33. As It Was (Harry Styles cover)

 

 As it Was (Harry Styles Cover) https://www.soundclick.com/music/songInfo.cfm?songID=14499109

As it Was (Harry Styles Cover... acoustic-ish version)
https://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/33585451?utm_campaign=a_public_songs&utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=page_object_news_item

A fairly recent adventure in music making for myself has been creating cover versions of current popular hits. This was a practice encouraged at some of the song writing retreats I have attended. The idea is that if you get inside the way other songs are created, it will help with your own creations. It may also cause people to give your own tunes a listen.

It is a fact that people really like listening to things they already know. Sounding like someone else appears to grant a validity to your work that sounding like yourself is unable to achieve.

Maybe there is a tipping point where you become treated seriously as a songwriter. Or maybe you have to prove you can master other peoples songs first. Or maybe folk need the validation of commercial sales to accept the value of what you are doing. I'm getting to old to worry about such things. I just like making music because I can. Some paint. Some sculpt. Some write. Some play Scrabble. I musically doodle.

And ... despite my reservations... figuring out how other folks songs work is a whole lot of fun. It is the way almost every songwriter on the planet began to write.

Harry Styles song 'As it Was' has turned out to be one of the most popular ditties of 2022. A global hit no less.  Even featured in an episode of one of my favourite TV programs "Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing." So it seemed like a good one to fool around with.

It is of course ludicrous for an old guy like me to take on a young pop legends creation, but it's all done very tongue in cheek, and provides me a wonderful opportunity to explore all my newest music software. lol.

It is kind of frustrating that more folk will listen to this than my own creations, but if it causes them to give some other of my songs a listen... then that is just fine by me.

And for more information about the song than is ever needed, it has its own wikipedia page. Weirdly, it is does not mention my cover version. Wonder why? A serious omission to my mind.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_It_Was
   
As It Was -  Harry Styles

(Written by Kid Harpoon, Tyler Johnson & Harry Styles)

"Come on, Adrian, (Harry) we wanna say goodnight to you"

Holdin' me back
Gravity's holdin' me back
I want you to hold out the palm of your hand
Why don't we leave it at that?
Nothin' to say
When everything gets in the way
Seems you cannot be replaced
And I'm the one who will stay, oh-oh-oh

In this world, it's just us
You know it's not the same as it was
In this world, it's just us
You know it's not the same as it was
As it was, as it was
You know it's not the same

Answer the phone
"Adrian (Harry) you're no good alone
Why are you sitting at home on the floor?
What kind of pills are you on?"
Ringin' the bell
And nobody's coming to help
Your daddy lives by himself
He just wants to know that you're well, oh-oh-oh

In this world, it's just us
You know it's not the same as it was
In this world, it's just us
You know it's not the same as it was
As it was, as it was
You know it's not the same

Go home, get ahead, light-speed internet
I don't wanna talk about the way that it was
Leave America, two kids follow her
I don't wanna talk about who's doin' it first

(Hey)
As it was
You know it's not the same as it was
As it was, as it was
   

10. Deep Down Inside (We Need Love)

 

Having previously posted one of the first songs I ever wrote, this weeks ditty is my most recent doodling. A poppy dance vibe titled 'Deep Down Inside (We Need Love)'

https://www.soundclick.com/music/songInfo.cfm?songID=14400392

I didn't set out to write a pop song. The whole venture was inspired by a piece of free music software. 'Waves', (a music software company) released a free librarian program that catalogues samples into similar folders. (Samples are short musical events or sounds that form the bedrock of much modern dance and pop music.)

As I have thousands of little sound bytes on my hard drive, I was revisiting some of them and came across a loop titled 'xot-128-Ab-getrave-piano.' It was begging for a beat, so I added a percussion loop and then some extra drums. A couple of soulful vocal samples really fitted in... and suddenly I had a a song going on. Added some lyrics... and there it was. A bass line was added on my trusty Yamaha B1200 bass guitar.

Here's the songs very predictable story.

Boy sees girl and thinks she won't be interested
Boy asks girl for dance because he has nothing to lose.
They dance.
They are now together (forever)
Because deep down inside we all need love.
(Burning in our hearts  - yeah)

Romeo and Juliet it is not. But as a dance-able 3 minute slice of trivial pop, maybe it is a reasonable specimen.

One of the biggest songs of 2021, Dua Lipa's 'Levitating,' began life as a synth patch on a rare v1970's Roland vocoder keyboard, a VP-330. (You can find them on on the web usually priced around $3800!) It morphed into something that now may be facing a copyright injunction...  (a story you can pursue on YouTube if you wish https://youtu.be/XT3DghWbk2A.)

So... yes... this particular ditty may well sound like a thousand others... and is totally based on a keyboard sequence that no doubt appears in other songs...but that is the nature of the beast known as pop.

And there is a reason why pop is popular. It's fun. It's throwaway. It sounds like something you already know. It's not important. It doesn't try and change the world, just offer a brief respite from the bad news that threatens to engulf us.  And I don't know about you, but I need that right now! If it gives you a smile or has you dancing around the kitchen... my work is done.

At a time when Putin and his Kremlin cronies appear hell bent on violently building a new Russian empire, maybe the refrain... 'Deep down inside we need love' can be a cause for reflection and an unspoken but sung out loud prayer! 

Deep down inside (We need love)
Adrian J Pratt March 1 2022

I saw you there, sitting just across the room,
Shining with a light that pierced through my gloom
I thought to myself, well what do I say,
I didn't even think you would even turn my way

But deep down inside you need love
Need it burning in your soul
Yes deep down inside you need love
Burning in my soul (burning in my soul  yeh)

I thought to myself, well I'll just take the chance
I'm going over there. going to ask you to dance
Unless you make a move, nothing will ever start
I've got nothing to lose except my lonely heart

Because  deep down inside you need love
Need it burning in your soul
Yes deep down inside you need love
Burning in my soul (burning in my soul  yeh)

Hey, even now I am struggling to believe it,
I offered love and you were prepared to receive it!
I hope you understand, just how much you mean,
The longer we're together, the more it seems like a dream.

Cos deep down inside you need love
Need it burning in my soul
Yes deep down inside you need love
Burning in my soul (burning in my soul  yeh)

Deep down inside you need love
Need it burning in your soul
Yes deep down inside you need love
Burning in my soul (burning in my soul  yeh)

3. Music

 

 Adrian Song of the Week 3. "Music"

Link on Soundclick: https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=13493380

By the time I was in junior/middle school, sitting at a musical instrument and making up music had already become my happy place. At our family home in Orchard Road there was a piano in the front room. Unfortunately, that was the same room as the record player and television... so access was not always readily available. But whenever I could occupy that space and, whatever else may be going on in the world, just enjoyed weaving tunes out of nowhere. I was supposedly doing piano practice for the lessons I was taking, but more often than not would be doing my own thing.

Sometime, during High School years, I came up with this piece simply titled "Music." It's not so much a song, as a prelude. I really don't know what genre you would place it under. Or who would sing it. I'm sure Freddy Mercury could have killed it, (with Brian May on guitar of course,) though it's maybe more musically styled toward Michael Bublé or Barry Manilow. Never really known what to do with it! It certainly did not fit in with the output of any bands I ever played in. Nor is it the kind of song you could just strum on a guitar.

 All these years later, now I can see things retrospectively, the line that startles me (and a reason for sharing) is the final one that declares "No matter what I do, The music keeps breaking through." My chosen career as a minister in a traditional denomination hasn't exactly created personal musical opportunities.

 Every congregation I have been part of has embraced traditional music, i.e., hymnbooks, organs and S.A.T.B Choir anthems. I have had more than one church music director inform me that my musical efforts were not welcome on a Sunday morning. Other folk made it quite clear to me that they did not appreciate pastors with guitars invading their sacred space.

Thankfully other venues such as youth retreats, community concerts, open mics and song writing retreats have welcomed my contributions with open arms and offered an opportunity to share my musical creations. And there have even been very occasional songs offered during Sunday services, despite the naysayers.

Music is still my all-time go-to happy place. Over the years I've received far more positive feedback then push-back. The arrival of the internet offered an opportunity to share music with folk I would never otherwise interact with. It has been astounding to see where songs and tunes have sometimes ended up. But that's another story!

The recording is my usual homemade effort. This one was done some twenty plus years ago but remixed here and there. I really like the interaction between the guitar lead and synth in the instrumental part. Although I still have no idea what to do with it, (other than share it) the lyrics still ring true all these years later.

 Enjoy it for what it is 😊

Music has got a hold on me
And I can't seem to break free
No matter how I try
And music
Seems to live somewhere deep inside of me
No matter what I do
The music keeps breaking through.
The music keeps breaking through.

2. Uninvited

 

 Adrian Song of the Week 2. Uninvited

Having previously posted a song I wrote back in my teens, thought I'd follow up with a more recent ditty.

Covid arrived on our doorstep as an unwelcome guest. We all deal with things differently. Some journal. Some binge. Me? I write a song. "Uninvited" is a response to the epidemic that came our way in 2020. As it began disrupting our live's some underestimated its effect. "It will be all over by Easter" they promised. Hmm.

A particular effect it had on my life was to force the closure of our church for numerous weeks, and we had to learn how to produce and present online services. The line "Not in a month of Sundays" references that interruption to my usual routine! Although written over a year ago, we still don't know how it all ends. Hence the line, "But what will be...Wait and see"

Musically it follows a simple 4 chord verse/chorus structure, until the middle section, which becomes a little more complicated as a way of saying, "We are not handling this well, it is throwing us totally off course!" Likewise... there are prickly noises and sounds that reflect the nature of the beast.

For techno junkies among you, one of the synths used is my vintage Roland SH1000... yep, still going strong (though tuning is an even more troubling issue than ever!)

Anyway, give it a listen, enjoy and indulge in some musing about your own Covid responses! We are getting through this crazy time in whatever ways we can. The more creative, the better. We are all becoming experts at making lemonade out of lemons these days.

Link to Song on Soundclick:
https://soundclick.com/r/s8d2vz

Uninvited
Adrian J. Pratt 5/10/20

Uninvited
Not welcome here
Uninvited
Not welcome here

Uninvited you arrived on the scene
Little did we know of your terrible scheme,
Complacency left our judgment impaired
All of our dreams turned into nightmares

We shall never be friends
Not in a month of Sundays
This relationship must end.

Uninvited
Not welcome here
Uninvited
Not welcome here

They promised you would go away
You made it clear you came to stay
No one immune from corruption
No limits upon destruction.

We shall never be friends...
Not in a month of Sundays
This relationship must end.

The time will come
When you no longer have your way
And we will keep on moving
Towards that day.

You have us now
That is true
But what will be...
Wait and see...

We shall never be friends...
Not in a month of Sundays
We shall never be friends...
Not in a month of Sundays
This relationship must end.

We shall never be friends...
Not in a month of Sundays
This relationship must end.

Uninvited
Not welcome here
Uninvited
Not welcome here
Uninvited