Right of Reply

[Doctroid]

As far as I can tell, these are the songs on Right of Reply, in no particular order. Unrecorded songs are italicized. Edited to add links to lyrics. I can't find "Socks of Quarters"; can anyone help?

* "Reverse Archaeologist"
* "Kitten Knittin' Blues"
* "Snowman In The Rain"
* "Morris Chickens"
* "Into One"
* "Bacon All Over"
* "Esperanto Movies"
* "Interests Are For Jerks" first version
* "Interests Are For Jerks" Ink Spots version
* "Socks Of Quarters Blues"
* "Pretending I'm Somewhere Else"
* "Dancehall Dreams"
* "Rogue Agent"
* "Syntactical Soccer"

Close to completion. Anyone want to work on the unrecorded songs? Discuss here.

[Charlie]

I have been making attempts at Rogue Agent. Still haven't found the right feel for it, but it is on my list.

[talysman]

I try not to say too much about how I hear songs, because I want to be surprised, but it might help if there's some kind of... er, "driving" thematic element to the musical side of the composition. Something that sounds relentless and a touch paranoid.

[Major Zed]

There's a short theme in Plastic Fantastic around 6:00 that I've meant to expand. Is that the sort of thing?

[talysman]

Hmmm. Am I missing something? The version I have is less than six minutes long, so I re-downloaded from that link... but it's the same MP3.

The end of the song does have a simple rhythm as it fades out that might work. Imagine continuing that steady, even beat, then another guitar doubling up on that, but the second guitar is heavily stressing some beats to create more of a pounding, forward moving feeling.

[Major Zed]

That's weird - I just played it from that site; it's 7:16 long, and the part I'm talking about is from 6:08 to 6:24. Right after "I'm eloquent on the subject, and loud... very, very loud" and ending just before "but finally I get hoarse and stop."

[talysman]

Tried it in Windows Media Player and Apple Quicktime. The songs end the same, but Media Player reports the length as 5:56, while Quicktime reports 7:16.

The part between 6:06 and 6:24 does sound pretty driving, a better choice than the part I was referring to... I'm trying to think of an example of what I was originally thinking. Well, an example you'd have access to. "King Henry" from Steeleye Span's Below the Salt has an electric folk pounding rhythm to it. In rock, a good example would be "Hunting Girl" from Jethro Tull's Songs from the Wood, after the organ/flute intro, but that has more breaks in it, since it has interplay between the flute and the guitar. Another different approach is the first couple bars of "Atomic" (Blondie.) And if you want something that's still "driving" but sounds completely different from all of those, try "Texan Book of the Dead" by Clutch.

[talysman]

More examples that might be easier to find:

"Invocation & Ritual Dance Of The Young Pumpkin", Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention (Absolutely Free)

"Warsaw", Joy Division, especially at the chorus (when they sing "31G".)
Maybe also the bridge for "She's Lost Control", although the drums give a different feel to the guitar part.

"I Wanna Be Sedated" and "Hey Ho, Let's Go", The Ramones. The second one is the closest to what I was originally thinking, but I can't find anything exactly like what I imagined. Probably, it was something from a metal or punk song I overheard at a friend's house, and since I'm not into metal or punk, I can't remember the name of it.

[Doctroid]

While compiling links for the above list I discovered some of the songs by JWGH came from this link wherein he has some other lyrics not included in the above list. I'm not sure whether those can or should be included in Right Of Reply or not. Titles are: "Scorched Earth Party" (recorded by JWGH), "The Nomic Song", "Programming Prose", "Life Expectancy", "Oh, Batman", "Pickle Postcards" (recorded by JWGH?), "Avocados and Beer" (recorded by JWGH?), and "Molesting Yarn" -- I think the italicized ones are unrecorded and the others have been recorded, but I may be wrong.