An older fella like me gets excited about stuff like this: I
recorded, trimmed, an uploaded
this video to my blog all from the iPhone.
Someone requested this one. Make a donation to a charity. Please.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev5p7ic-XV8]
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
http://billjanovitz.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
Excellent! Would you mind sharing which iPhone apps you used to make this happen?
Just the video recorder on the 3GS and Blogpress for the posting and uploading of the post and vid.
Great song; "no alternative" of course, but when it came out on Besides my first thought was why did this not show up on an album? It certainly would have fit the BRLD mold;
Once again, its great for a fan to see you play these acoustic because you get to see the emphasis on certain parts.
Did I also read that there were songs, this included, that you felt you wrote "out of your register- or octave" that just sounded forced? is that the reason why some didn't make it on albums?
I find that when you constrain a vocal you may save the pitch and not force it but it can kill a performance or vibe of a song. (Just like telling a drummer, maybe, on a certain album, not to do as many fills) Rest assured that this song is full of life, and good enough to be on any BT album. Its not easy to set up your i-phone on a kitchen table and make a good product- you are one of the few that can do- and its worth watching.
.: I'm speechless and thrilled. Bill, this was my request, way way back when. I suggested a slowed, acoustic version, and here it is. OMFG. This is the song that introduced me to Buffalo Tom. As Paul notes, it was on No Alternative. I heard it, I was blown away, I was a fan for life.
I'm SO happy you recorded this, Bill, thank you so much. You totally made my day and my week. A donation was made to Human Rights Watch just now.
Paul is also right about how great it is to be able to see you play the tune, and where you put various emphases. When I taught myself the song, I realized it was Capo 3, and I can see I had figured out some – but not all – of the chords correctly. I thought the versus moved between G and Am, didn't realize you went G-Am-C.
Don't know what else to say again except thank you. Wishing you a sunny and flat-tire free week, from an ever-grateful and humbled fan.
I often would yell out for you to play this song live. One of my faves.
Hi fellas,
Yeah, sometimes songs come late in a record cycle, when a record is full, or just slip in when we get a call for something, No Alternative, e.g. It was a big chance to do a benefit, and also get great exposure to a larger audience at that stage of our career. I am pretty sure we recorded it for BRLD, but it might have been a case of getting the call and me saying, "I have a song we can try."
It is a great fun pop song, but singing it now, my lyrics are so unfocused. I mean, I have an idea of what I was singing about, but only a vague one. This may have been an example of why BT stayed sort of limited in appeal in a general sense: our lyrics often tended toward the cryptic. Maybe not; maybe it was our hair cuts.
Bill, A question and a story to share…Do you video in the kitchen(I presume) because you feel it has the best acoustics in your house? Or natural lighting? I find that the bathroom often has pretty good acoustics, but size limitations may come in to play. An eccentric cousin of mine, who is currently unemployed, wakes nearly every morning and saunters to the bathroom to practice and record his results. He posts them somewhere on-line and calls it "Live From The Loo"…I'll try and get you all the link!
Add me to the 'one of my faves list'.
The verse towards the end is another one that reminds me of family vacations 'threats of turning the car round' and being left behind and other back seat strife. I know you've touched on those themes before. Actually most songe like that get me. 'Road songs'. Pretty sure the song not all about that, but that's what I take from it.
Thanks again
Goddamn! So great to see an acoustic version of the song that started it all for me… thanks!
Thanks for the insight. Cryptic and poetic is the foundation of alternative music- eg. early REM. (and they had awful haircuts and Uni-brows)- this isn't country music for chrissakes- where every song must contain both (a) a reference to riding on dad's lap down a dirt road in an old pickup, and/or (b) a funny reference to drinking and divorce.
Hey Bill, if I could ask a lyrics question: What are you singing in the line that begins, "Her small ______ ______ rises in this smoky room"? Also loved how you switched Lady Macbeth with Lady Godiva at the end!
I agree that overall, a lot of the lyrics to your songs are cryptic, but that has contributed, for me, to the overall appeal of your music. I love trying to both understand what the lyrics are and what they mean in context, if anything.
For example, I love the imagery in the opening of One, Two, Three. What does it mean? What does, "Walking down the Battle Road, the Lincoln woman's family is not home" mean? Who's the Lincoln woman? Where is Battle Road? Doesn't matter, really.
Another friend of mine pointed out I missed the Lady Macbeth line. That was a complete lapse!
Not recording in the kitchen for any acoustic reasons. I think it was merely convenient. In fact, there are definitely better spots sonically.
I mean this in a positive way, Bill. I always thought of the vocals in many BT songs as another instrument. I feel the same way about early REM. The lyrics may sometimes be cryptic, but I always found the songs very "sing-along-able" anyway. Even now after many listens I'll sometimes pick up on something I never heard correctly before and it makes for more interesting listening. It's all good.
Great music! Can't wait for the new album.
Did Chris ever complain about playing songs in Bb? I don't recall seeing him use a bass capo.
I, too, was introduced to Buffalo Tom to this song and "Sodajerk" while working at the campus radio station. This song is still in my top 3 BT favorites, with the "Lady Macbeth" reference giving me a chance to play it for my AP English Lit classes during our Macbeth unit.
Any way I can spread the love!..Dave