Measured (a minidisc coda)

	Measured is an example of a rough idea falling between the cracks but never completely disappearing. 

Over the last coupla decades, variations of its arrangement, progression, lyrics & purpose have resulted in a fistful of songs distantly related here-&-there on a few albums or exhumed for failed pitches & rescinded commissions. 

There are other strains like this — a loose group of wallflowers that occasionally swap choruses, bridges or melody lines in attempts to discretely move on. 

	I found about ten recorded stabs at Measured from over the years, but demoed this version for a final time (again) a few weeks ago on the MD8 minidisc recorder to try & put it to rest.

 	I started off with a Vox AC1 mini amp for its “rhythm patterns,” a menu of drum sounds — just for a reference beat. I was pretty sure it wouldn’t make the final mix, but mic’d it inside a street-salvaged drum with an Oktava MK319 anyway, just in case it sounded cool.

I’ve been wanting to use my Hammond chord organ again, so I mic’d it with a Shure Beta 57A & just poked the chord buttons.

A Yamaha CP keyboard anchored the verses through an EH Canyon pedal with the “FX Level” turned completely down. I've found that some instruments just sound a little better plugged through pedals like this sometimes, regardless of the potential to affect, giving a slight, colorless enhancement — nothing yet something — a nuance that maybe only I discern. 

My Harmony Hollywood known as Junior used the same setup, but also blue-taped to temper an after-tone or something that occasionally comes from the pickup wire vibrating near the f-hole. 

Next, I put Junior through the EH Canyon again, but this time in the "Octave" setting with the “FX Level” maxed for a high jangle, then tracked a simple lower line with no "FX" for underpinning.

Lastly, the mini amp drum was muted in the mix as predicted. I was gonna record over it with a baritone guitar or something under the Hammond, but the organ is a little out of intonation — which sometimes works & sometimes doesn’t. 

This time, it didn’t — meaning it's done (again)

for now

probably . . . 

The day is coming when you won't know where to go, too deep in the night for the shadow you're throwing off, but hidden from the coterie left behind who flesh it out into arms that won't open still, as if the past could fly low enough to not be seen as owned, unsettled.  

The roots refused to know the leaves had died while the branches were blowing; the splintered brood that took their time fighting what they fought to keep locked & passed down.  

The darkness isn't cold — it stays awhile then says, as it's going, calm & measured, “just waiting for a ride.”

But, look at you now: cut-off & broken, reaching in for signs of life — breathing out what used to be.

Measured (a minidisc coda):