The official site of author, editor, and musician Lou Tambone, and the home of 2 Jokers Publishing and Entertainment.
The next song in the Workin’ Progress release schedule is called “My Own Private Babylon”.
I guess you could say it’s written from the perspective of a fading rock star or other celebrity.
I have more songs in the works so stay tuned, but for now enjoy the new song and the many others you can hear on the site.
Thanks for visiting and listening!
The Story
Genre-smashing is something I like to do. I don’t like being put into a box. I like many styles of music. I like diversity. When writing a song, this concept is always floating around in the back of my mind. I try not to sit down and say, “I’m going to write a ________ song today.” That usually leads me nowhere and what does come out of me sounds very forced. When I “genre-smash” it has to come naturally. This song is a good example of how that can happen.
“Hello Blue Sky” was inspired by positivity, plain and simple. I was in a good mood after being in a bad one the day before and wanted to reflect that positive vibe by mirroring it in a song. Many positive images started to dance around in my head as I started getting my thoughts together but the whole notion of a clear blue sky took over. There’s nothing like a good sleep and a brand new day to get you motivated sometimes. I liked the idea and ran with it.
I suppose this is when the genre-smashing thing reared its head. Lyrics started to flow almost immediately, starting with the title and chorus. As soon as that first group of words stuck, I heard the song in my head. It sounded a lot like a 1960’s song by someone like Herman’s Hermits (“I’m Into Something Good”) or maybe The Turtles (“Happy Together”) or something like that. It was most definitely sounding a lot like The Beatles (“Getting Better”) in my head, though, and so that took precedence. I was writing some heavier guitar rock around this time so it was a nice change of direction.
The lyrics came quite quickly after that and I was able to hear the whole song in my head, pretty much. They’re simple and don’t say much more than, “Hey, yesterday sucked but now it’s gone. Make the most of today.” I also employed a little “days of the week” nonsense in there. As the song progresses, so do the days of the week.
There’s not much else to the story, really. It’s one of those songs that just came out of nowhere after the words “hello blue sky” popped into my head. It’s not about a particular person, place or thing. It’s just about not letting things get you down. Is it the antithesis to Pink Floyd’s “Goodbye Blue Sky”? Maybe it is! The thought had crossed my mind, but only after I wrote it.
The Recording
As I often do, I recorded the drum track for this song first. By this time, I was wholly aware of the Beatles/McCartney influence and I knew what I wanted it to sound like. I did my best Ringo Starr imitation. There was little trouble.
So I then went through that little process I find myself going through at this stage of recording where I sing the notes out loud and try to match them on the instrument to see if they sound good. I had already worked out that the opening “hits” on guitar would consist of a chord up the neck somewhere, very similar to The Beatles’ “Getting Better” as I mentioned. Everything in the opening and chorus parts is fairly staccato.
Bass is always fun for me, especially right after I record a drum track. I don’t give the key of a song much thought until this point. When you record drums, you’re not really committed to a key yet. Once that bass is laid down, however, you’re all in unless you decide you want to re-record the whole song in another key. I’m referring to live bass and not taking into account all the ways you can do these things technologically. I’m a recording simpleton that way.
So, like I said, bass is really important to me while recording. It may sound strange but sometimes, with the way I write songs, this is where a lot of the “incidental” writing happens. By this, I mean I may have the song in my head but I may also be missing bits and pieces, connecting parts, or even entire bridges. I’ll say to myself, “I’ll fill in the blanks later on.” Later on usually ends up being while I’m recording bass. This song was no different.
As you can hear, the beginning is just those staccato hits but the real change is when the verse kicks in. Now we’re doing a walking, bluesy sort of thing that has a little walk down at the end (D-C-B-A) which leads nicely back down to the G, which ended up being the key. I found the key by simply trying different chord variations up the neck until I found something I liked.
The bridge was actually created during recording of both the drum and bass tracks. The drums provided the framework and the bass provided the notes. I had no lyrics for a bridge. Nothing came to me that I thought sounded good. I toyed with putting AAAHHHH’s in there or something but in the end, I kept it simple with some horn builds. In essence, I just reversed the little walk-down from the end of the verses. I slowed it down a little and used the horns to build it up a bit. It reminds me of the little pre-chorus in the song “Heat Wave” from Martha Reeves and the Vandellas: simple, yet effective.
A little electric piano helped fill out the sound nicely. I didn’t want to over-do things too much. Sometimes too much layering of instruments can muddle the sound (especially if they’re all playing the same thing). After keys, I found a nice guitar sound with some vibrato that sounded a little 60’s to me and used that for a guitar solo that basically just repeats the verse melody and is harmonized on the second pass.
The builds at the end are just horn hits following the thumping quarter notes. I would just add more notes (lower or higher) to the hits as the build progressed. The vocal “hellos” and “yeah yeahs” assisted, as did completing the “days of the week” thing.
It was an easy one to record. I enjoy the positive vibe.
The Lyrics
Hello blue sky
Fresh start, another try
Maybe I can get it right todayHello big sun
Telling me the day’s begun
Monday’s gone and Tuesday’s looking greatWent to bed with a tear in my eye and a sandbag on my heart
Woke up this morning and I’m ready to make a new startHello blue sky
Fresh start, another try
Maybe I can get it right todayHello big sun
Telling me the day’s begun
Tuesday’s gone and Wednesday’s looking greatMy sister told me that her man done her wrong and she can’t get no relief
I told her, “Baby – you just need a good night’s sleep.” (then you’ll say…)Hello blue sky
Fresh start, another try
Maybe I can get it right todayHello big sun
Telling me the day’s begun
Wednesday’s gone and Thursday’s looking greatHello blue sky
Fresh start, another try
Maybe I can get it right todayHello big sun
Telling me the day’s begun
Thursday’s gone and Friday’s looking greatHello Hello Hello Hello
Friday’s gone and Saturday’s looking great
Yea yea
Saturday’s gone and Sunday’s looking great
Yea yea yea yea yea yea
Yea yea yea
The Story
This song is a very important one for me, but not because of its content or its meaning. It’s important to me because of what it represents, or represented at the time it was written. Let me explain.
I can’t say I’ve had too many regrets in life thus far. On a side note, I also think that people who say they have “no regrets” are pretty much full of shit. It’s a device that makes people feel good about themselves or helps them rationalize things, which is cool I guess…but I still think they’re full of shit. You mean to tell me you wouldn’t call for just ONE do-over for that one thing that happened that time…?
Anyway, like I said. I haven’t had too many regrets in life, but the one that always came back and bothered me, and the one I always feel guilty about is the one where I retreated from music for many years. The last band I was in before my little hiatus broke up in the mid 1990’s. After that, I wandered a little bit, did some acoustic gigs, and wrote the occasional song. Nothing felt right or complete.
It was around this time in the mid-late 1990’s that things started to move into high gear as far as life went. Work was not going well, I was training for a new career, I was in the middle of getting married and all that goes along with that, I lost my father and grandfather in the space of two years, I relocated from New Jersey to the Boston area for two years, had a son, moved back to Jersey, bought a house, landed a new job, and so on. In the blink of an eye, more than ten years flew past me before I could even realize what had happened.
Many good things happened during that period but one thing was for certain. I had drifted away from music almost completely. In 2004, I found myself looking for jobs again and having another child; a daughter this time. I contracted here and there and finally landed a solid job in 2006 (where I am presently).
Now, I won’t kid you. I had the bug in my ear every now and then. I kept telling myself I’d fall into a band or do something musical when it came along. Trouble is, nothing ever came along. I was so far removed from the circuit that no one even thought to call me. So at some point in 2006, I looked around and realized that while I was still pretty busy, things had at least settled down a bit. My daughter was two and my son was around seven. I could probably do something musical. The question was: what?
I had always been involved in original music. I thought, however, that putting a cover band together would be pretty easy. I mean, all the songs are written. How hard could it be? It would be a good way for me to ease back into things. Long story short, while there were gigs and many line up changes, the band didn’t last. I did, however, make a few very good friends along the way and had some fun. I got more confident in my abilities and got re-adjusted to performing once again.
During those few years, I also decided to start playing drums again in another local cover band to see if I had any chops left. I found I could still play and I’m still moonlighting in a few bands on drums, which is fun. All those years away from playing did affect my ability, however. That I regret. I can still play well but I can tell that I’m not as good as I used to be. Time and practice…
Back to the song. I had written a few songs in the past with various bands and I had been in a few bands that released material now and then. It occurred to me one day, however, that I had never released my own album: a collection of songs written by me. I guess you’d call it a solo effort? So, while doing my cover band stints, I decided it was high time to just suck it up and start writing songs again. I would noodle here and there on the guitar and see what happened.
One particular night, I remember being quite depressed for some reason that escapes me now. I was on the couch watching something on TV and I looked across the room to where my computer is. Next to it, I keep my old Yamaha acoustic on a stand for noodling purposes. It looked tempting so I went with the vibe and picked it up. I sat in front of the computer and just started strumming a progression that suited my mood. A few minutes later, it dawned on me that I had just written a song. This is something I hadn’t done in years. I opened up a text file and jotted down the chords. At the same time, words started to pop into my head. Ideas were forming. I just rode the wave until it stopped. When it did, I had almost a full song. I just needed a bridge.
I don’t remember the exact inspiration for the song and the lyrics. I remember a friend of mine had recently opened up to me about some personal things she was going through. I remember that I was down in the dumps the night it was written. There’s a reason I’m connecting these two things but other than a subconscious awareness of that connection, I can’t recall the specific inspiration, if there was one. Sometimes when you’re writing, you write a line and then you write a second line which takes you to a third and the next thing you know, you’re a mile away from your original story. These lyrics were something like a stream of consciousness. They just came out. I changed tense or person here and there but that’s about it. The lines just sounded good when I placed them in the chord progression.
So to sum things up, that one night of writing represented my “return” to original music and from there, I just kept going. So that song really means a lot to me. It was the first real song I had written in years and it served as the watershed for what came next, which was a year full of writing and recording. I get a lot of compliments on the song and I’m quite happy with it. It’ll always be a fond memory for me.
The Recording
The song was written fairly quickly, but recording it was quite the ordeal. I was at a disadvantage at the time, because the last time I had ever recorded a song there was no computer involvement. The Internet was still pretty young, actually. I use a PC mostly. It’s a family PC that I usually dominate but we all can use it. I did not have any recording software or input devices, however. I used some gig money (from the drumming I still do on the side) to pick up a Presonus Firebox, which allowed me to plug instruments and/or microphones directly into it. This box carries the signal from the instrument or voice from its source to the computer. I tried using a PC based software package for a while. In the end, I was able to get a version of the song recorded but only after many failed attempts. There were level issues and I lost the entire song (multiple tracks) more than once.
This, of course, drove me to drink…and to the Apple store. I didn’t replace my home PC, but I knew I needed a dedicated media machine. I grabbed a refurbished MacBook Pro and an external drive. I’m using Garageband now, basically because I can’t afford Logic Pro or something better. However, Garageband is surprisingly versatile and suits my needs just fine. Within a few hours of taking it out of the box, I had just about recorded the whole song again.
By the time I got to recording the song on the Mac, I had already played these parts many times so recording it was a breeze. I recorded the drum track first, as I usually try to do. Then I laid down the bass and the other guitar parts. After recording the vocals, I toyed with the notion of adding some backing vocals but I wasn’t feeling it. I was enjoying the visual of a guy singing alone.
The bridge was a funny thing. When I originally penned the lyrics, I had three verses and no bridge. I told myself I’d write something later. While trying to record the PC demo, I realized I had nothing to play for the bridge and just sort of winged it. After a couple of tries, I came up with what’s on the song now. I didn’t have lyrics though. I took the third verse and adapted it to the bridge. Simple.
The mellow guitar solo was nice but I felt it needed to do something other than repeat the phrase so I harmonized it the second time around. That was another first for me, simple as it was. I thought it sounded nice.
So as my first foray into digital recording, I ran into a few bumps but in the end came out with a decent song that put me on a path to many others. The process is so much simpler now than it was 10 or 20 years ago. That, plus the ease of using the Mac have been key for me over the past year. I’ve learned a lot and hope to learn more as time goes on.
The Lyrics
I swore I wouldn’t let it eat me up inside
I said I wouldn’t let it win
But here I am right back where I started
Here I am… againIt’s times like these you’ll tell me it’s gonna be all right
And I might believe you too
But if I did would it just be a lie
Would I be a foolI’ve been here too many times
I think I know my way around by nowIt’s times like these where the darkness seems to break
With a light inside your soul
It’s time like these I run the other way
I make you let me goI don’t expect you to try and understand
I don’t expect you to try to make me seeThis may be something – This may be something, good
This may be something – This may be something, something goodI got all this stuff now
Not sure what to do
I need someone to kick me in the right direction
Kick me right to youI know you weren’t trying to scare me
You just tried to be a friendAnd maybe that’s something – Maybe that’s something, good
Maybe that’s something – Maybe that’s something, something good
Today, I’m proud to release two new songs. They’re called “There You Are” and “Something New”.
They’re going to be part of the next record which will be called Workin’ Progress. I decided on that name because I’m going to be creating the album as time goes by and releasing tracks as they’re finished, instead of waiting and releasing a big bunch of songs all at once. Hence, the album will be a work in progress until it’s finished.
I have some more songs written and ready to be recorded so hopefully it won’t be too long until this album is complete. When I feel I have enough songs and the project feels like it’s done, I’ll call it an album and be done with it.
“There You Are” was written with my friend Doug Brehm one night while we were bored and hanging out. He plays the guitar solo on it as well. It’s a nice, mellow acoustic song.
“Something New” started out as an experiment with software instruments. One thing led to another and it became a song. The only real instrument on that one is the guitar, which is sparse.
Both new songs can be heard in the music player here on the site, or on any of my other links (Facebook, etc.) below.
Enjoy and please leave me some comments if you like them. If you don’t like them, keep it to yourself. 🙂
See ya!
The Story
“Mall Girl” has a long history. It was written in 1994 when I was a spry twenty-four year old. At that point, I had already been working in retail, usually in malls, for a number of years. I mainly worked in record stores or music stores. I was still single and in a band called “The Automatics”. It was a fun era that seems so distant now.
Friends always ask me if there was a real “Mall Girl” and the answer is yes. This song was written about a girl who worked in the same mall I was working in (Garden State Plaza – Paramus, NJ), upstairs at one of those clothing stores like The Limited. I don’t remember too much about her other than the fact that she was blonde and her eyes had a yellowish tint to them. She was friendly and pretty. I was a little intimidated for whatever reason. She was a regular customer for a while and I’d see her a few times a week usually. Her name was Doris. I thought that was pretty cool.
At some point I alluded to going out for a date and she agreed. We had one date. We saw a really bad film called Threesome. It had a Baldwin brother in it. It was awful. She liked it. I found out later that she was actually nineteen so I guess that makes sense. In any case, she didn’t seem too interested in following up so I let it go but for some reason the whole affair stuck in my head and one creative day, I sat and wrote this song about the whole thing – which really wasn’t that big of a thing but it was enough for a song, right?
The song was important for me because while I had been in bands before and had written things here and there, this song marked the first time I had done everything myself. I wrote it and recorded it alone, all in one day. I had just gotten a Yamaha 4-track recorder. I wrote down the lyrics, miked up the drums and played the song through based on what I felt the structure would be. From there, I added the rest of the instruments and voices. I used this funky Fender Fuzz/Wah pedal and the song came out quite well for a demo.
I played it for the guys in my band and we instantly added it to the set list. The song went over well and we played it until the band split. After that, I played a bluesy acoustic version (which I’ll record one day) for a bit but the song was put aside when I put music aside for a number of years, along with a few other songs.
I recorded it again in my friend Brian’s basement one time along with another song when I thought I’d make a real record of my own. The demos were finished but the album never made it past those two songs. The other song we recorded down there was “One Step Closer”.
One thing I don’t like to do is throw songs away or disregard them. If I’ve put the time and energy into writing and/or recording a song, I want to keep it around. So when it came time to start writing music again and think about putting out a full album of original material, I thought back to songs like “Mall Girl” and thought it might be time to finally put them out there as part of a record.
As far as the lyrics go, I was just out to have fun. I wanted it to be funny but still tell a story of a guy who likes this girl who prances around the mall like she owns it (“…high class manager flair”). Many of the lines are honest. The whole upstairs/downstairs thing is true. She was upstairs selling clothes while I was downstairs selling music. She did have these big round eyes. I used to say hi to her every time when she passed by to open the store or whatever. So it’s authentic, in a way, but generic enough to be enjoyable to most people.
The song was always fun for me and I have fond memories of writing it and playing it live with the old band and at some acoustic gigs. People seemed to like it, probably because it gave them a chuckle, and that makes it worth keeping around.
The Recording
While I was in the middle of recording some other songs for what would become the album I eventually called Damaged Goods, I found myself thinking about “Mall Girl” again. I had already recorded it a few times and remembered the main parts so I figured I’d re-record it one more time and see what happened. The old demos weren’t bad but they were final mixes and the quality was a bit low.
When I record live drums, I usually make sure I have at least two songs to play. Another older song, “One Step Closer” was also waiting in the wings, so I put those two on the list and recorded the drum tracks on the same day.
After drums, I usually lay down a bass track so I can have a full rhythm section to play along with. Again, I was able to lay that track down in a short amount of time. The song just came right back to me, not that it’s anything all that complicated.
With those tracks in the can, I moved on to guitar. This is where things got a little hairy. I play a Fender Telecaster, which can sometimes be noisy. For the older demos, I used the aforementioned huge, vintage Fender Fuzz/Wah pedal to create a certain effect without which the song would lose much of its flavor. This thing is also a noisy beast but so much fun. I plan on using it live, if I can.
All that noise on multiple tracks made for a noisy recording. To be honest, though, one of the things I enjoy about the song (and the original demo) is that it’s noisy and boisterous. So, the fact that there was all this noise all over the tracks was something I could easily overlook. It did make mixing the thing a little hairy, however.
After laying down the main guitar parts, I added a solo track, piece by piece, until I had something I was happy with. I’m not very good at lead guitar so I usually have to record solos a phrase at a time, unless I get lucky.
I didn’t go all out on the vocals this time. I did three part harmonies on some bits for the old demos but stuck to two this time. I’m not sure why, really. Sometimes the song just says, “Hey, don’t need it.” Perhaps live, I’ll do something else. The songs are going to sound a little different live, I’m sure.
I’ll admit, I was a little impatient with mixing the song at first. It’s a simple song so it shouldn’t be difficult, right? I still hadn’t gotten a handle on compression and things like that, so I was having trouble getting the drums to stand out. They sounded buried. I resorted to EQ for a lot of these issues and as a result, the first mix of the song that I released sounded a bit washed out and way too bright. I released it anyhow, just so I could move on to other songs and keep the forward momentum going.
Move on, I did. Still, every time I happened to hear the track it always bothered me. So recently, I revisited the mix, stripped off a lot of the EQ and effects, and played with the compression some more, bringing things out and pushing things back. By this time, I had had a little more practice and played around with the settings. I felt a little more confident. The resulting mix was a definite improvement and I replaced the old mix with the new mix everywhere I could. Because of all the noise and stuff, however, it’s still not the best mix in the world, but it works for me. At least it won’t make me cringe anymore.
Looking back, it was always a fun song to play live, but I was usually on drums or playing the acoustic version. I’m really looking forward to playing this song live, fuzz/wah and all. I hope people still get a kick out of it.
The Lyrics
Now when I’m downstairs at my store I wait for her to pass my door
Cuz she’s the one that lights up my day
She’s got big round yellow eyes, her hair is blonde, need I say more?
I’m always her first stop of the dayMall Girl strutting down the aisle with her high class manager flair
Mall Girl oooh she flash a smile, make my heart and soul bewareShe’s too cool for conversation, fills me with elation every day
when she opens her store
Upstairs she sells the clothes, body suits and panty hose
She got everything you need and more more more, cuz she’s my…Mall Girl strutting down the aisle with her high class manager flair
Mall Girl, oooh she flash a smile, make my heart and soul bewareHey baby what do you say me and you go down to the food court and uh…get some food?
I’m happy that I’m there in that record store downstairs
Cuz she buys all her music from me
She never is defensive and though the music is expensive
She knows that my love is free – yea!Mall Girl strutting down the aisle with her high class manager flair
Mall Girl, oooh she flash a smile, make my heart and soul beware – yea!Mall Girl – Mall Girl – Mall Girl – Mall Girl…
I’ve been quite busy the past year writing, recording, re-recording, compiling, plotting, scheming, planning, and you get the idea.
I think that 14 songs seems like a good enough amount for a formal release. Why 14? No idea. It just seems like a good number to me. I already have more songs in the works that will probably end up on the second release unless I decide to squeeze some more onto this one. I’m enjoying the number 14 though. Paul Westerberg’s first official solo record (if you don’t count the Replacements’ All Shook Down as a Paul record) was called 14 Songs. So why not. There must be some good karma there someplace.
Anyhow, the name of the record will be Damaged Goods. I could probably come up with some wacky story about why I’m calling it that, but that story would be totally untrue. Here’s the true story, if you’re interested.
In the past year when I started writing and recording this batch of original tunes, I had to decide if I was going to wait and not release anything until the end or release the songs a few at a time. I decided to release the songs a few at a time as “singles” and then when I felt it was time to call it a record and start playing some gigs, I’d compile them all into one package. So here I am at that point, but I needed an album cover and a name. So I started messing around in Photoshop; trying out some different background textures. I came across this one that looked like cardboard but with a glue blotch or something on it. It caught my eye and I used it. I was just going to use it for the background but then as I was playing with the color, I thought the image looked kind of interesting as it was.
At this point I didn’t have an album title. I didn’t want to have a “title track”, so to speak; use one of the song titles as the album title. I had a few funny ideas like calling the album Lou Tambone’s Greatest Hits since it was my first record under my own name. That was just me trying to be funny. The truth of the matter is while I was designing and playing with this “background” texture, the phrase “damaged goods” popped into my brain for some unknown reason. I guess I was just thinking of a box with some damage done to it and this looked like it.
So, I played with the blending modes a little, changed some colors around, added the logo text and the scripted words at the bottom, threw a faded stamp on the left (upside down) and that was about it. Instant uninspired album cover.
I’m not too deep, folks. Don’t ever go trying to read all kinds of crazy meanings into the stuff I do. 🙂
My other issue is that I’ve uploaded all these songs to various places like Nimbit, Reverbnation, iLike, Last.fm, and others so I have to go into each of these places and see if I can compile the album using the already existing tracks, or if I have to re-upload everything. I also have to write up some liner notes and all that mess. Once I get all the songs together in a running order that I’m OK with, I’ll see about calling it an official release. However, I wanted to post the album cover at least, just for fun. It’s nothing all that special but I enjoy the simplicity of it for whatever reason.
The other thing I guess I should say is that this record is going to be a work in progress of sorts, even after I call it a record. Some of the songs still need remixing. I’ll probably keep fixing things after it’s released and try to let you know. I’ll just upload and overwrite the old songs with the new ones and things should be pretty seamless and transparent to anyone on the other end of things. When I feel the songs are produced well enough, perhaps I’ll actually press copies but I’m not thinking about that really. For now, I’ll just make the art and liner notes all available via download.
So, enjoy the cover. All the songs are on the music player here on the site (or at the links I have listed) so you can hear the whole thing now. This official “release” is really just a formality. It makes me sound like an actual musician when I can say stuff like, “This is from my album Damaged Goods, which you get get at the merch table.” Yay me.
More songs and records coming soon. As for gigs, I’m putting my energy into that also because I feel the songs will “pop” live and I love playing out. It would be nice to play some places outside of my local area for a change. Small steps.
So thanks for reading and look for more news soon!
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