Many have influenced me, and still do. Even crap songs that I hear can influence my songwriting brain positively. I share the admiration of many for the writings of Randy Newman, Tom Lehrer, early Bob Dylan, Stan Rogers etc etc etc.

But for my money, nobody stands above the combination of Clive James (lyrics) and Pete Atkin (music). Not many have heard them (or of them), and I wonder: do they not feel the emptiness of never having heard the "Thirty year man", "Carnations on the roof", "Girl on a train", "A king at nightfall"?

The rhymes are both innovative (almost Tom Lehrer standard) and impeccable. The imagery of the lines haunting. Several have entered my everyday vocabulary and have become my "sayings" ("the art is not to try and stop the sliding - but to find a graceful way of staying slid" from "the Hypertension Kid" is one of my favourites; "I'd kill that kid, if she wasn't killing me" from the "Thirty year man" another, though you have to hear it in context to appreciate it; and my top favourite from "King at nightfall", urging the deposed king: "Put out your hand for shaking, not for kissing" again, better in context). And Pete Atkin draws on such a vast experience and is not afraid to use extra chords where they will augment the lyric, yet still sounds economical - until you try to sing his songs!

But so much good stuff has been, and is being written, by so many...And will be written, too. My biggest regret when I go - and I want this for my epitaph - is "not hearing those songs - that nobody has written yet; the notes that haven't been collected into tunes - still waiting out there, like the sand among the dunes"...