Post YOUR favourite song!


This one is fairly old - well maybe a decade old.
It betrays its tape origins in the hiss at the beginning. It was started on tape - a heavily stacked 4 track cassette recording - and then augmented in Cakewalk ProAudio 9.3.
This one has lots of bells and whistles (funny - me having squillions of tracks) from acoustic 12 string, organ, mandolin to the quite dominant cellos.
I play the angry heavy cello parts and the singer - Miriam Webb - plays the lovely, light parts.
I was still a reverb junkie when i started this - it's printed to the tape so couldn't be removed. I tried to dry things up considerably in the digital end of things.
I like it because the 3/4 drum machine is relentless, some of the string arrangements ( written as exercises for me by Miriam who was also my cello tutor) are odd and interesting though my playing probably needs reverb to hide behind.
The lyrics were written in the late 70's and the music in the early 90's Though the melody is from this century & is due to Miriam. The recording was mostly done on a la Grange dynamic mic for vocals, as well as a couple of Sony 19B ECMs for cellos.
bass & guitar were DI'd - stright into the 4 track.
I really like this because the lyrics are typically obscure and unpleasant and the vocal flaots above the unpleasantness.
Actually I think I like this because it's a predecessor to Watch in many ways.
 
I love the distorted vocal on Whiskey Drivuh. The howl is straight form the bowel.
Have you considered rerecording this - the lead guitar in the back would sound excellent with a different tone ( sounds like a "turbo drive" effect I have on an old multi unit).
Armistice - nice corporate vid lovely recording & swinging bass is the point isn't it?
 
rayc said:

This one is fairly old - well maybe a decade old.
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10 years is pretty old by my standards...but seriously, it's matured really well. I like it Ray. It's got your touch, I can hear that. That singer is awesome. I can see the point about the reverb, but to be honest if I'd heard it outside of the forum I would never have noticed. Awesome tune.
 
This is my favourite but also my worst:



It was the first thing I posted on the forum and also my first recording. I think Armistice was one of the first to post and he said something like, 'Not bad for your first try, your voice and guitar is OK & that's the main thing...'

Thanks Armi, you'll never know how much that comment meant to me. :D

It's a complete dog's dinner as far as the mix, playing & singing goes, but when I hear the lyrics I still feel it 100%. I like it for all its honest shit-ness. Including the uber long silent intro.
 
That's worth reworking Trish - great story - like Billy Braggs relationship politics songs - banker canker - love it!
Whitestrat - cool intro - what is it the prelude to?
Your tone is always spot on in terms of track context.
 
rayc said:
Whitestrat - cool intro - what is it the prelude to?
Your tone is always spot on in terms of track context.
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Thanks Ray. Ironically, the intro was the last part I tracked--the song was all done (or so I thought) and I just felt like it needed something to set the mood and help the listener slip into it. Besides the synth cellos, the intro is me playing around on a de-tuned autoharp with a credit card, and then scraping the strings of a bass guitar with a nickel.

What is it the prelude to? I'm no expert in the realm of classical music, but since I wrote and tracked this piece a good number of years ago, I've learned enough to know that I named it wrong. It wasn't a prelude, but rather an overture. I guess it should really be called "Overture in Dm." Inasmuch as an overture is "an introduction to something more substantial, often containing elements of the larger, more developed work," that's what this was. I had the concept of a symphonic/prog rock album in my head--and on paper, too--complete with a theme and lyrics. I was working on recruiting a singer, and wrote this to convey the feel of the larger piece to him. I wanted to show the various musical elements: the complex vs. the simple; the big and heavy vs. the soft and intimate. This six minutes very much follows the dynamic flow of what would have been 60 minutes.

In the end, he moved out of town before we could pursue the project, and I never finished writing the whole project. This "prelude/overture" took me over two years to write--not at full steam, mind you--but every week or so, I'd come back and write another couple measures. I'll likely never go back and finish the entire piece--I'm in a different place than I was then (with not as much time to write as I'd like).

But no regrets--I still have this piece, and I still like it!
 
fritsthegirl said:
This is my favourite but also my worst:



It was the first thing I posted on the forum and also my first recording. I think Armistice was one of the first to post and he said something like, 'Not bad for your first try, your voice and guitar is OK & that's the main thing...'

Thanks Armi, you'll never know how much that comment meant to me. :D

It's a complete dog's dinner as far as the mix, playing & singing goes, but when I hear the lyrics I still feel it 100%. I like it for all its honest shit-ness. Including the uber long silent intro.
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I added some bold emphasis to your comment, because you said it better than I could have. The lyrics are both brilliant and honest. A definite keeper.
 
WhiteStrat said:
I added some bold emphasis to your comment, because you said it better than I could have. The lyrics are both brilliant and honest. A definite keeper.
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Thanks (I think). :) I like the intro to your tune A LOT. It's O for awesome, as for the rest of it, there's no way I could accomplish all that in a life time. So yeh, kudos.
 
fritsthegirl said:
Thanks (I think). :) I like the intro to your tune A LOT. It's O for awesome, as for the rest of it, there's no way I could accomplish all that in a life time. So yeh, kudos.
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There's no "I think" about it. You've got the gift--the voice, the lyrics--keep at it. I look forward to hearing you somewhere down the road where I'm saying "I knew her when..."
 
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