From Robyn on Patreon in 2026
I made this song up in 1985 and rehearsed it once or twice with my band the Egyptians, but it didn’t really fit with the rest of our material. There were always other songs to play that seemed to know better where they belonged.
In the end Chris Cox, a Cambridge musician friend who moved down to North London the same time I did, very kindly recorded an acoustic demo of it on his home 8-track, as he did with many other stray compositions of mine. 10 years later it appeared on a Rhino Records compilation of outtakes “You & Oblivion”. And there it stayed. Occasionally devoted listeners would give it the thumbs-up, but otherwise it sat placidly at the side of the R. Hitchcock superhighway, nodding among the dandelions.
Sometimes it takes decades to figure out how to frame a song. I gradually realized that this one might work best with the keyboard and drum machine sound that was in the air and in my ears a lot when it originated in the early/mid 1980s. Perhaps it was inspired by that kind of music anyway, and I’d just forgotten that. So it seemed worth giving it a retro treatment, evoking a time that I’d lived through, if never felt part of.
So in the cosy hive of Alex The Great studios in Nashville, this afternoon Brad Jones lovingly ran through his portfolio of drum machine samples and synthesiser sounds from 40 years or more ago - deep in the Smoke Age. Reagan, Thatcher and Andropov - what monsters they seemed…
Brad then set me up with his vintage devices at the appropriate settings, and we cut what I hope is a definitive version of ‘You’ve Got, You’ve Got’ for y’all’s edification here on Instagram. Look out, Tears For Fears!
PS I’m singing to a hybrid here - there’s no one person at the other end of this message. Lucky for them…