[BRIT POP] Half a Thought (mp3)

uncloned · October 01, 2009, 04:11:59

Thanks to Steve Gilmore (of Rebel Riffs) for the Album cover

Half A Thought

Wake up to the sun playing in my room
Smell the warmth in the air
Throw on my clothes, run downstairs to eat
Already wish I was there

Half a thought
And I have somewhere to go
Don't you want to know?
Half a thought
And you are my secret agent
Girl ain't it so!

I run up to your door bell ring
Smile and curls appear
You run past as you giggle laugh
It's a race I fear!

Half a thought
And I have somewhere to go
Don't you want to know?
Half a thought
And you are my secret agent
Boy ain't it so!

These are the days of our life
Free and pure
Reach for it all
Gather in it all
Live your life before its gone...

Running, laughing, hiding in the trees
Catch a glimpse of hair
Falling, holding you we hit the ground
A simple kiss on the cheek

Half a thought
And I have somewhere to go
Don't you want to know?
Half a thought
And you are my secret agent
Girl ain't it so!

These are the days of our life
Free and pure
Reach for it all
Gather in it all
Live these days before they're gone...

http://clones.soonlabel.com/hat/half-a-thought.mp3

As was common for me in those days (the late 90's - this one 96 I'd say) vocal control could be an issue - now I have tools for that. And was using a cheap, cheap bass so the intonation was out a bit in the beginning - if you pulled back too hard you could change the tuning - I said it was *cheap*.

This was composed in cakewalk pro audio ... ver 8 I think. The midi, which I think sounds passable, was created by composing in general midi via weak FM sounds and then rendering the midi file with Timidity which somehow was magical back then and could produce (relatively) wonderful audio files. But of course one had to work at it because what you heard while composing was not what you ended up with.

Now for the genesis of the song - I was actually playing the progression by strumming and I said to my self that I was tired of doing the same thing all the time and worked out what I think is a nice arpeggio that brings out the flavor of the progression and gives the tune richness. (IMHO)

At the time my marriage was falling apart (I know - what else is new...) and I was longing for a childhood that I enhanced (a lot) and wishing I had done things differently. Also I was influenced by this younger woman at work who was kind of intriguing - she was talking about the things she did - and one of them was "playing secret agent" with her friends. Perhaps this had something with her being unmarried, I dunno... :-)

As is my bent I added lots of stuff to this one....

live 2 guitars
live bass
live voice
composed piano, flute, brass, cello, strings

Still have the midi somewhere - but at that time I could not retain the raw audio tracks.

So... in all its glorious imperfections - the title track from Half a Thought.

Nahkranoth · October 01, 2009, 08:17:46

You've got me intrigued by the story of it, clones! Will listen and comment later.

Nahkranoth · October 02, 2009, 07:05:33

This is quite qood, despite its glorious imperfection

Somehow reminds me of early Alice Cooper, from the time when his style was changing (...arranging

).
Still want to hear an improved version, but I think you won't get back to this, for it's holding some memories you'd like to keep buried.

uncloned · October 02, 2009, 13:05:12

Thanks for the listen and comment!

I may redo this one. Its more about me and my life than anything.

Nahkranoth · October 02, 2009, 13:37:17

Quote from: "uncloned"Thanks for the listen and comment!

I may redo this one. Its more about me and my life than anything.

Yay! Then I definitely don't want to miss it!

Sam_Zen · October 03, 2009, 01:11:41

Why redo ? This is a very good song and an excellent production.

Really Weird Person · October 03, 2009, 02:20:37

That sounds interesting. Did you write it? Perhaps you used a karaoke machine. Whatever the case, that is a good sounding song. As for the redoing part, perhaps you made some mistakes somewhere? I find myself doing that quite a bit too. Sometimes I find them right away, but I think most of the time I don't. I discover them after the song is completed and playing.

uncloned · October 03, 2009, 02:25:15

@ Sam:

Thank you - I'm glad you liked it!

@ RWP

Thanks for the listen and comment.

Yes I did indeed write it, and no karaoke machine - the production details are in the original post - and I find my voice is "pitchy" as they'd say on amerikan idolz and wish it was better at the first 30 to 45 seconds of the tune.

Really Weird Person · October 03, 2009, 04:37:46

That is cool. I suppose that you probably made the music with Modplug Tracker and then overlaid (the term may be wrong) your voice onto it afterward.

Saga Musix · October 03, 2009, 11:18:49

Quote from: "Really Weird Person"That is cool. I suppose that you probably made the music with Modplug Tracker and then overlaid (the term may be wrong) your voice onto it afterward.

MPT didn't exist in 1996 yet.

Apart from the slightly detuned vocals and the midi-ish sound in general I like this tune.

uncloned · October 03, 2009, 13:15:39

Thanks for the listen and comment Jojo!

uncloned · October 03, 2009, 13:17:07

Quote from: "Really Weird Person"That is cool. I suppose that you probably made the music with Modplug Tracker and then overlaid (the term may be wrong) your voice onto it afterward.

RWP - I kinda thought the production comments were quite explicit. Please look at the first post in this forum thread. If you don't know what something is I'll explain.