Woody Guthrie cover for Children!

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fat_fleet

fat_fleet

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My little one (13 mo) can say 'geetar' already. He plays my Squire parlor-size acoustic in a style not unlike Jandek and sings "Yayayaya!" with Louie Louie. Ma's pissed cuz he doesn't know 'momma' yet. Anyways, I've had this hankering to make a twisted children's album, but the only thing I've got for it so far is this- the second installment in my international exchange program with robgreen. It's an old Woody tune I rearranged and Rob was kind enough to lend his vocal talents. He sings the lead part. Hope you enjoy. Comments, as always, are welcome!

I'll Eat You I'll Drink You

THIS MOTU KILLS FASCISTS! :D
 


Here's the original, for anyone who's never heard it. If you ask me, I think it's kinda lame. :D
 
Kind of cool in a weird way.

The vocals sound a little harsh. Not all the way through, but syllables here and there are kind of piercing.

Bass sounds cool.

Temolo guitar sounds cool.

Once the drums come in, the song starts to get louder. Like over the next minute or so. But to me the volume difference is too much. I had to turn it down.

Snare hits here and there are a little out of control. It might need to be compressed (harder). Drums, after they really kick in, are too far forward IMO.
 
And that Woody Guithrie version was kind of lame. I don't know a ton about him. Was his voice always that pitchy?
 
TripleM said:
Kind of cool in a weird way.

The vocals sound a little harsh. Not all the way through, but syllables here and there are kind of piercing.

Bass sounds cool.

Temolo guitar sounds cool.

Once the drums come in, the song starts to get louder. Like over the next minute or so. But to me the volume difference is too much. I had to turn it down.

Snare hits here and there are a little out of control. It might need to be compressed (harder). Drums, after they really kick in, are too far forward IMO.
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Awesome points, MMM, thanks for listening! I agree with you about the drums and I'll probably bring 'em down a dB or two later on and replace the version at the original link. I'm kinda new to drums and I've never compressed snare before, though I compress other parts of the kit. Might give that a try too. Again thanks. I am glad you didn't hear any pops.

TripleM said:
And that Woody Guithrie version was kind of lame. I don't know a ton about him. Was his voice always that pitchy?
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Yeah he probably would not have passed the American Idol tryouts... :) But also I feel the weakness of his version just lends credence to the fact that Rob and I are better than Woody Guthrie. I wonder if he would have called them 'Woody notes'? Ah, never mind. This is a tough room. I can tell.
 
I kind of like woody guthrie, but I've never heard of this tune and haven't seen the video yet. I'm mostly through my 1st listen now as I type.

This is really cool. First, because the combo of rob singing with you as the band really works. They compliment each other well. Neither one of you seemed to have to change anything about your sound to get them to fit together. Secondly, there are some great jams and the lead guitar bit in the middle sounded sweet - what was the guitar/amp combo for that?

It felt very much like a very early pink floyd tune to me.

I agree that the drums become a little too loud (for this type of song anyway), especially during the louder parts of the 2nd half. The timing is a little loose in a bunch of spots I think too. I'm gonna listen to the original now...

(1:48 later)...Ok, yeah...I actually liked it, but man, if he came in here to clinic as like Dat_Woody42 or something and posted that track, people would shit all over his iconic ass.
 
heatmiser said:
Secondly, there are some great jams and the lead guitar bit in the middle sounded sweet - what was the guitar/amp combo for that?
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Hey man, thanks for listenin' and stuff. I'm pretty sure it was the LP, and less sure the amp was the DeVille. I tracked that part a couple months back so my memory's already a little hazy.
 
I was pretty non-plussed by the original too - it sounded like Woody phoned it in to meet a contractual obligation or something. It did provide a good base for building something dark from though and I thought Fleet's arrangement was great.

heatmiser said:
(1:48 later)...Ok, yeah...I actually liked it, but man, if he came in here to clinic as like Dat_Woody42 or something and posted that track, people would shit all over his iconic ass.
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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...
 
robgreen said:
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...
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Yeah, we're not the first ones to make that observation about well known artists, but I still think it's interesting. Even more, I wonder whether older material or more "lo-fi" stuff would still be as well liked and/or memorable had it been produced in a manner considered more acceptable by today's standards, or even our HR.com standards? Sometimes I think that's part of the appeal...the quality of the song itself aside, you know?

Anyway, I wanted to listen to this again last night and today, but I keep getting a dropbox 404 error - did you guys take this down?? :( :wtf:
 
Hmm, that's odd - I just checked and I'm getting the 404 error too. It's not a link from my dropbox, so fleet must have taken it down for some reason I guess? Maybe he just intended it to be a Record Store Day special?

You putting it back up fleet?

heatmiser said:
Yeah, we're not the first ones to make that observation about well known artists, but I still think it's interesting. Even more, I wonder whether older material or more "lo-fi" stuff would still be as well liked and/or memorable had it been produced in a manner considered more acceptable by today's standards, or even our HR.com standards? Sometimes I think that's part of the appeal...the quality of the song itself aside, you know?
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I agree. I've got plenty of pretty lo-fi records that, in purely technical terms are not a patch on a lot of recordings on here - and they're commercially available songs that have sold thousands of copies. I dunno, for me as a listener - beyond a certain competence level, I'm not that fussed about sparkling hi-fidelity. I think that largely because the music I like to hear doesn't particularly demand that kind of sound, but also because I can look past a lot if I like the song, arrangement etc.
 
Damn, I just clicked play on the youtube vid and skimmed the post.
I saw mention of drums and figured you were doing a lofi intro that kicked into something later.
I was sat there marvelling at how authentic your old-style recording was when I realised my error, then found that your drop box link doesn't work anymore.

This fail was brought to you by Steenamaroo.
 
heatmiser said:
Always leave them wanting more...
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This is the maxim I live by! It's also very likely the reason I didn't make it as an anaesthetist...

Steenamaroo said:
Damn, I just clicked play on the youtube vid and skimmed the post.
I saw mention of drums and figured you were doing a lofi intro that kicked into something later.
I was sat there marvelling at how authentic your old-style recording was when I realised my error, then found that your drop box link doesn't work anymore.

This fail was brought to you by Steenamaroo.
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That's excellent! :laughings:

I'd like to think I've got better pitch than Woody in this instance - hopefully it will be back online soon. Maybe fleet's updating the mix based on feedback or something?
 
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.
 
Works for me too now. He must have been updated like Rob said.

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

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.
 
fat_fleet said:
My little one (13 mo) can say 'geetar' already. He plays my Squire parlor-size acoustic in a style not unlike Jandek and sings "Yayayaya!" with Louie Louie. Ma's pissed cuz he doesn't know 'momma' yet. Anyways, I've had this hankering to make a twisted children's album, but the only thing I've got for it so far is this- the second installment in my international exchange program with robgreen. It's an old Woody tune I rearranged and Rob was kind enough to lend his vocal talents. He sings the lead part. Hope you enjoy. Comments, as always, are welcome!

I'll Eat You I'll Drink You

THIS MOTU KILLS FASCISTS! :D
Click to expand...

Sounds like a creepy vampire version of the original. 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.;)
 
Back up :)

I liked the creepy, gothic sound of it and I know Fleet was pitching for that too. He wanted to take the backing vocals out, but I thought they added a lot to the sound too and said I thought they should stay. Thanks for listening folks, I'm glad you liked our collab.

For me it stayed firmly on the right side of weird - I was conscious that I didn't want the vocals to sound hammy, so I reigned in any impulse to do make it sound like the Monster Mash!

Also, that guitar tone is killer isn't it - I'm looking at new amps at the moment and if I could get half way to this I'd be happy.

dobro said:
Next up: Itsy Bitsy Spider.;)
Click to expand...

Man, if I heard itsy bitsy spider done like this as a kid, I'm not sure I'd ever sleep again :eek:
 
fat_fleet said:
My little one (13 mo) can say 'geetar' already. He plays my Squire parlor-size acoustic in a style not unlike Jandek and sings "Yayayaya!" with Louie Louie. Ma's pissed cuz he doesn't know 'momma' yet. Anyways, I've had this hankering to make a twisted children's album, but the only thing I've got for it so far is this- the second installment in my international exchange program with robgreen. It's an old Woody tune I rearranged and Rob was kind enough to lend his vocal talents. He sings the lead part. Hope you enjoy. Comments, as always, are welcome!

I'll Eat You I'll Drink You

THIS MOTU KILLS FASCISTS! :D
Click to expand...

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?
 
Steenamaroo said:
Works for me too now. He must have been updated like Rob said.

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

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.
Click to expand...

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