Notorious drug smuggler turned author Howard Marks has had an eventful life, by any stretch of the imagination – but what are the songs that have soundtracked it? NME spoke to the 70-year-old underworld legend – once described as “the most sophisticated drugs baron of all time – to find out which tracks make him tick.
The First Song I Remember Hearing
‘Day Dah Light’ – Edric Connor And The Caribbeans: “This was released in 1952, when I was seven years old. The singer and the backing group were Trinidadian, and the song was the original inspiration for Jamaican Harry Belafonte’s massive 1956 hit, ‘The Banana Boat Song’, which still gets occasionally spun at odd – very odd – club nights throughout the world. And I still love it.”
The First Song I Fell In Love With
‘Twenty Flight Rock’ – Eddie Cochran: “I had already become fond of Bill Haley’s ‘Rock Around The Clock’, its flipside ‘Thirteen Women’ and various prehistoric Presley tracks, but Cochran’s 1957 rockabilly-styled single topped them all. Artists of all genres have covered it, and I had the unbelievable experience of seeing Eddie Cochran himself perform the song on April 16, 1960, in Bristol, an hour or so before he was killed in a car crash. He was undoubtedly my favourite rock and roll singer.”
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The Song That Reminds Me of My Smuggling Days
‘I Fought The Law’ – Bobby Fuller Four: “Fairly predictably, I have to choose ‘I Fought the Law’. According to the song, “the law won”, as it did in reality. We all got busted, and most of us did lengthy prison sentences. But the fun we all had smuggling was second to none. I still regard myself as fighting the law, but now I simply focus against the clearly unjust laws, with the illegality of cannabis taking first priority. I really want to win that one, even if I have to sacrifice my life to do so.”
The Song That Reminds Me of Prison
‘Chain Gang’ – Sam Cooke; ‘Jailhouse Rock’ – Elvis Presley; ‘If The Phone Doesn’t Ring’ – It’s Me, Jimmy Buffet: “I can’t reduce this to just one song: three is the minimum I can manage. They are ‘Chain Gang’ by Sam Cooke, Elvis Presley’s ‘Jailhouse Rock’ and Jimmy Buffet’s ‘If the Phone Doesn’t Ring, It’s Me’. I hasten to add I was never on a chain gang, the warden never threw a party at any county jail, and I didn’t have a phone. But each of these tracks prickled my soul whenever they came on the local radio. I was incarcerated in Indiana, the cradle of the Ku Klux Klan. The choice was dismal – non Banksy style.”
The Song I Can No Longer Listen To
‘My Way’ – Various versions: “I can no longer listen to any version of ‘My Way’, not because of the song itself, particularly when sung by Sid Vicious, but due to the preponderance of celebrities who when interviewed arrogantly claim the song must have been written about them. I won’t name and shame – it’s not my style – but there are literally dozens of them. They’re all “so vain”. The original version was actually a 1967 French pop song that caught the attention of Paul Anka when he was on holiday in the south of France. He, in turn, adapted it for Frank Sinatra.”
The Song That Makes Me Want To Dance
‘Born Slippy’ – Underworld: “When I was imprisoned in 1988, the UK chart toppers were tracks such as Phil Collins’ version of ‘A Groovy Kind Of Love’ and Belinda Carlisle’s ‘Heaven is a Place on Earth’. Both were excellently produced, but neither ever propelled me to the dance floor. ‘Honky Tonk Women’ and ‘I Heard it Through the Grapevine’ were far more my style. When I was released, I attended a rave in a cave in Palma de Mallorca, dropped some very pure ecstasy, and the DJ played ‘Born Slippy’. Despite all my years of taking LSD, I had never conceived that such enjoyment was possible. Even today and even without drugs, I just have to hear the first few bars, and I’m looking for a dancefloor.”
The First Album I Ever Bought
‘Elvis Presley’ – Elvis Presley: “I already had virtually all the tracks, including ‘Blue Suede Shoes’, ‘Money Honey’ and ‘Lawdy Miss Clawdy’, but only on 78 RPM, and attrition (sitting on them when blind pissed) had taken its toll. LPs were still thin on the ground, and I treasured this, my only one, for years until poverty forced me to sell it to a Brighton second-hand record shop during 1968.”
The Song I Wish I’d Written
‘Don’t Step On The Grass, Sam’ – Steppenwolf: “I would have loved to have been somehow associated with Steppenwolf’s ‘Don’t Step On The Grass, Sam’ and would equally happily settle for the same band’s ‘Born to be Wild’ or ‘Magic Carpet Ride’. These were immensely powerful songs. The vocalist, John Kay, was particularly talented, making every syllable resonate. I have never met anyone who has dissed their output.”
The Song I Do At Karaoke
‘Love Me Tender’ – Elvis Presley: “It used to be ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ because I was always rehearsing Elvis movements in front of my parents’ wardrobe mirrors, but lately it’s been ‘Love Me Tender’. It’s far less exhausting. Invariably an image of Cerys Matthews jumps up in front of the karaoke screen when I sing it, and it fuels me beyond belief. I have also tried ‘Trouble’, but I’m just not evil enough. Ideally, I would like to do Roy Orbison, but I can’t get close except in dreams.”
The Song I Want Played At My Funeral
Birdsong: “I don’t really want a funeral, but if one happens, my wish is for there to be no sadness whatsoever. I’ve had far too wonderful a life for any of that. As regards what song I would like, it would be bird song, not played, but uttered spontaneously by nature.”
Mr Smiley: My Last Pill and Testament by Howard Marks is out now, published by Macmillan, £18.99 hardback