Luke Morley has released Errol Flynn, the fourth track from his solo album Songs From The Blue Room, along with an elegant monochrome video. The title of the song refers to the actor known for charismatic and swashbuckling roles in Hollywood during the Golden Age of cinema.
There is a famous quote by Gene Autry about Errol Flynn: He spent more time on a bar stool, or in court, or in the headlines, or in bed than anyone I knew.
The Luke Morley songs takes Flynn as a metaphor for the universal male journey.Â
“I’ve read various things about that period in the history of Hollywood that I find quite fascinating,” Luke Morley told MetalTalk in an earlier interview. “I’ve read David Niven’s books. David Niven and Errol Flynn shared a flat for a while. God knows what that was like.”
A metaphor for all men
“But the song uses Errol as a metaphor for all men. As men, we get to a certain age, and we realise that, whereas women used to look at us, now they look through us. It’s a bit of coming to terms with the fact that you’re getting old.
“Those of us who are lucky enough to experience that have to deal with it, obviously. But not everybody gets the opportunity to get old, and we should remember that. It’s a privilege not granted to everybody.”
“It’s a guy looking at his younger self,” Morley said, “and saying, all right, son, you know, it’s time to kind of get off your bar stool and retire gracefully from everything.
“It uses Errol as a metaphor because, obviously, he’s probably the most famous shagger in all history. All of those things that he spent his whole life doing destroyed him in the end. It’s also maybe a little bit about my father, who passed away two years ago. He lived a full life. Let’s just leave it there.”
Solo Tour
Morley told us that the album is kind of a side project anyway. But even before its release, there were calls for a solo tour.
“Initially, I was thinking I won’t bother doing any gigs,” Morley told us just as the first single, Killed By Cobain, was released. “Now the news is out that the album’s coming, and people have heard the first track. Well, when are you touring? So I thought I better have a look at it.”
Morley announced his live tour last month, with the first show at KK’s Steel Mill on 25 January 2024. “I think this will work well, live,” he said. “I think a lot of the tunes will work quite well because I think they’re essentially quite simple songs.
“This, for me, is doing something different and maybe getting a few of those things out of my system that maybe I can’t do with Thunder or don’t feel is appropriate for Thunder.”
The tour, which also features Oklahoma’s Hillbilly Vegas, kicks off at KK’s Steel Mill on 25 January 2024 and runs through to London on 31 January. Tickets are available from here.
