NOW WAIT FOR LAST YEAR
HEY, CALIFORNIA
FALL DOWN
Pete McDade – drums
We tracked the drums for these three songs.
“Now Wait for Last Year” has just been added back to the list of potential songs (and is close to having worked itself into the set list). It’s been around since Radiant City, when we did it as sort of a 4/4 dirge. Later I played it solo for a while as a 6/8 waltz kind of thing, having removed a verse. It’s now back to being 4/4, but the rhythm is much bouncier. I love the chord progression which is why it still lingers. I can easily say that this song has the most storied history of anything I’ve written.
As we were wrapping up this song I got a call to call my boss. Our parent company is shutting down our office, effective Friday. I have no job. Thankfully I’ve just paid Rob a sizable sum of money to finish the project, so at least it doesn’t affect me recording. So I try to pretend things are fine and we continue.
“Hey, California” just features the drums at the end of the song, which is all we recorded.
“Fall Down” took the longest. We worked it out as a sparse, sort of jazz-influenced thing, but it just didn’t seem to work very well, so we tried it with a more straightforward beat, and that seems to have done the trick. Pete’s playing with bundle sticks, and it gives it a nice fifties sort of feel.
More tomorrow…