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PostPosted: Fri May 30, 2014 9:48 pm 
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This is a self-penned song which was never professionally demoed. I recently found it on a not very good, under-rehearsed cassette home recording. Some may remember that there was later a T.V. series with a similar name.
Attachment:
goodfriends.mp3
It is too late to have it professionally demoed now but would have liked it sung in an Elaine Paige style.

As I wrote my songs on my own, I needed to get them into a fixed form on manuscript paper and also on a rough recording.
When the compositions were new, even though I had written them myself, it still took time to get the feel of the song in some cases. Because I knew I would be taking a lot of the works to a professional studio for instrumental arrangements and for other vocalists so as to achieve a very good recording, I didn't spend a lot of time on my home recordings. They were just a means to an end. Therefore, my home recordings may be simply sketches for me to refer to and to take to the studio to work from.

The demo was a luxury I looked forward to, knowing that, if the song sounded of a good standard, I had a recording to help promote the song.

Writing on my own meant I was composing the words and the music. As many of my songs were meant to be for male vocalists, my first home-recordings before going to the studio were obviously sung by me with lyrics which had to be interpreted as being sung by a man.

When I recorded at home, initially, I had to quickly play a simple arrangement on the piano, work out suitable chords then try to sing my new song. I had to try to write in a key with a suitable range for me but sometimes it didn't work out that way. My songs decided their own key, depending on the mood of the song, and that meant that when I tried to demonstrate my song, I found that some notes would be too high or too low. If I had been intending a completed recording at home, I would have made several recordings, and got into the song more comfortably. But, very often, I was completing the song the day before going to the studio, and so I would take my fledgeling recording and luckily, the studio engineer was only interested in how the song was going to be arranged and recorded. The vocal quality was not important as long as the song was heard and understood.

My most amusing recordings I took were when I had to sing too high and it was remarked in good humour that I sounded like Hilda Ogden. I didn't mind because it was all for a good cause and the key would be sorted out to suit whoever was going to sing the song. When I listen to the first recordings now, they are like a diary of the times of my life when I was going through different moods of worry or happier times. The worrying times were helped for me to get through by writing songs and music, but, at the same time I had to sing to record them. If I was very upset, singing was quite difficult, but I knew that what I was doing was therapeutic, and so I tried hard to reach my goal. It was quite a good feeling when I arrived home with my finished professional recording and was able to listen to a song which was no longer a fledgeling and ready to be promoted if I had the time amongst the other responsibilities I had.

Once I was at another stage with my compositions, the first home recordings were stored away and only used, perhaps, for copyrighting.

The recording of Just Good Friends was one that stayed as a home-recording.


Edited 11th June to delete the home-recording for it to be returned to storage. With thanks for the comments and interest.


Last edited by Marian on Thu Jun 12, 2014 1:57 am, edited 3 times in total.

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PostPosted: Sat May 31, 2014 9:56 am 
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Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2012 9:20 pm
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A lovely song well presented and as of the contrution, your presents is missed- time for you to return to site to enrich it further.


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PostPosted: Sat May 31, 2014 8:52 pm 
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I can just imagine this song getting the Elaine Page treatment. It sounds just right for her. Ineresting deatils too of getting a song frm conception to professional presentation


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PostPosted: Sun Jun 01, 2014 2:13 pm 
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Many thanks for the kind comments, bedwyn. Hearing a song in its' original form is, at times, very different to how it turns out once dressed up with orchestration or a drum beat. It is nice that this song can be appreciated without the sadly missing production it could have had.


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PostPosted: Sun Jun 01, 2014 2:25 pm 
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Davrob .. thankyou, also, for your comment. Elaine Paige was the singer I really admired because she could interpret songs so well, especially Sir Tim Rice's lyrics. I had her in mind for quite a few ballads I wrote and it was a dream which almost came true when one of them was considered, but, then I was disappointed. I remember that Elaine Paige recorded an album of already known songs instead of originals and so the opportunity for writers like myself went 'out of the window'. At that time, there were the occasional chances of an unknown writer's song to be published and recorded. That era passed when singer/songwriters became more the fashion instead.


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PostPosted: Mon Jun 02, 2014 6:51 am 
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I heard on the radio someone saying how the Chinese have come up with a new idea for a talent show, which they're hoping to sell round the world.... entrants have to perform original songs, rather than covers of well known songs.

Er.... hello.... isn't that what we'd all have preferred possibly for quite a while? Hardly a brainwave!

Any score for this one Marian?


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PostPosted: Mon Jun 02, 2014 2:23 pm 
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The song contests I took part in were similar to this and although the original songs were the reason for the contest, it was obviously necessary to have good singers.
When people have suggested I enter BGT as a songwriter, I have not been able to see how the songs could be judged because it would probably be the singer who would end up being judged.
I haven't watched much of the series, but I did see a songwriter trying to perform his own song when I looked in recently. His singing was so off-key he was voted off when he may have had a good song there. We never got to find out. I have often thought of writing to Simon Cowell to ask how a songwriter can be judged without the standard of the singer coming in for being judged as well. It would also come into it how much the judges know about songwriting and also how much of the song has been composed with the help of a computer.
The Chinese idea you describe is quite like the shows I put on when I found local singers to choose original songs I had written. They performed them but didn't compete against each other.
It is hard to score the idea because I think it could still turn out to be more about the singers than the songs.


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PostPosted: Tue Jun 03, 2014 12:18 am 
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All very true. And I so wish we could just have some good entertainment on TV, with music, which didn't depended on a lot of shouting, crashing, banging, graphics, sob stories and voting.... so we could just enjoy the performances.


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PostPosted: Tue Jun 03, 2014 3:30 am 
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Times have changed so much that it is the reality shows which are the platforms for would-be singers and entertainers. The way I see it, and maybe not everyone will agree, is that the singers and entertainers signed after appearing in these shows have to begin gaining experience after becoming famous overnight. It is the other way round to the days when artists worked their way up in show business. By the time they became famous they were ready to perform and really entertain audiences and the more shows or programmes they were in, the more popular they became, more records made and bought, and big stars were born. This would be the way we would still have shows where we could sit back and enjoy the performances because artists knew how to work with their audiences.

Being able to hear without all the other added ingredients would be a luxury these days. :-)

Is there a link to the information about the programme idea you mentioned, Jon?


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PostPosted: Wed Jun 04, 2014 1:29 am 
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I heard it being talked about in a programme on Radio 4. I think it's a British company that's trying to market the Chinese idea worldwide.

It just amazes me that it's even regarded as "an idea" or a "new format". It seems to obvious.


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