's all hanging on what you do in 20 minutes in that office."
The boy obviously done good. His old Leicester schoolchum, Bill Newsinger (guitar), and the other two Wood mainstays, Jim O'Malley (bass) and Steve Jackson (drums), found themselves finally summoned to Tongue & Groove Studio in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to record, with producer Dave "Stiff" Johnson, the album they'd begun to despair would ever get made. "It really is a dream come true!," James admits. "When you've spent so long scrubbing around trying to get £50 together for rehearsals you think it will never happen. But when it does happen it's a huge responsibility. I'm learning a lot about myself through this."
The first Wood album, Songs From Stamford Hill, is not only full of unfeasibly memorable melodies and immaculately crafted songs, it has some telling lyrics. "I'd written hundreds of songs before," James estimates, "but when we called the band 'Wood,' everything seemed to fall into place." The album's title was inspired by the area of London where James was living at the time most of the songs on the record were written.
You may already know the opening track, "Stay You," which is featured on the best-selling Top 10 album Songs From Dawson's Creek (Columbia/Sony Music Soundtrax). "Never Ending," the album's closing song, is another key track, a particularly poignant, nostalgic autobiographical song about growing up in Leicester and losing touch with schoolfriends. All of James' years of frustration are reflected in the lyric of "Knock It On The Head," in which he promises to allow himself just one last crack at this music nonsense before giving it all up to get a proper job. Then again, you don't have to spend long in his company to know he could NEVER give it up!
James has a rare way with a sentimental love song, as well. "I really love 'Our Time Has Come', it's so SOPPY!" he laughs. "There's only about three chords in it too, but there's a symmetry as well." And then there's 'You Make Me Feel Bad.' "Oh, that's about a girlfriend who made me decorate the apartment about four times," he admits. "I'd do it and she'd turn round and say, 'Oh I don't like that color!.'" All human life is here.
Wood. Crazy name. Perhaps. Ordinary guy. We think not!
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(3)Wood is rapper from Houston, Tx.
He is member of S.U.C. ( Screwed Up Click) & Half Dead Organization.
(4)Wood is also an instrumental band from Wheaton, IL. They are, what you call, like-minded forward thinkers. http://www.myspace.com/ourbandwood
(5)Wood is also a project by Wouter 'Wood' Loderichs, operating from Apeldoorn, The Netherlands . On his debut he mixes hiphop, funk, rock, blues and a tinge of industrial. More info can be found at his MySpace page.
(6) Wood is also a young Norwegian pop comet, also known as Elsa Marie Skjong. http://soundcloud.com/woodnorway/wood-honey-youre-a-dog
7. Stoner/Doom Metal from Rennes, France
Bandcamp
8. French rapper signed to GrintaRecords who started in 2020
https://www.instagram.com/woodsvs_/
You Make Me Feel Bad
Wood Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I'd use all the words that lovers use
I could give the looks that time has given
But this time I'll look away from you
Maybe it ain't right and maybe I'll miss you
Maybe it ain't the easiest thing that I'm gonna do
I thought I was crazy but you're the one that's mad
Stand up and take a bow for all that you have done
And if you touch yourself
You'll have to find someone else to blame
Maybe in the light of day you'll forgive me
See it now for what it really was
In another time it could all be different
Honey, I was strong but you were not
Maybe it ain't right and maybe I'll miss you
Maybe it ain't the easiest thing that I'm gonna do
You have made me feel sometimes pretty bad
I thought I was crazy but you're the one that's mad
Stand up and take a bow for all that you have done
'Cause if you touch yourself
You'll have to find someone else to blame
Maybe it ain't right, maybe I'll miss you
Maybe it ain't the easiest thing that I'm gonna do
You have made me feel sometimes pretty bad
I thought I was crazy but you're the one that's mad
Stand up and take a bow for all that you have done
'Cause if you touch yourself
You'll have to blame someone
The song "You Make Me Feel Bad" by Wood is a reflective and sorrowful tune that is based on an internal conflict about letting go of a toxic relationship. The lyrics reveal the singer's conflicted feelings about his significant other, whom he describes as making him feel bad in many ways. He acknowledges the power of the words and the looks that lovers use, but this time, he decides to look away from her. He admits that even though it might not be right and that he might miss her, letting go is the best thing he can do.
The song's chorus is the most memorable section, where the singer accuses his significant other of making him feel bad and driving him crazy. He advises her to take responsibility for her actions and blames her for her own misery. However, the song's ending leaves the possibility of forgiveness and redemption open. The singer hopes that someday, in the light of day, his significant other will forgive him and see the relationship for what it was.
Overall, "You Make Me Feel Bad" is a melancholic ballad that explores the complexities of human emotions when it comes to love and heartbreak. It's a powerful and relatable song that speaks to anyone who's ever been in a toxic relationship and found the courage to walk away.
Line by Line Meaning
I could say the things that make it happen
I have the power to make things happen and convince you to love me
I'd use all the words that lovers use
I would say all the sweet words that lovers tend to use when they're trying to win someone over
I could give the looks that time has given
I know how to give the looks that people have used over time to express attraction and desire
But this time I'll look away from you
Despite knowing all the right things to say and do, I’ll look away from you because I can’t keep being with you anymore
Maybe it ain't right and maybe I'll miss you
I know that what I’m doing may not be right and there’s a chance that I’ll miss you
Maybe it ain't the easiest thing that I'm gonna do
I know that letting you go won’t be an easy thing to do
You have made me feel [Incomprehensible] sometimes pretty bad
Your actions have left me feeling confused and hurt, and sometimes really bad
I thought I was crazy but you're the one that's mad
I used to think that I was losing my mind, but now I see that it’s you who’s acting crazy
Stand up and take a bow for all that you have done
Take ownership of your behavior and acknowledge the harm that you’ve caused
And if you touch yourself
If you’re feeling hurt or lonely without me, and resort to pleasuring yourself
You'll have to find someone else to blame
Don't blame me for the situation that you're in, you're the one who caused it all
Maybe in the light of day you'll forgive me
Perhaps with some time and reflection, you’ll find it in your heart to forgive me
See it now for what it really was
See our relationship for what it truly was, not what we hoped it would be
In another time it could all be different
In a different time or place, things could have turned out differently for us
Honey, I was strong but you were not
I tried to be strong, but I couldn’t hold on to this relationship alone. You weren't strong enough to reciprocate my love and help us survive.
You have made me feel sometimes pretty bad
Your actions have left me feeling low and hurt, and sometimes worse than that
Stand up and take a bow for all that you have done
Acknowledge your behavior and take responsibility for the hurt that you caused
'Cause if you touch yourself
If you miss me and seek pleasure from intimacy with yourself
You'll have to blame someone
Don't pin your emotional state solely on me; take responsibility for your actions and feelings
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: MADDOCK
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@vertiian
Some of you have been listening to this since 1979. I'm just hearing it for the first time. I love it!
@martychills817
It's pretty great isn't it?
@PeterShaw-lb9lt
This music is absolutely brilliant isn't it makes you want to dance I was lucky and grew up with this music I was a DJ when this came out I got to play it at discos try doing searches for the gibson bros shalama uptown festival Sylvester you make me feel mighty real if you want to know about other song replies on here and I will give them to you
@LaurenceTran
Never too late !!!!
@georgegriendlingjr3218
Even after all these years, I never get tired of hearing this song, it's timeless.
@BlackOps84
Same here🇮🇹👍
@jmslmonteiro
I agree with you!
@isabellind1292
I love it!🎵💓🎵
@CathyL-yz4xe
This is Better than the original
@tomstamford6837
Or watching the video...