Originally Posted by: SpedzarHi 333maxwell,
Kiss You had an interesting feel to it. Sort of drunken if you dont mind me saying. The little ascending hook just before the sung chorus section was reminiscent in some way (for me) of The Pink Panther theme main hook crossed with parts of the theme from Maxwell Smart. The lyrics were kind of cool although very simple. I didn't really click with your lead guitar sound - were you just playing on the bridge pickup of the strat? It sounded a little thin to me or something. The playing was OK - obviously very much improvised in sections - parts of the lead guitar playing and horn lines sounded more like a bunch of muso's who are more into rock/shred but took some valium and then drank half a bottle of whiskey and went crazy slurring notes all over the place - it wasn't exactly "jazz" improv in the traditional sense (if there is one - and I don't mean to upset anyone with such a generalisation) if you know what I mean...
My only real criticism is that in sections you seem to be very much in competition with the horns. My opinion - The guitar needs to take more of a comping role when the horns are blowing their solos and they should add some flavour and some more appropriate stabs when the guitar is blowing. Then both regather with more tightness during the hook. Anyway, that's my little say - but I enjoyed listening to your song so thanks - and Merry Christmas.
Your very insightful actualy..
At the risk of ruining my reputation let me toss a bit of what was going on the night I recorded this song..
I had worked out the Drum/Bass/Organ parts the night before.. then I started work on the guitars/horns and vocals the next night. I laid down the horn part and originaly had no intention of putting guitar in it. But I live in apts and at 10 PM I had to shut down playing horn, and at that point it was very much unfinished. So I (and yes, drunken improv would be correct.. thats what was going on).. picked up the guitar and plugged it directly into a Seymour Duncan Twin tube (distortion stomp box) and ran that directly into the computer).. and it WAS a Strat and a bridge pickup.. but it is a stacked humbucker (in a single slot of course) but tapped so it was a single coil but a but more "thin" than a normal single. The neck and middle pups just didn't mesh with the horn. I soon realized the horn was blending in with the guitar.. being deaf in one ear I have an awfuly hard time mixing, so I just went with it.. at one point I thought 'the sax and guitar sound like they are making out' hence the 'kiss you' lyrics.. thats what inspired them.
So, (and you are one a bazillion people who told me it didn't work for them) I ntentionaly wanted the horn and guitar to be hard to distinguish one from the other.. apparently it worked but not to everyones liking.
When it came time for the lyrics it was maybe 4am.. the wife and kids were in bed, I wanted to cut lyrics in a small apt.. so that is why they are almost whispered.. *not to mention you can hear me totaly forgeting the very simple lyrics in the third time around*...
After the vocals my laptop told me I had less than 150 MB's of hard drive space.. so all mixing and other tracks were now out of the question as it was going to take about a 100 mb to convert it to wav and MP3 (I was so low on hard drive space it took almost an hour to convert it to a .wav instead of the usual 45 second) .. by 6 am I was very tired and I realized this was going to be a bit unique and may not fly with everyone, but WARTS and all I decided to mix it into a wav. and share it in a few forums. I actualy came to this forum as in my 'regular forums' people were bsing too nice because they like me.. so I was looking for a bit more non biased ears...
A few days later when I recorvered more HD space I was re-mixing it and it hit me *BAMMO*... I could clean it up and fix it, but the song it's self was an exact representation fo the state of mind I was in when I recorded it.. so I left well enough alone and actualy have became quite fond of the song.. what used to bug me (a few timing issues especialy) I now have come to look forward to hearing now that I am used to them.. *L*..
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So there ya have it.. your observations were mostly all spot on.. right down to the pink panther as I got the same vibe (by accident) myself when I started cutting the guitar harmonys where the sax I couldn't blow late at night should of been.
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I REALLY appreciate the feedback and hope I didn't bore you with the story of the song..
Appreciate your ear and time!
