The Ice I Tread to Tell You

31 Mar 2011 2 Comments

by Daniel Jacob in Music (mine) Tags: , , , , , ,

Friends! I just put up  a ‘new’ song of mine up on YouTube. It’s actually not new whatsoever but letting it out into the world is the new part. It’s called “The Ice I Tread to Tell You” and I wrote it for a very dear friend to whom I owed a an apology.

Iffins in case you enjoyed the song and iffins you missed the post a few days ago, here’s a bunch more demos I’ve done over the years and posted on YouTube. I posted them because all they’ve done is sit on hard drives for years so might as well share them and not be my own personal archivist.

Musica Demostraciónes de la Daniel Jacob

11 Mar 2011 1 Comment

by Daniel Jacob in Music, Music (mine) Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

I’ve not really been even thinking about music for the last few years but interestingly enough alot of my posts have to do with music. Hmmm. I wonder if the inner me is telling something to the outer me.

Anyways. I’ve had it in mind, since my epic failure at this February’s FAWM, to post some of the demos I’d put up on YouTube. There’s  a lot more but I tried to stick with demos I made on my own and not with the band as to not get tangled up in any I-didn’t-want-you-to-post-this-ness.

Iffin’s you want to take a listen, below are many links. Bear in mind that I am infamous amongst my band members for my poor quality recordings. I’m about getting the idea down more so that I am about the ‘cleanliness’ of the recording.


my body is the mansion



overcome by fate


rosary


apostle’s creed, assassin’s heart


baby it’s gonna be bad


you in the foot hills, i in the grotto


you’re the only crown i want


snowglobe


tiny machines


return


lights on at the mission


odar’s sonata


selftitled


carve my name


the days to come won’t make as much sense as today (but at least we had today)


pinprick night sky


overcome by fate


rosary


scratch


sanctuary


obadiah


your lover is approaching


that night (rufus wainwright cover) – it’s not an original, no, but I included it because it went pretty far afield of the original version and perhaps one day I’ll rework this song and make it my own.  AS far as I know Rufus Wainwright heard my version of this song as it was on a fan made compilation of his songs done by his fans and given to him. I know for a fact tho that he’s heard this song of mine tho. I have an interesting story about Rufus and this song which I may share later.

FAWM#04: Firecracker in Reverse

21 Feb 2011 Leave a comment

by Daniel Jacob in Music (mine) Tags: , , , , ,

Ok. Reality has set in on yet another February: I am neither one step closer to rockstardom and again it appears I am going to fail FAWM’s 14 song challenge. In any case, here’s the 3rd of probably not 14 songs. It’s called Firecracker in Reverse and it goes a little something like this:

Firecracker in Reverse

It came to me first thing in the morning and certainly NOT the type of song I’d usually write and not a way I’d typically sing but…I just went with it.

Lyrics:

I’m just a firecracker in reverse, I try take the explosion
And shove it back in the paper and undo the damage I done
Yeah, I’m just a firecracker in reverse, a cracker can’t help the fire
I gotta unsay the words, and put em’ back, and unfire the gun

Oh, West Covina’s golden son
Peter Piper picked her one
Heavy handed heaven hound
I had the heart but I had to run
And I had a run in with the law
Then wandered off to Arkansas
But the air was wet and the ground dry
And I was back by mid-July
When I got back, a redneck here was grabbin’ at my shirt
He said, “Move on, peckerwood!”
I left him lying in the dirt

I’m just a firecracker in reverse, I try take the explosion
And shove it back in the paper and undo the damage I done
Yeah, I’m just a firecracker in reverse, a cracker can’t help the fire
I gotta unsay the words, and put em’ back, and unfire the gun

Oh, we had the chapel, had the ring
Had the date and everything
But I met a girl and I heard her sing
Then I was sure that grass was green
Left it all to be with her
But her was now in love with him
Then I went back to find
That weeping woman left behind
When I got back her papa there was was grabbin’ at my shirt
He said, “Coming back was dumb!”
I left him lying in the dirt

I’m just a firecracker in reverse, I try take the explosion
And shove it back in the paper and undo the damage I done
Yeah, I’m just a firecracker in reverse, a cracker can’t help the fire
I gotta unsay the words, put em’ back, and unfire the gun

Oh, I took to Simi in the fog
With a gun and a dog
With my finger on the trigger
And a bead on hog
I had bacon by eleven
And by noon there came around
A man saying, “Son, my suey can’t be found!”
And when he saw my skillet he was grabbin’ at my shirt
I said, “thank you for the breakfast!”
Left him lying in the dirt.

I’m just a firecracker in reverse, I try take the explosion
And shove it back in the paper and undo the damage I done
Yeah, I’m just a firecracker in reverse, a cracker can’t help the fire
I gotta unsay the words, and put em’ back, and unfire the gun

FAWM#02: Old Adam! Old Adam!

07 Feb 2011 2 Comments

by Daniel Jacob in Music (mine) Tags: , , , , , , ,

2 down and 12 more to go! I’ve got a good feeling about this month. I think I might hit my 14 song goal for the first time ever (and this is my seventh FAWM!) I will be pleased as punch if I even make it half way but I think.

Here’s the second song out of February.

I wrote the melody and figured out the theme while sitting on a stool next to my wife as she made dinner. (I do think my wife needs a round of applause for dealing with me during FAWM. There’s a term for her amongst the community of songwriters who participates: a FAWM widow). My cruddy guitar playing lead me to a simple 3 chord verse & melody and actually I’ve been kicking around the title ‘Old Adam” for a while in my head. It’s actually based ever so loosely on my little brother Adam. He’s still a ‘youngster’ of 13 but for as long as I can recall he’s been as grumpy and as salty as an ‘elder’ of 93. The name ‘Old Adam’ struck me as a great name for an old country murder ballad so I borrowed my young Adam for inspiration and wrote him into a song that’s supposed to be 130 years old. My young Adam isn’t so fond of church-goin’ (neither was I at that age for that matter) but he’s still of that age that he’s made to go with ma & pa so I kind of took that thought, matured it and put it on my grown-up Old Adam character…a rowdy old-soul, out looking for vengeance for some wrong done against him and is at odds with God, troubled and weighed down by that God.

Though this is a first draft of a song really, I am fond of the lyrics. What’s a little unclear is the middle bit where the narrator says;

“Your mother’s heart’s made of wax
And your heart’s made of red clay
And your sins are like the sun…”

I tried to get the concept through that the sins of old Adam (the sun) are hardening Old Adam’s heart (made of clay) but those sins are breaking his mother’s heart (of wax). I’m not sure that part is all so clear as it’s been pointed out to me. I’ll have to revisit that it seems.

In any case, enjoy the journey with me.

FAWM#01: There is Murder in the Air’

02 Feb 2011 Leave a comment

by Daniel Jacob in Music (mine)

If you happened to have read last months post about FAWM then you already know what the heck it is and you may be expecting some music in and around this site this month.  Here’s my first offering on the altar of FAWM:

‘There is Murder in the Air‘ (click title to stream the song)

It was recorded in one take on my little iPhone so it’s far from polished technically. Remember (disclaimer) whole point of FAWM is quantity not quality. Just get it out and move on, hone and perfect it later. In my case so many songs are still born because I labor and labor and labor on getting it right the first time out and I just loose steam and/or inspiration and therefore never finish the song. The whole point of FAWM is to shake up folks like me.

Artist Chuck Close really hits the nail on the head with this:
“Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you’re sitting around trying to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and something else that you reject will push you in another direction. Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that’s almost never the case.”