Tagged: drums

May 9, 2011

Look Sharp! On May 21st

One of the fun things about being a multi-instrumentalist is that you can play with many different bands in different capacities. When playing my original material, I’m up front and mostly on guitar. For most of my other gigs, however, I’m usually the drummer.

I play drums for a couple of my friend Scott Lea’s productions. One is Johnny Retro – an 80’s new wave cover band. The other is a really fun project called Look Sharp! which is a Joe Jackson tribute band. However, it focuses only on the first two Joe Jackson records – Look Sharp! and I’m the Man. It’s great music and a lot of fun to play.

The band only plays a few shows a year. Our first big show of 2011 is on May 21st at the Ruby Lounge in Totowa, New Jersey. If you’re a Joe Jackson fan or like that post-punk era music, you’ll want to come by.

Tickets at the door will cost you $5 more so if you’re coming, please connect with me and I’ll sell you tickets for $10 instead of $15. To make things even easier, you can order tickets online by going to http://scottleaproductions.ticketleap.com.

It’s going to be a good time so I hope to see you there.

Lou's News / Music

March 29, 2011

Every Song Tells A Story: Something New

The Story

I work from home most Wednesdays, at least at the time of this writing. I also use those days as music days, where I can work on my original material. I have my work computer dialed in to my left and my Mac all set up with the interface on my right. So when I’m taking breaks or in between things for work, I just roll my chair over and record a track or something. Wednesdays are usually great days for getting work done in both cases. There are few distractions. I can knock out a lot of my work (for my day job) in half the time I normally would. I can also get a lot of music written or recorded.

As far as the music goes, those Wednesdays are spent in different ways depending on my mood. Sometimes, I won’t feel motivated to do anything at all. Sometimes I’ll work on four songs. Sometimes I’ll experiment. Sometimes I’ll just record a vocal track. Sometimes I’ll just mix things. It’s all quite random. This song was written while experimenting.

The theme of the song is fairly obvious so there’s not much to explain. When you’ve been in a relationship for a long time, sometimes you have to try something new or something different to keep things interesting. Do something crazy. Do something you’d normally never do. Get in the car and drive somewhere without a plan. Get out of the familiar and into the unknown. Change some routines. Make life a little interesting. It’s a simple notion that can make a big difference, even if for a day.

It could be something as simple as trying a new restaurant or something as drastic as going hiking in a foreign country (if that’s something you don’t normally do). It really depends on the people involved. Trying something you’ve never done before is almost always the way to go. If you’ve never been on a roller coaster, give it a shot. Try switching sides of the bed, maybe. Get a pet. The list is endless.

That’s really all I’m trying to convey in the song. When you’re bored and sick of the same routines day after day, try something new.

The Recording

The song “Something New” was written completely by accident on one of my “experimenting” days. Even the title was a bit of an accident, as you’ll see.

One random Wednesday I decided that I was going to experiment with loops. I was only using them as stand-ins at that point. Actually, I was using them as faux click tracks for recording drums. Since then, I’ve used a few here and there, but sparingly. This time, I wanted to just sit down and experiment with some drum loops and see what happened. Maybe I’d come across something I could use down the road. Who knows?

While paging through the plethora of loops, I came across this fairly straight beat that caught my ear. The kick was pretty heavy on the one and three, yet it was complimented by a nice rim-shot on the two and four. I liked that contrast. It didn’t have that huge accompanying snare hit I was expecting. I made a track in a new project and stretched that loop out to eternity.

Keep in mind that I was not composing or even thinking about writing a song. I was simply going through a sort of musical “stream of consciousness” exercise. I was taking paint and throwing it onto a blank canvas to “see what stuck”.

Around this time I thought that I should probably save the file. We’ve all lost files to power outages or disc errors from time to time, haven’t we? Saving often is always a good thing with computers. I needed a name so I called it SomethingNew, because it was something new I was working on. For all I knew at that time, it would have ended up in the trash later that day.

Enter the clavinet. I’ve always been a big fan of “the clav”. When I think of clav, I immediately think of Stevie Wonder who really mastered the way to play that thing like no other. I also think of Christine McVie and the way she played left-hand clav on Fleetwood Mac’s “You Make Loving Fun”. What a great sound. Of course there are tons of other great records that make use of the clav, from Led Zeppelin (“Trampled Underfoot”, etc.) to The Band (“Up on Cripple Creek”) to Sly Stone, Pink Floyd, and prog-rock bands like Yes to name a few.

So of course, while rolling through the keyboard sounds I had to stop on the clavinet sample. I was hitting octaves on the low D notes and stumbled upon the rhythm you can hear in the beginning of the finished song. I tracked it and stretched the loop out as I did with the drum loop. Now things were getting interesting.

Flipping through the bass loops, I came across something that sounded deep and fat and started tapping away on the midi controller. I wasn’t thinking about key or progression. I wasn’t composing. I was just experimenting, remember? Within five minutes, however, the bass line was born, tracked, and looped across the rest of the song.

It was at this point that I realized something was happening but I wasn’t quite sure yet. Did I have something that might make good background music in an elevator or did I have the makings of a new song? It wasn’t clear yet, but I kept going because I had a great little groove going on. It sounded good to my ears because it was simple (drums, bass, & clav) but yet it sounded fat enough to work.

I knew that if it was to become a song it needed some variation, and for that I turned to the piano since I was already working on the midi controller. Click a few buttons and you’re all set. The catch is that I’m not a good piano player. I don’t just sit and play piano effortlessly. I knew that I wanted something different, though. So I whipped out my handy piano chord book (much to my musician friends’ chagrin) and started experimenting some more.

If this was going to morph into a song, here would be the big test. I had two short-term goals. One was to put something over the existing groove. The other was to come up with a new part that would add some kind of variation. I had no idea what either might be, but I was in some kind of musical zone, so off I went.

I already had the D octaves on the clav tracked so I naturally looked to the pages in my chord book that listed the different D variations. This took a little while because there were two things I had to think about: Rhythm and Chord Progression. In the end, only three chords ended up being used but I had no way of knowing that at the time. I was looking at yet another blank canvas and trying all sorts of things.

I started playing different D variations/inversions to hear how they sounded against the groove that I kept on a constant loop. I didn’t want to be boring and just slap a plain old D major in there. I wanted something a little more fun and full. Major 7ths are beautiful chords to my ears but I tend to use them a lot and try to save them for when I really need them. At some point I placed a D11 before a D9 and noticed that while the chords were very similar, I could still tell them apart even with a D hammering away on the bottom.

The D11 that I used consists of G-A-C-E (with a D in the bass). The D9 that I used is the exact same thing but with an F# instead of a G – and what a difference that F# makes! This whole thing intrigued me so much that I had to keep it. The fact that one note in all that mess really made the difference was key to me. I loved it.

I still had the problem of variation to solve, though. For that, I went the boring route and moved up to the IV (Gm). For color I hammered in a quick F to G thing (one finger) at the beginning of the G minor chord just to give the illusion of movement but the solution to the variation problem was, in essence, just a G minor chord banging away in a Latin style, rhythmically. I altered the bass line beneath it to match but left the drum pattern pretty much intact.

Something just worked there and it was at that point that I knew I had crossed the line from experiment to song. It was funky, yet jazzy. It was simple, yet groovy. But how was I going to finish this thing?

The file name I was using stuck in my head and while I was composing I was humming vocal melodies in my head and making up words on the fly. Some were nonsensical but others seemed to work. I used the words “Something New” in there and began to build lyrics around them, putting them down in a text file as I went on writing the music.

I had a pretty good thing going. I knew I could put a jazzy piano solo in there somewhere over that groove so that was no problem. I felt the song needed a bridge of some sort though. Even with the short Gm variation, it wasn’t enough to keep the song from being too boring. It needed a good third quarter after halftime. What I didn’t want to do was keep the same groove going so I went back to the drum loops to try out some other things.

I found this funky part that I thought complimented yet contrasted the rest of the song and went with it. I didn’t want to dwell too long in drum loop city. The part I chose seemed great, so I was happy. I threw it in the timeline where I thought it would fit best. I then added some bass that kept the pocket tight and solid. If you listen closely during this bridge, you’ll also hear some triangle action. To lead back into the main groove, I added a drum fill that was a loop but sounded a lot like something I would do on drums.

At that point, the song was pretty much set up and all of the main tracks were done except the piano solo, vocals and guitar. I will say that I was VERY tempted to not have any guitar at all on the track. I liked the way the song sounded as it was and was not hearing any guitar in my head at all. I decided to plug the telecaster in and see what happened, though. I found a sound that seemed to fit and just let the song loop for a while. I kept noodling but soon realized that overplaying on this track was not going to work. It needed simple accents and hits and that’s what I ended up doing. I went high up the neck for the funk factor and it seemed to work. I left well-enough alone.

I did want a guitar solo over the bridge part though because it was so different from the main groove. If there was going to be any strong guitar in the song, that was the spot for it. I threw on some distortion and made it work. Then I went back and added a very long piano solo which came before the guitar solo. I enjoyed very much but I knew it was way too long. One of the joys of digital editing is the ability to pull measures out of a song and have it all just fit back together in seconds. I pulled out some of the piano solo (mostly the stuff in the middle that wandered a bit) and gave it another listen. The length was much better. I re-recorded a piece at the end of the solo with some high triplets to make a nice segue into the guitar solo groove and that was that.

Then it was lyric time. This was odd for me because many times I have the lyrics all finished before this point. I already had a text file open and in progress. The words just flowed from there and all came together. Looking back, it’s funny how the file name became the song title and a whole theme of spicing up a relationship came about. It just fell together and made sense in some weird, cosmic way. I love when that happens.

In any case, the vocals were simple and easy to sing because they’re very talky, for lack of a better term. It was almost like talking instead of singing. When we play it live, the band might come up with some fun backing vocals if they choose, but on the recording it’s just one voice. Again, the simplicity of the song really made it work for me. I could have filled it up with a lot of “Ooooohs and Ahhhhhs” but decided not to. I went with what felt right to me at the time.

“Something New” was actually an experiment that turned into a song, and one that I admire a lot. I learned a lot in the process and had a fun time putting it all together. Starting the day with a blank slate and ending it with a full song a few hours later is a great feeling that doesn’t happen too often in our busy lives. I’ll always have fond memories of writing it.

Lyrics

Baby baby we’ve been together
Baby baby a long long time
Going through the motions just ain’t doing it no more
We need a little excitement tonight

Baby don’t you think it’s time that we try something new
Don’t you think it’s time for something that we never do
We gotta find a way to make it work for me and you
Don’t you think it’s time for something new

Let’s get the car and drive until the morning light
Let our thoughts take us away
Feels a bit unnatural – like going back in time
When you feel that freedom – you’ll wanna stay

Don’t you think it’s time for something new

Baby baby we’ve been together
Baby baby a long long time
I know I’ll go crazy if we don’t bury this routine
We need a little something else tonight

Don’t you think it’s time for something new
Something new…

Lou's News / Music

March 8, 2011

Got Me A Rock And Roll Band, It’s A Free For All

Oh, that Nuge… always good for a quote.

It’s been an interesting couple of years to say the least. 2009 and 2010 found me writing two albums worth of material, plus what I call “pre-composing” two concept pieces of about 10 songs each. I call it pre-composing because those pieces exist only in my head except for the lyrics which are all written and complete.

Why did I do all this, you ask? To what end? Well, you didn’t ask but I’ll ask for you. I’ll even answer.

The goal for me is to play live. I enjoy it. Since I was a teen, I’ve always found it far more interesting to play original music than to be in a cover band. In fact, I hadn’t really tried being in a cover band until a few years ago. Here in New Jersey, there’s more money in doing that than with original songs. So after trying to maintain a cover band with me singing and playing guitar, which was fun but unfulfilling, I decided that I had to get back to original music. I still play drums with some other cover bands which is cool because I like the guys and the songs and it pays well. However, I’m very focused on original music. It’s just more interesting to me.

What I like about playing original music live is that there are no expectations. Even if people have heard your music, they’re not expecting it to sound a certain way. They are my songs and I can play them as I see fit. I’m not reproducing someone else’s sound or expected to hit Steve Perry’s high notes. I don’t sound like other people or sing like other people. I sound like me, like it or not. Playing covers is fun and it pays well, so at the end of the night you have some money which makes up for the unfulfillment. I need the money, but I also need to feel some musical/artistic integrity and satisfaction. It’s the same reason artists display their painted canvases on walls. Art should be shared. Keeping it to yourself is a little bit selfish, I say. A good piece of art or a good song can really make someone’s day, especially if they can identify with it on some level.

That’s not to say you can’t make money at all playing originals. If you can successfully draw a big crowd, you’ll do quite well. At the same time, there are places in the big cities you can play where you won’t even come close to getting paid until you bring over XX amount of people. They’ll keep 100% of the cover charges until there’s a big enough crowd. Some places will tell you up front that they just don’t pay at all. It’s really hard to draw a big crowd of people when you’re starting out or rebooting yourself so you suck it up. The only way to get bigger and better is to play out more and gain a following. To do that, you must have gigs. You must also have good songs. That’s all up to interpretation, I know, but they must at least be well-written and performed if you want anyone to pay attention to them. For me, it’s more important to get out there, play live, and share the music. If I can make a few bucks then I’m even happier.

What I guess I’m trying to say is that it’s a long haul from the garage to the stage and I’ve taken the time I’ve needed to write, record and prepare to take the songs out to clubs, bars, festivals, and whatever else. I am one guy, though. You can’t do this without a good band.

I had secured a lead guitarist and bassist a long while back. Finding a drummer was more challenging. There are a lot of people who like to call themselves drummers and many of them can even hack their way through cover bands just fine, but throw them into an original situation and you’ll instantly see the difference between drummers and what my lead guitar player calls “drum owners”. That said, I’m glad to say there’s finally a drummer in the mix and he’s both enthusiastic and can play well.

The drummer, in fact, was really the only thing holding up the process of booking gigs. I still want/need a keyboard player because some of the tracks are piano/organ driven and others have things like horns and synths in them. However, I do believe we can gig without the keys for now as long as the drums are there.

I won’t stop looking for keys though. It’s very important to me. Things like keys, horns, synths, and organs can really make a song stand out. I have a few songs that will sound quite different without keyboards and I’d rather play the songs with them than without them.

So now that there’s a core band, the songs are starting to sound better in a live scenario and I couldn’t be more thrilled. I always said that these songs would “pop” live. Just the fact that there are good musicians playing with me makes the songs better. Chris is an infinitely better guitarist than I am. The solos and lead work will be wild. Steve plays much better bass than I ever will. His fills blew me away at rehearsal. As for the drums, it’s pretty amazing to hear Rob be himself yet at the same time stay true to the drum parts that I played and the structure of the song. These guys are working hard not just for me, certainly not for money, definitely not for the chicks (well, maybe Rob is), but for the love of music and the love of playing original music live.

That’s where it’s at.

Now that our first official rehearsal is over and went quite well, I have some feelers out for gigs. I’m hoping that by Spring, we’ll be out there in full force, having some fun. If you’d like to book us, let me know.

You can (virtually) meet the band before the gigs if you like by looking them up on Google or The Facebook or whatever your flavor. The drummer is Rob Silverman. Steve Savona is on the bass. Chris Preston is on lead guitar. This is a multi-talented band with loads of experience behind them. Steve and Chris are also solo artists and everyone has a few projects going on. I’ve known Chris and Steve for years. We all worked together at a local mom-and-pop music store selling instruments. Chris and I were in a band back in the 90’s. Steve and I played the occasional acoustic gig. Rob is the new guy. We don’t know much about him yet but my extensive net of spies is currently investigating his past.

The band is solid.
The fun factor is dominant.
The gigs are coming.
Will you join us?

Lou's News / Music

January 3, 2011

Every Song Tells A Story: There You Are

The Story

This song was a very interesting one for me in that it wasn’t written in the usual way. I wrote it with my friend Doug Brehm one night. Doug and I usually hang out together on random Friday nights to either watch a flick or play some video games and drink a few beers. I’ve known Doug since high school and while he’s always a bit timid about his playing, he’s actually quite melodic and has developed his own little style of playing based on folks like Andy Summers of The Police and The Edge of U2.

One Friday night I was home noodling with a chord/riff when he called to see if I wanted to hang out. I asked him if perhaps he’d like to have a songwriting session instead of the usual movie watching session or a night of virtual zombie/alien killing. He seemed up for it, so I packed up my guitar, bass, and Macbook Pro and traveled up to his place.

Everything we did that night over a couple of beers was very productive. We sat there and wrote just about the whole song except for the lyrics which I wrote a couple of days later. It was a great night of bouncing ideas back and forth and seeing what stuck. I really enjoy collaborative songwriting and while I always have the offer out there, people rarely take me up on it. You would think that in the digital age this would be quite common but songwriters are fickle souls and sometimes don’t like to collaborate for whatever reason. What happened in Doug’s basement was a great example of two people just creating something from nothing in a positive and honest way.

Like I said, I wrote the lyrics a few days after we wrote the song. The intention was to keep the subject of the song ambiguous so the listener could make it about someone of their own choice. At first listen, you might suspect it’s a love song about a girl, as many songs are. If that works for you, that’s great and that’s what it’s about for you. I specifically left gender out so that if the listener was a female, she could sing along with the same emotion as a male singing to a female. I’ve always found it awkward singing songs by female artists and having to switch the gender around. Sometimes it works well, other times not.

For me, however, this song is about God. The lyrics leave it open, which is nice, but if you really look at the words, I’m singing about God: Every time I need somebody/When my friends leave me stranded/When I feel like I can’t make it/Every time I think I’m losing you.

People have very strong beliefs about religion and sometimes have trouble separating it from spirituality. I’m more spiritual than religious. I believe there is a God. Others don’t. Who’s right? We don’t know. It all comes down to faith. I didn’t really set out to write a song about God – it just happened. I don’t fight inspiration.

So in the end, this song wound up being quite poignant and serious for me. I write lots of fun songs but I enjoy serious songs as well and this one ended up being one of my favorites. It started as a joint writing session with no real direction and ended up being a good song (in my opinion) with a reflective message; something people could personalize and make mean whatever else, should they wish. Not bad!

The Recording

The recording session started out in my friend Doug’s basement. I had this little riff I was noodling around with and that ended up being the intro and main hook of the song. I felt we needed some kind of beat behind it though, in order to kick start the writing process. So we hooked up the Mac to some monitors and I fished around for a drum loop that I thought might work. The one you hear in the finished track is the one I ended up using. I don’t even think I changed it in any way. It was like using a non-programmed drum machine. The beat played over and over until I stopped it. It just worked. I didn’t even add accents or other percussion. It’s a mellow song that didn’t warrant anything other than a laid back beat. I usually like to play my own drums but I got so used to hearing the loop that I just left it alone. It sounded right to me and I’ve learned to not mess with something if it feels and sounds right.

While we did some recording that night together, it was basically just for the purpose of getting the ideas down in the computer so that I had something to go on when I got back home. Doug and I went through some ideas, discarded others and eventually worked out a nice, simple progression that felt good. We packed it up and I went home. I believe I wrote the lyrics the following Monday while at work and then finished up the song that Wednesday. Everything about this song just literally fell into place.

I re-recorded everything except the drum loop. I believe I started with the main acoustic guitar track, just to get some melody in there. The main riff is a fun one for me and reminds me of something a little Sting-ish. It gracefully descends and sounds like it should resolve somewhere else but doesn’t, which adds a little tension. I enjoy that. There are lots of Major 7th chords in there. In fact, the entire bridge is comprised of them. They sound so nice and full.

I remember coming up with the bass line while at Doug’s place. We were both on guitar and at one point I remember thinking, “This is silly. Why are we both on guitar? Let me get the bass out.” So I did that and as Doug played the riff over and over, I starter working in this sort of alien bass line that didn’t really seem to match what was going on with the acoustic. Of course, that intrigued me even more. It’s got that bit of counterpoint that just seemed to work. There are also some fun bass fills in the bridge if you listen closely. They remind me of something Lenny Kravitz would do for some reason.

After adding more guitars and some of the vocals, I had Doug come back over and lay down the guitar solo. I really wanted him to do it because I knew he’d come up with something cool and something totally different than what I would do. I gave him a copy of the work-in-progress track so he could get some ideas. He came down totally prepared with a really nice solo in mind that I absolutely loved. After a few takes, we got it down and the song came that much more alive.

The vocals were pretty simple. The usual light reverb on the verses and choruses did the trick. I added some harmony to the last chorus for effect. I tried to make it a little more powerful so that when it broke down at the end there would be some nice contrast. As for the bridge, I knew I needed something else there so I tried some oohs and ahhs, drenched in reverb. It’s amazing what some ambient vocals can add to a song.

Like I said before, everything just seemed to fall into place. Divine Intervention? Could be. All I know is that I’m quite happy with the final product. I hope you like it.

The Lyrics

I woke up this morning with the sun shining in my eyes
I had a feeling everything was all right
The pain that I had yesterday faded in the night
I can’t bring back the memory now if I tried

For a while I traveled underground and lost the light of day
Never thought that I could make a mistake
Reflections can be so painful if you take them the wrong way
But the mirror is smiling back today

And I wouldn’t be here without you…

Every time I need somebody now – there you are
When my friends leave me stranded – there you are
When I feel like I can’t make it – there you are
Every time I think I’m losing you – there you are

So many people living, breathing in our space and time
No reason anybody should be alone
You can’t call it hanging out when you’re the last one in the room
Say goodbye to the past, you have to let go

And I wouldn’t know it without you…

Every time I need somebody now – there you are
When my friends leave me stranded – there you are
When I feel like I can’t make it – there you are
Every time I think I’m losing you – there you are

Lou's News

December 13, 2010

Happy Holidays To You

Another year over…

I just wanted to take a minute and wish anyone reading this a Happy Holiday Season, no matter what Holiday you celebrate, if any. How’s that for PC? 🙂

It’s been a mixed up, crazy year for my family and I with lots of ups and downs. Plus I turned the big 4-0 this year which is both exciting and depressing at the same time.

I did, however, record and release a lot of music with much more planned for 2011. While I did not attain my goal of getting a full band together and playing some gigs by the end of the year, I was able to secure a lead guitarist and bass player (both of whom are multi-instrumentalists and can play guitar, bass, and keys).

Here’s hoping that 2011 brings a solid drummer and permanent keyboard player to the group so I can get out there and trying these songs out on people. It’s going to be a great time.

Whether this year was good or bad to you, it’s time to put it away and look forward to a new year with lots of positivity.

So Happy Holidays to you all, Happy New Year, and see you in 2011.

Lou's News / Music

November 23, 2010

Every Song Tells A Story: The Luckiest Man Alive

The Story

Long story short: this song is about reconnecting with an old friend.

It was specifically written for a friend of mine named Joyce. We met when we were in our late teens, both of us working for the same company but in different locations. It was a retail chain so there was always a lot of interaction between stores. Sometimes people from one store would go work in another for the day to cover for someone who was out, and so on.

Joyce worked in the Nanuet store and lived up that way. We interacted on the phone a lot and became very good friends. Sometimes you just connect with people on the right level and the friendship that’s forged is a solid one. That’s how we were.

So time went by and we lost touch after high school turned into college. We got busy and moved on but there were always funny pictures to look at and memories of those fun times.

The glories of social networking arrived and soon enough, there was a friend request from Joyce one day sitting there. How long had it been? 20 years? Really? The funny thing is that we talked and it was like no time had passed at all. That’s what good friends are all about.

So as it turned out, she married a music man who also owns a club in New York City and opened her own business in mid-town Manhattan. We met up and have been in contact ever since, be it at the club to see a band or just online. A day or two after our initial meet-up, I was inspired to somehow put down what happened in a song. For me, the friends of my youth are the ones I have the strongest bonds with today.

As you can see by the lyrics, the song is fairly literal. There are a few bits and pieces I might have thrown in for the sake of the song but for the most part, it’s all true stuff. It’s mainly the transcript of a reconnection at a table. How have you been? Tell me about the kids. Remember this or that?

The phrase “That man is the luckiest man alive” isn’t meant to be as literal as it sounds, I suppose. That part refers to something a little bigger but it’s disguised as something personal. What happens in marriages, as time goes by, is that two people get so used to the situation and so comfortable in their shoes that they forget how lucky they really are to have someone.

Call it, “The Grass is Greener Syndrome” or “The Seven Year Itch” or whatever else you like, but I feel that sometimes people don’t realize what it means to find someone really special and go the distance with them. I realize this about my wife all the time. Whenever there’s an argument, usually the next day it’s over and we can just forget it. I realize that love shifts and changes faces over time but it’s still the same love and I don’t know what I’d do without my wife. We have great kids and whatever problems we have, we’ll work through together. That’s just how we are.

So that chorus was just me reinforcing that idea to my friend saying that if this guy doesn’t know it by now, he’s the luckiest man alive to have a nice person like you for a wife. That doesn’t make the rest of us unlucky, however. We’re all lucky to have a special lady or man in our lives.

The Recording

As with a lot of the songs I record, I started with the drum track. I already had the lyrics and most of the melody in my head so I just charted it out and got to work.

The song was not that difficult to record, actually. It mainly consists of variations of a big A chord. You might think that’s a little boring, but when songs come out, I try not to fight them and this one came out that way. The bass line is quite simple. Lots of A hits with the occasional little fill-in riff.

Next, I added some keyboard parts. I put some electric piano on top of the bass which blended well. In the pre-chorus parts and the bridge, I added some regular old piano which filled out the song a little and gave it some more life.

The guitar parts are all done on the Martin acoustic – even the leads. I was adding the acoustic strumming in the main parts of the song and when I was done, I added another track and put some light crunch on the guitar sound. The acoustic, when played through this amp simulator had a nice sound that just seemed to fit the song and since I was already plugged in and holding the acoustic, I figured why not just do the lead now.

The vocal is pretty loose. I just went with it. You’re hearing mostly first takes there. The little backups were fun to do. Those “Bah Bahs” just follow the main groove of the electric piano.

In retrospect, I realize that the song might be a little too long. Once I have a drum track down and finished, I really hesitate to go back and edit the hell out of it or re-do it. Sometimes you can’t re-capture things the same way.

It wasn’t until I was doing the vocals that I noticed I had played a little too long here or there, especially in the guitar solo. The bits before the second verse drag on a bit also. When we do this song live, I’ll probably trim it down a little to make it more streamlined.

The Lyrics

Way back in the old times
When the days were slow
We were just two crazy kids
What did we know

Lost track of the hands of time
We drifted away
Never thought I’d ever see you again
Until today

Flood of memories
Ton of bricks
Emotions high in the sky
I’m so glad you found me

So tell me more about your man
I’ll tell you about my wife
Sounds like you’re really doing well
You’ve got a good life

We’re both hitched and the kids are growing
Growing too damn fast
I got time, so let’s palaver
And relive some of that glorious past

That man of yours
He got it right
I wonder if he knows
Yea, I wonder if he knows

That man’s got it in his hands
That man is the luckiest man alive
That man – doesn’t understand
That man is the luckiest man alive

Never regretted a thing in my life
I’m not about to start
You were the first girl to make me sweat
The first to put some dings in my yet unbroken heart

Second guessing is not in my nature
Clairvoyance is a poor man’s myth
Got no use for what coulda and shoulda
We had youth and we enjoyed it

So here we sit down the line
We look good and we feel fine
We both smile cause it’s funny the way
20 years feels like just one day

And I remember
The times together
Still fresh in my mind
I gotta say it one more time

That man’s got it in his hands
That man is the luckiest man alive
That man – doesn’t understand
That man is the luckiest man alive