221
This song, “221,” is actually about 10 years old (the lyrics, plus some simple mathematics, will tell you fun facts about me), and originally recorded on 4-track out at the farm.
It is a textbook example of how not to write a song — there is no chorus, and the verses don’t have a repeated line (in songwriting class, they would tell you that one or the other is necessary — that’s where you put the title!). In addition, the rhyme scheme changes every verse, while the chord progression remains absolutely the same throughout the entire song. It’s ridiculous!
It was always kind of an also-ran until a few days ago when I tried experimenting with sampling the autoharp with my Korg Electribe. What fun! And it allowed me to play around with various rhythms until I found one I liked. So the stacatto ‘harp is actually sampled — it’s easy to tell at the very end, when it’s played solo.
There are three other ‘harp tracks in here (all, of course, playing the exact same progression) — one clean, one distorted, and one comes from the origianal 4-track recording, which is overdubbed underneath this version and surfaces a couple of times, most notably in the second half of the bridge, where you can also hear a second drum machine playing out-of-sync.
Also appearing are a diatonic harmonica and a thumb piano, along with the to-be-expected Kawai and SR-16. Words are here.
May 21st, 2007 at 7:21 pm
I like the distortion and the harmonica…. Did you know that they used to make wax harmonicas? Several chambers were filled with sweet syrup of some kind but the others were functional, so you could munch and play.