Safe European Home - The Clash cover by The Greg

[Greg_L]

I like to use covers as guinea pigs to break in and test out new gear or techniques, so here's another. New drum heads and mics and mic placements and amps and stuff like that. This one has it all. So check it out and let me know what you think please.

The Clash - Safe European Home. From their 1978 album Give Em Enough Rope. Great song, great album. I just hope I did it justice.

(320 kb/s MP3)




If it's any good, I'm also thinking of maybe putting the raw tracks up in the "Mix This" forum as a mixing contest, if there's any interest. Let me know.

Thanks,
Greg

 

[TeyshaBlue]

Nice, dude. Even the backing vox were solid. What's the story on the kick mic placement? Front or back? Nice definition with just the right amount of click. Little clip at 1:27?

 

[ultrasound]

yeah great recording cant really fault it. drums are brilliantly recorded. guitars are doing some nice stereo things. actually i think the bass guitar could do with being more bassy, there is some low end missing when comparing to the original.

 

[DM60]

I don't like listening to your $h*&, makes me just want to give up.

 

[dobro]

It sounds so good that I just listened to the song rather than the technical stuff. You're in with this one, man. Awesome song. Maybe one thing to consider (before you say 'no dobro, I won't do that') the vocal from about 2.15, the part singing about Jamaica, maybe mult it out and compress it slightly more or kick in more parallel compression or EQ it slightly differently or something so that it's s-l-i-g-h-t-l-y more noticeable.

 

[Greg_L]

Nice, dude. Even the backing vox were solid. What's the story on the kick mic placement? Front or back? Nice definition with just the right amount of click. Little clip at 1:27?

Thanks Teysha. I don't know what that is at 1:27. There's definitely nothing clipping on the way in or in the mix. I might have just laid into it too hard there maybe? I don't know. I'd have to go solo the track and see what's up. It could just be some weird frequency interaction at that exact moment or whatever. There's a little part I hear with the backing single note guitar line that sounds out of tune or like maybe I flubbed the playing. It's not there with the track solo'd though. Only when it's all running at once. It's just some weird harmonic interaction or something. Anyway....the kick is an Audix D6 about 3/4 into the drum pointed at the beater spot. The drum itself is a 22x20 Mapex Pro-M w/ an Aquarian Superkick batter/Evans EQ3 reso. No muffling at all, empty drum. Felt beater, pretty thick Remo falam patch.

yeah great recording cant really fault it. drums are brilliantly recorded. guitars are doing some nice stereo things. actually i think the bass guitar could do with being more bassy, there is some low end missing when comparing to the original.

Thanks man. I hear ya about the bass. I never record big rumbly bass sounds. I'm always pretty bass-lite on my bass guitar tracks and more into midrange. It's just a personal choice. Thanks for the comments.

I don't like listening to your $h*&, makes me just want to give up.

Haha, no dude, if I can do something good, anyone can. I'm a total hack!

It sounds so good that I just listened to the song rather than the technical stuff. You're in with this one, man. Awesome song. Maybe one thing to consider (before you say 'no dobro, I won't do that') the vocal from about 2.15, the part singing about Jamaica, maybe mult it out and compress it slightly more or kick in more parallel compression or EQ it slightly differently or something so that it's s-l-i-g-h-t-l-y more noticeable.

No dobro, I won't do that.

No, I agree that part could be louder/more clear/more noticeable. If it were my own song I probably would worry about that more. The simple truth is that I don't really know exactly what Joe Strummer was mumbling during that part, so I just kind of made it up as I went along to halfassedly sound like the original. I know it's "Rudie come from Jamaica, Rudie can't fail" and variants of that, but I don't know, so I just mumbled it and kept it low-ish in the mix. Fuck it, he never did it the same live anyway. Joe Strummer never did anything the same way twice. R.I.P. Joe - you were fucking awesome.

 

[JimmyS1969]

Again, another classic Greg work. How the hell did you have time to do this with football season started???

 

[Greg_L]

Again, another classic Greg work. How the hell did you have time to do this with football season started???

Thanks dude. It's not easy. I spend a lot of time ignoring my other responsibilities.

 

[JimmyS1969]

Thanks dude. It's not easy. I spend a lot of time ignoring my other responsibilities.

Cheers to that!

 

[Greg_L]

Having a TV in the "studio" is also nice.

I'm watching Philly vs Redskins right now.

 

[Greg_L]

My own little heaven!

 

[JimmyS1969]

Schaweet!

 

[rayc]

I'm at work so can't listen at present. It's a great song to start with & the cover by Ellen Foley when she was Jones' gf was pretty cool too - though much less angry.
I look forward to hearing the track this afternoon.

 

[polarity]

I have nothing to add about the mix. Not even personal taste type things. Enjoyed the performance though, great cover of a great song.

 

[rayc]

That's not football! Rugby League/Union is football (except to pommies - to them shocker is football).

 

[jiff 41]

That's not football! Rugby League/Union is football (except to pommies - to them shocker is football).

Amen!

 

[rayc]

I had this album on cassette in late 78 early 79.
Jones & Strummer, Topper and Simmonon were an excellent combo and Jones brought back lead guitar from punk denial.
You've done a great job recapturing the vibe - the bvox are particularly cool.
Your bass playing is a bit tighter than Paul's at that early stage.
Next - do their version of Plice & Theives - I can ear your inner rastaman struggling for freedom (& justice).

 

[Mr Clean]

Sounds really f'in good to me Greg. I reckon you nailed it, spot on. I love the vocals, amongst the rest. I think this is possibly the best vocal I've heard from you as of yet. (Personal taste) I'm a big Clash/Strummer fan too.

That's not football! Rugby League/Union is football (except to pommies - to them shocker is football).

Surely it should be Handegg? The egg spends more time in the hands than being kicked. Football would be feet and balls?

 

[Greg_L]

I have nothing to add about the mix. Not even personal taste type things. Enjoyed the performance though, great cover of a great song.

Thanks man.

I had this album on cassette in late 78 early 79.
Jones & Strummer, Topper and Simmonon were an excellent combo and Jones brought back lead guitar from punk denial.
You've done a great job recapturing the vibe - the bvox are particularly cool.
Your bass playing is a bit tighter than Paul's at that early stage.
Next - do their version of Plice & Theives - I can ear your inner rastaman struggling for freedom (& justice).

Thanks Ray. I don't know about "Police and Thieves". It's a very cool song, but I think it's a little too reggae for me. I did "White Man in Hammersmith Palais" about 6 years ago. It came out okay, but I'm better now. I might redo that one. It's kind of reggae-ish.

Sounds really f'in good to me Greg. I reckon you nailed it, spot on. I love the vocals, amongst the rest. I think this is possibly the best vocal I've heard from you as of yet. (Personal taste) I'm a big Clash/Strummer fan too.

Thanks a lot bud. The Clash were fucking awesome. It's a shame that most people only know them for Rock the Casbah or Should I Stay or Should I go. They had a shit ton of great stuff way before they got big in the mainstream with those two songs.

Surely it should be Handegg? The egg spends more time in the hands than being kicked. Football would be feet and balls?

Lol. WTF is wrong with you limeys and pseudo-limeys? Why do non-Americans always get so butthurt that we call our football "football". Fucking rugby is guys just running around with a ball in their hands too. Rugby is a kids game over here. We call it "smear the queer" or simply tackle-the-man-with-the-ball. One guy has the ball and everyone tackles him. He can give up by passing to someone else. That's rugby in a nutshell. The main difference of course is that international rugby players are slower, smaller, weaker, and whiter than American football players. I know you guys are proud of your "toughness" because rugby players don't wear pads, but you you don't need pads because yall are small, slow, and weak. American football players wear pads because they're physical beasts and they would all die without them. Even small football players like punters and kickers are usually significantly more physically athletic than the average man. And don't even get me started on soccer. Soccer is about the most boring and pussified girls game there is. Soccer is shit. Bam! bitches.

 

[Mr Clean]

The Clash were fucking awesome. It's a shame that most people only know them for Rock the Casbah or Should I Stay or Should I go. They had a shit ton of great stuff way before they got big in the mainstream with those two songs.

Absolutely. The first 3 albums are 3 of my favourite albums of all time.

Lol. WTF is wrong with you limeys and pseudo-limeys?

I was actually joking. I hate all sport with a passion. Over here Rugby is American Football without the protection. It's shit! As for Football/Soccer, I cannot produce words to describe my hatred of it. They tried to make us play it at school. What the teachers didn't realise was, no fucker was going to make me run around in a muddy field.