songs:365

  • day 67: Tower of Song

    Tower of Song, by Leonard Cohen.

    My relationship with Leonard Cohen started with the movie Pump Up The Volume, which I feel like maybe I’ve already mentioned here, but… maybe not? The key Leonard Cohen songs in that one are Everybody Knows and If It Be Your Will. And I had the movie soundtrack, but that only had the Concrete Blonde version. So I made a point of getting a hold of I’m Your Man.

    And if I remember correctly, I did that via a special order of a cassette at my first record store job? That makes no sense, but I’m pretty sure that’s how it went down.

    It was worth it. Jazz Police, First We Take Manhattan, and this song, among others, gave that album a very 1980s Wim Wenders (or pre-Dogme Lars von Trier?)

    //

    Easy one tonight. One Leonard-deep backing vocal. Sorry, didn’t do the whole backup singers thing or a proper one-finger piano solo, but I did a little trinkling in the background to try and get a similar feel.

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  • day 66: Paper Planes

    Paper Planes, by M.I.A.

    OK, this one was fun.

    More tracks than I’ve used yet, including the sound effects, duplicated backup vocals with different effects, two electric guitar tracks, a software synth, bass, and two separate drum loops on top of each other.

    FUN!

    M.I.A. is usually fun. Let’s just flag her as “not as problematic as Kanye” and move on? Maybe? No? It seems pretty silly to be a middle-aged suburban white dad singing a song by a clearly non-gangsta that kinda sorta tongue-in-cheek glorifies violence just for the sake of sounding kinda sorta “gangsta” but then later she’s much more provocative when it comes to her actual activism and cites the Clash (sampled in this song).

    I’m not complaining if you aren’t.

    I would do Bamboo Banga if I thought I could pull it off.

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  • day 65: Patience

    Patience, by Guns and Roses G ‘N’ F’N R!

    Woe unto thee, 11-12 year olds in the 1988-89 school year, spending the months between summer camp ruefully counting the days and playing this song over and over again on the Guns and Roses cassette called Lies with the fake-scandalous insert, and various other bits that aged well or didn’t.

    It took another summer before I sang this in front of the whole camp at the annual talent show, a collaboration with two counselors, a violinist, and me, where my specialty was doing the whole rising coda solo bit at the end under the spotlight and whatnot, and that night was still probably my biggest ever audience for a song.

    I didn’t do as good a job with the singing part at the end here, but I managed to hit like 80% of the solo and all of the little descending run when the backup singers kick in, etc., etc., this is one of those songs I never stopped playing, little solo bits inclusive.

    No additional software instruments on this, mostly because I got excited and finished it before adding bass, or maybe a shaker or something, but the guitars are supposed to carry this anyway, so off we go.

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  • day 64: She Talks To Angels

    She Talks To Angels, by the Black Crowes.

    The first two Black Crowes records (and to be clear, the only two I remember) hit at just the right moment for me, absolutely teenaged, enamored with the blues and the Stones, and the sound of a guitar tuned to an open chord, and this song is wrapped up in all of that.

    I can’t think of this music without being transported directly to my bedroom from age 8-16, the room where I learned to play guitar, where I imagined myself on stage in front of my mirrored closet doors, where I spun around under black lights and tangled my cables, where my way too heavy bass amp dutifully transmitted the sound from my knockoff cherry red Ibanez clone that wouldn’t stay in tune (my fault) to the wood floor.

    And goodness is it fun to play.

    Had to add the organ, obvs. Hit the opening solo riff much better than the one in the middle, obvs. Can’t hit the highest notes, obvs.

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  • day 63: Mommy’s Little Monster

    Mommy’s Little Monster, by Social Distortion.

    My son is particularly skilled at trolling me by disliking whatever music I put on in the car, but we have managed to find some common ground around mildly harder rocking stuff like Social Distortion.

    This song has been a mainstay of our “driving to soccer practice” get psyched up playlist for a couple years now. Sometimes he tolerates the Beastie Boys in phases. (Rap with audible cursing is deeply uncomfortable and frowned upon.) Daft Punk is acceptable, but repetitive. LCD Soundsystem is forbidden.

    Jazz is encouraged for the wind-down drive home, along with various Spongebob and assorted novelty songs of today, none of that classic Weird Al crap, dad, thanks.

    Two guitars, two vocals, and not enough sneering.

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  • day 62: Never Tear Us Apart

    Never Tear Us Apart, by INXS.

    If you are somewhere close to my age, and were a romantic elementary/middle school kid in just the right years, INXS KICK played a part in your puberty, probably.

    Need You Tonight was the pinnacle of that breathy unknown, of course, but this song is the strings-and-saxophone power ballad you might’ve imagined slow dancing to with some dramatically won sweetheart.

    No? Just me? Also, it’s OK for karaoke if you can hit the note that I miss in that one part.

    Afternoon project on a day off, so you get electric guitar and the finest “epic synth strings” that Garageband has to offer, among other things.

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  • day 61: Universal Mind

    Universal Mind, by The Doors.

    How large did The Doors and Jim Morrison’s poetry loom in my teenage years? I’d say those two things, as channeled through the Oliver Stone movie (Val Kilmer!), were maybe the biggest influence on my attempts at writing poetry, songs, letters, a story for myself, screenplays, going to film school, and lots more, with connections to summer camp and even then so much of it was mine and mine alone. (Yes, I thought this as a teenager.)

    This song is just another riff for Jim to Jim over and for Ray to Ray over, but I like it. Not sure how it got there, but it popped into my head tonight and I thought I’d try it out.

    A little backup vocal and one run with the MIDI keyboard to add the requisite organ.

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  • day 60: Avant Gardener

    Avant Gardener, by Courtney Barnett.

    This song and Depreston were probably on my most listened list around 2018-2019 or so. I had a pretty steady relationship with a Courtney Barnett Spotify station for a while there, and it seems like that started at least a few years after I first heard her on All Songs, probably during some SXSW coverage. I went through a long phase where I didn’t love her style, and then suddenly I did.

    It’s March 1st — or March 366th depending on your perspective — and it’s time to start thinking about getting the garden in the ground, or at least seedlings started indoors. (We’ll get to the song about needing to start a garden soon.)

    Kept it simple tonight, but still took three takes because 1) the dog interrupted, 2) my laptop reset itself last night and it always forgets the input level on the good microphone, so I had to turn it up, but also I had messed up my favorite part (the first chorus) so I was happen to try again, and 3) was fine except for the obvious confusion around the Pulp Fiction reference cadence.

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  • day 59: Late Greats

    Late Greats, by Wilco.

    This is the third Wilco song in this project. Honestly 3 of 59 isn’t bad, I think. It’s a wonder I haven’t tried like eight Fleet Foxes songs yet.

    Sunday afternoon project, but the guitars are obviously both me. Not really attempting anything too fancy, but this one was fun to play. (Dropped D and a capo to play it in F? OK, Jeff/Nels/Jim O’Rourke, whatever you say.)

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  • day 58: My Life

    My Life, by Billy Joel.

    Ladies and gentlemen, the Bosom Buddies theme song.

    I am not a Billy Joel fan, but Scenes From An Italian Restaurant is excellent. This song is not Scenes From An Italian Restaurant. It’s also much, much longer than in the sitcom opening, and seems longer than the radio edit. I’m honestly not sure I’ve ever heard that last verse until now, and it’s the one with the most meaning, isn’t it?

    Today I saw a tweet that mentioned this song, and someone had requested Billy Joel, and this just happened. Some of the chord changes are kinda fun! My terrible piano playing on my little two octave MIDI keyboard is hopefully funny.

    Also, yes, I finally found the imitation software 808 and used it. On the Bosom Buddies theme song. (Oh, and I just got the double meaning of the name of that show.)

    Seriously why is there six minutes of this.

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