Songcrafters.org

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This song is from the album War Ina Babylon, by Max Romeo and the Upsetters – possibly the first reggae album I ever listened to. Lee "Scratch" Perry produced the album and co-wrote some of the songs, but this song is credited only to Scratch.

Really nice job Ted. Great vocal and that lovely Reggae vibe is just right, really chilled out. Very cool indeed.

Mike

Quote from: Mike_S on January 23, 2022, 04:11:43 PMReally nice job Ted. Great vocal and that lovely Reggae vibe is just right, really chilled out. Very cool indeed.

Thanks Mike!

Couple funny things:

I recorded all the instruments without any vocal reference. I just played that groove for about four minutes (once per instrument), and added the vocals later. I've never done that before. It was actually a kind of mindfulness exercise to try to play the same repetitive thing with intention and feeling. I didn't loop or punch anything, or copy/paste to fix minor flubs. Everything is the first take. All of that is unusual for my process.

The lyrics are in Jamaican Patwah. I looked up the meaning of screwface (https://jamaicanpatwah.com/term/Screw-Face/1773#.Ye6Fs1jP1H1). It means "someone that has an angry or bad tempered expression on their face." This is the photo they use as an example:

reminds me of a favorite band and singer.  The Police and Sting.  Even the guitar sounds.  This sounds great Ted.  I really like your vocals on here too.  Sounds like your method worked well.
I generally do takes all the way through and play them over and over and over again until I can.  I can't stand trying to punch things in.  Vocally sometimes I will cut and paste in the DAW during mixing.  I also have ripped parts of songs out and placed them in other places but generally I do take all the way through.

great recording...loved it

Although not a fan of ska, reggae or bluebeat this makes an excellent listen.
The Gobi Desert Canoe Club

Quote from: StephenM on January 24, 2022, 05:17:14 AMI can't stand trying to punch things in.  Vocally sometimes I will cut and paste in the DAW during mixing.

I lied. I did one copy and paste.

If you notice the guitar starts the song, and then the drums come in out of time with the guitar, and the guitar has to adapt. The original recording from 1976 sounds like that. What I speculate happened in the original recording – to tape, obviously – was that they recorded that guitar part last, and there was not click or count in. So they backed up the tape and had the guitarist start playing, hoping they'd be in sync when pre-recorded parts came in. That didn't work out, but the guitarist shifted gears and locked in with the rhythm.


I had to make a small extra effort to replicate that. I copied a bit of the guitar from the middle of the song, and then put it at the beginning out of time with the rest of the song. So it sounds more or less like the sloppy beginning of the original recording.

I've never been compared to Sting before. Well... once. I was in a band and someone accused me of doing a bad imitation of Sting's dance moves. Excuse me. That bad dancing is all me.

That's interesting that you played that guitar riff straight. That must have been some sort of zone from where you emerged. Cool vibe and choice of artist & tune.

Blooby

Quite an achievement to record this all so quickly and without any vocal reference! Sounds absolutely tight, that riff is so catchy and endearing. You have that loose reggae vocal sound down totally. Great listening to the lyrics on this one, great pick!

Lee Scratch is definitely a legend in my book.
I like this version, you've done hime proud.   8)

Quote from: SharksDontSleep on January 26, 2022, 12:22:40 PMLee Scratch is definitely a legend in my book.
I like this version, you've done hime proud.   8)

I have to investigate Scratch a bit more. I know he's a legend, but I may only have this one album with his compositions on it plus a couple of tracks he produced but didn't write.

In case anyone is curious, this is my lood guitar (bamboo) and the chorus pedal I used for the main hook. If I was more ambitious, I think I could have recorded that part in stereo. (I'm pretty sure there's a way to do that on the Micro BR, and that I've done it before.)

Well done Ted.

This sounds fab. And the gun-like bamboo guitar sounds great here

Stellar vocals as well

the guitar almost looks like a giant article of paraphanalia... very cool looking and sounding..

Brilliant reggae vibe Ted and wonderful instrumentation. Great vocals as well and it all sounds great! Loving your lood.....

Love that crazy ass guitar...kinda looks like it grew right out of the ground like that. Very cool groove. I like reggae for a song and then I'm done for a while, this was an excellent way to meet my quota for the day.
Rock on!

Crikey this is really well done!

You've really captured that authentic reggae sound here..had to have a few listens to this as it's so enjoyable. Interesting to hear how you recorded it without a vocal reference - that's the way I do most of my tracks - but you certainly got into a groove !

Pete

I posted in General about how I found a lazy way to do a reggae "one drop" beat in GarageBand:

Quote from: Ted on February 13, 2022, 07:07:11 AMGarageBand for MacOS doesn't come with any reggae beats. But I kind of cheated it with my cover of "Smile Out A Style (https://songcrafters.org/forum/index.php?topic=32050.0)" without having to import MIDI or audio, or entirely program the beat myself. I was definitely feeling lazy.

At least one person was interested to know how I did it, so here's what I did: