Members oldgitplayer Posted August 6, 2012 Members Share Posted August 6, 2012 Justin - you've done it for me. I've listened to all versions thus far, and there are different qualities in them all.But your music sits absolutely right in its support of the lyric. I felt almost that I was listening to an early Band number. I could here Garth doing what he does on the organ, and Richard on keys. I was just wondering when Levon was going to break in and tease the skins. Absolutely wonderful arrangement for these lyrics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bee3 Posted August 6, 2012 Members Share Posted August 6, 2012 Thanks guys... this was certainly a challenge for me. I never thought I'd be able to put music to existing lyrics... but Jack's lyrics made it easy. Thanks Stick for the challenge... (I always feel guilty when I don't participate in these blockbuster challenge threads). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LCK Posted August 6, 2012 Members Share Posted August 6, 2012 Hope it's not too late... Here's my first pass:http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=11811523Edit: I only listened to one (Shortchord's) prior to posting this... I agree with OGP. This was reminiscent of The Band right from the opening. Very nicely done. LCK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rsadasiv Posted August 6, 2012 Members Share Posted August 6, 2012 I agree with OGP. This was reminiscent of The Band right from the opening.Very nicely done.LCK Haven't listened yet, but the lyric was reminiscent of "The Weight", especially that middle verse about the dog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rhino55 Posted August 6, 2012 Members Share Posted August 6, 2012 You guys are a fun bunch! I'm going to have to get in on this too. I still have 25 days right Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bee3 Posted August 6, 2012 Members Share Posted August 6, 2012 Just listened through to the rest... really interesting all of the different ideas. I think Rick gets the award for most unique! Everyone brought something different to the table which is very cool... but only Rick thought to include a bird and cow solo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stickboymusic Posted August 6, 2012 Author Members Share Posted August 6, 2012 Hope it's not too late... Here's my first pass:http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=11811523Edit: I only listened to one (Shortchord's) prior to posting this... Your voice is incredible on this. I am so happy you got the confidence to stop double tracking everything vocally. Wonderful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bee3 Posted August 6, 2012 Members Share Posted August 6, 2012 Thanks Stick... glad you like it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members IllinoisJack Posted August 7, 2012 Members Share Posted August 7, 2012 Justin - just listened. KICK ASS !!!!!!!!!! Absolutely amazing. I have been getting such a kick out of how people are handling the very first "There's that moon again" line. Your's knocked me out. Plus - a bonus for me - you stayed closer to the real lyrics. I like that. Excellent job, man. Let's get an agent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rsadasiv Posted August 7, 2012 Members Share Posted August 7, 2012 Hope it's not too late... Here's my first pass: http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=11811523 Edit: I only listened to one (Shortchord's) prior to posting this... That's great. Yeah, I can hear the Ripple. The harmonies that start up the chorus are lovely. The Rhodes and Organ are excellent, as usual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bee3 Posted August 7, 2012 Members Share Posted August 7, 2012 Justin - just listened. KICK ASS !!!!!!!!!! Absolutely amazing. I have been getting such a kick out of how people are handling the very first "There's that moon again" line. Your's knocked me out. Plus - a bonus for me - you stayed closer to the real lyrics. I like that. Excellent job, man. Let's get an agent. Thanks Jack... cool lyrics. I'll get you a copy when I'm done tinkering with it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Marshal Posted August 7, 2012 Members Share Posted August 7, 2012 Very cool idea. How'd I miss this for 3 days. I may give it a shot. But that means I can't listen to anybody elses for a while :cry: It may take me a couple weeks. I don't work fast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Marshal Posted August 7, 2012 Members Share Posted August 7, 2012 I noodled around with this, and as luck would have it, found a simple chord pattern and melodic line that fits nicely. It'll take me a couple days or so to iron out the kinks and get it to mp3-able condition. Then I'll make some kind of recording. I expect I have a slower paced, more melancholy approach than most. I'll probably be cutting out some lyrical segments to fit it in a respectable time, giving the pace and mood I'm setting. Very nice lyric. Easy to work with. Lotta meat on the bone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LCK Posted August 7, 2012 Members Share Posted August 7, 2012 Very nice lyric. Easy to work with. Lotta meat on the bone. Yeah, I think everybody found the lyric lent itself quite easily to musical interpretation. I know I did. LCK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Marshal Posted August 9, 2012 Members Share Posted August 9, 2012 Hallelujah. I finally get to participate in a Blockbuster Challenge ! No song-structure-straight-jacket to wear. ;) ;) (It's still August isn't it?) So, I made a real quickie recording on my Zoom H2. It's really bad. Pops and cracks in there. (Sorry about that. I don't know what that was). But the song version is on my soundclick. This should be a link direct to it http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=11817524&q=hi&newref=1 I cut out some verse segments. It was a length issue more than anything. As it is, it's a 3:58 recording. On the long side. I might tweak it, if i were to continue to work on it. Maybe add a full chorus at the end. That'd add time. Maybe then cut the old truck. But I don't really want to do that. I would further add that I took a more serious approach to the song; bittersweet. And as such, the silly verse segments (vulger?) were easy targets for the knife. The ending could use some work. . . , the whole song could use some work. But there it is. Nice work Jack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Marshal Posted August 9, 2012 Members Share Posted August 9, 2012 PS - Nice work everybody. I didn't listen to others before i started this, becasue i didn't want to be influenced. Once I had worked out my pattern on this thing, I clicked through the versions posted. (Wanted to make sure you guys weren't blowing me out of the water before I got too invested. ;) ) I really like a lot of the approaches I heard. Similar in some senses. Quite different in others. Some took Jack's lyric and went with the playful side. Others went for the gravity (like me). Many tried to strike a balance, which is a testimony to the range of emotion Jack gave us. Fun and serious at the same time. Plenty of meat on that bone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RickDieffenbach Posted August 9, 2012 Members Share Posted August 9, 2012 Marshal - most excellent! Really emotional. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RickDieffenbach Posted August 9, 2012 Members Share Posted August 9, 2012 After listening to Marshal's superb tune, I was fascinated that the same lyrics can be interpreted in so many ways. (I was really expecting to hear 10 songs all like mine... boy was I surprised....) Can I ask, what everyone's thinking process was that lead them from looking at the lyrics and developing the particular style of music you did?(Serious, fun, etc.) I think that would be an "educational moment" for many. I'll start with me. When I looked at Jacks Lyrics, and read the the 2nd verse: Old red truck, runnin down the roadBent and swayed without no loadWired on door, colored with rustCoughin and cryin' and kicking up dust ..I had this instant mental picture of an old cartoon (circa 1930's). The image I saw in my head was an old red junker driving down the road, sort of with a bounce and a sway and lots of dust behind it as if on a country dirty road. Then as I read the rest of this lyrics, I thought the cartoon metaphor was perfect for it. As I wanted it to be high energy and fun, I tried writing at 140bpm - much faster than I normally go. The verse melody and chords came within minutes and off I went. When I got to the chorus, I wanted something that would downshift instead of the normal upshift. And hence the talking with an old time telephone type sound. Again, keeping with the 1930's metaphor. (It also saved a ton of time) That's me, how about you? my version is here Rick====== Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Marshal Posted August 9, 2012 Members Share Posted August 9, 2012 Playful images are playful images. They're fun, but they become tired fast if there's nothing deeper to frame the images. Even slapstick like the 3 Stooges, you get a sense of the personalities of the brothers. The bossy older Moe. The young crazy brother Curly. Larry, the agreeable dim witted middle brother, always looking for acceptance from older or younger. It's the consistency of the characters that creates a framework for the silliness. So, when somebody posts a lyric, I'm always looking for the anchor reality that makes it real. I realize that I'm that way to a fault. Not every good song/story has that. But the ones I end up liking have a framework (or a hint of one that I can fill in the blanks). So, what got me going was the 3rd verse. "Me and that moon got history." It's not really about the moon. It's about a guy who's been around a while. "Ain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Marshal Posted August 9, 2012 Members Share Posted August 9, 2012 PS - And I generally gravitate to serious subjects. I'm much too heavy most of the time. I keep telling myself to lighten up. It's a character flaw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LCK Posted August 9, 2012 Members Share Posted August 9, 2012 Hallelujah. I finally get to participate in a Blockbuster Challenge Nice! Very well done! LCK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bee3 Posted August 9, 2012 Members Share Posted August 9, 2012 Can I ask, what everyone's thinking process was that lead them from looking at the lyrics and developing the particular style of music you did?(Serious, fun, etc.) ====== I can't say there was much of a process. Sat down with an acoustic guitar after watching a Grateful Dead rockumentary... was going for something in that vain with some nice harmonies. That's about it. my version is here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members shortchord Posted August 9, 2012 Members Share Posted August 9, 2012 I can't say there was much of a process. Sat down with an acoustic guitar Same here. I read the lyrics, sat down with a guitar. Sang the lyrics, and came up with the basic chord progression and melody within a few minutes. I had a vague notion from the lyrics that I wanted something with a country or bluegrass feel. The fingerpicking pattern, to me, sort of rolls along and I guess is my musical representation of the truck rolling down the road. I played around with dropped D for a few minutes, which I abandoned once I came up with the F# major chord to start the chorus. The C | G/B | Gm/Bb A7 | D progression under "hanging real low, wherever I go, there's that moon again" is a nod to Neil Young. And as I mentioned in the Friday Influences Thread, my wife listens to a lot of Alison Krauss and in listening back on the song, I can hear some of that influence, though I didn't have it consciously in mind at the time. http://soundcloud.com/shortchord/theres-that-moon-again-1 As I recorded the scratch version, I was reading the lyrics from my phone, so you can hear that I had to stop picking once in a while (like at 2:02) to tap the screen to scroll the lyrics and keep the screen saver from kicking on. I'm going to go over to bee3's place at some point in the near future to record a better version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rsadasiv Posted August 9, 2012 Members Share Posted August 9, 2012 I can't say there was much of a process. Sat down with an acoustic guitar Yeah, pretty much. I didn't know that this would turn into such a mega-shootout. I saw that the lyrics had a solid meter and natural verse-chorus structure, sat down and noodled around with the archtop. Words fit with the "Dancing Barefoot" riff so I kept that. The "Dancing Barefoot" riff is all ascending motion, so I worked out some descending motion for the second phrase. The chorus melody was basically the same chords as the second phrase, worked for a little while to try and get out of that, didn't find anything useful, and in desperation for some kind of variation, ended the chorus with a blue note. Set up a couple of mics, spent ten minutes trying to shoo the family into another room ("or at least be quiet while you're walking through!"), roll tape and ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted August 9, 2012 Moderators Share Posted August 9, 2012 Nice job Marshall! As far as my "process" goes... I read the lyric and I thought it was cool the way we have these characters in view of the singer, the blackbird, truck, cow and dog, and the thing tying them all together was the moon. His old. ever present buddy. So my first thought was that I'd make some lightweight, fun groove for the verses and then I wanted the chorus to bring a sense of tying all that together. So my idea was that I'd have a sustained but multi-note melody for the word "moon". Then I thought it might be cool to use a bVI in the chorus if the verses were going to be pretty straight harmonically. The Bb in D. So the Bb to A7 was kinda pivotal in me saying, OK Got it. I got the angle. That was it. Then I read it again and started singing in my head. Then I picked up a guitar and played through a couple time to figure a part, 3 times maybe, and then not really knowing what I was really doing, I decided and recorded. About 15 minutes. Which wass a lot fun in its quickness and made me wish it always went so fast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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