I like to pair the Notebook Thursday posts with images of the notebook pages in question, but today's song started about four years ago, and I just don't have it in me to go digging that much. One of the lines was from not long after Arthur died, and I don't remember how it joined with the other ideas. Maybe just proximity in the notebook? Anyway, it's a love song now, or at least a heartache song, called "The Comeback Kid."
The thing is, for the longest time, it didn't quite work. I had lyrics I liked, chords I liked, a chorus I loved, and it just didn't feel right. I ran it by my buddy Chris. He suggested some alternative chord voicings, and they added nice nuance, but they didn't change enough.
There was other music to work on, and a lot of other life to get through, so I shelved that one. I put the chart in our master Google doc (archives matter!). I never shared the demo with the band.
Last weekend we recorded a handful of songs, and I filled in more cells in the Posthistoric/Backroads spreadsheet (it's so close! we've done so much!). "The Comeback Kid" was one of two songs remaining. Both were shaded green, which means "needs songwriting work." Since we're getting into do-or-die time, I messaged the band that I'd send them the demo and see if anyone had any ideas for fixing it.
Then, because nothing will awaken your inner critic like running your work past a jury of your peers, I listened to the demo. Still liked the lyrics. Still loved the final chorus. An early harmony suggested itself. It wasn't enough, but it was nice.
The problem was the verse melody. With the perspective of a couple of years, it was obvious. Too much of the same, both in rhythm and in range. The melody sat high, so I needed to look low. The chords suggested a descending motif I hadn't noticed before. Too low for voice, but maybe piano or baritone guitar? I plugged in my new (used) keyboard and tried it out.
This was how I discovered that the keyboard had for some reason shipped with its tuning set to A433. The collision with the demo guitar was brutal. For a second I wondered if, uncharacteristically, I hadn't tuned before recording the demo; it was from a distracting period of my life. Brief interludes of flailing, testing pitches, wondering if I needed to learn how to shift pitch in Logic for a stupid acoustic demo, then—finally—finding the keyboard's tuning function. This kind of thing can be enough to derail a song, especially if you're already frustrated with it. You have to be very, very stubborn.
When I got it working, the keyboard did change things up rather nicely. The low countermelody shook up the repetition of the chords. It still wasn't enough, but it was something.
I had to do it, in true kill-your-darlings fashion: I had to mute the existing melody track. (I should note that the stakes of this are rather low in a digital audio platform; the track doesn't go anywhere.) What if the verse line started here instead? What if it were lower here? What if I drew out a couple of these notes, so that the rhythm would vary without any changes to the lyrics? It took another day of experimenting before I arrived at something that worked. I sent it to the band and got an approving message from Charlie, of the sort that I will probably revisit as an antidepressant in years to come.
That all this has been for something called "The Comeback Kid" adds an extra layer of hilarity. The songs can't all take four years, and thank goodness they usually don't. Perhaps an Oblique Strategy or two could have nudged it along faster. It's hard to know what's going to be worth revisiting, what's going to grab you, what you're just going to forget. Things come alive or they fall flat, as Dylan sings. He's talking about love, but after all so am I.
The thing is, for the longest time, it didn't quite work. I had lyrics I liked, chords I liked, a chorus I loved, and it just didn't feel right. I ran it by my buddy Chris. He suggested some alternative chord voicings, and they added nice nuance, but they didn't change enough.
There was other music to work on, and a lot of other life to get through, so I shelved that one. I put the chart in our master Google doc (archives matter!). I never shared the demo with the band.
Last weekend we recorded a handful of songs, and I filled in more cells in the Posthistoric/Backroads spreadsheet (it's so close! we've done so much!). "The Comeback Kid" was one of two songs remaining. Both were shaded green, which means "needs songwriting work." Since we're getting into do-or-die time, I messaged the band that I'd send them the demo and see if anyone had any ideas for fixing it.
Then, because nothing will awaken your inner critic like running your work past a jury of your peers, I listened to the demo. Still liked the lyrics. Still loved the final chorus. An early harmony suggested itself. It wasn't enough, but it was nice.
The problem was the verse melody. With the perspective of a couple of years, it was obvious. Too much of the same, both in rhythm and in range. The melody sat high, so I needed to look low. The chords suggested a descending motif I hadn't noticed before. Too low for voice, but maybe piano or baritone guitar? I plugged in my new (used) keyboard and tried it out.
This was how I discovered that the keyboard had for some reason shipped with its tuning set to A433. The collision with the demo guitar was brutal. For a second I wondered if, uncharacteristically, I hadn't tuned before recording the demo; it was from a distracting period of my life. Brief interludes of flailing, testing pitches, wondering if I needed to learn how to shift pitch in Logic for a stupid acoustic demo, then—finally—finding the keyboard's tuning function. This kind of thing can be enough to derail a song, especially if you're already frustrated with it. You have to be very, very stubborn.
When I got it working, the keyboard did change things up rather nicely. The low countermelody shook up the repetition of the chords. It still wasn't enough, but it was something.
I had to do it, in true kill-your-darlings fashion: I had to mute the existing melody track. (I should note that the stakes of this are rather low in a digital audio platform; the track doesn't go anywhere.) What if the verse line started here instead? What if it were lower here? What if I drew out a couple of these notes, so that the rhythm would vary without any changes to the lyrics? It took another day of experimenting before I arrived at something that worked. I sent it to the band and got an approving message from Charlie, of the sort that I will probably revisit as an antidepressant in years to come.
That all this has been for something called "The Comeback Kid" adds an extra layer of hilarity. The songs can't all take four years, and thank goodness they usually don't. Perhaps an Oblique Strategy or two could have nudged it along faster. It's hard to know what's going to be worth revisiting, what's going to grab you, what you're just going to forget. Things come alive or they fall flat, as Dylan sings. He's talking about love, but after all so am I.
RSS Feed