There could be several potential reasons why I have not wanted to write or record music over the last few weeks.
(1) I have been really busy at work.
(2) I had a reasonably bad cold and it sapped my enthusiasm.
(3) I have been leading a more active social life (not crazy, out drinking stuff just more actual things which require prior notice of attendance).
(4) I simply can't be bothered and am more likely to do the dishes, or anything for that matter, than enter the spare room with the purpose of making music cos it is quite a tricky little business and after 3 months I still have no songs finished.
(5) After such an intense period of thinking/worrying about almost nothing else other than whether I can actually sing or if the songs are actually any good or how I am going to write that verse that has been evading me or countless other tiny details that may or may not be important in the overall scheme of things my mind needs a break, so is taking one.
You know what? its probably a bit of all those things but the fact remains the inclination to work on the project has left me of late and I swore I would not try and force it. I assume it will come back as it has been lingering (for better and worse) in my psyche for years.
I am listening to Astral Weeks by Van Morrison, just now (its fuckin' good)and was thinking about a month ago I would've gotten all inspired and wanted to get plugged straight in but now I can only think, 'fuck, I couldn't do that ah well I am away to watch telly'.
So if you want me that's where I'll be.
'Til then.
Wednesday 25 March 2009
Saturday 7 March 2009
Substandard Soup
So I have been messing around, familarising myself with the song 'still country', you know the one I found in an old box of crap.
It was obviously quite quickly that it had a striking similarity to a song by Neil Young, I won't tell you which one but mention it is buried on one of his best but probably least popular albums of the seventies.
This was interesting to me (and maybe to you keeping reading to find out) for a few reasons. My first reaction was 'oh shit' I can't continue with this. It was and is my general policy to not finish songs which bear such a striking resemblance to one particular song but this one was completed (unusual in itself). There was probably a period around about when this was written that I was so into Neil Young that everything sounded a bit like him so the problem was more that it was SO similar.
On the actual scrawled page I found in the box with lyrics and chords and musical ideas there was a wee note next to the chorus that just said 'its different from here' this ties in with where it changes to sound different from the Neil song. This is also where the lyrics take a more direct slant towards the meaning of the song. At this point the lyrics are:-
Shouldn't make a difference to me, today we're Still Country
So I think I knew what I was doing. If you are writing a song about trying to ignore that fact that loads of folks have achieved magnificent levels of songsmithery and the load that puts on you when you are attempting to do your own personal work. What better way to do it than to, all but, steal from the source and then add your own bit, no?
After my own bit there is a small instrumental section (which requires a harmonica in G about the only key I don't own) which is also reminiscent of another of my favourite artists, Lambchop. Its not as blatant as the previous nick but I am drawn to trying to make it sound more like the song in question, an urge I must quell. There is some logic in that part sounding similar, they are an artist who make music that owes a debt to the past yet sounds wholly original, so an example of a strategy the same as mine, succeeding. Hopefully, this was my train of thought back when my younger self wrote it but I probably just thieved from my heroes and fused some of there finest moments together into a substandard soup.
POSTSCRIPT: There are many songs that sound like other songs, hundreds and thousands actually.
Neil Young himself actually does it on Borrowed Tune (from Tonights the night - check it out if you haven't already) to the melody of Lady Jane he sings
I'm singing this borrowed tune, I took from the rolling stones
Alone in this empty room, too wasted to write my own
Another pertinent example was on Lucinda Williams most recent album, where she uses the melody from a Neil Young song, Cortez the Killer, blatantly and throughout.
So in short, not only is fine to do this its mandatory if it can be justified which I what I just done, so there!
It was obviously quite quickly that it had a striking similarity to a song by Neil Young, I won't tell you which one but mention it is buried on one of his best but probably least popular albums of the seventies.
This was interesting to me (and maybe to you keeping reading to find out) for a few reasons. My first reaction was 'oh shit' I can't continue with this. It was and is my general policy to not finish songs which bear such a striking resemblance to one particular song but this one was completed (unusual in itself). There was probably a period around about when this was written that I was so into Neil Young that everything sounded a bit like him so the problem was more that it was SO similar.
On the actual scrawled page I found in the box with lyrics and chords and musical ideas there was a wee note next to the chorus that just said 'its different from here' this ties in with where it changes to sound different from the Neil song. This is also where the lyrics take a more direct slant towards the meaning of the song. At this point the lyrics are:-
Shouldn't make a difference to me, today we're Still Country
So I think I knew what I was doing. If you are writing a song about trying to ignore that fact that loads of folks have achieved magnificent levels of songsmithery and the load that puts on you when you are attempting to do your own personal work. What better way to do it than to, all but, steal from the source and then add your own bit, no?
After my own bit there is a small instrumental section (which requires a harmonica in G about the only key I don't own) which is also reminiscent of another of my favourite artists, Lambchop. Its not as blatant as the previous nick but I am drawn to trying to make it sound more like the song in question, an urge I must quell. There is some logic in that part sounding similar, they are an artist who make music that owes a debt to the past yet sounds wholly original, so an example of a strategy the same as mine, succeeding. Hopefully, this was my train of thought back when my younger self wrote it but I probably just thieved from my heroes and fused some of there finest moments together into a substandard soup.
POSTSCRIPT: There are many songs that sound like other songs, hundreds and thousands actually.
Neil Young himself actually does it on Borrowed Tune (from Tonights the night - check it out if you haven't already) to the melody of Lady Jane he sings
I'm singing this borrowed tune, I took from the rolling stones
Alone in this empty room, too wasted to write my own
Another pertinent example was on Lucinda Williams most recent album, where she uses the melody from a Neil Young song, Cortez the Killer, blatantly and throughout.
So in short, not only is fine to do this its mandatory if it can be justified which I what I just done, so there!
Monday 2 March 2009
Flat as a witch's tit
A large portion of the early part of Saturday was spend trying to recreate the therminish sound on PL using a blend of atonal whistling, deep humming and lala-ing. I think I have succeeded in making that part close to what I was after.
So on to the easy bit, singing, been rattling that shit out at high volume for years to the delight of my family and neighbours and passersby.
Lyrics writen down in a legible manner - check, microphone working - check, enthusiasm - check. Will we do one song no, fuck it, lets do both such is the power and prowess of my larynx....
Well it turns out that my, perceived, natural, emotive singing voice which I have been cultivating over the last few years is a flat as a witches' tit. I have developed quite a natural husky element, of which I am (was) very proud - those bits sound just fine it is the other bits that are like lemonade leftover from Christmas.
This all proved very disappointing at the weekend when I spent several hours trying to sing the lyrics to the two main songs I have been working on PL(GT?) and SB.
Lets not get too downhearted about it, lets just take out the rubbish, have a break and get back to it. Its not as if you are going to bump into an ageing female neighbour who is (unprovoked) going to take it upon herself to tell you that she and a friend were discussing the awful noise echoing through the building over a sherry and lay the blame for this cacophonic atrocity firmly at your door just when you are beginning to doubt the validity of the whole album project, that would never happen, would it.
It seems that I need to take a break from these 2 songs as they starting to erode my enthusiasm, its not that I am not happy with them, it is that I am but they are becoming something different in the way I am thinking about them. So best that I try some other songs for a bit and hit these 2 in about a month or so when I can give them some fresh lugs.
As a footnote, when clearing out a box of junk and paper - I found some scraps of paper with a lovely wee song written years ago (more than 5 maybe closer to 8 years it wasn't dated) called 'Still Country' which is about trying to ignore how good Neil Young and folk like that (Ok ,I know there is nobody like Neil Young but you understand, like from a beautiful bygone era) from the sixties/seventies and just do what you want to do. I felt there was some serendipity in this discovery so decided to give it a try next, I may even try to get some friends in and try a rehearsal/live take type scenario cos thats the type of treatment it deserves..
Get Some!
So on to the easy bit, singing, been rattling that shit out at high volume for years to the delight of my family and neighbours and passersby.
Lyrics writen down in a legible manner - check, microphone working - check, enthusiasm - check. Will we do one song no, fuck it, lets do both such is the power and prowess of my larynx....
Well it turns out that my, perceived, natural, emotive singing voice which I have been cultivating over the last few years is a flat as a witches' tit. I have developed quite a natural husky element, of which I am (was) very proud - those bits sound just fine it is the other bits that are like lemonade leftover from Christmas.
This all proved very disappointing at the weekend when I spent several hours trying to sing the lyrics to the two main songs I have been working on PL(GT?) and SB.
Lets not get too downhearted about it, lets just take out the rubbish, have a break and get back to it. Its not as if you are going to bump into an ageing female neighbour who is (unprovoked) going to take it upon herself to tell you that she and a friend were discussing the awful noise echoing through the building over a sherry and lay the blame for this cacophonic atrocity firmly at your door just when you are beginning to doubt the validity of the whole album project, that would never happen, would it.
It seems that I need to take a break from these 2 songs as they starting to erode my enthusiasm, its not that I am not happy with them, it is that I am but they are becoming something different in the way I am thinking about them. So best that I try some other songs for a bit and hit these 2 in about a month or so when I can give them some fresh lugs.
As a footnote, when clearing out a box of junk and paper - I found some scraps of paper with a lovely wee song written years ago (more than 5 maybe closer to 8 years it wasn't dated) called 'Still Country' which is about trying to ignore how good Neil Young and folk like that (Ok ,I know there is nobody like Neil Young but you understand, like from a beautiful bygone era) from the sixties/seventies and just do what you want to do. I felt there was some serendipity in this discovery so decided to give it a try next, I may even try to get some friends in and try a rehearsal/live take type scenario cos thats the type of treatment it deserves..
Get Some!
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