Tagged: paul westerberg

February 7, 2013

Every Song Tells a Story: One More Round

The Story

I got the idea for “One More Round” while thinking about drinking songs one day. I thought to myself, “I need a good drinking song.” Most of the gigs I play are in bars and clubs and everyone’s drinking, so why not? Let’s get them invested and give them something they can relate to, right?

A simple drinking song wasn’t good enough for me, though. Being a fan of artists like John Lennon and Paul Westerberg, I admired their use of double entendres and wordplay. One of Paul’s more famous twists (and he used it in multiple songs) is when he sings something about “whose Suicide you’re on.” I’ve always loved that one.

So it occurred to me at some point that the term “One More Round” could actually mean more than one thing. One more round of poker. One more round of golf. One more round of drinks. One more round of applause. That was all I needed to bang out the lyrics in about five minutes. While writing the lyrics, the chords took shape in my head and yes, it was that simple.

It’s by no means a complicated song. Not counting the bridge, it’s all of three chords but many a fun song has been created using three chords, right? It became quite popular at shows so we often close with it. It’s a good one to jam to, has lots of good energy, and gets people singing along. Can’t ask for more than that.

The Recording

Once the lyrics and chord progression were in place, the recording was pretty simple. From the get-go, I knew that near the end I wanted to have a drums-only chorus section which would be where I’d try to get people to sing along at shows. So while recording the drum track (which I usually do first) I made sure it happened. I didn’t have a bridge in mind so I just played some hits and fills and figured I’d play something over it later, which I did. I do this a lot with songs where I don’t have a specific part figured out in the pre-composition phase. Gotta keep moving forward, right?

I used my trusty Rickenbacker 4001 bass and my ’52 Reissue telecaster for the basic tracks. For the missing bridge parts, I played D-E-F#-A and backed that up on guitar. Easy! After that, I threw an organ backing track down which I hope to insert into the live shows once I get a good keyboard player. I would love to have a good organ part there. Mine is pretty basic.

It was all guitar and vocals after that. The lead guitar parts are always tough for me. I experimented a little with acoustic slide guitar. I can’t say I’m totally thrilled with how it came out. I split the solo into half acoustic slide and half electric slide. The electric part came out better. When we do this song live, I actually play harmonica instead and like that better. If I ever re-record this one, I’ll do that instead.

The lead vocal was easy to do and everything just fell into place exactly as I heard it in my head. The backing vocals are a little weird but somehow they work. I’m sure a real singer or vocal coach or producer might cringe a little listenting closely, but honestly, I don’t care. When we play it live, it’s more of a gang vocal thing, plus the crowd is always singing along, it seems.

On the whole, I think this one only took a few hours to complete. Not bad!

The Lyrics

I’m tired of holding
I’m tired of folding
I ain’t seen a face in forty hands
You run your mouth
And I’ll run my business
Baby I was born to take this chance, so…

Rock me baby – Gimme one more round
Rock me sugar – Gimme one more round
Rock me honey – Gimme one more round
Rock me baby – Gimme one more round

Tap the ball
Drop it in the cup
That’s a big eighteen, baby shake my hand
Now go get your bag
Meet me at the One
Let’s tear the green grass up again

Sun’s going down
I find a seat
Have a drink, maybe find a new friend
I check my watch
It’s just 3am
It’s a crazy night – we can’t let it end, so…

I take the stage
Play my guitar
Make you smile, make you sing along
Don’t sit there staring
Get up on your feet
Put your hands together, wanna hear you all night long

Lou's News / Music

May 8, 2010

Damaged Goods

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!