Woody Guthrie cover for Children!

[dobro]

Yeah, they didn't half self-indulge with the solos back in that day.

 

[fat_fleet]

Maybe fleet's updating the mix based on feedback or something?

Yup, new 5/2 mix has lower drums and wetter backing vox!

The link works for me.
Mayhap I'm the lucky one from the lucky country.
WEIRD little ditty - I like the way you took it somewhere behind the cardboard boxes in the alley over beside the corrugated iron.
I like the tone, timbre and tonsularity very much. You two blokes have a fortified wine version of psychedelica that appeals to me.
Your version sounds authentic & Woody's sounds like the weird skinny guy cover version. You had me reaching for the album cover.
I dig Woody - even the Billy Bragg Woody but the kitchen sink thumping recording is certainly more a curates' egg. Glad you curates found & hatched it.

Thanks ray, huge compliments all around! Yeah, it's kind of a shame Woody didn't want to take this one to it's logical conclusion, but really glad me n Rob got a chance to have our way with it. Cheers mate, as they say across the pond.

It's got a Doors thing going on, huh?
"Father", "Yes son", "I wanna kill you" Wouldn't be out of place.

As someone who's about to throw my guitar in a bin over a struggle for decent clean tone, I'm enjoying this.

Agreed though, it is weird.

Ha, thanks Steen! I think my recorded tones are improving generally but I have no idea how or what I'm doing right...I guess I learn a little as I go and keep moving that mic around...trying more things before I hit the red button...

 

[fat_fleet]

Sounds experimental.

Yeah I thought it was Tame Impala for a second there!

If you were aiming at twisted, you nailed it. Good arrangement, good sound - the slightly pitchy backing vocals actually help make the song, I think. I love the psychedelic guitar stepping out.

Next up: Itsy Bitsy Spider.

Ha! Yeah, when I first thought of putting those backing vocals in I pictured "shooby-doo-wah" girls, but I just don't know too many, hence my croaky voice back there. Thanks for checking it out, dobro!

Man - right out of the gate you got my two favorites - huge awesome bass tone, and tremolo guitar Great to hear Rob - love your voice. I do think the vocal recording seems to be pretty toppy and lacking in low end. Are you doing something different Rob?

Man, yeah, he did a great job with this and his voice suits the song to a T...really much better than mine did.

Yeah Doors thing fer sure, but I like Rob's voice way better than Morrisons, and no 15 minute farfisa solo lol

Unfortunately not yet, but you are giving me ideas!

 

[dobro]

What would be cool would be if Tame Impala covered your take of this tune. That's be listenable. See, a cover's got to be good, so they'd have to do your version justice.

Nice tune you did. Crazy good. Got another?

 

[fat_fleet]

Nice tune you did. Crazy good. Got another?

Yup...some more palatable than others. What about you? Anything new up your sleeve?

 

[dobro]

Sure, lots. But the only thing I'm putting up for listening these days is mixes of old stuff. I get a page not found message when I click on some of your links here - do you have a storage page anywhere where you keep your stuff?

 

[robgreen]

Yeah Doors thing fer sure, but I like Rob's voice way better than Morrisons, and no 15 minute farfisa solo lol

Thanks Chuck, you're far too kind man

I sent fleet two copies of the vocal - one processed and one without any processing on if he wanted to mix it in himself (I think it's the one I processed in the mix that's used). I hear what you're saying, but looking back at the mixing chain I didn't do much different. There's a high pass filter on, but only cutting below 100hz and the rest is pretty standard - compression, saturation, reverb, eq and a short delay. I wonder if Fleet high-passed it any more to fit in the mix?

I used to love the Doors as a kid and I think I felt Morrison was revealing some kind of universal truth in his lyrics - listening back now there are still elements of the band's music I like, but those universal truths sound a lot more like pseudo-hippy horseshit than I remember first time around...

 

[fat_fleet]

I get a page not found message when I click on some of your links here - do you have a storage page anywhere where you keep your stuff?

I'm weird about posting stuff here and often take it down once I think it's run it's course...I'm putting an "album" together- a friend of mine's doing artwork and I'm trying to polish the tracks up. Hopefully it'll be done in a few weeks. In the meantime I can send you links to some stuff if you want..

 

[fat_fleet]

I often think this about songs I hear. Trout Mask Replica is the one that always sticks out in my mind - if Captain Beefheart came on here and posted half the stuff on that album on here, he'd likely get panned, yet it's an album that regularly makes it onto those top 100 albums of all time lists. It takes some serious perseverence to make that album click...

You know TMR does often make it onto those lists, which makes me wonder who puts them together and what their criteria is.... I have a tough time believing it has anything to do with popular opinion. More like some Spin editor was like "I'll throw a Beefheart album in there!", and it's always number 60 or 70-something.... kinda like when a black kid shows up on Beverly Hills 90210 - a total token. People like to think they have eclectic taste, put James Brown and the Pixies on the same mix tape etc. Other Beefheart albums are more listenable- Strictly Personal, Spotlight Kid... but Trout Mask is a tough nut to crack. It's really jerky and in-your-face...the lyrics are all so weird and cryptic and it's soooo long. "The blimp the bliiimp!!" - so weird. I haven't tried to get through the whole thing since I was a teenager (a long time ). So it turns up on a Spin list because the editor thinks it's weird. Hell, I find it borderline annoying. But what did Captain Beefheart think of it? Was he "just trying to be weird"? I guess I like to think that he made that album because it was the album no one else was making...that he wanted to hear... I remember an interview I read in the 90s with Amelia Fletcher of the UK-based twee band Heavenly. The interviewer asked something like, "What do you think of Tiger Trap? Does it piss you off that they cop your sound?" To which Amelia responded, "Well first, I don't think they sound like us. And second- I just love this music so much I don't think there could ever be enough bands playing it." I guess I like to think Beefheart felt the same way....that he thought his sound was the future and listened to his own stuff lovingly, dreaming of a day when all music would sound like that.

 

[heatmiser]

Yay! I'm glad the tune is back up again. It's been a while now, but the new mix sounds better in terms of levels and things gelling a bit more. The BGVs at some points were a bit far forward maybe, but it still sounded cool. The guitar break just past the middle there still does it for me. It starts sounding like trey from phish or something and then twists into a bizarro floyd/doors hybrid sort of break thingy. I did think the bongos/congas (?) were a little loud and kinda clunky sounding or something (like, could they be a little crisper or brighter?), but that's pretty minor. I just wanted to try to point out something negative, 'cause that's what I do.

 

[dobro]

But what did Captain Beefheart think of it? Was he "just trying to be weird"? uch I don't think there could ever be enough bands playing it." I guess I like to think Beefheart felt the same way....that he thought his sound was the future and listened to his own stuff lovingly, I guess I like to think that he made that album because it was the album no one else was making...that he wanted to hear...

I saw him interviewed once and about TMR he said something like 'we wanted it to sound like that'. To which my buddy (who is a big Beefheart fan) said: 'But why would anybody want to sound like that?' My guess is that Don and the band were just very, very stoned when they put it together. Just going where their fancy took them. Trout Mask is weird, but not very listenable. Clear Spot's way better.

 

[robgreen]

I saw him interviewed once and about TMR he said something like 'we wanted it to sound like that'. To which my buddy (who is a big Beefheart fan) said: 'But why would anybody want to sound like that?' My guess is that Don and the band were just very, very stoned when they put it together. Just going where their fancy took them. Trout Mask is weird, but not very listenable. Clear Spot's way better.

It was pretty much the opposite from what I've read. The story of it sounds as interesting as the album itself, with Beefheart routinely humiliating and bullying these damaged freaks that were in his band, making them practice the album round the clock for months and only feeding them enough to just about stay alive. It seems bizarrely that this was exactly what he had in mind. I think about half the album is very good and a fair chunk of the rest is unlistenable toss - those free jazz solos

 

[fat_fleet]

Yay! I'm glad the tune is back up again. It's been a while now, but the new mix sounds better in terms of levels and things gelling a bit more. The BGVs at some points were a bit far forward maybe, but it still sounded cool. The guitar break just past the middle there still does it for me. It starts sounding like trey from phish or something and then twists into a bizarro floyd/doors hybrid sort of break thingy. I did think the bongos/congas (?) were a little loud and kinda clunky sounding or something (like, could they be a little crisper or brighter?), but that's pretty minor. I just wanted to try to point out something negative, 'cause that's what I do.

Yeah, I just haven't been able to get those BGVs to gel the way I pictured them. They could definitely use revisiting, but I'm getting wrapped up with other songs now and don't think I'll be making it back to this one for a bit. The extra percussion is actually a second drum track....mostly just trying to play the toms and snare in a complementary/percussive style. But thanks for the thoughts. I'll probably work em over more when I make it back to this one....you big meanie you.

 

[fat_fleet]

I saw him interviewed once and about TMR he said something like 'we wanted it to sound like that'. To which my buddy (who is a big Beefheart fan) said: 'But why would anybody want to sound like that?' My guess is that Don and the band were just very, very stoned when they put it together. Just going where their fancy took them. Trout Mask is weird, but not very listenable. Clear Spot's way better.

It was pretty much the opposite from what I've read. The story of it sounds as interesting as the album itself, with Beefheart routinely humiliating and bullying these damaged freaks that were in his band, making them practice the album round the clock for months and only feeding them enough to just about stay alive. It seems bizarrely that this was exactly what he had in mind. I think about half the album is very good and a fair chunk of the rest is unlistenable toss - those free jazz solos

Huh. I actually didn't know too much about the making of that album, but had heard that the atmosphere surrounding it's recording was pretty cult-like. I looked at a bunch of Beefheart stuff online today and found this hilarious snippet. Right from Van Vliet's wiki page requoted from John "Drumbo" French's book:

"If Van Vliet built a house like he wrote music, the methodology would go something like this... The house is sketched on the back of a Denny's placemat in such an odd fashion that when he presents it to the contractor without plans or research, the contractor says "This structure is going to be hard to build, it's going to be tough to make it safe and stable because it is so unique in design." Van Vliet then yells at the contractor and intimidates him into doing the job anyway. The contractor builds the home, figuring out all the intricacies involved in structural integrity himself because whenever he approaches Van Vliet, he finds that he seems completely unable to comprehend technical problems and just yells, "Quit asking me about this stuff and build the damned house."... When the house is finished no one gets paid, and Van Vliet has a housewarming party, invites none of the builders and tells the guests he built the whole thing himself."

dobro, Clear Spot is one of the few I haven't heard... I'll definitely have to give it a spin soon.