Project: Simple, Stupid, and Silly
Posted: Sun Nov 29, 2020 7:34 am
After doing most of the work on "Dark Psychic Forces", I realized that while it is a Stupid song, it's not very simple . . .
THOUGHTS
As explained in the "Project: Dark Psychic Forces" topic, the general idea was that the song could be played and performed by at most four Stupid musicians, which at first was somewhat possible but after adding three additional lead guitars, well not so much . . .
Actually, I want to add more stuff--including whooshes like in "Magic People"--but so what . . .
Stupid is good, but not if it's always complex . . .
Stupid, ideally, should be simple . . .
The more I thought about the simple aspect, the more I realized that I was not thinking with the mindset of teenagers in a garage band--even when the teenagers are curiously skilled musicians . . .
One of the things I recalled from more than a half century ago, is that when "Louie Louie" (The Kingsmen) was released, I had to study it to make sense of the electric bass part . . .
If you were in junior high school in 1963 or thereabout; were in a garage band; and could play "Louie Louie", then girls would form a personal fan club for you, no matter which instrument you played--certainly a strong incentive to devote many hours to making sense of the elusive 1-4-5-4 pattern . . .
And this soon led to getting work in nightclubs, since at the time everybody liked "Louie Louie" . . .
Now, it's nth nature--not 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th nature but so completely and totally intuitive that it requires zero thought to play all the instrument parts . . .
This usually is the case when over time one plays a song thousands or tens of thousands of times . . .
Yet, it's easy to forget that at one time it was a "complex" song, which required studying--including playing the 45 RPM record at half-speed (for lead guitar) and double-speed (to identiry the electric bass lines) . . .
Other than "Louie Louie", the best examples are the early songs of Grand Funk Railroad, which were so simple and Stupid it became their hallmark, and it made them wildly famous . . .
I would like to say that I discovered Grand Funk Railroad, but that would not be true . . .
A friend of mine told me about them and described the band as being "so stupid it's incredible", and they were stupid, but in a fascinating way . . .
CONCEPT
If I decide actually to do this, then the goal will be to combine Stupid and simple, where there are only three or perhaps four instruments with zero overdubbing . . .
Producing and audio engineering is allowed, where for example the single, monaural audio track for electric bass can be copied and pasted to more audio tracks to which reverb, echoes, and other effects can be adde to make the electric bass sound "big", with this also being the case for the drumkit, rhythm guitar, lead guitar, and perhaps an electric piano or Hammond B-3 organ, but regardless of the actual number of producing and audio engineering tracks, each instrument is played one time, hence it's not layers of different stuff, instead being the same stuff but made to sound "big", "deep and rich", and so forth via producing and audio engineering . . .
The drumkit will be spread over several tracks--since I like to treat each drum and cymbal separately--but regardless of the number of extra producing and audio-engineering tracks, it will be just one drumkit part that a real drummer can play . . .
Effectively, this is the same as having a separate microphone on each drum, cymbal, and Latin percussion instrument (mostly cowbells and tambourines, where the tambourine sits atop the hi-hats) . . .
Explained another way, the pretend musical group needs to be simple and Stupid, but the producing and audio engineering can be a bit elaborate, which is what is required to make stuff sound "big" . . .
Whether I will do this is another matter, but at present I like the idea and the concept . . .
Lots of FUN!
THOUGHTS
As explained in the "Project: Dark Psychic Forces" topic, the general idea was that the song could be played and performed by at most four Stupid musicians, which at first was somewhat possible but after adding three additional lead guitars, well not so much . . .
Actually, I want to add more stuff--including whooshes like in "Magic People"--but so what . . .
Stupid is good, but not if it's always complex . . .
Stupid, ideally, should be simple . . .
The more I thought about the simple aspect, the more I realized that I was not thinking with the mindset of teenagers in a garage band--even when the teenagers are curiously skilled musicians . . .
One of the things I recalled from more than a half century ago, is that when "Louie Louie" (The Kingsmen) was released, I had to study it to make sense of the electric bass part . . .
If you were in junior high school in 1963 or thereabout; were in a garage band; and could play "Louie Louie", then girls would form a personal fan club for you, no matter which instrument you played--certainly a strong incentive to devote many hours to making sense of the elusive 1-4-5-4 pattern . . .
And this soon led to getting work in nightclubs, since at the time everybody liked "Louie Louie" . . .
Now, it's nth nature--not 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th nature but so completely and totally intuitive that it requires zero thought to play all the instrument parts . . .
This usually is the case when over time one plays a song thousands or tens of thousands of times . . .
Yet, it's easy to forget that at one time it was a "complex" song, which required studying--including playing the 45 RPM record at half-speed (for lead guitar) and double-speed (to identiry the electric bass lines) . . .
Other than "Louie Louie", the best examples are the early songs of Grand Funk Railroad, which were so simple and Stupid it became their hallmark, and it made them wildly famous . . .
I would like to say that I discovered Grand Funk Railroad, but that would not be true . . .
A friend of mine told me about them and described the band as being "so stupid it's incredible", and they were stupid, but in a fascinating way . . .
CONCEPT
If I decide actually to do this, then the goal will be to combine Stupid and simple, where there are only three or perhaps four instruments with zero overdubbing . . .
Producing and audio engineering is allowed, where for example the single, monaural audio track for electric bass can be copied and pasted to more audio tracks to which reverb, echoes, and other effects can be adde to make the electric bass sound "big", with this also being the case for the drumkit, rhythm guitar, lead guitar, and perhaps an electric piano or Hammond B-3 organ, but regardless of the actual number of producing and audio engineering tracks, each instrument is played one time, hence it's not layers of different stuff, instead being the same stuff but made to sound "big", "deep and rich", and so forth via producing and audio engineering . . .
The drumkit will be spread over several tracks--since I like to treat each drum and cymbal separately--but regardless of the number of extra producing and audio-engineering tracks, it will be just one drumkit part that a real drummer can play . . .
Effectively, this is the same as having a separate microphone on each drum, cymbal, and Latin percussion instrument (mostly cowbells and tambourines, where the tambourine sits atop the hi-hats) . . .
Explained another way, the pretend musical group needs to be simple and Stupid, but the producing and audio engineering can be a bit elaborate, which is what is required to make stuff sound "big" . . .
Whether I will do this is another matter, but at present I like the idea and the concept . . .
Lots of FUN!