Now back to "the project".......
Question: do we have any singing ladies who have singing female friends who can do an "Andrews Sisters" sort of sound? I have a concept for an opening for this which takes us back into the time frame of Chicago of the 20's/30's/40's with a touch of the prohibition era. Imagine the sounds of people walking down a street with cars going by, the usual sort of ambient street sounds........they head down an alley and towards a "speakeasy" which features not only the outlawed booze but of course, musical entertainment as well. Some ambient sounds of the "club" and the ladies take the stage to sing the intro piece before *our* performers take center stage.
Yeah - it *begs* for video. That is an incredibly intriguing idea, although one that complicates things a bit. Gotta ruminate a bit on that, and in the meantime just work on the main songs themselves although I will be spending some time with my intro concept piece.
HH
Well I think at this point I should put out the lyrical stuff I was working on for this Intro piece. Again, somewhat incomplete in spots but I think the general idea comes across:
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<open with music line twice>
There's four guys from South Chicago town
They always make sure that the rock goes down
All four seem to make the girls hearts throb
<music stops briefly>Marty, Billy, Dino and Bob
<repeat music line twice>
Marty's the singer, he'd got great tone
when he works his magic with a microphone
[need a line]
<music stops briefly>[need a line]
<repeat music line twice>
Billy plays guitar but he's more than that
a mix a hair and brains tucked under his hat
you want some great guitar, he's the man for the job
<music stops briefly> Marty, Billy, Dino and Bob
<repeat music line twice>
Dino plays the bass and he's a great guy
Marty sez "if we punch him right he'll sing real high"
[OK, for anybody who doesn't get that one, you gotta go watch the "Live Raw" DVD in the Shuba's set........then you'll get it ;D ]
[need a line]
<music stops briefly> Marty, Billy, Dino and Bob
<repeat music line twice>
[for Bobby so far here I got nuthin']
They play big halls or under a tent
when they're done you know your money is well spent
no matter what the size of the gig or job
You'll like Marty, Billy, Dino and Bob!
[the music can either end "cold" or merge into the start of what I expect will be Marty's song.............if only because the way the intro is writtten, it makes a certain amount of sense to put them in that order]
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That "Marty, Billy, Dino and Bob" thing is a tie-up of all four
guys prior to the individual songs but also is an "audience
participation" concept were the whole thing to ever get played
for a crowd; doesn't matter if it was live performance or simply off
a CD through a sound system. I can picture a bunch of
hammerheads with beer bottles..........oh, never mind. ;D
===========================================
OK, it sounds a little corny and that is EXACTLY what it's supposed to be like. There's a bit of humor in there, and in the context of a prohibition era Speakeasy that might be about right but the *meaning* is obviously relevant to LH. I'm envisioning a 3 part vocal harmony which is where the "Andrews Sisters" thing comes in to play, so contrary to the deliberately introduced "corniness" it is by no means a "throwaway". It will take some skill to sing.
The inspiration is a odd mix of movie and TV versions of Old Chicago of that era, and if I was going to set it up to do live, I'd love to have the female singers escorted in by, say, 4 guys in period-suits sporting Thompson submachine gun replicas. ;D
*Ideal* instrumentation for this would probably be a piano along with 2 to 4 pieces of brass but I don't think that's too likely. Having talked to Starcrossed a bit about some of what she and Iwo and Jet have put out, Star may just be a very good bet for the female lead vocal here and I heard some piano work that impressed the heck outta me, Iwo? or Jet? It is a kinda "honky tonk" sort of piano style, and not real fast............if any of you are familiar with the James Bond movie "The Man With the Golden Gun", there's a segment early on where the main bad guy, Scaramonga, is more or less engaged in a gun duel to the death with some mob hitman in what could be described as a "funhouse".........one of the parts of the funhouse has a bunch of fake gangsters popping out and there is a segment of music there that is *exactly* the ideal sound.
That's what I've been working with on Intro - a nod to the past of Chicago, our fave band's hometown.
HH
Boston...you are just toooooo funny!!!
