Creationism vs Evolution: The Musical Part 1

Recording and composing music was not a long term goal in my life. There was an opportunity, I had enough necessary skills to start, I jumped at the chance. No illusions about being a rock star, it was self exploration, something I have done since I was ten years old. I stuck with it, currently sitting on 339 finished master, God knows how many alternate takes, demos, and stuff too wretched to see the light of day. Despite a dozen years of this stuff, I still wonder how I do it.

That's the thing about self exploration; don't think too much about it while it's happening, let it flow, sort it out later. Self exploration cannot coexist with self-editing. Too many intelligent, talented people get stuck in the self-editing cycle, conceiving a great idea, then finding every reason not to follow up with it. End result; nothing gets finished, or even started.

When it came to music, I didn't have that problem. It was new technology, allowing me to combine  my talent as a guitar player (primarily) with experiments that I thought would help at work. The results varied, some pretty good, others dire. Over the years, I've gone back continuously, sorting things out, removing, remixing, redoing, improving. It's my music; I can do what I damned well please with it. It needs to be right.

A trend emerged as this material went over scrutiny time and again. The creation process seems to branch into two distinct types, that which evolved out of something, and that which emerged like Venus on the Half Shell, mysterious, unbidden. Having spent a tumultuous Summer and Fall dealing with personal issues, such as setting my brother's estate after his sudden death due to opioids, I turned to art as my therapy. Since my room - the entire second floor, in fact - was torn apart, drums and musical instruments in storage, new music was impossible. But I could do a new batch of music videos, so I hit it with a vengeance.

Reviewing the videos, nothing more than eye candy for random soundtracks, the notion of creation vs evolution came to me. After all, there were 339 songs to chose from, but as of June, only 48 videos. Roughly one in seven songs ever received this treatment. Hardly any covers, a tendency to shy away from vocals. Literally hundred of songs to chose from. Why the choices?

Some songs come from the aether, born complete. My job is to get it down fast, accurately. Others are continuations of themes, genre exploration, cover songs. But not all cover songs are evolution. The first example, 'Tequila', started with the drums done in isolation. No music, just the beat. My first electronic kit was weeks old, January 2009. I spent a weekend trying to play. Most of the time it was fruitless, but there were moments when it was steady enough, together enough, usable.

Later, listening to the few that were saved, I tried to figure out what to play on top. 'Tequila' was not on my radar, although I was familiar with a Wes Montgomery version. I thought it was lame, that I could do better. But that was not on my mind when I heard that beat as perfect for that song. I had to learn how to play it - not too difficult - and work up an arrangement. Thus, a creationist cover.

'Junko Partner' happened exactly the same way at the same time. This one was even farther out. There was no intention of doing reggae. Only after doing the beat, while listening, did I realize that it was a reggae pulse. Not terribly versed in the genre, the only song that I could knew the words to was 'Junko Partner', from a Clash album. It fit perfectly. The music came together.

But it's never that simple. It was 2009; vocals were still pretty new to me. The song demanded something big, the arrangement and production heading towards Dub. Getting the right vocal tone was near impossible. It was the first time I screamed with abandon, not worried about limits. A great deal was learned from singing this song, not that it is a great performance. By reaching for something beyond my ability, appropriate sounds came out, lifting the song up, making it better.

Genre explorations are usually evolutions, trying to put your stamp on something already existing. It's not worth it - to me anyway - to do a song if there isn't some change, the more radical the better. Mash ups are great, but sometimes it's simply enjoying the form. 'Scratch My Back' always struck me as somewhat preposterous, bawdy fun not to be taken seriously. Just grooving on the beat, getting my guitar solos onto that frame work, was enough.

'Meet Me in the Bottom' is another example of a cover evolving over time. Anything by Howlin' Wolf is fine by me. There was a version by Cream on a bootleg, as well as the Rolling Stones' version on the BBC. When it was time to do the most recent Blues album, that song seemed like a good choice. Done late in the sessions, by then I could tell that it was going to be a hard album.

That made my choices easier; it had to be at a fast pace. Slide was something I hadn't heard on this song, a rather comical tall tale by the Wolf. Getting the bass and drums down was relatively easy. Then it was working out the guitar part, making it build, getting a few climaxes, ending it before it got boring. It was one of the more successful songs on the 'Down in the Bottom' album.

Creation can be demonstrated by 'Don't Close Your Eyes', one of those songs that just came out of left field. It was 2008, and I only had a couple of albums under my belt. This one was built on a synth bed, with strange percussion added. While I play bass, keys and guitar, I couldn't really tell you what key it was in.

This was the second time I tried vocals, very unsure what to do. Like my first, I didn't prepare anything, improvising on the spot. Writing lyrics was never my intent when I began recording; just putting my voice on a recording was a big leap into the unknown. Whispering a la Roger Waters seemed a good way to disguise any vocal inadequacies. However, while I have erased my voice on similarly styled tracks, this one works well enough to remain. The sum is greater than the parts; I couldn't recreate this today if I wanted.

'DeGreased' is another example of creationism, but for completely different reasons. The original version of this was recorded the day after Xmas. I remember it because I took some money given as a gift, went to the a local music shop, and purchased the cheapest bass they had. I had finished my first album project; certain inadequacies were sinking in. One was a lack of funk due to lack of a real bass. Faking it on a cheap keyboard didn't usually cut it.

Arriving home with the instrument, I found the first drum track I had, going nuts. The entire song took less than 30 minutes. The original was so short that I looped the drums and bass, which always bothered me. In 2014, I found the drum part again. Why not try to recapture the spontaneity? This is the retread, using a five string Fender Jazz model, much nicer than the original. I manage a slightly better version, a more constructed improvisation, a cleaner mix.

'Lighthouse' was originally written for my first album, 'Soundscrapes'. Again, like virtually all that material, it was based on a drum track. I would work very hard to get an interesting beat happening. On this one, I created a finger-twisting guitar riff. For once, the cheap keyboard sounds okay, but the key bass was weak, as was the mix. Still, it popped into my head without a real precedent, made up on the spot.

There was a retread in 2014, because I always liked the drum part and the song but thought I could do better. In truth, I did not,; the guitar part seemed beyond me at the time of recording. Having an opportunity to go back to the original in 2016, fixing the bass, cleaning up the mix, it finally sounds like it should. Typically, it only took three tries to get it right, not unusual when flying blind.

'Fall Back Into Spring' is trying to rescue a song from the garbage heap. There was a kernel of an idea in this; I did at least a dozen versions at half a dozen different lengths, but none were satisfactory. Eventually I dumped the shortest one, around 2 & 1/2 minutes long, onto an outtakes album. In 2016, revisiting everything from back then, I instead went for the longest one, added a new bass, doing a very different mix, and it came out better. Needing one last element, I dug up a poem from 1981, recited it the top.

'Stars Align' is another relatively early piece, around 2008. The guitar and bass came together much better than anticipated, to be perfectly frank. My arranging skills were still forming; those two lining up so nicely was luck. That was the problem with my early stuff; some material would be very good like this, yet some material would be pretty weak. It took years to develop consistency.

I don't know where this is going; you have to arrive before you can pass judgement. It's been a wild trip, with some real high points. The junk is disposable, quickly forgotten. The heights, whether evolved or a surprise, are worth the effort.