Category: Music

Meanwhile, on a deadline and so needless to say, distracted by a twitter game a guy called Geoff on twitter triggered…

He started it with:

“Woke up, fell out of bed
Dragged a comb across my head,
My shaving razor’s cold,
And it stings.”

A Daydream Believer In The Life

Which I think would work better as “In the life of a daydream believer”…

That made me come back with:

“There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold and she’s buying a highway to hell” — LedC/DeeC

and “Ground control to Rocket man” — Elton Bowie

and “It’s a godawful small affair to the girl with the broken smile” –Maroon Bowie

He mentioned list songs that could work really well – Nothing Ever Happens, Parklife, We Didn’t Start The Fire, End Of The Workd As We Know It). “They are probably a goldmine for this, the Kevin Bacon of lyric mashups,” he tweeted.

So, I did: “That’s great, it starts with an earthquake
Birds and snakes, “The King and I”, “The Catcher in the Rye”
We didn’t start the end of the world as we know it” – Billy Rem

and he came back with

“Telephone exchanges click while there’s nobody there,
The Martians could land in the car park and no one would care.
And then you’re in the man from Mars
You go out at night, eatin’ cars” — Del Ablondie, Nothing Ever Raptures

and

“It’s oh so quiet
Shh shh
It’s oh so still
Shh shh
You’re all alone
Shh shh
And so peaceful until
Wednesdays, when I get rudely awakened by the dustmen.” — Blürk

and

“Let them know it’s Christmas time,
Mistletoe and wine…” — Cliff Aid

and I did

“My sugar pie, honey bunch brings all the boys to the yard and they’re like, it’s better than yours”

and he did

“Open the door, get on the floor,
Everybody be cool, this is a robbery!”
*bass riff* — Was Not Dick Dale
(From the Jurassic Fiction soundtrack)

and

“Mama, it’s raining men,
Put a gun against his head,
Let myself get soaking wet….”

“It’s Raining Bohemians” by, I added, the Weather Queens?

and I alluded to The Move and The Beatles fruity overlap

“Goodbye Blackberry Fields Forever”

and I also did

“Sweets for my sweet sugar sugar for my honey honey” — Archie Drifter

#portmantunes

He also suggested the following as a hypothetical thesis: Subject Diversity In Lyrics And The Impact On Mashups: A Small Hairy Ball World Theory Analysis Bacon, Erdős, Osbourne et al

to which I replied: Hermann Goering, MC Escher, JS Bach?

Blürk is the best, he wins!

 

As a footnote, checked with Geoff if he was happy for me to blog these…his DM response: “Go for it…or better still – Book ’em, Chewie!”

Sometimes a guitar lick comes out of nowhere…it just finds itself morphing from sub-cognitive neuronal activity to muscular movements and takes on a life of its own. I noodled about on the guitar with one such riff recently. Simple stuff really, the basic chords were a few majors and a minor, but working up the neck rather than standard first positions. Then a repeat of that but ending with a turnaround taking it back down.

It was reminiscent of a hit song by Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons which we sing with bigMouth occasionally. Classic song, Northern Soul style. I left it for a while, I couldn’t just write a new version of The Night.

A couple of weeks went by, the arpeggio was still in my head, shifted it up a third to give it a different vibe and added what one might call a chord progression for a putative chorus, almost with a flamenco bouquet. I wanted to build it into something but step well away from trying to do a Northern Soul song. So, I turned to the fantastic drum recordings of previous online collaborator, Klaus T. He had a recording in his archives on WikiLoops that was perfect, but only one minute thirty long.

I downloaded the wav file and overdubbed a bit of directly injected Taylor acoustic guitar, capo 3, with the chord progression arpeggiated. Sounded fine, but his track was too short for a complete song and there were fills and endings I needed to edit over to extend it for a full-length song. With that done, I redid the acoustic overdub to make it a complete song of about 3 minutes, then added a Yamaha bass lick. With that nailed, a heavy funk guitar was needed and that was done on Fender Telecaster.

Next step would be to write some words to make it into a song. Something I often do while trying to think of a lyric is to lay down a guitar solo over the whole song to give me an idea of what the melody might sound like once the words are ready, so that was done. Then I overdubbed some random burbling words following the guitar solo as a pseudo guide vocal.

It wasn’t working as a song…so I did a second take on the guitar solo and changed the sound a bit…then I had a thought, why not have both guitar solos vying (pardon the pun) off each other? So, the intro was held centre stage, and once we get to the turnaround, I panned one solo left and the second right…sounds good, but still no words. Maybe this is destined to be a perpetual instrumental, I thought.

It’s so far away from what I’d started with and certainly is no longer reminiscent of The Night. I tried playing in a bit of Hammond Organ to experiment with a different vibe altogether on the off-chance that would trigger some lyrical thoughts. But, that wasn’t to be either, just sounded too retro and like I was trying to ripoff the aforementioned seasonal song.

Then, another brainwave…how about choral harmonies nodding to The Beach Boys and Queen, that ought to keep it away from Northern Soul. So, I overdubbed six harmony parts, just singing “oohs” to fit the main riff. Applied some equalisation, reverb, the usual stuff, panned and stereo spread them to make it sound like a vocal ensemble rather than just my voice singing along to myself over and over. These became a standalone intro ahead of the instrumental drums and bass intro and are reprised later in the track a couple of times.

Finally, I chopped that chunk of choral to make it sit with the two-chord shuttle at the end of the song, where I abandon the chordal ascent, turnaround and descent and just sit on two major chords a I and a II before shifting up to a III, and not the minor chord (iii) as you’d expect. I later added a final bar of “aahs” also in six-parts just to add a tail to the piece, giving it a nice finale and takes us well back into the 1960s or early 1970s progressive rock in terms of style, I think.

A melting pot, a dash of The Four Seasons, a sprinkling of Chili Peppers, maybe some Placebo and The Manic Street Preachers, Queen, The Beach Boys, 10cc, The Eagles, who else? No idea, none of it was really deliberate and I still cannot call it a song, it’s definitely an instrumental.

That’s okay…tonight.

Footnote

I attempted to video myself from a couple of angles miming the guitar parts to the tune, but it all got a bit complicated trying to frame just my hands and the guitar without recruiting Mrs Sciencebase to assist. Instead, I went looking for a Creative Commons video that would fit the mood of the song and could be used freely. Found a nice montage of interesting video recordings from a Flickr contributor “illbethesun” aka Yug_and_her from Hyderabad. There are some lovely vignettes in the montage, all very atmospheric and evocative. I stretched and reversed and chopped and duplicated, and added some effects to make it long enough and intriguingly somehow tell the tale of this lyric-free song.

Unfortunately, I then noticed that although the search had supposedly brought back C0 content, this video actually had a rather limiting licence that precluded remixing and also commercial use. So, I searched again and found a properly C0, no rights reserved video, which is not quite as intriguing but it at least it allows me to use it as I please. It’s drone footage of Hong Kong at night. I added some thoughts in caption form to make this an instrumental with words.

I’ve messaged the creator of the original video to see if I can get permission, but have set it private on Youtube, it probably won’t play, but I’m leaving the code here ready for his hopefully positive response.

The Tears for Fears song “Mad World” seemed rather poignant to perform on the evening of 14th June 2020 as it was to be a third anniversary memorial of the Grenfell Tower disaster. It seems even more apt given the violence, death, and disease we are seeing at the moment.

Hello teacher, tell me what’s my lesson…

Did a down and dirty arrangement of Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t she lovely?” on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Took half a dozen takes to get through it without my snood slipping. Overdubbed the guitar solo, obvs.

Delirious jazz noodlings with an ES335 copy, a Telecaster, a Yamaha bass, and a few drum loops.

Jazz improvisation characterized by a sense of experimentation and unpredictability. The instruments listed – an ES335 copy, a Telecaster, a Yamaha bass, and drum loops – a combination of electric guitars and a bass guitar, along with pre-recorded drum loops, which are commonly used in modern music production.

The ES335 is a type of semi-hollow electric guitar known for its warm and versatile tone, while the Telecaster is a solid-body electric guitar that produces a bright and twangy sound. The combination of these two guitars creates an interesting tonal contrast that contributes to the improvisational nature of the music.

The Yamaha bass is a four-string electric bass guitar, which provides a solid foundation for the harmonic and rhythmic elements of the music. The use of pre-recorded drum loops allowed me to explore different rhythmic patterns and textures without the need for a live drummer.

Overall, experimentation and spontaneity were the focus creating a unique and unpredictable sonic experience for the listener.

Back in the late ’90s I did a pastiche of the “Everybody’s free (to wear sunscreen)” hit by Baz Lurhmann, but for chemists on the original ChemWeb site, no less, I was their original weekly columnist, so I kind of had a captive audience for many a year over there. Anyway, it was entitled “Everybody’s free (to wear goggles)“. Hilarious, yeah…I know, haha!

Now, I hear there’s a new release from Lez Burham of Strictly Rouge and The Moulin Ballroom fame, this time redone for The Covid Age…

…it’s called Everybody’s free (to wear a facemask). I know, I know, again, hilarious!

The B-side is called “Everybody’s free (to applaud on their doorstep, bang a tambourine on the lawn, or a hit pan with a wooden spoon in their front garden on Thursday evenings at twenty-hundred hourse after their tea and then to make a substantial donation to the NHS careworker support charities)”

Deliberate choice of alternative backing sample for this video…Teardrop by Massive Attack used as the theme music for House MD, see what I did there?

“To you the people of 2020, if I could offer you one tip, not for the future but for right now, it would be wear a face mask.

Stay at home, staying alert is not enough. Stay well.

Wash your hands, don’t touch your face, even if you’ve washed your hands. Don’t bury your head in your hands, if you have to wipe away a tear use an antiseptic wipe. Oh, that smarts.

Sneeze on to your shoulder. Cough into the crook of your elbow. If you don’t know your arse from your elbow, you’re not alone, ask Boris for advice.

Dispose of that Kleenex safely

Don’t go outside too much, don’t drive too far. If you must drive wipe the door handle with antiseptic gel.

Look after your parents. Meet your Mom in the park, but tell her to bring her own picnic. Dad’s not invited but he can meet someone else on the other side of the flowerbeds. Bring a very big picnic blanket, one that’s at least 7 feet by 7 feet. Don’t have a kickabout with your Mom, the ball might be contaminated.

No hugging, no kissing, no singing. Don’t go to the pub. The pub is dry.

Go back to work if you want to, but don’t take the bus, don’t go by train. Avoid cyclists. Conga to church and pray for a vaccine. Stay at home if you don’t want to work.

Applaud the NHS, shake a tambourine, bang a pan, don’t hold a solo gig in your front garden. Donate to charities supporting health workers.

Shop only for essentials. Beer is an essential.

Drink beer. But take off that snotty mask first.

Wash your hands again, don’t touch your first, stand in the corner. Go to the naughty step, you touched someone else’s face.

And breathe…

I have spent the last week organising another virtual “open mic” session, this one as part of our lockdown, social isolation VE Day celebrations in the village. I persuaded several local musicians to contribute a song or two.

The Fen Edge VE-day Go-as-you-please (#FEVEG) features Barbara “Daphne” Duckworth, Ms Grice (via Nadina Grice), Lucy Maynard, Danielle Padley, Chloe “Clarissa” Watson, David Bradley, Patrick Coughlan, Will Hall (via Stephanie Louise Hall, Julian Lerway. The D&C  sequence is by Georgia Duckworth.

It premiered at 08h00 prompt on the 75th anniversary of VE Day, 8th May 2020 in the Fen Edge unEvents group on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/cottenham

Also, right after the main event we had a Django Reinhardt special from father and son duo Alistair Brown and Oliver Brown.

 

A quick demo version, sung live of a song about the Covid-19 lockdown, how we’re coping, and where we go from here…

Initial nudge was from Rachel, a fellow Tyrannochorus soloist and she contributed some of the lyrics as a little music exercise in which we indulged to pass the time

A song for Florence

Have we had enough?
Can you see what we’ve become?
Were we completely numb
To the breakdown of everything we loved inside?

Are we brave enough?
To stay together while we’re apart…
Can we summon the heart?
Drawing on our strengths from deep inside

In lockdown, we stay at home but not silent
Thinking about the time when we will rise…again

Give us the air that we might breathe
The scent of rainfall on the trees
Don’t you know that we really oughta agree

Bring us the life that we might see
The sunrise on a brand new dawn
Show us how to be free again

Are we brave enough?
To stick together when we’re apart…
Can’t we muster the heart?
To pour our love out to the other side

But, the good we do now
And the paths down which we start
Can we get to the heart?
Of what he really means to be alive

In splendid isolation or otherwise, I try to find time to write a song every once in a while. The title of this one – The Stormy Petrels – refers to the desperate fishermen of my home village of Cullercoats who used to brave the North Sea in their cobles regardless of the weather and sometimes taking pride in riding the storms to bring home the catch. Unfortunately, not all were lucky, there were many tragedies.

The Stormy Petrels – a song

The painting I’ve used for the artwork for this song is “Daughter of the Coast Guard” (1881) by Winslow Homer, she’s brandishing a voice horn mentioned in the song. Homer is often known as the American Turner, one of my favourite artists. Spent time in Cullercoats in the 1880s when it had a strong reputation for craggy cliffs and characters (it still does!). It was something of an artists’ enclave, their being drawn by the light, the sea, the craggy characters, back then and to some extent it still is in the modern day. I’ve written about Winslow Homer before and used another of his paintings for an earlier song – The Spate Gatherers – about the village’s fishwives.

The Stormy Petrels

The seas were fair as far as the eye could see
The waters still and bare
The wind laid low, there was time to spare
There’d be no storm to keep us here

The nets were all tied and the fishwives were ready
The cobles would leave on the tide
We’d sail  to the north and head for the shoals
Their shawls held tight, home on the breeze we would ride

The hours went by and the swell it grew heavy
The men would e’er swallow their pride
The rises and falls of the fish life a penny
The true, tried, and tested on-side

The nets were all tied and the fishwives were ready
The cobles they sailed on the tide
We’ll head for the north and race for the shoals
Their shawls they’d hold tight, till home on the breeze we will ride

We rowed a fair clip with a glint in our eye
The tide would carry us wide
The sun it shone through as the land disappeared
The spindrift blew through, but no siren could draw us aside

The net’s been aside and the fishwives were ready
Our cobles they sailed with the tide
We’ll head for the north and race for the shoals
Their shawls they’d hold tight, till home on the breeze we will ride

It was bright and white horses there were none to see
And the wind couldn’t blow owt our oils to deceive
But the pressure will fall we’ll not bear a hasty retreat

Whistle and you will be damned
A hastier judgement to hand
A voice horn calls out
“No survivors will e’er see the land”

The nets were all tied and the fishwives were ready
The cobles would leave on the tide
We’d sail to the north and head for the shoals
Their shawls they’d hold tight, till home on the breeze we would ride

Just in case you’d had enough of the doom and despair, here’s a short playlist of some of my funkier tunes from recent years, all free to stream and download right now.

Funktastic!

When the beat hits your heart

Gravity’s Rainbow

Latin Class

Running out of favours

Lift me up

Dawn Chorus

All words and music written, performed, and recorded by yours truly. Except where stated regarding drums, synths etc.