Day Fifty Two : Tuesday 23rd July 2005
In the morning, George and I sorted out the best vocal take for ‘This Is Life [Get Used To It]. We added some sparse percussion and close harmonies which took a bit of working out. George and James are both good at understanding the physics of the harmonies whereas I tend to be more instinctive. By the middle of the afternoon we had a mix we were all happy with. Steve had come back to the studio and voiced some concerns about the tambourine and the fact that we have dropped the drums out of the final verse. We run off two mixes one with the drums in all the way through and one with the breakdown. The downside of tracking and mixing at the same time is that you can lose perspective of things. Sometimes the things that get added late on tend to feature more in the mix than they should and also some changes you make take time to to become familiar and understood. The best thing is that everyone says what they think and you search for the way to make everybody happy without compromising the song. Next song up is the song that we worked out the same day as ‘My Town’ which has no proper title. I managed to get a start on a lyric while I had been in to London to see Bobby. I felt that I had started to unlock the door into the songs meaning but hadn’t quite found the word that suggested the title. I kept pouring over and refining the words I had on my laptop. I liked the look of the word ‘Give’ and for a while I had the word down in the title header. I was looking at it for quite a while turning it over in my head, imagining saying the song title on stage or thinking of it in the running order of the album, even a D.J. announcing it over the airwaves when suddenly it hit me. ‘Something’s Got To Give’. The title is mine and it fits great in the overall scheme of the album. Once I had the title I soon had the lyric finished off and I had worked a way to incorporate it into the song. James and I recorded our guitar parts together. Both of us played Gibson Les Pauls, mine through a Vox AC30 and James through the Marshall. The track is sounding great. A quick pint for george and Martin in the pub and then I lay the vocals down before midnight. James records some final guitar flourishes before we call it a day.
Day Fifty Three : Wednesday 24th July 2005
Today followed a similar pattern as yesterday. Vocal comp on ‘Something’s Got To Give’, then some last guitar overdubs and then onto the mix. The main thing to worry about is about having backing vocals or not. ‘B.V.’s’ as they are known, can make a track sound soft and as this is a hard beast we decided to leave it alone. The mix all came together about 4.30 p.m. James cames back from London after the mix was put down and he wasn’t too happy about the mix of the guitars and some of the last minute overdubs. We all thought it sounded great but James was pretty forthright about it so we are going to try and make up some time so that we can revisit the track by the end of Friday. John Leckie called by and regaled us with stories of his sessions with the Stone Roses and recording ‘Ernie’ (He Drove The Fastest Milk Cart In The West) with Benny Hill! Very funny. We moved onto ‘Be Still’ in the evening and while George and Martin went for a meal, james and I worked out all the guitar parts and even recorded some while they were away. When they came back from the restaurant, we only had to fix a few little things. I keep pouring over the lyrics. as there has been one line added from the bond version I have been working up an extra line, very difficult. I’ve got two ideas, one is a blues take on the lyric which means repeating the second line at the fourth phrase. Tthe other is a new line all together. We shall see.
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