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Mike Lance
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6/22/2019 10:20:41 PM
The Passerby



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Mike Lance

6/22/2019 10:20:41 PM ---- Updated 6/22/2019 10:23:02 PM

The Passerby
Hello. This is a somewhat emotive folk / alt country song I recorded this month.

The Passerby


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Two Silo Complex

6/23/2019 12:15:06 PM


The guitar strumming pattern takes me back to a simpler time. The way the vocals lines drop in with the guitar leads the listener down a long winding road.

Mike sings this as if he is a modern day highway man wandering along the side of the road with his acoustic guitar slung across his back.

The highway man looking for a ride may not have all good intentions for the one who decides to give him a lift or maybe the risk is in getting caught up in the unknown background of the highway man.

Its an interesting song that leaves how the story winds up in the imagination of the listener.

The sole acoustic guitar and lonely vocals haunt the listener. Somewhere a campfire along the side of the road glows as the coyote howls in the distance the highway man wanders on for the road he travels knows no end.


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Mike Lance

6/23/2019 1:43:46 PM


Thank you for the review! I love the imagery you've provided for it!


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1/16/2020 10:30:30 AM


I like the sound of this. It has the feel of folks sitting around with guitars and sharing stories.
What to title a song is something I think about a lot. I'd like to imagine that if someone heard this song once, they'd want to hear it again. If they didn't already know the song's title, what would they ask for?
Nowhere in your song do you say "the passerby", and even though your song might be about "the passerby", someone who has only heard the song, and not the title, wouldn't have a clue what to ask for. If this was a written (not told orally) story or a book, "The Passerby" would be a fine title, but songs are more ethereal than physical. You have to give people something to grab onto. The most repeated phrase is "Are you going my way?".
In my opinion (after all, that's all this is) "Are You Going My Way?" is (at least part of) the title to this piece. It could be "The Passerby (Are You Going My Way?)",
but I feel like you are shooting yourself in the foot in terms of repeat listeners, if they don't know what to ask for.


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Two Silo Complex

1/16/2020 3:35:48 PM


Hey Kurt,
Regarding your comments on "the passerby" Mike Lance does say the phrase the passerby but it is only said once. I know the song pretty well since I covered it on my page. While "are you going my way" might make the song more recognizable because its repeated more often. The song is not about "are you going my way" the song is about the passerby himself or what he represents hence the title the passerby. See below first verse.

"It's a familiar, trite scene
At the crossroads, barren and swept clean
With no way to take you home
When behold from the far side
There approaches a lone passerby
Who must seem quite strange, all silver and champagne
We'll I'd feel like Robert Johnson
Way back in nineteen-thirty-somethin'
As the sun sets on the plains, and on and on and on they're saying"


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1/17/2020 7:44:48 AM


Totally missed that. Thanks for pointing that out.
Did you get what I was saying about people wanting to request a song?
The song may be about "the passerby", but that doesn't necessarily mean that it should be the title. At least to me. Maybe in emo/folk music it does. Anyone is free to call their own songs whatever they want. I feel like it's easier to broaden your listening base when you use more recognizable titles. I'm not going to demand that people do it.


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Two Silo Complex

1/17/2020 10:24:32 AM


Hey Kurt yeah man I totally get what your saying. Its nice to see some discussion here in the review section has been pretty barren for a long while.

You make a valid point. My opinion on it is that these days it seems like songs just say one thing over and over on repeat and that tends to be the song name I think that is just boring and borderline boorish it assumes the audience has no intelligence.

While "the passerby" as a title in some was might not lend itself to help people remember. I think Mike Lance chooses to hint at it rather than cram it down peoples throats which seems to be the current trend.

As you said there is no right or wrong way. Its not my song, Those are my thoughts. They are worth about a Mexican half peso.

TSC


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The Man With No Band

1/29/2020 2:48:43 AM


Hello Mike ... just want to start with what I consider the strongest and best part of this tune ... you have an excellent voice (timbre) ... as soon as the song finished, I hit replay, ... wish I had that ...
the song itself has a nice easy feel and the lyrics are compelling enough to remain interesting, I especially like the line (I thought I heard something faint I wish you'd reconsider)
The only part I didn't care for (of course it's just my ears) is I would have backed up on the "don'ts" some, as they seem a bit too harsh and out of place for this wonderful tune ... peace


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Mike Lance

2/5/2020 2:26:19 PM


I missed a lot of recent activity in this thread. I wish Kurt was still around because a lot of thought was put into the title, and I find it to be a very interesting topic of discussion, one of which I have a difference in opinion about.

Thanks Ken, as always, for taking such an interest in this song and spending possibly as much time with it as I have. This was of course my first song on IMP since becoming active musically again, and without your enthusiasm this could have been a fleeting thing.

And thank you Man with No Band, I appreciate the kind words and insight. For someone to tell me that they immediately replayed a song of mine after wrapping up a listen is a huge compliment. With regards to the "Don't" section, are you referring to the delivery of the main vocal, or the backups? I do realize those are slightly off, and have been thinking of toning them down a bit between now and when I finalize whatever album becomes of these songs. I was looking for a more impassioned vocal at this point since it marks the point the "narrator" makes an emotional plea to another character.


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