Showing posts with label Elvis Costello. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Elvis Costello. Show all posts

Monday, 3 October 2011

'I Want You' (Home Recording)

After a long wait, here's a new song - recorded last Friday!

'I Want You' has always been one of my favorite Elvis Costello songs, and I even managed to include it in the early setlists of The Absence. Its moody, bombastic, pathetic protagonist sort of fits my singing style :)



Despite its repetitive chord-sequence and length (at more than 6 and a half minutes this is one of my longest recordings ever!), I believe that it holds some wonderful musical tension, that carries the listener all the way through. At least, *I* don't tire of it. Let's see what you think. (For those who don't know the song: don't worry, the acoustic, cheesy-folky introduction is TOTALLY different from the main body of the song)

What have we got? Acoustic guitar (in the intro only), electric guitar (through 2 effect pedals at the same time), real bass, two quiet organs, a crazy 6-second solo-guitar (expressing utter desperation) and drums. I meant to do this with live-drumming, but the sounds kept triggering badly, so I had to revert to finger-drumming on the keyboard. Nevertheless, the initial kit-drumming had given me a few idea, which I then imitated on the keyboard, and which I would not normally have doned had a started straight from the keyboard (for one thing: the bass-tom fill-ins).

Here it is:


Saturday, 30 April 2011

"Pills And Soap" (Home-Recording)

This is one from a year and a half ago. It started as a cheesy instrumental on the keyboard, which then, I felt, needed a bit more.
By mere chance, the lyrics of the Elvis Costello song `Pills And Soap`were lying nearby, so I started to half-rap, half-sing them on top of the finished instrumental. Funnily enough they fitted ...


So, I present the world with the first Costello-Ymaginatif original!!



PS (Update) funny how Elvis Costello musc have picked up this idea, and four years later used exactly the same process to rcord his collaboration with The Roots: 'Wise Up Ghost'


Thursday, 14 April 2011

"Charmingly Mystified" (Home-Recording)

Let us turn our attention to another Y-original pop song.

This one was written in 1996-97, when I was still a paying member of Meander (the band). At that time, membership required a use of the native tongue (Dutch) exclusively! So there I was ... studying English language and literature, and being heavily influenced by Elvis Costello word-antics ...
I had to find an outlet for that and a way out - so after hours, after rehearsals, and after gigs, I spent most of my time writing English pop-music by combining as many different chords as I could find with odd and hopelessly bombastic self-penned lyrics.

This one, which has more bits and bobs than a Maceo-compiled album but still lacks a decent chorus, never made it beyond the demo stage, and although it was tried out early on with The Absence (with different lyrics) it never found a home.

Fast forward a decade, and in the summer of last year (2010) I decided to revisit this little beauty, and to give it a rather lush and laid-back arrangement instead of its early snarling tone.

For your enjoyment, the original text has been left untouched:





Charmingly Mystified

You keep hanging onto tradition -
That's not what I meant to say ...
You're more than a second-hand compromise:
You're entitled to stick around with wide-open eyes.

Excuse me if ever I did offend you
With rude words and sexual innuendo ...
Life is short, a minute is easily spent
Abbreviated to a middle bit with fringes of contempt.

SO WHAT MORE CAN I DO TO MEND YOUR HEART?
IT'S LIKE A PROBLEM YOU WERE BORN WITH
I THINK OF PHOTOGRAPHS I SADLY MISPLACED
WHICH MAKES ME WONDER
WHICH MAKES ME SMILE
WHICH MAKES YOU CHARMINGLY MYSTIFIED ...

Therefore I figure I must be grateful
For fractions of constant disbelief
Speak your mind, it's finally justified
To reveal any discontent or damaged pride.

SO WHAT MORE CAN I DO TO MEND YOUR HEART?
IT'S LIKE A PROBLEM YOU WERE BORN WITH
I THINK OF PHOTOGRAPHS I SADLY MISPLACED
WHICH MAKES ME WONDER
WHICH MAKES ME SMILE
WHICH MAKES YOU CHARMINGLY MYSTIFIED ...

How you still cope with me
How you still cope with me
How you always seem to do it gracefully ...

How you still cope with me
How you still cope with me
How you always seem to do it gracefully ...