The Book of Love

For this month's MeFi Music Challenge, just to make things confusing, I'm offering a cover of a cover. Specifically, it's a cover of Sleepy Pete and Melissa May's The Book of Love (which, of course, is also a cover--not to mention a hard act to follow).

To be honest, I didn't originally record this for the MeFi Music Challenge--not the basic tracks, at least. And since it's a cover I'm not sure if it really qualifies for the Music challenge category. But I did substantially rework it specifically for the challenge, adding a couple of new synthesizer lines, changing up the arrangement, and otherwise reworking the mix (the original version was a little bland, to put it mildly--sort of an easy listening take on the song). My wife Lori and I originally recorded this as a wedding gift for a couple of very close friends of ours. We also performed it live for them during their first dance at the wedding. One last caveat: This final mix hasn't been vetted very closely; I only listened to it on my studio headphones. So I really don't know yet if there are any serious mixing problems I missed.

(Get Flash to see the track player.)
posted by saulgoodman (10 comments total)

YES. I love the way your wife goes way up high there (1:18 +). Nice~!

Man, maybe we should have a "Cover Magnetic Fields" challenge.
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 1:49 AM on June 15, 2008

Very cool. Something about the vocals (especially yours) have a cool grain-like quality to them. At first I thought it was going to be a purely acousticky thing, but I totally dig the dead-can-danceness vibe that comes about.
posted by bitterkitten at 10:57 AM on June 15, 2008

"Cover Magnetic Fields" challenge.

Actually, I like what flapjaxatmidnite suggested here about a recurring "do a cover of any song by band X" type challenge. But since it seems like Magnetic Fields in particular exert such a strong pull around her (heh--I'm a comedian), maybe it would make sense to have one just for them, too.

Just thought of another challenge idea, which I'll post here since the MeTa thread is closed now: How about a challenge where you have to record a song directly in response to a comment in the blue, sort of a musical comment challenge: If you come across a comment that particularly strikes you in some way, something that really moves you one way or another, write and record a song about it, then include a link back to the original comment. The results could be either beautiful or disastrous depending on the topic and the nature of the comment and response, but it would probably be interesting either way.
posted by saulgoodman at 11:29 AM on June 15, 2008

'her'-->'here'
posted by saulgoodman at 11:31 AM on June 15, 2008

Wait, you're in tangemeenie? That's awesome (please forgive me for being dim).

This is great. Really great. Melissa says she really loves it as well (she's a bit busy right now). What a great version. We've been too busy to do anything for the challenge, so I'm glad we were included somehow. Thanks for posting it.

I also think I know enough MF songs we could easily do about 10 of them, maybe 30.
posted by sleepy pete at 5:17 PM on June 15, 2008

Hey, that's some tight unison octave (and harmony) singing there, you two, and that's no small feat. Great pitch y'all have! Kudos.

saulgoodman writes: Just thought of another challenge idea...

Of course that's very closely related to the existing LYRIC Challenge, which will be pulled monthly from a MetaFilter comment (this month it was a comment from Jessamyn). So that'd be the Challenge-y part, using the month's selected quote, but I'm hearing you on the point that folks should just run with whatever lyric inspiration they get from ANY comment that they come across, and link back to that comment. Room for everything around here!

I also was thinking/hoping that the lyric-pulled-from-a-comment idea in the Challenge, and now saulgoodman's idea of people doing this on their own, with any comment that sparks their interest/imagination, might be one more step toward making MeFi Music and MeFi (the blue) feel a little more like one big thing. Cross-site dialogue and all.

sleepy pete writes: I also think I know enough MF songs we could easily do about 10 of them, maybe 30.

Well, damn, sleepy pete, sure hope y'all can find the time to do at least one, then!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:40 PM on June 15, 2008

That said, I'm getting the feeling that "cover another MeFite" is going to go on long after this particular June Challenge is over. It's popular as hell, great fun, and something that I sure hope will continue. Looking forward to doing some myself, though it doesn't look like I'll be able to get one in before the official June 30 deadline. Let the mefimucover tag live long and prosper!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:08 PM on June 15, 2008

Very cool. Something about the vocals (especially yours) have a cool grain-like quality to them.

Heh... That's partly a result of me scraping the very bottom of my limited vocal range, and partly the result of the unforgivably awful job I did engineering this back when we tracked the vocals.

This is great. Really great. Melissa says she really loves it as well (she's a bit busy right now). What a great version.

Thanks, sleepy pete! When Lori and I heard your version here (which Lori really liked, BTW), she reminded me we still had this unfinished version of our own just sort of inert and taking up space on the hard drive, and so it seemed like a good time to try to give it another shot. I didn't really have time to start a new project from scratch for this challenge either, but figured it was as good a reason as any to finally try to finish this one.

That said, I'm getting the feeling that "cover another MeFite" is going to go on long after this particular June Challenge is over.

Hopefully. With results like chococat's cover of micayetoca's "Veronica"--I mean, damn.
posted by saulgoodman at 7:24 AM on June 16, 2008

In yet another stunning display of my annoying and verging on pathological need to dither endlessly over such things, I've produced a new mix of this track since the time of this original posting that represents a major improvement in sound quality. You can listen to it or download it here if you're curious. Thanks for all the kind and helpful feedback.
posted by saulgoodman at 10:07 AM on June 20, 2008

This is really nice. I like the subtle, weird layers going on in the background.
posted by umbú at 10:36 AM on June 22, 2008