Song Number 38: Lucky One

Hello - it's me!

Yup, that's Donald Duck in the picture.  And if you don't donate a few quid to Parkinson's UK, Donald will be most upset! http://www.justgiving.com/songaweek

Incidentally, while I mention Donald Duck, have a look at this great piece of Allied WWII propaganda - brilliant, and slightly disturbing:

But anyway, back to business.  This track is an overproduced monstrosity - basically me trying to be Todd Rundgren.  Rundgren is a fantastic musician - a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer responsible not only for some tremendous chart-friendly hits such as Prime Time (produced for The Tubes); Hello, It's Me (from his wonderful album Something/Anything) and the first Bat Out Of Hell album by Meatloaf and Jim Steinman... but also for a catalogue of work that's always interesting to listen to (the beautiful a capella album, produced nearly 20 years before we were getting excited about Björk's Medúlla), even if the experiments sometimes miss the mark (such as the one-joke-stretched-too-long With A Twist).

When you're this talented, you can wear what you want

Nowadays, Rundgren's still producing consistently interesting and listenable music, with plenty of tracks you feel are great even though you're buggered if you can work out why.  As I mentioned in the last post, I was privileged to have got to see him at London's Jazz Café a few weeks ago, when he played one of the most relaxed, fun shows I've seen in a long time - despite what impressions you might get from the above photo, he seems to be a very funny guy who doesn't take himself all that seriously.  Much like another favourite of mine, Frank Zappa, he's an artist who definitely rewards the time and mind-space you're prepared to give the music.  Start with A Wizard, A True Star.

So yeah, millions of tracks; lots of overdubbed vocals; and a big, flappy Vistalite drumkit like his current drummer Prairie Prince.  The guitar chords in the chorus, for example, are made up of three guitars, a synth, a clav, and strings.  Daft.

BY THE WAY - I see from the little Feedjit thing on the side that I'm getting visitors from all over the place, day and night.  Firstly, hello to you all!  Second, while you're here, please leave your comments and maybe make a donation as well!  We musicians crave attention and constant reassurance, you know...

Song Number 37: Waterloo Staircase

Try this with headphones on.  In a dark room.

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So this track was written in a few minutes, and the main purpose was to play around with the backing vocal sounds and try to convey some of the atmosphere of one of my favourite places in London.  The title should give you a bit of a clue (HELLO!) as to where it is.  It's a small staircase nobody seems to use, and it feels like one of the few places in the whole of the Capital that isn't covered by CCTV.  Not that I want to get up to anything naughty there, of course - I just remember the wonderful feeling of calm that washed over me the first time I walked up it and realised I wasn't being watched by an electronic eye.

Doing all manner of prohibited activities...

The backing vocal noises have no effects on them other than a spot of reverb - I did a lot of waving my hands in front of my face, singing into a saxophone bell, and other ridiculous things, but it was a delight to be able to play around with noises like that again - I think part of me was inspired by a recent Todd Rundgren concert, at which he played this track from his "A Capella" album - Lost Horizon.