In the Year of the Horse

After a prolonged absence from the studio, I finally worked up the gumption to complete a song which has been percolating in my mind for over three years now. Damn, what a nightmare! Once I got going on the recording, it took some sixty 8-hour sessions to complete. This is truly the most troublesome tune I've ever recorded, with the vocals and mixdown being the primary hooligans.

The inspiration for this song came from an unlikely source. I was perusing the newspaper one bitterly cold winter morning, in fact on the day before the start of the Chinese New Year. It related my fortune for the upcoming year: "Fast victories, unexpected adventure, and surprising romance."

I'd like you to hear it, should you be so kindly disposed. But do me a favor. Will you promise to listen to it through decent headphones or stereo speakers? There's a lot of subtlety in the sound mix that simply becomes mud in computer speakers or ear-pods. Thanks.

And oh yeah, this song is meant to be played loud. Or loudly, should you be an orthogrammatic Nazi.

So here it is, In the Year of the Horse:

Are you interested in how it all came together? Then keep reading...

About the Composition

I had a pretty clear idea of what would be happening with the vocals from the outset. With that melody in mind, however, I began by composing the bass and drum parts side-by-side. This was tedious but exciting work as the song started to come together. 

In many ways, when penning tunes, it's always the bass line which fascinates me. This probably comes from my early exposure to Joe Osborn's magnificent work in the Fifth Dimension's Aquarius. You can probably detect his influence in the choruses of my song.

Believe it or not, I scored out the drums completely with pencil and paper (seven very full pages of tiny ciphers!) before execution. Seeing the drum parts, to me, is integral to actually hearing how the trap kit components work together.

Piano and flute were easily composed and recorded in one evening, but don't discount their simplicity. In particular, there is a certain dissonance to the second piano chord which seems quite apt. As for the flute part...that just happened while thinking of the lyrics and of my muse. Sort of a musical equivalent of "automatic writing." My version of taking dictation from Aiwass don't you know.

The guitar parts were a snap to mentally compose--thanks to my inspiration for the song--but insanely painful to prosecute. Part of this is that my hand is still suffering the effects of a surgery back in June, and part also because my fretting hand is still exceedingly tender from many years disuse. In fact, by the time I completed recording the lead guitar parts (which took some three weeks or so to get right), I was literally bleeding on the fretboard!

Despite all that, I do believe I saw Heaven during the final take of the guitar leads.

Nothing a Laryngectomy Wouldn't Solve

Now the vocals...ah...the vocals. Back in East Side Pharaohs days I would have licked the vocals in one take. But now? For the past five weeks every day was consumed with multiple retakes at the recorder. I won't bore you with the details, but suffice it to say this has been the most vexing experience I've ever had singing.

As for the lyrics, the intent remained unchanged from the get-go (encapsulated in At Home), but they did go through some two-dozen stylistic changes to nail the flow and syncopation. Notably, I pulled the old Oscar Wilde trick of changing a word in the morning, then changing it back again in the afternoon...a couple dozen times.

The mixdown drove me absolutely nuts! Part of the problem is my hearing which continues to fade, with a major reduction in high-end (treble) perception. Then there's that continual tinnitus ringing; nothing like an ever-present chorus of cicadas as backing.

So, while the song sounds acceptable to me through headphones at any rate, it is just possible it may over-emphasize the high-end to you. If so, write the Federal Trade Commission to vent your spleen.

But another difficulty was keeping the bass, bass drum and vocals from conflicting. I put in a solid week extricating these guys from each other.

Perhaps the hardest part of an act of creation is knowing when "it's done." I have yet to write and record a tune and feel like nothing can be improved upon.

So, maybe it's not perfect but at least it's sincere, if that counts for anything.

The Instruments and Equipment

The acoustic guitar is a Tanglewood TW28CSN, while the electric guitar is a Les Paul Standard. I customized the latter with an original-design 3-band internal equalizer.

The bass and piano were handled by another homemade device, the GM-Voice (two of them actually, built behind a single rack panel). These are configured around the Yamaha DB50XG sound daughter boards; my contribution was to liberate them from the computer and make them stand-alone musical instruments. You might notice that the bass in the introduction and in the bridge is an upright bass, while the remaining parts are rendered by an electric bass played by finger.

The flute was executed on a Casio CZ-1000. 

The recording gear was a Behringer Xenyx 1832FX 14-channel mixer working in tandem with a Boss-600 digital recorder. The latter also provided the drum sounds as well as all the reverb and echo effects.

Other Formats

For my friends: if you'd like a decent copy of the song in .WAV format, or on compact disc, just give a shout. There is a definite improvement in quality over the .MP3 format version linked above.

I've also scored the song out in standard sheet music format, in addition to tablature for the rhythm guitar. Let me know if you're interested in a printout of these, the lyrics, or the drum score.

Next entry: Annie