songs:365

  • day 287: Candle in the Wind

    Candle in the Wind, by Elton John.

    Not sure you can tell in the video, but I am back from a work trip and I’m completely exhausted, just absolutely wrecked and can’t wait to go to sleep. I messed around with the faceted search on the guitar chords site, like “give me something in D with a capo from the 1970s” and this worked out pretty well! (I guess it’s actually in E with the capo, which tells you something about data quality and how they’re indexing that sort of thing.)

    This song is apparently from the 1970s? I know, that was surprising to me, too. Why did it become a hit again in the late ’80s or whenever that was? I don’t mean the Princess Diana remix, either. Maybe there was a movie or something? Anyway, I’m a sucker for this one. Hmm, did I forget to do the real emotional chorus toward the end? Heckit.

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  • day 286: Love Will Tear Us Apart

    Love Will Tear Us Apart, by Joy Division.

    I might’ve heard this song before a teenage mixtape someone else made for me, but I’m not sure. We did listen to enough New Order in the first record store I worked at — I think some compilation came out around then which gave us an easy excuse — but I always feel this in my guts.

    //

    Last pre-recorded track, if you’re watching this it should be Wednesday, and I’ll be back in the studio basement tomorrow.

    Also, I apparently accidentally recorded the video in slow motion and had to wrestle with it to get it back to normal after a lot of weird face-making at the 10-minute 1GB video transfer over Airdrop.

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  • day 285: The Chain

    The Chain, by Fleetwood Mac.

    Another pre-recorded number while I’m out of the office. 😉

    I’ve been wanting to do this song all year, and my renewed love of it goes back to a Song Exploder (or the NPR version, I forget) podcast with Lindsey Buckingham, I think, where he unpacked the tracks and, uhhhhmmmm relationships. And some of the drugs involved, I think. There were a lot of all three.

    //

    Never satisfied with what I pass off as the idea of harmonies, but parts of this are listenable.

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  • day 284: Sympathy

    Sympathy, by Vampire Weekend.

    For the first time in this project, I am not recording this on the day I publish it. Sorry. On my first work trip in like 20 months, and although it would be plausibly to drag the acoustic around on airplanes — or just the MIDI keyboard, more sensibly — I don’t need the extra stress of fitting this into a schedule I don’t have lots of control over, and, well, there will be actual human beings around, so I should spend time with them.

    This song is the first of three I’m recording ahead of time, so I put some extra effort in. Hope you like.

    //

    Who doesn’t love a song that provides the opportunity to explain Diego Garcia (the island) to your kids? Did I tell them I once knew an ex-Navy guy who referred to it as “Diego Gar-toilet?” Yes. Yes, I did. I’m sure it’s lovely.

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  • day 283: Half A World Away

    Half A World Away, by REM.

    More REM, from Out of Time, this time, this song, lives rent-free in my head like so many of theirs, but I definitely don’t always understand like 20% of Michael Stipe’s lyrics, and apparently I’m not alone in that, but I definitely kept a few of these in my brain for the last couple decades without hesitation.

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  • day 282: It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding

    It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding, by Bob Dylan.

    I… got more than I bargained for tonight with this song. It is definitely longer than I remembered, but the changes are fun, and I was already in Dropped D (well, I was in double dropped D) from working on one of next week’s songs.

    Working on pre-recording songs for a work trip next week is just like traveling between universes in the multiverse, so I’m losing track of whether I’ve mentioned this yet, or only in the already scheduled posts for Monday and Tuesday. Tomorrow (Sunday), I’ll finish Wednesday’s song.

    Yeah, this is going fine. On the bright side, it’s somehow been more than a month since my last Dylan song? That was a surprising metric.

    If you make it through 8+ minutes of me stumbling through this one, I am legitimately concerned about you.

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  • day 281: Laundry Room

    Laundry Room, by the Avett Brothers.

    See, I know some modern stuff.

    I fully realize I usually say the same thing about any somewhat indie-but-popular song from 2010-2015: “I first heard this song on an All Things Considered podcast in the car, driving home from work, because I did that like 1500 times or whatever, so, yeah, music is the best.”

    But, yes, it’s true.

    There are some killer lines in this one. Just add banjo.

  • day 280: Time After Time

    Time After Time, by Cyndi Lauper.

    Gotta be honest with y’all, I did not have Cyndi Lauper on my dance card, but sometimes you crack open the “1980s” page on the guitar tabs site during halftime of a USMNT World Cup Qualifier and play the first thing that moves you.

    This song reminds me of early MTV and stacks of cassette tapes. The Girls Just Wanna Have Fun video was a catalyst for so many things, including a long fanship of Captain Lou Albano. Also, it’s kinda hard to sing!

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  • day 279: Okie From Muskogee

    Okie From Muskogee, by Merle Haggard.

    “Siri, show me the complete opposite of yesterday’s song.”

    This song is a song. That much is true. As you might notice from the interjections, I am singing it ironically. I have no plans to apologize to Merle Haggard or to Muskogee, Oklahoma, but it’s a fun song, either way. Frankly, I suspect Merle might’ve been singing it a little ironically, too. Although he does sound really earnest and kind in the original, to be fair.

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  • day 278: Nothing Compares 2 U

    Nothing Compares 2 U, by Sinead O’Connor.

    OK, so this is really a #cover-of-a-cover-of-a-cover, because I looked it up and decided to do the Chris Cornell version of this song, as far as the chords and lyrics go, but I’m crediting Sinead O’Connor, because that’s the version I know best, the one I hear in my head, and the cadence, I think? Except I have no idea what’s going on with that one out of place F/sus4 thing at the end of one of the verses.

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