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Richard Scotti
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8/28/2020 3:35:27 PM
---- Updated 8/28/2020 3:44:06 PM
The pros and cons of strolling down Memory Lane
Lately I've been in the process of getting my last CD mastered and I have a another CD where I'm still in the mixing stage as well as polishing up the lyrics and recording vocals. This has been a very lengthy and arduous task that would have gone a lot smoother had it not been for the pandemic and all of it's various consequences. After the second CD is finished I intend to take a break from writing and recording new material so that I can go through the hundreds of songs I've recorded over the years, some of which are on obsolete media like cassettes, VHS tapes, DAT tapes, ADAT tapes and external hard drives that have crapped out and have to be repaired to get access to the songs on those drives. I'd like to convert all that stuff to media I can listen to and preserve.
That being said, it's a major task to undertake and I'm wondering if it's worth the time and expense. Do I really want to listen to endless out-takes and jams? Well, some stuff will be fun to play for myself and others, in some cases just for laughs! Some things will sound very dated and unfinished. Perhaps some stuff can be salvaged or redone for today's market but I really don't know. Some of it will make me scream "what was I thinking when I wrote that????" And still others will make me say: "WOW! Did I really write that? I gotta put that out today!"
Do any of you also have lot's of old songs that you're not sure what to do with? Do you plan to take inventory someday and deal with it all? There are many pros and cons to letting the past stay in the past and many pros and cons for resurrecting the past. Some songs bring back unhappy memories from time frames that we're not the best. Even if you don't face the challenge I face in the post, what are your thoughts on revisiting old songs you're written?
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Father Time
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8/29/2020 7:36:51 AM
I've written so many songs and some of my best were written years ago. There's a batch of them I never recorded because I thought I'd wait to see if I could ever afford studio time. Recently I've started to bring them to our band because those guys are as good as it gets. I've been working on 6 of those songs at the same time, our recen Letter was the first to get released. Also in the group are 2 songs I consider the best 2 I ever wrote, but it's harder to dig in on those because I don't want to mess them up, it's hard to throw that caution to the wind.
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Neil w Young
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8/29/2020 11:16:39 AM
---- Updated 8/29/2020 11:17:45 AM
Seven of the fourteen original songs on my last album, including the title track, "Dreams In The Wind", were songs that I rescued from the archives. I had written and recorded them on cassette tape over 30 years ago in the 1980s.
As for strolling down Memory Lane, the older I get, the more it seems like the only future ahead. Hmmm, think I'll use that line in a song.
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Shoe City Sound
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8/29/2020 11:52:11 AM
"the older I get, the more it seems like the only future ahead." Funny but I've had these two lines running around my head all morning "Just stepped into another place. The past always starts one minute ago." Not really the same at all, but seems oddly related to what you wrote in some way ... maybe part of the same song haha
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Father Time
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8/29/2020 1:18:24 PM
Memory is a funny and strange thing. I was watching a documentary on Prime about the 64 World's Fair in New York which I attended. I remember absolutely nothing about being there except for the large globe that served as it's center.
I like to look on EBay for toys and games I had in my childhood. Sometimes I find stuff I haven't seen or thought of since I was 12 years old, it's sort of a buzz like getting high or something.
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Father Time
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8/29/2020 4:18:10 PM
During bad times like 2020, the past may be the only refuge. I just found myself happily daydreaming about slow dancing with my highschool girlfriend to Make It With You by Bread on the way to losing my virginity that night. heh
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Stoneman
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8/31/2020 2:18:15 AM
I like that line D. Use It!
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Bob Elliott
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8/31/2020 4:45:34 PM
When my old songs really want me, they come and get me. There were three on my last album Wooden Soul:
Love is the Greatest
Love Come to Ya
Both from when I was 24.
Something New Under the Sun
That was at least 15 years old.
There are at least three older ones knocking on my door these days. One I’ve never recorded at all, and it’s 30 years old. Seems like such a solid song, too.
They gotta compete with my new ideas, and I have no time for any of them lately.
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Steve April
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8/31/2020 5:19:49 PM
---- Updated 8/31/2020 5:20:14 PM
Perhaps the archetypal example of an Archive, John Keats, the poet, who died from TB at the age of 26. Lamented at the time as a poet "whose name was writ in water," who had not the chance to come to fruition, and re-discovered a generation or more after his death, and lifted from obscurity to immortalityfickle tho fame may be, we know...
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Shoe City Sound
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8/31/2020 10:02:30 PM
Thanks Stoneman - hopefully the rest of the song comes to me as well :)
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Two Silo Complex
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9/1/2020 9:30:06 PM
combo of Neil & Delores
"Just stepped into another place where the past starts only a minute ago
but the older I get , the more it seems like it's the only future ahead."
Be careful what you say or you might just end up in a song some someday.
but if you do know I hope you know its my way of holding on to you.
TSC
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The Mighty Jerkules
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9/1/2020 10:53:05 PM
A good chunk of the stuff I’ve posted here comes from an archive of old tapes I’ve held on to for since the 90s. I was part of a small town youth driven regional diy punk scene that was trapped in analog land and stayed there when the world turned digital. The tapes and 7”s these bands released disappeared over time leaving only a few people with varied collections depending on what survived over a couple of decades. For me diving into my archives and giving them existence in the digital world was a matter of not losing my childhood memories to the void of time.
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Tom O'Brien
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9/2/2020 3:40:36 AM
I recently came across a recording that I did back in 2011 of a song that I apparently wrote, recorded, and them promptly forgot about, because, at first, I didn't recognize the music, but it was me singing on it, so I guess I wrote it. Maybe I'll post it some day; it was kind of joyous to hear it fresh. I think time is a great judge - you can hear more clearly the whole of the song if you're distant from the writing process. When a song is fresh, you hear the parts more, and with time you get the big picture. Any song can be revived.
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Two Silo Complex
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9/2/2020 11:28:10 AM
Shoe City Sound
"Just stepped into another place where the past starts only a minute ago"
Neil w Young
"but the older I get , the more it seems like it's the only future ahead."
TSC
"Be careful what you say or you might just end up in a song some someday.
but if you do know I hope you know its my way of holding on to you"
The Mighty Jerkules
"I was part of a small town trapped in analog land where these varied collections survive.
TSC
"In a digital world I'm not losing my childhood memories to the void of time."
Tom O'Brien
"Time is a great judge, you can hear more clearly if you're distant"
TSC
"Within the depths of time anything you can dream can be revived."
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Shoe City Sound
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9/2/2020 12:50:50 PM
Ken - it seemed to me like part of the same song haha - feel free to my the line if you like!
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Two Silo Complex
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9/2/2020 6:36:26 PM
I liked your lines D and Neil too I thought I would add some but I seem to say the wrong things in general these days.
OH well so much for don't shoot the messenger.
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Shoe City Sound
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9/2/2020 8:27:33 PM
Ken I totally got what you meant - and I meant what I said - you are welcome to that line if it's of use to you - no offense taken here :)
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The Mighty Jerkules
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9/3/2020 12:11:28 AM
TSC wins the thread. Love it. I’d be honoured to end up in a TSC song.
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Neil w Young
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9/3/2020 12:41:43 AM
Unless I’ve missed something, I haven’t seen anyone here shooting the messenger, Ken. You’re too hard on yourself, man. We’re friends, not judges. Take a deep breath and keep writing.
I’ve ended up in a few songs in my life – be glad to add yours to the list. I’m honoured D and you liked my line about “strolling down Memory Lane, (and) the older I get, the more it seems like the only future ahead.”
As for pulling old songs from the archives and giving them a new life, I do it all the time. Come to think of it, I’m so old now I’ll soon be getting archived – don’t think that means a new life too!
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Richard Scotti
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9/5/2020 9:09:07 AM
---- Updated 9/5/2020 9:13:08 AM
Sometimes when I listen to old songs of mine I flashback to what was happening in my life at the time the songs were written. Past relationships come to mind, some wonderful and some that didn't work out. Good times and bad times enter the present when the songs are played. Triumphs and failures come alive through the speakers.
Technically some songs contain flaws that I wish I had fixed. Some songs were performed with bands whose members I loved who I have never seen since for various reasons. I've had brushes with greatness playing with great musicians in combinations that I wish I could recreate somehow but never will. The breaking up of a great band is like a breakup with a spouse. It's damn painful.
I really enjoyed all the responses to this thread. I love the way some of you reactivated past songs and breathed new life into them. That is very heartening.
Yeah, time is a strange concept. Sometimes it seems that memories are all we have because as soon as you experience something it is consigned to the past. The present seems like a very fleeting thing that only exists in one brief magical moment. Then there's the future which doesn't really exist at all. It's just an idea that floats in the mind like a trailer for a movie that isn't out yet. Sometimes it's a horror movie about the end of the world and sometimes it's a hopeful vision of love and peace. You just don't know until the movie comes out.
Frankly I'm trying not to contemplate the future, my own and the future for all. I'm attempting to be hopeful and optimistic. That's my nature. But it's getting harder and harder. I never dreamed that so many existential threats would attack like a perfect storm. All I can do is keep on truckin', keep on pushin' and keep on keepin' on as I pledge my solidarity with all of you and the power of peace, love and music.
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