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In 1981 I Bought An Album
By joseexist in Musings On Muses
November 14, 2009

In 1981 I bought an album. Remember those? It was Van Halen, Fair Warning. It was chock full of awesome tracks. It still is. Track number five was “Unchained”. The intro to that song has withstood the test of time with me. When I get tired of listening to that track, I will stop listening to it.

“Unchained” is one of those tunes that I learned mere parts of. The intro was such a part. Punching the flanger effect in and out was the hardest part. Just that intro was infectious to the point of being a drug of sonic mayhem that no substance could ever match.

I used to buy guitar magazines just to look at the hands on guitar necks in the pictures. I wanted to glean new chords from the masters of rock and metal. Of course that never got me much of anywhere. I did however create my own stretching exercises for my hands. The muscles have memorized a lot so I rarely have to do them these days.

I used to hate guitars tuned flat and down away from concert pitch or standard tuning. I learned to play in standard tuning. I dreaded having to try to “loosen” the strings to reach a “D” down on the “E” string. Nowadays I keep one 24 fret axe tuned down to “D”. It’s just the one and all my others are tuned “standard”. The truth is that “de-tuning” makes it easier to sing to the music. Still, it does nothing for my horrid vox.

I’m still wrestling with trying to formulate a concept for the album I’m working on. Track number nine is almost done. I’m afraid I might break a vocal chord trying to do the vocals for it. If I do, so be it. The lyrics crave such energy. I aim to oblige my inspiration. It’s a version of alien contact and by all probability not whatever you might be thinking. Ask me for the lyrics some day.

Here is a tidbit you might like. When I record an album of music I have a loose interpretation of whatever I am feeling, when I start, as I create the songs, and as I finish the last track. The continuity of the album, for the most part, is dictated by the order in which the digital studio I use stacks the songs up. I may have made and intentional track progression on a past album but, if it was really that important, I’m defiantly not the man for the job. I just want to convey my inspiration. I handle an album by pushing play. That’s all I do and then, I listen to it. That’s what I do with any CD I buy. I have to do it with my own just to make sure what I felt is still there. Sales mean nothing to me. Emotion is my focus. If I can make you feel something then I have succeeded. If I cannot then I have failed. (Pssstttt! Stay tuned for more from the fringes of my imagination right after my next post!)

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