Tagged: todd rundgren

September 20, 2010

Every Song Tells A Story: Will We All Be Friends At The End Of The World?

The Story

This song is, basically, a protest song. Protest songs and rock and roll seem to go hand in hand. I’m not one of those activist-types who go to rallies with signs and stuff but I’m certainly not opposed to writing a protest song when the feeling hits me and the inspiration is there.

This song is the end result of the combining of two song ideas, plus a little Utopia. I had a batch of lyrics with a loose melody called “The World’s Gone Crazy” lying around, waiting to be worked out. That song was more of a misanthropic ode than a protest song and it still has a few good bits in it that I’m going to eventually re-work and transform into another song when I have time.

The other idea was the protest song that eventually ended up as “Will We All Be Friends at the End of the World?” This idea was straight-up inspiration from both a vibe and a lyric from another song I was listening to at the time. That song was from Utopia, Todd Rundgren’s side project, and is called “Marriage of Heaven and Hell” from the album Oops! Wrong Planet.

Somewhere in that song is a lyric that goes, “They will all join hands at the end of the world,” and I thought to myself, “Hey, that’s a neat little visual.” That led to a stream of consciousness that led me to all sorts of places. I was thinking about current events and how all the nations of the world can’t seem to get it together. There’s hatred all over the world pointed in all sorts of directions. There’s hatred within political circles here at home. It’s like a cancer, eating away at humanity.

So I was thinking to myself, “What’s it going to take before everyone gets along and can be friendly to each other? When will we all be friends? Is it going to take a big alien invasion? A nuclear war? The end of the world as we know it? When the world is about to blow, will we then be able to hug it out? Will we all be friends at the end of the world?”

Now, the Utopia song has a couple of different parts to it. The first part and the bit at the end are very upbeat and bluesy which I liked a lot. The part with the quote that I mentioned above is a slower part with a totally different feel. I thought that the bluesy vibe really fit the idea I was trying to convey.

As the newly re-worked lyrics came around, the music in my head started to change a little also. The upbeat vibe was still there and was joined a little by some KISS; specifically the song “100,000 Years”. So, musically, if you take Utopia and KISS and throw them together in a blender, then add a little Alice Cooper and maybe some Wings, and then let me have at it for a while, you’ll come up with something like the song I ended up writing.

As I said, I’m not really a big fan of protest songs, but sometimes inspiration hits and you can’t just turn that sort of thing off. It’s really easy to get angry at the state of the world today. The chorus is something you might hear me say in casual conversation while scanning the news stories of the day. The world really has gone crazy. Nothing makes sense anymore and no one can really tell me why. I don’t get it.

There was a time where I started to really pay attention to politics and what was happening in the world and more so in our own government. Slowly, as Presidents came in and out of power, I just started to realize that there was really no difference between any of them at all. Politicians say what they have to in order to get elected and keep a career going. I also realized that political parties are a bit of a joke. There’s no room for a centrist like myself. If you don’t fall totally and completely down the party line, you don’t fit. I don’t vote based on party, I vote on the issues. I agree with one party on this or that, and I agree with the other on certain other issues. But why is there all this hatred between the parties? There’s no agreeing to disagree. There’s blame, pointing fingers, excuses, lies and red tape. Meanwhile, the people bear the brunt of their mistakes. I’ll stop there. Let’s just say the world was making me angry and therefore, I wrote a song in protest. Do I feel better? Maybe a little. Will the world change? Nope.

The Recording

As usual, I recorded the drums first on this one. I usually try to map the song out in my head and then jot down a few notes so when I’m playing the drum track I know where I am in the song. I’m usually singing in my head as well which is why it’s important for me to have lyrics, even if they’re scratch verses or whatever.

The song starts out with a drum intro that I did “on the fly”. I tried a few different things and it wasn’t until after I was done with the track that I noticed my subconscious inserted a little Peter Criss into my playing. The little intro is a bit similar to what Peter used to do in his old KISS drum solo. So I recorded the drums, made sure I added some accents, left room for some other ideas I had in my head and that was that. As usual, there were not many takes.

There are specific accents in the song, so when I was laying down the bass parts, I tried my best to hit them well. There were no issues that I recall. The song is a bit repetitive, especially on the bass. There’s a constant bluesy thumping that provides a secure foundation.

The guitars were a whole different scene. Once I got started having fun, I found it hard to stop. The tune is very guitar driven and almost “anthemic” in a way. So the basic rhythm guitar is intact, mostly a big A with some C and D accents. Over those accents, however, I started to add some harmonized guitar fills that worked really well. I’m very pleased with the results on those. They added another layer to the song.

The guitar solo is 16 measures, which is quite a bit for me. I pieced together something that I felt worked really well though. The solo took me quite a while. It wasn’t so much playing it as it was coming up with the parts that worked best and then quickly putting them down. I layered a lot of other little guitar parts over stuff where it fit, most noticeably over the bridge which was another bit that I felt worked really well.

This kind of song is especially fun to sing. You can yell a bit and it’s OK. I didn’t pay too much attention to the way I was singing. I just did what felt right and it seemed to work well. The one thing I pre-planned vocally was the little a cappella breakdown with the hand-claps toward the end. That was something that came to me early on when I was writing the song and I wanted to make sure it sounded good. When it was done, I walked away for a while so I could give it a fresh listen and when I played it back later it sounded great. I was actually surprised I pulled those harmonies off. My approach to harmonies and backing vocals is so laid back that I never know what I’m going to do until I do it. This usually gives me mixed results but in this case, I just got lucky and nailed the parts quickly.

Many protest songs are folksy and acoustic with lots of meaningful lyrics and are designed to make you think. This one’s energetic, sloppy, and pretty angry but somehow maintains an air of guitar-in-your-face fun. Protest songs don’t need to be dreary.

I’m really proud of this song and it’s one of my favorites to play.

The Lyrics

Wake up, put on your coat and your hate
The train’s moving backward – you don’t wanna be late
Road full of rage and a heart made of stone
Stupid people make you wanna go it alone

Countries of the word all acting like babies
All the pointing of the fingers and the drama and the hating
Every fist clenched tight raised high in the air
Now we can’t come together when there’s nobody there

The world’s gone crazy, it’s a hell of a time
Nothing’s making sense and nobody knows why
There’s only one thing I’m asking you girl
Will we all be friends at the end of the world?

Don’t believe in politicians they’re not working for you
They’re just thinking about elections, nothing they say is true
From the crib to the dirt you’ll find the sky ain’t so blue
It’s one hell of a quandary, I don’t know what to do

The world’s gone crazy, it’s a hell of a time
Nothing’s making sense and nobody knows why
There’s only one thing I’m asking you girl
Will we all be friends at the end of the world?

The hate is too much
Makes you wanna give up
Somebody please tell me why
I’m seeing bombs in the sky

Power makes you lazy, yeah it goes to your head
Anybody tries to save us, they’ll soon end up dead
How can we get it right when we can’t get along
Everybody like the singer but they can’t stand the song

The world’s gone crazy, it’s a hell of a time
Nothing’s making sense and nobody knows why
There’s only one thing I’m asking you girl
Will we all be friends at the end of the world?

Lou's News / Music / Writing

April 15, 2010

Can We Ever Be Genre Free?

I was thinking about music during my commute to NYC today, as I often do, and the notion of genres came to mind. When you tell someone you write music, the next question is almost always something about what genre or what kind of music you play. Music is music to me. It’s a hard question to answer. More on that in a bit.

Let me just say that I think genres are (for the most part) pretty lame. I mean, what exactly is “Americana” or “Indie” anyhow? What’s “Alternative” or “Grunge?” I’ve heard the term “Progressive” attached to anything from Todd Rundgren to Genesis to Rush to King’s X. The “Country” genre is almost anything but country these days. All you need is a little twang in your voice. It seems that as times change, new genres come and go. What was once “disco” moved on to “dance” and then eventually into things like “freestyle”, “trance” and “electronica” and what not. Before Disco, the term “dance” would have probably referred to something akin to Ballroom Dancing. Then there’s the whole “World Music” thing which I’m not sure what to make of, genre-wise.

Who can keep track of all this? The whole thing confuses the hell out of me and while I reluctantly attach a “Rock” genre to my material, you’ll definitely hear other elements in there. I guess this is the real problem I have with genre, actually. Once you’re pigeon-holed into one of those categories, the moment you stray outside of one, you might get attacked or looked at with a cocked eyebrow as if to say, “What are you trying to pull, buddy? How dare you!?”

That’s partly why, as I’m writing new songs, I’m trying to be as diverse as I possibly can. While I sit comfortably in the “Rock” genre (or some might call it “retro rock” or whatever), I stretch out into other areas as well. I don’t do this consciously, for the most part. I do it because I like many different kinds of music and they all influence me and my writing. There are times when I say, “Hmmm. I’d really like to write a reggae-influenced thing…” but this is not because I’m thinking about being pigeon-holed into a Rock genre. It’s just that old reggae-induced rock tunes by bands like The Police and early Joe Jackson influence me. It’s the kind of music I love and whatever chemicals are released into my brain that make that music attractive to me are also swimming around in my skull when I’m writing or thinking about writing something. It’s influence. It’s inspiration, and it doesn’t have to come from any given genre. It can come from anywhere, anytime.

Now anyone who knows me knows that I like to cross these so-called genres. Songs like “Tonight I Ride” and “Number Two” are a little like something the Foo Fighters might put out. I guess you’d call it “Hard Rock” or something. “Corporate Robot” has a slow funk vibe. “Hello Blue Sky” is very “Beatle-ish” for lack of a better term. “The Walking Man” and “Did You Tell Your Man” are straight up blues. Songs like “Mall Girl” and “Crackberry” are stabs at humor with a bit of Lenny Kravitz thrown in for good measure. “The Luckiest Man Alive” even has a twinge of (dare I say) country in there. If you like that 70’s classic rock thing, then “Will We All Be Friends at the End of the World?” is for you.

Future songs that I conjure will definitely keep moving against the genre grain. As I mentioned previously, the reggae-rock fusion thing has been on my mind lately. A genuine funkified Prince-like jam has been rolling around in my noggin for a few weeks now. I definitely need some more acoustic-based ditties to round out the sound. My buddy Doug and I have been talking about a larger piece that we might work on together some time. It’s a bit of a concept piece. Filling out the space in between all this are countless other songs I’ll put together when time allows. Nothing can be forced; it just has to come.

Answering that dreaded “genre” question (when people ask what kind of music you make) is sort of like when a woman asks you if she “looks fat in this outfit.” What do you say? The truth isn’t what the person wants to hear. The lie makes you feel like you’ve done a disservice, in a way. I usually default to the lesser of the two evils and say, “You know… rock stuff.” It’s sort of a non-answer and a little vague but what else can I say? “A little of everything” might work. I don’t know. I despise that word eclectic for some reason. There are too many C’s in that damn word and it just seems overused to me when referring to people’s taste in music. It’s become the standard answer these days. “I have eclectic taste.” That’s actually a good thing but I can’t stop myself from thinking that most of the time when people say this, they’re really just full of shit and listen to top 40 radio all day mistakenly thinking that it’s eclectic because it goes from the latest Rap artist with a hyphenated name to some pop chick that plays piano.

I suppose the big problem I have with the whole thing is that people feel you “have to” fall into some predefined genre to be legit at all. I don’t agree. Where does someone like Prince fall? Is he Rock? R&B? Funk? Easy Listening? Soul? One of the things that initially drew me to Prince (and this was before Purple Rain, kids) was that he was so diverse. 1999 and Controversy were my first two Prince records and they were both heavy in funk but rich enough to include many other styles of music. That was something I could wrap my head around, even as an early teen.

I suppose genres can be helpful for some people and there’s really no way to avoid them entirely. Hell, I’ve utilized them in this very article numerous times, making myself sound hypocritical in a way. I worked in record stores for years and sure, it’s nice to know all the “classical” stuff is “over there” somewhere. I don’t know how many times a day I was asked, “Where’s the _____ section?” People are used to genres. They like to browse by genre. Maybe by doing that, they’ll discover something else they like. That’s cool. I guess it’s all in the context.

Books and other media can also be applied to this line of reasoning. Stephen King is known as a “horror” writer. What is horror, though? In film, you think of Freddy and Jason ripping limbs off terrified kids and slashing their way through 2 hours, which is very fun! King does not write like this (most of the time) and he’s written well outside the “horror” genre, so to speak. I’m not a betting man and I don’t know Stephen King at all, but I’m guessing he’s not thrilled (no pun intended) about being called a “horror” guy all the time.

I will not condemn genres. They just don’t interest me anymore and I certainly don’t want to be dropped into one. But it’s unavoidable, I suppose. People like to throw labels on everything. It’s human nature. We even do it to each other. Black, white, gay, straight, asian, indian, redneck, etc. I’m just as guilty in that aspect but it’s so hard to break out of that habit when you’ve grown up with it in your face every day. I’m not talking about racism, here. I’m just talking about how people tend to put people or things into categories, which can sometimes be different. Don’t misread me. I’m simply making an analogy.

Wouldn’t it be nice to all be known as just human beings? Yes, that would be very nice! Will it happen? Probably not. But it’s nice to think about, isn’t it?

🙂