Week 44 - Two Fine Days Ahead - now with short MP3

Revenge! Sweet revenge! :)

I'm looking forward to hearing this Chris! I'm imagining something sounding similar to Barenaked Ladies' One week for several reasons here. :)

There's only one line that I don't feel rhymes as well as the others
And propositioned your mama….
Of course, this may not be the case, maybe it's just in my head. There's lots and lots of things in my head :) Anyway, I like the line, if you could rearrange it and use ma instead of mama, I'd be satisfied, shut my mouth, giggle and clap my hands! All at once! :)
I burned your wigs and slashed your skirts
Rolled your make-up in the dirt
Pinched your buttocks till it hurt…...
And that was only Tuesday.
Yes, that was only Tuesday….

Love it! :lol:
I have ideas for more verses, but I'll leave all the sadistic suggestions for the rest of the month out of this post. :)

Thanks for the kind comments Manontheside. :)
I'm imagining something sounding similar to Barenaked Ladies' One week

For various reasons I haven't listened to the radio for about two decades, so my knowledge of groups and songs is waaaaay out of date. Is that the name of a group, a song or both? :?

Mama rhymes fine when it's sung. It's in the emphasis I guess. Maybe it's an old English stye of pronunciation, but it's sung with a quiet Mmm at the start and the stress on MA at the end. Not with the emphasis on the first syllable like "MAMmy" for instance. Trust me - it works... :P

EDIT: I've added a short mp3 of just that verse. See in post above, or here:

Click to hear the "mama" verse
I have ideas for more verses, but I'll leave all the sadistic suggestions for the rest of the month out of this post.

Yes, the beauty of writing tongue in cheek stuff like this is that you can keep cranking out verses more less indefinitely! :twisted:

Aghhhh finally revenge on the Chris man

ha ha ha na only joking

go on be a devil and record the whole song come on come your a Aussie aint you ? take up the challenge .

Enough of my jokes now I thought your song was very different to what I expected from in this weeks assignment but hey I like it , and it's only Tuesday ( joke ) :lol:

But seriously record it your sining isn't that bad wait till I post A recording now that will be very very poor singing :wink:

cheers

L.K :arrow:

Hey Chris,

"And that was only" ..... brilliant - youv'e got a nice voice, I dont know what your worried about. Reminds me of that song in the movie Shrek, "Halaujah" I think its called.
This is a fun song and I like it :D , but heres the challenge, I think youve got some great songs waiting to come out, and a voice to air them too, I look forward to seeing and hearing them, good on ya mate.

cheers
pb

Thanks very much for the comments and the challenges guys. :D

Lotto King's challenge may have to wait for a little while longer as.... ummm... the dog ate my microphone...yes that's it....blasted dog....

Thanks Pbee, I'll try and live up to your challenge too. That was very perceptive of you to name Hallejah as an influence. I hadn't picked it myself (duh) but it's a song that I sang a verse of over and over again when I was practising the dreaded F chord changes. :shock:

So although I didn't rip off the chord pattern (at least not the ones in the tab that I was using) I do seem to have sung it somewhat "in the manner of"!!! :wink:

I actually think it would be better with a completely different tune, but I haven't quite got the skills yet. However, I'll sling the lyrics in the old odds and ends folder and maybe have another crack at it in a few months time.

Cheers, Chris

Trust me - it works...

Indeed! No problems at all :D

*sits down and waits for the dog to return the microphone* :D

Hey Chris,

So glad you've finally posted an MP3. You've been telling me how bad your vocals are and, like everyone else, I'm going to disagree with you. Not bad. I can tell you're a little shy using the old pipes, but it was great. I bet a few vocal lessons would clear away any of your misgivings. You've got a great slightly-higher-than-Leonard-Cohen-does-country vibe going.

Speaking of Leonard Cohen, I thought of his song Hallelujah when I heard your clip. I kinda doubt that's the one used in Shrek (though I may be wrong), but I thought it was a funny co-incidence.

Now to the song itself...

I liked it. Interesting title to draw people in. You've got a melody that fits nicely with the lyrics in terms of mood. A lot of clever lines, like:
The fights and feuds are in the past
My arm is mending in its cast…

Not much specifically to critique except that doing all 5 days in a row might being felt as sluggish in this world of quick-cut videos. I don't know what you're thinking of musically, but my first instinct was harmonica solo between Wednesday and Thursday. That would rock. Of course, you'd need another at the end to balance it. :)

Chris,

I like what I'm hearing.

Keep it up.

John

Thanks very much for all the comments and suggestions SlowPlay. :)

You're spot on with the vocal "shyness" - I'm very rusty and nervous with the voice, at this stage.

I had a guitar lesson on Tuesday and the teacher spent the whole lesson giving me some vocal tips and exercises. I've also started practising singing the note names up and down the fretboard. It kills two birds with one stone, I learn the note locations too. :) I'm hoping to put a fair bit more work into singing over the next few months, and try and get a bit more competent and confident.

As far as I know it was Rufus Wainwright singing Hallelujah on the Shrek soundtrack, but Jeff Buckley did a very haunting version that many people rave about too. Both are a fair bit slicker than Len's gravelly original.

I'm going to chuck the lyrics into my "shoebox" and give them another go in a few months when my ability to write a score - and sing - have improved a bit.

Thanks for the encouragement. :D

Are you working on posting one this week?

Hi John (The Celt)

Thanks for the kind remarks. It's great to have two posts in a row from people whose work I've listened to and admired. Having positive comments from both is very encouraging. :D

Cheers, Chris.

Hey Chris,

Loved it. And that's just the lyrics. I'll listen to the MP3 when I get a moment, but had to comment on your song. And I did get the Mama rhyme. Works great. When I think "MaMA," I picture someone very "proper" saying it with his jaw sticking out (for some reason), and this makes the line even funnier for me. Great job.

Joe

Thanks Joe. :D

You nailed the "MaMA" thing. It's very much a "proper" thing when it's pronounced that way. Something I picked up during all those dire years at boarding school probably.

Incidentally, this song isn't from personal experience. I don't smoke, don't drink gin, haven't got any girlie mags, and I've been happily together with my wife for 25 years. :D

But we have two artist friends who sparred with each other for nearly 30 years before finally getting married recently (although nothing like as extreme).

The real influence was a couple who lived down the road from my wife's parents (many years ago). They had a HUGE fight that involved them systematically smashing each others things. By the end of the fight his boat (on a trailer) had been trashed, various clothes had been ripped and thrown out into the garden, numerous possessions damaged, and - the real clincher - all the external panels had been smashed on the house! :shock: :shock:

It was a real show of "there's going to be nothing left for you to benefit from"!!! :roll:

Insane behaviour. :(

I liked it, now for the full length mp3. Your singing sounds good to me, Its better than mine is :oops: I will look the lyrics over in the morning, I got to get to work now, GOOD JOB :D --the dog

btw, how did you record it, mic, software, ect.?

btw, how did you record it, mic, software, ect.?

Thanks for the comments Smokingdog. It's been a great boost to me to have so many people whose work I admire take the trouble to post some encouragement. One day I hope to catch you all up. Waaaaay to go before I catch up with your playing yet though... :D

I recorded it using my fancy gadget but in quick-n-dirty mode. i.e. using the condenser mike on it to just whang away onto a single track. I then copied it straight off the memory card into the computer and converted the wav file to an mp3 with some software I got off the net.

I went out one day to buy a simple recorder of some kind so that I could play back my efforts, but got a severe attack of GAS in the shop (Gadget Acquisition Syndrome in this case) and came home with this:

It's slightly fiddly to operate straight out of the box, but seems incredibly versatile for the price. It has a drum machine (with about 500 drum and/or bass presets) or you can tap your own track in using a drum keypad set to a choice of drums. Or you can write a drum program.

There's two input lines, or you can record track by track, hearing all the others played back as you go.

There are a heap of effects which you can add later, from all the usual stuff through to hall acoustics and so on. Of course you can record multiple tracks, add different effects to each track, mix down, etc.

For playback, or to hear as you play, you can buy 'studio monitors' or else simply play it back through your guitar amp, the computer sound system, or the home stereo. Or rig up various combinations of that.

For quick-n-dirty there's a built in condenser mike so that you can just record without plugging in, or grab a bunch of people playing together. It's pretty powerful. If I've got the headphone on (and that mike activated) I can hear the conversations downstairs more clearly through the condenser mike than I can with the headphone off. I've used it like a tape recorder at a guitar lesson. Just put it in a corner, turn on and forget it for half an hour. Being digital it's quick and easy to jump to particular spots later.

I don't know how it compares in quality with the expensive stuff, but it was very reasonably priced. Apparently this is partly because some of the options use on-screen menus rather than separate buttons for each job. Buttons for everything is a bit easier to pick up quickly but more expensive to make, or so I gather.

Sorry about the length of this. Oh, and it's a Zoom MRS-8

Cheers, Chris