"The Bitch Who Ruined My Life" - Punkfest Original by Ted

[scottieD]

Great song - so well arranged, played, and produced....reminds me a bit of the Knack ( and I mean that in a good way! ).  Great stuff!

[Ted]

Thanks!  This was a fun song to record.  Per my usual MO, I recorded a scratch vocal and guitar track, then arranged the drums, and then put in a rough take of the bass to get the basic feel going before I started to record the serious tracks. All fairly routine to me by now.  But when I plugged in my guitar, and punched in "Nashville" on the Micro BR, I got shot full of energy, and the song seemed new to me again.

"Nashville" made it sound more psychobilly than punk, so I went with a modification of SLDNY, which I renamed "BITCH!"

Well done Ted. So who is she? Names !!

No names.  However, if you are really interested, listen to Walking To Africa.  It tells the other end of the same story, and some of the lyrics in Bitch may make more sense after you listen to Walking.

[Daniel: Est-ce que ceci indique que je suis pardonné pour notre malentendu vis-à-vis de ma plaisanterie de "traduction?" Je me suis inquiété beaucoup.]

And for everyone who complimented my bass:  Thanks again!  I really had trouble coming up with anything original for the bass, so I also ripped off ideas from my bass part from Walking for this song.

Did you use a pick on that bass?

I probably should have, but I suck at playing bass with a pick.  My thumb muscle gets really tired from the death grip on the pick.  I'm a wimp.

And I love the musical quote at the end!

I probably spent as much time on that as the rest of the song, especially trying to fake a pedal-steel guitar sound.  I stuck a pencil under the strings of my Telecaster at the second fret, and played it like a lap steel.  Then I exported the track to Audacity and used the "fade in" and "fade out" effect to simulate swells from a volume pedal.  Then I mixed it way too low.

Not that you asked.

That is a damn good drum track. What or how did you do them?

That's just the l'il ol' Micro BR Rhythm Arranger.  Thanks!

The vox are pretty damn good as well, and the production just rocks.
...
BTW, you were 20 years too late - you should have written this in 1978!!

This is the first song where I've used my new (used) Digitech Vocalist Live 2, which I picked up cheap.  Hence the perfect harmonies.

Ironically, in 1978 I don't think I'd have had the maturity and life experience to write a song like this.  You've got a few critical years on me, Nigel, and that made the difference between watching 1978 from the outside and thrashing on the inside. Yes, I'm a little jealous, you old fart. (Although, one could counter that being underage didn't stop my friends in JFA.)

Comparisons to The Ramones and The Knack? I am not worthy.

[Blooby]

It's not about my wife.  I barely knew her back then.

I got quite a chuckle out of this. It could be read several ways.

Punk pop.  This is catchy as all hell and yet it's raw.

Love it.

Blooby

[chapperz66]

Excellent song Ted.  I tend to struggle with punk as a genre but not when the song is good and as well produced as this.

Paul

[Ted]

It's not about my wife.  I barely knew her back then.

Oops!  I suppose I should have just left it at, "It's not about my wife." She heard me when I was practicing this song, and asked me meekly, "Am I the bitch who ruined your life?"

I remixed the song: Upped the vocals and the faux pedal steel mostly.  Also subdued the bass and drums just a little, after listening to the song on two different sets of cans, and three sets of speakers. Sought a happy medium.

[soundclick]9041788[/soundclick]

[Gritter]

Fantastic! This is PUNK...a killer of a song. It totally Rocks!!!!

[Ferryman]

Sounds sharper than ever Ted, really enjoying this.

I like your observation about my old fartdom. I can indeed accept old fartdom because I did have the benefit of experiencing punk from the inside in the UK. Great times to be in a band, there really was a feeling of being able to do anything and a great deal of mutual support from other punk types. A very refreshing time. Sadly the man took control again but I had a blast at the time.

Cheers,

Nigel

[antisocialworker]

spectacular job on this man!
so many changes
and that bass line was killer

[RMO]

really liked how dynamic is this song, you can't predict what will happen next, and has a really cool punk feeling, excellent job Ted!!

[Ted]

I think I need to be more blatant with my bump bait:

Walking To Africa tells the other end of the same story.

I really am interested to hear some thoughts after you've heard them back-to-back.
Thanks, ASW and RMO! I've been wanting to record this one for a long time.  This was my third attempt, and I'm happy to have it well received by punk and non-punk fans alike.

Excellent song Ted.  I tend to struggle with punk as a genre but not when the song is good and as well produced as this.

My tastes tend toward the more pop punk--and I include The Sex Pistols in that bucket.  If you'd like a volunteer to guide you to some more accessible punk, just ask.

I can indeed accept old fartdom because I did have the benefit of experiencing punk from the inside in the UK. Great times to be in a band, there really was a feeling of being able to do anything and a great deal of mutual support from other punk types.

The supposed Chinese curse goes, "May you live in interesting times."

I remember the first time I heard Money performed by The Flying Lizards, on a guitar strung with rubber bands (so I was told). I really believed that all conventions were out the window, and I could do anything with music--if I could just deal with high school.  Some awesome bands came through Phoenix in the late '70s, on their first tours: The Go Gos, Elvis Costello and the Attractions, XTC (!), The Police, and more.  The home-grown scene spawned JFA, Meat Puppets, and Sun City Girls.  I was separated from it all by that pesky legal drinking age.  The Chinese curse cuts both ways.

By the time I had the independence to pursue being in a band, the cutting edge of punk was largely gone.  My sights had turned to prog, and later to African music.

I just realized that this particular story follows my musical interests in reverse: Walking begins the story with an African-inspired feel-good groove, and at the end of the story I regress to the conflicted punk hostility of Bitch.  

(There's another song from the middle of the story, but I haven't recorded it yet.)