I Like It As It Is - AndyR Original

[AndyR]

This song has been sat on the marvellous mechanical mouse organ in the broom-cupboard for well over a year.

A few weeks ago I got a bit of a scare - the mouse organ nearly broke down (in the middle of sorting out Delta Dawn). While I was fixing it (we will, we will mend it...), I found this thing in a songwriting-demo form with a hip-hop beat, just two rather messy guitars, and a gorgeous but rather flawed vocal.

It got written at the same time as Cobwebs and I Like This Girl, and I felt just as inspired at the time... but I didn't know how to finish it.

When I found it the other week, I played it to Mrs R and she went "wow". I mixed the demo as tidily as I could and sent it to the muse who inspired it.

I very nearly posted it on here as well... But this is what I could hear in my head when I listened to it, and the demo doesn't sound like this at all.... So I fixed it up, replaced everything, and gave it some sparkles.

I Like It As It Is

Words & Music AndyR
Recorded on a BR1600
--------------------------------

I Like It As It Is - A A J Russe

Please don't change a thing
I like it as it is
There's magic in your words
I like it as it is

When you come through my door
When you take a breath
When you raise your head
I like it as it is

And when you wonder
What can he see?
How can I tell you?
I can't even think
I like it as it is

Please don't change a thing
I like it as it is
Every time you sing
I like it as it is

And when you're laughing
Laughing at me
How on earth could I tell you?
When I can't even breath
I like it as it is

Please don't change a thing
I like it as it is
Every time you sing
I like it as it is

Copyright (C) 2013 A A J Russe. All Rights Reserved.

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[Redler]

Very impressive, Andy!! This sounds so cool and you've done top job here on each way! Fantastic vocals and lyric, as well! WOW!!

[Oldrottenhead]

braw tell yer maw, at start i almost thought you where gonna do "i'd rather go blind" stunning as per usual.

[cuthbert]

Wow is right!

So spare, and yet so rich as each part comes into its own. That's masterful. Also a powerful vocal - you've got the voice for power ballads, for sure. I'd like to hear the demo some time, too.

[Flash Harry]

Wow! that's a fab song Andy, Tight playing, great guitars - a simple riff but so effective. I like the bit of top rergister bass in the intro, it just sings.

Magic

[bruno]

Very nicely done, excellent recording and brilliant vocal performance.
Great tune.
B

[Geir]

Oh this is a beaut !!

That's a really great arrangement with the simple, but effective guitar riffs. Vocal performance is (as usual) top notch !!

I'm a fan !!!!

[Jarle]

Fabulous song and fantastic vocal.

[AndyR]

Thanks folks.

It started out as a chord/melody single guitar part played on quite a dirty guitar through a bunch of stereo chorus.

Unfortunately, I can't play the thing as clean/accurately as I'd want to hear it. So that's why I put it on hold for so long.

When I restarted the other week I reckoned I could maybe build it from several guitars if I could figure out who played what...

But while I was doing it we ended up with lead melody lines jumping out at us. So I gave up on the original plan and followed my nose.

There's a bit of a first for me on this. Aside from the "harmonics" guitar part on the top (the one with the stereo delays), all the guitars are... played through a real valve amp and mic'd up with an SM57!!! This might be a bit of a watershed moment. I couldn't do it in the old place (too loud), and I didn't think the broom-cupboard was offering a decent enough "sound-room" here... but I had to get the amp out of the living room cos of some visitors, and it was just kind of sat behind me...

I'd have done the harmonics part with the amp as well... but I wanted the stereo cross-delays, and I know how to do those easily on my Vox Tonelab.

The bass part at the front was an interesting fluke, Harry - a fluke that cost me HOURS when we found it!!

I'd used the fretless Jazz for the main bass part. And then when I was building the guitar-hook parts, I'd put a low part where it was originally written, and one an octave higher. I was thinking about looking for a harmony when I suddenly thought "why not use texture instead of harmony? Get a lead bass playing it as well, instead?"

So I did (and the organ!!). Everywhere you hear those syrupy guitars playing the hook, a lot of the sound is the fretless playing it up in the high register as well. Early on the organ plays it low, later higher, so the texture changes on the last bit. I suspect you can't tell the bass is playing with the guitars (possibly because the "thump" bass part is so obvious and hefty) - but it all gets a bit weedy if you take it out.... I kind of liked the effect it created, but I wasn't sure...

ANYWAY - on the rough takes, the intro had the guitar signature there as well. But the intro wasn't doing it for me. Then I was demoing it to Mrs R last week to check whether I was drifting too far from the original songwriting demo (and to check the two leads plus lead bass worked), and I was muting tracks to show her what was there.

While doing it we discovered that the empty intro of thump-bass, drums, clean strum and chugging guitar (doubling the bass) was "IT".

But I hadn't muted the high-register bass track, and it just came in without warning... We looked at each other and decided that if it was played a lot better it would be perfect...

That's where the hours of work came in!! Could I play it convincingly? (Incidentally, the opening verse is equally hard to sing). I nearly cheated and cut and pasted the bass from one of the later bits - it was easier to play with the guitars in place, but that would have had other issues (minor vs major chords for starters).

In the end, I managed to get one I liked. All the while I was thinking Pino Palladino on Paul Young's version of Where Ever I Lay My Hat - but alas I have been practicing making a fretless sound like a fretted... I have not got on to lesson #2 yet where you make it sound like Pino (although, I travelled a fair bit down that particular road during the numerous takes... not as far as I would have liked, though!)

[T.C. Elliott]

I loved the panned octave guitars. Such a great touch. The vox gets stronger as the song progresses and you really nail the title line about every single time through. I like the emotion in the vox quite a bit and that organ you've added in there is nearly perfect in places. It almost sounds like a chorus of angels in one spot.