This is a little 12-bar-blues thingy I came up with on Sunday afternoon, wrote the lyrics Sunday night and Monday morning, and got this far in recording on Monday evening. So it's come together very quickly. My goal was to write something that would be fun to play live, and to record it only with instrumentation than we might use in a live show....none of that fancy-dancy production shit. ;-)
The solos are really just placeholders and they're very sloppy. I was too tired at the end of the evening to devote time to developing them the way I want them. And too, I struggled for quite a while searching for a solo style I like for this song...and I'm not sure I've found it!
Update 1/23/2014: Conjured the axe-masters of Valhalla to bless my guitar solo, faked in some rock organ riffs, twirled the words around a smidgen, and this is the result.
The following are complete songs (words and music) I've written in the past few years but have not yet put into a polished form. You know, not quite ready for Prime Time.
My latest studio creation on which I've decided to invest effort. I've got a number of jams/song seeds that I've created in the past couple weeks, but this one is the most promising -- or rather, the one I like best -- so far. So I'm going to run with it.
The title is a working title, but it's very likely going to end up being close to this, as I'm already quite hooked on the chorus, and my attempts to change the words have been less than convincing. Other strong possibilities (that, in my mind, then themselves to a little more freedom in developing the rest of the lyrics) include:
Maybe it's a way of breaking your heart
Baby got away. It's breaking my heart.
Meh. I think I'll still with what I have.
This demo is very rough. You've been warned.
Update: Nov. 7, 2013
I've been dogged by (1) lack of time and (2) slow-in-coming lyrical inspiration on this one. But I've finally got lyrics that are mostly acceptable....I think. Anyway, at least now you have something a bit more interesting to listen to than the same incomplete first verse repeated three times.
This is a rough mix after putting down the vocals with new lyrics last night. My voice was not "on," so I really need to re-record them. Also I'm not sure if I'm going to keep all if any of the harmony vox I threw down.
I've remixed this a couple times since last night, but it's still a bumpy mix, with things poking out where they shouldn't and other things buried beneath the surface. But it will give you an idea of where I am.
Update: Nov. 19, 2013
I'm getting closer, my salamander. (But still no cigar.)
Update: Nov. 10, 2014
I finished this version (S68) in June but am just now posting it.
After more than 60 hours of recording, rerecording, and playing around with the mix in the studio (and this does not include countless hours listening to my latest mixes in the car and recording "listening notes" on my phone to use as a punchlist my next time in the studio) over the course of five months, my song Mezcal has been distilled down to this. Oh, and the new title is Mezcal / El Rey del Pinchismo.
Update 7/12/2013: Replaced Demo 77 with a new mix (Demo 7c) in which I incorporated a few fixes. Also lyrics are below.
Mezcal / El Rey del Pinchismo lyrics
Meanwhile back in Cuernavaca
living like there's no today
don't know what tomorrow holds
but this is what the people say
they say yeah yeah yeah
and Mitch he says, he says yeah yeah yeah
Talking to the Doc at los Arcos
trying to get to Holland or France
el mariachi says it would be so easy
If only you could learn how to dance
and Mitch is looking surly and says you think too much
what you need is a shot of mezcal
Though I thought I knew the answer
now I'm thinking Mitch is right
I'll never be a pretty dancer
or rule the night
but it's groovy down where I be
it's so groovy down Teopanzolco güey
para todo mal, mezcal
para todo bien, también
He is el rey del pinchismo
yes, he is the king
there is no one else here who can even begin to sling it like he can sling
This is the current demo of my 2011 song, Devil in Jeans. Even though it's progressed a lot from earlier versions, I still hear a lot of things that need fixing, so I expect to issue new version in the not-too-distant future.
