January 31, 2007
Love is a Choice
This is my latest song, which is shaping up nicely. Love is a Choice will be on the Gunk album, now due by the end of 2007 (an album takes a lot of work!).
This MP3 is an excerpt, a sort of teaser if you will. Enjoy!
Nathan
Posted by Nathan Dickson at 08:04 AM | Comments (1)
December 15, 2006
Have you seen my sunshine? (unplugged)
Just to see how it would translate, I decided to whip out the Martin 6- and 12-string guitars and record a softer, acoustic version of the song. The actual version is more pop/rock and is almost completed (up to mix number 39!).
Have You Seen My Sunshine (Unplugged)
Posted by Nathan Dickson at 11:16 AM | Comments (0)
October 04, 2006
Have you seen my sunshine? Take 24
In an effort to increase the quality of my forthcoming album titled Gunk, I am re-recording all of the songs that will be on it. This is about a one minute excerpt of take or mix number 24.
Have you seen my sunshine? (mix 24 excerpt)
Posted by Nathan Dickson at 11:59 AM | Comments (0)
August 26, 2006
Gunk
By the end of 2006, I will be releasing my first official CD (about damned time).
If you would like an interactive preview of coming attractions, and have a fast internet connection, head on over to The Gunk Mixer. You will need Flash Player 8 or higher (including version 9) in order to load the mixer in your browser.
If you are interested in pre-ordering a copy of Gunk, please send an email to gunk@dicksoncreative.net with the word Gunk as the subject line. I can then give you all necessary details.
Posted by Nathan Dickson at 03:39 PM | Comments (0)
July 10, 2006
Have You Seen My Sunshine?
Almost exactly five years ago, I came up with a new tune and never developed lyrics or a melody for it. I recorded it and pretty much shelved it for later use. The fact that I just left it to languish has always bugged me. About a year ago, I began re-listening to what I considered version five of the recording with the intent of pinning down a melody that would work. The problem with this endeavor was that my brain was so accustomed to the instrumental version, it did not adapt quickly to a version with a melody -- one of the pitfalls of letting it sit for so long.
However, after about year of tossing it around in my head, I had what was to be a good portion of the melody as of a few months ago, especially the chorus portion, which I thought was very good. The melody for the verse was still tenuous and up in the air.
Since I no longer had the separate recording elements because I am an idiot and accidentally misplaced them a few years ago, I would have to either re-record the song or just sing on top of the original mix -- I chose the latter. This past weekend, I finally had the nerve to at least record myself performing some melodic ramblings along with version five of the recording, prompted mostly by the fact that I had just pinned down a perfect melody for the "skipping along" portion -- vastly superior to what I had last month.
Anyway, after mixing down a non-word version with random vocal sounds similar to what the final might have (for some reason, I realized right away that the hook should probably end with an "-ine" sound), I decided to work out some temporary lyrics off the top off my head -- sort of "whatever came into my head". The working title was Lisa2, so I decided to make it about my wife Lisa, but not necessarily by name. The harmonies came quite by accident while recording both the non-word and worded versions (typical creation by accident, where you just sing the first thing that comes into your head).
I liked the temporary lyrics so much that I decided to just stick with them. I also used some very powerful audio plug-ins to re-pitch and re-time song, making it about ten percent faster and one whole step lower in pitch. That made it both catchier and easier for me to sing. One last touch -- I deleted the bridge because it was an afterthought to the original recording and I never liked it. At this point, the only stuctural element I would change is to put the line ending with "wine" after the line ending with "fine", essentially exchanging them.
So, here it is, along with lyrics. Feel free to comment.
Have You Seen My Sunshine?
Copyright 2006 Nathan Dickson. All rights reserved worldwide.
(Intro Chorus)
Where's the girl of mine?
Have you seen my sunshine?
Skippin' right along and feelin' the wind blow
She's the girl who can make you feel that
Everything is sun and true
Out there you'll find her
Just beyond the thunder
Sun is so high and the sky so blue
(Chorus)
Where's the girl of mine?
Have you seen my sunshine?
Skippin' right along just feelin' the wind blow
Sippin' on a glass o'wine
Tell'er that she's mighty fine
Skippin' right along just feelin' the wind blow
She's the girl who will make you think that
Every other girl is gone
She holds you closely
And you know that mostly
Everything about her is just for you
Chorus
Save your day for the girl who makes you
Sing your song, but just for her
Yeah, she'll be here soon
Yeah, I'll sing her this tune
Then she will know that I want her sooner
Chorus
Posted by Nathan Dickson at 06:55 PM | Comments (1)
April 13, 2006
I Don’t Mind At All
Back in 1987, 88 or 89 I heard a song on the radio and was immediately transfixed. The song was “I Don’t Mind At All” by Bourgeois Tagg, a collaboration between Brent Bourgeois and Larry Tagg. A friend gave me a cassette tape of their Yoyo album which featured the song and I played it several dozen times before I lost it.
So what? Well, five years ago in April I was attempting to describe the song to my lovely wife Lisa and gave myself chills thinking about its beautiful orchestration of violins and cellos and the perfect vocal harmonies. Lisa’s blank stare prompted me to find and download lyrics for the song off the internet and create my own cover version of the song.
Remember that I hadn’t heard the song played for about ten years, so this was all from memory (although I do have a good memory for most things musical). My voice is a bit shaky here and there, and I don't have a string section at my disposal, but I like it. What do you think?
I Don’t Mind At All.mp3 recorded by Nathan Dickson from memory, April 8, 2001
And for comparison purposes, here’s an excerpt from the original I Don’t Mind At All.mp3 recorded by Bourgeois Tagg many years earlier
Lisa tells me that she likes my voice better than his, which is a nice compliment.
Posted by Nathan Dickson at 09:27 PM | Comments (2)
March 09, 2006
You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
My daughters Rachel and Carly stay with me and my wife Lisa every other weekend. Back when the girls were younger, I used to play guitar and sing them to sleep. They had many requests and one of them was this classic by The Beatles.
In early 2000, I had just converted one of my bedrooms into a recording room and convinced Rachel and Carly to sing this song with me while I played my Martin guitar. What you hear in this recording is essentially how I sounded to them when they were falling asleep. The only difference is that they are singing along with me; well, Rachel is singing and Carly is just humming.
The results are quite charming.
You've Got to Hide Your Love Away.mp3
Posted by Nathan Dickson at 12:36 PM | Comments (0)
January 28, 2006
The Late Late Show Theme Song
I have fired an email off to CBS about turning the theme song for TV’s Craig Ferguson’s Late Late Show into a real song, since it not only passes the whistle test, but it pains me to hear it end. It practically begs to be fleshed-out into a full song with A, B and possibly C parts and so forth.
Here’s my valiant and well-thought-out attempt at turning the existing lyrics into a “story” surrounding yesterday’s missed opportunity with the possibility of another rendevouz tomorrow, which is the Future Yesterday alluded to in my title and at the end of the chorus.
Future Yesterday
Major portions Copyright 2006 by Nathan Dickson.
The remainder (first and last stanza) is Copyright by somebody, but I have no idea who.
It's hard to stay up
It's been a long, long day
And you got the sandman at your door
But hang on, leave the TV on
And let's do it anyway, it's okay
You can always sleep through work tomorrow
Okay, Hey hey, tomorrow's just your future yesterday
You called me up just to let me know
You'd be right there for the show
Cheeky wee monkey getting all funky
Getting all dressed up ready to go
But your car broke down today
And you were stuck home ready to play
Whipping yourself for missing our date
We had all set for yesterday
So I say yes
It's hard to hold on when you're so far away
And the way you looked before
Wearing a smile and not much more
It is you that I adore
Hey babe, you can see me all the day tomorrow
Okay, hey hey, don't worry about yesterday
You're my frisky little pony
Sitting home all sad and lonely
You can always watch TV
You can see your one and only
I say no, but I nod my head
With a devilish grin instead
If you stay up late you'll see
I'm grinning at sexy things you said
So I say hey
It's hard to stay up
It's been a long, long day
And you got the sandman at your door
But hang on, leave the TV on
And let's do it anyway, it's okay
You can always sleep through work tomorrow
Okay, Hey hey, tomorrow's just your future yesterday
Posted by Nathan Dickson at 10:00 AM | Comments (1)
May 09, 2005
Music Genres that Annoy Me
Country and Western
Rap
Death Metal
Blue-Collar Rock
Cheesy “Spoken” Makeout Music
Opera
Anything with Operatic-style vocals
AC/DC, oh wait, that’s a group. But, man, does that guy sound like a munchkin or what? Rock-on, lollipop-give boy.
Posted by Nathan Dickson at 11:04 PM | Comments (1)
April 26, 2005
Would You?
Not to get everyone down, but my brother Dan passed away about a year ago. To help me work through the emotions surrounding the whole event, I wrote and recorded a song. Please listen and comment. Quicktime is requiredPosted by Nathan Dickson at 02:29 PM | Comments (0)
April 22, 2005
Spirit
I had never heard this Bauhaus song before the other day, when it played on VH1 Classics (the 80’s are now classics?). Here is a link to the song at Apple's iTunes Music Store. In fact, there are two versions of this song in the Music Store and this is the vastly superior one.
Posted by Nathan Dickson at 06:56 PM | Comments (0)
Voices Carry
Remember Voices Carry from the mid-1980’s by a little group called ’Til Tuesday? The lead singer, bassist and driving force behind the band was Aimee Mann. She has recently recorded a new version of the song with all acoustic instruments with a very lovely and low-fi sound. It’s available exclusively on Apple’s iTunes Music Store.
If you have iTunes and an account with the iTunes Music Store, I highly recommend that you at least give the freely-available 30 second clip a listen. Both Lisa and I believe that it’s much better than the original.
Posted by Nathan Dickson at 06:02 PM | Comments (0)
Citizen Cope
Late Saturday evening I was dozing off to Saturday Night Live when a Pontiac commercial caught my attention. A song was delighting my ears while yet one more stupid hunk of metal on four wheels glistened across my 27" tube.
Remembering that I have a computer and access to the largest library of half-correct information in the world, also known as the Internet, I leapt from the couch and logged into Google, where I punched in Pontiac G6 Coupe Song. Sure enough, within seconds, I had my link.
From Pontiac’s website, I quickly learned that a band called Citizen Cope, led by the guy who technically *is* Citizen Cope, Clarence Greenwood, released this tune back in aught-four.
The song is called Son’s Gonna Rise and is quite good on a number of levels. After purchasing it from Apple's iTunes Music Store, I was playing it over and over in my Sony Pro headphones and emailing everyone I knew to take a listen from Citizen Cope’s website.
Posted by Nathan Dickson at 05:50 PM | Comments (0)
Paul McCartney
I went to my local Kroger store this morning at 8 a.m. to wait in line to purchase tickets for the upcoming Paul McCartney concert here in Columbus, USA.
I got there and the ticket ladies handed me what looked like a standard carnival ticket with six-digit number and sent me on my way, telling me to return about 9:30. Well, I did so and, after pestering the ticket ladies and half the people in line, I waited my turn.
At about a quarter 'til ten, one of the ticket ladies, noticing my attempts at polite pacing, offered to me the chance to pick the winning ticket. Glancing at the other people waiting, making sure they saw that I turned my head in the opposite direction, I carefully sifted out one little paper.
Needless to say, I was not first in line, I was fourth. The girl who won first spot was grateful and happily took her prime spot in front of the TicketMaster machine.
After some minor confusion about how the sheep behind me were supposed ot line up (some guy actually had the audacity to snottily ask, “Oh, so you're in charge here?” when I was very politely trying to organize them), we all waited while the clock crept to 10 a.m.
The ticket ladies began processing everyone's request for tickets. Lucky Girl got four tickets on the floor, but way-far-away from the stage. Not too bad for $75, and that was for a cheap seat.
The next lady also purchased four, but her seats were way, way up and to the right. She needs to bring tissues to stop the blood.
The guy in front of me received seats with a partially obstructed view as did I, except mine ended up being to the side of the stage and slightly behind the amplifier stacks. Man, what stupid luck.
It won't really matter. Rachel (my eldest daughter) and I will still enjoy the heck out of Paul's performance. She's quite aware that this will probably be the only chance she has to ever see a Beatle live and in person. As such, she is noticeably stoked.
Posted by Nathan Dickson at 05:31 PM | Comments (0)