'Central Casting' - Original by Ted for EMU fest

[Ted]

Central Casting
©2011 Ted Johnson

Vocals: Micro BR and Digitech Vocalist Live 2
Synth Solos: Korg DS 10 (Kaossilator mode)
Everything Else: GarageBand instruments controlled by a Yamaha Clavinova (no loops, dammit)

I step out of a barber shop.
As usual, a good close crop involving clippers.
You could mistake me for a cop, but I'm not.
I'm just lazy.

There's a man with dreadlocked hair
On a park bench over there across the street.
And our eyes meet.
Our eyes meet.

Central Casting couldn't find a better Rastafari.
Central Casting couldn't find a better Babylonian than I.

And he's thinking, Your hair, chopped up on the floor,
Is your rejection of Jah I and I,
Your service to The Whore.

And I'm thinking, Your hair, tied up in your tam
Looks like a rainbow-colored testicle,
The size of a country ham.

(Solo)

There's a man with dreadlocked hair... (etc.)

And he's thinking, Your hair, ... (etc.)

And I'm thinking, Your hair, ... (etc.)

Central Casting couldn't find a better Rastafari. (etc.)

My intention was to do this entire song in GarageBand, but I was one balanced cable short of being able to do the vocals, so I used the trusty Micro BR.

I tried, I really did, to do ORH-style lyrics here -- not to over think them, and let them flow.

[tom r]

I like this nice n understated at the start, then builds. Great. Got a Dire Straits feel to it?

T

[SwanSong]

HI Ted
A great peice going on here. defiantely a a DIRE STRAITS sound and reggie.
great vox. and well produced. enjoyed a bunch . best regards NEIL

[Gritter]

Cool song and arrangement. I realize it's for Emu Fest but as reggie music goes, IMO, it's lacking edge...guitar and bass would improve this immensely.

[Gritter]

Wait a second...rainbow coloured testicle!    

[Geir]

About time we got some reggea !! Great song Ted !!

as always a fab production ! And your lyrics are always a treat !!!

Wait a second...rainbow coloured testicle!   

size of a country ham

[SE]

Great work here, just so well put togther, vox great too and really funny lyrics, " the size of a country ham " will be in my tiny mind all day, thank you very much!!!!

[Oldrottenhead]

bloody magic ted love the harmonies on the our eyes meet part

gaun yersel.  as for comparing it to dire straits, they could never have come up with anything as good or original as this. gaun yersel ted.

[cuthbert]

You do have a way with words, Ted...and you've also made a nice bit of musical genre-bending! 

[Ted]

This is an ever-so-slightly different mix. I just tweaked levels on three of the tracks.

[Update Mar. 14 2021: The version in the first post is the tweaked version. This comment had the SoundClick version, which has been depreciated.]


I upped the clavinet sound for you, Gritter. (You hurt my fragile feelings when you said it needed more edge.)

Neil and Tom r: Dire Straits were nowhere near my mind when I did this. It's an interesting comparison, because with my vast knowledge of the band (I have a greatest hits CD), I can't think of any reggae song that they've done.

Gritter and Geir: Glad you like it. The "testicle" line was the kernel of this song. I came up with it more than a year two years ago, hummed it into my cell phone, and then stored it with all my other lonely sketches where they wait to see the light of day.

ORH: I was trying to channel you when I filled the lyrics and melody around the original song kernel. It was on "our eyes meet" when I felt your spirit the strongest.  I also did the vocals in one take.

Cuthbert: Genre bending, eh? I was surprised how easy this came together once I'd lain down the two riffs that make up the song.