In my book, I wrote about playing a guitar with a razor blade. I thought I'd record an old song of mine to demonstrate what kind of sound that gives.
This is one of those songs that I felt worked because it was done so simply. Just three chords over and over. It was written about ten years ago, and it was written when I was incredibly depressed and wondered "Could I, even feeling like this, express myself in a song?" And I could. Which made me pretty pleased with myself. Like running a marathon with pneumonia or something like that. When I used to get suicidal back in the day, I'd write a song about deciding not to commit suicide. Then I'd have to worry people would understand that it was about that. About not committing suicide, despite rather feeling like it from time to time.
Typical of me, once the feelings started to be getting out, getting expressed in a song, I immediately started feeling better. And very typical of me, if I pushed the feelings to the point of absurdity, I lost the ability to fear them or take them so seriously. There is a very dumb pun in this song, like there are in many of my saddest ones.
This is one of those songs that I felt worked because it was done so simply. Just three chords over and over. It was written about ten years ago, and it was written when I was incredibly depressed and wondered "Could I, even feeling like this, express myself in a song?" And I could. Which made me pretty pleased with myself. Like running a marathon with pneumonia or something like that. When I used to get suicidal back in the day, I'd write a song about deciding not to commit suicide. Then I'd have to worry people would understand that it was about that. About not committing suicide, despite rather feeling like it from time to time.
Typical of me, once the feelings started to be getting out, getting expressed in a song, I immediately started feeling better. And very typical of me, if I pushed the feelings to the point of absurdity, I lost the ability to fear them or take them so seriously. There is a very dumb pun in this song, like there are in many of my saddest ones.
So, I've always recorded this song in one take, completely simple. When I'd just written it, I recorded it on a twelve string with a missing low E string, strummed with my thumb. Then I recorded it to put on the 'net recently, once I decided to try using the razor blade pick. Then the next week I got fancy.
What had been a simple song ended up having two voices singing a conversation, a pair of tracks with despondent breathing recorded, a heartbeat sound for the rhythm, a bass line, four acoustic guitar parts, all strummed with the razorblade, a harmonica played very much as a "mouth organ" and some girlie harmony falsetto vocals I did at the end. I kind added some Pink Floyd to the start of my Neil Young-sounding song, and then put the girlie vocals at the end like something from Meat Loaf.
I'd intended to play it to the best recording of a human heart-beat I could steal from YouTube. But listening to those, I realized that really, a proper recording of a human heartbeat sounds rather like a man tapping his index finger on a microphone. So I did that.
I'd intended to play it to the best recording of a human heart-beat I could steal from YouTube. But listening to those, I realized that really, a proper recording of a human heartbeat sounds rather like a man tapping his index finger on a microphone. So I did that.
That's why it's like this now.
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