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Friday Influences Thread 02.19.10

Stackabones

By Stackabones
in Songwriting Workshop

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Stackabones Newbie

Stackabones

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What has influenced you as a songwriter in the past .. or since the last FIT?

 

*

 

The opening lines of slowcore band Low hint at my mysterious attraction to this zendo quiet music with its sparse, ikebana arrangements ...

 

 

And the light, it burns your skin

 

In a language you don't understand

 

 

[YOUTUBE]mYhIcT1nFsw[/YOUTUBE]

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Lee Knight Rookie

Lee Knight

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I remember hearing this album for the first time. My band's manager reviewed music for the college paper. He got all the new stuff first from the record companies. We just stood there in his apartment with our jaws on the floor thinking WTF???!!! Mind blowing for the time.

 

It also has become a benchmark for me. The first time I ever realized you didn't have to have lived what you were writing about. You could be anything you want for 3 minutes.

 

[YOUTUBE]vAzUh_H7yV0[/YOUTUBE]

 

I know something about opening windows and doors

I know how to move quietly to creep across creaky wooden floors

I know where to find precious things in all your cupboards and drawers

 

Slipping the clippers

Slipping the clippers through the telephone wires

The sense of isolation inspires

Inspires me

 

I like to feel the suspense when I'm certain you know I am there

I like you lying awake, your baited breath charging the air

I like the touch and the smell of all the pretty dresses you wear

Intruder's happy in the dark

Intruder come

Intruder come and leave his mark

leave his mark

 

I am the intruder

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Surrealistic Newbie

Surrealistic

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Not sure why but my mind took me back to The Sensational Alex Harvey Band this week and I looked up this video:

 

zqx5j-FuqeI

 

Of course Alex and the band didn't write this one - it's a Jacques Brel song - but they perform it so brilliantly (IMHO). Saw these guys live a couple of times and they were, as their name suggested, sensational :)

 

I love the lyric here and the general feel of the song. I'd die a happy man if I could produce something half as good.

 

Lyric:

 

Naked as sin, an army towel covering my belly

Some of us weep, some of us howl, knees turn to jelly

but "Next", "Next"

 

I was just a child, a hundred like me

I followed a naked body, a naked body followed me

"Next", "Next"

 

I was just a child when my innocence was lost

In a mobile army whorehouse, a gift of the army free of cost.

"Next", "Next", "Next"

 

Me, I really would have liked a little bit of tenderness

Maybe a word, maybe a smile, maybe some happiness,

but "Next", "Next"

 

Oh, it was not so tragic and heaven did not fall

But how much at that time I hated being there at all

 

I still recall the brothel trucks, the flying flags

The queer lieutenant slapped our arses thinking we were fags

 

I swear on the wet head of my first case of gonorrhea

It is his ugly voice that I forever hear

A voice that stinks of whiskey, corpses and of mud

The voice of nations the thick voice of blood

 

Since then each woman I have taken into bed

They seem to lie in my arms and they whisper in my head "Next", "Next"

 

Oh, the naked and the dead could hold each other's hands

as they watch me dream at night in a dream that nobody understands

And though I am not dreaming in a voice grown dry 'n' hollow

I stand on endless naked lines of the following and the followed

"Next", "Next"

 

One day I'll cut my legs off, I'll burn myself alive

I'll do anything to get out of life, to survive

Not ever to be next

 

(missed out some "next"s but you get the idea :)

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Etienne Rambert Newbie

Etienne Rambert

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An orgiastic string section playing through a mono TV speaker.

It's magic to me. It's the sound of childhood, not this theme

in particular, but all TV orchestra string sections played mono through a TV set.

I've just been listening to this one lately.

 

That sound brings back a child's sense of mystery & wonder to me.

 

5ECgtoAlQTU

 

If you want to know what an 8 bit Kawai K1 string pad sounds like. It sounds like that.

***

 

I timed the sections of this song down to seconds. Incredible how it moves.

Intro

 

In less than one minute, you've heard an intro, two verses, two refrains and a bridge.

 

Incredible British Pop! The back-up vocals are first rate.

 

tr6H1a7YUac

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Lee Knight Rookie

Lee Knight

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Wow!!! The Sensational Alex Harvey Band. I remember seeing them on American TV and thinking what the hell is this? But loving it at the same time. The guitarist would get these incredible orchestral tones through using fuzz etc. Love them.

 

Those Brel lyrics! Pretty great...

 

A voice that stinks of whiskey, corpses and of mud

The voice of nations the thick voice of blood

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blue2blue Newbie

blue2blue

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Yeah... I thought I was the only one who knew who Alex Harvey was. (And that, in part, because I picked up one of his LP's for a quarter or something in the early punk era when a lot of intense record collector types were dumping all their pre-punk stuff. Almost my entire progressive catalog was either given to me or bought for a dime on the dollar, Can, Faust, Magma... Anyhow.

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blue2blue Newbie

blue2blue

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Randy. Yeah, Randy's a pretty interesting guy, no question. (I understand he's transplanted to Austin, now.) I was immediately attracted to the Alley Cats (not to be confused with the a capella group of the same name) when I first saw them, probably circa '78 in what I think I remember as a very small warehouse/loft show. Also on the bill,I think, was the Zeros (the San Diego punk/new wave band [that indirectly gave birth to El Vez], not to be confused with the hard rockers).

 

I did some demos for the Alley Cats in the early 80s when I was still in rec school, after I got to know them when a band I was filling in on bass with for a few months in late 79 or 80 played at Long Beach State opening a 3 band bill that had them headlining. In between was the prissy new wave band, Bates Motel, who acted like we must have had some sort of contagious disease; they were real dicks and that seemed to bind my erstwhile band and the headlining 'Cats together. We ended up partying with them in their van... ah the late 70s. :D Later, when I was looking for an interesting project to record, I realized they were 'between labels' and offered to do a demo for them at the the school, Long Beach City. They were dubious, particularly about the narrow format 16 track 1" TASCAM machine, but ended up being happy with the project, and it helped get them picked up by a Warner subsidiary.

 

 

And everyone fell in love with Dianne Chai, the bass player, of course. (For me, the deal was sealed because we both played the same kind of bass on that first gig together.)

 

I may have posted this before but I love the pic, it takes me back to simpler, happy days when I was excited about recording...

 

TheAlleycats_LBCC_JoeA_TK_JamesN_SteveB-

 

They weren't a physically imposing band... but they sure could kick ass. ;) [That's me and my pals who were production staff in back of John, Randy and Diane, from the left.]

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Lee Knight Rookie

Lee Knight

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, not to be confused with the hard rockers).


I did some demos for the Alley Cats in the early 80s when I was still in school, after I got to know them when a band I was filling in on bass with for a few months in late 79 or 80 played at Long Beach State opening a 3 band bill that had them headlining. In between was the prissy new wave band, Bates Motel, who acted like we must have had some sort of contagious disease; they were
real
dicks and that seemed to bind my erstwhile band and the headlining 'Cats together. We ended up partying with them in their van... ah the late 70s.
:D
Later, when I was looking for an interesting project to record, I realized they were 'between labels' and offered to do a demo for them at the the school, Long Beach City. They were dubious, particularly about the narrow format 16 track 1" TASCAM machine, but ended up being happy with the project, and it helped get them picked up by a Warner subsidiary.

 

That's a cool story. I played a show with Bates Motel too. They really were dicks.

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Dingoist Newbie

Dingoist

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Was talking with the wife earlier this week about about love songs 'cause of V-day, after i was pretty disgusted with the tune picked out by the fellow on the radio (he thought the best song moment was the scene from "Say Anything" with Cusack standing there with the boom box playing the Peter Gabriel tune at the window -- I can't remember the song title, but it's one of the big hits)

 

Here's my short list for love songs that have influenced me (which doesn't mean they have to be mulshy I *heart* you type thingies):

 

David Grey. I'm still trying his latest album, but this is my favourite track on White Ladder.

 

[YOUTUBE]uGm5z8sJAFM[/YOUTUBE]

 

 

John Mayer. Must be the acoustic version. I prefer his acoustic tracks, as I find his album stuff generally way over produced and too slick.

[YOUTUBE]MnJ-cXfUves[/YOUTUBE]

 

 

Going back a couple of years. I never hit a stride with Husker Du, but I really dug Sugar as a band.

 

[YOUTUBE]aHnFIaLp_ys[/YOUTUBE]

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