gazlington

Green River by John Fogerty (CCR)

•January 10, 2012 • Leave a Comment

While we are at it, another great piece of music from the 60s in Green River comes from John Fogerty and his band Creedence Clear Water Revival. So many highlights with this band and so many hits yet Green River is the song that has intrigued me for a long time.

Recorded in 1969, the track itself just seems to fit together perfectly. Its produced and played really well. The lyrics tell a story (the hallmark of good songwriting) and apparently relate to an old holiday destination and a brand of green soda that the kids drank at this time. The reference to flat car riders and cross tie walkers relates I think to vagrants and hobos travelling for free on the tops of trains. I particularly like the acoustic guitar mixed in with some bluesy electric playing and fills by John.

Check out Robert Fontenot’s synopsis of the band. What a prolific songwriter.

Lyrics below.

Green River, By John Fogerty

Well, take me back down where cool water flows, yeah.

Let me remember things I love,

Stoppin’ at the log where catfish bite,

Walkin’ along the river road at night,

Barefoot girls dancin’ in the moonlight.

I can hear the bullfrog callin’ me.

Wonder if my rope’s still hangin’ to the tree

Love to kick my feet ‘way down the shallow water.

Shoefly, dragonfly, get back t’your mother.

Pick up a flat rock, skip it across Green River.Welllllll!

Up at Cody’s camp I spent my days, oh,

With flat car riders and cross-tie walkers.

Old Cody, Junior took me over,Said, “You’re gonna find the world is smould’rin’.

And if you get lost come on home to Green River.

“Welllllll!Come on home.

Check out also the original CCR version of Green River.

Posted in guitar, musicology

Dear Prudence

•January 10, 2012 • Leave a Comment

A track of fascination for me for some time (for way too long) has been the the Beatles track Dear Prudence. According to rock folklore, the piece itself was written by John Lennon on the famous Beatles sojourn to India. The core of the song itself was inspired by another member of the travelling party in Mia Farrow’s sister Prudence, who was going deeper and deeper into meditation indoors.

My preoccupation with the piece revolves mainly around the music itself and the guitar playing. For such a long time I couldn’t work out what was going on. As it turns out, the piece is played in a drop D tuning, using a Travis picking type of approach with the right hand. Whist being convinced all along that someone had shown this particular right hand technique to Lennon (his background was mainly rock and roll up to this point), it so transpires that Donovan (a folk musician) was on this same trip (I do remember seeing footage of him with the lads) and actually taught Lennon this new angle on right hand finger picking. The selected chords themselves and the overall architecture of the chord placement reek of genius, especially the way the chords are sequenced and integrated with the droning D texture of the song. You have to play through the piece yourself to understand what I mean.

Other members of the band added their inspired contributions of course (apparently the sessions were recorded at Trident Studios in the Spring of 1968, as Abbey Rd was booked……….hard to believe this could happen with the biggest band in the world at this point!). If you listen closely you can hear this same right hand picking technique employed by Lennon in Happiness is a Warm Gun and Julia.

Dear Prudence also brings back some great childhood memories through a cover version of this same track recorded by Doug Parkinson in Focus, a major singing talent on the Australian scene in the late 60s (native New Zealander) still working to this day.

Check out Robert Fontenot’s dissection of Dear Prudence.

Check out also

the original track by the lads
a cover version by Doug Parkinson In Focus
a brilliant tutorial (tutor’s name?) unpacking the way Lennon played the track

Posted in guitar, music composition

Kimbra

•January 8, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Expatriate New Zealander Kimbra, now based in Melbourne Australia, has just released a diverse set of pieces on an album called Vows.

Her duo with Melbournian based Goyte (Somebody that I used to know) apparently generated something like 20 plus million views on Youtube, and over 400,000 plays on Soundcloud.

Vows as an offering is all over the map musically.

It is produced by Francois Tetaz, with further sonic enhancements from M-Phazes.

My favourite track at this point is a thing called Wandering Limbs.

The track involves a vocal duet with Sam Lawrence, that starts with some very appealing in the distance crusty sounding piano chords. Intro Kimbra at this point with a couple of verses backed sparsely by piano, snaredrum brushes and kickdrum.

The bridge section of the song introduces Sam Lawrence trading phases and harmonies with Kimbra, along with bass guitar and other ambient sounds. As we head into the chorus (at 1:35) the tempo is doubled (quite ear catching), there is more of a full band sound and more harmony layers.

Further verses roll out with an ongoing full lush sound, through again to the chorus and then (at 3:44) to an ambient orchestral sort of beatless zone, that almost becomes cinematic (it wouldn’t be out of place in Romeo and Juliet). Some new instruments like glockenspiel are introduced at this point, an interesting production decision as they weren’t evident at the beginning.

A very classy piece of music with some innovative production and ear twisting magic built in.

Below are 3 clips from Youtube-

the album version of Wandering Limbs (audio)
an informal live version of Wandering Limb filmed in Inner Melbourne (vid), and
Kimbra’s contribution to the Goyte smash hit (vid)

Posted in music composition, music production

Lost Little Women on Soundcloud

•January 3, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Further to a previous post regarding mastering, I’ve added a mastered track. This particular piece features the optimistic vocals of Jess Harris, counterbalanced by the gritty rapping of AJFatale. I originally found AJFatale’s rapping on Youtube, liked the flow and message, and incorporated it into this piece. Another musical direction.

Posted in music composition

Whats in a bass line?

•January 2, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Leland Sklar

One of great rock bassists of all time is Leland Sklar. Based in Southern California, Leland has practically recorded with everyone of musical significance on the the planet. Its probably best to try and think of who Leland has not actually recorded with, to get a sense of his impact on modern day music. Initially Leland got his start with James Taylor, and then branched out all over the countryside like a subsonic virus.

My introduction to Leland’s playing was through Billy Cobham’s solo album Spectrum, which also happened to feature several of my all time favourite musicians in Tommy Bolin on guitar and Jan Hammer on keyboards/ synth. I’d always loved Billy’s drumming and Jan’s keyboard contributions with Mahavishnu Orchestra.

What a band……………Billy Cobham, Leland Sklar, Tommy Bolin and Jan Hammer.

I recently had the pleasure of seeing Leland play live on the last Toto tour to Australia in support of the Falling In Between Project. Steve Lukather actually introduced him to the audience as the most sampled bass player in history, and then let Leland played a few notes of the Stratus bass line referred to below.

Oh yeah, that bass line.

On Billy Cobham’s Spectrum album, Leland plays the bass line for the track Stratus (Pts 1 and 2). Pt 1 features Billy Cobham doing some interesting drum synth improvisations, accompanied by Tommy Bolin using his Echoplex unit to great effect to get those ambient echoed guitar chords. Brilliant. As Pt 2 of the track starts the groove hits you and its the rolling bass line that catches your attention, along with Billy’s drumming, and Tommy Bolin’s rhythm guitar stabs. The track itself moves through a number of phases featuring Tommy, Jan and Billy, all soloing.

Jeff Beck has remarked that this particular album recalibrated his perpspective on guitar playing and musical direction big time. Jeff later went on to work extensively with Jan Jammer. In his relatively recent Live at Ronnie Scott’s project, Jeff plays Stratus Pt 2 with the very talented Tal Wilkenfeld on bass, Vinnie Colaiuta on drums and Jason Rebello on keyboards. Another classic lineup. Check them on Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Live set (2007?)

Introducing Massive Attack AND THE advent of sampling,

The point of interest of this whole story is the fact that this rolling bass groove (along with Billy’s drumming and Tommy’s guitar playing) finds itself on to a Massive Attack album called Blue Lines. Yes the dudes from Bristol had some how stumbled upon Stratus and this bass line. Who did the stumbling and under what circumstances? Was the bass line/ groove used to underpin some live DJ stuff? Who put the band in the direction of jazz rock fusion records in the first place? Blue Lines came out in 1991 and the track Safe from Harm, sung by Shara Nelson, has a familiar sound but a new context. Sensational.

Check out Massive Attack’s take on Billy Cobham’s Leland based groove, and Billy Cobham’s Stratus. Enjoyment.

Posted in musicology

Teardrop by Massive Attack and interpreted by Jose Gonzales

•December 18, 2011 • Leave a Comment

One of my favourite bands of all time is British band Massive Attack. The band was originally Bristol based and generally use the studio as an instrument employing to great effect sophisticated sampling and layering, radical song construction and creative use of effects. Classic tracks include Unfinished Symphony, Protection, Karmacoma and Teardrop.

Teardrop is sung by the talented Elizabeth Fraser (Cocteau Twins), with an accompanying video featuring a singing fetus. I have heard that the main stays of Massive Attack (3D and Daddy G) allow significant scope for the the vocalist to create and improvise textures and melodies. Can’t be sure though.

The Swedish guitarist singer Jose Gonzalez (with Argentenian roots) does a unique take on the original version of this track. From the album In Our Nature, Gonzalez spins his take on the song to great effect, with an equally impressive accompanying video. There seem to be some historical middle eastern religeous textures/ fragments in the video (make of it what you wish). Gonzalez’s approach to the guitar is unique and percussive. Multiple parts are played by Gonzalez who frequently taps his foot during recordings. Great voice. Great guitar playing. Unique and intuitive. Check the interpretation of the original and the original below.

Posted in musicology

“Whats the deal with audio mastering?” (Jerry Seinfeld)

•December 11, 2011 • Leave a Comment

Current situation.

I’m currently getting a number of audio tracks mastered as we speak. I’m quite relieved to have handed the tracks to a couple of independent parties for processing. Having rendered my final mixes in 24 bit/ 44.1 kHz (just look for the 16 or 24 bit options as you export audio wise from your DAW) all mastering will happen in the 24 bit domain, subsequently being dithered down to 16 bit CD quality.

What am I expecting?

I’m expecting the various tracks to be tighter. I’m expecting maybe greater stereo width, along with a fair bit of balance across the audio spectrum for each track. In other words, bass not to bassey, treble not too irritating, etc. In addition to all of this, the various tracks will be consistent in volume and mastered to particular redbook audio standards, thus being able to listened to comfortably in a range of situations. I’ve already noticed the enhanced clarity that comes with 24 bit files, along with improved detail and volume. One of the mastering guys who is helping me with all of this (Justin Humphries) has described mastering as sort of taking the blanket off of a track.

Why not do it yourself?

I have attempted to do some basic mastering on some final tracks in the past using a thing called T Racks, but I haven’t felt too comfortable with the results. Its nice to be able to let someone external to the whole process check things out. Its also nice to come up with something creatively, do the final mix (be really sure about your final mix) and then hand over the the whole thing to an independent party. I’ve got to say its also mainly all about time. Yes the T word. I just want to keep creating. Enough is enough on the technical side. As Frank Zappa said to someone when they asked about how he knew when a track was finished, he said “when I’m sick of it”. Its very hard to go thru all of the various stages in creating something (from the idea to recording to quality sounds to a final mix) and then have to keep going. As I said, enough is enough.

I’ll put up a track or two before and after mastering when I get them back shortly. People can then judge for themselves.

In the meantime below is a nice overview of the whole mastering issue from Sound On Sound magazine.

Cheers

Gazlington

Posted in music production

Johnny Winter

•November 28, 2011 • Leave a Comment

JW has been a fave guitar player of mine for many years. I have recently come back to his playing (courtesy of a best of collection picked by the man himself) after leaving the blues per se many years ago. I think a number of Johnny’s tracks still stand up really well to this day. In particuar, Mean Town Blues and Its My Own Fault, from the Johnny Winter And Live (1971) set. Rick Derringer comps and solos on both tracks, and collectively both players really hit the spot. From a frantic uptempo slide point of view, check out Mean Town Blues. From a classic slow blues perspective, check out Its My Own Fault. With both of these tracks, Johnny has the capacity to take a solo at a particular point and keep taking it to a new a level of intensity, higher and higher (like EC did with the Wheels of Fire Crossroads solos). Who does this these days? Derek Trucks, Sonny Landreth, Joe Bonamassa? Its a special gift to be able to this. Extraordinary skill levels, extraordinary musicality. Check out Mean Town Blues.

Posted in guitar

Kings of Leon

•November 25, 2011 • 1 Comment

Recently saw the Kings in Mebourne, 13th of November, Rod Lava Arena. Band of Horses was the support.

Neither of these bands were really that familiar to me, but the evening (courtesy of some sick Telstra workers) was interesting on a number of different levels and an opportunity to catch up with a great mate Brian.

Firstly the support act sound was absolutely appalling. It was though the sound guys didn’t care about the support act, because when the Kings came on the sound was instantly clearer, with each instrument having an identifiable place in the live mix.

Secondly the Kings seemed have alot of space in their sound at times (eg drums with bass, drums with bass and vocals, etc). A little U2 ish I suppose.

Thirdly, from just behind the mixing console, the activation of the video screens was a sight to behold. Looks like the live concert scene has added a whole host of jobs in recent times including video screen mixer. The dude doing the mixing for the Kings danced the night away whilst controlling the screen images of the band.

Fourthly, the fan demographic for the Kings was simply female. Intriging to see the female response to each of the songs.

Interesting. I started to dig the night and the songs as the evening progressed.

Posted in concerts

New Jeff Beck Band member Veronica Bellino

•November 22, 2011 • Leave a Comment

Jeff Beck has a new band. Rhonda Smith on bass stays, whilst Veronica Bellino comes in on drums.