Make Your Mind Up!

A modest and lightweight acoustic ditty wherein dad inserts pipe, ruminatively scratches his arse and proceeds to patronise wayward offspring....

I recorded this about a year ago and left it to mature before settling on this very simple mix. In pure songwriting terms I think it's probably about the most rounded thing I've done. It is a very slight little thing I guess - but I think it works quite well for what it is.

Only bit I'm not entirely happy about is the solo. It's pretty obviously a Strat in the out-of-phase position between the bridge and middle pick-ups - which is now a pretty tired and hackneyed sound. I tried it on other guitars and they didn't cut it. Hey ho.

Next up will, I hope, be a remix of "Medicine Man" that uncleozzy and me have been batting back and forth across the Atlantic for the last week or so...and judging by the roughs we have so far that will certainly not be lightweight....

(Get Flash to see the track player.)
posted by MajorDundee (7 comments total)

I love that acoustic guitar. Really, really love it. Would be nice with a real fretless bass in there, though. Your voice sounds great, of course. This is fun.

(And I don't mind the out-of-phase Strat too much. I think it fits the mood of the song pretty well, frankly, and you can't beat it for the "snap.")
posted by uncleozzy at 7:20 PM on August 30, 2009

You're not the impossible bastard child of John Deacon and Pete Townshend, are you? The laid back groove fits the lyric so very well. This track really reminds me of Queen's "Who Needs You" (from News of the World), in a wonderful way. I don't think you need fretless bass--the snap of the upright fits so well.
posted by askmeaboutLOOM at 8:26 PM on August 30, 2009

Thanks both. Loom - I've never heard "Who Needs You" but will check it out.
posted by MajorDundee at 11:43 AM on August 31, 2009

Love the guitar solo, MajorD! Of course I have a soft spot for the out-of-phase strat sound, I think it has a real "acousticky" sound, if I can be allowed to use such a word.
posted by abc123xyzinfinity at 4:09 PM on August 31, 2009

Huh, doesn't sound slight at all to me. Well rounded though? Yea, very much so.

Strat in the out-of-phase position: Yep, that's what it's there for man! Definitely the right tool for that job. That's a great solo.

bastard child of John Deacon and Pete Townshend? I think you ARE Pete Townsend and you're tired of living on luxury yachts and whatnot!
posted by snsranch at 4:31 PM on August 31, 2009

Thanks guys. It's funny that the Strat seems generally to have somewhat fallen from grace of late. Most of the young bands around at the moment - Brit ones at least - are all sporting big Gibson semi's with the occasional left-field job like a Gretsch being wheeled out. Most of the guys I've heard in these bands couldn't play a solo if their life depended on it, so I reckon they're maybe using Gibbos more because of their looks than their sound. It's all cyclical of course - Strats were the weapon of choice throughout the '80's (when I switched to them - baaaaaa) and Gibbos were seen as a bit old-school and passe. It'll turn around again in due course, no doubt.

But I do worry a little that the ability to actually improvise a decent melodic solo that's more than a string of blues or heavy mental cliches is fast becoming a lost art. Why is that? Is it because kids don't have the patience to learn how to play (you know - the "I want it now" generation)? Or can the blame be laid at the anti-muso ethic that punk begat? Maybe it's not a problem because no-one really gives a shit other than old farts like me? Interesting area for discussion......

Oh and, yes, I am Pete Townsend.........
posted by MajorDundee at 12:28 PM on September 1, 2009

.........not.
posted by MajorDundee at 12:28 PM on September 1, 2009