“I write a little bit loose” AN AUDIENCE WITH DAN PENN

“I like to have a good time, and I think it shows up in the songs”

DAN PENN may have written some of the greatest soul songs of all time – “The Dark End Of The Street”, “Do Right Woman, Do Right Man”, “I’m

Your Puppet” – but as the photos for his new album Living On Mercy attest, he’s as happy with a spanner in his hand as he is a guitar. Among the current projects in his Alabama yard are a 1951 Plymouth

Business Coupe, a 1935 Plymouth two-door and even a “beat-up” Morris Minor that he came across in a field and bought for 75 dollars.

“Some of them are running, some of them aren’t,” says Penn. “But it’s a lot of fun. For me it’s natural, because I was a car-painter as a young person. I can do most of it, and my brother-in-law helps me get the motor parts going.” When he’s feeling particularly adventurous, Penn will clamber on his Norton motorcycle that he bought new back in ’68. “It’s in better