This didn’t turn out anything like I thought it would.
The song is a parody of either Just My Imagination by the Temptations or Imagination by the Rolling Stones. They are basically the same song but have some differences. I tried to meld the two and in doing so created something I didn’t expect.
I cheated a little on this one, typically I give myself an hour to learn a song, rewrite the lyrics, record and edit it. I took more time researching and messing around with the two versions of the song so that put we way over time. It is funny because it is at heart a very simple song to play. But there are some fine points I had to work out.
One of the difficulties in making these parodies is to make the song recognizable in the first few seconds so the parody can play off the recognition. I’m not sure I accomplished that here. The Temptations version has a complicated intro that I didn’t remember so I figured others wouldn’t know it either. The Stones version has a lot of parts coming in and out of the mix, too complicated for a Professor Frenzy special.
So I ended up writing the rhythm intro which evokes the chorus and then simplifying it for the verse.
The guitar lead at the beginning ended up sounding pretty, maybe too pretty because it might be disconcerting when the main vocals start. Heck with it, my logic is that the disorientation makes it funnier. That is the highminded reason I am being lazy.
There are a few flubs. I think the intro to the recording might need to be touched up, it starts too quickly. Also the guitar plays an extra half beat after the chorus. It sounds like I am trying to get fancy with the rhythm. In reality I recorded the very end of the guitar separately because I didn’t know when I was first playing the song if I had time to do an announcer voice so I added some extra bars. Turns out the song was going to be too long so I had to record a new ending to wrap it up quickly. I didn’t quite match the guitar and you can hear a double strum. That’s the seam between the two tracks.
I’m pretty happy with this. Took more trouble than I thought it would and I might revisit it after a few days to fix it. Or not.
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