January 18; Lyric Idea: "She Calls Me Daddy"

Let's talk about the lyric for one of the newest additions to the MATB play list, "She Calls Me Daddy." Here's the words:

Well, I got a little girl

She’s the light of my life

A bright ray of sunshine

When things ain’t goin right

She calls me Daddy

Daddy all day long

She’s my little girl

The reason I sing this song

Now when she does wrong

I have to take her to task

And I have to come up with answers

To all the questions she asks

But she calls me Daddy

Daddy all day long

She’s my little girl

The reason I sing this song

(Solos)

Sometimes we argue

But most times we get along

And I feel so sad

When my little girl is gone

She calls me Daddy

Daddy all day long

She’s my little girl

The reason I sing this song

Ya know I got a little girl

She’s the light of my life

I know one day she’ll grow up

And be some lucky man’s wife

But she’ll still call me Daddy

Daddy her whole life long

She’s my little girl

The reason I sing this song

The subject of this song is my daughter, Meghan. She is 12-going-on-35, and every bit the moody handful a pre-teen should be. Don't get me wrong, I love her to death, and I know that someday we'll be past all the emotional ups and downs that go with this age.

Anyway, Jon brought in a musical idea that was to be an instrumental at first; kind of a lazy feel to Freddie King's "Hideaway." (we talked about Freddie King in the last post, and there's alink if you'd like to know a bit about him) As we worked a bit on this idea, he suggested using a bass line and rhythm pattern from a Roomful of Blues tune we were thinking of doing, but never got around to, and adding some lyrics.

Now, sometimes I will use lyrics I have already written with a musical idea that Jon has. Other times, I need to think about what he's laying down, and then put a lyric to it that I feel fits the mood of the tune. This time around, it was the latter of the two instances. I thought of the lyric pretty much as it appears here. The verses came together in the order they appear and everything. Sometimes, this is just how it works for me; a song will come to me in finished form, no need to arrange it or modify it in any way.

Let me tell you about how I work out a lot of my lyric ideas. I drive a delivery van for an electrical wholesaler, and during my delivery route, I have a lot of time to think of song ideas, lyrics, the eventual conquering of the world by Mojo & the Boogieman, my Grammy acceptance speeches, etc. When you have a lot of "windshield time," it's nice to have something to occupy your mind besides all those road-related things. As I drive, I can sing the melody, sing the kind of musical accompaniment I'd like, and work out arrangements as well. The best part is no one can hear me do it! Some folks sing to the radio while they drive, I sing to the songs in my head. I guess it beats talking to the voices in there! I'll get inspired by a song on the radio or a CD, and try my own lyric to a similar rhythm pattern or progression.

Jon and I talked about this particular song idea one day this past fall as I was on my delivery route. As I continued driving, I worked out the idea for the song. The original idea started out as another "love song" but as it went along, I thought it would be cool to disguise the real meaning until the last verse, and have it be a father talking about his daughter. Meghan and I had been having some "rough" days at the time, those father-pre-teen kind of days, and I kind of had her on my mind.

The original vocal melody was loosely based on the Roomful of Blues song I mentioned earlier. As we started to put the song together, however, the melody more closely resembled Eric Clapton's version of "Got You on My Mind." (In an upcoming post, I'll talk about "borrowing" musical ideas.) I'm really happy with the vocal melody now, because it has elements of both the songs I mentioned, and something completely of its own. The Clapton influence can plainly be heard in the "chorus" part of the verses:

"... Daddy all day long
She's my little girl
The reason that I sing this song..."

and I try to sing the song with the clean tones of Sugar Ray Norcia former lead singer/harmonica player for Roomful of Blues (now a solo artist). I've always loved Sugar Ray's voice. It's so clean and mellow, and my voice is usually so gruff, that naturally I wanted to sing like that someday.

One of my favorite things about this particular song, is that it is totally unique. It's a little blues, a little country, a little soul ballad, and all Mojo & the Boogieman! I also like that I can now say, "Here's one for my little girl, Megahn." Of course, now I have to write one for my son!

January 12, 2005; progress Report

Tonight, we worked out the arrangements on two songs, "The End of the Night," and "Texas Cannon Ball."

We'll start with "End of the Night." Here's the lyrics:

Well, it’s early in the mornin

And I come draggin my tired self home

Yes, it’s early in the mornin

And I come draggin my tired self home

Can I come over, baby

Cause I just don’t want to be alone

Hey baby,

Can I spend the night with you

Hey baby,

Can I spend the night with you

You know I get these warm ole feelins

When the night is through

We had a good time tonight

Everyone had some fun

But I just want to be with you baby

When that long day is done

Hey baby,

Can I spend the night with you

You know I get these warm ole feelins

When the night is through

(guitar solo)

(harp solo = ¾ time)

I don’t want no last-call angel

I don’t want to party with boys

I just want to be with you baby

And get away from all that noise

Hey baby,

Can I spend the night with you

You know I get these warm ole feelins

When the night is through

I gave all my love to the people

Now feel so empty inside

I just need some place

Where I can recharge and unwind

Hey baby,

Can I spend the night with you

You know I don’t feel like sleepin

But I just want to lay down with you

This is a mid-tempo 12-bar blues in the T-Bone Walker style. For a nice over-view on T-Bone, click here. We had this one pretty well finished, just some loose ends to tighten before playing it out.

As this song has progressed, we've added a harmonica solo section that is in 3/4 time and then continues in 3/4 through the next verse, stopping on the word "noise" in the 4th line, and coming back to the 4/4 feel and continuing as usual. For an example of this 4/4-to-3/4-and-back feel, check out The Allman Brothers' version of T-Bone's "Stormy Monday" on their album, Live at the Fillmore. It really adds a cool mood change to the song, and emphasizes the feeling of wanting to go someplace quiet where you can relax. We spent probably one hour on this section, getting the transition from the 4/4 to the 3/4 and back again, and getting everyone satisfied with what they were doing in the 3/4 section.

After tightening that up, Jon suggested a possible bridge idea to join the verses and the solo section using a lyric idea for a song we had worked on some years ago, but never finished and played out, called "I Need a Friend." Although the lyric didn't work with this song, the idea does, and I'll be working on that in the up-coming weeks. This bridge doesn't follow the usual 12-bar pattern of I-IV-V, in that it doesn't stay on each chord for the usual 3 bars and then change. It has more of an "8-bar" feel, like Robert Johnson's "Come On in My Kitchen." I think a bridge is just the ticket to solidify this song, and make it ready to present to our audiences. Now all I have to do is come up with lyrics to it!

As we got these modifications tightened, we committed the new version of the song to tape, via Jon's four-track recorder, and moved on to "Texas Cannon Ball."

"Texas Cannon Ball" is an instrumental that Jon wrote to celebrate two of his guitar idols; Freddie King (known as the Texas Cannon Ball) and Stevie Ray Vaughan (known as the Texas Hurricane). For a brief introduction of Freddie King, click here. This has a real powerful, up-tempo, driving feel to it, and is gonna be a great vehicle to showcase Jon's guitar work. I can't wait til folks get a chance to hear this! In a later post, I'll have Jon go through the inspiration for this tune, and also let him get all technical on you about how the song is structured and such. To me, it is reminiscent of Stevie's "Scuttle Buttin" as far as the main riff goes. Jon plans to have the first solo feature Freddie King-inspired licks, and then the second solo will feature SRV-like guitar work. In between these solos sections, we came up with a pretty cool bridge that brings the listener into that Stevie Ray frame of mind, and winds you up for the next solo section. After that, the end has some powerful punches to draw this powerhouse to a close.

This new arrangement of "Texas Cannon Ball" was also committed to tape, and then we headed for home. All-in-all, a very productive rehearsal/writing session.

She's So Fine; Lyric Idea

Okay, let's start with a little diddy called "She's So Fine." Here's the lyrics:

She’s So Fine

Talk about your baby,

I wanna tell ya ‘bout mine

Talk about your baby,

I’m gonna tell you all about mine

She’s got it goin on

Man, she’s so fine

She’s sweeter than honey from a honeybee

There ought to be a law the way she satisfies me

Talk about your baby,

I’m gonna tell you all about mine

She’s got it goin on

Man, she’s so fine

(guitar solo)

(bridge)

Well she ain’t too fancy

But boy is she sweet

My baby may be tied but she’ll never be beat

Let the fellas stare cause I don’t mind

I can’t blame them cause she’s so fine

She’s got dimples in her jaw, legs up to here

Gimme cold shivers when she whisper in my ear

Talk about your baby,

I’m gonna tell you all about mine

She’s got it goin on

Man, she’s so fine

(harp solo)

I’m her lover boy and she’s my only girl

Treat her like a queen, feel like the king of the world

Talk about your baby,

I’m gonna tell you all about mine

She’s got it goin on

Man, she’s so fine

This is probably the oldest of all the lyric ideas we're using on this album. At least that's the way I'm telling the story. "She's So Fine" has been put to more musical ideas than any other that I can recall as well. We have old rehearsal tapes of this lyric to around four different grooves! Anyway, here's the story on the idea for this lyric...

This song was written for my girlfriend, Paula. If memory serves, I came up with the lyric idea not long after we had started dating. As my band mates can tell you, I like to put lyrics from one song into another as we play them. Sometimes I'll come up with my own lyrics, sometimes I'll use someone else's. This is one of the latter cases. It came to me one night on-stage at a gig as we were playing another song. Sometimes I'll bring something to the gig in my head that I want to try out, and I'll just wait for the right song to try it in. Other times, well, it just happens on its own.

I think it's pretty straight forward what the lyric is talking about here. Guys will talk about the women in their lives. Some complain, some will brag how good they've got it. As far as I'm concerned, you can go on all day about how great your woman is, but I still think mine's the best.

Like I said earlier, this is an old lyric idea; maybe as old as 4 years. In that time, we've put it to a number of grooves, even played it out for a while back in like 2001 or so. The groove idea and arrangement are totally different now. There was another verse that has been dropped. It went something like

"Well I love my baby Better than I do myself You can have all the others, brother I don't want nobody else Talk about your baby..."

As we played with the new groove idea Jon brought in, the structure of the song didn't fit all the verse I had written , so we decided to drop one. Since all the verses were just a variation on the same theme, it was fairly simple to drop this verse. I didn't feel as good about this one for some reason as I did the others. I think the rhyme-scheme is cool; rhyming myself and else, but the verse as a whole didn't grab me as the others did, so bye-bye, verse and problem solved.

I like the idea of this song. It's not particularly unique concept in any way, but I feel that it's a unique way of saying what a lot of songs over the years have said. There's lots of "my baby's the best" songs out there, but this one is definitely a Mojo & the Boogieman "my baby's the best" song.

January 6, 2005; Starting Date

Well, here we are for the first entry. As stated in the description, this is going to be a little "behind the scenes" look at how the next Mojo & the Boogieman album is created.

So far, we have ten songs in various states of disrepair, ranging from finished and we're playing them to live audiences to just a basic "skeleton" (words, vocal melody, and a general music idea, only). These songs are:

SHE CALLS ME DADDY
TEXAS CANNON BALL
MICHIGAN AVENUE/DETOUR
SHE'S SO FINE
THE END OF THE NIGHT
THE "THANK YOU" SONG
NEVER HAD THE BLUES THIS BAD
SINCE I MET YOU
GOOD ENOUGH
MY SHARE OF THE BLUES

As for the finished and ready, we're playing out She's So Fine, Michigan Avenue, She Calls Me Daddy, and The "Thank You" Song. By finished, I don't mean that these songs are exactly as they'll appear on disc. They have been rehearsed enough that we feel comfortable playing them out and kind of getting a feel for how the songs translate to a live audience. Just 'cause we think it's a cool ending or a nifty change, doesn't always make it so.

So far, reaction to these tunes has been pretty good. As we go along, I'd really appreciate some feedback on how you feel about them. Please feel free to be brutally honest. What works for you about these tunes? What's not working? As we progress on a song, it's easy to get too involved with it, or get too "inside" the song to see what's working and what's not. Honest outside opinions will be very helpful to us.

Well, that's it for the intorduction. Next time, I'll give you an update on the writing progress, and I'll also start explaining the source of the lyric ideas. Until next time...

KEEP IT IN YOUR SOUL!