radiohead

Lyrics – dog Tired

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So we’re in the studio. I totes forgot to prelude it by telling you about the song and posting the lyrics.

So sorry.

Today we’re recording the first blues song I ever did write. I doubt I have the right. I’m not exactly a blues aficionado. I always think of the bit in Lord of the Rings where Aragorn tells Bilbo it’s his look out if he has the cheek to write songs about Gil-galad in the house of Elrond. </nerd>

Anyway.

I think this one revolves around the line “what if there are fights you’re born to lose”. We get so much in films and so on about destiny and everything working out right. And sometimes things don’t work out. Not a sparkling piece of insightful observation, I’ll grant you.

What if no matter how you went about a situation you were going to fail? Probably you should still go for it. Depends on your perspective I guess. The point being, if you fail, you shouldn’t berate yourself too hard or entertain endless what ifs.

I actually came up with the title of the song by mishearing Radiohead‘s Myxomatosis. It’s not as if Thom’s diction is the clearest in rock. Turns out the lyric is “I don’t know why I feel so tongue tied”, not “dog tired”. Hell I’ll take it. At least I didn’t write a song called Twitch and salivate. Although…

As well as Paul and myself (standard), we’ve also got Ant Martin back in and the one and only Jack Lewis (Mister Jack Lewis if you please!) for the first time. Very exciting stuff.

I’ll chuck a few pics out at some point no doubt.

And here are the lyrics:

dog Tired
Hung my head found a way
To double down on yesterday
If I keep throwing words around
If I could just hold out and run to ground
That most elusive of all men
The king of black eyed fools again
I’ve been indecisive, I’ve been unkind
Mercy me I think I’ve been so blind

Tell me just exactly what’s a man to do
What if there are fights you’re born to lose?
What if I could have done it different from the start…
But what’s the point of “ifs” they’ll only tear you apart

Holding forth as if by this
Strength of belief I could dismiss
All opposition, all antipathy
But it begs the question, who are we?
And honestly I still don’t know
Whether to stay or up and go
Apprehensive of all that is required
And all of my days feeling so dog tired

Every now and then I’ll catch a glimpse
Of the life that I could lead and I’m convinced
That here to there and there to here and back again
Would take more out of me than I have to spend

Long live the king

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There’s been talk for a while now about albums being dead. Talk like that is nonsense anyway, so I’m not about to write another post decrying or supporting simplistic rubbish.

What I will say is that this has been a pretty album-happy few weeks for me. I got Beyoncé‘s Lemonade and Radiohead‘s A Moon Shaped Pool as well as pre-ordering Foy Vance‘s Wild Swan (which drops tomorrow – huzzah!) and Switchfoot‘s Where The Light Shines Through.

I’m not going to get into reviewing on here. I don’t think. But I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve heard so far.

That said, for musicians without large followings there does seem to be less incentive to put all of that time and energy into making something as cohesive as an album. Certainly it makes more sense for me to do what I’m doing in releasing singles on a roughly regular schedule (on that note, Somewhere in between is currently with the mastering guy). This keeps me, and hopefully you, more interested and is a hell of a lot less work.

We did the album thing last year, and it took roughly 850 working hours last year to get the thing finished. And that doesn’t include physical production, launch planning, marketing or the launch itself. It was totally worth it, and we have a finished product which I don’t think is on the level of international acclaim, but which we’re really proud of and very happy with.

But it was a lot of work and a lot of waiting. And there was nothing to keep the public momentum going in between. In terms of momentum for us, that took a lot of sheer willpower and planning.

So here we are. And because it’s been a year (ish) since we went into the studio to record The Way Home, I will be posting some more about the process in the coming weeks. Hopefully you’ll enjoy the insight as much as we enjoyed making it.

Harmonious

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I’m totally going to put this one out there without too much thought. I was driving home and two of the following list came on shuffle and I decided I would tell you all my top seven uses of harmony/backing vocals. Odds are I’ve forgotten something crucial, but the internet’s such a transient place that I don’t suppose it will matter. Today’s top seven lists are tomorrow’s discarded clickbait. Not that this place is very good at being clickbait, but you know what I mean.

(By the way, I know seven is trendy and only for clickbait, and I was originally going to do five. But then it turned into six. And then seven. That’s the way it goes folks. Sometimes I’m accidentally trendy. But never accidentally clickbait. Or deliberately.)

Anyway, there’s not much I do that isn’t harmony/backing vocal ridden. With Roo’s Radio in particular we’re all about the vocal layers. So here’s my favourite harmony/backing vocal moments in history. As ever, in no particular order.

Ben Folds – Fred Jones, Part 2
This is a gorgeous song, whichever way you cut it, but when John McRae (from Cake, y’all) kicks in with his harmony I fall over. Metaphorically.

Radiohead – Black Star
Another beautiful song, with very few backing vocals actually (just the barely audible chorus one). Then in the 3rd verse the electric guitars depart leaving just bass, drums and vocals and out of nowhere this incredible harmony pops up and floors you. I realise this is another way of saying “I fall over”. And the harmony starts on the line “I keep falling over”. See how well I plan this shit?

Nitin Sawhney – Say Hello
Good grief I love this song. Honestly I just want to tumble into this song and float away. Then at the end you get the chorus with its multi part vocal AND this guy singing in Indian (?) comes in and then the song wins at everything.

Five Iron Frenzy – On Distant Shores
Dennis Culp is a harmony genius. If you need proof, listen to the chorus of On Distant Shores. I love this song anyway, but I have to loop the chorus (since it only happens the two times) as the backing vocal is so stunningly creative. Zoinks!

3dBs Down – (pretty much any of them)
Speaking of Zoinks, I couldn’t talk harmonies without mentioning the dBs. That I’m in a band with three lead singers is almost entirely down to them. And their arrangements are fantastic fun, very creative and so full of energy that I don’t want to fall over. I’m struggling to narrow this down, but let’s go for Quick Fix, Greatest Day or Fish Hook as prime examples. Well, if you’re going to push me, let’s go for the chorus after the solo in Fish Hook where the instruments cut out and all three vocals collide splendidly over a big fat pick scrape.

Poor Old Lu – Slow
I just love Aaron Sprinkle’s backing vocal part that comes in at the end here. So much so that I think I partly stole it for the end of Dream Again. Oops. That’s all I really have to say about that.

Imogen Heap – Hide & Seek
This song is basically all harmony. It’s lovely. My favourite part? “Ransom notes keep falling out your mouth”. Amazing.

Ok I’m all done. Did I get it wrong? Think I’m an idiot with an idiot coating? Got better suggestions? Better start a blog of your own because I turned off comments. Shazam!

Oh, also, I’m not linking you to youtube videos of these. I don’t have time. If you care, you know how search engines work. I’m a giver.