Listen:
Today's song is Fight, another quiet whisper of a tune from Look Alive.
Fight comes closest to the Joni Mitchell/Nick Drake vibe I had in mind when we started recording.
This is what Joni Mitchell said about Blue:
The Blue album, there's hardly a dishonest note in the vocals. At that period of my life, I had no personal defenses. I felt like a cellophane wrapper on a pack of cigarettes. I felt like I had absolutely no secrets from the world and I couldn't pretend in my life to be strong. Or to be happy. But the advantage of it in the music was that there were no defenses there either.
I can't really improve on or add to that.
Fight was written in two days, a verse each day.
The second verse originally ended with the line "So go our days until the summer ends."
We recorded Fight in one take, all live. I played my old '63 Gibson ES-125. We mic'ed both the amp (with a sweet reverb setting) and the actual guitar, as well as my vocals, and the result is ambient, eerie, close...
And defenseless.
*************
FIGHT
When the time is running down
And what's lost can't be found
Be it you by my side
And the tears of the night
Are revealed by the light
As silent prayers falling on deaf ears
Anything you do
I will fight for you
Silence comes like a knife
It cuts you up before your eyes
The pieces fall, down and down and down
Empty hears and broken strings
And empty songs for us to sing
So go our days until our story ends
Anything you do
I will fight for you
jbg
Tuesday, March 06, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Pictures are Pictures (Skeletonskinandsky Redux)
Song number 7 on Look Alive is Skeletonskinandsky.
Listen:
Here's a sequence of pictures that captures what went into writing this song. I hope you enjoy.
jbg
Listen:
Here's a sequence of pictures that captures what went into writing this song. I hope you enjoy.
jbg
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| November 29, 2005 |
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| December 28, 2005 |
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| January 11, 2006 (1) |
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| January 11, 2006 (2) |
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| January 12, 2006 |
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| January 14, 2006 (1) |
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| January 14, 2006 (2) |
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| January 17, 2006 |
 |
| January 18, 2006 |
 |
| May 10, 2006 (1) |
 |
| May 10, 2006 (2) |
 |
| May 10, 2006 (3) |
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| July 29, 2006 |
 |
| August 1, 2006 (1) |
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| August 1, 2006 (2) |
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| August 1, 2006 (3) |
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| August 1, 2006 (4) |
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| August 1, 2006 (5) |
Tuesday, February 07, 2012
Writing into the Dark Before the Dawn (Why I Had to Fall Redux)
Listen to Why I Had to Fall
Listen to My Vagrant Heart
Listen to Dark Before the Dawn
It's February.
February of the year 2012.
How did that happen?
I've got 5 more songs from Look Alive to revisit here, and given my snail-like pace of one (or less) per month, by the time I'm done we'll have new music to over-analyze. So maybe that's a good thing?
Yeah. It's a good thing. I'm sticking with that.
So today's song is Why I Had to Fall.
The first inkling of this song comes in February of 2006. Six years ago. How strange is that?
It shows up as the following couplet:
"It will come clear
Why you had to fall"
Over the next week of what was an important burst of writing, pieces of Why I Had to Fall weave in and out of another song, My Vagrant Heart.
And you know what? I'm going to post the demo of My Vagrant Heart above for no reason other than I just listened to it for the first time in about four years. And I like it. And it feels like a companion piece to Why I Had to Fall. The demo is from the living room session I did with Jay in July of 2006 and My Vagrant Heart was part of the original group of songs that eventually became Look Alive. It was (rightly) jettisoned at some point in favor of the some of the stronger material that followed.
How about that. Spontaneous sharing of media.
Anyway, poring over those couple of weeks in early 2006 is informative. I can watch my writing turn a corner from what it was for Burn Rome Burn to a sort of middle state, something closer to what it's become in Paper Arrows, but not quite there. I remember very distinctly feeling like I was writing into the dark, writing about things I couldn't see but could feel... not quite confident or strong enough to turn the light on and figure it out, but more throwing out things that moved me, images that evoked what I was feeling, without really getting to the truth of the matter.
That's what the lyrics to Why I Had to Fall are. A bunch of evocative images that wound up hanging together in the end, almost by accident.
This couple of weeks is also interesting because I was simultaneously writing these "new" "acoustic" songs (like Why I Had to Fall and My Vagrant Heart) alongside material that would eventually become the last Burn Rome Burn EP, recorded in 2007, but never released.
So on March 6, 2006, I have both the finalized lyrics for Why I Had to Fall, and the mostly final lyrics for the song Dark Before the Dawn.
Sometimes I wish I had Dark Before the Dawn back. This one was right one the edge, right before I finally got the courage to write what I was feeling and thinking with the light on. So it sounds like a close call, like something that could be even better. I'm willing to live with the vagueness of Why I Had to Fall, because I think that's actually part of the theme of it. With Dark Before the Dawn, I was writing about something very specific that I couldn't quite bring myself to say in a clear way.
So in the interest of... why the fuck not... I'll post the rarely-before heard Burn Rome Burn recording of Dark Before the Dawn. Which I actually like a lot, even if I just missed on the actual song. We recorded it in largely the same way Jay and I recorded Look Alive: tracked mostly in the same attic, mixed at the same studio. A friend/colleague of Jay's named Lindsay sings on it and it features some of the more restrained and beautiful playing by the whole band.
Speaking of the attic: back to Why I Had to Fall.
I love the recording of this song. Darren, Jay and I congregated in the attic and spent a little time playing through it. Darren was on banjo, Jay on mandolin, me on guitar. Once we had a suitable arrangement, we set up some mics and went after it live, all together, including background vocals. I think we did 5 or 6 takes at most and the only overdubs were Darren and Jay layering another set of backgrounds to fill out the sound.
So it's got a cool old-timey sound with lots of ambient noise (the highway!) and the feel of a bunch of guys playing together in a room. All the lead vocals are live and unedited, which was watershed for me. Things are slightly (but appropriately) out of tune. During the instrumental part, you can hear Jay sing along with his mandolin part on one line.
Very cool stuff.
So there you go... three songs, three different sessions... all from the same couple eventful days in 2006. Nearly six years ago.
*****************
WHY I HAD TO FALL
And so the waiting begins
And outside the winter settles in
I'm still waiting on my wings
And outside the twilight starts to sing
It's why I had to fall
It's why I had to fall
We've all got something that makes it okay
Seems like it works less every day
So go to sleep and wait for dawn
Or pack your bags and just move on
It's why I had to fall
It's why I had to fall
They say "Sometimes you fly"
They say "Hey, you're still alive"
But while they're singing "hallelujah"
They'll put the nails right through ya
It's why I had to fall
It's why I had to fall
jbg
Listen to My Vagrant Heart
Listen to Dark Before the Dawn
It's February.
February of the year 2012.
How did that happen?
I've got 5 more songs from Look Alive to revisit here, and given my snail-like pace of one (or less) per month, by the time I'm done we'll have new music to over-analyze. So maybe that's a good thing?
Yeah. It's a good thing. I'm sticking with that.
So today's song is Why I Had to Fall.
The first inkling of this song comes in February of 2006. Six years ago. How strange is that?
It shows up as the following couplet:
"It will come clear
Why you had to fall"
Over the next week of what was an important burst of writing, pieces of Why I Had to Fall weave in and out of another song, My Vagrant Heart.
And you know what? I'm going to post the demo of My Vagrant Heart above for no reason other than I just listened to it for the first time in about four years. And I like it. And it feels like a companion piece to Why I Had to Fall. The demo is from the living room session I did with Jay in July of 2006 and My Vagrant Heart was part of the original group of songs that eventually became Look Alive. It was (rightly) jettisoned at some point in favor of the some of the stronger material that followed.
How about that. Spontaneous sharing of media.
Anyway, poring over those couple of weeks in early 2006 is informative. I can watch my writing turn a corner from what it was for Burn Rome Burn to a sort of middle state, something closer to what it's become in Paper Arrows, but not quite there. I remember very distinctly feeling like I was writing into the dark, writing about things I couldn't see but could feel... not quite confident or strong enough to turn the light on and figure it out, but more throwing out things that moved me, images that evoked what I was feeling, without really getting to the truth of the matter.
That's what the lyrics to Why I Had to Fall are. A bunch of evocative images that wound up hanging together in the end, almost by accident.
This couple of weeks is also interesting because I was simultaneously writing these "new" "acoustic" songs (like Why I Had to Fall and My Vagrant Heart) alongside material that would eventually become the last Burn Rome Burn EP, recorded in 2007, but never released.
So on March 6, 2006, I have both the finalized lyrics for Why I Had to Fall, and the mostly final lyrics for the song Dark Before the Dawn.
Sometimes I wish I had Dark Before the Dawn back. This one was right one the edge, right before I finally got the courage to write what I was feeling and thinking with the light on. So it sounds like a close call, like something that could be even better. I'm willing to live with the vagueness of Why I Had to Fall, because I think that's actually part of the theme of it. With Dark Before the Dawn, I was writing about something very specific that I couldn't quite bring myself to say in a clear way.
So in the interest of... why the fuck not... I'll post the rarely-before heard Burn Rome Burn recording of Dark Before the Dawn. Which I actually like a lot, even if I just missed on the actual song. We recorded it in largely the same way Jay and I recorded Look Alive: tracked mostly in the same attic, mixed at the same studio. A friend/colleague of Jay's named Lindsay sings on it and it features some of the more restrained and beautiful playing by the whole band.
Speaking of the attic: back to Why I Had to Fall.
I love the recording of this song. Darren, Jay and I congregated in the attic and spent a little time playing through it. Darren was on banjo, Jay on mandolin, me on guitar. Once we had a suitable arrangement, we set up some mics and went after it live, all together, including background vocals. I think we did 5 or 6 takes at most and the only overdubs were Darren and Jay layering another set of backgrounds to fill out the sound.
So it's got a cool old-timey sound with lots of ambient noise (the highway!) and the feel of a bunch of guys playing together in a room. All the lead vocals are live and unedited, which was watershed for me. Things are slightly (but appropriately) out of tune. During the instrumental part, you can hear Jay sing along with his mandolin part on one line.
Very cool stuff.
So there you go... three songs, three different sessions... all from the same couple eventful days in 2006. Nearly six years ago.
*****************
WHY I HAD TO FALL
And so the waiting begins
And outside the winter settles in
I'm still waiting on my wings
And outside the twilight starts to sing
It's why I had to fall
It's why I had to fall
We've all got something that makes it okay
Seems like it works less every day
So go to sleep and wait for dawn
Or pack your bags and just move on
It's why I had to fall
It's why I had to fall
They say "Sometimes you fly"
They say "Hey, you're still alive"
But while they're singing "hallelujah"
They'll put the nails right through ya
It's why I had to fall
It's why I had to fall
jbg
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Hope is a Fire (Come Home Redux)
And we're still working our way through the songs on Look Alive...
As a side note, 2012 is off to a fantastic start. We're currently climbing through the details of signing a recording contract with an indie label out of Madison, WI. I'll spare you the nitty gritty but suffice to say we're excited by the prospects of having a bigger team out there pushing our next release (which will be finished in the next few months). In addition, there is interest from a large publisher of Classics-related literature in distributing The Odyssey with more substantial and representative packaging (including all lyrics). Which would be amazing. Still some things to figure out here as well but I'm very happy with the direction it's going.
So... as long as the Mayans were as shitty with their eschatology as they were with their views on human sacrifice, 2012 is looking up.
On to Come Home, the 5th song on Look Alive.
I've written before about the competing sets of songs that comprise Look Alive, and this song is the demarcation of the two: In my notebook I see that on a certain day in July of 2006 I wrote the following:
*******
Solo Record/Project
Resurrection
Look Alive
Why I Had to Fall
Travesty in Blue
December Static
Oh My Vagrant Heart
+4 to 6 More!
(Ode to Billy Martin) >->
********
No idea what that last thing is, but it amuses me.
Anyway, I'm thinking this was like the day after Jay and I recorded those demoes in my living room, and it was finally starting to dawn on me that I had a group of moving solo tunes with which to work.
But, as noted, I needed more.
So that very day in July of 2006, I started writing with a certain confidence and directness lacking in just about everything I'd written previously.
Not to say that my prior output was bad: a lot of it I still like very much.
It was just... something had changed. Whether it was already the benefits (or prospects) of working with Jay, working on my own... or the fact that I was completely fractured from my week-old separation from my first wife... something had changed.
It was Dylan that said "When you have nothing, you have nothing left to lose" and while that might be a bit dramatic (I still had my dog, for instance), that's what it felt like.
It felt like I had nothing to lose by dropping all the bullshit constructs and cleverness and just... saying what I meant.
So instead of writing with my typical allusive- and illusive-ness, I started writing exactly what I felt.
And the result was Come Home.
I don't think I need to explicate the lyrics. They say exactly what they mean, clear as day. Maybe the only subtlety is in the "chorus" at the end, with the variation of "I know that you're coming home/I know that you're coming home/I hope that you're coming home/Come home."
I'm really proud of that. It seems small and inconsequential but I think it so perfectly captures the incremental steps of doubt that creep in to loss... from "know" to "hope" to just... "come home."
When we went to record it, we actually started with a Radiohead tune as our guide. Whether or not that's obvious from the result, I don't know. But I love everything about the recording... the guitar tone, the hook, the background vocals, the mandolin, the two drum kits... I remember hearing this song come out of the speakers at mix and thinking "what the FUCK is that?"
And it might be my favorite song to play live.
It feels like an open wound.
But one that is being confronted full on and, because of that, is ultimately allowed to heal.
Some day.
Hopefully.
***************
COME HOME
It's been barely a week
Since you left me to fight alone
So I face down the night and then
Watch the sun again, again
And I sing myself sick
Lose my voice to the swollen sky
When the rain hits an open wound
The pain lets you know you're alive, alive
I know that you're coming home
I know that you're coming home
I hope that you're coming home
Come home
Come home
Come home
Come home
jbg
Monday, December 05, 2011
Again and Again (Again)
Listen to the record version:
A quiet thought on one of the quietest songs on Look Alive, Again and Again.
A quick review of my writing journal tells me this was written on October 18 and 19, 2006, very quickly, with almost no revisions.
As far as I can tell, it was the last song written for Look Alive other than When You Left, which was written almost as an afterthought as we were recording. So Again and Again completed the group of songs we had when we started tracking. In fact, I think in my cryptic notes I can even see where I got some recording dates from Jay... Weird.
Also weird is that I can see how I was simultaneously writing tunes for what became Look Alive, and still writing new material for Burn Rome Burn. In fact, the creation of Again and Again is kind of folded into my work on BRB tunes called Slowly and Falling Into, which we never really got together.
I really enjoy revisiting this song because in both creation and recording it marks a turning point for me.
Its simplicity is really an emblem of me getting fully confident with both lyrical and musical directness in a way I had never been before.
And the performance on the recording... it was done in one take, all live, in the attic overlooking the highway where we recorded... in the second verse, if you listen carefully after I sing the word "faces," you can hear the Blue Line go by quietly in the background, like the city making a guest appearance on background vocals.
Everything about the song and take screams intimacy (kind of an oxymoron of an image for a quiet song, but still).
Truthfully, I envisioned all of what became Look Alive sounding like this song. I'm forever grateful that we pushed some of the material into a more upbeat full band setting and even more grateful that we left this song exactly the way we did, a perfect record of an unsteady marriage of hope and heartbreak slipping towards the latter.
AGAIN AND AGAIN
Meet me beneath the moon
We'll have our worries on the powerlines
And forget about the days
When we lost our way
And start over again
And again and again and again
Meet me beside the lake
We'll wash our faces in the waters
And dry our swollen eyes
In the golden sun
And start over again
And again and again and again
Meet me in the bed
We'll burn our fears with a midnight flame
And scatter the remains
With trembling lips
And start over again
And again and again and again
And again and again and again...
jbg
A quiet thought on one of the quietest songs on Look Alive, Again and Again.
A quick review of my writing journal tells me this was written on October 18 and 19, 2006, very quickly, with almost no revisions.
As far as I can tell, it was the last song written for Look Alive other than When You Left, which was written almost as an afterthought as we were recording. So Again and Again completed the group of songs we had when we started tracking. In fact, I think in my cryptic notes I can even see where I got some recording dates from Jay... Weird.
Also weird is that I can see how I was simultaneously writing tunes for what became Look Alive, and still writing new material for Burn Rome Burn. In fact, the creation of Again and Again is kind of folded into my work on BRB tunes called Slowly and Falling Into, which we never really got together.
I really enjoy revisiting this song because in both creation and recording it marks a turning point for me.
Its simplicity is really an emblem of me getting fully confident with both lyrical and musical directness in a way I had never been before.
And the performance on the recording... it was done in one take, all live, in the attic overlooking the highway where we recorded... in the second verse, if you listen carefully after I sing the word "faces," you can hear the Blue Line go by quietly in the background, like the city making a guest appearance on background vocals.
Everything about the song and take screams intimacy (kind of an oxymoron of an image for a quiet song, but still).
Truthfully, I envisioned all of what became Look Alive sounding like this song. I'm forever grateful that we pushed some of the material into a more upbeat full band setting and even more grateful that we left this song exactly the way we did, a perfect record of an unsteady marriage of hope and heartbreak slipping towards the latter.
AGAIN AND AGAIN
Meet me beneath the moon
We'll have our worries on the powerlines
And forget about the days
When we lost our way
And start over again
And again and again and again
Meet me beside the lake
We'll wash our faces in the waters
And dry our swollen eyes
In the golden sun
And start over again
And again and again and again
Meet me in the bed
We'll burn our fears with a midnight flame
And scatter the remains
With trembling lips
And start over again
And again and again and again
And again and again and again...
jbg
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