From: owner-the-landing-digest@smoe.org (the-landing-digest) To: the-landing-digest@smoe.org Subject: the-landing-digest V3 #11 Reply-To: the-landing@smoe.org Sender: owner-the-landing-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-the-landing-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk the-landing-digest Thursday, January 27 2000 Volume 03 : Number 011 Today's Subjects: ----------------- SAMSARA Still the Hottest - Some Direct Comments from Tom [Andy Harman Subject: SAMSARA Still the Hottest - Some Direct Comments from Tom I sent Tom a copy of my Samsara review some time ago, and received a lengthy reply just before Christmas - I've been debating whether to post it here or not, but some of you who are interested in the technicalities of the music might be interested. I have snipped out the personal stuff (I think) so I don't think he'd mind if I posted his insights about the various songs on here. Some pretty interesting facts, especially the origins of "Sixes and Sevens" and "Uptown Stomp". BTW, my own 7-track cover of "Suits" is underway with the following musicians: Baritone Sax - Andy Harman Trombone - Andy Harman Cornet - Andy Harman Drums - Andy Harman Alto Sax - Andy Harman Vocals - Andy Harman The 7th track was necessary to overdub the drumming because I can't keep time on the ride at the same time I'm hitting the snare... the most obvious of many problems. Other than that see if you can guess which of the 6 tracks is the best and which is the worst. All together they sound like a 5th grade beginning band. It is beyond suck, but there are a *couple* moments where it almost sounds right, like the first 8 bars which I worked to death, and the lead-in to the instrumental chorus sounds kind of cool for about 3 seconds before it disintegrates. The dangers of having more instruments than brains... anyway, I digress into caca which gets people complaining my posts are boring, so I'll shut up now and paste in all the good stuff from Tom. Enjoy!! **************************************************** From Tom Maxwell 12/22/1999: Indicatif is indeed on a sona; a straight, brass-belled Chinese horn (very similar to the Indian shenai, although the shenai is a diatonic scale and sona is more or less straight-up major). Sona are used quite often in Chinese folk music and New Years celebrations. When more than one are playing it produces a unique sound--like something of great importance is about to happen. At least in my mind! The title came from a cool CD of live Fats Waller stuff done for NBC radio in 1938. Fats and his Rhythm play for about 15 minutes straight, and at the beginning of each set he doodles on a piece of "Honeysuckle Rose" or "Ain't Misbehavin'" or something, then the announcer comes in. That fragment is called "Indicatif" on the record. I liked it; it sounded like a statement of intent. The sona, by the way, is freakishly difficult to play. Unlike a sax, there is no one note for any fingering--you can change the pitch as much as a step and a half with your mouth! The recording used on the record was the demo I did at my dining room table. Interestingly, both "Sixes and Sevens" and "Uptown Stomp" were written for Bette Midler for the Bath House Betty record. She used neither, but it was flattering that she asked. I also considered both "throwaway's" because I whipped them out so quickly. However, they were good vehicles for those small units. Both were almost totally cut live: we overdubbed the rhythm guitar on "Sixes and Sevens" because it couldn't compete with the horns and my vocal (all on one mic). We also overdubbed some chorus vocal on "Uptown" because there weren't enough voices. Both performances turned out to be some of the most enjoyable musical experiences of my life. What a band! "It's sixes and sevens to me" is a phrase I've heard, meaning, essentially, "It don't make sense." In my mind the song is about a failed romance, but it's vague as hell. "Uptown Stomp" is a tribute to Armstrong's Hot 5; the drop-time intro was from an idea for a song I had called "Turtlehead Blues." Duke, as usual, kicked ass. There are a couple of other complete takes of that song where he plays every bit as good as the keeper. He keeps you on your toes. "Can't Sleep" is about my recurring insomnia that started about the time of the Christmas record. I think it's the single of the record. It was fun as hell playing drums again; that's about all I did in my rock and roll days. Warren Williams is the baritone vocalist's brother. Great musician. "The Mooche" was also recorded live, except I overdubbed the clarinets because I was on cymbal duty for the take. It's maybe the best hot song ever written, in my opinion. My rule for covers is never do one you can't better, but I think we held our own. It was an honor, in a strange way, to do that song. Everybody on it gave it their all for the Duke. "If I Had You" was written for my wife, Mel. I wrote it on an endless tour when I was homesick as hell. But the lyrics are vague enough to apply to either an unrequited or non-existent love. Holly is an old friend; used to sing in Mel's band and date Stacy Guess, the Zippers first trumpet player. She's gifted, and sings without pretense. "Caveat Emptor," in case you don't know, means "let the buyer beware." I had every intention of throwing some Syd Barrett in there. If those guys in the '20's and '30's could have done backward shit, I think they would have. I love Piper at the Gates of Dawn, and still worship the Beatles. Lead horns are tenor (me) and alto (Kenny). If you turn it way up at the end, you can hear a discussion between Stu and me about the final note. "Some Born Singing" has caught some flak with other people, but I didn't make a record that would be predictable. The music is Chinese opera all right, the title being something like "According to One's Heart's Desire" (synchronicity, I love it!). I wrote the lyrics by writing down what the original Cantonese sounded like phonetically, then discovering the theme and elaborating. It's about Stacy, ironically, and my inability to understand his addiction and subsequent death. Holly distinguished herself on the vocal; she knew what the song is about and there's no one else who could have done it justice. I first heard it on a tape of Chinese New Year music a friend of mine gave me, the same guy who turned my on the firecracker labels (a composite of them is the Hot cover). I used to play it in the van on tour until people screamed at me to turn it off. Also, the firecracker/percussion intro to "The Kraken" is from that very tape and the very song that became "Some Born Singing." The lyrics are on my website. As you said, it makes you ponder and scratch your head. It should, that's why I like it. The melodic progression is not repetitive in the Western sense, it's more linear--you go from point A to point G. I wanted to internalize that so I could learn from it. I think it's gorgeous. I love "Flame in My Heart" as I love all the George Jones stuff from the Mercury years. No parody intended. Once again, music is music. It's a vehicle for emotional expression. Just because "classic" country is uncool doesn't make some of it astonishingly beautiful. Lest you think I'm getting my digs in with former bandmates, "Nobody Likes You" was the phrase mouthed by a drunk girl at a Zippers gig when we wouldn't play her request. She said it to Jimbo, who told me about it after the gig. I laughed and said "that's a song," and had the melody line in my head that very night. It's sad but true. "Three Fires Blues" is written in the so-called Bentonia style of Delta blues, utilizing a drop-D open minor tuning. It's equal parts me, Skip James' "Devil Got My Woman" and the achingly beautiful "Last Kind Words Blues" by the obscure female blues musician Geetchie Wiley. Geetchie recorded her song in 1931, she was a contemporary with Skip James, but is never mentioned. Clearly, "Last Kind Words" is that D minor "cross note" tuning as well. The "Three Fires" or "Three Poisons" is a Buddhist term for (I think) desire, anger, and ego. "Roll Them Bones" was written about my friend Gibson Smith, and his untimely death in an auto accident. He was a lawyer (one of the good ones) whose business card was Monopoly's "Get Out of Jail Free"! "Roll them bones" is an interesting phrase; it means throwing dice as well as rolling joints. It also is a call for Gibson (and myself, ultimately) to shake that thing; to celebrate life. "Always Get What's Coming" is a tribute to Fats and his exemplary pipe organ sides from the 1920's. The song is equal parts Dharma and Karma in the Buddhist sense. The thing about 'treating your people right' and 'making this run better than the other one' is about touring, but also about conducting yourself in this life (as opposed to the last one!). That bit about seeing the spook at the end is about Kenny's ghost experience at Kingsway when we were doing Hot. [He was peeing, for God's sake, when that thing appeared in the window on the second floor! The spook was also around for Samsara; I guess she liked it. Mark Mullins came in from the balcony during one song and said "there's a lady on the porch." Nobody was out there, but Tom Loncaric said he had sensed her there a few days earlier. Chris P had a freaky run-in with something, and he and Nappy and I heard some loud shit at 5 in the morning in the kitchen when nobody was there, either.] I had a minor blues progression that I knew was going to be played on the pipes. I also knew I wanted a freaky middle, Ken had it in the right key already, so I snatched it up. Sub-dominant, I believe. Tom Loncaric, who rocked the box, had to dub the foot pedals (playing them with his hands), and I sang overdubbed in Kingsway. I didn't want to fuck up his take by howling over it, and the room sound in that cavernous church was a bit of a liability. We stuck the mics directly in-between the pipes! Your take on the title track is right on. I wrote that song in '92 and never got a copy of our demo until last year. I re-wrote a couple of the lyrics to make it fit the theme, but half of them are original to John Ensslin, my pal, who co-wrote "Club Limbo" and "Plenty More," both holdovers from my rock and roll days. A lot of people say it's a sad song, but I see the silver lining in it. ------------------------------ End of the-landing-digest V3 #11 ********************************