She Was Dead When I Put Her In The Ground - AndyR Original (Remastered)

[Redler]

Just brilliant! I love the contrast with minimalism of music and powerful and soulful lyrics and voice - it works so well. And what a voice you have! So fine songwriting and performance.

[Farrell Jackson]

I too am getting a Tom Waits vibe from this except I can understand every word you're singing. This is so nice! Simplistic and powerful Andy. Your guitar and voice fills the room and demands attention. Well done and thanks for the details on how the song came about.

Farrell

[AndyR]

Hehe

That's quite funny, and gratifying, you all saying Tom Waits.

When I wrote the first verse as jokey commentary to the Moonlighting episode we were watching, I did it as Tom Waits.

We thought that was amusing, and maybe it was going to go along that path in a Tom Waits kinda way - the plot of the Moonlighting episode was certainly a kind of off-the-wall Tom Waits story. (He thought he'd killed his wife in an argument, took her out in the woods and buried her, and was grieving muchly... Then he started getting menacing phone calls from her So he went back and... GASP... she was gone!!! He goes to Maddie and David for help... ends up being the first murder victim etc etc...)

Anyway, when I sat down to evolve the song from the first verse, we got shoes under the bed and then there was no going back to the original story, I was just thinking "how would I feel?" ... another image that came to mind was the start of Sleepless In Seattle. Ok he doesn't actually fling himself down the hole before they fill it in... partly cos he's got a son to look after, but that's what he felt like, and his friends and colleagues were trying to dig him out of the metaphorical hole... In fact, the "we wait" was probably from that character...

But in the end, I didn't want my character to be "redeemed" by the end of the song, I wanted the full depth of despair of ten years and still not finding how to let go, but knowing I have to carry on somehow... and the little twist of "she" to "I" was just kinda fab and obvious... and did exactly what I wanted.

SO... by now, it's an Andrew Russe song, and we sang it in an Andrew Russe "meaningful" voice... and... oh... dear.. oh... dear... oh... dear...  (this is back in 2013 - it was going to be a quick win of a new song to post while I was doing some band thing taking weeks and weeks and weeks...)

It was awful everytime I recorded it...

Who loves Bobby Goldsboro's Honey?
I do. That recording is fabulous, apparently they got it first take.
It doesn't sound daft, or stoopid, or milking the emotion too much...
(I imagine second take was awful!!  )

Now, who's tried to do Honey themselves?
Yep, this was like that...

So we filed it.
But I love love LOVE this one. More than some of the others that have elicited the same kinds of response from people (I Like This Girl, Anyway, Bring Your Daydreams To Me, etc).

So I kept coming back to it.

I tried speeding it up a bit - and this one is indeed faster than it was... it improved, but I couldn't lose the mawkishness (="sentimental in an exaggerated or false way").

And then I did the Tom Waits impersonation again sat here fiddling with it. And I thought, that's it, some of his songs are SO... but you never think "sentimental nobhead"

I wasn't sure, though... so I asked Mrs R if it would seem stupid doing it like that... she didn't think so.

So I've been rehearsing it like that for several weeks while doing other stuff.

When I recorded it, it wasn't nearly as Tom Waits as I wanted. But she thought it was enough.

She's been sending it to her friends as "Andrew's Tom Waits song" 

[Ferryman]

Interesting, great to hear the back story behind this one.

It reminded me of Georgia Lee by Tom Waits, a song that always brings tears to my eyes. You damn near just about did the same here.

[Oldrottenhead]

i deliberately didn't mention mr waits in my comment but aye there is a wee tad of him in there but jings it's all you andy, a pearl mate.

[Geir]

_wow

[AndyR]

Woah! Geir - good to hear from you, 
I was wondering where you were... you were in the back of my mind when I started recording again a few weeks back. "I wonder what Geir would think of this?"

[SteveAlton]

Great performance & absolutely awesome...

For me....I wasn't sure at first if she really died....I thought maybe she left...But upon reading through I guess she did & the "letting go" or inability to "let go" of her after she is gone, is the underlying theme.

Brilliant....

[Hilary]

A round of applause for Mrs R - she's got great taste!

[thetworegs]

Late to the party it seems. I to enjoyed  Moonlighting too whey  back when Life was more hectic and complicated with youth. Did you see the mockumentry on the unknown Bruce Willis  about his life and how he had dipped his toes into everything ?It was about the time he did that album any way enough about Moonlightiyand back to the song. I've been listening to a lot of Tom waits while painting  the undercoat and gloss on the stairs mostly Orphans and the story of the song Jumping out at me from each track,just like yours has.i loved it Bravo sir
Ps I should really read the other comments before commenting ?