70 One Eye to Morocco

(Gillan, Morris)
From the Ian Gillan album One Eye To Morocco

Sometimes it's hard to tell when a song is actually conceived; there you are working on a theme and suddenly the bathwater overflows - Eureka! Words and tune take on a life of their own. Sometimes it's a bit more prosaic, a bit of gibberish here and a satisfying resolution there - boom! But either way you have twenty minutes before the elements tire of your contrivances and return it all to the hydroponics dept.

In this rare case Morris's intriguing structure said from the beginning - I don't care what tune or words ride my back, this is what I am and that is where I'm going!

So the untitled original track with nowt but a few hum-de-hums from the co-writer became the pivotal force in the selection process and eventually of course - the title track.

One Eye to Morocco is the first and mostly used part of a Polish idiom that in full reads (You have) One eye to Morocco and the other to the Caucasus. This can be applied to anyone from (literally) a cross-eyed jack to a bloke with a wandering eye on the one hand, to a more philosophical usage in your place of work or school. For example if you take a moment from your labour of love to dream about an exotic sojourn you may be described as having one eye to Morocco.

So, if Deep Purple is my Caucasus, then Morocco is my naughty weekend away - Ha!