Longing for the day ...

We be jammin'

Had a great bash with the boys down at the club yesterday. It was a bit short notice - I got told about it Sat morning - but I got to play drums all afternoon, and sing a bit. Sensational!!

Doesn't get me much closer to my goals, but it was great to have a freshen up on drums and play a few tunes I haven't played for a while: some Santana and some Stevie Ray Vaughan ...

Need to do that more often.

Well, that was odd ...

Played in the Casuarina Cup touch tournament on the weekend. We entered the over 35s but ended up playing against two teams with under 35s in them who been allowed to enter just to make up the numbers.

Our best result was the first game - a 4-all draw with the eventual winners (we "won" on a technicality in that we scored first). Worst result: 11-5 in the final against the same team. A couple of pics of me:

These pics can be ordered from Mondo Images.

And here's one of our good friend "Fast" Pete, with whom we stayed at his work's unit in Miami. He introduced us to a great feed at Romana's Italian restaurant somewhere near there:

It was the first competition I've ever been involved in where we qualified for the final without winning a game ... but it was good fun and we improved a lot. It hurt the next day ... Looking forward to March!

The death of the album ...

I've been reading articles like this one for a while now. They all basically claim that since digital delivery allows consumers to pick and choose individual tracks, this means that sales of packages of tunes in the form of albums will no lnger be viable. I think this is short-sighted and narrow-minded (and mostly marketing hype) - it has two major flaws.

First is that it overlooks the economics of music production. Artists don't (tend to) write and record ther music as single songs - that's just not cost-effective. Some write as the music comes to them and then block out a studio session, while they're not touring, to record the songs. Then they choose a collection of the best recordings, call it an album and market that. It's simply not viable to record and publish the songs one at a time - like most manufacturing and supply operations, the product comes in batches.

It takes almost as much manpower to upload a single track to a digital delivery system (like iTunes) as it does a collection of ten or more tracks, so there's not much benefit to most artists or digital operations to release them one at a time. It's easier to upload the lot at once and allow consumers to choose them on whatever basis they desire. Believe it or not, Bun' Ber E has sold "entire albums" as well as singles via Itunes and other outlets.

Second, sometimes a collection of songs works so well together that, especially for some fans, the songs are weaker when they're not part of that package. Think Dark Side of the Moon - some of the singles are cool, but it's the album in its entirety that is sooo interesting. Also, of course, albums tend to be recorded in sessions, so each will have a slightly different feel and sound about it that may not sit comfortably with tracks from a different session.

Of course, for the consumer who's only interested in collections of the latest and greatest hits from various artists in the top 40, this does not apply. However, one of the lessons of recent music industry experience has been that that those consumers are not as dominant as they once were, and that the older, more discerning (and wealthier) music fan is a very lucrative market.

Perhaps it's safer to say that the album as a unit of consumption may not be quite such a dominant force for much longer. Certainly, there are much more interesting questions about marketing and promotion using singles that arise from these development. Some other time I'll examine those.

Mighty Fine Day

I wrote this one last week and arranged it in a day. Took a bit longer to perform it to demo standard, though. There's an MP3 version here (3.2MB) or streaming here. The studio bootleg version can be streamed here and downloaded here.

I was inspired by the drinks cabinet behind the counter at a cafe in Kenmore. I was waiting for the bank to open on Monday morning and ordered a coffee and toast. The fridge cabinet behind the counter was full of beers and wines - I wondered who might be drinking them at this hour. What might take a person to the place where they'd to that?

On the way back home after the bank the chord progression and rythm popped into my head and the rest just wrote itself that day. I need to find a good blues guitarist and piano payer to make it sound good, though. It's in B, too ...

Update: If you feel generous you can now buy the version of this song released on The Genre Benders' debut CD "I am leaving! I am leaving!" from iTunes, or GroupieTunes, or Payplay.FM. If you have a different favourite online store, search for it there and if it's not there, let me know so I can put it there.

Mighty fine day
30/01/2006

Well I woke up this mornin'
Wondered what you might say
Yes I woke up in my bed this morning
Wondered why you've gone away.
Don't know if I wanna see you.
Don't like the games you play.

I got you on my mind
On my mind 'most every day
Got you on my mind
On my mind almost every time I start to play
Gotta get you outta my head, girl,
My head's too full of shit anyway.

But - uuhhh
D
I, I, I, I, I
A E
I know life wasn't too perfect, babe and, uhh
D
I, I, I, I, I
A B
I know we should go on our separate ways 'cause uhh
D
I, I, I, I, I
A E
I ain't sure I can make without you babe but you know.
D
I, I, I , I, I
F# E
Ain't gonna die wonderin', no!

Solo

Gonna get me some breakfast
Help me get underway
Gonna get me a liquid breakfast
My future is on display
First beer of the mornin'
Looks like a mighty fine day.

Yes, it's my first beer of the mornin'
Looks like a mighty fine day.

The basic chord pattern is: B F#m A E

*****************************************

Please note This song is APRA registered: Work ID GW34127654; ISWC T-060822653-4. You can copy, reproduce and distribute any part of these lyrics and chords for any non-commercial purpose as long as you acknowledge its source. I'm interested in your feedback, comments, suggestions. If you make something good out of it, let me know and I'll consider adding it to this site.

If you perform it or broadcast it for any purpose, please let APRA know.





License this music for commercial use through Pump Audio









This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License

What a difference a week off can make

Amazing form reversal from Adam Gilchrist. Also a refreshed approach from Ricky Ponting. Great to watch. Felt a bit sorry for the Proteas last night - they had no chance of chasing the score that Gilly and Punter set up.

The cricket thing has lost interest a bit for me - it's too one-seided. When the Lankans and the Proteas both beat Australia earliy in the series, I watched a bit harder but it's all one-way traffic lately and not even close. Pity.

But today I'm watching the Superbowl! I have no idea about the contest, but as a spectacle, nothing else comes close ... mind you, I'll be woring on my laptop during the game.

The Cost of putting a price on education

Andrew West, I couldn't have said it better myself. The degredation of education as a means to open minds is as short-sighted and narrow-mainded as the degredation of scientific research that is not imediately prodcutive.

They are both completely destructive in the long run and will only act to impede our progress - economic as well as social - in the future. No wonder the Religiuos Right is on the rise, they offer simplistic solutions to complex problems that don't stand up to rigorous scrutiny. Trouble is, there's not enough people scrutinising them when the focus is on making the next buck ...