Ain't Gonna Budge

The Records : Starry Eyes

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In November of 1978 The English power pop band The Records released the single "Starry Eyes", a Byrds-inspired song that would peak at US #56 nearly a full year later. Formed from the ashes of the pub rock band The Kursaal Flyers, The Records featured drummer Will Birch (who wrote Dave Edmunds' "A.1. on the Jukebox") and his songwriting partner, vocalist John Wicks who unfortunately passed away in October of this year.

In 2017, Wicks explained his inspiration for the song to The Washington Times :

Sometimes things just come together. I was listening to the radio and heard “Do Anything You Wanna Do” by Eddie and the Hot Rods. I said to Will Birch, who wrote the lyrics, “We’ve got to write a song like this!” It was really cool. I did the music. At the time that song was written, we had this whole thing with our manager. He was a nice guy; he would always put things off. We felt like if we don’t move on faster, things would fall apart. It was my instigation to look for somebody else, which we did. Will wrote this song and put it in front of me in this rehearsal room. It didn’t have a title; it just had a place where “starry eyes” went. Because the then-ex-manager’s name was Frank Silver, I called it “Silver Song.” I just used the same kind of jangly chords I’d used as a kid, and five minutes later it was done. I said to Will, “This is a classic! This is gonna be big!”