Below? A collection of my newer, and some older, songs. Basically snippets and weird ideas. The intention is to get them here on this one WP blog to dip into and check out if some are workable or not. This morning was a case of simply picking up the guitar and just play and sing on one track. I then got a second vocal track up and running and simply ‘chuntered’ to myself and ad libbed a few accompanying noises. Albeit badly.
What you can’t hear is the background ideas of other little tunes and melodies that will be thrown in when I ‘faff’ around with listening to a ditty on the speaker monitors. Then it will get serious.
Basically, finish the songs like I have done with all the others last year.
In the mindset it is fairly routine now. Getting ideas down like this allows me to sit with the Apple keyboard and mouse, change output sound from headphones to the speaker monitors and play keyboard sounds over the top to get at additional vibes. Lyrics usually start to develop that way too.
Although. The way of it all currently is that my head is in a rubbish state ‘lyric’ wise. Life is oh so dull presently. And focus is in memory loss land. Yesterday, when I sat down writing ideas, I had the word ‘choose’ in amongst a lyric line. When beginning to write that word down, I actually couldn’t spell it at first! ‘Tuse?’ Touse?’……I kid you not!
It is rather weird and worrying currently. Vibrant thought has upped and gone for a while. So has short term memory. However. The song ‘Today’ here in the first audio bar below is beginning to see an avenue of lyrical repair. Little one line of lyric ideas are gradually taking shape. It will address my 70 years on this little old planet and how life has changed. A few lines are developing which may not make the song. However, rather like the song ‘18 years was 50 years ago’, it will hold quirky self feelings and emotions. In one of the samples below I actually call the song ‘18 years was 60 years ago’. Man! I need more therapeutic interventions. Get my mind back. Frail Autumn 🍁 leaf indeed. My neural shaped inner leaves are definitely falling from my Mind Tree.
I find that solace in singing nowadays is for therapeutic needs and is the only true focus now. Mindfulness is very much present in the form of simply being in the here and now. Rather like making a cup of tea and being aware of every part of making the beverage from start to finish. A song for keeping, that has been given its infancy, does bloom and develop into a whole new sound from its initial first steps. It can adopt a completely different vibrancy. However, at its core is the melody. Think of The Beatles songs that are covered by other artists. The way those other artists channel one of the songs into a totally personal style of presentation.
I have been listening to various artists performing Marc Bolan’s T.Rex songs. Some are so very far from the originals. Take away the melody and you can be hard pressed to identify the song. This album, Angelheaded Hipster, is a fascinating album that shows the many ways songs can be interpreted. And my gentle exploratory journeys in the songs below? Very much like a song interpretation on the album of Scenescof by Devendra Obi Banhart. Very gentle and soothing. Far from the original version. Songs? They are like children that await to find their own unique natures. And can change dramatically according to their times in life.
Anyways. These very much milder than they will sound when finished, exist in the audio bars below. These are about half of the newer songs/melodies/tunes currently in ‘ideas land’. The others in my experimental songbook I need to really refresh my memory on as to how they went.
And here below, as written about above, is the song ‘18 years was 60, oops!, I mean 50 years ago’.
Gray Summers 
Some days Gray it seems like yesterday on others an eternity ago. Cracker tune. SD
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Thanks Shep. I am going to take my Hohner Les Paul to the guy who set up Steve’s Gibson Les Paul. I’m going to go back to my home town where all my family still live on Thursday. Steve is over the moon with the result. So it should be in safe hands. All my electric guitars are rubbish at staying in tune. Often going out half way through songs. The acoustics are a challenge too at times. So hopefully, once done, I can record properly. Cheers. 🍁🍂🙏🏽
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Thank you for the long track included here. This morning I started my day with it and a cup of coffee.
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Thank you for listening Steven. I love setting up music to start the day. Usually it brings about a wonderful calm nature. Made me smile when you mentioned coffee too. It has become a ritual for my go to start up now. I was drinking lots of black teas and earthy herbal drinks first thing up to a few months ago. Then read about the health benefits of a coffee starter for the day. So double healthy impact combining the two alongside each other. Cheers Steven.
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I am so glad to see this post and a couple others I have missed, Gray. I will listen tomorrow.
As for the missing words, spelling, lyrics, it could be that you need a muse. Richard and I talk at dinner and again before sleep and invariably, ideas for songs drop in! It’s weird and uncanny. I have been heads down setting up a YouTube radio show. But I am aggravated with it at the moment.
All your experimental work using tech and instruments to get the sound you want, inspires me!
Oh, and we watched Fantastic Beasts and when I saw Johnny Depp at the end of the first one, and then throughout the second film, I thought of you and how you must have enjoyed his portrayal of Grindewald.
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Thanks for dropping by Sheila. Reflections of life is my main lyrical concept. Frail Autumn is the current stage of life. Basically the year’s seasons are linked to times in life and ideas are opening up. ‘I dreamed I saw her face, come floating through the winds of time. Enter a room inside my mind’ type stuff. Ethereal memories long forgotten. But come back into existence in dreams during the winter age of life.
My little journal notebooks are great to just write down thoughts. Rather like I have done just now in the ethereal sentence. Winter? The Autumn days have a fair few years left in them yet.
It is wonderful that you and Richard chat and discuss all things. Keeps the mind alive. The radio show sounds very promising. My techno knowledge is pretty poor. But chasing sound quality is fun. But not really that important if it never reaches Nirvana status. My goal in music now is very simple. Therapy is paramount. A very narrow focus on songwriting, singing melodies that leap out from time to time from within and picking up and playing guitars has become therapeutic heaven.
His Grindelwald was sublime. If they had kept him in the role, I really believe the film series would have continued. Shame we will get no more than the three. Johnny at the moment is carrying on with his vast amount of interests in all things in his life. The man cannot keep still. His mind wants to experience so many genres and arenas. His life is, and has been, amazing and he is ever searching for new adventures. I bet he is writing a book too about it all. Fascinating guy. Can’t wait to see how he portrays Ebenezer Scrooge.
Cheers Sheila. Hope all is going well in your life.
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Yes, indeed about Johnny Depp, Gray. And still touring with the Hollywood Vampires too! A blogger friend, Michael of 80s metalman blog is going to be seeing them live in concert this summer in the UK! I know he’ll be posting something on his blog about it. If you don’t subscribe to him, I will send you a link.
Frail Autumn and that little notebook of yours must be getting a work out about now. I believe you’ll be in the studio enjoying experimenting with the drums and all sounds pleasing to hear. I will be listening.
I’m now fighting with YouTube over our copyright. I added a radio show a few minutes ago and FIVE of our original songs got flagged for copyright though I state very plainly in the description, and even on the thumbnail and show image that it’s Richard Murrey’s show/and music! Ugh! I’m just so tired of fighting the upstream current on these things, between my book crap with Amazon and now this, I want to throw my laptop out the back door and be done! I need to go sniff my essentials oil now. Whew. (Sorry to rant, vent, etc.)
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I saw the Hollywood Vampires a couple of years ago in Manchester, England. Around 25,000 crowd and such a blistering atmosphere. At least I can say I have been in the same ‘room’ with Johnny Depp. 😉
The notebook scenario is that I have quite a lot of themed ones now. All in specific notebook covers. People believe that if you have lots of journal or notebook choices it can be overwhelming. These smaller versions never are. I also buy 30 at a time off Amazon and choose heavier GSM paper to tolerate fountain pen ink. I use lots of refillable colour art pens too to jazz up the lettering. Stick in various paper print vibes too for ones to intentionally keep. Then there are the larger A4, A5 sizes that are targeted at deeper thoughts. I have about a dozen really nice ones that are currently waiting to be used. One at a time.
Realistically, I am a stationery nerd. I can’t help but buy a lovely looking journal despite having so many. But then I reflect on the ones completed in the past. The secret is to not care what you write. Or have a lot of ‘questions for the day’ to start the ball rolling. WordPress have that idea don’t they.
Shame about algorithms and all the additional nonsense. The logic from these platforms is crazy at times. I don’t know how you overcome this hierarchy of nonsense. To be honest, my YouTube song upload visits are rubbish. Really low numbers. But it doesn’t matter one iota. What’s the point in uploading then? I have a good deal of my songs, on naive video captures, in one place. So can easily access for reflection ideas.
Cheers Sheila.
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It’s lovely to be a stationary nerd, Gray. And all of your lettering, I bet with the added colors you mention here, are superb. I have always been drawn to your lettering… hehe
Yes, I am so sick of the algorithms and the catering to their whims… hehe I’ll let it go and get back to listening to your audio files. This is a slick way to share your ideas!
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I like ambience in a collective when a journal is opened. Lots of interesting inclusions. Especially collected through life. My Hollywood Vampire or David Bowie gig tickets for example. Napkins from specific cafes, back stage passes, etc., I should imagine you yourself have collections that can be included in such places.
Thank you for listening to these sample warblings Sheila. As said, they are great indicators as to what works or not. I will be going to collect my Hohner Les Paul electric guitar this weekend. It has now been set up properly. So next week it will be good to flesh out and record the songs and get a new collective. I have 3 electric guitars and none were staying in tune.
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Regarding your “A few of the new ideas.” Loved the way you talked through your process, Gray. (I could listen to you talk all day! Ha!) and yes, narrate a book or such with music. Hmmm that now gives me an idea. LOL I may narrate my book (chapter by chapter and play a song that aligns with that chapter). “Somebody stop me!” Haha you see, I listen to something and start writing you a comment and boom, ideas drop in! Richard and I have joked many times that we’re “idea generators” but how to bottle that? Oy! Even your da da da da all sound so pleasing. Come on! How can this already be sooo good? I like the slow and low volume, but then you speed up and yes, well, that seems to work too!
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I like the idea of narrating. Sometimes I do get a very deep voice, especially first thing in the morning, and I remember being asked way back about doing some radio advert voiceovers. Too much stress to be honest. I did want to recite poetry I had written regarding the characters in my pottery days. Music and narration in some of the exhibitions I had. But due to having to spend all the time making the pottery it was too difficult to get time for it.
So it would be a fantastic idea for you to narrate your book. Especially as you could breathe a natural rhythm into what you have already running in your mind.
The melodies I have at the moment I feel comfortable with. There are a fair few too. I want a quieter vibe and closer to relaxation mode. I’ve been listening to Devendra Banhart, Mazzy Star and Cigarettes after Sex. The music is really soothing. So influential. To be honest, the Shure SM58 1970s microphone and made in the USA is a corker. I was really lucky to find it on eBay. And a bargain too. It has such an iconic tone.
I’m sure you and Richard would do very well with your ideas. The trick is ‘Where do you and how do you find the appropriate platforms to promote them.
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My voice is deep in the mornings too, Gray! I thought everyone might experience morning voice, no?
I hear you about making time for everything and choosing the right platforms. I am using YouTube and Rumble for videos, maybe Truth Social too, depending on feedback I go from there. Currently, I am PEEVED with YouTube (more copyright crap to deal with today). Grrr
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Yes. Spot on with this Sheila. Voice is deeper in the morning due to many biological and environmental factors. Nurse learning. One’s own voice is very important in how it sounds for your self happiness. If others respond? You have an easy exchange in conversations. Whether manipulated or natural, it has a certain value for dynamics. Morgan Freeman is an iconic example. And the simplicity of a voice that sets apart from the norm could actually be used for employment. I often wonder, as you yourself are also thinking about, whether it is worth narrating some of my lyrics, poetry or prose. It may, through personal expression, give deeper insights regarding the holistic meaning as to why those lines were written. Emotional nuance is a delicate balance. A sigh, groan or chuckle after a line’s delivery can change a whole sentence dynamic.
I bought a book once about the power of vocal expression. Basically I looked into this aspect for the effect it had on calming patients who arrived on the ward with huge negativity. Worrisome thought was a massive challenge. The two nurses I worked alongside on presenting a Mindfulness course asked me to give the relaxation speech regarding ‘Close your eyes. Imagine you are sitting next to a babbling river……’ . Ironic really. As you know, imagination and my brain are chalk and cheese.
I completely understand your frustrations. This crazy platform modern day malarkey is so illogical and weird that it is never worth chasing for results. There is a YouTuber who was massive during the Johnny Depp trial. His humble nature, astute thinking of the situation Johnny found himself in and, yes, his wonderful voice, gained a massive audience. I listened to a live YouTube ‘live reflection chat’ of his life since those days last week. Myself alongside a fluctuating 10 to 18 watchers. He gained a few hundred views after it had finished. But numbers during those trial days were in the tens of thousands.
Sometimes life does this. Challenges expectations. The mind is best served with self contentment. No expectations. No dreams of success. I suppose that is why I wrote the 18 years was 50 years ago line.
‘What once was’ is now ‘has been’….so drag yourself into the light.
I admit to being guilty of hope in finding relevance over the 1970s as a musician. I dreamed of super stardom. And over subsequent decades I tried to make sense of why I walked away from the possibilities. But now, I realise that walking away from it all was a realisation that maybe I knew deep down that I hadn’t got that special something. And now? Happiness in the simplicity of enjoying what I can produce is so important. And, it is vitally so very important! I am still needing to recognise limitations and overcome what the challenges are. Like the technophobic elements of learning how to record a song decently. But that is just quality expectations. An inherent need to produce the best I can.
Do you yourself seek answers to get your ideas across at quality levels? Is it that you want to actually leave a life Legacy. I do. Like another lyric I wrote.
‘Give me something real that I can easily call my own. Something I can easily understand’.
Something you can call your own? If I am now content in life, that is all that matters.
Cheers Sheila.
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I like how you circled back around on your last comment (which for some reason has no “reply” button, so I came back to one that did). You ended on “content” and began with “self happiness.” I love that and believe you’re right, Gray.
Nurse learning. Yes, you had many years of learning and conversing while in the act of being a nurse! I know you’re a “dig in there” kind of guy when it comes to learning.
I also agree that Morgan Freeman is an iconic example of someone who has such a calming and smooth voice. And yes, the holistic meaning of “voice” and reading or singing the written lines with “Emotional nuance.” Beautiful! Right on about it all being a delicate balance. “A sigh, groan or chuckle after a line’s delivery can change a whole sentence dynamic.” This is why I bought Charlie Sheen’s book on audio. Audiobooks are delightful when you know and enjoy the person’s voice. I feel the same about Russell Brand–though I bought his book on paperback, I can hear his voice in my head while reading it. (Not audibly hear his voice, but imagine it while reading.)
That’s wild about the YouTuber who got massive views during the Johnny Depp trial, but after, probably not even that long after, his views dropped (or plummeted)! Go figure. I don’t want to depend on YouTube to make money, that’s for sure. I have about as much hope in supplementing our income doing that as filling out the free sweepstakes entry forms! LOL
Speaking of challenging expectations, my daughter treated me to an art class last night (I’ll blog about it today). I thought I could roll the clay out, and did, but paid for it in pain afterwards. Ugh. Resting today though it’s finally sunny and beautiful outside.
Your line “18 years was 50 years ago” is fitting.
I hear you about dreaming of super stardom, though if I ever did, I didn’t have the “stick to it-ness” enough to even begin, much less get there. And that’s okay. I wanted to do many things in my life, and I have, so I can feel good about that. Back to your “contentment.”
Do I seek answers to get your ideas across at quality levels? I think so. And yes, I do want to leave Legacy for our granddaughters. I’ve quit grasping so I often say, the or our granddaughters now, instead of my granddaughters. I noticed a while back that Grammarly always edited out the word “own” in stuff I’d written. That was my first clue that it was using AI within it, even before stating it was doing so. I just looked and as of this moment, I haven’t even used it to proof my writing in 7 months.
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Sorry about the ‘no reply’ button Sheila. Sometimes the machinations of WordPress are very haphazard. When I look into the spam files at times I find a few of my own replies to you all are there…and under ‘Anonymous’.
I like positive words Sheila. Giving them over to patients was a fine balance of getting it right. No false promises can be thrown about. Just the energies of interaction with the patient to discuss ways to reach improved well being or, hopefully, fullness of healing. Whatever the realities, positivity had to be present. So happy to be away from nurse days now and retirement is just a good vibe.
Investigations and deep dive dig in there’s are now draining. Yesterday, a fair few hours was spent trying to connect the Yamaha electronic drum kit up to the M2 Mac computer. I even have the Yamaha dedicated lead for it. AI Google searches shows lots of different ways….but nothing worked. Then tried, after AI said yes that does work to the enquiry, going through the AKAI MIDI keyboards. Nope. Then my audio interface. Again nope.
This technical modern stuff really is confusing. Late last night I read that the Yamaha download that I first went for only links after the computer is shut down and rebooted. I had removed it yesterday after it wouldn’t work! Shoved the useless file that was left behind in the ‘computer’s Bin’.
Never listen to audio books. I think it could be an idea at times. My reading is super slow at times. I cannot seem to hold on to previously read lines in former chapters. I am currently reading ‘House of Leaves’ and have paper to write on at every start of chapter. Characters, situations and general overview are written down. A kind of kick start bunch of trigger sentences to remind me of what has gone on. Aphantasia leaves no imagined recall. Strong descriptive author sentences are written down. They do set a train of thought going at times. Or a general synopsis provided from my own contribution is vital too.
YouTube can be hit and miss. The guy who I listen to regarding my favourite football team has just sold his site to a Sky Sports programme. The figures mentioned are for at least a million pounds. Probably more. He also gets to stay as a presenter and carry on as usual. He has dedicated years of his life building up his site to two million and a few hundred thousand subscribers. And presents a show every day too. So deserves everything because he has worked hard to promote his site for years. That is super stardom really.
I have noticed that both Angie and myself say I and our grandchildren. Depends on the context discussed. If a story is from my point of view of an experience, then it is I. If a general of, for example, how many grandchildren do you have…then We or Our. AI is coming no where near my App considerations Sheila. I don’t trust it one bit.
I watched Chris Pratt in the film Mercy a few nights ago. AI gone mad! Very interesting film. But a bit of a stretch, and very over the top, in believing such madness. But you never know! Spooky that your AI omits ‘own’.
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Regarding your “More samples and examples,” this was calming and soothing to listen to as well. The other song samples were sweet too, of course. I have not heard you do anything subpar (yet)! I think once someone enjoys your voice, they’re hooked! Now, if you don’t want me to continue heaping on praise, I”ll stop. But do know, I am enjoying all of these audio files you’ve shared, Gray. And ideas springing forth. Hitting a water vein from deep in the earth, right? Yes, just play and sing la la la la or do da do da etc. And you sort of mine for it or sift the ether for a new song, or riff, or whatever.
In other news, yes I am glad you got to see Hollywood Vampires at one time because I know you’re affinity for Depp and band. Richard is not in the mood to go anywhere to hear live concerts, but he’s interested in our local restaurants where they have duos come and play and of course, the pianist at the Italian restaurant. That’s as close to live music in person as I’ll get for a while I think! Thus currently, I am watching Dom Harrison aka Yungblud on YouTube. I love his energy and voice. Ah, youth! Nice thing is, finally my daughter and I agree on someone. She was very interested in listening to some guy who’s now also starting to act in movies/shows, Post Malone. And he’s okay, but I think he’s overrated. My humble opinion. Ha!
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It’s really nice of you to give this feedback. Much appreciated. It is really difficult for me to accept my own voice. Both John Lennon and David Bowie were not fans of their own voices. The Beatles anthologies and Marc Bolan’s home experimental songs were the inspiration for these samples and examples. It is nice to relax and just sing currently. But you and Richard know all this. There is something very therapeutic in having the abilities to even sing a Capella at times too.
I will look up the artists you highlight here. I must admit to never hearing of them. And live music? There is little to see around here in a rural situation. There are local musicians that perform in local places in the same way you experience live music. As an introvert, I kind of stay away from such energy. It can get exhausting having to socialise. 😉
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