The Songs - Mercy Mild
25/08/09
My friend and collaborator, Tony Buchner, leaves on Saturday for an extended stay (at least until next February?) in Puerto Vallerta Mexico, where he will be teaching English to local children. In a last minute rush to perfect his contributions to the recording project, he was over last night. Paul played us his rough mix of the bed tracks (i.e. without vocals) for the last two novel related songs, Mercy Mild and The Boat Song. One of the specific issues reviewed was Paul’s unorthodox idea of adding wah-wah effects to one of Tony’s lead guitar tracks.
For those interested, the arrangement, before the idea, was: 1) lead vocal by me, 2) back-up vocals by Paul, 2) acoustic rhythm guitar by me, 3) arpeggio-ish electric guitar track by Tony, 4) single note-ish lead electric guitar track by Tony, 5) bass by Paul, and 6) drums by Luke Bergen. At that point, Paul had used about 12+ tracks - not much in this day and age. The song has a very simple structure (G, Bm, C, D verse, C, G, C, D chorus), and very simple words. We felt that we had used enough different instruments. When we tried more instrumental ‘voices’, it seemed to clutter the recording. But something ‘fatter’ still seemed to be required. Tony’s single note lead guitar part is very important in this recording, and Paul had captured (and buffed up here and there) a solid performance by Tony. The solo had been played on Tony’s Stratocaster, through his Vox amplifier. The result was ‘right’, but not enough.
Paul tried routing the track through his (Paul’s) Mesa Boogie amplifier, with the controls/effects set in a bunch of different combinations. He also tried a routing through my Garnet amplifier (with and without its on-board reverb and tremolo) plus Paul’s multiple effects box - but that didn’t give enough boost to the original signal do the job. Eventually, Paul found a Mesa/effects box setting that worked best. However, when added to the other tracks and roughly edited, the result was pleasant, and appropriate for the song, but only ‘good enough’ - which isn’t good enough for Paul. So he ran the new Mesa boosted track through the Mesa again, at the same settings, and manually added wah-wah effects using my Cry Baby pedal. As a starting point he wah-wahed Tony’s part through the whole song.
On paper, the result should have been awful; cheesy and corny at best, and a God-awful mess at worst. It wasn’t. Paul played it for me, and I liked it. With a certain amount of trepidation, we played it for Tony, embedded in a rough mix of the bed tracks (including both the wah-wahed, and the un-wahed versions of the new Mesa lead guitar track) - while I sang the lead vocal live in the studio. With some hesitation, Tony said he thought it might work. All three of us agreed that Paul should try various arrangements, including leaving the wah track out of the mix until the first solo, then putting it in for the solo, and leaving it in thereafter. Paul was to try whatever other combinations occurred to him. Paul and I were to make a final decision after we recorded the vocal tracks, with Tony’s remote input if possible.
That’s all for now. Tomorrow or soon thereafter, I’ll post the lyrics and talk about the background of the song, in my real life, and in the context of the novel. As you will remember, in the novel, Mercy Mild and all the other songs are written by the character - Jack. I’ll ask Jack for the back story on Mercy Mild, and let you know. Au revoir.
For those interested, the arrangement, before the idea, was: 1) lead vocal by me, 2) back-up vocals by Paul, 2) acoustic rhythm guitar by me, 3) arpeggio-ish electric guitar track by Tony, 4) single note-ish lead electric guitar track by Tony, 5) bass by Paul, and 6) drums by Luke Bergen. At that point, Paul had used about 12+ tracks - not much in this day and age. The song has a very simple structure (G, Bm, C, D verse, C, G, C, D chorus), and very simple words. We felt that we had used enough different instruments. When we tried more instrumental ‘voices’, it seemed to clutter the recording. But something ‘fatter’ still seemed to be required. Tony’s single note lead guitar part is very important in this recording, and Paul had captured (and buffed up here and there) a solid performance by Tony. The solo had been played on Tony’s Stratocaster, through his Vox amplifier. The result was ‘right’, but not enough.
Paul tried routing the track through his (Paul’s) Mesa Boogie amplifier, with the controls/effects set in a bunch of different combinations. He also tried a routing through my Garnet amplifier (with and without its on-board reverb and tremolo) plus Paul’s multiple effects box - but that didn’t give enough boost to the original signal do the job. Eventually, Paul found a Mesa/effects box setting that worked best. However, when added to the other tracks and roughly edited, the result was pleasant, and appropriate for the song, but only ‘good enough’ - which isn’t good enough for Paul. So he ran the new Mesa boosted track through the Mesa again, at the same settings, and manually added wah-wah effects using my Cry Baby pedal. As a starting point he wah-wahed Tony’s part through the whole song.
On paper, the result should have been awful; cheesy and corny at best, and a God-awful mess at worst. It wasn’t. Paul played it for me, and I liked it. With a certain amount of trepidation, we played it for Tony, embedded in a rough mix of the bed tracks (including both the wah-wahed, and the un-wahed versions of the new Mesa lead guitar track) - while I sang the lead vocal live in the studio. With some hesitation, Tony said he thought it might work. All three of us agreed that Paul should try various arrangements, including leaving the wah track out of the mix until the first solo, then putting it in for the solo, and leaving it in thereafter. Paul was to try whatever other combinations occurred to him. Paul and I were to make a final decision after we recorded the vocal tracks, with Tony’s remote input if possible.
That’s all for now. Tomorrow or soon thereafter, I’ll post the lyrics and talk about the background of the song, in my real life, and in the context of the novel. As you will remember, in the novel, Mercy Mild and all the other songs are written by the character - Jack. I’ll ask Jack for the back story on Mercy Mild, and let you know. Au revoir.
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