Sooner or Later - writing/arranging demo

[StephenM]

listening to both more closely I prefer the original recording on this thread... that isn't to say that the polished one isn't a fantastic song... to me it's a completely different song... the guitars sound different and don't pack the wallop... the polished version I am sure would go better on pop rock radio which many people would prefer it... but I tend to love that raw guitar rock and roll similar to the sounds on like Aerosmiths first album (Aerosmith featuring Dream On)...
kind of reminds me of Peter Frampton in a way, what I mean is that his studio stuff was great...BUT...BUT BUT...
it never could quite capture that live energy he had on "Frampton Comes Alive,"
the Kinks to me were better live too..
oh well, I am digressing into drivel now... your music is great...both are really... but if you had this song as is... I'll take this one!  Some might say otherwise....so it's good you did both

[AndyR]

Yeah, that's pretty much how I react to the two versions now.
And the difference between the two was a major factor in me getting a BR1600.

Both this demo and the final one (may have the same root, can't remember, I probably used this one to construct the drums) were done on the MicroBR.

I'd done "If We Should Sing Together" on the MBR shortly before, and thought I was on a roll. I thought I could repeat that level of production on the same little box again. Nope!

Once I got on the BR1600, I found it a LOT easier to work on stuff like this.

It's like old band rehearsals, I'd have a verse and chorus but nothing else, they'd want to play it anyway, so we'd mess around, and that would feed back into the song... and then the next week I'd be going "HERE'S the arrangement, and the lyrics is finished" etc.

On the BR1600, same sort of thing would be going on with me doing everything. Replacing bits as the arrangement matured, sometimes as the song got written. The guide vox would be on there for ages, and then I'd end up not being able to better it when all the band was in place, so there'd be some soul-searching over the lyrics being wrong etc...
The difference is that on the BR1600, I'd actually have the guide vox, so I could use it if it was "the one" and I could live with it. On the MBR, there was no room to have a permanent guide vox from one layer to the next. Also the mix had to grow as the parts were recorded: Stereo mix so far plus two new monos, bounce... This one (the finished version) went through that at least 16 times. "Going back" to an earlier submix, having experienced it a few times on "If we should Sing Together" was NOT worth the effort for this song (I already knew I didn't value the song like others). So by the time I was getting near the end, it was bin the track or live with a vocal and mix that didn't cut it for me.

Anyways, after posting this one:
1) I decided to not publish arrangement demos anymore!!
2) I binned several incomplete recordings over the years because I knew they would end up in the same dissatisfying dead-end state.

The acoustic songwriting demos I was doing earlier this year are slightly different - those are all finished songs written in that way.
The FAWM ones were written to be self-contained so that I wouldn't have to do arrangements, backing vox, drums, whatever. They're in the state that I used to take songs to band rehearsals in the 80s/90s.
The "Shoebox demo" songs are sort of in the same spirit, but many of them I'm just getting "a recording, any recording" out of the way, otherwise they're still on bits of paper and in my head.

By the way - I would say don't worry too much about not being able to perform a song live, solo. Who cares?! (Unless you do, obviously, or you haven't got a long enough setlist!!)

I probably couldn't perform this one live without some major re-arranging... and probably learning too... what's it's about again?           ... (I do recall it's one of the songs with underwear in, I've got lots of those).

I'd listen to it, but I know the two versions will p!ss me off.... And I'm too busy listening to Judie Tzuke LOL

[StephenM]

I like the more polished version more as I listen to it... I am one of those that will wear a song out...
either way...glad I heard it... i think it's awesome... but likely lyrics don't mean as much to me as to you...because I can't tell you what the song is about...
but I can say i like it ...
i get plenty to laugh about and think about reading your threads.

[tonyc]

smart song , great way of writing , love the guitars brill stuff andy. .....cheers tony cee