Had a Revelation

So here is a song I just re-recorded. Originally recorded maybe two years ago, the original had some issues with hiss and a general “doesn’t sound very good” problem. I also lost the source files. It happens to also be one of my better songs, I think. So I decided to just re-track the whole damn thing. I’ve become more adept at producing this stuff, so i thought I’d give it an update. For the most part I didn’t change things around. It even uses the same drum track (the only thing left of the original).

This is my Stephen Malkmus song. I am a huge pavement fan and this song certainly reflects it.

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About the Song

One of the few songs that actually means anything. I think of it as an anti-anthem. A warning to myself and others (specific or not) to not take ourselves too seriously. What you (I) are doing is not going to change anything and no one really cares. Happy stuff! I find it delightfully ironic that one of the few songs that have any serious thought into the lyrics rails against itself.

Lyrics

Not everyone is seen
You’re not the exception you thought you would be
Holding on to all those half brilliant tomes like the manufactured homes
with rooms to keep your luggage in

If they threw you half a boquet
You’d lay it down like the lion’s prey
Oh the comfort of those tiny hands a-clappin
Like the insects all a-thrashin
beneath the wind and the rain

And I had a revelation
and I thought that you would like to know
You wore a blank expression
As you watched yourself sinking like stone

You didn’t hear it from me
but I have it on such good authority
Only likes five minutes to say what you want but a lifetime
to try and explain what you mean

And I had a revelation
and I thought that you would like to know
You wore a blank expression
As you watched yourself sinking like stone

Music

The song is one of many written in some variation of D A C# F# A E. I became very familiar with this tuning and wrote a whole slue of songs in it. One thing I do on this song that I do quite often is to include the melody in the primary guitar part. Almost every note I sing is there. I like doing that because 1. It’s easier to sing and 2. sounds cool. I generally work on the melody and chord structures at the same time so it only makes sense combining them this way.

One thing that I did change was during the verses, I was playing harmonics. With an open tuning like this its easy to take advantage of open strings. So in each speaker I am playing harmonics in the notes the end on and the notes I’m singing usually coincide.

So song’s chord progressions are pretty standard though they are not played that way. I threw in one bizarre dissonant chord near the end for emphasis.

The lead guitar part at the end takes advantage of the tuning. It was very easy and natural to play half notes together to get a dissonant sound . It walks up a note at a time with a half note following. Gives it a muddy sound for lack of a better word. The last two times through the lead just plays a very simple descending run until it hits the base note. I then bend it up slowly and back down causing it to get lost for a second. It reminded my of one of my favorite pavement songs “grounded”.

I also added some keyboards to the mix. Mostly its just background stuff that makes up for no bass. One touch that I like is that at the end, i double the riff (or whatever you would call it. its not led zeppelin or anything) with a harp sound. I’m pleasantly surprised with how it sounds.

So enjoy…

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