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I wrote this about 15 years ago, and finally got around to tidying up the lyrics and recording it this month.

I am no pianist at all, but I transposed my piano to the right key and I somehow convincingly flailed out two improvised solos in one take.  (At least I think so.)

Love the Ska Vibe.

15 years......  Well Worth the wait!


8)

Wow this is REALLY a great song. So well played and sung!!! Love that bass.... well all of this song is great ..... goes straight to my iPod.

G.

Nice one, Ted.  Similar song structure to Dylan's 'Brownesville Girl' - I saw this movie and then all this happens.  Piano works good.  I like the second piano part that interacts with the bass.  Do you find it difficult to duets with yourself on the Micro BR?  It's something that I'm trying to get a handle on at present.

Quote from: Tony on April 15, 2009, 04:00:05 PMNice one, Ted.  Similar song structure to Dylan's 'Brownesville Girl' - I saw this movie and then all this happens.  Piano works good.  I like the second piano part that interacts with the bass. 

I never heard Brownesville Girl before, but I found this strange video on YouTube with the Dylan song backing a Tina Turner video:


Recording this song was full of happy accidents, such as the accidentally awesome piano solos, exceeding my intentions or expectations.  Sorry, I just can't get over it yet.  The creepy vocal effect in the bridge was the result of using guitar effects to boost vocals that were recorded too low.  The breakdown in the middle came about when I was trying practically every shuffle pattern to find a drum transition to the third verse--the pattern I used was not at all what I was looking for.

QuoteDo you find it difficult to duets with yourself on the Micro BR?  It's something that I'm trying to get a handle on at present.

I find singing difficult generally.  I have to be holding a guitar to sing harmonies.  It's like a security blanket, knowing that I can pick a note that I'm not sure I'll be able to find by ear.

Quote from: osckilo on April 15, 2009, 03:19:11 PM15 years......  Well Worth the wait!

Well, I did tweak a couple of verses in the last month.  My MBR is 100 times better than all the recording equipment I had 15 years ago, and it cost half as much.

That's the song and it is a very weird clip.  The song (and this is getting further away from Three Days of the Condor, sorry) is a thing he wrote with the playwright Sam Shepard.  It is based on an old folk song, Danville Girl, that everybody had a version of.  Here's a clip with Frank Wakefield who has to be one of the best mandolin players ever.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCSAaf_gslQ

There is a great story that Frank Wakefield tells about painting his Lloyd Loar Gibson F5 mandolin with car duco and baking it to give it a better sound and finish.  Apparently he played it like that for years.

Bill Munroe's Lloyd Loar F5 mandolin fetched over $1 million dollars at auction a few years ago.  I rate Frank Wakefield higher than Munroe.

Quote from: Tony on April 15, 2009, 07:23:14 PMThat's the song and it is a very weird clip.  The song (and this is getting further away from Three Days of the Condor, sorry) is a thing he wrote with the playwright Sam Shepard...

There is a great story that Frank Wakefield tells about painting his Lloyd Loar Gibson F5 mandolin with car duco and baking it to give it a better sound and finish.  Apparently he played it like that for years.

No problem veering into different subjects.  That is a great story about Wakefield baking his mandolin.  I know a few guitar geeks who pamper their precious guitars as though they were made of crystal.  I'd like to horrify them with the Wakefield story, but they probably already know it.  I have three guitars and two basses, and not a single hard-shell case or humidifier.  Gasp!

BTW: In my song, the lyrics refer not directly to a movie, but to a game of charades where the Three Days of the Condor is the title to be guessed by the players.  I've actually never seen the movie.

I "only" have about 80 Dylan songs in my library, so thanks for introducing me to another one.

I'm no Dylan expert (I'm only a fan of bits - I don't go crazy about that middle period when he uses a funny voice and there are lots of other bits I don't care for either) but, given the level of obsession that people develop about him, I think anything under a dozen albums is considered as only having a passing acquaintance by the real Dylan nuts.

The movie is pretty good by the way. 

wow great stuff.
keyboard is neat and the bass is bloody brilliant .....love it

Tony J

I listened to this again tonight and I get the story of the lyrics now.  So sorry for going off on the wrong track first time round and thanks for this, I still like it third time round.

I like the bass line, too - great songwriting skills. The arrangement was pretty sweet overall.

Thanks for sharing,

Mark

Quote from: Tony on April 16, 2009, 05:34:31 AMI listened to this again tonight and I get the story of the lyrics now.  So sorry for going off on the wrong track first time round and thanks for this, I still like it third time round.

Not a problem.  I don't actually expect people to pay attention to lyrics, so it's a treat when somebody does--even if I did bait you to do it.

I shared this song recently with a songwriting circle that I attend.  When I was done, the first question was, "What does 'conumbo' mean?"  At least he was trying to listen.


I'll probably rent Three Days of the Condor soon.  I have another song called The Missiles of October that I finished about five years ago, and I just got around to seeing that movie last month.

I agree with everyone else the bass line is awesome Great job overall.

Quote from: Ted on April 16, 2009, 12:42:14 PM

"S'cuse me while I kiss this guy." (http://kissthisguy.com/)  ;D

Misheard lyrics can be very funny. My favourite lyric that I personally misheard for a long while is in the second verse of Louis Armstrong's "What A Wonderful World". I always heard it as...

I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dogs say "goodnight"
And I think to myself what a wonderful world.

I knew it made no sense but I couldn't imagine what else he could be singing. Then one day it finally clicked - "The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night"!  Doh!  :-[

Great song, nice to hear a very different style of music. I think the piano solos work well - playing a sparse but effective part on a different instrument can work, and you showed it here. Great bass playing btw, really good style and nicely recorded. How did you record the bass? Did you use one of the MBR patches, external effect or amp?

BTW, material from 15 years ago sounds new to me. I am still recording stuff I wrote 30 years ago!

Cheers,

Nigel

Great tune well put together love the vocal,bass and piano

I can't believe I missed this one.  This is incredible.  I really like it.  All I can say is BRAVO for writing , performing, recording such a great song.

Quote from: Ferryman_1957 on April 19, 2009, 04:23:06 AMHow did you record the bass? Did you use one of the MBR patches, external effect or amp?

I have two basses, and the one I used for this song sounds great plugged directly into the guitar input using the "Bass Cln" patch. (It's a Michael Kelly Club Custom 5 String Fretless, BTW.)  

My other bass (an Ibanez p-bass) doesn't sound good in the MBR unless I do a lot of pre-processing before the signal reaches the input.

Thanks for the compliments.

Cool tune and original sound - I really like the slow vocal spot near the end - and of course I really dig the bass line and awesome piano! 

Oh come-on boy you can do it, look on his face!

To act like a father, to put on a charade...

The challenge of my life is to undo all these knots.......cool lyrics!

This is very different, but VERY good. I like the song structure a lot, and the piano sounds great - a very nice addition. You've produced and performed this really well. Nice one!

Masterbump...

A few weeks ago I took a passenger ferry named "The Condor" to a small island off Madagascar. About one-third of the passengers became violently seasick. (Not me, thankfully.)

But this old tune of mine has been stuck in my head ever since. I kind of forgot how I arranged it. The original MP3 was gone, so I uploaded it again.

I'm glad I listened to this... and read all the comments...which got me to looking up that movie...reading the plot it struck me that the Jason Bourne series (which I really was into) could have been modeled from this...and I am going to have to find that movie.
I like to go to SC lists and listen to first songs...this is really good... I have had it on repeat so I can get it in my head while reading through the comments..
love that bass and the reggae ish beat... it makes your music interesting to me...it's not a rhythm I know that well... believe it or not the band Rush seemed to go a bit in that direction after The Police kind of brought it to the forefront... I doubt they would admit it...maybe  I am wrong but it was catchy and glad that Rush did it.. (it took me many years to really understand and dig the Police but now they are such a superior band to me) 
btw that bridge singing doesn't sound creepy...it's really awesome and the vocals here in general sound great to me... I am a fan!