“The lush blues sound of ‘Zaragoza’ perfectly blends his whisky-parched vocal with the excellent band surrounding him.” – Clash Music
Welcome to the new Fan Fun “Song of the Week” series!
Damian has repeatedly pointed out that his debut album, Mission Creep, is a reflection of his journey—from his early days as a busker to where he stands today. Each original track on the album carries a deeply personal story. And in this “Song of the Week” series, I aim to dive into those stories one by one, sharing all the insights I can uncover about each song. I hope you enjoy this series as much as I enjoy putting it together!
Since Mission Creep traces Damian’s journey back to his busking days in the early 1990s, it feels only fitting to start our “Song of the Week” series with the song that takes us to those roots—Zaragoza.
So shall we?
I came to Damian Lewis fandom thanks to falling in love with his portrayal of Nicholas Brody in Homeland. So it is no surprise that the first musical performance I saw Damian in was a video from Homeland‘s first season wrap party where he, with his cast + crew band Yummy Yummy Yummy, sang for his favorite CIA agent:
And here is Damian talking to People Magazine about the set he and his band played at the Season 1 wrap party!
And then I saw him play the piano and/or sing/karaoke at parties, talk shows, award ceremonies, charity fundraisers and what have you! And as I read more about him, I found out that Damian had a long history with music.
Damian sang in a chamber choir at a young age — days that he remembers fondly at the Music For Youth Schools Prom at Royal Albert Hall in 2013 where he presented awards to inspirational music teachers:
“It is a really big thrill to give this away to one of the inspirational teachers… When I was roughly your age, 11 or 12, I sang in a chamber choir and had an inspirational teacher, Mr Woodgate, who rearranged Beatles tunes. And so, as an 11 year old I was able to sing Eleanor Rigby and I Love Her and other Beatles tunes in four-part harmony, and it’s a memory I treasure to this day.”
After Beatles came Elvis!
The blurb that introduces us to Damian the musician states the following:
“Damian started playing the classical guitar when he was 13 years old. Quickly though, suspecting that he might be the “Second Elvis” he graduated to the steel string acoustic, so that he could sing Elvis in the mirror, without fear of interruption.”
Damian tells Kirsty Young on Desert Island Discs back in 2014:
“Up until I was about the age of 18, I thought, I was Elvis, returned, and spent a lot of my time putting shaving foam, oddly, through my hair and relentlessly coiffing my quiff, and any opportunity getting into my skinny pair of black jeans and my winklepickers and my paisley shirt from Kensington market, and this is Elvis.”
You can hear the entire podcast here and Elvis bit is at 04:34.
Even though it seems Damian has given up thinking he is Elvis, returned… He still carries Elvis close to his heart. Well, let’s say our guy just cannot sit still when he sees a piano — it turns out he taught himself how to play — and always has an Elvis song up his sleeve: here is Damian playing ‘All Shook Up” on the Jonathan Ross Show.
Elvis years were followed by busking summers, the origin story for the song Zaragoza. Damian talks about the summers he spent busking in the South of France in an interview with Express:
“I was very young, 21, 22, 23, I used to have a motorbike, and I’d drive it down through France and set myself up for a month, play my guitar and sing to people in the street and make money. I’m not a great guitar player but I did learn classical guitar in my teens and then realized that busking was what I wanted to do with that.
I really enjoyed it and at one point could play 60 songs off the top of my head – although they were all songs with very simple chord structures so I didn’t get any better by playing them.
Given that, I played all sorts of things – lots of Beatles, lots of Elvis, the Eagles, the Doobie Brothers, Simon and Garfunkel. Really, what I was playing was wedding music for really uncool weddings!”
There was a square in Aix-en-Provence where there were five restaurants surrounding a little fountain, and none of the restaurants could get away from me because I’d put myself right in the middle and play to all of them!
The people eating and drinking in the restaurants would pay me in beer, and then they could really never get rid of me because I’d just sit there getting drunker and drunker and drunker.
There were a couple of nights when I’d suddenly look up and the waiters were actually putting the chairs on the tables, and I was still there, playing to nobody, with a line of bottles in front of me. It was a lot of fun – they were good times.”
However, he judges poorly one evening. As he crosses the Pyrenees, on his way to Zaragoza, Damian builds his tent in the midst of a raging storm… And he realizes, as darkness falls, that water is coming through the roof… Yikes!
I got food on the fire, but I ain’t hungry no more
I hear a ripple in the water
Now what you do that for?
The electric storm rages overhead and the young man wonders if this can be the end…
I got rocks in my back and spiders in my bed
The gods in the sky throw lightning at my head
Mary Jane and JJ are my only friends
I’m looking for a start, so this can be the end
“The gods in the sky throw lightning at my head” is such a brilliant and evocative lyric—one that stays with you long after hearing it. I also have to mention the funniest thing that I thought Mary Jane and JJ in the lyrics were the names Damian gave to the spiders in his bed 🙂 It was my dear Gingersnap who gave me the news: Mary Jane is weed and JJ is whiskey 🙂 God, I am naive or what?
Damian dropped Zaragoza as his second single from Mission Creep and the song received instant love from the fans.
Here is my lovely friend Tsvete, holding her feelings about Zaragoza on a piece of cardboard as Damian is singing it at The Old Market in Brighton in September 2023.
And here is Zaragoza for you, in its entirety, from Damian’s fabulous gig at Hoxton Hall in March 2023. You can spot the crazy front row ladies in the, well, front row!
If you have Damian Lewis gig withdrawals, or if you want to see him on stage with a guitar in hand for the first time, or especially if you happen to live in Ireland, Damian has live gigs in Cork, Dublin and Limerick this October. You can find the ticket information here.
