Keep Your Flowers Off My Grave (Friscic-McIntyre)

[Michael McIntyre]

This is my first song posting here.  My good friend since college days (I'm 55 now), Dean Friscic, plays the piano and composes.  I write lyrics.  I had dabbled at writing songs with Dean since I first met him (Dean was always more committed to it than me, and he wrote on his own a lot), but then two years ago, after my mother died, I decided it was time for me to devote myself to songwriting more seriously.  Also, I should mention that I live in Aiken, South Carolina (USA), and Dean lives in Schenectady, New York (USA), so we collaborate at a distance.  We don't record any of our own song demos.  We've primarily used Frank Michels, in Nashville, to produce our demos, and we've been very pleased with his work.  More recently, we've also used Galen Breen (Gator Hole), also in Nashville, and Nigel Cuff, in the UK, for demos - again, with very good results, we think.

The song I'm posting here today is the first blues tune Dean and I have written.  As a listener, at least, blues is more my thing than Dean's, and for this song our usual roles were reversed.  Dean originally wrote a version of this, on his own, as a country song and it had longer lyrics.  When he showed it to me I strongly felt that it would work better as a blues song, in a minor key, and between the two of us we got the structure for the music down, and I edited down the lyrics to fit that structure.  Since up to that point we had never given Frank Michels anything but a country or a country/pop song to demo, we weren't sure how he would do with this but, pro that he is, we think he did really well with it (nice solo!).  Debra Gordon, who is Frank's go-to female vocalist, also sang it very nicely, we thought.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy it...

Lyrics:

I put up with you for years.
You only took, you never gave.
I put up with you for years.
You only took, you never gave.
Now that I'm gone,
keep your flowers off my grave.

Even here from underground
I know the outline of you.
You've come to show you care
'cos you like when people think you do.
I put up with you for years.
You always took, you never gave.
Now that I'm gone,
keep your flowers off my grave.

You never paid me respect
when I was alive.
And now you've gotta make it quick
'cos the cemetery closes at five.
I put up with you for years.
You always took, you never gave.
Now that I'm gone,
keep your flowers off my grave.

[Hilary]

It works well as a blues song and has indeed been beautifully performed and produced. Thanks for sharing

[Bluesberry]

This is a seriously well done song, great recording, playing, and especially the songwriting.  A very enjoyable and full bodies blues.  Great lyrics.  Seriously Pro song........did I say seriously yet?  Yeah, thats what I am saying..........seriously. 

[The Gobi Desert Canoe Club]

Hi and a very belated welcome aboard. This is such a professional sounding mix that you've obviously chosen the right people to work with. Ticks all the boxes for me, great tune.  Roscoe

[Hook]

Very nice tune, enjoyable listen & well produced. I checked out Gator Hole  (I used to live in Smyrna ,TN) & Frank Michel's online, would this be considered the basic package on FM's site? Most of us bought recorders so we could stay out of studios & while I do think that the basic package on FM's site is very reasonable, the full band prices on both sites seem a little pricey. Since you have to send them mp3s of the songs do you guys have recording equipment of your own? I would love to hear that version of this song.
Please don't take this as criticism, I'm just curious as a quasi producer of questionable quality quirk. I noticed in FM's pics that he has a few 8 track multitrackers, maybe an allesis drum machine, computer & some mics set up in a spare room, like many of us & some members have much more advanced equipment. So this is an interesting opportunity for us to compare our home studio quality to the "professional demo quality" available.
Once again, I dig the tune & welcome to the site!
Rock On!

[Michael McIntyre]

Thanks, everyone, for the comments and greetings.  Hook, all of the demos we've had made so far, whether by Frank Michels, Gator Hole, or Nigel Cuff, have been so-called basic demos.  I say so-called because Frank Michels's basic demo seems to me almost like a full demo - he includes two guitars (often), a bass, rudimentary drum or percussion, and vocal harmony in the chorus.  For $150, it's a heck of a deal, we think.  Frank does everything on the track but the vocal (and depending on the song, we sometimes have him do the vocal).  His arrangements are always different and excellent.  He is also an incredible guitar player.  I can't recommend him highly enough.  The one basic demo we've had so far from Nigel Cuff also seemed pretty "full" to me.  On the other hand, the Gator Hole basic demos are, in fact, basic - there's just a guitar (or a piano) and a vocal, and that's it.  But Galen, at Gator Hole, has access to some terrific vocalists.  Buddy Jewell sang on our demo titled How Good, and he's amazing on it.  That How Good demo, which I will post here when I get a chance, is a hybrid so to speak because Frank Michels did the demo originally, and then, later, we took Frank's backing track (he always provides that as a separate track) and sent it to Galen at Gator Hole, who had Buddy Jewell sing over Frank's backing track.

I realize that most of you here do your own tracks, and enjoy that process immensely - and more power to you!  We just prefer to concentrate on the songwriting, and pay pros like Frank, et al, to make the tracks for us.  Oh, and I wish I could tell you more specifics about Frank's setup, but I've never seen it (in person), and I haven't really asked him about it - I suppose I should.

[allysonmarie]

Wonderful vocalist I really enjoyed this track, especially the blues rhythm throughout. 

[Redler]

Excellent bluesy stuff! Top class performance by all of you!

[SwanSong]

What a marvelous collaboration ...  her vocals had great presence
modulation and breath control. full of that true bluesy feeling. well
done...great lyrics and full of meaning . all I can say is hats off to
all of you who we re involved. in this marvelous piece. congrats NEIL!!

[bruno]

Hello Michael.
I enjoyed this song immensely and an interesting and different way to produce music. The vocals are great, as is the song. Welcome aboard.
B