Showing posts with label My Recordings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label My Recordings. Show all posts

Thursday, May 03, 2012

My Many, Many Moods

I wrote this post a few weeks ago, and thought I'd posted it, but clearly had not. But this is one of those rare times when I'm going to share my own work.

Because a few weeks ago, an album's worth of material that I recorded back in 1996 and 1997, collected back then (and again now) into a collection titled "The Many Moods of Bob", is part of the online "Happy Puppy Records" label.

These songs are from the humorous side of my writing and recording. The album contains several originals, a cover of a song-poem, a cover of a commercial and a couple of parodies. There are extensive liner notes, as well.

I'm quite honored and a bit overwhelmed that material I thought would only be heard by a few close friends and family has been heard by hundreds and possibly thousands of people.

The album can be found here. Have a listen, if you're of a mind to!
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Sunday, June 20, 2010

50 Years On

My goal for this site has always been to share some of the recordings I love and find fascinating with whoever might share some of my taste. I've rarely used it to share my own songs and recordings, as that wasn't really my intent in starting this site. Today, though, I'm making an exception. This is my 50th birthday, and I'm taking this opportunity to celebrate myself and some of the music I’ve made in the last 30 years or so. I hope that those of you who regularly listen to the song-poems and other music that I share will have a listen to some or all of these songs. I would love to hear any comments that you’d care to offer. Since around age 18, I've been writing songs both serious and humorous. I’ll include a handful of each type here. If a few are not really your speed, please try out a few of the others - my songs cover a lot of different genres. Unless otherwise noted, these are one-man-band-and-vocals performances. First up, two songs written at age 19, and in both cases, recorded about three years later, in late 1982. The first, “Just One Look”, was recorded live with guitar and voice: 

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From the same period and recording date, and from the other side of my songwriting, here’s “The Devil Song”, with a couple of piano parts and multi-tracked vocals: 

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For about two years, I was in a band which went through multiple line-up changes, with the only consistent members being the bass player and me (I played rhythm guitar and did much of the lead singing). Here are two of the songs we recorded, both of them written in 1980 and recorded in 1981. The first, “Don’t Over-Rate Love”, was written by the bass player and me, along with one of my closest friends. This tended to be the favorite of our songs, among those who heard us at the time. The recording quality on this one is a bit dodgy, unfortunately: 


The other song by this band is called “Another Friend”, and is a song I wrote apart from the rest of the group: 


From my mid-20s’, and for the next ten years, most of the songs I wrote were of the humorous variety. This next one requires a bit of explanation: At the reception following the wedding of one of my two best friends, my other best friend laughed at one point and commented that he had just seen the odd site of three people pouring orange juice at the same moment. I observed that “Three People Pouring Orange Juice” sounded like an early Bee Gees song title. With that inspiration, I soon wrote and recorded that song, trying to make it sound like a late ‘60’s Bee Gees track, as well, complete with a bridge section for my version of Robin Gibb to sing. Here it is:


In 1996, having the opportunity to record using Midi for the first time, in my brother’s home studio, I returned to a song I’d written in 1982, and made what remains one of my favorite recordings out of all that I've made. It's titled "Too Long Ago": 

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During that same session at my brother's home, I wrote and arranged an instrumental titled after a fictional Middle Eastern spy movie series that my brother and I would joke about. The lead character in our fantasy is named Bashleo Fatghar, and so naturally, here we have “The ‘Bashleo Fatghar’ Theme”: 

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Around age 30, I wrote and recorded a song called “Locked Away (The Old School Song)”, and about eight years ago, I made a Midi track for it, and re-recorded it. If I had it to do again (the midi file was lost long ago), I’d have edited out that God-awful Chinese Cymbal that I somehow thought was a good touch here, but otherwise, I like this one a lot: 

In my late 30’s, I had a burst of song-writing, and made a concerted effort to record enough material to produce a album length cassette of humorous songs, which was titled “The Many Moods of Bob”. From that set comes the deeply bizarre “The Year of Large Jeans”: 


And from the same set, comes another personal favorite, "Eightball": 

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Those previous two songs both began as dreams, where I heard a key moment of the song as I woke up, and both benefit in their keyboard solo sections, from the then-new (to me) influence of Rodd Keith's records. Over the last ten years, I have been trying to fit in recording of the various songs I’ve written, while also trying to be as active a father as possible and while also working an hour away from home. I’m close to having enough material for another full length set of songs, to be called “A Few More Plans”. From that collection, here is the most recent song completed, “The Swift”: 

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Finally, a taste of what I often do when I get to perform live - folk music. Recorded in 1990 at my parents’ home, here’s my friend Stu and I, singing the great “Way Out There”. That’s me on the verses (tripping up a few times on the words) and on the high harmony of the wordless chorus: 

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Thanks to all of you who read this blog, and I hope you enjoyed the music I’ve shared today. Bob

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Wednesday, December 30, 2009

One Year In!

Today, to celebrate the completion of one year of song-poem of the week posts (52 of 'em!), I'm going to do something a little different, and hope both that I will be forgiven a bit of self indulgence and also that readers of this blog will find today's extra tracks enjoyable. 

On several occasions, I've been part of performances of song-poems. Mostly, these have taken part at music-and-comedy parties that my friends and I have been holding for 25 years now, but I've also done recordings of a couple of song poems in my "home studio". Today, the original versions of four of my favorite song poems, each followed by a performance of the same song that I've taken part in. 

First up, the record that is quite possibly my very favorite from the extended song-poem world. I say "extended", because this is a Norridge Mayhams record in which he himself takes the lead. For that reason, this is probably more of a vanity record than a song-poem, although Mayhams was, of course, actively involved in the latter, as well. With my love of Calypso, Rhumba and other Latin rhythms from the middle of the 20th century, the lilt of this one was a natural for me to love. And Mayhams Vaudeville-type delivery gets to me, too. 

This song was part of the AS/PMA download page, so I'm sure it circulates among collectors, but may be unheard by some readers. The sound quality is horrendous (the 45 copy I own appears to be a copy mastered directly from a 78), but it's one of the strangest, most amazing records I've ever been lucky enough to hear, and it's called "Mary Ann McCarthy (She Went Out to Dig Some Clams) (Yes She Went to All the Parties)".

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Five years ago, at one our periodic parties, I recorded a backing track for a live performance of this song, played the lead part on the same keyboard, and two friends played guitar and uke in the live rendition that I sang. My flubbed lead keyboard playing, and the fact that we repeatedly played too loud to hear the backing track (getting woefully off beat with it at least three times), would both normally be considered significant flaws, but somehow, they seem just perfect for a performance of a song poem. I hope you find this as enjoyable as it was to take part in: 

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From the other side of the musical and song-poem world comes David Fox, and his arrangement and performance of the Caglar Juan Singletary's fascinating and indescribable "Non-Violent Taekwondo Troopers". Here's the original, another of my all time favorites: 

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And here, from the same party as that performance of "Mary Ann McCarthy", comes a rendition of "Non-Violent Taekwondo Troopers". A friend of mine and I worked out a backing track for the song, including a "cold" ending for the song (which faded on the original record). During the performance heard here, I played the lead keyboard parts over the backing track, and my friend - dressed as "Captain Bicycle" - sang the song with great verve and panache. Again, I hope this recording, with the audience comments and reactions, captures the energy of the moment: 

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If there is a competition for my favorite song-poem (with "Mary Ann McCarthy"), one of the few other records in the race is Norm Burns' exquisite early '60's-sounding gem "Darling, Don't Put Your Hands On Me". Everything about this record is perfect, from the overall sheen of the thing to Norm's expert reading of the lyrics to... well, I'll just say that on some days I think of this as being as good as any record ever made. This one also was on the AS/PMA website, so I'm certain it's well known in some circles, but perhaps others have not heard it. Here it is: 

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Now, from another one of our parties, here's my friend Stu and I, with Stu singing, on an almost impromptu version of the song. I say "almost", because we had discussed possibly performing the song, prior to the party, and I had worked out what keyboard settings to use in case we did it, but there was no rehearsal and no other preparation, which explains the many moments of poor keyboarding (a couple of flubbed moments have been edited out) and some of the alternate lyrics employed. The sparse applause indicates that this was at the tail end of the party, with most of the attendees and participants long gone.


Finally, the first Halmark record I ever heard, sent to me in trade from song-poem hero Phil Milstein way back in the late '90's, long before this song appeared on an online offering of one of the final "MSR Madness" compilations. I was immediately taken by this song, "My Hamburger Baby", and wrote, requesting an entire cassette of Halmark records, the next time we traded from our collections. It remains an all time favorite of mine, a completely ridiculous lyric married to an out of date backing track, sung with complete sincerity: 

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A few years ago, I set out to make a note-for-note remake of this record (or as close as possible - there are no backing vocals, for one thing). Obviously, this has all of the authenticity of a McDonald's Hamburger, due to the midi instrumental track, but I still think it was worth the effort. This will part of my self-produced CD "A Few More Plans", whenever I finish the final tracks for this ten-years-in-the-making epic. 


I hope you found these cover versions (and, of course) the originals, and would welcome any feedback or other comments regarding what you thought of them. And I'm always open to any requests for more of a particular style or label. I tend to feature tracks that appeal to me, of course, but am quite willing to expand that to include requests. A Happy New Year to all who have stopped by to read and enjoy! Much more to come! Bob
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Sunday, June 28, 2009

Wendy

Today's post is a change of pace, and is far overdue at that. I've not written about my own life here much, and not really at all about my family. I don't intend to make a habit of it, either, but this is the time for an exception. 

I wanted to write a bit about my older daughter Wendy, express my pride and admiration at her accomplishments, and share a bit of her talent. Wendy turned 18 last month, graduated from High School earlier this month, and will be attending the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the fall, studying Photography and Education. 

When we went to a "Portfolio Day" event last spring, the woman from the school who did the review and critique was greatly taken with Wendy's work, and offered a scholorship more or less on the spot. Months later, we learned that she had written that it was the best portfolio she'd seen all day.

Wendy is self assured, focused, comfortable with who she is, and passionate about her social and political views, and I'm happy and impressed with the young woman she has grown to be. 

Here are a few of Wendy's photos:

 









Wendy is also an accomplished musician, having played violin since age six and clarinet since age ten. She was already one of the best clarinetists at her High School by Sophomore. She will not be continuing those studies, at this time, but has played in countless concerts and solo performances, and has also played as a solo and as part of accompaniments at the various musical parties we've held or taken part in. 

While the following track does not show her instrumental abilities, it does include her as a singer, and quite a good one, too. Years ago, my two best friends and I, along with my mother, learned the intricate vocal arrangements of three songs as sung by The Weavers. For a party last Spring - our first musical party after my mother's death - Wendy honored the memory of her grandmother by singing two Weavers' songs with the other three of us. This is a fairly ragged performance in places (particularly my vocals, unfortunately) but we did a damn good job (in my opinion) of learning a challanging group of "weaving" vocal parts, from the original records. 

I believe the overall sound is really nice, and that Wendy's part shines - she certainly sounds more like her Weaver (Ronnie Gilbert) then any of us guys sound like ours. That's me singing the Pete Seeger parts, which include the first solo verse, and the verse after Wendy's:

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And here's Wendy herself:
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Monday, March 10, 2008

His Name is Barker Bill



I thought I might toot my own horn here a bit, and share a little piece I recorded almost eight years ago. This was the first recording I did for what I'd hoped would be a quickly recorded follow-up to my 1996 collection of songs "The Many Moods of Bob". That collection was simply a cassette given out to friends and whoever else requested a copy. The new recording was to be a full fledged, well produced CD.

While I've been able to record many tracks since then, all of which sound much better than my earlier recordings, due to better equipment, time has been the enemy, and the project still sits unfinished, with about 35-40 minutes worth of material more or less ready, and another ten or twelve minutes of songs which I just don't seem to be able to find the time to complete.

This piece - a combination of nostalgia and my own strange taste in music - remains one of my favorites.

To fully understand, you have to first hear this Little Golden Record, a five inch yellow 78 which has been in my family's collection, and much beloved, for well over 50 years. It's called Barker Bill, and here is that original children's record:



During a visit to my brother's home in 2000, I used his home studio to record my own version of the song. After recreating the open bars of the Little Golden Record, things get revved up into a whole different style. I created the backing track, playing everything on my brother's keyboard (using midi software), and using all the singers in my family, professional and otherwise, to sing the lines from the two bridge sections. I'm the singer for the main part of the song, including the bass voice and most of the massed voices heard at the end.

On the first bridge, you'll hear the voices of my two daughters, ages eight and six at the time, as well as my mother. On the second bridge, you'll hear my sister, my brother and my neice.

Given that I love Caribbean music, and also adore marimbas, it's not surprising that I'm particularly fond of the little instrumental section in the middle of the song.

Hope you enjoy it.



When finished, the album will be titled "A Few More Plans", after a rather strange instrumental piece that I've been playing with for a decade or more. Maybe I'll share that piece, one of these days. In the meantime, if you're of a mind to, let me know what you think of "Barker Bill".
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Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Here Comes Santa Claus!

At the end of this post is a recording made just over a year ago, during a music and comedy party at our house. But first, a bit of explanation:

For several years, I've found an insane level of amusement via the use of a certain translation website. Specifically, I've found that if I put the words to a song (something complicated, or one which tells a story usually works best) into the translation device, and ask for a translation in German, then put that German translation back into the device and ask for French, then go to Italian, to Spanish, back to Italian, to French, to German, and back to English, the results can be hysterical. 

I'm surely not the only one, or the first one to hit on this idea, but it's resulted in several great translations, and plenty of deep, long laughs. As an example, here is how the first section of the lyrics to "Splish Splash" came out, via this process: 

SPLISH PLOP 

Splish, splashes,I did a bath
Well, the Saturday absorbed on a night the Sunday!
they rub, you synchronize,
To grant the fact of alone in the barrel,
Thinking, that everything remained in the order.

Now, I took out barrel
they put my feet on the ground
I enveloped the bathrobe at myself
And I it opened carries she.

And then a splish, splashes,
I did a jump in the bath
Now like I, to know, he was,
A party continued there.

You were a splishings and a splash
The whirlwind with the feeling
The fact, to move, and a trench
Weighing and a Papiere-Bons!

Bing, noises,I saw the whole fanfare
The dance on my carpet good parlors
Flip tumble
You made the bop
The whole youth age had the dancing bug.
it had be the trendy of chupa-chups for property this Sr.ta
Molly then with a Peggy Son there, also a court there!

A source A. splish, splashes,
I forgot the bath
I went, and I put on well my dancing shoes!

Anyway, what I've just uploaded is a recording made of me reading a translation of "The Night Before Christmas", prepared in this way, with plenty of laughter, both in response, and from me, given that I had not thought to re-read the document just before giving this performance (resulting in my having forgotten the funniest parts, and laughing at them again. Hope you find this enjoyable.

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ADDENDUM, 2/10/22: I didn't want to say the name of the translation site at the time, for fear of letting the company involved know that someone was messing with their free service in this was, but it was a feature of the Lionbridge company, called the iTranslator, and has been defunct now for well over a decade. 
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