I can’t remember the last time I spent 3 consecutive days on guitars for one song, but here we are again attempting to put Opposite’s Day to bed…
First thing – I have to listen to what we have so far and assess the situation. It’s not bad. Maybe we have one guitar too many – maybe the Fall (fall in love with me is the lyric in this section of the song) part could be assimilated into Will’s rhythm part. I listen to the song this way and I’m leaning this way but I’m not 100% certain so we’ll decide at the mix. The good news is that everything we recorded last session is good and we just need to do some comping (assembling a single track from various takes) to get the best of it.
This is about 1/2 done when Will arrives. He sets up the guitar and amp while Mark and I continue.
OK – all that remains is to add a few solo sections to the beginning of the song, a couple of short interludes in the middle and then the end. Maybe 70 seconds of playing. Listening to the as lib recordings from the last session I decide that there are certain figures that consistently work well, to my ear, and certain which do not. I tell Will this and he agrees. We then stake another two hours or so to grind out what seems like the ideal solo guitar part. There is as much discussion as there is plying and I value Will’s and Mark’s opinions but ultimately I must decide.
We have everything except the ending and it doesn’t seem to be heading anywhere in particular so I take the guitar and suggest the Nirvana method – play the vocal melody with a twist. I do not have the solo guitar technique but I get the idea across and Will takes over. He is no Robert Quine yet – he is not so sure of himself (but that will come) – but his ability to come up with great ideas and then to not be able to play them again is uncannily similar to Quine. So we record everything… and it takes a while to assemble the final solo, the only real ‘solo’ in the song and it’s great and quite mad. He’s channeling Richard Lloyd and then Honeyman Scott and then Johnny Thunders and the final figure is definitely unconsciously played. Mark whoops from the console. Fun times, as they say.
We now have 6 guitar tracks on Opposite’s Day –
My Rhythm
Will’s Rhythm
Will’s Harmonized chorus part
Will’s (mine really but he played it) half arpeggio
Will’s (my idea but he made it much better) Fall part
Will’s solo track
That should be enough.
After all of the tracks have been consolidated Mark makes a rough mix and I bring the Modular track I recorded yesterday in. It’s not working. Trash that.
15 minutes of file management and home to get ready for the bells.
Happy New Year.