happy tunesday! jackpot (the marc whinston project)

 

Continuing with the tracks from my album, track number eight is "Jackpot."

For reference, previous entries in this series were:

• about the album as a whole;
• about track 1;
• about track 2;
• about track 3;
• about track 4;
• about track 5;
• about track 6;
• about track 7;

In an album with lots of songs whose themes are variations of "please love me as much as I love you," this isa bit of a departure. It's pure appreciation of love without any expression of fear or doubt. I wrote it for Blair over the course of several years, more than fifteen years ago. I remember many drives between New York and Boston -- Blair's friend, Tall Judy, was still living there -- in which I passed the miles writing this in my head.

Blair didn't like the first iteration, as its message was a little off. I don't remember the lyrics anymore, but I do recall that the message could largely be summed up as "you help me to be a winner; you are my lucky charm." Her criticisms made sense -- the message was not as I had intended. I rewrote it to convey the message that "I am a winner as long as I have you; you are my prize." Neither of those paraphrases is entirely accurate, but they get at the idea. I liked the revised version better. Interestingly, that rewrite is something that likely wouldn't happen today. These days, my songs often get away from me and convey messages that I hadn't intended. But if I like the way a song sounds, I'll keep it even if it doesn;t say what I originally set out to say.

This is not the best-written of my songs, and its structure is a bit odd -- VCVCVBC. But I like it, and that's what matters.

Enjoy.

"Jackpot"
Song by: Marc Whinston
Lead vocal by Toby Wilson
All instruments and backing vocals by Toby Wilson
Arranged and Produced by Toby Wilson for Tobias Wilson Music, Ltd.

happy tunesday! changing rainbows (the marc whinston project)

  

Continuing with the tracks from my album, track number seven is "Changing Rainbows."

For reference, previous entries in this series were:

• about the album as a whole;
• about track 1;
• about track 2;
• about track 3;
• about track 4;
• about track 5;
• about track 6;

This song was actually my third attempt to use the title for a song. I don't remember the context, but I heard the phrase "changing rainbows" when I was in high school, and thought it would make a good song title.

My first try was a self-conscious attempt at a rewrite of Paul Simon's "59th Street Bridge Song" (often incorrectly referred to as "Feelin' Groovy." It was pretty awful. I won't cite the lyrics, though I do recall the entire first verse.

The second try was a bit better (low bar). Or, I should say it showed more promise since I never finished it. It was written from the perspective of a man asking a woman for a relationship. It kind of created the metaphor of relationships as rainbows. "You're always changing rainbows. / That's how it seems to be. / So try out the rainbow / That's me." It could have worked, though I am glad I never finished it. The album have plenty of songs that are based on a variation of "please love me (or care about me) as much as I love (or care about) you." It's good to have a different subject.

This, the third try, was just about relaxing with the rain. I have fond memories of rainy days at summer camp, where there wasn't much to do but hang out on the bunk's covered porch and watch the rain. As an adult, one of the things I wish my house had is a covered porch. When it's raining, I think about how nice it would be to just hang out on that porch and read.

This was the first recording that Toby Wilson made for me. I emailed him a lyric sheet with a message that we should talk. He naturally assumed that I needed a melody, and emailed back with some thoughts. So I had to clear up that I had a melody and just needed his services to record. If I had it to do again, I might have gone for a little more twangy guitar instead of the mandolin. But I still love the way it came out.

Enjoy.

"Changing Rainbows"
Song by: Marc Whinston
Lead vocal by Toby Wilson
All instruments and backing vocals by Toby Wilson
Arranged and Produced by Toby Wilson for Tobias Wilson Music, Ltd.

happy tunesday! midnight has come and gone (the marc whinston project)

  

Continuing with the tracks from my album, Track number five is "Midnight Has Come and Gone."

For reference, previous entries in this series were:

• about the album as a whole;
• about track 1;
• about track 2;
• about track 3;
• about track 4;

Decades ago I spent several summers at Orthodox Jewish sleepaway camps. There, I got to hear a lot of Israeli pop songs from the era. One song that stuck with me was* "K'var Acharei Chatzot" (which means "It's Already After Midnight") a 1968 record by Ilanit. For reference, I'm including a video of Ilanit singing it.

And that was the inspiration for "Midnight Has Come and Gone." The influence is obvious. My title is close to a translation of Ilanit's. and both songs include pleas for another moment. There are certain structural similarities as well -- notably, in both songs the title is the first line of each verse. But Ilanit's song has a certain hopeful quality to it. In my song, the protagonist sounds desperate. I never really figured out the backstory, but it feels that there's some kind of forbidden affair. The line, "Tomorrow is another day and I don't want to go back to pretend," says something about what's going on. Is someone cheating on a spouse? Are two coworkers sneaking around? I honestly don't know.

"Midnight has Come and Gone"
Song by: Marc Whinston
Lead vocal by Toby Wilson
All instruments and backing vocals by Toby Wilson
Arranged and Produced by Toby Wilson for Tobias Wilson Music, Ltd.

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*For ease, I will translate or trasliterate Hebrew names and titles and render them in English -- isntead of writing them in Hebrew.

happy tunesday! bleed me a river (the marc whinston project)

 

Continuing with the tracks from my album, Track number four is "Bleed Me a River."

For reference, previous entries in this series were:

• about the album as a whole;
• about track 1;
• about track 2;
• about track 3;

I don't actually remember where the idea came from. But I do remember walking around the Tucson Botanical Garden with an early version of this in my head. I was trying to write a Western song, thinking about such fare as "Run the Ridges," (by John Stewart) I wanted to wrote a song that told a story about the old West. I don't really remember a lot of those original lyrics. Which is probably just as well.

That was more than ten years ago.

Particularly helpful was the realization that a story song doesn't have to tell the whole story. It can allude to elements without spelling them out. And I think that this strikes a reasonable balance between elements that are spelled out explicitly and those that aren't.

As of a year ago, I was still struggling with some of the lyrics to this, but Keith and Christina Crocker brainstormed with me and helped me get the rest filled in.

I originally wrote this in a major key, but when I approached Toby he suggested that a minor key would work better. He was right.

Tom Patterson's vocals were, I think, perfect for this. I asked Toby if he could find someone who sounded like Kris Kristofferson or Johnny Cash. This was more like Country Dick Montana, which is even better.

Enjoy.

"Bleed Me a River"
Song by: Marc Whinston, Christina Zuber Crocker, and Keith J. Crocker
Lead vocal by Tim Patterson
All instruments and backing vocals by Toby Wilson
Arranged and Produced by Toby Wilson for Tobias Wilson Music, Ltd.

happy tunesday! write a song about me (the marc whinston project)

Continuing with the tracks from my album, Track number three is "Write a Song About Me."

For reference, previous entries in this series were:

• about the album as a whole;
• about track 1;
• about track 2;

In 2012 we were taking a family road trip to California. We stopped at GameStop in Nebraska to buy the kids some more entertainment. The place was staffed by some college kids who seemed kind of bored. As we waited in line to pay, I couldn't help but overhear some of their conversation. One of them complained that he didn't know what to write about for his English paper. "Write about me," replied the young lady who was working with him (and who seemed to be attracted to him), "I like when people write about me." And an idea was born.

The song itself has kind of an odd structure. There's no bridge, and it's V-C-V-C. And the two choruses aren't even the same. I'm not 100% sure why I wrote it that way. It was at least partly due to the fact that I wrote two different choruses, and I liked them both enough that I didn't want to discard either one.

When I wrote this, I was imagining it as being sung by a woman. I think it's the only song I ever wrote with a woman's voice in my mind. Toby, with his array of contacts, had no problem finding a suitable female vocalist. But when he sent me an mp3 with his vocal (which would serve as a guide for the hired female vocalist), I started to have second thoughts about whether it needed a female vocal. But I decided to stick with my vision and go for the female vocal. But then, when I heard Bryony's version I had another idea. I asked Toby if we could experiment and create a duet, seeing as we had a version with his vocal and one with Bryony's. All I had to do was decide which parts would be sung by the man, which by the woman, and which by both. It worked way better than I had hoped.

When I was first sequencing the album, I put this track first because it's one of my favorites and because it's probably the most upbeat song on the disc. But a Eytan Mirsky suggested I move it so as not to open with a duet. Don't use all your powder right away. That made sense, so I moved it to the third spot.

I also included the female-only and male-only versions of the song as bonus (never-before released!) tracks at the end of the album. There were many personal jokes that I was tempted to throw into the project -- fake names in the "special thanks" section...stuff like that. But I decided to treat this project seriously, and so left out all the jokes. Well, almost all the jokes. I did include the four "bonus" tracks at the end, packaging everything to look as if this was a rerelease of an earlier album. Just a small joke. I couldn't resist. Three of those tracks are alternate versions of tracks on the album.

Enjoy.

"Write a Song About Me"
Song by: Marc Whinston
Lead vocal by Toby Wilson and Bryony Ward
All instruments and backing vocals by Toby Wilson
Arranged and Produced by Toby Wilson for Tobias Wilson Music, Ltd.

happy tunesday! un-grand canyon (the marc whinston project)

 

Continuing with the tracks from my album, Track number two is "Un-Grand Canyon," written by Christina Zuber Crocker and me.

For reference, I wrote about the album as a whole here and about track 1 here.

"Un-Grand Canyon" is unique among the songs on the album in two different, but related, ways. The first is that it represents the first time that I wrote a melody for someone else's lyrics. Back when I was in high school, and starting to write songs, I was really only writing lyrics. On the few occasions that a melody got attached to my lyrics, it was because I brought them to a friend and asked for a melody. So, as a personal matter, there was pride in finding myself on the other side. The other is that it's the only song on the album which wasn't really my concept. While I, as the composer of the melody, share the songwriting credit, the fact is that this is Christina's baby. The other songs that include co-writers were my babies. I had the ideas and wrote them mostly by myself. My co-authors contributed words or music, and are therefore credited. But, again, this track is really Christina's song. My only contribution to the lyrics was as an editor. As I discuss below, Christina wrote a poem, and I did some editing to try to shoehorn her words into a song-like format. I note that this is the only track on which the credits list my co-author first -- again, because this one is really my-co-author's conception.

So how did it all come about? Early on in the process of  assembling recordings for the album, Christina asked me if I'd be interested in setting any of her poems to music. I said I'd try, but made no promises. Christina shared two lyrics with me, this being one of them. Christina's poems are very different than my songs, which in and of itself increases the variety on the album. "Un-Grand Canyon" is kind of an elegy for New York City, Christina's observations on a city which may have passed its peak. The other lyric she gave me, which I did not work with yet*, is about riding the subway. It's not quite as negative, but there's still a bit of a jaded tone to it.

Christina's lyrics are dense with clever cultural references:

Midnight Cowboy's been fired.
Tiffany's breakfast seems tired.
Woody's been shamed.
Hamilton's no Mame.

This is stuff I could not not have written -- I wish I could have, but that's just not a style that I can do. But I could edit it. Above, I mentioned that Christina gave me poems. I wanted to edit this down into a song without changing the tone -- and I think I succeeded if I do say so myself. Of course, maybe I didn't do as good a job as I think; if you write out the lyrics, you'll see that the scansion is wildly inconsistent. The fact that this worked as well as it did -- and I have heard from a few people that this is the best track on the record** -- is a testament to the skills of Toby Wilson (who arranged and played on the track) and Eytan Mirsky (who generously provided the lead vocal). FWIW, you can hear (and purchase) Eytan's music from (among other places) Bandcamp.

I was still working on this late last summer when most (all? I'm not sure) of the rest of the album had been recorded. Christina and I liked the arrangement that Toby came up with (actually, the second or third, but who's counting), but didn't think his vocal did the song justice. We wanted a singer who sounded like a New Yorker and who could capture the world-weariness necessary for this song. Eytan Mirsky*** agreed to give it a go, and the result was pure magic. As I noted above, this must have been a real challenge because of the odd scansion. I was a bit nervous about how it would come out, but I am really pleased with the results.

"Un-Grand Canyon"
Song by: Christina Zuber Crocker and Marc Whinston

Lead vocal by Eytan Mirsky

All instruments and backing vocals by Toby Wilson

Arranged and Produced by Toby Wilson for Tobias Wilson Music, Ltd.

_________________________________________________

*maybe next album?

** I don't think it is (sorry, Christina), but I'm biased.
***A little bit of background is in order. Eytan is a New York-based singer-songwriter who has achieved some measure of success writing songs for several indie films such as Happiness, American Splendor, and The Tao of Steve. I've been something of a fan since I first heard his music in the 1990's -- I just love "I Just Wanna Be Your Steve McQueen." I ran into him on the subway about 2½ years ago. My son, Ethan, was embarrassed when we were waiting for a train and I suddenly approached what looked like a random stranger and said "Excuse me sir, are you Eytan Mirsky?" I think Eytan got a kick out of being recognized. We've been friends since.

happy tunesday! music no one else can hear (the marc whinston project)

 

As threatened, I am devoting a series of Tunesday posts to the songs on my album. Today is the first track, the title track, "Music No One Else Can Hear." If you don't want to hear lots of detail about how the song came to be, feel free to listen to it anyway.

The song has its roots back when I was in high school. At the time I was writing a lot of songs.* They all pretty much sucked. Most of them are long-forgotten, though I remember some titles and some passages. I have no memory of the actual song I wrote back then -- or even if I wrote one or not. But I remember the inspiration. I was hanging out at Tony's**. Actually, I was sitting on the roof of the car parked outside of Tony's. A friend, Melinda, borrowed my walkman.*** She started listening. And then she started dancing. After maybe a minute of that, she gave it back. With a slightly self-conscious laugh she said something about how she'd better stop because she's dancing to music no one else can hear. I don't remember the exact words, but that final phrase struck me as a great song title. And that's how most of my songs began back then -- with a phrase that I thought was catchy. Come to think of it, that's still how I do it a lot of the time. As I noted above, I really don't recall whether I wrote a song to the title back then.

The first version I remember anything about dates back to my grad school days. And it happens to be a pretty direct ancestor of the current song. As my first year at the University of Michigan approached its end, I started dating someone named Anne. But I went home to New York for the summer, while she spent her summer in Detroit. And, while we were apart, I wrote her a song.

I'm not entirely sure how it came together -- whether I decided to write her a song, or whether it came to me. Sitting with my guitar, I started writing to the tune of Air Supply's "All Out of Love." Air Supply's song begins:

I'm lying alone
With my head on the phone
Thinking of you 'til it hurts.
I know you hurt too
But what else can we do,
Tormented and torn apart?

I wrote:

I'm lying in bed
With you in my head
Wondering where you are now.
Tell me, can it be?
Are you thinking of me,
Even though I'm not around?

And that was my first verse. I continued with a chorus, At this point I kind of made up a melody as I went along. If I recall correctly, this was the first time I attempted writing my own melody.

Your song is with me, wherever I am,
Even when you're not here.
And all around me there's music,
Music No One Else Can Hear.

I wrote more, but I don't remember any of it. I played the song for Anne when we saw each other again at the end of the summer. I remember sitting on my bed, with my guitar, my leg shaking with nerves because I had never before played a song I wrote -- much less for the girl I had written it for. I don't know -- I'll never know -- if Anne liked the song, but she appreciated the effort.

There have, over the years, been many iterations of the song. One of them even ended up on an album by The Milner Brothers  - a result of my playing it for Scott Milner on a camping trip. The current version is in the video above. The first verse is, almost word for word, the first verse and chorus that I sang for Anne almost 35 years ago.

And it's the title track of the album for no better reason than the fact that I think it's a great title for an album.

"Music No One Else Can Hear"
Song by: Marc Whinston
Lead vocal by Toby Wilson
All instruments and backing vocals by Toby Wilson
Arranged and Produced by Toby Wilson for Tobias Wilson Music, Ltd.

________________________________________

*More accurately, I was writing lyrics. I still didn't feel that I could set anything to music.

**Tony's Luncheonette, a small hangout spot next door to the school.

***Unimportant detail: in the walkman was a copy of the Dave Edmunds album, D.E.7th

music no one else can hear: the album

It's out. It's finally out.

Several social media friends have asked questions about my new album, Music No One Else Can Hear. Rather than answer everyone individually, I've decided to cop out and write this as a blog post.

Before I go into the background and describe what this album is, let me say what it isn't. This is not an album of me singing or performing. I am not a good guitarist, and as a singer? Well, as a singer I make a good guitarist. On 17 tracks, only one includes my performing in any way; I play guitar on one track, and that's labelled as a "bedroom demo." That's why this is not branded as a "Marc Whinston" album. Rather, it's by "The Marc Whinston Project."

So having said that, I turn back to the question of what this album is. It's a showcase of my songs -- songs that I wrote (or, in four cases, co-wrote).

Anyone who knows me well knows that I write songs. It's a hobby. I've done it for a long time.* I get kind of frustrated because I'm not a good musician or singer, but I have written a few good tunes (if I do say so myself -- and I do) which I want to put out there into the world. Not that I expect to gain fame or fortune through my songs. I'm too realistic for that. But still, I just want to share my artistic endeavors.

A few years ago I had the idea of recording an album. My original idea was to take my songs into the studio and, with hired musicians, record. Maybe I'd play some guitar on it. That didn't really work out well -- primarily because I don't sing well. The next idea was to see if I could recruit bands or musicians to record my songs for an album which I would put out. I know a few musicians. And they know other musicians. Going through the list in my head, I concluded that I could probably recruit enough of them to record for me. I loved the idea of curating an album of various musicians and bands recording versions of my songs. I fantasized about titling it "Songs in the Key of Moish**" and branding it as a tribute album to me. Somehow*** the idea morphed from a various artists type of presentation to a more coherent consistent sound.

I ended up working with Toby Wilson, a freelance musician and producer in England who seemed to have a good feel for what I was getting at. In the end, he recorded almost the whole album. For a variety of reasons, a few tracks have other vocalists -- Bryony Ward, Helen Walford and Tim Patterson (all of whom Toby found) and Eytan Mirsky (a New York based singer-songwriter I know, who graciously agreed to lend his vocals to two tracks). And an old friend from grad school, Joseph Discenza, makes a brief appearance doing a voiceover. And there's one rough track, the aforementioned "bedroom demo" that I recorded with a friend in his apartment in San Francisco over ten years ago.

It took a little more than two years from when I first contacted Toby until the album's official release yesterday -- April 1, 2023. Appropriately, I picked April Fools Day. The main reason it took so long is that I didn't want to just send Toby a lot of songs with instructions to record them. I started with one. Liking what he did with it, I sent him another. In order to make it last -- to savor the process -- I disciplined myself. One track a month. On the fifteenth I would send him a lyric sheet and a link to an unlisted Youtube video of me singing a song and playing it on guitar. 

Pacing it out like that proved to be a good thing in many ways. When I started, I had a bunch of completed songs. But I found that I was still writing. So, if I had hurried it and just sent him a bunch of songs all at once, then some of the songs that are on the album would not have come about. Without naming specifics, that includes two of my favorites.

In the coming weeks I plan to write a series of posts about the songs on the album. My plan is to post them on Tuesdays as part of my semi-regular "Tunesday" series. I will go into more detail there, but I want to thank my co-writers here: Christina Zuber Crocker, Keith J. Crocker, Eric Goulden (AKA, Wreckless Eric), Scott C. Milner and Amy Rigby.

You can listen to these recordings on Spotify, Pandora, Youtube and other streaming services. Just search for "The Marc Whinston Project." I hope you enjoy and add these songs to your playlists. 

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*It's tempting to try talking about how long, but that discussion would be too long and too tangential. So, for now, I won't go into it.

**Moish being a nickname of mine. Some of my oldest friends still call me "Moish."

*** I write that as if I have no idea how it morphed. I actually know very well how and why. But that story is tangential for this post.

happy tunesday! jackpot

 

"Jackpot" is another song that I asked Toby Wilson to record for me.

I first wrote "Jackpot" sometime between 15 and 20 years ago. I also got a really good modern Nashville sounding demo made by County Q Studios in Nashville. In writing this post I am shocked to discover that I never made the County Q recording the subject of a Tunesday. Maybe next week.

"Jackpot" isn't the best-constructed of my songs, but I really like it -- Blair was the primary subject.

I really like Toby's arrangement of this song -- it's simpler than the County Q version, and it feels at home.

I've been thinking that, when it comes time to assemble Toby's recordings, I'll probably ask him to replace his lead vocal with that of someone else he hires for the job. I'll probably do that with a few songs. That way no one song stands out due to having a different vocalist.

happy tunesday! "do you think of me (now and again)?"

Another recording that I commissioned Toby Wilson to make. And this, a rarity for me, is a song for which I had co-authors. And there were three of them.

There's a bit of  history here. Go ahead, listen to the song before you read the background.

Originally, I started writing a novelty song, with the chorus:

Do you Google me now and again?
Do your fingers hit the keyboard when
Something frees your memories?
Do you Google me now and again?

I spent a lot of time -- as in years -- sitting on that. I was trying to write verses with references to the interwebs and social media. But everything I could come up with was just way too gimmicky. Eventually I decided that the whole direction was too gimmicky and risked becoming dated. I changed the chorus to what we have here:

Do you think of me now and again?
Do the feelings come flooding back when
Something frees your memories?
Do you think of me now and again?

Eventually I also wrote what would become (with some wordsmithing) half of the first verse, the second verse and the bridge. I ran it by Scott Milner, a friend and musician. He rearranged it a bit and added what would become the second half of the first verse. And we had a completed song.

Enter Eric Goulden (AKA Wreckless Eric) and Amy Rigby. They were crowdfunding what would be their third album. As part of their campaign, they agreed to record a demo. In the process they touched up the wording and improved the melody in the bridge. I explained that part in more detail in a blogpost a year and a half ago.

And that brings us to today. As part of my musical vanity project, I commissioned Toby Wilson to record it. I hope you enjoy.

happy tunesday! music no one else can hear

 Here's another one of my songs, recorded by Tobias Wilson.

This is a song that took me 35 years or so to write. It went through many iterations and versions, including one that got recorded and released on a CD. I'm not sure if I ever wrote up the story behind this song -- I didn't find anything in a quick search, so I'm gonna go ahead and share. If I'm repeating myself, please forgive me.

If you want the TLDR version, it's essentially: A friend in high school made a stray comment. I used it as a title for a song, which underwent numerous rewrites until what I have now.

The extended version:

It started with a stray comment a friend made when I was in high school. My friend, Melinda, was listening to music on my Walkman. At some point she said she should give it back to me and stop "dancing to music no one else can hear." The phrase struck me as a great song title. At the time, I was doing a lot of songwriting. Sadly, most (that is, all) of the songs I was writing at the time sucked. Back then (as now), song ideas often started with a turn of phrase that caught my attention. So I kind of tucked that into my mind as a title to use.

If I recall correctly, I did use the phrase as a song title at the time. The song sucked and has been mercifully forgotten in the mists of time.

The current song started taking form when I was in grad school. At the end of my first year, I went home for the summer. The woman I was dating stayed in Ann Arbor. And I wrote a song about missing her while we were apart. I don't remember the whole thing, but I do remember the first verse:

I'm lying in bed
With you in my head,
Wondering where you are now.
Can it be?
Are you thinking of me
Even though I'm not around?

I also remember the chorus:

Your song is with me wherever I am
Even though you're not here.
And all around me there's music.
Music no one else can hear.

For the record, I originally wrote the verses o the tune of Air Supply's "All Out of Love," which begins:

I'm lying alone
With my head on the phone,
Thinking of you 'til it hurts.
I know you hurt too
But what else can we do?
Tormented and torn apart.

That's something I still do sometimes -- I write lyrics with the melody of an existing song in mind. Then I go and change the melody.

Anne, the woman I was dating, liked the song. Or at least she liked the gesture.

But I wasn't really satisfied with it. I liked the first verse and the chorus, but not the rest.

A few years later I got together on a weekend with a work friend, and together we reworked the song. We combined the verse and chorus into a new chorus, with a melody I wrote. I added a bridge. My friend and I wrote some verses, and - voila! - a new song was born. I was actually pretty proud of that. Even more so when a friend and his brothers recorded it for their first (and, to date, only) commercial CD. That got me into ASCAP, which is cool. I blogged something about that album here.

But at some point since then I became disenchanted with the song (Scott, if you're reading this, please forgive me). I won't go into my reasons. If you like it, I'd hate to convince you to not like it.

Anyway, over a period of years I rewrote it. Again. This time I stripped out the verses and turned the chorus into the first verse and chorus. I then wrote a couple new verses and modified the bridge. In so doing, I removed everything that my old coworker had done. But I turned it into a (mostly) different song, which I like. And I think Toby did a great job with it. And if I ever get around to putting out an album, this will likely be the title track.

I hope I remembered all the details. If not, ask for your money back.

Anyway, enjoy.

happy tunesday! from chelsea street to avon road

 

When I was growing up my family lived on Chelsea Street. Sometime after I bought my current house on Avon Road (less than a mile from where I grew up) I made some innocuous comment about the years it took for me to go from Chelsea Street to Avon Road.

I kind of liked the phrase and stored it away in my mind for future yes. I knew I wanted to use it for a song, but I had no idea how. Then, at some point I thought it could be purposed as a lamentation of lost youth. The Monkees have "Shades of Gray." Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby have "Genovese Bag." And I have "From Chelsea Street to Avon Road."

Interestingly, there's a guy at work who almost became a co-author. I was talking to him about the song and mentioned that I was thinking of rewriting the bridge. He suggested a concept -- no lyrics, mind you, just a concept -- for the bridge. I figured I could work with that, and asked him if he wanted a co-author credit. He said he did. I asked what percentage ownership he wanted. He said he wanted 41%.* That seemed kind of high, so I made a counter-offer -- I think it was 6.25%. I came up with a formula based on number of verses, assuming that lyrics and melody are of equal value, and assuming the concept was worth half of the lyrics.

My colleague didn't accept my counter-offer and I took the bridge in a different direction. His loss.

____________________________________________

*It's worth noting that 41 is his wife's favorite number. And, no, that has nothing to do with Tom Seaver.

happy tunesday! "write a song (about me)" female vocal version

For Roadtrip 2012 we drove across the country to visit some friends who lived in San Francisco. The kids were getting restless somewhere in Nebraska, so we stopped for games at a GameStop. 

The place was staffed by college kids. As we were waiting on line, one of the boys was talking about his English class. "I have to write an essay, but I have no idea what to write about."

The girl sitting next to him offered a suggestion: "Write about me! I love it when people write about me!" And that gave me an idea. By the time we got to Frisco, I had a song mostly written. I note -- and I will get back to this below -- that as I was writing it I was hearing a female voice singing it. With one pronoun change it works for a male vocalist, though even then I think of it as a song exhibiting female sensibilities.

This is the third song that Toby Wilson, studio musician for hire, has recorded for me. And I think he did better with this than he had with either of the others. Because I wrote the song with a female voice in mind, I asked him to use a female vocalist, so he hired (subcontracted?) Bryony from London. This is the finished track.

Now, if you love this -- and, honestly, why wouldn't you -- tune in again next week and the week after when I plan to present alternative versions.

As part of his production process, Toby initially recorded the song with his vocal -- sort of as a guide for Bryony. As long as he had that, he was willing to include a mix with his vocal instead of hers. But I also had a follow-up thought. Since the two tracks would be exactly the same, except for the vocal track, it should be relatively easy to create a duet. I asked Toby how much extra he would charge to create the duet, and he offered to throw it in for free.

Many thanks to my friend, Christina Crocker, who had the initial idea to turn the song into a duet -- and who came up with the idea for which lines would have the male vocal, which would have the female vocal and which would have both. I'll have more to say about that in two weeks.

happy tunesday! (never kill a man twice)

Here's another one of my songs -- arranged, performed and produced by Tobias Wilson.

The song evolved, sort of, out of another songwriting project.

Some years ago, I was working on a song called "Bleed Me a River." It was intended to be very negative and threatening. Wild West. Guy threatening another guy with a gun type of stuff. I never did finish that project. Or, rather, I haven't finished that project yet.

At some point, I mentioned to Keith, who teaches the cinema history class I take, that "Bleed Me a River" sounded like the title of a Spaghetti Western. In relatively little time I came up with a general idea for how such a movie would go. I spent a Saturday at Keith's house working with him on the idea.  I never did finish that project. Or, rather, I haven't finished that project yet.

But something came out of it. At one point I had a plot hole. I wasn't sure how to explain a character's actions. Eventually, I came up with a simple explanation. Asked about what he was doing and why, he explained, "Mama always said, 'Never kill a man twice.'"

And at some point I thought that "Never Kill a Man Twice" would make a great song title. I decided to make it abstract, and full of misery. I think I succeeded.

And I think Tobias Wilson, session musician for hire, did a great job with it.

 

happy tunesday! (changing rainbows)

In a recent post I talked about my abortive attempt at making an album of me singing my songs. I wondered what my next step is. One possibility I was playing with was looking on fiverr.

And this is the result of my first foray onto fiverr. I found Tobias Wilson on the site. I won't go into great detail of the experience*. Suffice to say that Toby was a pleasure to work with, and I'll probably be employing his services for future demos.

Anyway, I hope you like "Changing Rainbows."

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*Regular readers may roll their eyes and ask why I didn't similarly spare them the details of my bad experience with AT&T.

no album blues -- next step?

I wanted to record an album.

I'm not a good musician, but I can write a decent song.* So I wanted to record an album. Mostly for shits and giggles. And for an ego trip. And to be able to have good quality recordings of my songs for my listening pleasure.

Someone I know from work is in a punk band and runs a recording studio (see here). He's also a multi-instrumentalist. So my plan was to go into his studio and work with him. He would produce and play all (or at least most) of the instruments. I would sing and possibly provide some guitar. And eventually I would put out an album called Music No One Else Can Hear (after one of the songs). After a day in the studio, I realized it's not coming together as I had envisioned -- partly because of the limitations of my vocal abilities -- and I'm putting an end to the project.

So what's next?

I have done some limited recording of my songs at home. Just me and guitar. Sharon recorded them. They're not great. And they're certainly not professional quality recordings, but I enjoy them. Or at least some of them. And if there's something I don't like, I can rerecord it. I'm not going to put the audio of those recordings onto an album. But I can keep them in my own personal music collection.

Actually, another friend has offered to film me singing my songs in front of his greenscreen. So I can put them on Youtube without having to show off my cluttered home office.

But, dangit, that just doesn't have the ego-boost of an album. And it's not studio quality.

I have fantasies about commissioning others to record songs and put out a various artists compilation of my songs: Music No One Else Can Hear: The Songs of Marc Whinston. It wouldn't be quite the same as an album of me, but it could be fun if I can get good quality recordings. But I have no idea how to even get started on the project.

I have several friends who have studio experience, who might be interested. I also have some Facebook friends who are musicians, and some of them do studio recordings. If I decide to pursue this project, I'll probably start by asking them if they have any willingness.** Of course, there's also the issue of getting permission to release a commercial CD with their recordings. Well, even if I can't secure those rights, there's still value in having well-done recordings of my songs for my own listening. Heck, I could probably even press a limited edition, just to be able to hold them in my hand, and not actually sell them. Yeah, I can go with delusion.

Other approaches? There are professional demo services. I went that route once -- about 15 years ago. And they made a song sound much better than it is.

These services can provide some really good recordings. But they're expensive -- even more so if you want the right to release the recording commercially. Ethan suggested I look into fiverr.com. And Sharon helpfully made sure I knew that, despite the name of that site, I'd have to pay more than five dollars per track***. Maybe that's a way to go.

What's a frustrated, (largely) amateur songwriter to do?

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*If you are reading this and you knew me in high school, and your only impression of my songwriting is the melodramatic shit I wrote in high school, please be aware that I've gotten better.

**And since some of them read this blog (at least sporadically), they might not be taken completely by surprise when I ask.

***I'll take "duh" for a thousand, Alex.

happy tunesday! never kill a man twice

This week, for Tunesday, one of my own. "Never Kill a Man Twice."

Care for a bit of a shaggy dog story?

Years ago, I was trying to write a Western song. Not a modern Nashville-flavored song with C&W twang. That's not to say I don;t appreciate such things. I do. But I wanted to write something else. I never did succeed. I came kind of close with "Five Missing One." Anyway, while this was on my mind, I thought of a title -- "Bleed Me a River." I don't remember when I thought of the title, but I do remember that I was at the Tucson Botanical Garden -- a place my family and I visited at least once a year. I started writing "Bleed Me a River." I never did finish. The lyrics were quite negative. Premeditated murder for revenge. That kind of thing. Maybe I'll finish it some day.

At some point, though, I decided that the phrase could have worked well as the title of a Spaghetti Western. Remember, we're talking about a movie genre that includes titles such as Find a Place to Die, Death Rides a Horse and My Horse, My Gun, Your Widow. It didn't take long to come up with a general idea of the plotline. It actually used the half-written song as a jumping off point. So I started working on a screenplay. I described it as "a film in the tradition of Spaghetti Westerns," and got help from my friend, Keith Crocker, a film historian who has made a couple features himself.*

I never did finish the script. I'll have to get back to that. At any rate, I ran into a problem with the plot. One character had tried to kill another. He actually had left him for dead. But now, later in the film, when the man he had tried to kill is coming after him, he avoids a showdown and eschews chances to kill him. How to explain it? Perhaps there are better ways than what I came up with. I had his lover ask him about it. And he cryptically responded, "Mama always said, 'Never kill a man twice.'"

So, the script still needs revisiting, but at some point I realized that "Never Kill a Man Twice" would make a catchy song title. And the rest is history.

Come to think of it, "Never Kill a Man Twice" would have been a great title for a Spaghetti Western too.
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*And who has cast me in his next feature, but that's neither here nor there.

a coincidence and a letter

This evening, purely by coincidence, I came across a letter my great grandfather wrote 57 years ago
today.

The occasions was the death of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson's succession to the presidency. Great grandpa Simon wrote to President Johnson to express his support and well-wishes.

A bit of background is in order. At some point Simon had a stroke that left him partially paralyzed. In order to occupy his time, he started writing letters. To family, to famous people. To anyone he could think to write to. He would type two copies of each letter -- one to send and one to save. This was no easy feat since his left arm was paralyzed and he was typing with one hand. But it served its purpose of keeping him busy. He saved his letters along with the responses in books, which he had bound. The one I have is titled Life Begins After a Stroke, Volume Four. I don't know how many volumes there were or what happened to the others. Simon had fantasies of getting them published.*

I am most amused by Simon's comments regarding the form response he got. He noted that he realized it was a form response, but added "I feel very pleased that my letter to him merited an answer."

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*Sounds familiar...

claptrap for those who are missing mad movie parodies

 

A long, long time ago I can still remember how the humor used to make me smile.

Mad Magazine was an institution when I was a kid, and there was a long stretch of time that I fervently looked forward to each new issue. And one of my favorite features was the movie parody. So it's kind of amusing that I would, in college, become friends with Desmond Devlin who would become one of Mad's most prolific writers -- both in general and of the movie parodies in particular. And, in fact, he helped me make my first (and, sadly, only) sale to Mad.

Des and I were friends for decades. We celebrated life's milestones. We consoled each other upon losses. And nobody ever wore a yarmulke as peculiarly as he did at my wedding.

And Des had an uncanny knack for drawing me. As one example, back in the 1990's I wanted to brew beer -- I have no idea why, since I don't drink beer. I think I really liked the prospect of making labels for it. Anyway, Des suggested I call it "Piggyback," which was a reference to an inside joke from our college days. I asked him to create a drawing for the label. Specifically, I asked him to draw a picture of "me riding a pig." He agreed, though he had an unorthodox interpretation of the word "riding." To the right is a picture of the last existing label from "Piggyback Ale."

But I digress.

After nearly 70 years, Mad stopped printing new material last year. I believe their last issue is coming out (or has come out?) this year, but I'm too lazy to look that up. No more Mad means no more Mad movie parodies. So Des and artist Tom Richmond are teaming up to put out a book of movie parodies in the style of the ones that appeared in Mad. Des is among the most prolific writers of these parodies and Tom is among the most prolific artists for them. Des and Tom have probably teamed up to do more of these parodies than any other writer/artist combination. So the form is in good hands with them. They're crowdfunding the project, which is the point of this post.

Please support Desmond's and Tom's project. There's lots of perks you can buy -- in fact, for the right price you can pick a movie you want them to parody, and they'll do it -- complete with a picture of you worked into it. To support them follow this indiegogo link. Tell 'em Moish sent you.

the upside of blog

I have now repeatedly come across a great advantage to blogging.

Time and again, on other social media platforms, I see discussions that I can contribute to. But what I want to say is longer than I really want to bother typing. This fact is on my mind because it happened for the nth (for some positive integer n) time today. Monica Lewinsky twote something about a recipe she experimented with. Since it involved combining sweet and savory, the subject turned to pineapple on pizza. This brought to mind my experiment with kiwi pizza -- something I blogged about a year or so ago. So instead of retyping the whole thing (which would have been a tweetstorm), I could simply link to my blogpost.

This kind of this seems to happen a lot. Well, maybe not a lot. But enough that I've gotten to seeing this as a real advantage to blogging.