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Songwriter Forum => Feedback on Finished songs => Topic started by: Cazrolina on June 13, 2018, 09:26:56 PM
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Evening folks,
I love nature, flowers, giant trees, honey & especially bees. Cowparsleyman also likes bees, honey, how bees buzz and how they are so pretty and understated, and without them our foods wouldn't grow!! He wrote this beautiful music and was looking for lyrics on the forum and I jumped at the chance. And the rest, as they say, is hizzzzzzztory.
Anyhow. Here's a song About Bees. Hope they are listening....
We cant direct the bees or blackbirds to change their takes etc, but any/all thoughts welcome on the rest :)
https://soundcloud.com/cazyardley/about-bees
LYRICS
Way back in time
Before the minus sign
There once was shelter
In these arms divine
I can feel them
Flying through
Golden skies
Rushing through you
For you
I can feel them
Flying through
Golden skies
Rushing through you
For you
Such cold winters night
Thanks to you I'm alive
Soon comes the sunshine
Sweet waters will revive
I can feel them
Flying through
Golden skies
Rushing through you
For you
CREDITS
Cowparsleyman - Instruments
Caroline Yardley - Lyrics, Melody and all vocals
Bees: Lead Buzzing, Honey Gathering
Blackbirds and Thrushes: Backing Twittering
Trees and flowers: Assorted rustling and planet saving
Mixed and produced by cpm
@cowparsleyman (http://www.songwriterforum.co.uk/index.php?action=profile;u=21308)
Jan-May 2018
Release date:
31 May 2018
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Caz
LOVE the vocals
Honey for my ears.
cpm
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Holy cow! Great guitar(s) and fab vocals, that is almost a Kinder Surprise! I have absolutely no complaints whatsoever I just sat back and indulged myself. This is so good it's not funny, well done both of you (and that was an understatement!)!
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Lovely.
Guitars are great together and the vocals are wonderful.....wonderful!
The 'I can feel them....' is very catchy in its subtle way. A joy to listen to.
I am fortunate....well it was our choice to live here where we are really quite hard up but content....to live in the countryside where the intro to your song is often the only backdrop (if the farmers are quiet!) and I don't really listen to much music because I like to hear the world of nature outside.
I'll make an exception for this one though as it is so nice!!
All power to the bees!
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Hi Guys,
Lovely summer track. Defo reminds me of sun kissed fields of Devon in the summer heat, and those bees going about there business.
Vocal superb, CPM's finger picking played well and sits lovely against Caz's smooth vocal.
Great work
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Hi guys, this is brilliant, love it. The guitar sounds and the vocals are excellent. Great collaboration.
Can't say more
Nice one
Cheers
Jamie
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Oh damn. Damn oh darn oh yeah. Fellow nature lover here and this is so good. Teleports me from my grey city apartment right to the beautiful nature. Love the background noise, executed perfectly. The vocals are soo so beautiful. I like the guitar solo although im unsure about it as it feels a tad out of place on this style of song. I think its just the effects, the solo itself is great short but sweet but I personally would prefer a more natural guitar sound on this so it would fit with the rest of the song. Just my opinion though. Thank you for that.
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Wow. Excellent. Vocals and guitar are absolutely top notch.
This is a beautiful piece of music. Harmonies are killing me!!! LOOOOOVE it
Amazing work!!!!
Micky
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Really beautiful imagery. Your singing is flawless. The acoustic guitar was especially lovely. The nature sounds were set in just right and the whole piece left me feeling very relaxed and mellow.
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Yo Caz and CPM
It's a lovely,chilled track. Well produced and sounding fine.
Your vocals are wonderful,Caz.
I wasn't sold on the breakdown around 2.38 it kind of disrupted the flow for me,but perhaps that's just me.
A great collab you two.
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Jambrains
Thanks Jambrains. I know how you love a Kinder surprise!! Indulge away :) You’re very kind(er). Thanks so much for sharing.
Viscount Cramer and his Orchestra
Cheers Viscount. CPMs guitars are just beautiful, really inspired and set the scene for lyrics etc. So natural feeling.
I too love the sound of nature and birdsong on a breeze. Glad to hear you have that playing on repeat everyday. Sounds idyllic!! You lucky people. AND you get the choice of the best and smelliest cheeses. Tres bien :) Merci x
Cawproductions
Those Devon fields filled with sunshine also sound rather idyllic. I wish I was there with a picnic or a cream tea. Instead I’m half emptying a dishwasher whilst writing this message very late at night in suburban Surrey. Lol.
We do get the ‘lovely’ birdsong from the noisy magpie that thinks it’s a cockerel at 4:30am though. LOL. I mustn’t complain really :)
Cheers again for the kind comments.
Jamie
Was a real joy to collaborate on this. Thanks Jamie. And thanks to this wonderful forum. And those fuzzy buzzy little fellas too, of course :)
Jack_diamond
Teleport - now THATS what I need!! (I’d teleport that bl##dy magpie to my exes neighbourhood for starters. Haha) Thanks so much! :).
I know what you mean with the solo feeling ‘different’. I saw the solo as being mankind and the acoustic guitar as being the bees/nature. Existing together but in such different ways. Thanks for your comments Jack. It’s great to hear all opinions, and very much appreciated.
Don’t hold back, folks.
Mutrins
Thanks Micky! I hope the harmonies don’t create a lawsuit... hehe. I’ll report a “Near Miss” to health and safety, just in case. ;) Most kind. And cheers for listening.
Redrhodie
The music really does have that calming effect. I felt like there was a purity to CPMs guitar. Almost Tudor-like. But definitely created the feeling of an older, less complicated time. Hence the initial opening lyrics about time.
So chuffed to hear it mellowed you right out, maaan. It does that to me too. (I’m still not bored of listening to it either. CPM - you rock :)) Cheers again.
Skub
Thanks again for the kind and helpful comments :)
I don’t know what CPM imagined (let’s see if he’ll tell us...), but I imagined the cut off/break as feeling like mankind had disappeared and nature just carried on taking its course regardless. It IS quite a bold/challenging break, but it really grew on me the more I listened. Was a challenge coming in with the v2 vocal on time though. But the Risk made it more interesting to record. Otter than that, it was all very free flowing and natural to record. Lots of fun.
Thanks so much for listening :) enjoy a nice weekend everyone
Cx
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Whato folk
Saw this by Caz and thought I'd just say thanks for you kind comments about the guitar playing, and maybe try explain a few things...
I wrote the acoustic guitar part sitting on a bed, I wanted something that was different in many ways, subject matter, feel, structure, so I called it 'About Bees', (I love watching Bees and I also enjoy trying out their honey, I'm fascinated by the whole process, the amount of effort they put into it, and then we take most of it, I really appreciate what they do for us).
The acoustic guitar is a Gibson J30 with newish strings and long finger nails.
The strat solo was a first take, (At the time I was into Clapton's solo in Kate Bush's 'And So Is Love' - so much feel for so little playing :)) I never felt it didn't fit, but a couple of you did mention it, but I thought it brought something to the arrangement rather than taking something away.
I really wanted the track to have a direct link to nature, hence the Birds and Bees sounds, I just wanted to bring that moment of watching a Bee to you, right there in your ears. There are 2 tracks one for Birds and Forest and the other for the Bees, that's a production first for me.
The break had a few functions, to add interest to the song, to allow the Birds and Bees to provide a 'solo' and to allow the theme to have more impact the second time round, I always try to make songs interesting all the way through.
I really had no idea at all about any melody line, nor lyrics, I tried a couple of times, but in these things I struggle, so I put it on the Unfinished songs part of this forum, and forgot about it, then Caz, got in touch, and she did the rest, I was really surprised that She found such a song from it.
We tried a few different ideas...military snare (quickly dropped) ???, various harmonies, but in this song I thought less is more, and introduced more harmonies from the 2nd Verse, until the very end where they come together and finish with Caz's immaculate vocal flourish.
'Twas a gas to do, I still listen to it a lot, it has the same affect on me too.
hope this helps
cpm
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Hey Caz, and CPM, Killer vocal texture! KILLER Song! Loved the electric guitar mid way through! Very nice surprise, and added even more sex appeal to the Song...never knew a song about bees could be sexy! LOL! Congratulations! You done the bees proud! 😄✌🏾🎉🐝
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Wow, this is a truly delightful piece and first of all congrats on the crystal clear quality of the recording, given there is so much less digital inputs than a lot of songs done these days on DAWs.
The vocal is luscious, reminded a bit of Alison Moyet of old, classic pop voice offering glimpses of soul and blues in its texture. Really great vocal performance.
Loved the acoustic guitar picking and sound, and all the sound FX were sweet.
The guitar solo sound seemed a little disconnected to me in that it sounded a little edgy in such a mellow song, but yes I read your notes below and take your point about what you were trying to achieve. If it were mine, I think I might soften it out with a bit of EQ - just a thought.
But overall, this is a lovely piece of mood music and a good way of drawing attention to the plight of the bees. I will play it at our summer garden bbq tonight and I'm sure it will help everyone chill! :D
Good one!
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This is a great peice of music guys. So well put together. It's been a long hot summer day and it must be warm as I've had my first sea swim of the year. The ambience you guys created was perfect. Top job
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Stunning vocals performance here to delicate backing with the lovely acoustics.
Just loving those descending chords with your vocals
Fab
:) ;) :D
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This is gorgeous from start to finish, the vocal is outstanding, the only slight thing that I would change, the break is great but the song comes back very abruptly, I would have eased it back in, but apart fom that its wonderful.
Cheers, Mikey
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Hey Caz, and CPM, Killer vocal texture! KILLER Song! Loved the electric guitar mid way through! Very nice surprise, and added even more sex appeal to the Song...never knew a song about bees could be sexy! LOL! Congratulations! You done the bees proud! 😄✌🏾🎉🐝
Thanks very much, it's not everyday that I'm accused of playing a sexy solo, really appreciate it. Really dig your icons at the end.
cpm
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Yes this is great. Understated, confident, luscious, calming, soulful and a bunch of other adjectives.
I'd also be inclined to ditch the electric guitar solo as the sound of it was a little intrusive on the mood to my ears, but apart from that wouldn't change a thing. Vocals superb and they sit very nicely on top of the simple acoustic guitar (and yes I got a Tudor vibe from the picking too... it sounds somehow very ancient).
And by the way I love the line "before the minus sign".
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Wonderful Song. Beautifully constructed. The chorus is what elevates the song to something really special. sublime vocals and gorgeous melodies. All the ambient stuff is great too. im not a fan of the electric guitar. It reminds me of the cave scene in the Wickerman movie where the electric guitar comes in. Out of context and too 1970s.
But what a song overall. Great work both!
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great soulful vocal caz and tender
acoustic pick kind of unsentimental if that makes sense feels right
and then we bee sneakily stung by that electric gtr..
but it was worth it.. long overdue song about our toiling cousins..
i can only think of ‘king bee’ by the strolling ones
fine collab
lovely track
dare i say a beautiful buzz
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Great tune...
Some amazing singing and love the bees too!
Love the guitar intro and the guitars in the middle.
Excellent production too.
Really enjoyed.
Thx
Sandeep
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Hi guys
Well I can hear what all the buzz was about on this one.
Super emotive vocals and production work.
Good choice not calling the drummer in. :D
Sweet as honey :D
Paul
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Purely from the Guitar and Prod side, many many thanks for your kind words, I never thought in a million years that my silly pickings on the bed would turn into something that you guys really enjoyed, It's sooo interesting to hear the comments about the electric solo, some like it some would rather it be not there, a sexy solo, and Tudor vibes, and Honey: all of these and more, I never saw coming.
It's so interesting to hear how a tune with no identity, and no inspiration to me (lyrically), can inspire Caz to write such a beautiful melody and such deep lyrics, what a surprise, couldn't beleive it when she sent me the stems, I thought , 'Where did She find those'
From the Prod point of view, it needed some extra care, as the two main elements Acoustic Guitar and LVox were intentionally exposed,
The thing about Caz's lead vocal is that it's very strong, and doesn't need much support, especially on a song with a lot of meaning , she clearly 'feels' the lyrics, she has written, so the harmony vocals are used at the end only to build the feeling, rather than add melodic support, when mixing HVox I really am picky about mis alignments, always aim for all the syllables, inflexions, movement, portamento etc. to be together, as Count Basie once said about his horn section 'They should breath together as one'. This isn't easy for a vocalist to remember what they have done, it's the same for a guitarist, have you ever tried to play a melody line over a solo straight after the first take? easy to remember when bends start, but really difficult to remember when they move and finish.
Anyway...Germany, Messi and Ronaldo all going home...Who would have thought that.
Thanks again
cpm