Death Songs (I)

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The Mudville Gazette is written and produced by Greyhawk, the call sign of a real military guy currently serving somewhere in Iraq. Unless otherwise credited, the opinions expressed are those of the author, and nothing here is to be taken as representing the official position of or endorsement by the United States Department of Defense or any of its subordinate components. Furthermore, I will occasionally use satire or parody herein. The bottom line: it's my house.

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May 26, 2008

Death Songs (I)

Greyhawk

Last year, Memorial Day - I was in Iraq. It was hot and we were dragging our shite out of the conex it had been shipped in and setting up shop. On the radio (Armed Forces Network, of course) one of those "Memorial Day Weekend 500 Greatest Rock Songs of All Time" shows.

And that was great. Hard to explain how much that lightened the load. Afterwards I thought about drinking a beer.

That would be the beer I'm drinking now. There's no beer in Iraq for GI's to quaff on a hot summer day. So back then I thought about the beer I would drink on every Memorial Day afterward - assuming I made it home. And it tastes just like I thought it would. And after I finish it I'm going to have one for Major John.

And two for Andy.

Prior to deploying I sat down in front of the old computer and recorded myself playing some songs I enjoy playing. Cheap camera, cheap mic, one take. All flubs intact. I didn't have a lot of time for the project. Just wanted to quickly capture myself for posterity, you know, just in case.

Update: That song was I've always loved you, by Third Day.

Here's a clip of the original.

Next: The Boxer

Posted by Greyhawk at 07:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) |

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I knew there was a reason I keep coming back here besides the information and debate opportunities ... you seem to share my tastes in music, Greyhawk.

I've laid down bass lines behind Third Day's "Your Love O Lord" and "King of Glory" many a Sunday morning when I was in Texas ... but my favorite is probably "I've Got a Feeling" (from the Wire album).

Nice piece of work here ... I enjoy your playing styles, both acoustic and electric. The only bug here is that the quick-take recording didn't do justice to your voice (compared to what I heard on "The Free and the Brave".)

BTW, if you're ever in need of a bass track for a project, let me know ...

... I play a lot more 4-fat than 6-skinny these days, because there are only three bass players at church -- and with one teen and two adult worship teams, there is too much demand for our talents for me to get some quality Les Paul time in.

Posted by Rich Casebolt at May 27, 2008 01:00 AM

Rich
The Free and the Brave cries out for a bass track! (And real human drums and keyboards...)

Posted by Greyhawk at May 27, 2008 04:09 AM

And yeah - the mic was just sitting on top of the desk, lower than the position of the camera even, so it was very close to the guitar.

Third Day is great. Just saw some youtube vids (digital camera quality) of them in Iraq, I'm guessing from late last/early this year.

Posted by Greyhawk at May 27, 2008 04:16 AM

I'm on it, Greyhawk ... I'm already formulating the track mentally, listening to the MP3. The actual recording will take place sometime in the next few days, in between the day job and orders from the Mrs. I will keep you apprised.

I assume you'll need a WAV of the track, that you can import into your DAW and mix in with the rest ... and that recording the track at the same speed as the MP3 won't leave you jumping through hoops to sync it to the other tracks.

In fact, I plan to send you two tracks -- a dry track with the normalized-but-EQ-free signal from my bass for you to fold/spindle/mutilate as you see fit, and my "best guess" at what I think it should sound like post-EQ.

Triva: I play a Squier P-bass Special (it has a second, J-pickup in the bridge position, along with the standard P-bass pickup), with D'Addario ProSteel strings.

I'll be using Audacity to record the tracks.

Questions/problems? Let me know here, or e-mail me.

Posted by Rich Casebolt at May 27, 2008 11:33 AM

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May 26, 2008

Death Songs (I)