A death song (perhaps) from home, 'Johnny Remember Me' is a product of the 304 Holloway Road London address where Joe Meek based his home studio. Unlike the death songs to date, writer Geoff Goddard gives us no set up story leading to Leyton's fate - that much detail is in the past and Meek controls the tension with aplomb. Leyton rides the song's horse gallop like a Frankie Laine with the lid on, providing an earthy grip that ensures the drama doesn't come prefixed with a 'melo' (which the gothic schlock of "When the mist's a-rising and the rain is falling" could easily have lapsed into) as he remembers an unnamed girl he "loved and lost a year ago".This much is standard for the genre, but what makes the song is the repeated ghostly refrain of the title (voiced by Lissa Gray), "singing in the sighing of the wind" and delivered as both a command and an entreat that's unwavering in its message. In tone it sounds as much a voice from beyond the grave as Kate Bush would adopt for Cathy on 'Wuthering Heights', but that may be too simplistic - I qualified my opening 'death song' comment with a 'perhaps' because nowhere does the song conclusively state that this girl is dead; Johnny has 'loved and lost' her meaning that her wails could simply be the voice of his conscience rather than anything supernatural.
Treatise on the power of undying love or a rumination on guilt and psychological obsession? Well you can take your pick but I don't think it matters all that much; it all goes into the pot to add depth to the song for sure, but Leyton is a haunted man regardless, fated never to find peace in this life ("But as long as I live I know I'll hear her singing in the sighing of the wind" because of a one time dalliance that won't let go. That's the power of a woman for you, and all the more powerful in that Meek and Goddard managed to wrap it all up in two and a half minutes. A marvellous single.
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