Music

Absurd. No guitars at all. Just singing. Good luck with that.

I like my arrangement of this song. But for some reason the vocals and guitar here don’t mesh very well. Oh well, the less said about this one the better. Maybe I’ll revisit it some day. I owe it to the song.

Ok Ok, I admit it. I like John Denver’s music. Even when I was jamming to Led Zeppelin and Parliament I was digging Denver. Simple music, nature based, kind of like the Bob Ross of music.

So why did I do this to it you might ask? I don’t have that much self awareness to know. But here it is anyway.

Also, I really can’t sing.

This one was kind of cheating. I played Rockin’ in the Free World in a band years ago, so I just needed a quick refresher on the chords to be able to play it.

I did have to do a number of takes because for some reason I would only do half the number of bars for the verses. Made two false starts that way.

Then I realized my smart trick of putting the guitar amp through the same external channel of my mixer as my microphone made it so that I was also picking up everything through the mic. That caused another take because that Neil Young guitar didn’t go so well with dishes being done. Oh well.

I used my Strat in the Bridge position for this, which is my Duncan Distortion pickup. I picked a nasty premade tone on the Fender Mustang 1 modeling amp. Didn’t want to get too fussy and I like how the guitar part sounds.

This may very well be the worst thing I’ve ever done. It leaves the MOMA incident in the dust.

The song this is based on is from Benjamin Britten’s Songs from a Friday Afternoon called Cuckoo. It is written for a children’s choir. Since I have been through puberty the traditional approach is out of my vocal range. So I did this.

This song is in the Wes Anderson movie Moonrise Kingdom, which I recommend. This version: caveat emptor. You get what you get. 

Shame is a terrible thing. I loved this poor song. It never hurt anyone, everybody must be fed.

And then I did this. 

I’m so sorry.  

 

Last night I saw the movie Bohemian Rhapsody and the song Don’t Stop Me Now was over the end credits aaaaand it stuck.

Hoo boy. Well now that it is out of my system I feel better.

 

The classic Frampton song Show Me the Way was never supposed to be a song that was going to get The Treatment. But it snuck up on me and I recognized the signs quicker than I usually do. Yesterday morning it stuck in my head and wouldn’t let up so I decided not to fight it. Listened to the song over and over on Tuesday.

 

Then this morning, Halloween 2018, I saw the chords, watched a You Tube guy play it. Practiced it a few times, worked out the lengths of verse chorus etc. Did it in one take, however to be honest there was a little bit that I cut out of the guitar part because it was messed up. I was able to remove the 5 or so seconds without causing too much havoc in the beat.

Then

I started learning the song around 9am I guess. And posting it before noon. Because of the nature of these songs coming on strong and going just as quickly I have to record these while they are fresh. Because of that I do things in one take and leave in flaws. If I took more time with this I would clean up a few things:

• The timing on the lead is just a touch off. I don’t use the wha pedel much and struggle with my timing when I use it.
• The sound quality of the lead is weak. Should be fuller. Needs some eq and effect attention. Maybe I should have used the Strat instead of the Les Paul. Overall, need more time to get a better lead guitar sound.
• There are a few clunky transitions on the rhythm guitar.
• I don’t like the rhyme of the ‘I emerge’ lyric. Also the whole last verse isn’t as strong as I’d like.

Anyway. Enjoy it as much as you can.