Evil Mystik

Space Heater (Photo credit: solidgosth)

Am working on a new Chill tune called “Are you an evil mystik, mister?” It’s actually several years old. I wrote it shortly after moving to Toronto from Ottawa. Had just bought a new keyboard and was eager to get into digital recording. I knew even less back then than I do now, so just did a couple of takes using the keyboard’s auto-accompaniment mode. Those takes are okay but I’m now doing a new version entirely from scratch. It’s slow going but a lot of fun, and a great way to learn REAPER, the software I’m using.

Isn’t it a Pity (my cover, that is) is on hold, mostly because I lost interest and also because I don’t want to work my butt off and then find out that I can’t even post it on YouTube or SoundCloud due to copyright issues.

So… it’s back to my own stuff. I’ve got the audio equip. set up in the basement, which in Canada can get pretty chilly in the winter months. Electricity costs too much IMHO to justify using a space heater for hours on end, so I rigged up a temporary room divider, consisting of two shower curtains stapled together. This keeps a smaller area warm as the flow from the heating vent has less distance to travel and less colder air to mingle with.

Chill is cool but cold sucks…

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Midnite muse and the law

The Beatles as they arrive in New York City in 1964 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Was up quite late last night working on my cover of George Harisson’s Isn’t it a Pity. So far so good. I’ve got a basic kickdrum and cymbal going, and an airy synth mapping out the chords. It’s probably taking a little longer than it would for most musicians because I don’t know the chord progression that well and keep messing it up if I try to play the whole thing through.

So I recorded each individual phrase and was pasting them together so they’d connect seamlessly. A real learning experience and a heck of a lot of fun… especially when you do it right, play it back, and it sounds like a guy sitting there playing the whole thing through.

This copy and paste technique should come in handy when I do the final arrangement. I can more easily change things around if the tune is already sectioned off into its different parts.

12 Arnold Grove, Liverpool. The house where George Harrison was born and lived until he was 7. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Another thing that came to mind last night was copyright law for cover songs. Millions of people do covers on YouTube but it didn’t even occur to me that I could be sued if I posted my cover there or on SoundCloud. So I did a search, trying to see who actually owns the George Harrison song. It looks like maybe Apple Records does, but I’m not sure yet. Will have to find out.

Although I really like this song, I don’t wanna lose my shirt over it!

Apparently the song was first penned in the mid 60s while George was a Beatle. The rest of the band put the kibosh on it, which one reviewer said was surprising because the Beatles usually spotted hits before anyone else. I guess it was just ahead of its time… too long and engaging for the mid 60s. And even in the late 60s, other tunes were chosen for Beatles lps instead of that one.

Turns out the song fit perfectly with Harrison’s All Things Must Pass (1970) record, which marked the end of the Beatles, and the end of an era.

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Nice cover of The Long and Winding Road…

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Telling Lies – David Bowie

Interesting student video of Bowie’s Telling Lies. I don’t think Bowie did a video for this song. There’s another video at YouTube that’s a sort of remix of other Bowie footage, and *very* ugly as all lies and liars are. But this one isn’t quite so harsh. I like its ambiguity.

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What If – Nichole Nordeman

Here’s another Christian pop tune that I stumbled across in my travels. I like the song and don’t really know if it needs a video. But this video seems the least intrusive of all the others I saw at Youtube.

One of things I like about music is how it can create its own visual landscape of the imagination. So if the video just gets in the way, you can always sit back, turn your head the other way, and listen.

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Sour Suite – The Guess Who

When I was a kid the second bargain priced record I bought was The Best of the Guess Who, Vol. 2. It’s long since gone from my collection, but thank God for YouTube. Listening to this one brings back childhood memories of listening to vinyl records in my room in Toronto, sitting in the back seat of the station wagon (remember those?) on the way up to Collingwood for skiing, and racing around in motor boats at Georgian Bay.

Like the record, all that’s pretty much gone from my life now… well, everything but the listening to music part.

It’s true that this band had a string of AM hits in Canada (and some in the US) during the 70s, but I think we all knew they were good but not quite as good as, say, The Who.

Mind you, I do like Burton Cummings‘ voice. And guitarist Randy Bachman (also in BTO – “Takin’ Care of Business“) can still be heard as a DJ on CBC radio.

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UFO – Dome of the rock – Temple mount – Jerusalem 28.01.2011

When I first saw this I found it convincing:

But then I saw this:

Who can say?

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Women in Art

I really enjoyed this, even if some of the images morph a bit quicker than I would have liked.