Tim Finn makes several appearances on Neil’s other recent CD, 7 Worlds Collide, a live recording that features the likes of Eddie Vedder, Ed O’Brien and Phil Selway from Radiohead, and Johnny Marr from the Smiths.
My dad was pretty passionate about music, too, so I got the fire from him and the actual ability from Mom, I think.”įinn might also have picked up the odd influence from his bro, who would go on to cowrite such Crowded House staples as “Weather With You” and “Four Seasons in One Day”. “She played piano by ear, and she was Irish,” explains Neil during a call from his Auckland, New Zealand, home, “so there was always singing at the family parties. As young lads in the ’60s, the siblings liked nothing better than to gather round the piano with their parents for sing-alongs. Finn had quite a bit to do with the nurturing of Neil’s musicality-as well as that of his older brother (and former Split Enz bandmate) Tim. Don’t think it’s too much to close eyes and leave us/in strange places we come undone and the building blocks crash/not meant to last like a mother’s love.” “Goodnight, bless you,” her son gently croons, “let angels possess you/you’ll make dreams of another life. It’s included on the former Crowded House frontman’s new One All album, which, as stated in the liner notes, is “dedicated to mother Mary R.I.P.” Finn’s mom passed away before the release of the CD, and “Lullaby Requiem” comes off as something of an elegy to the recently departed. Neil Finn’s “Lullaby Requiem” is one such pensive tune. I might not be the most sensitive guy in the world-what Skynyrd-loving bozo ever could be?-but there are certain heart-rending pop songs that can get even my old throat aclenchin’.
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JULY 4, 2002