May 13th, 2009
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
-Ralph Waldo EmersonAvoidance of Foolish Repetition
-Alan W. Pollack* * *
Now that I've started work on the second GYZ CD, and I've got at least two other gyz ... er, guys on board with the project, I am wanting to address some things musically.
I want some of that AFR (Avoidance of Foolish Repetition) going on in this CD. This can be addressed in a variety of ways. The Beatles, who were masters of it, employed a Two Times and You're Out approach. Something done vocally or on guitar is done twice, then the third time they do something different. Listen to the beginning of Back in the USSR: they do the little guitar chord twice, then the third time they do a vocal part to AFR. Or in Hello Goodbye, there is a little guitar lick in the chorus. They do it twice, then Paul sings it the third time. The entire instrumental arrangement changes in each verse of Strawberry Fields Forever. Each verse of Here Comes the Sun has more synthesizer layers added. There are examples in nearly every Beatles song from their "mid-period" onwards. That, by the way, might very well have been George Martin's influence. Another trick that the Beatles practically pioneered was the layering of instruments. First verse is guitar and bass, second verse adds piano or BGs (background vocals), third verse adds something else, maybe a harpsichord or dubbed brass instrument. The point is, once they came up with the standard verse-chorus-refrain structure, they didn't just play the song out and master it and ship it. They went back and made each verse, each chorus, sometimes each sung line, unique in some way. There's no secret to that, it just requires a bit of forethought and some attention to detail.
Well, I plan to learn from that: My own songs sometimes show variety in the verses, but I tend to be four-square in refrains and choruses. I don't need to cite examples of my own songs: You can listen to snippets of them yourself if you like:
The rockingest CD ever to come out of my basement.
I'm trying to talk my cousin into coming out to Vancouver to play drums for the songs. He is oh-so-professional; he sometimes plays with the Toronto Symphony, don't ya know. If he is reading this: There's a steak dinner in it for you, Ed. I'll throw in a few bottles of wine cooler and we can cruise the seamier sides of town in a beat-up Ford Gran Torino, too, if you want. No, no, just kidding! We never did that in 1989. (Hmm, I have to be careful here: Some of my co-workers read this blog.)
Wow, am I rambling today.
Anyhow, I have started the effort, got scratch recordings of all the new songs (there are 10 new and up to 4 remixed songs that didn't make it to the last CD). I don't know about the timing for all this, but I am hoping it won't take 4 years like the last one did. Really, that isn't so bad considering that day job I mentioned above ... but still, I want it to be ready sooner than later.
Well, we'll see.
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