About
Key of Emaj, Tempo 130
1980, College Station
Another song adapted from one of the poems written in Marsha McCord’s Creative Writing class at A&M Consolidated my Junior year in high school. Short, free verse, not really a set of lyrics, but I like the message. It’s about a free spirit who, when confronted by the dark overlords of society, realizes his “flight is over”. I was so convinced I was going to be a writer or a rock star when I was younger, and then shortly after college and getting married, I put those dreams on a shelf and became a lifelong corporate goon. Now that I’m retired, I find my happiest moments are when I’m creating, and I’m so thankful that I now have the time and the faculties to do so. Yeah, I know I could have been a starving artists when I was younger, but I’m happy that I get to be a well fed artist in my golden years – I know many folks for whom this narrative arc applies….
I tried out some new techniques with this song. I had just acquired the Antares AutoTune suite, and started playing around with some of the vocal effects it provides. The second verse is heavily distorted and is supposed to be the voice of a “dark overlord”. This is also one of the first songs I added vocal loops from the vast Apple Logic Pro library to, in an attempt to draw attention away from my rather limited voice. I really like the power of the “Yeah yeah” that bursts into the mix when the chorus kicks in and the drums start pounding along with the keyboards. After adding vocal loops to this song, I went back to all the others and attempted to punch them up with similar embellishments.