Progress Report, March 6, 2005
March 6, 2005...
As of today, we have 6 songs we are playing out; "Daddy", "Michigan Avenue", "Texas Cannon Ball", "Let's Have a Good Time", "The End of the Night", and "She's So Fine." Of these, we have recorded "Daddy" only, but we'll be hitting the studio very soon to record "Michigan Avenue" and "She's So Fine." So, let's talk about the stuff we haven't discussed yet, namely "Good Time" .
Let's Have A Good Time.
Here's the lyrics:
The general feel of this song was brought in by Jon as just a little guitar thing he wanted to work on, and possibly flesh out into a song. As I've said before, this is just one of the ways we come up with songs; Jon has a guitar melody and I put some lyrics to it, or I bring in lyrics and have him put the music to them. The music reminds me of BB King's "Woke Up This Morining." It has a bouncy kind of feel and made me think of trying to come up with a good end of the show song where we thank you guys for coming, and get wound up one more time before we go home. As with the BB King tune, this song changes feel for the bridge into a straight shuffle. The guitar and harp solo over this progression, and when the guitar solo is over, we go back to the opening riff, and the verse melody again.
After the last time through the bridge, we go into a harp solo. After twice through the progression, we use a part we heard Rod Piazza do in one of his tunes when we opened for him on New Year's Day this year. It uses some cool stop-n-go time, and winds up into a more jazzy, swing feel, where the harp continues to solo. As we go through a few times on this jazzy swing, we increase the volume and intensity of the progression, building back into the bridge's original feel. After a couple of false endings, we come back to the same stop-n-go feel to close the song. When we record, we're thinking of coming back into the song by way of a drum build-up on the snare, bringing in the whole band again, including vocals. After once or twice through, we fade out, and end the song that way.
Here is a perfect example of the "borrowing" I talked about before. We took the feel and structure of a BB King tune, threw in an idea from Rod Piazza, and made them our own. If you were to listen to recordings of the two ideas we used, you would hear the similarites, and also see where we put our own stamp on them.
For a while now, I've wanted to write a song that we could close a show with. Kind of wrap it all up, say good night, let the guys play some really cool stuff, and close with a bang. I also wanted it to say something to the effect of "Thanks for coming, we hope you had a good time." "Good Time" is becoming that song. We're still "tweeking" the fine points, like the length of some of the end parts, the dynamics (how loud or soft we play), and things like that, but it's shaping into a pretty good little song. Not a Top 10 hit, but something we put at the end of the night to close the show. when we play the song live, before singing the last two verses, we bring it down. At this point, I introduce the members of the band, say good night, and then ask those questions, "Did we make you happy?/ Did we make you smile?" etc., and then one more time we bring it up and crash into the last bridge and finally the end section. Charlie gets the big work-out here,as he's soloing through all the end stuff, the false endings, the jazzy swing, everything.
So that's "Let's Have A Good Time." Listen for it the next time we're at a watering hole near you, and next time, I'll talk about some new stuff we're working on.
As of today, we have 6 songs we are playing out; "Daddy", "Michigan Avenue", "Texas Cannon Ball", "Let's Have a Good Time", "The End of the Night", and "She's So Fine." Of these, we have recorded "Daddy" only, but we'll be hitting the studio very soon to record "Michigan Avenue" and "She's So Fine." So, let's talk about the stuff we haven't discussed yet, namely "Good Time" .
Let's Have A Good Time.
Here's the lyrics:
verse 1
Well, it feels so good
Bein' here with you
Never seems enough time
To do all the things we wanna do
Seems like we say hello
And then our time is through
verse 2
I hope we made ya happy
I hope we made you smile
Hope you had some fun
Hope you had a good time
Cause you made us feel at home
You made us feel oh so fine
bridge
Hey everybody
Do you feel that way too
(repeat)
Let's have a good time
Just me an you
Hey evey body
Everybody clap your hands
(repeat)
Lets have a good time
While we can
(guitar solo)
verse 3
Did we make you happy
Did we make you smile
Did you have some fun
Did you have a good time
You made us feel right at home
You made us feel oh so fine
verse 4
Cause it feels so goos being here with you
Nobody treats us
Quite like you do
There seems enough time
To do all the things we wanna do
(repeat bridge)
(harp solo)
The general feel of this song was brought in by Jon as just a little guitar thing he wanted to work on, and possibly flesh out into a song. As I've said before, this is just one of the ways we come up with songs; Jon has a guitar melody and I put some lyrics to it, or I bring in lyrics and have him put the music to them. The music reminds me of BB King's "Woke Up This Morining." It has a bouncy kind of feel and made me think of trying to come up with a good end of the show song where we thank you guys for coming, and get wound up one more time before we go home. As with the BB King tune, this song changes feel for the bridge into a straight shuffle. The guitar and harp solo over this progression, and when the guitar solo is over, we go back to the opening riff, and the verse melody again.
After the last time through the bridge, we go into a harp solo. After twice through the progression, we use a part we heard Rod Piazza do in one of his tunes when we opened for him on New Year's Day this year. It uses some cool stop-n-go time, and winds up into a more jazzy, swing feel, where the harp continues to solo. As we go through a few times on this jazzy swing, we increase the volume and intensity of the progression, building back into the bridge's original feel. After a couple of false endings, we come back to the same stop-n-go feel to close the song. When we record, we're thinking of coming back into the song by way of a drum build-up on the snare, bringing in the whole band again, including vocals. After once or twice through, we fade out, and end the song that way.
Here is a perfect example of the "borrowing" I talked about before. We took the feel and structure of a BB King tune, threw in an idea from Rod Piazza, and made them our own. If you were to listen to recordings of the two ideas we used, you would hear the similarites, and also see where we put our own stamp on them.
For a while now, I've wanted to write a song that we could close a show with. Kind of wrap it all up, say good night, let the guys play some really cool stuff, and close with a bang. I also wanted it to say something to the effect of "Thanks for coming, we hope you had a good time." "Good Time" is becoming that song. We're still "tweeking" the fine points, like the length of some of the end parts, the dynamics (how loud or soft we play), and things like that, but it's shaping into a pretty good little song. Not a Top 10 hit, but something we put at the end of the night to close the show. when we play the song live, before singing the last two verses, we bring it down. At this point, I introduce the members of the band, say good night, and then ask those questions, "Did we make you happy?/ Did we make you smile?" etc., and then one more time we bring it up and crash into the last bridge and finally the end section. Charlie gets the big work-out here,as he's soloing through all the end stuff, the false endings, the jazzy swing, everything.
So that's "Let's Have A Good Time." Listen for it the next time we're at a watering hole near you, and next time, I'll talk about some new stuff we're working on.
posted by the Boogieman at 11:22 PM
0 comments
