Man of Very Few Words

Well, it's a few days late for the November '07 MeFi Music Challenge, but my on-the-fritz computer spent most of the month in the repair shop, plus the dog ate my homework, but better late than never, I reckon. So this one's going under the veryfewwords tag, as if the song title didn't give that away.

Instruments in use: little rattles and bells, guiro, tiny clay drum, talking drum, bass drum, drone (from Juno 60) and vox.

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posted by flapjax at midnite (14 comments total)

Very cool. Nice work!
posted by psmealey at 1:46 PM on December 4, 2007

This is cool! The drone really carries over into the feel of the whole song which is great!
posted by TwoWordReview at 11:08 PM on December 4, 2007

This is great fun!
posted by Pallas Athena at 5:13 AM on December 5, 2007

this gets a 10 from me.
talking drum = hells yeah.
posted by es_de_bah at 8:01 AM on December 5, 2007

This song is quite long as it is, but when it ended I thought, I could listen to this all day long!
posted by ORthey at 1:39 PM on December 5, 2007

Thanks for your comments, friends and neighbors!

TwoWord, interesting what you mention about the drone: in fact it has its own internal rhythm that insinuates its way into the groove in a curiously appropriate way, I think.

And yes, ORthey, this tune struck me as perhaps being a bit overlong, and I even dropped one verse because of that. I was looking for a 2nd verse to drop, but in the end I thought the rest of 'em needed to stay.

Here's the verse I dropped:

I had to translate Dostoevsky by candlelight
I had to translate Dostoevsky by candlelight
But I was being paid by the phoneme,
so you see I did alright
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:50 PM on December 5, 2007

Forgive my giggle, but it's hilarious that you dropped a verse from this, a la "A Man of Fewer Words".

This has a really excellent sound, so much so that I have to ask; was this recorded with your typical rigging? I'm not hitting the Absinthe but this had a very clear and robust sound.
posted by snsranch at 4:06 PM on December 5, 2007

snsranch: yes, it was all recorded as per usual, straight into Logic (running on a Mac) using a MOTU 828 audio interface and my usual Microtech Gefell microphone. As far as effects, each percussion track got either only a drop of reverb, or no reverb at all, so that would perhaps account for the clear and robust sound overall. I often use more processing on individual tracks, generally with an eye toward sonic interest and variety, but this time around everything went down pretty straightforward, and very quickly, bam bam bam.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:34 PM on December 5, 2007

Ah, very cool. From a "hearing it on this end" perspective, again, that was really excellent.

Side note: I found some "moo shoo(?sp)", do you have any serving suggestions? On rocks w/ a twist? :)
posted by snsranch at 6:04 PM on December 5, 2007

Hmmm... never heard of moo shoo. Is that for getting rid of unwanted cows? I think you're probably referring to Ume-shu, though: Japanese plum wine, basically. It's often very sweet, but when it's not so sweet I can enjoy it, every now and again. Rocks might be a good idea, especially in the summertime! Check the Wikipedia link!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:52 PM on December 5, 2007

Fantastic percussion. What mics were you using? I'm especially interested on the stuff that includes some low end, that's tricky.
posted by erikgrande at 6:56 PM on December 5, 2007

erikgrande, the mic used for all perc tracks as well as the vocal is this Microtech Gefell. Bought it used from a NYC studio about 20 years ago and I've been using it almost exclusively ever since. It's going for over a thousand bucks these days: I think I paid about 600 for it (the guy I bought it from was a friend). Still going strong and sounding great, I love that mic.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:17 PM on December 5, 2007

Thanks. Never heard of it before, but it sounds amazing, and it looks like it's well known among the pros. From your link:

Comes in it's own beautifully hand-crafted wood box.

It better!
posted by erikgrande at 7:39 PM on December 5, 2007

Lyrics:

MAN OF VERY FEW WORDS

i'm a man of very few words, i'm a man of very few words
and even most of those you've probably already heard
i'm a man of very few words

i never claimed to be no Edgar Allen Poe (X2)
but some of these thoughts running through my mind
are scarier than his you know

now who's that plucking the banjo? hey man that's Stephen Foster (X2)
he laughs at me as i sing my songs, calls me a cheap imposter

the way they'll kick you when you're down, brother it's brutal (X2)
but it sure is sweet to hear Willie Dixon
pitch that wang dang doodle

see tat bible printed in golden ink every page is shimmering (X2)
it hovers like a halo above the head of old Bobby Zimmerman

now who's that singing i love you? there ain't no way of knowing (X2)
but that golden voice wrapped round your woman?
i believe that's Leonard Cohen

goodbye Elvis Costelo goodbye, wherever you are (X2)
Richard Thompson's in my kitchen strumming on the old guitar

every happy myth is shattered, each illusion's up in smoke (X2)
so come on Randy Newman won't you tell us another joke

now they say dust to dust and ash to ash (X2)
but my savior ain't no Jesus Christ, my savior's Johnny Cash

Hank Williams told me, Samm, put some truth in every line (X2)
then get your fool ass over here and help me drink this wine

Copyright P & C Samm Bennett - all rights reserved
posted by flapjax at midnite at 12:47 AM on July 13, 2011