Orinoco Blog January 2015: “Maybe a smile will just be the new receipe for good luck”
Let me apologise for the last 30 odd days for not saying Happy New Year.
How rude of me not to say it earlier, but I have been busy concentrating on remembering to put 2015 in the dates instead of 2014. Yes it does take all of mind powers to remember to put the right date in.
Now I have been thinking over the holiday that since the album has been completed.
“Yes okay I will stop talking while you have another dance for me repeating this wonderful 2014 news, and maybe also for the memory of the 2014, you can either dance because your happy 2014 is gone or your happy that 2014 was good for you so it is like a thankyou dance. I still haven’t learnt to dance so please stop asking me?”
Anyway since the album is completed and the film clip is locked away on You Tube click this link:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw6qp5s1vKg,
I am going to try and give an insight into all the 12 songs. I will attempt to remember how they were written, why they were written and where they are written. This will be testing my memory and I am sure Beau or Wilko or Roy will probably say to me,
“Nah I was wearing a green not a red T-Shirt on that night at that poxy rehearsal studio that nearly burnt down while we were banging out that song. To make matters worse we felt like cowards when we knocked on the other rehearsal room to tell them of the impending fire, the musician’s told us that they weren’t going anywhere because they paid their $12.50 and by damn they were going to get their money’s worth.”
So each month I will go through each song one by one.
Yes I know right, this must be the MOOOOSSSSTTTT enthralling information to hit the web since Yoda was caught smoking cigarettes behind the Jedi Light Sabre shed in his youngling days. Don’t worry Star Wars fans he learnt his lesson when he was made to smoke a whole packet of the Jabba Jay’s. The only drama was he wasn’t actually green until he smoked them.
Sorry digressed as usual. When it comes to old songs for the album, three made the cut. Two songs made it without any changes and the third was Mr Ginger Bread Man.
Mr Ginger Bread Man, when first written was very basic to say the least. It had one major riff going through it which hasn’t changed and a two bar chorus. The words in the verse were repeated the whole time and the chorus only changed but substituting the last word, and there was no special magic when coming up with the riff, I was just playing guitar in my house and I just hit the notes, they sounded great so I built the song around it.
As I have said before in previous blogs the song is about a cousin who died of cancer, and Mr Ginger Bread man is the guardian angel. My thought process (yes even though a weird one) I asked myself the question.
“If everyone has a guardian angel, what happens when terrible sickness strikes, have these angels disappeared into a pub, or out back smoking with Yoda, or down at the horse track placing bets.”
One of the issues is that the lyrics were as “boring” as, uhmm can’t think of an analogy, just think of something boring and imagine that. Also I thought if this song is actually heard by someone who is struggling with cancer it is a sad song of an impending fate. So I changed the lyrics because cancer can be beaten and those fighting it need to say I am here and I am ready for the fight.
Luckily for me we were rehearsing for a 21st birthday in a small rehearsal room used for teaching music students and the lyrics just flowed, as I made them up as went along. I took the bulk of it wrote it down, and as we say in Australia when something is done.
“Bob’s your uncle” (I have no idea who Bob is and why he is everyone’s uncle but that is the saying.)
The music also needed to be amended a little as the same riff going through the song is great but even a beer drinker sometimes like some wine or spirits now and again.
Now I am not sure what came first whether it was the middle eight change or the small outro from the chorus, blahhh who cares right.
I just know that the middle eight was created in the studio, with Jerry saying these chords go together and that was how we did that.
The outro was accidently created by me when I was trying to find a change in the song, I dropped my pick that I was using and hit a chord in a way that sounded like a good way to finish the song. Didn’t I just say it was the outro to the chorus? Yes I did because Jerry said throw that part to break up the chorus and verses, brilliant.
The last part was the “Ginger Bread Man rhyme, which went just right with those chords, however I kept thinking it need a child’s voice so I pulled in my 9 year nephew who is now going on 13 and he sang the part.
Everything was going well until Jerry asked me,
“Run run as fast as you can…Ginger Bread rhyme doesn’t suit the idea of the song, because Mr Ginger Bread Man is the Guardian Angel who doesn’t care?”
Bloody producers always need to have a reason for things and at that stage I never had a reason, it just fitted the song.
However I have thought about it because it is more fun than thinking about my mortgage on my house, and I came up with this scenario.
The child singing the rhyme is really mocking both the Angel and Cancer. He is taunting Cancer to catch him and also telling the Angel at the same time, if you want to help me fight than I welcome it but I will fighting with or without your help.
That probably makes absolutely no sense at all, but do we need to have an answer for everything.
‘Sometimes the whole thing just feels right’
Anyway I believe I have bored you enough with my first song explanation, however lucky for you I will be doing the same next month.
I think I might do Soul Breath
Stay Safe.