Category: Music

New Lyrics: Vikings!

Before it recedes too far too fast I want to mention how Steely Dan reminded me about another show I saw not very long ago. It was a year or two ago, another one of those sultry late June evenings, I saw Keith Emerson at a theater in Tarrytown very similar to the Beacon, decedent with post-vaudevillian anachronistic art-demo splendor. Like the Steelies, I saw ELP once before, in a large outdoor summer concert setting, but this show was much smaller and more intimate.

Keith Emerson is one of my all time musical idols, and the only person I know of who ever led a rock power trio on keyboards instead of guitar. His piano playing, organ, not to mention his pioneering work in synthesizers. Wow! He put on a really good show, revisiting alot of classic ELP material, plus a good helping of newer stuff. He even had is Modular Moog all set up and used it to reproduce a few critical solos from various songs. To this day Karn Evil 9, 2nd Impression remains one of my favorite tunes to play on the piano.

Around this time we were finishing up the Buzzy Tonic record and tossing around ideas for songs for a follow-up. I thought it might be fun to an album-side-length prog epic, in the grand tradition of Tarkus, Karn Evil 9, 2112, Hemispheres, Close To The Edge or one of those. If you’re a prog fan you’ll know what I’m talking about. But what topic? I’ve always had a thing for Vikings, so the night of the concert I came home and came up with a lyric. The only problem is it pretty much turned out as a recapitulation of the plot of the classic Terry Jones movie “Erik The Viking”. Well I could do worse I suppose; at least it was suitably epic. However, the task of arranging and recording a twenty minute song was rather daunting; as much effort as four or five normal sized songs. So the odds me actually getting around to it any time soon are slim to none. I might do a demo of it someday, but meanwhile, I thought I’d share the lyric with you.

…

 

Vikings!


I. Overture: Looting and Pillaging

(instrumental)

 

II. Freya

Young men only interested in fighting and killing
But has it always been that way?
An axe age a storm age an ice age
Brother against brother in hatred and rage
Until the world is destroyed

Look, what do you see?
I see the world, Freya
I see the world

The winter is gone, the summer has come
Yet Fenreya the Wolf still covers the sun
So the old legends are all true
Once as a child in a dream the sky was blue
It was blue

So this is Ragnorok
What must I do, Freya
What must I do?

And will the dead ever return?

 

III. Vikings!
(including Erik, What Are You Doing?  Thorfinn Just Said That Sven’s Grandfather Died of Old Age! and Harald the Cleric)

Erik, What Are You Doing?
Thorfinn just said that Sven’s grandfather
Died of old age!
He’ll have to kill me!  He’ll have to kill me!
No he didn’t he died in battle!
Now he must kill me!  Now he must kill me!
He died of old age!
He’ll have to kill me!  He’ll have to kill me!

No wait!
There is another way!
I’m not afraid of anything

…

Harald the Cleric no warrior he
Sandals treading in the snow

Harald the Cleric doesn’t believe
In violence and revenge
Asgaard or Valhalla
Cuz he believes in something else
One god or many?
What does it matter?
He seeks serenity transcendence and wisdom
Forgiveness salvation
Yet no one will listen

Harald the Cleric pilgrim missionary 
Sandals treading in the snow
He’s sure got a long way to go

 

The Voyage
(including Sven the Berserk vs. The Dragon of the North Sea and Thorfinn Doesn’t Know the Meaning of Fear)

Earnestly Erik with Harald the Cleric
And Leif the Lucky too
Sven the Berserk and Sven’s Berserker Dad
All join in the crew
Kietel Blacksmith, Thorfinn Skullsplitter
Even Ivar the Boneless and Snorri
Start on their quest in their open long boat
That’s the last we shall see of old Norway!

Many cold days pass on rolling waves
Puke, puke, puke, puke, puke
Pursued by Halfdan the Black –
There’s no turning back
The dragon attacks!
The long ship cracks!
Frame by frame death by drowning
On the Devil’s doorway

The dreaded black sails are drawing near
But Thorfinn doesn’t know the meaning of fear
The battle is joined and Erik brings
The magic from the daughter of the King
Now you see me now you don’t ha ha!

Thorfinn falls, Sven rages on
The day won under the sun, but now
Loki shows his face, has yet to play his hand
What does fate have in store for poor Snorri?

 

V. Hy-Brasil
(including The Tee-Tum Song)

Welcome, welcome we always welcome friends
Everyone is friends here in Hy-Brasil
Being nice to each other is what it’s all about.
Here in Hy-Brasil
A thousand years of peace and love
Here in Hy-Brasil

Tee-tum, tee-tum, tee-tum
Tee-tum, tee-tum, tee-tum, tee-tum
Tee-tum, tee-tum, tee-tum

We come from a land where there is no music
Where men live and die by the axe and the sword
Where Fenreya the Wolf covers the sun
Far from Hy-Brasil

Tee-tum, tee-tum, tee-tum, tee-tum
Tee-tum, tee-tum, tee-tum

And so human blood is spilled
And the land begins to sink beneath the sea
Murder tragic disenchants the island’s magic
The end of Hy-Brasil

Stay calm, stay calm this is not happening
I repeat, this is not happening
Save yourselves! Save yourselves!
Panic mongers!  Who do they think they are?

It’s all a question of what you want to believe

Tee-tum, tee-tum, tee-tum

 

VI. The Horn Resounding

You do know how to play the horn d’you?

The first note to take you to Asgaard
The second note to awaken the gods
The third note to bring you home

The first note to take you to Asgaard
Over the edge of the world
Over the edge of the world

Once you’re in the spell of the horn
Hatred will destroy you
Hatred will destroy you

And she said,
You don’t have to love me
But do you believe that I love you?
Then let go, let go
Let go

 

VII. Bifrost Asgaard Valhalla (and Home)

(instrumental)

Bifrost – Asgaard  – Valhalla!
Bifrost – Asgaard  – Valhalla!

The second note to awaken the gods

Bifrost – Asgaard  – Valhalla!
Bifrost – Asgaard  – Valhalla!
The gods awake!
Better look out!

Bifrost – Asgaard  – Valhalla!
Bifrost – the rainbow bridge
Asgaard  – the hall of the gods
Valhalla – the destiny of the great warriors
Yeah we’re the lucky ones!

Now Fenreya the wolf is gone
But the fate of man
Is in man’s hand

The realm of earth is not for you
You’ve crossed the rainbow bridge
And will the dead ever return?

…

The third note to bring you home

Harald the Cleric, blows the horn
He doesn’t believe but he wants to go home

Look, what do you see?
The sun … !

They Got the Steely Dan T-Shirts

I saw Steely Dan last night Friday at the Beacon Theater in NY. I used to go to tons and tons of concerts, but nowadays it’s harder to make the time, so I have to pick ’em carefully. Steely is one of my favorite bands ever with their unique combination of jazz influence, instrumental virtuosity, vivid storytelling and dark cynicism, and this show did not disappoint. The Beacon is a great old art deco theater, not too big and with good acoustics.

The band was excellent. There was Walter and Donald, a really, really good drummer, bass, 2nd keyboard, 2nd gtr, 2 female vocalists, and a horn section of trumpet, trombone, alto/tenor, and bari. Alot of the songs they jazzed up with solos and new horn arrangements. Walt and Don are both looking older but they can still play. Walt took about 2 or 3 songs to really warm up singing. He only took 2 or 3 keyboard solos (one on the chromatic harmonica), and Don only took about half the gtr solos, and alot of times just comped in the background or noodled and riffed. They played for over 2 hours straight, and only stopped between tunes a few times, which must’ve been pretty hard on the bass player and especially the drummer. All the other guys had enough time to lay out.

The set was really pretty different from when we saw them at SPAC (Saratoga Performing Arts Center) in ’93. I would rank that as one of the best concerts of all time that I’ve seen, but this one was much more oriented towards diehard fans. And I was alot closer to the stage. They skipped alot of their radio hits, especially the earlier ones (no Rikki, Old School, Reelin’, Bodhisattva, Deacon Blues, Aja or Home at Last — all of which they played in ’93). Alot of deep cuts, played alot off The Royal Scam and Gaucho. It was actually really a very satisfying set. Let me see if I can remember it all. I did my best to remember the order, but it might not be totally correct:

Everyone’s Gone to the Movies (instrumental)
The Fez (instrumental)
The Royal Scam
I Got the News
Hey Nineteen (with Walter doing an Elwood-Blues-style rap about Cuervo and fine Columbian)
Show Biz Kids
With A Gun
Two Against Nature
(2 or 3 more newer songs I didn’t recognize in there)
Gaucho (with Walter singing)
Monkey In Your Soul
Parker’s Band
Babylon Sisters
Everything You Did
Glamour Profession
(introduce the band jam)
Kid Charlemagne
Josie
FM

encores:
Peg
Black Friday
Don’t Take Me Alive
(exit music)

They might’ve done a few more. I feel like Monkey in Your Soul and Your Gold Teeth II, but I can’t remember fer sure.  Anyway it was a good time.  Think fast!

New Mixes

I posted new mixes of two of my tunes, and updated the links on my music pages.

The new Fine Red Wine (and alternate take) includes actually mixing the faders, particularly in the intro, and moving pan pots on the horn section. They were supposed to be spread evenly across, but the tenor was standing right where the alto was, panned to the right when it should’ve been panned to the left. Much nicer now, ah.

Angel Or Alien now has a bit of vibes in the intro. This one is an experiment. I’m not sure I like the way the drums come in, so I added simple chord to back up the synth and set up the drums. I think its an improvement but I’m still not sure it’s what I’m after.  Might want to do something more with it, but maybe better just to let it go.

New Recording: Fine Red Wine Rough Mix

(River Flows Like) Fine Red Wine
Fine Red Wine (Alternate Take)

I was inspired to do a love song after Jeannie and I celebrated our Twennyversary. It’s basically a classic R&B kind of groove and the changes are all based on the 7th chords. It also has intro which uses an ostinato over descending bass line that wraps around, creating some dark and interesting chords. (This intro is a bit unusual for me in that almost everything I’ve written for this project so far and for the Brothers Zing before tend to have chord progressions that move upward. Regard this as a coincidence, or maybe a phase I’m going thru, but I noticed it and think it’s kind of intriguing.) No worries though, the main riff moves upward. As so often happens, I had a couple musical patterns I was playing around with and the lyric made the whole thing come together.

It’s a fun number to play, and fairly easy compared to a lot of my tunes. I laid down the vocals fairly quickly. The harmony was pretty spontaneous, I didn’t really try and work it out ahead of time. I just had an idea and decided to go for it. I like the way it came out. It has bit of a rough quality to it, but I think that’s part of its charm. I put a full horn section arrangement on it. Four saxophones: soprano, alto tenor and baritone. Thanks again to Martin for loaning me his bari sax. I had so much fun playing it I decided to give the bari a solo. This turned out to be great song to solo on, and I did a few takes. In the end, I mixed down a second version with alternate takes of the solos.

This is the fourth song in my current recording project, so I have a logical album side or virtual EP. I have another set of tunes ready to start in on, but I want to take a break, so I’ll probably mix and master this set before starting in on the next batch. So watch this space.

Meanwhile, Martin has agreed to add some guitar tracks to these tunes. This should be interesting and cool. I really enjoyed working with him on the BZ project. He’s a versatile and creative musician who is good at coming up with parts that contribute to the arrangement, often in unexpected ways. By the end of the BZ project our writing and arranging was growing closer, and was looking forward to continuing with that. However Martin had other things going on at the time. So I continued on my own, and it was difficult at first because: 1.) it’s good to have a creative partner to bounce ideas off of, and 2.) everything takes twice as long when your doing it by yourself, and 3.) it’s hard to make rock music without a guitar in there. But I decided not to worry about it and went ahead and made my peace with not having a guitars in the arrangements, and you know, took it as a creative challenge.  As it turns out I’m actually quite happy with this set of tunes. Now some time has gone by and Martin is putting back together his recording studio again, and says it’ll be good way to get back into recording to help me with these tracks. So I’m thinking of it something like Andy Summers sitting in on Nothing Like the Sun. We’ll see where this leads and what influence it has on the second side of the record.

New Song: Fine Red Wine

I’ve been working on a new song called Fine Red Wine. It’s basically a love song, and I came up with the idea for it last fall shortly after Jeannie and I celebrated our Twennyversery. So the lyrics are heartfelt and fairly straightforward. For the music, I wanted something accessible, soulful and bluesy. It has a neat little intro with a descending figure in the bass under a constant onstanato, which creates some interesting chords. After that it it’s basically a classic R&B kind of groove and the changes are all based on the 7th chords. It’s a fun number to play, and I put a full horn section arrangement on it. Also some cool two-note figures in the bass.

I started working on it in the early spring. It’s been slow going due to other commitments, but it’s almost ready now. I got the vocals in a couple of weeks ago, and this last weekend I spent tracking the horns. That was a lot of fun. Basically all that’s left is to lay down the solo, then I’ll be ready to share.

This is the fourth song in my current recording project, and when It’s done I’ll have a logical album side or virtual EP. I have another set of tunes ready to start in on, but I want to take a break, so I’ll probably mix and master this set before starting in on the next batch. So watch this space. Meanwhile, here are the lyrics.

…

Fine Red Wine
by John Szinger, 2007

I love you woman
We’ve been together for a long time
We’ve had our ups and down
River flows like fine red wine

Woo-hoo!

I remember the night we met
Sharing tequila and partying on
Well times they sure have changed
But I believe the best is still to come

The River!
Wheel turning round and round

I remember the day we wed
The look in your eyes just said it all
I knew you love me too
You are so beautiful

Big wheel keep on moving along

I love you woman
River flows like fine red wine
We’ll have our ups and down
Let’s be together for a long time

Tequila!
Let’s go get Mexican food

Hello Spring

Well, spring is here. In fact it’s April already. The nights are still cold but the days are getting mild. It’s been a few weeks since life has returned to normal WTR the work week, but I feel like I’m still catching up. Haven’t even had time to go shopping. Been trying to catch up on some random purchases. Been getting back into biking and rollerblading regularly again. We *did* manage to finish tiling and painting our bathroom (more on that in a previous post). Also last weekend we started getting the yard going for spring. Raked off the leaves and debris, and uncovered the fig tree, and started planning what we want to do this spring.

Been making progress on the new Mac. Every new thing is an adventure. After we discovered that Boot Camp won’t work if there are three partitions on the drive, we basically started over. We got a new external hard drive (which we were planning on anyway for backup) and put a 10.5 partition on it, and then put a 10.4 and a Win XP partition on the main boot drive. I went back and installed proTools on 10.4 and it worked, and so did the drivers for my MIDI interface, and so the whole MIDI rig. So far so good. Last week we installed VMWare, which involved calling up Microsoft to talk numbers with a phone robot. Tons of fun. My friend Blick, who is a Mac ProTools guru, came over to help me out last weekend with my music setup. Still after all that SampleTank still doesn’t appear in the list of plugins. So it looks like I’m gonna buy the new SampleTank upgrade for intel macs and see how that goes. At least I always have the option or running PT under windows now.

Been making progress on a new song. The song is gonna be it’s own post when it’s ready but for now I’ll say it’s a kinda prog-ish r&b number and I’m working out the horn arrangement. I realized as I was tracking it that I don’t really have funk chops on the bass, so I went for something I’ll call the funky rock approach that seems pretty good. Now I’m up to penciling the horn section.

And I did get a bit of a spring break, a few comp days. We took the kids up for a day of hanging out in the Catskills with my brother Martin and his fiancé Kathleen at this quaint Victorian era lodge. Sort of like camping but without sleeping out in the cold. The place had a Teddy Roosevelt kind of vibe; thematically consistent with the Museum of Natural History. It was built kinda like a castle into the side of cliff on a small lake. We went hiking and ice skating and swimming, and had a blast. Pictures to be posted sometime in the indeterminate future. The next day M & K came back to our place, and we hung out and played Wii and Settlers of Catan. Our friends Steve and Alice from Texas (yo!) also popped by for a visit.

I’ve also been making progress on diagramming my origami turtle (hope to be ready in another few days), but overall I feel like I need to devote some time to new origami designs, and haven’t yet had the opportunity. I have a bunch of ideas in my head I need to work out in paper.

Jammin’

Last Saturday night I had the opportunity to hang out and jam with my friend Erik. It was a good time. I miss playing with other musicians; it’s something I should do more often. I was always playing in one or more bands from 10th grade until Lizzy was born. Hopefully soon the kids will be old enough that I can think about putting together a group or regular jam session again. Meanwhile I practice regularly to keep up my skillz, and I have my recording project and the occasional jam like this to get by on.

Anyway, I mainly played piano and sax while Erik played guitar and piano, and even some drums, and we both sang. We jammed and jammed until we were too tired to play anymore, and then we watched Concert For George to top it off. Here’s a partial list of songs we covered:

Let It Rain (Clapton)
Fire On the Mountain (Grateful Dead)
(some Little Feet song)
Hey Nineteen (Steely and the Dans)
Black Cow (Steely and the Dans)
Home at Last Steely and the Dans)
Oh! Darling (Beatles)
For No One (Beatles)
The Long and Winding Road (Beatles)
Naima (John Coltrane)
Mr. P. C. (John Coltrane)
(drums and sax jam)
Because (Beatles)
You Never Give Me Your Money (Beatles)
I Want You (She’s So Heavy)
Whiter Shade of Pale (Procal Harem)

Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More (Allman Brothers Band)
What Is and Should Never Be (Led and the Zeppelins)
The Rain Song (Led and the Zeppelins)
All Of My Love (Led and the Zeppelins)
All Along the Watchtower (Dylan)
Too Many People (Paul McCartney)
Maybe I’m Amazed (Paul McCartney)
I’m Only Sleeping (Beatles)
Beast of Burden (Rolling Stones)
(some U2 song)
Can’t Find My Way Home (Blind Faith)
Low Spark of High Heeled Boys (Traffic)
Lady Madonna (Beatles)
Waiting Room (Blick original)
Let It Shine (Blick original)

Sour Apple Blues

So around Christmastime I got a new computer, a shiny iMac. I think I’ve mentioned that I haven’t had a new Mac in over 10 years, since back in the says of System 7. But I was seduced by the image of hipsters on white backgrounds poking fun at hapless corporate types, and repulsed by the prospect of running Vista, so there you go. The plan was to make the Mac the new center of my home recording studio. I’ll bet you’re wondering how that’s been going, moving into the new machine and all. Well, let me tell you.

First of all, I’ve been really busy lately, working 60+ hour weeks for a product launch at work, plus a couple trips. So it’s been taking a while. I didn’t really have time to do much over the Holidays other than plug the computer in and tour some of the built-in apps. I don’t even have email on it yet! And then I was in the middle of a song (The Nine) which I wanted to finish before I switched my rig.

But a couple of weeks ago I finally got around to it. I successfully downloaded, authorized and installed PT 7.1 on the Mac. I use an MBox for audio I/O, and the ProTools upgrade was free, and worked just great, and the DigiDesign website was about as painless as you can expect that sort of thing to be. To give it a test drive, I recorded 2-track demo of She Came in Thru the Bathroom Window. Voice and piano, recorded live, which was kinda cool cuz I’d never tried singing and playing at once before; I usually overdub the vocal. I had the Rhodes in one input and the mic in the other, and it worked fine. With the wireless Mac keyboard I can start and stop the music sitting at the piano. Only problem is I have to turn around to see the screen, but for pressing play it’s great.

Now the current version of PT is 7.4, and I have no idea what’s new in last .3 revs. I’m told there’s a lot better MIDI support for things like time stretching. I wonder to what extent I can move files back and forth between my 2 machines now. Also, PT is officially not supported for OS 10.5, but it seems to work just fine.

Next I installed SampleTank, but PT couldn’t see it. I thought maybe it’s because I haven’t loaded any samples yet, or maybe I need to authorize it, I dunno. So then the project veered off to cruising IK Multimedia’s website and getting in touch with their tech support. After a couple weeks of back’n’forth, I learned that my version of SampleTank (LE 2.08) doesn’t work for Intel Macs, although it’s not clear what the issue is. IK want me to pay $300 to upgrade to a new version of SampleTank, and it’s not also clear how compatible it would be — how much work it’d be to import my old songs with the same patches and everything. So getting to the bottom of that and deciding if I want to do the upgrade is a whole research project.

I figured before I went too much further I’d see how the Mac likes my MIDI interface. It’s a MOTU MIDI Express XT, and MOTU’s web site says it’s plug and play for the Mac, and shawnuff I can see it in the list of USB devices. But when I bang on the keys of my synth, PT doesn’t get the events. So now the question is what software do I need to get ProTools to talk to my external MIDI interface? I’m pretty sure there’s no OMS anymore.

I found drivers for the XT for Mac OS on the MOTU web site, so that seem like a good place to start. Then I discovered the Audio and MIDI settings panel in the Mac OS. Unfortunately when I open the midi panel, it said it couldn’t load due to an error. It suggested I uninstall any recent drivers and try again. I did this but got the same error. Debugging this will be a whole nuther research project.

So in light of this I’m now thinking of installing Parallels or VMWare and running my whole music rig in XP, since I know everything works with that and I have all the software, drivers and everything. This kinda make the whole new Mac thing seem like a waste and failure, but I guess I can still cross over in time, once I get the MacOS issues worked out. Still it’s gotten to the point where it’s holding me back from working on new songs, so I just want to get back to making music. So for tonight I’m going back to my old laptop, and maybe I’ll be in XP via BootCamp on my Mac next weekend. At least I’ll be able to look at 24 tracks of faders on the widescreen display.