For this re-recorded version of It’s So Hard Knowing (click here to listen to the original) I actually used the melody of another re-recorded version of a different song from a few years ago. This one.
Blisters happen. It’s a FACT.
I was going to do the same fingerpicking guitar part too. I did a bunch of recordings. I tried and tired. But I’m out of practice, it hurt my fingers too much and I couldn’t get the tempo right, so I scrapped those recordings and just sang the fingerpicked part. Made it more different than I originally intended.
And then my fingers were free to pick other things, like noses, ears, butts, fights, scabs, fruit, lint, teeth, toejam. And they were only mildly blistered.
Here’s the newly re-recorded version of the song I wrote this week back in 2011. It’s quite different than the original (which you can listen to here), but there’s something I really like about this one.
I’m not so sure what, though.
This is a tune that I’ve sung out so many times I can barely remember what it’s all about. It also made it on to an officially released record. That version is slightly different than the original, but still pretty close. Check it out here.
So maybe that’s why I like this new version. The old one just kinda seems boring to me now. It’s probably why I basically rewrote the entire song too. But maybe also because the original is a very close relative of the Bob Dylan song “If You Gotta Go, Go Now (Or Else You Gotta Stay All Night). I almost admitted that in the original write up of this song. I alluded to “Lifting ideas from different places.” That’s what I meant by that. I didn’t use to tell anyone those type of things, but it’s how folk music works. Bob Dylan did it to Woody Guthrie, who did it to the Carter Family, who did it to the nameless and on and on in all different areas of music.
It happens. I’m okay with it.
Anyway…next up for this week is last week’s new song…which I have not written yet. But the snow and ice and slush have fallen and I’m not going anywhere for the night.
Well, here’s the re-recorded version of the song I wrote way back in 2011. Go ahead, listen to the original. I’m sure you’ll be able to see how I got to this version if you listen really close.
It was the first place I went. Didn’t mean to do a complete rewrite. Just came out that way. Only thought I had going in was to maybe do it in 3/4 time and that was a split second before I wrote the new words. Well, they’re all the same words. The ones from the original recording. So, I guess this isn’t any different at all. I think it still kind of says the same thing. It’s still the same point of view. Although, I have no idea what I was thinking when I first wrote the original lyrics.
I have no idea what I’m thinking now either.
Honestly, this was just an attempt at getting something done. I got it done. Now I move on.
Friday morning I’ll post the new song for this week. And then I’ll move on from that.
This is the second version of 40 Days and 40 Nights, originally written and recorded in 2012. I accidentally deleted the original post the other day when I was cleaning up some things here, so I’m just reposting this to get it back up.
Okay, well, after a long delay of doing re-recorded songs from the previous year, I’m at it again. Go have a listen to the original version here and you can figure out what’s going on.
Or…I can just tell you.
This new version is kinda more like a folk song. Although, all my songs are kinda like folk songs. But with this one it’s easy to recognize. I’m not sure why I did it like that. I think maybe I’m a little bored of the bluesy playing and singing style I’ve been using for the past year or so.
Or maybe I was just under the gun to get this done before the end of the day. Either way…here it is.
For me, this new version is way more interesting than the original. Probably because it was really hard for me to keep time on the guitar, sing the words slightly jumbled up from how the original lyrics were written out on the page, and play in this style, which I haven’t played in for a while.
Anyway…that’s that.
But, this is this. Lot’s of bigtime Poor Elvis shows coming up. Two tomorrow (10/13): first at Lacuna Artist Loft Studios for a pop-up gallery. You don’t want to miss that. Goes from 12pm to 6pm and we’ll be playing 2 acoustic sets throughout the day. More info here.
Also on Saturday, we’re playing another set in the Traveling Truck Show. That starts at 5pm sharp. Check out the info here. It’s super great!
Then, on Sunday from 2pm-6pm we’re doing an in-store performance at Saki Records in Logan Square. We play first, probably around 2 or 2:30, so come on out. There’s info here about this one. Notice, that at both the Saki show and the Lacuna show, Powell Brew House will be pouring FREE beer samples the entire time. Yeah!
Music Vomit 