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Now, Baby, It’s Never [v.2]

Now, Baby, It's Never

[Still spun from the creative frenzy of writing a new song, I’ll be taking a break from my normal scribbling, here, so that I can decompress a bit and blab about a new toy that may be of interest to some of you.]

previous AYoS version

The ever-minimal AYoS project ratchets up its minimalist impulses with today’s posted track, recorded strictly with my new $80 USB microphone and my laptop and a pair of headphones.

My fellow podcasters and musicians may want to take note of this mic, since it combines in one (roughly 2 pound) mic shell a reasonably decent mid-size condenser mic, a preamp, a 16 bit audio-to-digital converter, and a USB interface. For 80 bucks (US) at music gear discounters.
XXXXX
Because of the nature of USB, there is a delay in monitoring the incoming signal from the mic over headphones while performing — so it’s best to turn off input monitoring. That means you might have to use the old trick of partially lifting one headphone to better hear your voice, acoustic guitar, etc, when you overdub.

The newly recorded tracks should match up, though, on playback. USB uses a time stamping feature to realign synchrized audio data. That said, various DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) softwares have different ways of dealing with the tiny timing inaccuracies inherent in current digital audio applications.

I saw this mic announced early last fall and kep waiting to hear from someone who had bought one — which I thought would be almost immediately, since it attempted to fill a particular need and at a very low price.

I posted in a couple of audio forums about the mic, hoping to provoke interest, but month after month, no one reported buying XXXXX one. I finally got tired of waiting, picking one up at one of the local music megastores this afternoon. Packaged in a reusable plastic bubble pack that serves a moderately protective function, it came with a special USB cable [don’t mix it up with others] and a mic clip for mounting on standard or European stands.

It’s pictured here (on a sheet of standard 8.5″ x 11″ paper) with a stand I ordered online for about $19 with shipping. (Quiklok A188 Desktop Tripod.) As you see it here, the stand is still attached but folded back for transport.

I’m blathering, I realize, but I know there’s been a fair amount of curiosity about this mic among laptoppers and podcasters. Anyone who wants to ask me more about it can use my contact form to email me.

previous AYoS version

Now, Baby It’s Never

Everything you say
seems to mean goodby
Though we talked forever
I never did know why

Now baby its never
our time wont come again
This time forever baby
This time it’s the end

Tonight when I kissed you
it burned me to my soul
Everything I thought I knew
was all a lie I know

Now baby its never…

I walked along the aqueduct
just before the dawn
The sun looked old and tired as it came up
but at least the night was gone

Now baby its never
our time wont come again
This time forever baby
This time it’s the end

When Baby Can’t Go On

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When Baby Can't Go On

Like Connan Doyle killing off Sherlock Holmes, I decided in 1998 that it was time to write my most famous character out of future episodes…

Maybe my heart wasn’t in killing off Baby, the self-destructive, half-woman, half-goddess who tormented the wounded, emotionally tortured protagonists of more than a handful of my songs. At any rate, I found myself writing this pretty much by brainpower alone — and I’m afraid it shows.

Like the half-hearted series finale wrap-up of a canceled TV series, this song shows the wrenchmarks of uninspired, but dogged craftsmanship (y’ listinening, David Lynch?)

Still, I thought it was appropriate as a wrap up for those previous (and thoroughly inspired) Baby songs here in the last few days of Phase One of AYoS. (Phase One, for the unitiated, is the roughly first third of A Year of songs wherein I set out to do every [presentable] song in my songbook, one after another [although in no special order]. Henceforth, my song choices will be guided by whim, inspiration, and the fierce whispering of my legion of demons, guardian angels, and muses.)

Careful readers — or those familiar with popular serial literature and media — will note that, while Baby appears to have made her final voyage into the sunset… we really can’t be sure… perhaps she will show up in some future song, resurrected by sheer force of personality like the indestructible villain of an old Saturday afternoon serial.

When Baby Can’t Go On

When Baby can’t go on
she wont wonder why
you open up the bottle
and go home when its dry
when the darkeness hits the dawn
and the ocean meets the sky
there’s never in her “always”
and forever in her “goodbye”

baby lived forever
for almost thirty years
then she sailed away one day
on a ship of frozen tears

baby had a house those days
way up the shore
we all knew that she was hiding
but we never knew what for

baby lived forever…

the last time i saw her
i knew it was her time
there was sadness in her laughter
and a long-way-off in her eyes

baby lived forever
for almost thirty years
then she sailed away one day
on a ship of frozen tears

1998-08-06
(C)1998, TK Major

LA’s Not Such a Big Town

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LA's Not Such a Big Town

This is one of literally dozens of kiss-off songs I wrote for this one girl. We kept breaking up and getting back together. We did it for a couple years. Our relationship was the engine that drove much of my creative output in those days. If we weren’t cursing each other’s shadows and vowing never to have anything to do with each other, we were falling in love all over again.

It irritated the hell out of our friends, without doubt. And, just between you and me, I don’t think I could put up with that kind of nonsense, now. But when I was 25, it was kind of what I expected in life…

I’ll likely be doing this song again a bit later in AYoS — and I’m sure I’ll be anxious to give the next version a properly s— kickin’ feel. I’m afraid I recorded this version when I was dead tired night before last after a long day of web database work.

Still, the other songs I recorded that night (“Magic” and tomorrow’s “Have You Embraced the Beast?”) had a bit more spunk. This work business… I’m sure no one mentioned it when I was signing up for earth duty…

L.A.’S NOT SUCH A BIG TOWN

Well, I hardly know where you’re coming from
but it ain’t hard to see where you’re going to
what you’re coming to)
Hey hey, Darlin’
I just can’t save you now

You hold on to me, so damn tight
then push me away — I walk home alone through the night
thinking about how
I’d be seeing you around

Hey, hey, Darlin’, guess I’ll be seeing you around
After all L.A. ain’t such a big town
Hey hey Darlin, I hope you ain’t feeling down
cause those blues will sit on your head
jack your heart and turn your life around

Now you always argue about everything
In your domain irrationality’s king
I got a list of topics
a mile long that can’t be brung up

You called me up on the telephone
and asked me if I was alone
I said yes —
you said good –and you hung up

Hey, hey, Darlin’, I guess yer feeling proud
after all) ya cataloged my faults told the whole
goldang world out loud
Hey hey darlin, I guess it ain’t so strange
You tore up my body,
broke my heart, and threw away my brains

Well, I tried to talk out all those things
but your inattentive condescendance stings
Hey hey darlin
there’s no point in talking now

Well I never had the money for diamond rings
nor the guaranteed returns wise investment brings
Hey hey darlin,
I guess I’ll be seeing ya around

Now, Baby, It’s Never

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Now, Baby, It's Never

I‘ve got a sixth sense for when things are over. Little things like the suitcase on the lawn, changed locks, restraining orders. There are subtle signs a man of the world can pick up. Call it a vibe if you will.

One of those things is the icey kiss.

For my generation, one of the most famous is the scene coming out of the tunnel in the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

That kiss is burned into my consciousness. It’s a scene of exquisite subtlety. A single arched eyebrow reveals that the heroine is, for all purposes, dead, her body taken over by an unfeeling alien. Ah… it really speaks to me — for me, really…

Anyhow, in this song, I was going for that moment of shock — a kiss that reveals everything the hero of the song knows is wrong, that burns him to his soul. A kiss that makes a mockery of love. Or something. Actually, I just wanted to write a song with the word aqueduct in it. And I think I’ve succeeded. Success is all about setting attainable goals.