Tag Archives: songwriting

Listen, Rewritten Song

Rewritten Song: Rise Up & Heal (version 2)

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Here’s the re-record for this week. I used the 60’s Frontalini Power Organ again. This time I’m not so sure it worked out so well. Some parts work okay, others do not. This is why I do these songs, though…to work out the bad parts, the uninteresting parts, the parts that just aren’t going anywhere. It’s all useful, though.

Now, you can also go and listen to the original here, which was very hard to improve on. If you read the description from 2 years ago, you’ll see it’s based on a old gospel tune. It’s one my wife was learning for a gospel choir she was singing in. I heard it and just knew I’d need to use it somehow.

And so I did. I used it.

Almost used it all up. Rise Up & Heal is a tune I played in Poor Elvis a lot. There’s lots of performances of it on youtube, but also a recording of it on the CD Poor Elvis put out back in 2011.

Now, I’m going to try it out with Pearls Mahone. You can catch the first couple shows in that group on February 10 (details here) and February 14 (details here). So come check it out.

Listen, Rewritten Song

Rewritten Song: Without You (To Lean On) (version 2)

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1960s Front-line Power OrganHere’s the newly recorded, newly updated, newly new version of the song I released way back in 2011. Go check out the original here.

Notice anything different?

I attempted to go out of some sort of comfort zone. I added some instruments that I don’t really know how to play. Like a Frontalini Power Organ from 1960’s Italy and a marching band drum from my one-year-old daughter.

If you keep up with the photos I post from Instagram, I’ll get one up of the organ. Was my great-grandmother’s. I’ve had it for a couple years, but it’s a little intimidating to someone who only took piano from age 5 up to age 12 and then touched no more pianos. They become strange and unique creatures. They make your knuckles sore.

Anyway…this is the new version. It’s surely different than pretty much any other recording I’ve done before (that I can recall off the top of my head). But, still retains that same feeling of most of my songs. I don’t quite know how to get rid of that. Or move beyond that. Or completely become that.

I’m sure, though, I’ll figure something out in the weeks and months to come.

In the meantime, just keep listening and passing the songs on to other people, okay?

Listen, New Song

New Song: Just Like Everything Else

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I never wrote a song about a chicken before. But I’ve heard a lot of chicken songs. And I never quite knew exactly what they were about. Or understood them very much. Except that they were maybe about chicken.

But now I think I get them a little better. I think I understand chicken a little better. If you understand me at all.

So, this song is about chicken. I wrote it on Sunday night and just got around to recording it Tuesday night. It’s a pretty easy song to understand. If you know anything at all about chicken.

I’ll also post the fresh, updated, re-recorded tune from 2011 tomorrow morning, but be sure to check out a few of the other new songs and re-recordings I’ve done the past couple weeks here, here, and here.

And then go grab your coat and hat. See ya.

Listen, New Song

New Song: The sun makes everything glow

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And here’s the new song for the week. Took me about an hour or so to write. Mainly cause I kept getting interrupted. But was a good kind of interrupted. Someone constantly telling me to “look, look at this!” and “look at how I colored this dog all purple!” and “I colored this girl all purple too!”

And then I could ask questions like, “So, what should this next verse be about?”

And the answer would be…”books.”

And then, “what do you like most about books?”

“Words.”

And then, “What do the words look like to you?”

“I just do not know.”

So, I had some help for this song. Thanks Gus.

But also, this song is kind of weird because it sounds a lot like songs I wrote a year and a half or 2 years ago. Not that that’s so bad, but it’s just strange. I didn’t even really think about the music, it just happened this way and fit well so I went with it.

I kind think this song is best suited for it’s re-recorded version next year. But who knows.

Anyway, that’s it.

Listen, Rewritten Song

Rewritten Song: Someday (version 2)

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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.