A very full, exhausting but exhilarating day of work on Back When It All Began. Here are the words, which, is generally my start for a song now. Once, the music was the crucial thing and even songs without words were preferable, but now, the words are my absolute focus; all link directly to images which I try to paint with sound.
Back When It All Began
Black rain, struggling dandelions
Yellow neon lights blink
like our bedroom
used to
back when it all began,
when plastic was wood,
back when the news was good.
We held hands and we ran
in the trees
your red skirt my blue van
of young rust
How young and pretty we are
I got a lithium powered car
I stole some money from the jar
Let's go and blow it!
Today's coffee
tastes of teflon dust
but your smile is still soft
like it was
back when it all began.
Now, some words evoke the music while I'm writing them, so the last verse was a deliberate link to the first.
The music is very complex because the words vary as much as an contemporary poem; this is my aim. I started with two chords stroked on the electric guitar; an A-Major, then I shifted up a fret for a cheap Bb-Major. These made an unusual pair, so I stuck with those and made these alternate in a slow trawl. It kept feeling like the start of a Bowie song from the Ziggy Stardust era; dark, urban. Then the chords shift up for the bedroom line, everything turns from this sad exterior to a warm memory; warm and pink. A stroked C-Major welcomes us to this warmth, and we are joined by the smooth hum of an organ. This shifts to D-Major for the 'back when it all began' chorus, so we already have an unusual, but pleasing progression. At this point I decided to try and make the whole song from major chords only.
For that chorus, I speeded things up; the start was a slow trawl. I then speeded things up more for the 'We held hands part' and a shift into G-Major, a happy run through the fields in summer. In fact the tempo constantly grows into a sort of joy. For the 'young and pretty' line I wanted to evoke the 1950s, so toyed with the idea of a C-Maj, A-min, F-Maj, G-Maj progression, the classic 'Crocodile Rock' sound, but this was too cheesy, and for one loop it would not really fit, so I switched to D-Maj and A-Maj, then ending in E-Maj - again, sticking to my rule about only major chords. For the drums, I added a double snare hit, like The Munster's theme; which gives it an early 1960s sound, sufficiently retro for my imagery.
I picked E so it could leap into a surprise A-minor for a solo part. The A-minor is there to dramatically switch from this image of recollection to A-Major and jump right back to the start of the song, back to the dark, rain-soaked streets, back to the present reality.
Melodically, the vocal line generally hovers around the chords, and this lack of melody, complete with shifting tempo and strange chords makes the song uneasy listening. Chords repeat, so it's not totally like a progressive song, but I thought it needed more structure, so I've used the words of 'Back When It All Began' as a rhythmic hook, and the rhythm of these words (x........xxx.x.x.x) is ever-present somewhere.
The inital instrumentation was simply stroked guitars and a sort of synth-string hum, but this can't continue, so I experimented with lots of other instruments. I tried my electro-acoustic guitar for some chords but the thing (Yamaha APX700) sounded rubbish. In fact, this guitar has always sounded rubbish in every situation I can recall. I played around with some Reface chords, and used a great organ sound from there. Generally, the electric guitar dominated and I decided to use a rarely used high-gain option and this created a sound rather like the famous wailing guitar lead in Bowie's Heroes. I used this sound (with the 'back') rhythm for a sub-melody, and some choppy chords for the 'young and pretty' part and the subsequent solo. I know it should, but this Brian May guitar really does sound like early Queen.
This work always takes a while because there's a lot of experimentation and a certain percentage of the recordings will never be used. I think I'm about halfway through this song now. The epic solo and ending remains.
In other news, the London exhibition is now over, so I updated the website with links etc. I've bought a new drive to possibly, hopefully, record the SY-85 music. I'll need to start work on the new Fall in Green piano piece for Crewe's Tree of Light event, too. I really need Deb's words for this. I hope to compose something melodic.
