It's a bit of mystery how I came upon this 12 single in 1983. I don't believe it was a hit in the UK, nor in the States. I was working at a record store that year, so I suspect that it came upon the turntable in a mysterious fashion. "Soul Train" is your typical 1980's British white guy soul, but, I think a brilliant song/recording. Swans Way (named after Marcel Proust) is a trio that consists of singer/guitarist Robert Shaw, Rick P. Jones on stand-up bass, and percussionist Maggie De Monde, and that is all I know of this band. "Soul Train" is full of images of despair. "I don't wanna walk in the rain," or "I tried and tried' mixed with "I'm tired, I'm tired" and "I know I know" The strings match the rhythm of a train getting started, and it's going somewhere not nice. "It's Midnight, it's midnight." And "I'm almost there." This is a song that is very reflective, and the mood is dark. Suicide is on this young man's mind. It's an excellent record. It should have been a huge hit here in the States as well as in the rest of the world.
The b-side is two live recordings of classic songs. "Summertime" and "Gloomy Sunday." What's interesting is their instrumentation which is very minimal and allows Shaw's vocals plenty of room to roam, but not far away from the subject matter of the songs. They added a horn section for "Summertime," and I presume that when they did play live, it was just the three of them. I think I like the minimal sound of Swans Way, because it really focuses on the song, and with this EP as an example, they have excellent taste. They did release a full album but never heard it. Come back Swans Way!
