Slowly getting somewhere, I think, plus file management.
The Double Happiness lyric/vocal seems fine, and at worst the sound might not match and I can fix that in London at Mick’s studio. It did take an awful lot of focus and energy to grind out, though, and just moving on to another song is easier said than done. When you work on a song for a week it wont just leave your head because you want it to…
The only outstanding lyric/vocal now is ‘Rod The Mod’ which has been written and rewritten twice already. I am stuck getting from the verse to the chorus in the latest version which is sung/narrated in the 2nd person. It charts the struggle of a writer once his muse has deserted him (familiar territory I know, but I was hoping I might be able to make it look like a simple ‘she’s not there/she’s gone’ type song). The verse melody is strong and it’s the getting to the chorus melody from it which is stumping me. The chorus melody has always been something of a nebulous concept as the main riff/refrain of the song is on the guitar and mandolin – should the vocal sing along? or counter melody? I was doing a bit of both… but really I was stuck.
I decide to try from scratch again. I think this is a pivotal song, not only because it is strong melodically and has a strong simple beat (the beat is based on You Wear It Well – hence the working title), but also because, depending upon how the lyric goes it could swing the album one way or another and I don’t want it swinging any further in the flip or the ‘more songs about songs and songwriting’ directions. I’m happy with all of the songs thus far and the balance seems good. As we wrote on the wall – Don’t fuck (it) up.
I live with the tune for a day or so and I get nothing and then I find a new chorus melody – not new really – it’s a harmony to the main refrain, a loose one and it seems stronger than previous ideas. I sing it with some awful Macca-esque lines which pop into my head (vanilla cheese, Derby called them) and then sing a harmony which is actually the refrain. I works really well but it doesn’t join with the verse as I’d planned. No worry – a new verse ending melody is immediately apparent. Plus the new melody implies a slightly more upbeat than Like Lovers Do vibe, which would be good.
I call Mick Glossop and make sure he has Logic at his studio. He has – I’ll record the vocal over there. He can rent a U67. I can take my time on the lyric, and I might just get one of those airplane inspirations I used to get way back when.
M Schwaber comes over for one last harmony vocal (Double Happiness) and so I can show him the Rod the Mod idea. If I need him to sing the harmony part (likely) I can upload the files and he can go into Slaughterhouse for an hour and they can FTP the files. Modern recording, not all rubbish.
The rest of my time is spent preparing for the trip to London – burning DVDs, doing the accounting and downloading Fred’s percussion parts. More on that tomorrow.