Ready To Rock

Solo, live at CAY in Aoyama, Tokyo, April 14, 2010, accompanying myself on the strumstick. Video of this same performance at YouTube or Vimeo.

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posted by flapjax at midnite (13 comments total)

At this gig, two nights ago at date of this posting) I did something I7d wanted to do for a while: use a different instrument for every song in the set. It was fun for me and for the audience as well, I think. I'll probably post more tunes from this gig over the next weeks.

Here's the lyrics:

READY TO ROCK

it was a long way to paradise
and you were moving too slow
anyway i couldn't travel with you honey
i had to go play a show
there was a hole in the ozone
there was a hole in my sock
an old man in the front row screamed
are you ready to rock

I said yeah yeah yeah i'm ready to rock

the next day i was stumbling
from one door to another
i knocked on door number three
and there was my mother
in her left hand she held a drum stick
in her right hand she held a clock
she said boy
when you gonna stop fooling around
and get ready to rock

I said yeah yeah yeah i'm ready to rock

i'm not sure where i'm going
i'm not sure where i been
and please don't ask me what i'd do
if i had to do it over again
still haven't learned how to tell time
but i'm listening to that old tick tock
and i believe that any minute now
i'll be ready to rock

I said yeah yeah yeah i'm ready to rock

copyright P & C Samm Bennett - all rights reserved
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:17 AM on April 16, 2010

Hey man, your voice and lyrics are great as always, and I really enjoy what you're doing on the strumstick. Some really sweet runs and pull-offs. With this and micayetoca's song...I couldn't start the week off on a better note!

Awesome!
posted by snsranch at 4:49 PM on April 16, 2010

Thanks, sns, really appreciate your listening, and your comment.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:43 PM on April 16, 2010

I couldn't start the week off on a better note!

Awesome!
posted by snsranch

Sorry, I couldn't help to notice this, how come your week starts off on a Friday?

And flapjax this is exactly what I meant. You, live, with one instrument, sound cleaner and better than I would with a professional studio, producer and many takes.
posted by micayetoca at 6:22 AM on April 17, 2010

Mica, you're too kind.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:53 AM on April 17, 2010

I wasn't going to comment flapjax - mainly because your vocals are always top dollar and this is no exception (you utter bastard!). There are some notes in this that are only audible to bats, and they are right on the money in terms of pitching. Most impressive. But I did want to ask you - tentatively - whether you feel that accompanying yourself on what are in a sense rudimentary instruments is going to limit you harmonically in the long run? I've no idea whether it will or not, I'm just curious as to whether you have a gameplan or whether you're just going with the flow to see where you land up.
posted by MajorDundee at 1:09 PM on April 17, 2010

micayetoca...yes, I meant WEEKEND!!! Oops.

that are only audible to bats, That's funny man, and I was taken aback at the range too...I actually thought, "Man, this sounds like Robert Plant during his best singing day EVER!!"

Good stuff flapjax!
posted by snsranch at 3:18 PM on April 17, 2010

Very cool. I'm not sure how to describe the sound of the strumstick here (plaintive? spooky?), but I love the feel it gives to the song.
posted by tdismukes at 12:37 PM on April 18, 2010

But I did want to ask you - tentatively - whether you feel that accompanying yourself on what are in a sense rudimentary instruments is going to limit you harmonically in the long run?

Good question, Dundee, and you are to be commended for asking it, and especially for including the word "tentatively", since it's the kind of question that might be interpreted as mildly insulting: that is, interpretable as "your stuff is harmonically primitive, man, get off yer ass and learn some changes!"

I'm very aware, of course, that my stuff is in fact harmonically primitive. It's pretty much all bluesy / pentatonic-y. But an essentially "rudimentary" harmonic vocabulary is not something I'm especially keen on going "beyond". My main interests, in terms of what I want to express in my own music, are: lyric content, vocal expression, rhythm, texture and sonic character, and an overall sense of... um... realness, or immediacy.

There are so many great songwriters who have so artfully explored the regions of complex and interesting harmonic / chordal motion (say, Burt Bacharach, Richard Thompson, Elvis Costello and Milton Nascimento, to name a handful that spring to mind) and there's no way I could compete with them on that level. I mean, I'm really just a drummer, man! And I consider what I'm doing to be, essentially, a kind of folk music. It really is unschooled.

Anyway, as far as the "long run", I'd imagine that I'll continue in this vein, and, as you say, see where I wind up. If things start moving in newer harmonic directions, I'd imagine it might be into some kind of other scales and modes, say North African or Middle Eastern, but still with a drone idea of basic tonality, rather than the chordal shifts and harmonic motion that characterize western music.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:14 PM on April 18, 2010

I was reasonably confident that by now you'd know that my question wasn't meant as any kind of insult or challenge. That's not in my nature and, anyway, it's simply not what we do on MeFiMu (which is why it's such a cool and mature site). You know I admire your work man, but I still felt that a qualifying "tentative" was necessary! I'm just....curious....inquiring. It interests me to dig down a little and understand where an artist is coming from and, perhaps more intriguingly, where they're headed. It's something that I spend quite a lot of time musing on about my own stuff. Probably to no real avail. Thanks for (a) not being offended (I hope....) and (b) posting this interesting answer.
posted by MajorDundee at 11:53 AM on April 19, 2010

Thanks for (a) not being offended (I hope....)

Absolutely not offended, Major. Worry not.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:22 PM on April 19, 2010

Awesome job, flapjax. A fantastic vocal performance. Don't worry about harmony, your music cherishes the overtones of life!
posted by abc123xyzinfinity at 9:08 PM on April 21, 2010

Thanks, abc!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:07 PM on April 23, 2010