love the simplicty and directness. can't believe how well you have cleaned
this up, for as old as it is. believe it or not even though i do alot of
layering on stuff i'm also a big fan of hearing the basics of a tune. i'm
sure most songs on this site started this way.nice!

Vic

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...the simplicity and directness of Dunkin' Donuts. (I wonder if I'll start getting
Dunkin' Donuts ads from Google on this page now.) You CAN hear some drop-
outs on this old tape, but, really, for a tape as old and as kicked-around as this
one was, this is near-miraculous...

Thanks and thanks and thanks again, Vic, for your consistent listens and
feedback. I enjoy hearing from you, and I'm grateful.

Ed

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you are stuff is extremely melodic and really does have that feeling of
larger instrumenation potiental. That is a real sign of a great song when
you hear it in your mind, and it jumps at you like it wants to be played on
all the folk stations around the world. That is what I love about folk, is
that when it is oozing with melody and rhythm it works as does this one.

Thanks for sharing precious folk music Ed, it is a great blessing to have
that available here at MJ. It helps make "folk" live on and on !

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I think you've listened to every thing I've posted, and you're always appreciative
and encouraging. Coming from a guy with your kind of chops, that's an ego
boost... I have to say that, even though I've got a pretty limited singing range, I
HAVE always tried to put attention to melody and rhythm. And, aware as I am of
my vocal limitations, I've tried to write and arrange things so that better singers
(Phyllis, Nan, Julia) can show up and save me when the harmonies kick in. As
happens here. Thank you for your kind words and for listening...

Ed

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see what memories can bring it diamonds and rust ..!
if anything grab me to sit and listen is to hear
those folkies ...willing so hard to sing and give
honest tunes out of there simple equipments ..always
fund to hear your singin and songs as well .your song
brought back years of me amd my band sat around
a cassette recorder and a simple mixer two mics thats
all ... the fun to do it .worth the listening ..simple
but rich hearted verses and lyircs .. thank you so much


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I think I spot an old Baez fan... I'm glad you find my stuff 'simple and rich-
hearted'... That's pretty neat. I certainly remember gathering around a little
mixer with two to four mics, trying to get 'air mixes' on the fly with voices and
acoustic guitars... Good times, for all the aggravation...and all the takes... and
hiss... I'm pleased that you stopped by to listen, Feter, and to leave me your
thoughts and impressions. Always appreciated. Ed

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Your song is like an old schoolhouse.
Wooden schoolhouse of wood frame construction.
Classroom where draft blows.
Passage in board fence where shadow expands long.


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There's a one room schoolhouse just like that, right down the road from here,
midway between my home and Ziti's... You probably have the feeling just right...
It's a family home now... I'll have to send you a picture, Tadashi... So my music is
drafty, eh?... Well, perhaps back then it WAS a rough draft, heh, heh... Thank you
for this listen as for all of them, Tadashi...

Ed

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played well, lyrics that are... lyrical, poetic. Amazing how by the
addition of the vocal harmonies in different verses the song takes on a
real sense of change and texture as opposed to repetition. Ed, this just
shows that good song writing need not be complex.

Another oldie but goodie from yesteryear...

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...you demonstrate this ability to just 'get it' about what I'm doing or trying to
do. Dressing up different lines with harmonies and variations was something all
the Wheatstone Bridge crew members over the years tried to do... And yeah, we
DID do a recording called 'Simply Fine', and for a reason... We really valued
texture and simplicity... Thanks for the good listen and the on-target
comments... Ed

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Hey Ed,

I love these old gems. It always amazes me that someone with your obvious songwriting talent didn't get wider exposure. Just proves that the Music Industry should just drop Music from it's name. Thanks for resurecting this. You should be proud of these songs, they are really good.

--Graham

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...Pete Kairo, used to do a devastatingly sad and caustic impression of his agent
calling up with some penny-ante gig and saying, "Pet-ah, we're doing this one
for the exposure..." As the old joke went, "Hey, did you hear about the folk
musician who died of exposure?" I've gotta say that the one thing that I didn't
have a clue about as a budding songwriter was marketing, getting the word
out...how to get folks to listen to songs... And in those days, recording, no
matter how you did it, was expensive, and we were already living on a lot of
tofu...(I particularly enjoyed my tofu English muffin pizzas)... Graham, I continue
to value and appreciate your comments and encouragement... Thanks again...

Ed

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Too often I find music like this cloying - your song is plaintive, not the
least bit cloying. Everyone's rehearsal performance sounds good to my
ears.
BTW, 3 chords is about 2 more than I usually use.
Droning on ...

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Glad I don't end up in the Cloying Zone. Heck, I think 'Tomorrow Never Knows'
makes a lot of one chord...and then there's James Brown... And, you know, I
actually like droning music... ragas, middle period Byrds,
REM...even...bagpipes...within reason...if one can describe bagpipes, ever, as
'within reason'.... Thanks for the listen and comment....

Ed

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I like hearing these old tapes kinds of recordings, and you're right; that harmonizing at the end is really nice. I have many old tapes, but nothing this good.

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...some folk archeologist arriving at my old Symphony Road apartment back
when it was called 'Arson Row' because of how many student apartments with
low rents went up in flames back then... setting up the field recording
equipment to record actual, depressed post-graduates in their native habitat...
"If the song offering of the male is acceptable, the females will harmonize on the
third verse..." What was once cheesy and amateurish can be transformed, over
the years, into the archival and essential, even interesting... Funny, that...
Thanks for listening, David!

Ed

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no a minor? Thats a funny story. Funny how some simple chords can carry
a good song. Proves that content is so important. Interesting vocal tonal
setup. Love the 60's vibe, almost like i'm there. The lyrics had me
conjuring different scenarios about Jane. But who is she? She seems
important to want to care about what she feels or thinks. Is she
family,freind, lover? I'm to dense at the moment but you made me
curious.

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...as in music, you pack a lot of thoughtfulness into a little space...

Yeah, I still laugh thinking about me and my first magic chord progression...but I really didn't KNOW...didn't know ANYTHING, in fact, about theory or what had been done before, or ANYTHING... All I had was ears, and naiveté...

As for Jane, well, I actually really liked, and I guess still like, that I wrote enough that I know exactly what I meant and what it's about, and the lyric's not empty, but to someone else there's, maybe, this sense of meaning-just-around-the-corner... It's like, you leave out a piece, and yet it's still there...

Thank you again for bringing your thoughtful self to yet another one of my songs. I look forward to your input.

Ed

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I'm learning to play the guitar and I'm working on a song of my own using...wait for it...C, G, Amaj...oh, but I'll surpise you with a D, rather than an F. (See, I can be original).

It really is so amazing how so many different songs can be made with a few chords. It's all about the patterns, really, I guess.

I love it that you shared a rehearsal recording of this song. It's especially cool seeing as it's a folk song. It just sounds like some folkies who have whipped out the guitar and are singing just for the pleasure of it, which is equally pleasurable to hear as a listener. As I've mentioned before, I really enjoy the peeks into your life that this revived music brings.

I also love your songs about some mystery woman. It's nice how oblique you are with your lyrics on those.

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That was me, Lisa.

---
<a href="http://www.macjams.com/song/25612">World that Breathed</a>

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Now you have to go fav me as you...

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...with the A major...after THAT, the D just finds its way...

I am enjoying this recent thing I'm doing, sort of poking around in my past and making this aural collage from bits of it... It's very nice to take something nigh unto unlistenable and do stuff that brings it back enough that a person gets a reasonably clear window to that moment... I do wish that I had a few more old pictures to recycle, so that for this one I might have a photo of Julia... I wish I had photos of some of our rehearsals and stuff... I may have to go rummage in The Trunk, downstairs, where much Old Stuff lives... scary, that...you open The Trunk for one thing, but what you find is another...

Back in the Wheatstone Bridge days, we used to tease each other about our songwriting tendencies... Phyllis used to be known as the one who wrote songs comparing her life and loves to natural phenomena and, if they weren't going so well, natural disasters... I was teased for being the one who named names... There are a lot of women's names that show up in my songs, and with maybe one exception, they are all real people's names... (Real people known to my bandmates, of course.) And yet... I liked the mystery of it... I liked to paint a fairly complete picture, and then take out one thing... I liked there to be a question to draw a listener in... A lot of times, I think, there would be a lot of fairly concrete detail in my songs, but then also this sense of, 'what's NOT being said or told here?'

Gosh, Lisa, you DO get me thinking...

Anyway, thanks again for the good listen and the long and thoughtful, appreciative comment... It only encourages me, you know...

Ed

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Things don't always have to be complicated and groundbreaking to be an enjoyable listen. Sure there are chord progressions that you can hear in every other song, but there's a reason why they're used so much - they work!

This works - and pretty well, too.


-Einar S.

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For your personal encouragement in my quest to use every I-IV-V there is, adding that pesky vi chord only under the most dire circumstances....

Well, really, it ISN'T the orginality of the chord progression that makes a song, as you so rightly note... I once heard songwriter and Fast Folk founder Jack Hardy say that a song is a lyric set to a melody... That's about as simple as it has to be... I think some of my best melodies have just come to me while walking to work... no reference to harmony at all...

Thank you for taking a moment to listen. I always appreciate your comments.

Ed

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This could have been written last night. Pleasant simple melodies are the back bone of most great songs in my opinion, and your music has that.

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That's exactly what I aim for, even from way back in the Seventies... I appreciate that you took the time to listen and leave a comment.

Ed

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Very good quality. Nothing like old analog recordings that haven't disintegrated. Good thing you rescued this. Say, I am having trouble playing along. You were tuned about a quarter step down or the recorder you are playing the old reel on has a worn out capstan or rubber edged wheel somewhere. But that's OK. Congratulations on your "first real song". Too bad some accolades take 30 years to gather in.

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...was this recorded BEFORE my bandmates took pity on me and chipped in for the then-exorbitant luxury of an electronic guitar tuner?

Was I still tuning to the dial tone on the phone?

I'm sure you're right, though, to blame the cassette deck, or decks. This was bounced from deck to deck at least once, and cassettes were notorious for variability.... Used to drive me crazy... The one it was recorded on was really expensive for its day, I remember that. Belonged to one of my roommates. OUTBOARD Dolby unit, I think...

Thanks for the congrats. This HAS managed to hang on through the years....

I have one more from that vintage that I'm trying to find. We'll see if I get lucky....

Ed

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again and again...

This song proves it with it'simple plot. Lovely voices. It's strange that it's recorded so long ago. Sounds like it could have been done tonight...

Thanks Ed. Beautiful:)

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...and most of the time I do try to keep things simple and direct. I used to think that making things more complicated would make them better, and that didn't usually work out for me. There ARE some people in this world who can make complicated things sound clear and simple...THAT's a pretty good talent, when it shows up...

Thank you for listening and commenting, thoddi. I'm pleased that you and others think this sounds contemporary. It's nice to think I may have a song or two that's not just of the moment, not just a throwaway...

Anyway, I always appreciate your comments. Thanks again.

Ed

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...wrong with a simple chord structure. Just about every song in the 20th century that has stood the test of time is based on three or four chords. ... I always love the directness of your music, Ed. There's no messing with a lot of subtext: just a straight-forward message in the lyric and a clean accompaniment. Sure, a bit more backup orchestration (bass, some percussion, maybe a little string treatment) and some EQ to give a little more ambiance to the mix would be great, but you've got to start with the tune and the structure. Without that, you're a gonner.... And you definitely got that.... I've now enjoyed another great tune from your pen. Wonderful.
Paul

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...for your kind words...

I have to admit to a fondness for relatively simple songs and song forms. I think there's a reason that they tend to resonate, beyond the fact that they're easy to play...

I appreciate that you see 'straight-forward message' in these songs. WHen I first started writing songs, most of my songs were more or less clogged with excess words and concepts, and I tended to use 'poetic' words and phrases over more common ones, mistakenly thinking that this was sophisticated. Over time I came to see that the greatest sophistication comes from being able to say something simply, clearly and truthfully.

There was at one time a 'studio' version of this with a bit more guitar and some bass, but I have long lost it. Maybe I'll try again someday when I have some vocalists around who might be able to do something such as Julia and Phyllis did here... I would certainly love a fuller and richer recording...

Thanks for yet another very insightful listen, Paul. I look forward to your thoughts every time...

Ed

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