I Want You (She's So Heavy)

The title refers to the divisive Lennon song on the Beatles Abbey Road album. People either love it-I'm one of them-or hate it. Lyrically, there's not much to it; it being another paean to Yoko, and the three plus coda did not endear itself to many critics, but I digress.

I bring this up mostly because albums like Abbey Road were instrumental in how I learned to hear music and why I record and arrange my songs the way I do. The Beatles are acknowledged innovators in how they approached recording and arranging. You can hear their influence throughout the music of the 60's and 70's. Everyone who gushes about the sound of records from that era-I'm talking the vinyl crowd here-owe a debt of gratitude to George Martin and the Beatles!
When I listen to a song, I listen to more than the melody and lyrics. I listen to what instruments are used, how they're set up, how the signal is modified, where they are in the mix, how their panned-where you hear them left to right-and the dynamics of the production.
Abbey Road, the last Beatle album, is a recording artist's dream.
Whatever you think of the songs themselves, whether you like or dislike Maxwell's Silver Hammer, Octopus' Garden, or I want You (She's So Heavy), even Here Comes the Sun-yes, there were critics who didn't like that song, they were evocative of music the individual Beatles would produce over the course of the next two decades and yet have that Beatles sound, something that is found more on Paul's records, which point to his influence when the Beatles were in the studio.
Many people have written about the songs and arrangements so I'll leave it up to you to check that out; what I would ask is the next time you have a chance, listen to what's going on in the songs themselves. Listen for the amp hum during the breaks between the two segments of I Want You (She's So Heavy), the way the voices and guitars are continually panned back and for in Here Comes the Sun, the Moog synthesizers played throughout the record, and how prominent the drum sounds are, echoing the biggest change in rock music at the time. And listen to how all the song fragments are put together on side two and how well the medley works.

Song of the week:

No Wonder is from the Winter album, the record I'm making from a series of demos from way back (the 80's). At the time I decided that intimate love songs weren't working for me, but love and relationships are nearly impossible to ignore in this day and age, so I wanted to write about attitudes and perceptions that forever play into how we see or think relationships ought to be. The lyrics play with the idea that the singer is well aware of what everyone thinks they know about this relationship, but believes they're looking for the wrong things in it. Musically, it something of a jazzy tune based off the bass line. I wanted the song to give the impression of floating, of gliding on air.
You can hear it at mrprimitivemusic.com.

©2018 David William Pearce

Sources of Inspiration-Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel has had the greatest influence on me when it comes to recording. His 4th solo album, nicknamed Security, hit like a hammer; I couldn't listen to it enough. It was nothing like all the other records I'd heard at that time, that time being 1982. I found it mesmerizing, the textures, the timbre all through the songs; it was both very different and yet very familiar. Pop music/Rock done in a distinct voice.
I found you could make music that didn't have to sound like what was on the radio yet be accessible. Some of it was that I didn't have the tools or access to studios or the equipment and instruments that I would have liked and had to do with what I had, which at the time was a few guitars, a bass, a synth, and a drum machine. The biggest issue for me was the drum machine-a Drumulator-which had good drum sounds, but sounded like a machine playing drums using patterns mimicking real drummers. But, if like Gabriel, I could instead use rhythm patterns allowing space and beat, then the music took on its own character. It could be simple and effective.
As an example, listen to the opening track of Peter Gabriel 4/Security, The Rhythm Of The Heat. Note that the drums aren't what is typically used, not cymbals or straight ahead drumbeat, instead, percussion patterns common to African drumming that Gabriel often used during this period. Note the dynamics, the power of the drums, the insinuation of the synths, the spare guitar-unusual for the time in Pop/Rock. Finally, the quiet before the crescendo of the drums to end the song. This is how compression is used to its best effect.
The entire album is, to me, how to make a recording that pulls you in and surrounds you with sound. It's also an excellent album to use when buying speakers; if they can handle this album with clarity and dynamic, then they're excellent speakers!
Listen at Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/track/1SqdCJsKsRgQ8qEzjLtmPm

This Week's Song: Forgotten from the Apologia album. The song is a about coming to terms with the understanding that in time we become irrelevant as a relationship slips further into the past. However strongly we may have felt at the time, and my still feel now, for the other it is only a memory rarely revisited. Their life has moved on to more immediate and important matters. Musically, it's fairly simple, two synth lines, chords and bass, with a guitar and vocals. Listen on Spotify or at mrprimitivemusic.com.
©2018 David William Pearce

Wow, That Sounds Really Good!

Often times when I hear from people who have graciously taken a little time to listen to my recordings, they remark on how good the recordings sound. Some of that is based on the fact that I do this at home versus in a recording studio, but mostly, it's because I'm stuck in the 60's and 70's recording-wise.

The bands and artists I like and admire the most, from the Beatles to Steely Dan to Peter Gabriel were, and are, big proponents of timbre, which is a term used for musical diversity within a song. I like using different sounds and styles within my recordings, always have. Even within the same instrument class; guitars for example, I like variety, which is why my guitar collection isn't simply different versions of the same guitar; for instance a Gibson Les Paul, of which there are many kinds.

It's also important to give those instruments room to breathe so they can be heard. That can be a challenge, but I find that part of the fun. Where is the instrument in the spectrum from left to right? Where it is panned to-the recording term. Is it close or in the distance? Reverb is what gets us there. Dry is close, right in your face; wet is deep, in the back.

Finally, easy on the compression; use just what you need and maintain the space. It matters because that's what give a recording it richness and it's depth. It's also what makes it interesting and gives the listener a reason to go back again and again.

If you wonder why you don't hear more interesting music within Pop music, I recommend you check it out here.

This Weeks Song is The Fall From Grace from Winter. It's a simple song about a disintegrating relationship that was built on the premise that you could change someone with a song. The beginning of the track is from the original demo for 2 reasons, one, I liked the way it turned out, and 2, the rawness of the recording; it sounds like someone playing for another. It also provides a stunning intro as the full sound follows. Hear it here at mrprimitivemusic.com.

©2018 David William Pearce

To Play or to Program

Recently, in Guitar Player magazine, Jack White clarified his supposed antipathy to Pro Tools and other software used in the recording industry. His objection is that too often the computer does the work through programing rather than the artist/musicians, and that the music loses something because of it. 

I thought of this as I was recording an album called Winter. Originally, the songs were recorded on my Tascam Portastudio 244, a 4-track cassette machine and these were the first songs I recorded using it. It has the usual tape hiss and noise one might associate with home recording, although most of the noise came from running the track recordings through a Fender deluxe reverb amp because portastudios didn't come with built-in effects in those days and quality reverb units were pricey. 

The tracks were demos for a band album that never was and although I promised to re-record the songs, it's only now that I've gotten around to it.

As with all my recordings, I play all the instruments, with the noted exception that in some cases I use drum patterns, either because I like the rhythm or because at the time of the recording I didn't have an actual drum kit.

Nor are the tracks composites of many recordings, say of a solo; what you hear is what was laid down in that take. That can make recording tedious if you are trying for the right series of notes or groove, etc. and not having a lot of success. Having a home studio, if nothing else, gives me the option of giving up till tomorrow what I can't find today; if you're paying for studio time, having an mixer splice something together might be the more affordable option if you're paying by the hour.

I do think by working out and playing the various parts, be it bass or percussion or keys, gives the song it's human element; I suppose you can use the correction tools to fix glitches or odd moments, but unless it seriously detracts from the song or is glaringly obvious, sometimes a supposed mistake give the song its quirk.

And I think that's what Mr. White is alluding to, the human quirkiness in doing the work, in giving the song its character, and that doesn't necessarily mean flaws or errors. It's what makes it interesting.

This week's song: As noted above, I'm working on an album called Winter,

Back in 1984 I wrote a bunch of songs that were meant to be a new band album after we'd recorded Broken Hearts and the Fabulous Perch in 1982. Unfortunately, as sometimes happens, we never found the time and other projects and bands took precedence. This year I decided to finally re-record the songs into more finalized versions. So for this week's song we have both the original demo and the finished song. The song is Wind. You'll note I shorted it and changed the solo. The other most notable thing is the difference in the sound depth of the new version.

You can hear them at mrprimitivemusic.com.

©2018 David William Pearce

Thoughts on Songwriters-Paul Simon

A few weeks ago I went with Nancy to see Paul Simon on his This is My Last Big Tour tour. It was a fine show as these elegiac events tend to be. I've made it a kind of bucket list to see as many of the performers and songwriters that informed my musical sensibilities as I can before they or I fade from view. Certain shows were somewhat prophetic; the Eagles before Glenn Frey died, Neil Diamond before Parkinson's, Fleetwood Mac with all its members together. Others never were; we had tickets to see Al Jarreau, but he died before the show could take place.

As a songwriter and recording artist with a fair sized catalog-though I don't pretend to be in their league-I tend to see them over the length of their careers and note the changes along the way. I also wonder if, as has been wondered after the end of the gloried Tin Pan days, if, like then, we aren't reaching the end of a particular period of musical creativity that permeated the greater public consciousness.

The 60's, 70's, and 80's were a prolific period for singer-songwriters across all genres of which Paul Simon is a shining example. From the folk inflected songs he wrote in the 60's for Simon and Garfunkel, through the R&B, gospel and soul sounds of his  70's solo records to the world music inflections of his albums of the 80's, Simon mined the sounds he heard over his life and produced a treasure trove of songs that are now part of the American songbook. The irony with Simon is the wake that followed him through these permutations of songcraft, whether is was grousing about his being a faux folkie or an appropriator of black music styles, whether American or World based. There is the counter argument about how he brought otherwise obscure, at least to the broader public, voices to greater acclaim.

As I said above, I wonder if there are any Simons in our future. Songs today that are as popular as his were in his day are the product of collaboration between many writers and tend to be emblematic of the particular sonic qualities inherent in modern computer based production. How many of these songs will be sung by many for many years to come? Will they be sung to old folks by old folks in forty or fifty years? Will Kanye or Kendrick Lamar be someday as Simon is today? Is Rap something others cover? I assume so; why wouldn't they?

It makes me wonder.

This Week's Song. For fun, this week's songs isn't from any album, but is a short song I wrote for a dance solo Nancy and I did late last summer called With a Man (Who Loves to Dance). It's written for a Foxtrot and I was inspired by Peggy Lee when I wrote it. Nancy sings lead. You can hear it at mrprimitivemusic.com

©2018 David William Pearce

They Gave a Pulitzer to Hip-Hop: OMG or AFT?

I don't normally pay attention to who win the Pulitzer prize in music; I don't even know what the criteria might be, eligibility; anything like that. Some of the winners I know of, some I have no idea, but this year they gave it to the Rap/Hip-Hop artist, Kendrick Lamar for his album, Damn. 
It's caused quite a bit of talk, controversy; which I guess should be expected.
Traditionally, the Pulitzer has gone to Classical or Jazz artists, those who have, for the most part, defined musical educations. The assumption is that Kendrick Lamar does not, that he comes to his musical understanding by other means; I doubt Hip-Hop songs are charted out, however in this day and age of Pro Tools and plug-ins, beats, etc, it may simply be the creative melding of existing sounds and sampling, and I assume some performance, into something unique.
Now, I'm not ordinarily an aficionado of Hip-Hop, but I figured the smart thing to do would be to listen to the album, and I did, and it's very good. It grooves, it's got things to say, messages; all the things us oldsters remember the social critique albums of yore having.
Whether adding popular music to the mix in awarding Pulitzers is a good or bad thing I don't know. Does it diminish those who spend years learning and perfecting the classical canon of musical composition and theory and then trying to create and then compete against the titans of those genres for ear time? It might, but that's been a concern for some time.
The other comment made on this asks whether there is a racial component here because classically trained and educated musicians tend to be white, predominantly due to accessibility and wealth; music school ain't cheap!
To me the question inevitably goes to the value of a fine arts education, whether it's music, writing, or the visual arts. When everything is judged based on "Market Value" or what's popular at any given moment, its value will always be subjective even as debt is not. Whether the debt is worth the personal subjectivity is an individual conundrum.



This week's song is from Apologia,

Imperfect Touch. It's about love as a concept versus love as it really exists. The point that compromise and concession are inevitably the only way that love can work between two people no matter how they may wish it could be. Musically, the song came about from the drum track and the synth pattern derived from playing with it. The guitars are mildly distorted through the Effectron, and I pushed to vocals a bit.
Yo can hear it at mrprimitivemusic.com.
©2018 David William Pearce

Which is Better, New Stuff or Old Stuff?

A question for my many fans: Is Apologia better than We Three?

I ask the question because I was listening to a podcast recently and the woman interviewed, the writer Lorrie Moore, stated that she didn't read her writings from days past. I found that odd but not particularly surprising; it is an affliction many artists suffer from.
But not me.
My affliction is that I am quite critical of my craft as I work on it and spent many hours wasting much needed effort-that should be directed to other pressing affairs-believing it's all for naught. It's my own personal defect.
Time, however, suppresses this foolishness. There was a time when I did not think particularly well of Apologia, or the other albums I made in the 80's. Most of the criticism revolved around the fact that I was limited in what I could do and therefore would not create a masterpiece, or something resembling the noise on the radio.
I now think the albums are pretty f**king good all things considered.
Now I have all the processing power I longed for in ye good old days and am occasionally perplexed that I'm not creating masterpieces with my recent albums. On the plus side I don't care if they don't sound like what's on the radio. That's not necessarily a diss; I just know better.
So, is Apologia better than We Three or vice versa?
They are different, but that could be credited to the fact that they were made 30 years apart; perspectives change, musical direction changes, abilities and desires change.
And unlike Ms. Moore, I do listen to what I've recorded and as I made it primarily for me-that way if it's disappointing to others I have an out. So I listen to the differencesand marvel that it did turn out as good as it has given the limitations of my abilities and the equipment at my disposal.

If you wish to judge for yourself, the albums can be heard at mrprimitivemusic.com. Just go to the albums section.

Speaking of mrprimitive.com,
This week's song is from Apologia, Man On The Box. The song deals with pedophiles and the lengths they go to to excuse their actions while knowing it's wrong. I don't remember exactly what made me write this, but it was probably on one of those talk shows where people were rationalizing their addictions and their inability to stop even when confronted with being ostracized and jailed. It is also a meditation on how society sees runaways, street kids as afterthoughts and the detritus of broken families. The music, which like almost all of my songs came first and started with the drum pattern. The solo is my favorite part- I like the guttural tone that came from the Rat distortion box and the Effectron II delay.

©2018 David William Pearce