What's in a song?
"what first hit me, was the song itself. Simple chord structure, nicely obtuse lyrics, great melody, great voice, great band. The whole thing put together elegantly. A pretty piece of work..."
Years ago, when I was a full time, full on, popstar type person, our band spent quite a bit of time in recording studios. It was definitely one of my favourite parts of the job. Don’t know if you have ever been in one yourself, but if you play music, being allowed to go into a proper, full on, recording studio is a bit like giving a kid the keys to a theme park. With a sweet factory onsite. And a bunch of pink, fluffy unicorns in a petting zoo, just crying out for cuddles. In short, it is a dream come true. A wet dream.
Just in case you haven’t been in a recording studio, let me walk your through how the process works. Or, at least, how it worked for us. (Apologies if this is all old hat to you. Feel free to skip to the next paragraph. Or go and put the kettle on and come back with a brew, by which time we’ll all be up to speed on the world of 80’s recording.)
You generally started off by recording a live version of the song you wanted to put down. This could take some time. First take is sometimes the best you’re going to get. Other times, it takes a whole lot more goes. You never know, until you get it. If you’re not careful, could end up playing the song twenty or thirty times before everyone is satisfied that it really is the very best version of the song they are ever going to get.
At this point you move on to overdubs. Which is where the excitement starts to build. You (or the producer) get the chance to dream up all sorts of weird, wild and wonderful extra bits to go on top of the bands live sound.
Maybe you fancy a piano part. You got it.
Some strings to add lush depth? Suits you, sir. Here’s a string section full of real, live string players.
Brass band, you say, why not? I’ll just get some in for you tomorrow.
Like I said, it’s a dream come true. With knobs on. Literally. The mixing desks used to be covered in a whole flock of knobs, faders, sliders and whatnots. Was a paradise for twiddlers.
Of course, you can do all of this with a keyboard and computer these days, but I’m talking about the good old days when the world was full of actual living, breathing musicians. Sigh.
After all that, you then spend hours, days and sometimes even weeks listening to the same track over and over AND OVER again. Seriously, you can easily listen to the very same song hundreds of times, trying to work out; what works, what doesn’t, what’s missing and what’s getting in the way of the track working the way it should.
This probably explains why, ever since then, if I hear a song I really like, I am happy to play it on repeat for hours, days and even weeks on end. Used to drive my poor wife and kids crazy.
Happened again to me recently. Heard a song on the radio (BBC6music, love that station. So many great DJ’s, so many great tunes) couldn’t get the track out of my mind, so went in search of it.
The song is called, “Bad Friend,” the bloke responsible is, Gruff Rhys. (Here’s his video - above.) Must say, right now I love everything about the guy. His songs, his lyrics, his mildly miserable, hang dog persona. Even the video for Bad Friend makes me gleeful. It’s a delightfully downplayed drama. Partially filmed in a cafe too. What’s not to love?
Naturally, what first attracted the earworms, was the song itself. Simple chord structure, nicely obtuse lyrics, great melody, great voice, great band. The whole thing put together elegantly too. A pretty piece of work. Superb example of the songwriters craft. The sort of song that makes you wish you had written it. Or, at least, makes me wish I had helped write it. Everything just flows the way it should.
If all of that wasn’t enough, when he took it into the studio, someone came up with some suitably understated parts to put on top. Awesome overdubs. Piano, strings, sigh. It’s got a heavenly handful of just what it needs. If you fancy hearing what it sounds like, straight from the musicians mouth, with no overdubs. Here’s an acoustic version.
Until next time, all the best
Stan
One of my favourite songs of all time is Step Outside….
His new album has been my Ljubljana soundtrack and I am going to see him playing live in Hamburg at the end of the month - all thanks to you. 😊