0:00:02 > 0:00:04# The signs of life On the other side of Fife
0:00:04 > 0:00:06# And the devil's tune
0:00:06 > 0:00:09# On a dark side of Dunoon... #
0:00:09 > 0:00:13I think he's a unique talent, a Scottish national treasure.
0:00:13 > 0:00:17# You could be out on the street And on your own
0:00:17 > 0:00:20# Just like another Rolling stone... #
0:00:20 > 0:00:22A Republican, socialist,
0:00:22 > 0:00:27Scottish bard of the highest level of quality.
0:00:27 > 0:00:31# There's love in this world For everyone
0:00:31 > 0:00:35# Every rascal and son of a gun... #
0:00:35 > 0:00:40Michael is probably the cleverest person I've ever met.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43# And maybe I saw a big Alsatian
0:00:43 > 0:00:45# Fag in its mooth, a few tattoos
0:00:45 > 0:00:46# Barkin' at the launderette
0:00:46 > 0:00:48# And on its feet were pointed shoes... #
0:00:48 > 0:00:51He'd wear baffies to his gigs.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53# No more will I rove, no more
0:00:53 > 0:00:54# It's done... #
0:00:54 > 0:00:56He had his keyboard on an iron board.
0:00:56 > 0:00:58It was kind of propped there as if
0:00:58 > 0:01:00"Oh, where else would have his keyboard?"
0:01:00 > 0:01:03He made me really proud of Scotland.
0:01:05 > 0:01:07# All will be well
0:01:09 > 0:01:10# All will be well
0:01:13 > 0:01:16- # Underwood Lane - Underwood Lane
0:01:16 > 0:01:18# I hear your refrain
0:01:18 > 0:01:22# And your voice I'm into pleasure and pain
0:01:22 > 0:01:24# Pleasure and pain... #
0:01:24 > 0:01:28The EP, Houseroom, was recorded in early 2012 by Michael Marra
0:01:28 > 0:01:30and the Hazey Janes, the band
0:01:30 > 0:01:33featuring his children Alice and Matthew.
0:01:34 > 0:01:37We went in January and recorded six songs in just a few days
0:01:37 > 0:01:39and it was amazing fun.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42We really enjoyed the experience of getting to work with him
0:01:42 > 0:01:46in the studio, but I think he also really enjoyed working with us.
0:01:46 > 0:01:48He was quite impressed by what we were doing
0:01:48 > 0:01:50and we were impressed by him.
0:01:50 > 0:01:54And we had lots of laughs, as well. Lots of laughs, didn't we?
0:01:54 > 0:01:59The few performances which followed would be Michael Marra's last.
0:02:00 > 0:02:05From early days in Dundee's Lochee, this was a life filled with music.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09Michael's older brother, Eddie, played piano.
0:02:09 > 0:02:14Everyone always says he was the far superior piano player of the two.
0:02:14 > 0:02:16And Christopher played guitar.
0:02:16 > 0:02:19I know there was a lot of classical music in the house,
0:02:19 > 0:02:20a lot of Duke Ellington.
0:02:20 > 0:02:22He was obviously surrounded by music.
0:02:22 > 0:02:24He was an altar boy,
0:02:24 > 0:02:26and he has a fabulous song called The Altar Boys.
0:02:30 > 0:02:34# Ad Deum qui laetificat
0:02:34 > 0:02:37# Juventutem meam... #
0:02:37 > 0:02:39He did talk a lot, didn't he,
0:02:39 > 0:02:43about his experiences of being in the church and being an altar boy.
0:02:44 > 0:02:49# Cogitatione
0:02:49 > 0:02:53# Cogitatione... #
0:02:53 > 0:02:56- They were for hymns, I think.- Yeah, he loved hymns.- Said they were hits.
0:02:56 > 0:02:59- Sounded like hits.- Sounded like hit songs. That's right.
0:02:59 > 0:03:05I shall not die, but live and declare the works of the Lord
0:03:05 > 0:03:08The Lord hath chastened me sore
0:03:08 > 0:03:11but He hath not given me over unto death.
0:03:11 > 0:03:15Michael himself had something of a hit with Psalm 118,
0:03:15 > 0:03:18when he recorded it with techno-folk musician Martyn Bennet.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23The stone which the builders refused has become
0:03:23 > 0:03:25the headstone of the corner.
0:03:25 > 0:03:27TECHNO MUSIC PLAYS
0:03:27 > 0:03:31This is the Lord's doing, and it's marvellous in our eyes.
0:03:34 > 0:03:37# I know I'm good at being poor
0:03:37 > 0:03:41# But I thought you might have disengaged... #
0:03:41 > 0:03:43I think the folk loves were where he first started.
0:03:43 > 0:03:46Although if you'd called him a folk singer these days,
0:03:46 > 0:03:47he would not have been happy.
0:03:47 > 0:03:50I know that he turned up to the folk club at the Woodlands
0:03:50 > 0:03:52and asked if he could play.
0:03:52 > 0:03:54I think he played a song, and they said,
0:03:54 > 0:03:57"Have they got any more like that?" He said, "Yeah, hundreds."
0:03:57 > 0:04:00Michael and brother Christopher were, for a time, part
0:04:00 > 0:04:02of a group called Hen's Teeth,
0:04:02 > 0:04:04which featured musician Dougie Maclean.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07The subject of this song, Niel Gow's Apprentice.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11# I'll sit beneath the fiddle tree
0:04:11 > 0:04:14# With the ghost of Niel Gow next to me
0:04:14 > 0:04:17# Listen, Niel The apprentice has begun... #
0:04:17 > 0:04:19Dougie was in Australia at the time
0:04:19 > 0:04:24Michael wrote the song, so that experience and Dougie had threaded
0:04:24 > 0:04:27through the lyric of the song.
0:04:27 > 0:04:29But there's much more to it than that.
0:04:29 > 0:04:31# I'll sit beneath the fiddle tree
0:04:31 > 0:04:35# With the ghost of Neil Gow next to me
0:04:35 > 0:04:39# Listen, Neil The apprentice has begun... #
0:04:39 > 0:04:41And it's just got all those elements,
0:04:41 > 0:04:44the strength of Michael's song-writing that's about something
0:04:44 > 0:04:48very specific on the one hand, but is layered and has that kind of
0:04:48 > 0:04:53blossoming that makes it resonate in a far, far wider context.
0:04:53 > 0:04:57# Oh, no more will I rove, no more
0:04:57 > 0:04:59# It's over. #
0:05:01 > 0:05:05By the mid-'70s, both the Marra brothers were in Skeets Bolivar,
0:05:05 > 0:05:08playing a blend of country, rock and soul.
0:05:09 > 0:05:13# Oh, piece of shoulder Out my window
0:05:13 > 0:05:16# Got to feed the world Keep away my blues
0:05:16 > 0:05:20# I know I have to make a difference
0:05:20 > 0:05:24# There's nothing left I have to lose... #
0:05:24 > 0:05:27One of the first guys I was playing music with said, "There's this band.
0:05:27 > 0:05:29"It's a big band, you know?
0:05:29 > 0:05:30"They've got two saxophones
0:05:30 > 0:05:33"and lots and lots of players."
0:05:33 > 0:05:36# I woke up late when time began... #
0:05:36 > 0:05:39Michael, he was a bass player in the band.
0:05:39 > 0:05:43I can always remember where he stood and the dungarees he used to wear.
0:05:43 > 0:05:46# ..my heart into plans... #
0:05:46 > 0:05:48The Skeets were something very special.
0:05:48 > 0:05:51There was a professional quality about the band that was very different.
0:05:51 > 0:05:54The covers that they did were classic kind of songs.
0:05:54 > 0:05:56Great material.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59But what particularly was great about them was the original thing they did.
0:05:59 > 0:06:01They did their own thing, and that was very different
0:06:01 > 0:06:03in Dundee at the time.
0:06:03 > 0:06:07# Talking about Perry Street... #
0:06:07 > 0:06:09They all had a certain confidence, as well,
0:06:09 > 0:06:11I liked about Skeets, as well.
0:06:11 > 0:06:12They were all happy to be there
0:06:12 > 0:06:16and I couldn't say that with every performer that I looked at.
0:06:18 > 0:06:20Were you living there when you wrote that?
0:06:20 > 0:06:22In Perry Street? Aye, yes. I was.
0:06:22 > 0:06:25- You drink at the West End bar? - I did a couple of times.
0:06:25 > 0:06:29- But not if I could help it. - It was rough?- It was rough.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32Yeah, but I mean, when you were staying there,
0:06:32 > 0:06:34what, were you working at the time?
0:06:34 > 0:06:37- No.- So on the brew?- Aye.
0:06:39 > 0:06:44In 1976, the band won a recording contract,
0:06:44 > 0:06:48after coming second in a competition run by the Sunday Mail.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51The resulting single, of which the official title,
0:06:51 > 0:06:55Streethouse Door, bears little resemblance to the actual words,
0:06:55 > 0:06:57was not a commercial success.
0:06:57 > 0:06:59# Shithouse door
0:06:59 > 0:07:02# Shithouse door
0:07:02 > 0:07:05# I hear you bang like a shithouse door... #
0:07:05 > 0:07:08Commercial success needs so many elements
0:07:08 > 0:07:12and it alludes the majority of people.
0:07:12 > 0:07:17So it's not wise to actually go after that and that alone.
0:07:17 > 0:07:21With the attractions of constant touring wearing thin,
0:07:21 > 0:07:24and a second single no more successful than the first,
0:07:24 > 0:07:27Michael was keen to pursue his song-writing.
0:07:27 > 0:07:32Artistic success, Michael was always destined to something.
0:07:32 > 0:07:35He was a unique voice right from the very start.
0:07:36 > 0:07:41Skeets Bolivar played their final gig on Boxing Day 1978...
0:07:43 > 0:07:46..and Michael followed a solo career in London,
0:07:46 > 0:07:50releasing his first album, The Midas Touch, in 1980.
0:07:50 > 0:07:52The early ones, I still like.
0:07:52 > 0:07:54The Midas Touch wasn't really, fully him,
0:07:54 > 0:07:57but there was an awful lot about that record I liked.
0:07:57 > 0:07:59It was kind of like a record at a time,
0:07:59 > 0:08:01people were doing a different thing musically.
0:08:01 > 0:08:05One song from the album that has stood the test of time is
0:08:05 > 0:08:07Take Me Out Drinking Tonight.
0:08:07 > 0:08:13# When these shoes were new It was how do you do
0:08:13 > 0:08:19# It was whisky And telling our tales... #
0:08:19 > 0:08:23Everyone seemed to know the song and talk about it a lot.
0:08:23 > 0:08:25It's been sung at weddings and funerals
0:08:25 > 0:08:29and New Year parties and all kinds of things.
0:08:29 > 0:08:33And we've been playing it with him in the past few years.
0:08:33 > 0:08:40# Oh, restore to my eyes What was clear and was plain
0:08:40 > 0:08:47# Oh, honey, take me out Drinking tonight
0:08:47 > 0:08:54# Honey, take me out Drinking tonight
0:08:54 > 0:09:01# Honey, take me out Drinking tonight. #
0:09:05 > 0:09:08Michael had his own ideas about what the follow up to The Midas touch
0:09:08 > 0:09:11might be, but his ideas didn't chime with his
0:09:11 > 0:09:14London management and record company.
0:09:14 > 0:09:17They wanted songs that they could sell,
0:09:17 > 0:09:20that would be big hits and all the rest of it.
0:09:20 > 0:09:22Didn't really want Scottish songs.
0:09:22 > 0:09:24But Michael's idea was exactly that.
0:09:24 > 0:09:28An album of songs inspired by, and about, Scotland.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31They just threw the idea out, but I decided to move back to
0:09:31 > 0:09:35Scotland completely and commit myself to the album.
0:09:35 > 0:09:37Gaels Blue, it was called.
0:09:37 > 0:09:41It's his take on the Scottish experience and bits of history
0:09:41 > 0:09:43and there's a great song on it
0:09:43 > 0:09:45called A General Grant's Visit To Dundee.
0:09:47 > 0:09:51# A carriage was called to the Magdalen Green
0:09:51 > 0:09:54# Before the darkness fell
0:09:55 > 0:10:00# With a short stop-over For the lady's convenience
0:10:00 > 0:10:02# At the Royal Hotel... #
0:10:02 > 0:10:06General Ulysses Grant had visited Dundee, but the only thing
0:10:06 > 0:10:10anybody could remember him saying was, "It's a mighty long bridge."
0:10:10 > 0:10:14And Michael took that line and made this whole song out of it.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17# Not a pretty little bandstand
0:10:17 > 0:10:19# Or a lovely little steeple
0:10:19 > 0:10:21# Or charming little houses
0:10:21 > 0:10:24# Or cheerful little people
0:10:25 > 0:10:28# But what a mighty long bridge
0:10:28 > 0:10:31# For such a mighty little old town. #
0:10:34 > 0:10:37I remember being really young and being in the car
0:10:37 > 0:10:40and driving somewhere with Dad and asking him
0:10:40 > 0:10:42what he thought the best song he'd ever written was.
0:10:42 > 0:10:47I didn't really expect him to answer, but he did right away.
0:10:47 > 0:10:49He said Monkey Hair.
0:10:49 > 0:10:51# Monkey hair
0:10:51 > 0:10:54# The turn to fair
0:10:54 > 0:11:00# Scourge the brow With passions furrow
0:11:00 > 0:11:03# This, she cries
0:11:03 > 0:11:05# Let no man's lies
0:11:05 > 0:11:08# Move through my womb
0:11:08 > 0:11:11# And add to my sorrows... #
0:11:11 > 0:11:14Because it was written for a woman to sing,
0:11:14 > 0:11:17he never got to perform it live and as it's the best song
0:11:17 > 0:11:22he thinks he ever written, I think we should be singing it a lot more.
0:11:22 > 0:11:27# Send my love to distant hill
0:11:27 > 0:11:32# All to raise his drooping shares
0:11:32 > 0:11:39# Encasing my heart In monkey hair. #
0:11:46 > 0:11:48One thing a lot of people say about the singers that come from
0:11:48 > 0:11:50Dundee is that they are full of soul.
0:11:50 > 0:11:52When they deliver a song it's given
0:11:52 > 0:11:56with integrity and compassion and giving 100% commitment.
0:11:56 > 0:12:00I think Mick was saying that life here is every bit as glamorous
0:12:00 > 0:12:05and exciting and full of mystery and fun as it is in Hollywood.
0:12:05 > 0:12:08# Gaels Blue
0:12:09 > 0:12:11# We've been weighed up
0:12:11 > 0:12:14# And found to be true
0:12:14 > 0:12:18# Though we never had the Chevys Or the Baptist church
0:12:18 > 0:12:21# We had a choice of colours for a broken crutch
0:12:21 > 0:12:22# We'll do... #
0:12:22 > 0:12:26That's really what Gael's Blue was about. It's saying that, it doesn't have to be London
0:12:26 > 0:12:29or New York or the Deep South,
0:12:29 > 0:12:32the same thing is true here.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35# Gaels Blue
0:12:36 > 0:12:38# We'll do. #
0:12:48 > 0:12:51Gaels Blue was recorded in Dundee
0:12:51 > 0:12:53on Michael Marra's own label
0:12:53 > 0:12:57and all his subsequent albums were produced in Scotland.
0:12:57 > 0:12:59Mick was always drawing.
0:12:59 > 0:13:01He's a great visual artist as well.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05It didn't matter what the medium was, Mick would be making pictures
0:13:05 > 0:13:09out of sticks and branches and fishing line and things like that.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12There's one house he built, a kind of boat out of sticks
0:13:12 > 0:13:15and branches and all the rest of it is in his back garden.
0:13:17 > 0:13:19It was a kind of escape for him.
0:13:19 > 0:13:23He would come out here and spend hours placing these sticks,
0:13:23 > 0:13:26some of them absolutely tiny, to make this boat.
0:13:26 > 0:13:29These sticks are from all over, really, all over the country.
0:13:29 > 0:13:31People would bring him sticks
0:13:31 > 0:13:34cos they knew he'd be out in the garden, building his boat.
0:13:34 > 0:13:36I think he imagined it was going to be a giant ship in a bottle,
0:13:36 > 0:13:39so that's where the strings come from.
0:13:39 > 0:13:41I think he imagined he was going to pull it
0:13:41 > 0:13:43and the whole thing was going to rise up.
0:13:45 > 0:13:47He lived his life creatively
0:13:47 > 0:13:50and whether or not he was planting
0:13:50 > 0:13:52out a football field in bluebells,
0:13:52 > 0:13:56a kind of thing that Ian Hamilton Finlay
0:13:56 > 0:13:59or George Wyllie would have been proud of, you know,
0:13:59 > 0:14:02he was in a Scottish tradition of artists.
0:14:02 > 0:14:08He just was creative every second that he was alive.
0:14:08 > 0:14:10# Aye, aye, fit like, no bad... #
0:14:16 > 0:14:19One of Michael's longest creative collaborations was with
0:14:19 > 0:14:23one of Scotland's best kept secrets, Dundee's own Saint Andrew,
0:14:23 > 0:14:25with and without The Woollen Mill.
0:14:27 > 0:14:30# Keep on going... #
0:14:35 > 0:14:38Andrew's very, very funny. It was a very simple thing,
0:14:38 > 0:14:41he'd do American songs in Scots, Scots songs in American.
0:14:41 > 0:14:43# Rendez-vous, we hit the bar
0:14:43 > 0:14:45# At the Grange of Aberbothrie. #
0:14:45 > 0:14:47You'd introduce Pinball Wizard saying,
0:14:47 > 0:14:51"A song now from one of my favourite bands, The Wha."
0:14:57 > 0:15:00With Saint Andrew, he was able to write with tongue in cheek kind of thing.
0:15:00 > 0:15:03Ordinarily, it's much more difficult to do as a straight,
0:15:03 > 0:15:05together, organised songwriter.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15Mick was able to spot any kind of rubbish line in a song
0:15:15 > 0:15:17or even melodic or harmonic line,
0:15:17 > 0:15:20or anything like that, like in a heartbeat.
0:15:22 > 0:15:25You couldn't throw anything past him that was sort of contrived.
0:15:25 > 0:15:28It had to be genuine commitment to the work.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36Michael's artistic world broadened into theatre,
0:15:36 > 0:15:39where his songs, like this one for The Mill Lavvies
0:15:39 > 0:15:43at Dundee Rep, raised production values and often the roof.
0:15:48 > 0:15:50# If Dundee was Africa
0:15:50 > 0:15:53# And Fife was Antarctica
0:15:53 > 0:15:56# If Arbroath was India
0:15:56 > 0:15:58# And Perth was Peru... #
0:15:58 > 0:16:01Michael wrote the music for the Rep's wonderfully inventive
0:16:01 > 0:16:041987 production of Witch's Blood,
0:16:04 > 0:16:07based on William Blain's novel.
0:16:07 > 0:16:11Double deckers of Dundonians travelled the city to watch
0:16:11 > 0:16:15their fellow citizens in a huge community cast.
0:16:15 > 0:16:17Michael was the key to it.
0:16:17 > 0:16:19He was the first person, with the writer John Harvey.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22The three of us would go out
0:16:22 > 0:16:26and we would talk to people across the city and slowly, slowly,
0:16:26 > 0:16:30people started to kind of get involved, until we had, I think, six
0:16:30 > 0:16:35rehearsal rooms in the north, east, south and west of Dundee,
0:16:35 > 0:16:39running concurrently with Michael running from one rehearsal room
0:16:39 > 0:16:42to another, to teach songs.
0:16:42 > 0:16:44# O penitence
0:16:44 > 0:16:47# O penitence
0:16:47 > 0:16:50# O hell's eternity
0:16:52 > 0:16:56# Though a monk may hear the devil's hands
0:16:56 > 0:17:01# The deal himself He sprung for me... #
0:17:01 > 0:17:04To be honest with you, I was led by him.
0:17:04 > 0:17:06I was completely led by him.
0:17:06 > 0:17:09If he was OK with things, then I was OK.
0:17:09 > 0:17:13Because he had the complete authenticity
0:17:13 > 0:17:15that I was searching for.
0:17:15 > 0:17:16# O penitence
0:17:17 > 0:17:20# Ah, penitence... #
0:17:20 > 0:17:22You certainly act in the belief that,
0:17:22 > 0:17:24to make great theatre, you have to have love
0:17:24 > 0:17:26and you have to have roots.
0:17:26 > 0:17:30And that's what Michael gave me, he taught me that.
0:17:34 > 0:17:35You beauty!
0:17:35 > 0:17:39- Yes! Here!- There!
0:17:39 > 0:17:41Michael considered A Wee Home From Home
0:17:41 > 0:17:43his best theatre work.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46This two hander was created together with dancer
0:17:46 > 0:17:48and choreographer Frank McConnell.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51The first time I saw Michael was ten yards from
0:17:51 > 0:17:53where I'm sitting, right here.
0:17:53 > 0:17:56Almost immediately, I thought, "I want to work with him."
0:17:56 > 0:17:59# The man, the man it's nice to see
0:17:59 > 0:18:02- # How's yourself? - You're looking grand... #
0:18:02 > 0:18:05People still kind of find it hard to believe
0:18:05 > 0:18:08that that show was created in two weeks.
0:18:08 > 0:18:10- I know.- He wrote every single one
0:18:10 > 0:18:11of those songs in a two-week period.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16# If by accident Your dreams get spent
0:18:16 > 0:18:19# Like there's no tomorrow... #
0:18:19 > 0:18:23And just his vision of Michael in the shower afterwards,
0:18:23 > 0:18:25standing in the shower with a cigarette.
0:18:25 > 0:18:30The only man I ever met who could smoke while having a shower.
0:18:32 > 0:18:34He was like this, like that.
0:18:34 > 0:18:37"How's it going, how's it going?"
0:18:37 > 0:18:39While just having a shower!
0:18:42 > 0:18:47# In the second city of the Empire
0:18:47 > 0:18:50# Mother Glasgow nurses All her weans
0:18:50 > 0:18:53The famous song from it, Mother Glasgow...
0:18:53 > 0:18:57- Which you wanted to ditch.- Did I want to ditch it? I can't remember.
0:19:00 > 0:19:04# I dreamed I took a dander With St Mungo
0:19:04 > 0:19:09# To try to catch a fish that couldnae swim... #
0:19:09 > 0:19:13We used Daily Record as source material every single morning.
0:19:13 > 0:19:18And there was an article about a minister in the Western Isles
0:19:18 > 0:19:23using the phrase, "We will not lead our own children up to heaven
0:19:23 > 0:19:26"if we let them dance their way into hell."
0:19:28 > 0:19:31Which, Michael being the wordsmith that he was,
0:19:31 > 0:19:35managed to make it far more poetic than that.
0:19:35 > 0:19:41# But he won't make his own way Up to heaven
0:19:43 > 0:19:45# By watching all his charges
0:19:45 > 0:19:48# Into hell... #
0:19:48 > 0:19:50I think it's one of the great songs about cities
0:19:50 > 0:19:52that I've ever heard and I've ever sung.
0:19:52 > 0:19:54We've played it all around the country.
0:19:54 > 0:19:59# Mother Glasgow watches All her weans... #
0:19:59 > 0:20:01It's the song they all cheer for.
0:20:01 > 0:20:04And a lot of the more intimate gigs that we get hired to do
0:20:04 > 0:20:08anywhere in the world, it's always on the list.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13Can the song be stripped down to one voice and one instrument?
0:20:13 > 0:20:17And all of his work passed that test.
0:20:17 > 0:20:20# Where Glasgow
0:20:20 > 0:20:25# Flying. #
0:20:27 > 0:20:31Glasgow may have been a wee home from home for Michael,
0:20:31 > 0:20:33but he was first and foremost a Dundonian.
0:20:35 > 0:20:36I read once, you know,
0:20:36 > 0:20:38Ian Hamilton Finlay,
0:20:38 > 0:20:41somebody asked him about Scotland
0:20:41 > 0:20:43and he said that Scotland
0:20:43 > 0:20:45was a shadow across his heart.
0:20:46 > 0:20:48Well, Dundee is...
0:20:48 > 0:20:50You saw the light outside, you know
0:20:50 > 0:20:51what the light is like here.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54Dundee is like a light across my heart.
0:20:56 > 0:20:58I suppose I listen to Michael thinking,
0:20:58 > 0:21:01or not even knowing, that he was a Dundonian, you know?
0:21:01 > 0:21:04And I mean, once you start to realise that then that comes
0:21:04 > 0:21:07through in the fervour of his writing and his character
0:21:07 > 0:21:08and everything is so Dundonian.
0:21:08 > 0:21:10But I suppose it transcends that.
0:21:10 > 0:21:12It can speak to people internationally,
0:21:12 > 0:21:14it can speak to people in Glasgow.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17Where he was was as important as anywhere
0:21:17 > 0:21:19and I think that was what was important to him.
0:21:19 > 0:21:23There wasn't a hierarchy of places and it wasn't that Dundee was
0:21:23 > 0:21:26some sort of provincial town, it was the centre of the universe.
0:21:26 > 0:21:28Michael never, ever wanted to escape from it.
0:21:28 > 0:21:32It was a real grounding place for him.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35He had still had a pride in his heart.
0:21:35 > 0:21:38He was unbelievably proud of being given
0:21:38 > 0:21:40a doctorate by his university.
0:21:40 > 0:21:44For a guy that left school with no qualifications.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48Aye, he was thrilled with that.
0:21:49 > 0:21:52We were both made doctors of Caledonian University.
0:21:52 > 0:21:55I was really, really proud to share the platform with Michael Marra.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59But the only thing I was really disappointed about was
0:21:59 > 0:22:01I thought he might have worn his slippers.
0:22:01 > 0:22:04Cos every time I've seen him perform I've always seen him
0:22:04 > 0:22:07with these fantastic baffies, the real uberly baffies.
0:22:07 > 0:22:09And so, when I saw him in the morning, I was going,
0:22:09 > 0:22:11"Have you brought your slippers?"
0:22:11 > 0:22:14And he went, "No, I thought I'd leave it." I went... "Oh!"
0:22:14 > 0:22:18I would love, I would so have loved to have seen him with the very
0:22:18 > 0:22:19distinctive hat like a pancake
0:22:19 > 0:22:22and a very long gown in these baffies.
0:22:22 > 0:22:24Now, that would have made me laugh.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28But he had on a quite decent brogue, I think.
0:22:28 > 0:22:32# We were all flooded With a scarlet light
0:22:32 > 0:22:37# Came through the window With the rain outside
0:22:37 > 0:22:40# It all went quiet And a vision appeared
0:22:41 > 0:22:45# With a rose in her hair And a ring in her ear... #
0:22:45 > 0:22:48Definitely, he sang beautiful words that belonged to where
0:22:48 > 0:22:52he came from, but that just made it more enriched.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55# Hitch a lift upon this falling star
0:22:56 > 0:23:01# Make your way down To the Taybridge Bar
0:23:01 > 0:23:03# There'd be no more lies
0:23:03 > 0:23:05# And no more tears
0:23:05 > 0:23:10# No more listening through The fat man's ears... #
0:23:10 > 0:23:13He was a universal writer, just like Burns is,
0:23:13 > 0:23:15just like Shakespeare is,
0:23:15 > 0:23:17you know, just like anyone. Bernard Shaw...
0:23:17 > 0:23:22He was able to help capture the human condition in very
0:23:22 > 0:23:24succinct and clear ways, you know?
0:23:24 > 0:23:27Just change the accent and you've got somebody from Manchester.
0:23:27 > 0:23:30Change the accent and you've got somebody from Kentucky.
0:23:30 > 0:23:33It's not beyond everybody's reach to get this.
0:23:35 > 0:23:39# Green grow the rashes, oh
0:23:39 > 0:23:42# Green grow the rashes, oh
0:23:44 > 0:23:49# The sweetest hours that e'er I spend
0:23:49 > 0:23:52# I spent among the lasses, oh... #
0:23:52 > 0:23:56Michael Marra was always of that kind of Burns singer that
0:23:56 > 0:23:58I really enjoyed.
0:23:58 > 0:24:01Taking it away from the high-brow and making it a little bit
0:24:01 > 0:24:06more of the ordinary, singing it. Not that he was ordinary.
0:24:06 > 0:24:08He was extraordinary.
0:24:08 > 0:24:12# Green grow the rashes, oh
0:24:12 > 0:24:16# Green grow the rashes, oh... #
0:24:16 > 0:24:20The final verse where he talks about God being a woman,
0:24:20 > 0:24:23I find that just incredible.
0:24:23 > 0:24:27# All nature swears the lovely Dears
0:24:28 > 0:24:33# Her noblest work she classes, oh
0:24:33 > 0:24:38# Apprentice hands she tried on man
0:24:38 > 0:24:42# Then she made the lasses, oh... #
0:24:42 > 0:24:44I mean, to say such a thing in his time,
0:24:44 > 0:24:46the time that he was living
0:24:46 > 0:24:49was very, very brave and he's a great man.
0:24:49 > 0:24:53And I love the song, I just love it. It's full of love.
0:24:53 > 0:24:58# The sweetest hours that e'er I spend
0:24:58 > 0:25:03# I spent among the lasses, oh. #
0:25:27 > 0:25:29There's a secret osprey nest in Angus.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32He used to go to it daily and it would either be myself
0:25:32 > 0:25:35or Andrew, Saint Andrew, that would go take him along,
0:25:35 > 0:25:37sometimes the pair of us.
0:25:37 > 0:25:39And we would go along and spend some time,
0:25:39 > 0:25:41sitting, looking at this nest and looking at
0:25:41 > 0:25:46the fledgling osprey as it grew over the time that it was here.
0:25:46 > 0:25:48Right up until the point where the nest was abandoned
0:25:48 > 0:25:50and the family migrated.
0:25:50 > 0:25:52And there's the miracle of life happening right there
0:25:52 > 0:25:54in front of your eyes.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58I think, towards the end, life in any form became much,
0:25:58 > 0:26:01much more precious and I think you could see that.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04And I think there was a celebration of that through the ospreys.
0:26:07 > 0:26:09"And there was silence, Michael.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12"Not even a whisper of rustling leaves.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15"The wind dropped and just one great leaf took
0:26:15 > 0:26:20"and age to come spiralling to the ground in perfect silence.
0:26:21 > 0:26:25"Till suddenly a honking and a ragged V of urgent birds,
0:26:25 > 0:26:27"wings beating in double time,
0:26:27 > 0:26:30"forming and re-forming as they went,
0:26:30 > 0:26:33"their flock perfect travelling-shape
0:26:33 > 0:26:35"as best they could,
0:26:35 > 0:26:37"as they crossed the whole wide sky
0:26:37 > 0:26:40"above the osprey's nest in no time.
0:26:41 > 0:26:46"And I don't know if it was an optimistic sound or not,
0:26:46 > 0:26:50"but anyway, it was the sound of being alive
0:26:50 > 0:26:53"and they were making it.
0:26:53 > 0:26:54"Wild geese,
0:26:54 > 0:26:59"coming back from their far, cold wherever to winter here
0:26:59 > 0:27:04"as if they were ospreys and Angus was Africa."
0:27:09 > 0:27:11Apart from being a songwriter,
0:27:11 > 0:27:14and a musician of incredible calibre,
0:27:14 > 0:27:18probably the consistently highest that I've ever worked with,
0:27:18 > 0:27:21I would say that he was a lot of fun to be with.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24# With my hand on my heart
0:27:24 > 0:27:28# And my heart in my mooth... #
0:27:28 > 0:27:31One of my favourite things was just watching TV with Dad,
0:27:31 > 0:27:36which was... Listening to him was more entertaining than what was on.
0:27:36 > 0:27:40# My feet might be big
0:27:40 > 0:27:43# But the insects are safe... #
0:27:44 > 0:27:47Michael always used to cheer me up,
0:27:47 > 0:27:50every time I heard him play and sing.
0:27:52 > 0:27:56# Hermless
0:27:56 > 0:27:59# Hermless... #
0:27:59 > 0:28:02I'm just at the point of missing him and I think, eventually...
0:28:04 > 0:28:06Well, he'll not be forgotten.
0:28:06 > 0:28:08Just a privilege to have known him.
0:28:09 > 0:28:13I'm sure his family are extraordinarily proud of him,
0:28:13 > 0:28:16as we should be in Scotland and beyond.
0:28:17 > 0:28:21# And then I go hame for ma tea
0:28:23 > 0:28:26# Hermless
0:28:27 > 0:28:30# Hermless
0:28:31 > 0:28:37# There's never nae bother fae me
0:28:40 > 0:28:46# Naebody'd notice that I wasnae there
0:28:48 > 0:28:54# If I didnae come hame for ma tea. #
0:28:54 > 0:28:57Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd