In memory of Rob Steen: Thank you for the words and the music

Neil Morton

The late Rob Steen’s many generous contributions to this website might never have happened if we had not agreed on the allure of an Eighties hit single, Mary’s Prayer, by a Scottish band who deserved greater recognition, Danny Wilson.

Rob and I were working at The Independent at the time, sports journalists who probably wished they were playing in a band for a living or at least working for a music publication. I can’t remember how the song cropped up in conversation but it became a touchstone, a shared passion. Whenever we met in later different journalistic scenarios he would remind me I was the only other person he knew who loved Mary’s Prayer.

An exaggeration perhaps, given that it rose to No3 in the UK charts at the third time of asking; it had struggled to register with the pop audience when first released but after welcome resonance in the US it was relaunched twice in 1987 with markedly improved results. It appeared on their debut album, Meet Danny Wilson, all the tracks written by lead singer Gary Clark. An attractive tenor and an earworm melody: what took that combination so long to engage?

I used to be so careless

As if I couldn’t care less

Did I have to make this mess

When I was Mary’s prayer?

Suddenly the heavens roared

Suddenly the rain came down

Suddenly was washed away

The Mary that I knew

So when you find somebody you keep

Think of me and celebrate

I made such a big mistake

When I was Mary’s prayer

So if I say, ‘Save me, save me’

Be the light in my eyes

And if I say ten Hail Marys

Leave a light on in heaven for me

The soulful song about lost love, described as sophisti-pop as opposed to yacht rock, chimed with Rob mainly because of its echoes of one of his all-time favourite groups, Steely Dan. Donald Fagen and Walter Becker were among a number of artists he wrote lovingly about for Here Comes The Song before his recent sad death. Rob sang the praises of the familiar – Elvis, Carole King, Dione Warwick, Lindsey Buckingham, Cat Stevens, The Police, Lindisfarne and The Band – but introduced me to so many musicians I’d heard of but hadn’t invested time in: Todd Rundgren, Lloyd Cole & The Commotions, Kurt Vile, Karl Wallinger of World Party, Andy Patridge of XTC and Paddy McAloon of Prefab Sprout.

He recommended pieces on other idols such as Bruce Springsteen, Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder and Joni Mitchell but was beaten to it. Van Morrison, though, claimed pride of place. A Van the Man classic, Everyone, serenaded his family at a private cremation in Rotterdam where he had been living. Rob was only 67 when he died following a heart attack. Cricket writer, subeditor, author, music and movie scribe, journalism lecturer… he was a one-off character, a generous soul, a music obsessive. As Matthew Engel wrote in his touching obituary: ‘One critic said reading a Steen cricket report required a working knowledge of the oeuvre of Steely Dan.’

A moving ceremony in London paid homage to ‘a true maverick’. There were eloquent tributes from his ex-wife Anne, their three children Josef, Laura and Evie and close friends. He would have been proud of his kids, who displayed their musical talents with a rendition of one of his favourite songs, Todd Rundgren’s I Saw The Light. They revealed that dad had recently sent them a playlist of cherished tracks; it was 13 hours long.

The common thread of that playlist is optimism. He needed his music to be joyous, upbeat, hopeful, inducing a smile as big as his own, and he wrote about it for Here Comes The Song with forensic knowledge and a distinctive, florid style. He could never understand how I could find sad songs, even the beautiful ones, to be more uplifting. We agreed on Mary’s Prayer, though: a break-up song that fulfilled the requirement of vibrancy. And, like all the music he enjoyed, it had soul.

Curiously, he never did write about Danny Wilson though it was on his to-do list for our blog. He would have told us about how their debut album might have introduced us to Spencer Tracy until objections to Virgin Records from the late US actor’s estate necessitated a band name change at the last minute. Frontman Gary and his brother Kit decided on a character in a 1952 Frank Sinatra film their father loved called Meet Danny Wilson.

The band’s split in 1991 was amicable. Their second album Bebop Moptop had spawned another relatively successful single, The Second Summer Of Love, but by the time they began to demo the third Danny Wilson album, all three members (Gary, Kit and bassist Ged Grimes) had written more songs than could be accommodated, leading to frustration. Had they not thought of a double?

There were compilations (Sweet Danny Wilson with its live bonus tracks is worth checking out), a five-disc anthology earlier this year and reunion concerts but the trio had long gone their separate ways: Gary as a songwriter, producer and film score composer, Kit as a solo artist and Ged as a producer, computer games writer and bass player with Deacon Blue and now Simple Minds. In 2014 the band regathered publicly for the first time in 25 years at the opening ceremony of the Ryder Cup at Glasgow Hydro, playing Mary’s Prayer: ‘Blessed is the millionaire who shares your wedding day.’ Bittersweet Danny Wilson.

Rob’s last piece for this website was typically idiosyncratic, a Desert Island Discs-style list of his favourite songs which he admitted would change the following day and every other day as it had done the days before he submitted the piece. Only Laura Nyro’s The Sweet Sky would be a constant. ‘Sexy and wise. If this list had to be condensed to three-and-a-half minutes, these would be those.’ Randy Newman, Curtis Mayfield, New Radicals and The Beach Boys made the cut but he could never be satisfied with one pet sound – not even Mary’s Prayer.

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