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Hi to all my old friends and also to those of you who have just randomly happened upon this page. Be forewarned before you listen to this song, this is a WORK IN PROGRESS and I'm not responsible for any bodily injury or death that occurs from listening to it in its unfinished state. :)
I'm 40 today and, shortly after I joined Macjams at the ripe old age of 35, SlimGirlFat had her 40th. Alimar organized a huge site-wide collaboration in honor of her birthday called, SlimGirThat (http://www.macjams.com/song/12370) I remember thinking at the time, "I wonder if I'll still be posting songs at Macjams when I'm 40?" At the time I wasn't too sure, but I guess the answer is YES, and who can blame me? You guys are fantastic and being part of Macjams has truly been life-changing for me. Checking out a list of the contributors to Slimmie's song, I can see a lot of you felt the same way. Tons of people who sang or played on SlimGirlThat are still highly active members of MJ's. (Drakonis, I'm looking at you ;-) )
I have had probably the busiest and most stressful last year of my life. Some of it was positive, some of it was pretty dark, but it didn't leave much time or energy for music. I worked with illuminati when I could on music for The Orbiting and privately I dinked around with this song, Merton's Prayer, that I intended to finish completely by myself, because it had been a very long time since I had worked on a project alone.
What was funny was that, as I wrote it, I kept hearing voices of friends from here, or wanting to add things because it reminded me of someone. The Drums on Demand I use here were a gift from alley-oop . I'm playing in Open D because he taught me about open tunings. The outer-space sounds come from goofing with a software synth that michael2 was big on at the time and Jim Bouchard was going through a spacey-sounds phase which inspired me. I don't think there's a single Orbiting track that doesn't have Meringue on it somewhere and I used it on the guitar at the bridge. I played with changing the DOD sounds, but then I realized they reminded me of perceptualvortex so much I didn't want to. I have never once touched a drum track without hearing Pie's voice in my ear. I put the whistling sound in on purpose because my friend Electro Estate is the best whistler I know and he and I started making music at about the same time and if he hadn't believed in me so much at the beginning who knows if I would have kept doing it.
The lyrics of the song are based on Merton's Prayer by Thomas Merton (http://koti.mbnet.fi/amoira/merton1.htm) which may surprise those of you that know me as a big fat atheist, but I identify with the theme of trying to find my way in life and having a deep understanding that I'm not alone. Some of you have helped me immeasurably during tough times, sometimes with your music, sometimes with your friendship. For me this is a song about having someone on your side and loving them for it.
I had intended to finish this song all by myself, but I was talking to Jim one day and shared an in-progress version of this with him and he sent me back a copy of an mp3 with him playing some awesome bass on the song, which instantly elevated the entire thing and I realized I could be stubborn or I could have a better song, so he very graciously then played a bass track for the whole song.
The song unfortunately isn't finished as you'll hear. The mix is a mess, the guitars need replaying and re-recording. The lead vocal was sung through once and never comped. The whole thing is a little too complicated and needs some stripping back, IMHO, but unfortunately my hard drive died at the beginning of December and I lost the Logic file for this song. This mp3 is the only exisiting version of this song and if I don't post it like this, no one will ever hear it, since I can't face the idea of starting all over with it. Since, I wrote it for you guys, most of all, I think that would be a shame, so I'm posting this imperfect thank you to say thanks for the last five years. I can only do that because I'm 40 and part of what I learned at macjams is that it's okay not to be perfect.
Joe, most of all, this one's for you. :)
Thanks you guys. I miss you!
(P.S. ElectroEstate took that photo of me.)
I'm 40 today and, shortly after I joined Macjams at the ripe old age of 35, SlimGirlFat had her 40th. Alimar organized a huge site-wide collaboration in honor of her birthday called, SlimGirThat (http://www.macjams.com/song/12370) I remember thinking at the time, "I wonder if I'll still be posting songs at Macjams when I'm 40?" At the time I wasn't too sure, but I guess the answer is YES, and who can blame me? You guys are fantastic and being part of Macjams has truly been life-changing for me. Checking out a list of the contributors to Slimmie's song, I can see a lot of you felt the same way. Tons of people who sang or played on SlimGirlThat are still highly active members of MJ's. (Drakonis, I'm looking at you ;-) )
I have had probably the busiest and most stressful last year of my life. Some of it was positive, some of it was pretty dark, but it didn't leave much time or energy for music. I worked with illuminati when I could on music for The Orbiting and privately I dinked around with this song, Merton's Prayer, that I intended to finish completely by myself, because it had been a very long time since I had worked on a project alone.
What was funny was that, as I wrote it, I kept hearing voices of friends from here, or wanting to add things because it reminded me of someone. The Drums on Demand I use here were a gift from alley-oop . I'm playing in Open D because he taught me about open tunings. The outer-space sounds come from goofing with a software synth that michael2 was big on at the time and Jim Bouchard was going through a spacey-sounds phase which inspired me. I don't think there's a single Orbiting track that doesn't have Meringue on it somewhere and I used it on the guitar at the bridge. I played with changing the DOD sounds, but then I realized they reminded me of perceptualvortex so much I didn't want to. I have never once touched a drum track without hearing Pie's voice in my ear. I put the whistling sound in on purpose because my friend Electro Estate is the best whistler I know and he and I started making music at about the same time and if he hadn't believed in me so much at the beginning who knows if I would have kept doing it.
The lyrics of the song are based on Merton's Prayer by Thomas Merton (http://koti.mbnet.fi/amoira/merton1.htm) which may surprise those of you that know me as a big fat atheist, but I identify with the theme of trying to find my way in life and having a deep understanding that I'm not alone. Some of you have helped me immeasurably during tough times, sometimes with your music, sometimes with your friendship. For me this is a song about having someone on your side and loving them for it.
I had intended to finish this song all by myself, but I was talking to Jim one day and shared an in-progress version of this with him and he sent me back a copy of an mp3 with him playing some awesome bass on the song, which instantly elevated the entire thing and I realized I could be stubborn or I could have a better song, so he very graciously then played a bass track for the whole song.
The song unfortunately isn't finished as you'll hear. The mix is a mess, the guitars need replaying and re-recording. The lead vocal was sung through once and never comped. The whole thing is a little too complicated and needs some stripping back, IMHO, but unfortunately my hard drive died at the beginning of December and I lost the Logic file for this song. This mp3 is the only exisiting version of this song and if I don't post it like this, no one will ever hear it, since I can't face the idea of starting all over with it. Since, I wrote it for you guys, most of all, I think that would be a shame, so I'm posting this imperfect thank you to say thanks for the last five years. I can only do that because I'm 40 and part of what I learned at macjams is that it's okay not to be perfect.
Joe, most of all, this one's for you. :)
Thanks you guys. I miss you!
(P.S. ElectroEstate took that photo of me.)
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Lyrics
Don't know where I'm going,
can't see the road ahead,
don't know for certain where it'll end.
Don't really know myself,
or if I'm following your will,
but I hope I'm doing so.
But everything I do is meant to make you smile.
And I hope you know that's my only desire.
Lead me by the right road,
though I don't know where I am,
and I will trust you to show me where to go.
Though I may seem lost
in my darkest moments,
I will not fear, for you are with me.
And everything I do is meant to make you smile.
I hope you know that's my only desire.
Don't known where I'm going,
but I know you'll lead me,
trust you to take me,
where I need to go.
And everything I do is meant to make you smile,
everything I do is meant to make you smile
and I hope you know that's my only desire.
(don't really know myself, don't really know myself)
can't see the road ahead,
don't know for certain where it'll end.
Don't really know myself,
or if I'm following your will,
but I hope I'm doing so.
But everything I do is meant to make you smile.
And I hope you know that's my only desire.
Lead me by the right road,
though I don't know where I am,
and I will trust you to show me where to go.
Though I may seem lost
in my darkest moments,
I will not fear, for you are with me.
And everything I do is meant to make you smile.
I hope you know that's my only desire.
Don't known where I'm going,
but I know you'll lead me,
trust you to take me,
where I need to go.
And everything I do is meant to make you smile,
everything I do is meant to make you smile
and I hope you know that's my only desire.
(don't really know myself, don't really know myself)
Skean
There you are, lovely voice as always, this come to be just perfect... I hope you guys will post the finally piece too.
Happy Birthday, cheers :D