I have deleted the old version of this song. I have copied and am re-
posting here the previous comments made about the earlier version of
this song.
There were 13 comments and 5 fans. Thanks, guys, for your helpful
and inspiring remarks.
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Fan List
Mcboy, Cydniko, ultravphunter, rschletty, LWinston,
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COMMENTS:
u cats
Authored by: Mcboy on Mon, 8 May 2006 06:30:52 -0500
have it going on.......leon ...funk on with u r bad
self...hehhehhe.....lwinston u have that ny funk thing down pat....much
potential here fellas......peace.....
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u cats
Authored by: Leon on Mon, 8 May 2006 18:44:58 -0500
Thanks, McBoy! It's a change of genre for me so I get to show the
smoother and bad ass side of me, too! Heheh! Thanks for your
quotable praise on our song!
Maybe, I can get you to play guitar on a song sometime? You are da
bomb, bad ass, kick-ass guitarist! :-) If my slang doesn't make sense,
remember I'm Filipino.. Ha-ha!
---
The lion roars, the eagle soars.
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Leon!!!
Authored by: Cydniko on Mon, 8 May 2006 10:18:46 -0500
I had no freaken idea.... Dude!!! Me next... Wow! - That was quite the
performance, and as Mcboy suggest..., go on w/ yer bad assed selves!
Geesh - I have goose bumbs that dripped' the coolest looking puddle
on the floor - LW - Kicks it up for this - What a very nice composition
Mr LW - Oh so sweet, my man - Your work was the initial tingle for the
bumps - Man, that was good fellas - Very nice! - Dion
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Leon!!!
Authored by: Leon on Mon, 8 May 2006 18:54:16 -0500
Man, my day is complete... i got a comment from the great Cyd!
It takes great music to inspire me to sing well. Lloyd (LWinston)'s music
got me on the right groove easily and it was so good it almost felt like
there was only one way to sing this song.
Thanks so much, Cyd, for your effusive appreciation of this song. You
don't know how great you just made me feel! A collab with you should
not be very far away I hope. :-)
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The lion roars, the eagle soars.
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Good Groove
Authored by: jsacker on Mon, 8 May 2006 10:33:14 -0500
Good music arrangement that compliments the voice. Smooth voice
and smooth music. Very nice sound for the overall performance.
Sounds good. Good job and God Bless.
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Good Groove
Authored by: Leon on Mon, 8 May 2006 18:57:46 -0500
Thanks and welcome to Macjams! Thanks for your admiration of the
song. I did check your debut song and it sounded really good!
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The lion roars, the eagle soars.
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Well Leon ....
Authored by: Alannah on Mon, 8 May 2006 10:33:40 -0500
I'm gonna have to start calling you the "Prince of Pop" I think ..... your
voice almost had a Steve Perry sound to it in this one .... (I think it's in
the Woah Woah's) ... very nice production (as usual) .... I think soon you
can afford a plane ticket to my house to teach me how its done !
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Well Leon ....
Authored by: Leon on Mon, 8 May 2006 18:38:01 -0500
Allanah, you probably figured that I have a penchant for wearing
surgical masks and sequined gloves and that I was gonna have some
nose job soon and bleach my skin... so yes, I might be fittingly called
that :-) The comparison will stop there I hope. Hmmm, I wish I had his
millions of dollars though, so I can fly to your place and give you
tutorials on digital recording. Heheh! :D
As for Steve Perry...wow, thanks! You're the fourth one to tell me that.
In my previous songs, I do wail like him especially on the higher notes.
I'm not complaining. He has a more textured voice, though. I wish I had
his millions, too. LOL again!
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The lion roars, the eagle soars.
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Funky
Authored by: charliechen on Mon, 8 May 2006 18:50:10 -0500
Great beat and R&B soundbed.
Nice singing, as usual, Leon. I did find your vocals a little hot in the
mix. Especially with your full throated singing style, it did get a little
much for me in some places. If you were to re-record, may I suggest
you dropping the pitch by a coupld of keys and sing more comfortably
in your chest voice for the verses and then really belt the higher parts.
You sounded a flat and strained in some places. I loved the vocals at
the bridge. You're singing a little lower and more breathy there and the
sound was really sexy.
Pardon me for sounding overly critical. I really like this song and would
love to see it even more polished.
Lyrically, there are some cliches but then who cares. It's interesting
considering the recent forum post about this. I agree with you opinion
that cliches will exist and it's all about the execution and delivery. But, I
would like to see you tidy up the lyrics with more consisten rhymes.
They rhyming scheme comes and goes and I think this song needs the
rhymes to anchor the words/phrases and provide structure &
emphasis.
With a little tweaking, this could be first class.
Well done.
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Funky
Authored by: Leon on Mon, 8 May 2006 19:55:25 -0500
Hi, Charlie. Thanks so much for taking time to listen and comment on
the
song.
I do appreciate your honest observation, but I will respectfully differ
with you when it comes to the vocals, about how to sing and what to
do and not to do. I am totally comfortable with the pitch of this song
and I sang it in the way I thought would be most expressive and
consistent with the theme. Personally, unless an artist's performance is
verging on outrageous or annoying, I stay away from critiquing a
person's voice and style. Think Macy Gray and Alannis Morisette and
Eminem, great artists who sing quirky and different but manage to
sound unique and interesting. They have fans who think they shouldn't
change their singing style as it is what defines them.
Your style and voice defines you, and it will be an affront for anyone to
even suggest that you should sing it in another person's way. Also, if
you notice, this song is entirely in a minor key, so your suggestion to
sing it in a lower key and mellow voice through most of the song will
make it sound monotonous, I think. In conclusion, this is my singing
style and I don't think I will change it for one man's opinion. I will
wholeheartedly agree, though, that you are entitled to your opinion
and I will not try to convince you
otherwise. :-)
I do agree with the cliches in this song. Everything has been said about
cliches and I am "guilty" of them occasionally, and in this song,
probably frequently. I hate cliches but sometimes there is not much
choice when you sing about love songs and pain and heartbreak. Also,
rhyme is what we all want to achieve, but I also recognize that it is not
always possible and that it is not the only way to write a good phrase.
Some of the best songs in this site are without rhyme and classic
structure. I will not sacrifice theme and substance if only to get a good
rhyme, although you can tell that I did give it
some effort. My final thought: I agree with you for the most part, but
being restricted in a box is boring. I believe in breaking rules once in a
while, and so do most innovative artists here. That may not appeal to
you, but it's all about taste and again I respect your own choices.
Thanks for your insight. We all learn from each other and your critique
is much appreciated.
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The lion roars, the eagle soars.
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Nice collaboration
Authored by: TobinMueller on Tue, 9 May 2006 04:55:31 -0500
Leon, nice track, this may be my favorite of yours so far. I like the
lightness of you voice, the chosen key (altho I can imagine key changes
that ratchet up the emotions as the song progresses, which might be
cool to play with), and the vocal level. I really like the opening organ
sound, the guitar solo moment (so perfectly placed!), and some of the
backing vocal details, altho the talking (subliminal?) was little more
than an effect and maybe didn't need to be used as much as the song
progressed. I have to profess a slight bias against modern R&B
stylings that involves so many vocal ornamentations that melody is
lost, usually placed on a song with almost no melody to begin with, but
you avoid this by not going overboard, and by utilizing an old school
melody that gave the song a solid grounding.
My biggest critique is that there are moments you aren't as exacting
pitch-wise as my ears want. Consider the last time you sing "..we were
together, I truly need..." When using R&B ornamentation, it is easy to
give a sense of not-in-compelte-control unless high notes are nailed,
and my ears thought you missed this last bit. Also, even tho I really
like the details of this arrangement, there is not a sense of build and
big finish (I know, maybe a showtune bias) that could have happened.
The track is almost radio ready. I really like the funkier potential of this
track. Very nice collaboration!
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Nice collaboration
Authored by: Leon on Tue, 9 May 2006 07:21:56 -0500
I totally agree with you and charliechen on that last phrase. I repeatedly
listened to this song (even before you posted this comment) and I am
not satisfied with that last line pitch-wise, like for some reason my
vocal cords fatigued a bit on those final notes. I was wanting to re-
record it but for some lazy reason didn't do it. If I remaster this, that is
the first thing I will do. There are other areas of the song that I might
want to refine, too. Also, true, I did not want to over-stylize on this
song as it robs the melody of its essential appeal: smooth and simple.
Regarding the build-up, I also agree with you. I was hoping to have a
chorus in the middle as a central hook, but there was none so I
resorted to making melody variations to make it more refreshing. This
is LWinston's composition so I was merely interpreting it. I hope he's
reading your comment, too.
Thanks, Tobin, for taking time to listen and critique this song.
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The lion roars, the eagle soars.
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Pure
Authored by: rschletty on Thu, 11 May 2006 10:01:28 -0500
Everything is so clean and separated here. Wonderful depth of artform.
Great collab.
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Walter
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