"Samaanya" by The Stan Laurels

[Ferryman]

Goodness, this is the first day I have been over to the big boys area for a long time, and what an eye/ear opener! As others said, there is so much going on in the MBR forum it's hard to spend time in the other forums, no slight intended. This has blown me away more than your other stuff. Take Madness, Flaming Lips and Genesis and stuff them in a blender and you have Bosko's unique take on the world!

This has great production values as seems to be your forte, but the song is really, really inventive and intriguing. I was just wondering why it faded so soon and then you went off in a whole diffferent direction. Killer. You said you were not a stunning instrumentalist on another thread, but your keyboard playing sounds pretty darned good to me.

I seriously don't have any feedback apart form the fact I REALLY enjoyed this on so many levels. Very cool.

Cheers,

Nigel

[Bosko Schwartz]

Wow, thanks, Nigel!   Those are some very kind words, and I appreciate them greatly!

I think I faked my way through the piano fairly well in this one, haha.   I think one of the musical skills I do have is to make the most of my very limited musicianship talents.  The idea is to make the music sound as if it was supposed to be played that way, even if a classically trained pianist with 40 years of experience were playing it, rather than to expose myself as a hack who really doesn't have a clue what he's doing on the keyboards!  I guess I managed to get away with that in this song!

Thanks again!

[Ferryman]

Yup, you got away with it! I'm pretty much the same as you - wouldn't call myself a stellar musician in any department but 40 years of playing guitar, bass and fiddling with various other stuff teaches you tricks that mean given the right song construction I can sound pretty good. I think that's what you pull off - you play to your strengths and the overall effect is of a very polished piece. And you have that creative, innovative spark that really appeals to me - I rate that a lot personally. Greeny has that as well, and it's a great talent.

The piano on this sounds as good as most you would hear on pop/rock works, OK you may not be the next Keith Emerson but it still sounds pretty good to me!

Cheers,

Nigel

[Bosko Schwartz]

... given the right song construction I can sound pretty good ... you play to your strengths and the overall effect is of a very polished piece.

That's the trick -- er, I mean, the idea!

And you have that creative, innovative spark that really appeals to me - I rate that a lot personally.  Greeny has that as well, and it's a great talent.

The piano on this sounds as good as most you would hear on pop/rock works, OK you may not be the next Keith Emerson but it still sounds pretty good to me!

Cheers,

Nigel

WOW, thanks, Nigel!  That means a lot coming from you!

Nope, certainly not Keith Emerson.  But like you said before in a previous post, perhaps having prog-esque musician prowess can be a bad thing at times.  So maybe it's not so bad having marginal skills.  Maybe, deep down, I really don't care that I can't play like Emerson or Rick Wakeman because ... dare I say ... maybe I wouldn't want to even if I could.  Maybe I want to do exactly what I am doing!

[Ferryman]

LOL! I think you do - its sounds like you want to be doing it and you enjoy it. been listening to all of The Stan Laurels stuff on your Soundclick site and enjoying that. Cool graphics as well.

Cheers,

Nigel

[Bosko Schwartz]

I really appreciate the fact that you dig the music, Nigel!

That's funny, I forgot I threw together a Soundclick page.  I need to tidy that thing up!  It looks horrible, compared to the myspace page!

[Flash Harry]

Still Fucking Ace.

[Bosko Schwartz]

Still Fucking Ace.

Always nice to hear.  Thanks again, Flash!!!

[SteveB]

BSZ - First time in the BR1600 MP3 section for me, and I simply chose the song that was at the top of the list.
Any Studio Engineer or Recording Studio Owner hearing this will be weeping in desperation. They will realise that they will never have your custom, because there's no need to. If someone had told me that this was lifted from the longer-version of Jeff Wayne's War Of The Worlds, I wouldn't have doubted them. Though I have to admit that I didn't recognise the song from your introductory comments. I don't know where this piece will fit in your overall Concept CD, but I wouldn't mess around with what you've already laid-down. The playing, singing and production are faultless, and it will be a pleasure to listen to the full work to see how it all fits together. Very well done.

[Bosko Schwartz]

Wow, wow, wow, Thank You, SteveB!!!   You just made my day with those compliments!  Don't worry, this one has been put away on the shelf and is ready for the album -- no more messing with it!  To address your point ...

I think my concept album is more along the lines of The Flaming Lips' Yoshimi ... as opposed to a more literal storybook-type album in which everything is laid out perfectly in front of the listener.  The main reason for this is because I wanted every song to be able to stand on its own and not just be a puzzle piece.  Also, I wanted to do something in which the listener has to kind of dig in and root around and really make an effort to figure out what's going on.  Lastly, a lot of the songs are metaphoric and aren't just about the literal things being sung about.

At the same time, the lyrics for many of the songs could also be considered fairly straight-forward about what's happening in the story ... provided you listen carefully.  This one actually has no intended double-meaning and is straight-forward about the events taking place.  But I will admit that unless one actually knew ahead of time that the album was about this subject, they'd have to listen pretty closely to find little clues in the lyrics, such as "Space Police" and "superterranean."  Plus, the description of Samaanya herself is pretty odd, so that's a clue.  Also, the name Samanya (I added an extra A) is an African Bantu unisex name meaning "the unknown one."  I used an African name due to the mysteries of the Great Pyramids and theories that they were built and/or designed by aliens.  (Prog enough for you, Nigel?   HAHA, kidding! )

Details: it's song #3 on the album; the unnamed main character (abductee) is on the space ship (which has already been established in a previous song).  Samaanya is his abducter; the abductee is talking directly to Samaanya here.  The break in the middle -- completely different from the rest of the song -- represents a sort of "dreamy" state, a kind of drifting in and out of consciousness.  At the end, he questions if this is really happening or if he's just dreaming -- something I would imagine anyone in that situation would do.  To coincide with the theme of possible insanity, I play the same chord over and over until the song fades out, with somewhat random "chaos" being played over it -- OK, it's not "Revolution 9," but I wanted it to stay sort of melodic at the same time.  Perhaps if I post the lyrics, it will help:

Samaanya, look what you have done
Waiting for the "Space Police" is causing mania
For in my heart, I know they will never show
Despite my wish, I know they don't exist

Samaanya, superterranean
Your head is a chrysanthemum, arms like accordions
Or so, to me, it seems; is this a bad dream?
Am I just bored or out of my fucking gourd?