<![CDATA[The Bright Light Social Hour - Songwriting Notes]]>Fri, 18 May 2012 08:57:18 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[4. Detroit (C# minor) - as told by Curt]]>Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:13:53 -0800http://www.thebrightlightsocialhour.com/2/post/2009/09/detroit-c-minor-as-told-by-curt.htmlStruggling under the weight of 29 percent umemployment, Detroit is pure heartache.  The city that gave us Motown and manufactured our way to victory in World War II is now left to face the worst of the Great Recession.  It was easy to love Detroit when we got Cadillacs and Aretha Franklin out of the deal.  Yet now as our nation's foremost manufacturing center sinks deeper into the red, most Americans seem to be listening with a skeptical ear to the pleas from the Arsenal of Democracy.  Thus we sing our plaintive refrain...

I need your love.

"Detroit" explores the struggle of a union autoworker faced with the sudden termination of his lifelong employment.  After a fruitless job search, he is left with the harrowing proposition of leaving his partner and home to find work in another part of the country.  Set to smoldering blues, the song plays out as a sorrowful farewell coupled with a promise of brave perseverance.  All our character asks for in return is the continued allegiance of his lover.

This song is our tribute to the deep soul of Motown, the struggle of workers, and the bonds of devotion.  The man described in our song needs his partner's patient love - so does Detroit and so do we.

love,
curt

--------

"Detroit"

Chorus (Curt and A.J.)
I need your love
I know that I'm leaving
But I want you to know
Ain't no other way

Verse (Curt)
The day that I met you
Workin' side by side
At that moment I knew I'd work for you
'Til the day I died

Didn't notice the rain
Didn't notice the cold
Didn't notice a damn thing baby 
We just let our love unfold

Chorus (Curt and A.J.)

Verse (Curt)
Friday morning I went in
With a weight on my soul
I swear I tried to fight, baby, but I
Won't be back no more

Pretty baby I know
Told you I'd never leave
But I swear that I gotta go
If we're gonna make ends meet

Rhodes lead (A.J.)
Guitar lead (Curt)
Drum lead (Jo)

Chorus (Curt, A.J., and Jack) ]]><![CDATA[3. La Piedra de la Iguana (D minor) - as told by A.J.]]>Sun, 13 Sep 2009 15:06:05 -0800http://www.thebrightlightsocialhour.com/2/post/2009/09/la-piedra-de-la-iguana-d-minor-as-told-by-aj.htmlTrack three, "La Piedra de la Iguana," is a curious, yet confident track nestled after "Bare Hands, Bare Feet." The two songs developed together, but as time went on, they started taking two different and unique directions.

We were in the middle of jamming/writing the foundation of "Bare Hands, Bare Feet," and I played this little improv melody line with a synth. Someone said they liked it, and another agreed, so I kept jamming it out for a bit. No more than 15 or 20 minutes later, in the middle of playing, I started looking for paper and a pen. I knew that if I did not write down lyrics right then, I would lose the chance to capture the moment with words. I was thinking about building a city, and this is what I wrote:


"We moved our bones,
to lay these stones,
and now,
we're free.

We watched it grow,
let everyone know,
that our city,
is complete."


So the jamming/smoking/laughing/construction kept going on, and slowly "La Piedra de la Iguana" formed. After a few more practices, the song started taking on a true body. Curt started adding in gentle pinches and his graceful touches, Jack just let the soul fly, and he created a very entertaining bass-line that, in my opinion, seems to have a story-line in itself. Jo starts this song with the most entertaining hi-hat work I've ever heard him play, and the timing of the little accents still confuses me. In the end of the song, Jo also does a great job opening up and letting some of his might shine through before the song ends.

Later in the writing process, Curtis had the idea to match the synth melody with the guitar, making it a twisting and turning melody experience that comes crashing down before the final section of the song finishes the thought.

"La Piedra de la Iguana" is a brick-walled, city-night stroll down the freshly-built empire of music that we, The Bright Light Social Hour, deploy every time we step on stage. I do hope you enjoy it!

Love,
A.J.]]><![CDATA[2. Bare Hands Bare Feet (D minor) - as told by Jack]]>Thu, 10 Sep 2009 03:08:01 -0800http://www.thebrightlightsocialhour.com/2/post/2009/09/2-bare-hands-bare-feet-d-minor.htmlCurt said to me, "Let's write a song where the chorus is 'let's build a city with our bare hands and our bare feet.'" I thought that was hilarious, not to mention strangely representative of our general attitude. Besides the fact that Jo's afraid of trees, we're all a bunch of fun-loving hippies with titanic ambitions, and I think Curt hit the nail on the head with this one. 

But writing a song starting with nothing but lyrics was foreign to us. We tried finding a melody to match for a hot second, but decided to try starting with a beat. Curt and Jo developed the intro/verse beat, but we still had trouble fitting it with the words. Having had the Best of Sly and the Family Stone CD stuck in my car stereo for several months prior, I suggested a classic Motown beat with the snare keeping the pulse. From there the chorus chant was born and everything else fell into place. We threw a tiny bit of guitar/bass/keys in, but this one is all about drums/percussion and vocals. The idea was to have a chorus sung by the 3 us with each verse sung by a different singer, a la The Band's "The Weight". While Curt and I saw eye to eye with our verses, A.J. ended up taking an entirely different route with his, leading to "La Piedra de la Iguana."

Let's build a city with our bare hands and our bare feet

Verse (Curtis)
Pick a place on a hill
Choose a spot on the beach
It's all within reach
Let's start it!

The tallest trees out front
A chicken coop in the back
Nobody's needs in lack
Let's start it!

I'll wind power my hips
I'll solar power my soul
Now we're on a roll
Let's start it!

A feast every night
A festival every week
If this is what you seek
Come on!

Let's build a city with our bare hands and our bare feet

Verse (Jack)
Muevete güerita
Ponte a bailar
Ponte a trabajar
Let's start it!

Mueve el culito
Quítate el vestido
Todos somos amigos
Let's start it!

Cerveca fría in one hand
Hammer in the other
Get started with your brother
Let's start it!

Hey Curtis
Hey what?
Hey AJ
Hey what?
Hey Jo
Hey what?

Let's build a city a with our bare hands and our bare feet
Let's build a city
love,
jack
]]><![CDATA[1. Ocean (C minor) - as told by Jack]]>Tue, 08 Sep 2009 08:16:05 -0800http://www.thebrightlightsocialhour.com/2/post/2009/09/1-ocean-c-minor.htmlWe are right to lay the trail
May the ocean treat us well

These are the only lyrics of our new song Ocean. 

The initial spark of inspiration for this song came out of Kanye West's "Love Lockdown". I had been digging on it for weeks when it came out, totally enthralled by the hearty African drums and simple, thick bass with minimalist arrangement. We jammed in this vein through many incarnations before I ended up settling on the verse bassline with the unlikely slap method, a method of playing that had once been fundamental to my style but had been retired until now. Jo was quick to marry the hard, funky bassline with a pulsating tom beat, but AJ and Curt for a time were at a loss with how to expand on the full groove established by the rhythm section. Finally, they abandoned their respective keys and guitar in favor of the Native American-esque chant harmonies that start the song off. Out of these harmonies Curt drew out the A#-F progression that supports the choruses and on which the entire second half of the song is based.

After developing the basic song structure we discussed what the song made us feel in an attempt to draw lyrical inspiration. The first half brought a very specific image to my mind that I described to the guys. When I was 19, my brother and I spent the summer working at our grandparents' bungalows in the Mexican hippie beach-mecca of Puerto Escondido. Though I had spent most of my summers growing up here, this year we were introduced to a side of the town we never knew existed. We caught wind of a secluded full moon beach party, and when we arrived that night were astonished by what we found - a wild community of indigenous locals, young hippies and gypsies from all across the globe, all dancing in the moonlight to the pounding music of hand drums. All nature's drugs swiftly switched hands to the rhythm as heads tilted back, eyes closed and hips became one with the night. There was a Brazilian girl, thin as a rail, painfully beautiful with wrists wicked and lovely, dancing with fire in the center of it all, smiling at all the adoring stares and encouraging shouts. We were drawn in and proceeded to lose ourselves in pure and infectious enjoyment.

This underground, moonlit scene of marginalized, wild beings fiercely engaged in dream-like celebration is the scene painted by Ocean's rhythmic first half, while the more stiff, celestial second half takes the story to an even more surreal scene - that of a complacent, psychedelic-minded party-goer drawn away from dancing, fire and laughter by the magnitude, mystique and majesty of the ocean so large and dark at night. He leaves behind his unknowing peers to walk along the ocean floor, fearless, content and enlightened by his surrender to the belly of the big unknown. The first lyric celebrates the empowerment of a community of fun-loving picaros, while the second tells of the individual's trust, faith and awe in nature and the always-uncertain future. 



We are right to lay the trail
May the ocean treat us well
Picture
love,
jack
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