New song with the longest title ever. Things I learned on this track: how to record brushes on a snare, how to handle the perception that a song is dragging, and how to experiment until you use just the right chord when several sound okay in a given part of the song with the song’s key. I think this one is sounding okay now. This is totally re-recorded. A few years ago when I tried to record a song per week this is one that I didn’t record more than just a guitar and voice track. Now it’s as complete as a home recording would be, I guess. It’s not great, but I think the bridge is my best one ever.
Author: barlow
Re-Recording of “Bookish Southern Man”
Other than the guitar solo and a few of the background singing parts, this is all re-recorded. My voice really isn’t made for this kind of song, but anyway. It now has a hammond tonewheel organ for George Edema’s sake.
Two New Songs
Two new songs came out of the oven this week. “Cars in the Road” is one that I have worked on for about a month; this is the second re-recording of the entire thing. It’s really hard to write a slow song that doesn’t plod along; still not perfect. “Hurt a Lot” is a song that came to me almost fully written as I walked in the door after work last week. It’s faster and shorter; both virtues in pop music. Neither song has electric guitars, just acoustic + bass + drums + voice.
New Song: Highway 49
Philip Melancthon’s Objection to Other Worlds
“The Son of God is one: our master Jesus Christ, coming forth in this world, died and was resurrected only once. Nor did he manifest himself elsewhere, nor has he died or been resurrected elsewhere. We should not imagine many worlds because we ought not imagine that Christ died and was risen often; nor should it be thought that in any other world without the knowledge of the Son of God that people would be restored to eternal life.”
Initia doctrinae physicae, Corpus Reformatorum 13 (Halle: Schwetschke, 1846; reprint, Frankfurt; Minerva, 1963) 1.221.
Cited by Thomas F. O’Meara, “Christian Theology and Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life” Theological Studies 60 (1999), pg. 6.
Limerick for a New Year
Said a certain good fellow named Shane
Who could tinkle only during rain
“Come, O nimbus, beneath ya
Release the urethra
Allow my poor bladder to drain”
(by Neil Strickland and Jonathan Barlow)
Wrecked Horses
On HWY 82 yesterday, between West Point and Starkville, I saw an overturned horse trailer a quarter of a mile ahead and there was a man standing on the shoulder who was signaling for everyone to slow down.
My chest seized up when I first entertained the idea that there were horses inside. I think of horses as being so heavy and long-limbed – sturdy when upright but almost absurdly brittle in every other inclination. As I passed, I looked back and saw two brown horses on their sides, one on top of the other. There were two men and a woman talking to the horses and trying to figure out how to get them out safely.
I really hope that the horses are alright. That when they were removed from the trailer that their limbs were whole… that they didn’t bolt into traffic… that they didn’t kick anyone…
Update: Found a tweet that the horses are okay:
There's a multi-car wreck on HWY 82 West Bound Lane in Oktibbeha Co. No injuries and the horses are safe. Details tonight on @WCBINEWS #WCBI pic.twitter.com/JE30oJsEjL
— Jory Tally (@jorytallyWCBI) December 5, 2016
“She felt that she could so much more depend upon the sincerity of those who sometimes looked or said a careless or a hasty thing, than of those whose presence of mind never varied, whose tongue never slipped.”
Austen, Mansfield Park
“We lose our bearings entirely by speaking of the ‘lower classes’ when we mean humanity minus ourselves.” – G.K. Chesterton
The Economy of our Nation State
These two facts I’ve heard recently really made me pause:
1. The U.S. economy still has fewer breadwinner jobs than it did in 2007.
2. The 22,235,000 people employed by government in the United States now outnumber the 12,258,000 employed in manufacturing by 9,977,000.