Amends (lost-&-found home recording #4 & acoustic rough pluck) — in patterns
I’m noticing patterns now as I review past work as a whole for EXTRACTIONS. Over the decades, I’ve had finished songs that I’ve eventually realized were unknowingly based on previous writing. Sometimes melodies can feel singular, but there’s always a suspicion if one feels too noteworthy — as in, I’m possibly drawn to it because I’ve already used it. Some of us are always looking for familiarity, whether we know it or not. Or, even worse — maybe something about it seems under another influence. I’ve had moments where I’ve thought there was a similarity between a song of mine called Lucky from the 2006 album Meadow, & the I Love Lucy theme. The feeling generally comes & goes in whatever manner of the flower hybrid du jour. That’s always a buzz-killer, though — those accidentally exploited patterns — like I’ve lost a hopeful relationship — as if we had a real connection. Well, I did, anyway, but, it was actually just me the whole time. Maybe you should spend more time apart, then.
One way to break up a pattern in composition is to do it by accident. While touring, I’d discover other versions of songs simply by changing which guitar I recited them on. Randomly changing from acoustic steel string to nylon was always a good idea to find a fresh voice — plastic pick to fingerpick or a thumb-strum — maybe acoustic to electric with a few effects pedals to give it an unwonted twist — or pinch on a capo & play it with different chords altogether to make other sorts of performance accents happen — the subconscious kind which mechanically come with a certain key or chord structure.
When considering Amends as a newsletter subject, I found several interpretations. Most are built around the full arrangement track-stack spelled-out below, but with slight variations of words & instrumentation evolution.
You arrive as a hovel in the distance calls to wane you through lying back with the shavings from the ashes of amended time for the razed successions stalled from ages set between the hands passing down the world that held you by the throat and still won't let you go back inside to find the strayed insisting that the lights stay low gazing off at the shrouded expectation locked behind your eyes:
1. marching drum-wool mallet/ev cardinal/grace
2. marching drum-wool mallet/ev cardinal/grace
3. univox sr-120-beguine-rhythm B/eh b9-fat&full/direct-roland/edit
4. cylinder/ev cardinal/grace
5. danelectro bender baritone (A)/direct-roland-w/t-6/line-1
6. danelectro bender baritone (A)/direct-roland/line double-1
7. ebow-harmony rocket-standard-lower/boss ch-1 super chorus/direct
8. ebow-harmony rocket-standard-higher/boss ch-1 super chorus/direct
9. supro baritone 4-string (ADGB)/direct-roland/roots-1 & 2
10. fender rhodes piano bass/eh b9-bell organ, organ=max, mod=ma/direct-roland/roots-2
11. suzuki qchord-ezplay, auto chord/eh b9, classic rock, organ=max, mod=max/direct-roland
12 suzuki qchord-ezplay,auto chord/eh b9-classic rock organ=max, mod=max/direct-roland
13. wurlitzer electric piano/shure sm57/grace-low line-2
14. wurlitzer electric piano/vibrato/shure sm57/grace-high line-2
15. danelectro black baritone (A)/direct-1-root double
16. danelectro black baritone (A)/direct-2-root double
17. vocal-main/rode nt1a/grace-1 &2
18. vocal-double/rode nt1a/grace-2
19. vocal-harmony/rode nt1a/grace-2
20. vocal-harmony double/rode nt1a/grace-2
21. wurlitzer electric piano/shure sm57/grace-melody fromT7 ebow-opposite pan
22. wurlitzer electric piano/shure sm57/grace-melody fromT8 ebow-opposite pan
23. X
24. X
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