[garys2811]

Here's a song of an autobiographical nature. I've tried some new ideas. Please let me know what you think (I'm not sensitive) http://soundcloud.com/garys2811/lets-go-retro

Lately, I’ve been having nightmares,
Causing me to despair,
Making me feel blue,
So I went down to see the doctor,
It didn’t really shock her,
She told me what to do.

She said, “you need a new distraction,
To bring you satisfaction,
Its good for your soul",
So I dusted off my six string,
I really let my heart sing,
I played some rock and roll.

LETS GO RETRO, you and me,
LETS GO RETRO, just to see,
LETS GO RETRO, get away,
LETS GO RETRO NOW.

Now I’m wearing black suede sneekers,
Some Buddy Holly peepers,
Drainpipes and my drapes,
My girl has a dress like Katherine Hepburn,
She really makes the heads turn,
She really does look great.

LETS GO RETRO............
I don’t need a time machine to change my situation,
I only need an open mind and some imagination.
LETS GO RETRO............

Thanks,
Gary

[Binladeda]

Like this gary.   Nice happy, upbeat feel.  Love the 'retro' guitar licks you've thrown in...and the spoken bits and the whistle work really well.  Really good lyrics, made me smile   Good vocal performance.....Clever, imaginative, songwriting.  Excellent work mate

[Neil C]

Good vocals, slide and overall attitude. I like the theme.
The verses are strong, I think I would consider bringing the chorus in earlier, perhaps even starting with it.
The chorus had a slight B52's feel with the vocals??
Like the vibe.
 
Neil

[montydog]

Ooohh!! Lovely bass - that's the first thing I like, then the lovely texture on the rhythm guitar and then I even like the drums! I get the B52s thing as well.

This is very different from anything anyone else is doing on here. This is very original, refeshing and fun. In fact, I love everything about this. And then we've got a lovely lead break at the end which could have gone on much longer for me - that's my only criticism.

[Alan Starkie]

Great uplifting song Gary. Great little touches throughout.

You finish where I would have put a full minute guitar solo outro! It's screaming for it.

Nice one :-)

Alan.

[garys2811]

Thanks for the comments. I agree that it would be better to get the chorus in sooner so I'll change the order when I re-record it. I'll also do a bit more guitar on the end as it does sound a bit cut short.

[Pez]

I like this, I'd add more rhythm guitar to drive it along a bit more, get some chugga chuggas in there lol. Great stuff Gary, you gettin good sound with your axe!

[jmacdon]

This is a song of three halves.   The opening is great - I love the way the music builds up (it's all very predictable and I've heard it on countless songs - but that doesn't matter ), by the time the guitar kicks in at 0.21 I am foot-tapping and swinging around on my seat ready to get up and dance....

Then the finger-clicking verse starts and i'm mesmerised. I'm not sure if i'm in the 50s, 60s or 70s.....I want to sit in the corner looking moody, but then I want to grab a girl and throw her around the dance floor 60's style.

Then 2.21 eerily reminds me of Orson Welles waking up and chastising the band for being too loud.

Let's go retro?  I've just been there and back.  Thanks guys!  

[flossie]

I want to go retro when I hear your music, I absolutely love it.  I think I've discovered I was young in the wrong era.

This is another corker. (I love that whistle)  Your music makes me smile and wiggle in my chair!

There is a really great shop in Camden that does retro clothes for women and I love it, costs lots of £££££!!!!!!  (needed to share that!)

Anyway how did you get on with that publisher?
x

[Kafla]

Nice one Gary - has a modern Gerry Rafferty feel

Really nice playing and Production

The vocals could be doing with more aggression - bit polite !

I really like this though - you are a fine musician indeed

[S.T.C]

Unusual ......like the feel and sound...nice guitar...i had a quick listen,since i`m not at home...will listen again later.

[garys2811]

Thanks for the comments guys.

@Kafla thanks mate I've been listening to Gerry R a wee bit so no surprise there. I've never really learned how to open my voice up. I'll keep working at it.
Cheers !

@Flossie
Thanks again. This song is a true story. I've played and sung my way back to health just recently and I'm loving it.
I've not tried the publisher yet I'm more of a scardy-cat than a cool-cat. I've had a good look at their site and i will try to pitch it at them when I run out of excuses. I've been working on another couple of tracks this last week or so.  Keep wiggling.

[Neil C]

Gary, re publishers I guess if you don't ask you don't get. What's there to lose?
Another scaredycat..
 
Neil

[Boydie]

This has a wonderful feel to it and definitely warms up as it goes along

I would definitely recommend tweaking the timing issues at the beginning to ensure the kick, bass and guitar are tied together - not sure how you are recording but if this is still possible to do I think it would be time well spent as the rest of the track is so good

This would work really well live with a band - do you play out live?

I liked how the track builds - I am torn about whether the chorus should come earlier or not! - on a second listen I enjoyed the build up to it

I also really liked the FX on the audio clips and selective processing of the main vocal - this worked really well

The guitar runs fitted perfectly! - great job

[garys2811]

@ Boydie
Thanks for the comments. I did try some new ideas and they mostly seem to have worked.
I do play live in a duo but not usually in this genre which is new to me. Believe it or not I actually play folk and Celtic music in local village halls. We were asked to play for a ‘Mums and Toddler’ group 50’s theme night so went away and learned some rock and roll which went down a storm so we  have decided to move into the more commercial weddings and parties market and will be using this material. I’m busy putting a band together for that.
This forum is an absolute Godsend because it has made me think about what makes music good and how to get the quality into the arrangements. I’m also on a fairly steep learning curve on the home recording front and I’m learning both from the example of others and from my own mistakes. From this track:-
lesson 1-  make sure the guide track is right.
In this case I made a mistake in the guide track. I noticed it but thought that I could just correct in the live tracks. I found myself playing against what was in the guide track which caused some timing problems
lesson 2 - use midi drums and put more effort in editing.
I always have problems with the drums and so far I’ve used a drum machine which is a pig to programme and there is no midi out so I just tap along live and record audio. I convinced myself that the inaccuracies make it sound real. In reality it just sounds sloppy.  On the tracks I did this week I’ve used midi drums from a keyboard and quantisized, edited velocity, cut and pasted, separate tracks for each element and used a sound font.
Lesson 3- Don’t try to do every track in one long take.
On the two or three occasions I’ve been in commercial studios this is what I’ve done so I though that was the way to do it however, it make it hard to edit after recording and I always seem to think of something that I would like to do differently or spot an error that I want to fix. In future I’m going to break my takes up into natural sections.
Lesson 4- Think more about form and length before I start to record !
Lesson 5- Work on vocal technique. I need more energy and character in my vocal delivery. I don’t know how to do this yet !
Cheers

Gary