SAW 2009 #25: Downstream by Chris Devine

Enough with the zigging.

Zag.

Also, I know the lyrics are a little ... weird. But they're not so important; it was all about basing a long around a different kind of rhythm and tempo and such than my usual. It was fun.

In the future, none of this will matter,
Tried to make sense, but my thoughts had all been scattered.
Now the future's growing lean, while the past only gets fatter,
And falls down to the floor with a silence-smashing clatter.

And I want to know
How the river knows
Which way to go
Take me downstream now.

In between the thought and looking for the answer,
The moment came in the rhythm of the dancer.
The leader of the band, the dreamer and romancer,
Dispelled the chaos outside, growing like a cancer.

And I want to know
Where the river flows,
Find out what it knows
Take me downstream now.
Take me downstream ...

False presumptions,
Make assumptions,
Never say you're wrong ...
'Sorry'.

SAW 2009 #24: You Already Know by Erik Matthew Hendel

From the podcast feed:

EMH contemplates the idea of being set in one's ways, especially if the ways aren't that beneficial.

Fun with statistics ... and music charts!

So now that the first half of the year is written in the history books, it's time to look back at the year in SAW music, and assess the one thing that everyone most concerned about: Which songs are most popular! Because if there's one thing I've always said, it's that the artistic merit of a song is how popular it is.

OK, so maybe not, but it's still interesting to look back at the year in numbers and get an idea where we've been. It's some small consolation for the fact that we're well behind our weekly pace of late.

To figure out the number of downloads, rather than counting the number of hits, we take the total data traffic for the song, then divide it by the file size of the song, to get a sort of equivalent number of full downloads. This helps cancel out the effect of people who 'hit' the file but didn't actually listen or download.

So the top 3 downloads for each month were:

January: #1 - Distortion by Chris Devine, #2 - Stand Up by Richard E. Moore, #3 - Attach Another Line by Erik M. Hendel

February: #1 - Only When I'm With You by Chris Devine, #2 - Always Too Much by Richard E. Moore, #3 - Chance Has Favored You by Erik Matthew Hendel

March: #1 - This Conversation by Chris Devine, #2 - Salt Bones by Richard E. Moore, #3 - Before I Fall by Richard E. Moore

April: #1 - Cathedral Prayers by Chris Devine, #2 - Go Through Me by Richard E. Moore, #3 - Disgrace by Erik Matthew Hendel

May: #1 - Difficult Goodbye by Erik Matthew Hendel, #2 - Leaving by Richard E. Moore, #3 - There Are No Words by Chris Devine

June: #1 - Firing Line by Erik Matthew Hendel, #2 - I Wanted to Be by Chris Devine, #3 - Natural Disasters by Chris Devine

The busiest month for downloads was March, followed by May, which is ironic because May and June were the slowest months for music creation, with only three songs posted during each month.

The top five downloaded songs for the first six months of 2009 were:

#1: Attach Another Line by Erik M. Hendel
#2: Distortion by Chris Devine
#3: Stand Up by Richard E. Moore
#4: Only When I'm With You by Chris Devine
#5: Where the Grass is Greener by Son of Rust

In another special mention, Son of Rust wins the title for the highest average number of downloads per song. While that's due in some part to Son of Rust just being so fricking cool, it's also a factor that SoR has, so far, contributed only the one song and has hence had fewer opportunities to throw out a dud.

In a related story, Chris has contributed nine songs, Erik has contributed seven, Richard has posted six and, as previously mentioned, there has been one contribution from Son of Rust.

Here's to a creative and exciting second half of the year! If you have any comments or questions about the chart or the music itself, or simply want to vent and hurl ridicule, comment here and I'll see what I can do.

SAW 2009 #23: Natural Disasters by Chris Devine

This one was just a bit of fun, really. Going into it, I just wanted to find an excuse to slap together a bunch of samples and see what would come of it. Didn't know what samples, didn't know what the music should sound like, anything ...

So with a whole bunch of twiddling and poking around in my CD collection for samples that would sound interesting, especially out of context, I came up with this. It should be noted that I was listening to a lot of KLF/JAMs/Timelords this week, gave a cursory reading of the first part of the JAMs' The Manual (fascinating read!) and also listening to Edelweiss's 1989 hit 'Bring Me Edelweiss', a sample-heavy European hit reputedly created by following The Manual's instructions and borrowing the melody for its chorus from ABBA's 'SOS'.

Since there are no actual sung lyrics, here's the musical and spoken word samples (in the order used):

I've got to have your word on this (Leonard Cohen, from The Best of the Columbia Records Radio Hour)
I've been on drugs for 20 years (Consolidated, from Friendly Fa$cism)
I've been on drugs for 20 years

(Ashley MacIsaac fiddle tune -- 'A' part only, twice) (from Fine(tm), Thank You Very Much

Thank you, thank you, thank you. (Consolidated, Tool and Die
Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I've been on drugs for 20 years
I've got to have your word on this

Using natural disasters (Shawn Colvin, from The Best of the Columbia Records Radio Hour
I've got to have your word on this
Using natural disasters
I've been on drugs for 20 years
I, I, I I I I
I've been on drugs for 20 years
I've got to have your word on this
I've got to have your word on this
I've been on drugs for 20 years
Using natural disasters

Only to feel the music (Consolidated, from Tool and Die
Only to feel the music
Using natural disasters

(Ashley MacIsaac Fiddle tune - 'A' part once, then repeated with each bar reversed)

Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

SAW 2009 #22: Firing Line by Erik Matthew Hendel

From the podcast feed:

Still behind schedule, but destined to catch up (someday), SAW plows forward with this EMH contribution. Enjoy the Bruce Springsteen inspired vocal performance in this rocked up acoustic gem of mixed metaphors.

SAW 2009 #21: I Wanted to Be by Chris Devine

The Song-a-Week Podcast took an unintentional two weeks off, and it's all my fault. A few things led to the absence ... I knew I would miss the first couple days of my week as a result of my vacation, which would just be ending that Friday, and I wouldn't get a start till at least Saturday.

So come Saturday night, when I came down with the flu it was anything but good news for the SAW. Under the best of circumstances, it's hard for me to get back into my normal groove that quickly. As it was, I was totally useless through the weekend, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday ... Finally, I went back to work on Thursday but really wasn't well until at least Saturday.

Then I was beset with the same problem I've had for most of the year so far: Writer's block. I couldn't think of anything. Still, I had faith that I would, so come Monday I promised my co-conspirators that I'd crank out two songs in time for next week's contribution from someone else (anybody else ... please!) and set fruitlessly to work. My earnest attempts at songwriting, even my usual tricks for getting myself out of a rut produced nothing but a REALLY annoying drum beat.

So it came as some surprised yesterday, then, when instead of leaving to attend a neighborhood association meeting as I'd committed to doing I instead stayed home because inspiration had finally struck, and there was no way I was going to take the chance that it would fly away.

Two and a half hours later, it was done. No spectacular arrangement choices, and musically the song bears a lot of resemblance to many others I've done before. But I kind of liked the lyric.

The song is a semi-intentional take-off on Dan Fogelberg's 'The Higher You Climb', including the fact that it starts on a few pick-up notes. I actually didn't notice the similarity until about halfway through the writing, but once I noticed it it was hard to get away from. I also noticed some similarities between this song's melody and the melody of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' (Hence the bridge that doesn't sound like a bridge that says 'Hallelelujah, the Canadian sang ...')

Production-wise, nearly every instrument (including the voice) is drenched in reverb, delay, and, in most cases, chorus. Honestly, I tried leaving them off of certain tracks, but they ended up sounding really out of place, so I turned it all back on and just let the thing echo like a little boy trapped in a well. It suits the soul-searching theme of the song, I think ... calling up to the universe and all that. Hope you enjoy! The next song should be along within a couple/few days.

The longer I go, the less I believe.
The farther I fall, the less I can see.
You may think that you know, but you cannot conceive
How badly I've lived up to what I wanted to be.

I've walked through the darkness between heaven and hell,
And a parcel of memories made me want to stay there.
And what to say of despair? Just that I knew it well,
And the closer I come now, well, the less I could care.

Hallelujah, the Canadian sang.
If I could say it and mean it, well, I could lose everything.

I am humbled before the vastness of space and time,
How little this matters and how little I mind.
With the deftness of spring, and a small dash of crime,
I can try to remember all that I left behind.

The longer I go, the less I believe.
The farther I fall, the less I can see.
And I think that I know that I got a reprieve,
For how badly I've lived up to all I wanted be,
For how badly I've lived up to what I wanted to be.

SAW 2009 #20: Difficult Goodbye by Erik Matthew Hendel

From the podcast feed:

Erik is very late with his submission for this week's SAW, and though he'd like to solely blame his malfunctioning computer for this tardy tune, procrastination is definitely a co-conspirator. Enjoy the nonsense!