"Same Old Blues" - Captain Beefheart cover by 64Guitars and oldrottenhead

[64Guitars]

Oldrottenhead asked me to do this Captain Beefheart cover with him for DeadRockstarFest. I wasn't familiar with the song but I had a listen and really liked it, so I started working on it. A few days later, he posted a different version of the song he'd made with alfstone which is based on the original by J.J. Cale https://songcrafters.org/community/index.php?topic=18077.0.

This version is based on Captain Beefheart's cover from his 1974 album "Bluejeans & Moonbeams".

I did the piano, strings, and drums in Rosegarden, and the lead guitar and slide guitar on the BR-864. I then brought everything into Audacity, along with oldrottenhead's vocal tracks, for final mixing.

The piano in the bridge was fun to do, and quite challenging (for me). I had to slow down the original in Audacity to figure out the notes. After learning the notes, I found that my keyboard skills weren't quite good enough to play it smoothly at the song's full tempo. So I slowed down the tempo in Rosegarden to sequence the track, then restored the tempo to full. That's one of the wonderful things about MIDI. You can change the tempo without affecting pitch or sound quality. It's been a couple of weeks since I recorded that piano track and I've been practicing it a bit since then so that I can now almost play it at full tempo.

By the way, the second instance of the bridge is different on the Captain Beefheart recording but I couldn't be bothered to learn it so I just copied the first bridge.

Thanks to oldrottenhead for the great vocals and for suggesting this song.

Written by J.J. Cale

Music by 64Guitars        Vocals by oldrottenhead

[Facemask93]

Excellent collab guys , not too familiar with Beefheart , but i like this song a lot , both the backing & vox are really good , mixed just right , fab

[Bluesberry]

So good it hurts......my soles.....right down to my soles.........and my socks have holes.....and my shoes are worn down to the ground.........sensational guys.  Really great mixing going on here.  And I love the blues solo, thats some sweet bending there.  Vocals, well, thats the goods......

[alfstone]

Great collaboration, guys!!!

Alfredo

[Speed Demon]

This song kicks ass!  

A nice groove, both instruments and vocal. Nice story-telling. A haunting melody.

Well done!

[Blooby]

This is killer. Is that orh doing the background vocals?

Wow

[cuthbert]

Hot damn, now this is the goods! Love all the bits that went into making it. Don't think I could play anything close to that speed in the chorus on piano. Excellent work on the keys and guitar, 64G...as well as the drums. Were those BR-864 patterns, or Hydrogen, or...?

I know this is based on the Captain Beefheart version (and I've got this album), but I swear that (at least in the beginning and the end) that I heard a bit of Marc Bolan there in Jim's delivery. Best of all worlds, that.

[64Guitars]

Thanks for the comments, everyone.

Is that orh doing the background vocals?

It is indeed.

the drums. Were those BR-864 patterns, or Hydrogen, or...?

Actually, I've been using the MIDI sequencer in Rosegarden for drums lately. I find it more convenient and flexible than Hydrogen and the BR Rhythm Editor. With a sequencer, I have access to a huge variety of drum sounds from SoundFont collections. And it's easier to program because I don't have to make any "arrangements" out of the patterns. Instead, I can make a simple pattern, then copy and paste it as many times as required. The beauty of this is that I can then make subtle changes to any of the copies to make them slightly different. You can't do that with arrangements as each repetition of a pattern is exactly the same. Also, I can create patterns by actually playing the sounds on my MIDI keyboard into the sequencer. Then I can quantize, correct mistakes, and improve the pattern by editing it in the sequencer. And I don't have to play the whole kit at once to create a pattern. For example, I can start by playing a bar or two of eighth notes on the closed hi-hat key of the MIDI keyboard. Then, while listening to that, I can overlay the kick drum and snare by pressing the corresponding keys on the MIDI keyboard. Having established the basic pattern this way, I can then edit it in the sequencer. For example, I might replace one of the closed hi-hat hits with an open hi-hat, or maybe add a crash cymbal. I'm finding it to be a really good way to create drum tracks.

For this song, I just worked out the first couple of bars of drums from the original, then repeated it for the rest of the song. I was going to work out some of the fills and other changes too but I didn't get around to it, so the drums are pretty basic in this.

[Hilary]

This is just perfect guys, well done!

[thetworegs]

Love this song....and you have done an outstanding job on this ...loving the music 64... nice keys and the guitar beautifully crisp ...and jim you've done an outstanding job on the vocals ...far from the same ole......love it