Podcast

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.

 

Believe it or not this is a parody of the Led Zeppelin song Rock and Roll. Since I don’t have a drummer the opening intro had to get cut. Instead of a hard rocking beat I went for a more grungy country/western vibe. I was thinking a lot about Johnny Cash putting this song together so when the opening needed a little something interesting I remembered the opening to The Man Comes Around where there was a bible sounding verse at the open. Instead I used a Batman quote and used an old time radio filter set up to give it that old timey sound.

I used my Les Paul for this. I tried different settings on the Strat but the Les Paul sounded good out of the box so I stuck with that.

Enjoy if possible.

 

You Aint Seen Nothing Yet is a solid song by Bachman Turner Overdrive. I like listening to it well enough when I happen to be listing to a Classic Rock station. I never realized how much fun the rhythm is to play until I tried it.

I don’t use the same finger positions that BTO does for the A and the neck E chords. Like I’ve said before, I don’t really practice the guitar very often. If you listen to my songs you are probably hearing literally 10% of my total playing time.

Randy Bachman uses a c-shape fingering on the opening A up the neck and the pinky hitting the A octave on the A string.  He uses the same fingering on the next D chord. I’d have to take a few days to get my pinky fast enough to keep up with the rhythm. So instead I decided to wimp out and just do regular bar A and C chords. I think it sounds just fine for what it is.

Since it was now so simple, I was able to have fun strumming away on the rhythm. Playing the rhythm from the verse my jam, man. This was just the second take I did of the song. The first take sounded good until I hit the break and completely forgot how the song went. Take two.

That opening guitar was also a lot of fun. I don’t think I got the notes exactly right, but it was close and I liked how it sounded. I made a second copy of the track and added some delay. I played around with the two levels until I found a balance I liked.

The lyrics are pretty easy, mostly a copy of a hundred other songs I’ve done for BBFB (Beginners, winners, spinners, sinners, dinners). I planned to break up the last line of the break (“we’ll help you find a Bat Book  you will neverrrrr forget”)  into two separate lines and to be honest I just did it like this expecting to replace it. But it grew on me and I left it in. Sha na na na. na na na na. hey hey hey goodbye.

I played my Les Paul with the pickup selector in the center position. I didn’t want to make the rhythm sound too icepick-y and it was just dull on the neck pickup only. Playing with the tone knobs I was able to dial in a solid tone. I was going to try some distortion on it, but I like the simplicity and fun of the guitar like this.

I don’t know why I didn’t use the Strat, I probably could have gotten out a better tone than this with some work. But with a Les Paul you just have to plug it in to get a solid sound. I really like the options these two guitars give me.

Anyway, enjoy it. It was fun to do.

 

 

This is the first pass at the song that would become the Heart of Hush song. It has three sets of verses separated by chorus’. Some of the lyrics are just stubs, this was an experiment. The chorus’ stayed the same for the Hush version but only some of the scarecrow verse remained.

The idea of this version was that Bruce got a hot of Scarecrow toxin and while he was able to defeat Scarecrow he would then go on a stoner binge hangover. So lots of head references. Most of the ranting and ravings were boring though and better off cut.

This is supposed to be a parody of Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again. I got the chords near enough though I ignored the capo. However, I didn’t get the rhythm exactly right, enough to bother me.

Before I figured out the rhythm was the problem along with the boring length of the thing, I added in that guitar lead. I would have gone in to rerecord it or at least do some clean up on it. I would have if I was really releasing it on the show.

 

 

I had the idea to do a parody of this song over the Labor Day weekend at Dragon Con. I listened to it about a hundred times while I was away from my music recording gear.

When I got back home I learned the chord changes (it is done using a capo that I prefer not to use. I just sung it all lower.

The idea wasn’t specific to the Heart of Hush however. It was just using the Memphis Blues Dylan song. I had the Oh Alfred and after part figured out. But I was thinking of making this a full length song and had like three sets of verses. It was a very long song. There were funny parts but overall it ended up being boring.

Getting the initial joke of doing a Bob Dylan voice on this song and a few funny lines really only was supportable for one set of verses and one chorus.

Stand up. Tell your joke. Sit down.

The chorus didn’t change but the only verse of the original that survived is the verse about the scarecrow toxin. That was the funniest part of the original.

So I recorded the full three set version. The problem was that I didn’t get the main rhythm quite right. I was adding things to fill and and make up for it. The production was getting very complicated and fussy.

So this morning I listened to the song a few times. Got the groove of the guitar rhythm and recorded it in one take. I used my Strat with the Duncan Vintage Rails humbucker neck pickup. I was very happy with the results of the single take and realized that I should approach this version simply, with just the rhythm guitar.

When I realized I had the guitar take I wanted, I rewrote the lyrics keeping in mind the events of Heart of Hush. I tightened it up as short and sweet as I could while still alluding to the story. Strangely enough I did this in one take too, which made me very happy for time management reasons.