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Title: Pete on Tunited.com Post by Pete Atkin on Today at 22:02 In a burst of all but unprecedented on-the-ball-ness, I have taken advantage of that nice Mr Ure's new web venture to upload a few tracks. Most of them you'll already be familiar with, but I've also put up a couple of demos you won't have heard. The website says it's still in beta, but it all appears to be functioning smoothly, so do please check it out. |
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Title: Re: Pete on Tunited.com Post by Ian Chippett on 13.08.10 at 16:07 Excellent! My only quibble is with the treatment of COTR which as a song (for me) depends on the arrangement it had on AKAN. The new demo is a bit like doing an acoustic version of "Good Vibrations." It's interesting (for me, anyway) to compare these songs with the works of Pete's influences. At no point do I ever, while listening to Pete's songs, think "Hello! That's like Bob Dylan!" or "Hey! He got that from Randy Newman." If they really are influences, then he's absorbed them to such an extent that they are no longer noticeable which means he's found his own style. All the more praiseworthy as he wrote some of these songs when he was (relatively) very young. For myself, I don't think I ever noticed any influences when I first discovered Pete's music: what struck me was its originality. Ian C |
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Title: Re: Pete on Tunited.com Post by Ian Ashleigh on 13.08.10 at 20:42 Mr Chippett, far be it for me to disagree with such an esteemed member of our gang - and one that left a birthday wish for me on Facebook - but I think the accoustic version of Carnation on the Roof is excellent. Sometimes a hearing a stripped down version helps to understand the evolution of the song prior to the full band arrangement, it works better than, say, a post-production 'unplugged' version. The arrangement should add to the song, illustrate it but not dominate the core. My humble opinion |
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Title: Re: Pete on Tunited.com Post by Pete Atkin on 16.08.10 at 11:02 Well, personally, I'd like to hear an acoustic version of "Good Vibrations". For me, unexpected versions of things are almost always revealing in some way or another. I treasure the memory of hearing a brass quintet play a version of "Bohemian Rhapsody" somewhere on the south bank of the Thames a few years ago. But that's another matter. The version of "Carnations" which I've put on Tunited is not new. It's one of the whole bunch I did with Simon before deciding on the final list for "Midnight Voices". "Spring" was another. The others that didn't make the cut were, as those who saw us do the whole lot live may remember, were "Screen-Freak" and "OOHTNTrain". They were all genuine demos in that they were done simply for our own reference after rehearsing them, setting keys and tempos and rhythms and routines, etc., i.e. not as 'versions' for wider circulation. But if they are of interest, I'll gladly make more of them available (I still have the bdemos for most of the MV tracks, I think.). Let me know which ones. I'll be uploading some more of the other Hillside tracks anyway. Again, let me know if you have any thoughts about which ones I might use make available in this way. The thing about influences is an interesting one. It has come up before I think. For me an influence is not something I really like and which I might which to emulate. Sometimes it can even be something I don't actually like very much. (Not that I've included any of those in my Tunited list - that would be too confusing.) Influences for me are things which have shown me a possibility, a way forward, a way of breaking out of an imaginative rut. There have often been - and still are - times when if I think I can hear myself sounding too much like someone or something I admire, I'll take a step back and a step sideways to avoid it. It's usually the spirit of someone or something that I'm after. Emulation not imitation. |
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Title: Re: Pete on Tunited.com Post by Ian Chippett on 16.08.10 at 15:03 I think Brian Wilson (or somebody) described Good Vibrations as a "pocket symphony." As a song, I don't think it has much value apart from the musical themes which are treated more or less symphonically i.e. as something to be developed rather than as something complete in themselves. If you consider the first part ("I love the ...") as an introduction which is later repeated, the second part ("I'm pickin'up...) as the main theme (later developed in the "Da-da-da- da" part and the fadeout) and the "I don't know where..." bit as the second theme, then you could plausibly make a case for this as obeying the rules for a traditional sonata form. As a song per se (and we'll pass over the dreadful lyrics: I think Mike Love did a very professional job on the early songs but here ...) it doesn't make it. However, if Pete promises to perform a purely acoustic version of it at some up-coming -oD, I promise to come over and give it my attention... Ian C |
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Title: Re: Pete on Tunited.com Post by Ian Chippett on 16.08.10 at 15:19 En attendant... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmjj5Orjnl0&feature=related |
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Title: Re: Pete on Tunited.com Post by Mike Walters on 16.08.10 at 19:07 For what it's worth, I'm inclined to agree with Ian A. I've always found the original arrangement of COTR a little distracting, possibly because I'm not sure the quasi-Motown feel really suits Pete's voice (though I can imagine that others might enjoy the incongruity). And, while I don't feel qualified to comment on 'Good Vibrations', I do think that COTR is a strong song which stands up very well in a simpler arrangement - I've very much enjoyed Pete's recent live performances of it. The inevitable upshot of this is that I'd certainly be interested in any other demo versions from those sessions that Pete wanted to upload. |
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Title: Re: Pete on Tunited.com Post by Ian Ashleigh on 16.08.10 at 21:51 I feel I've started something on here again. Carnations on the Roof in all its original recorded glory is and remains my favourite of the PA/CJ cannon and remains the most played (although Tenderfoot has run it close over the past few weeks). I've never considered it a quasi mowtown song but the beat represents the multi-purpose punch and having lived in Coventry in the late 1970s/early 80s I can associate with the engineering references. On the other tack that seems to have developed, I would love to hear an a cappella or stripped down version of Good Vibrations but maybe I'm just strange. I too would like to hear the other demos to which Pete referrred and if MV volume 2 were to be just Pete and Simon that would be a great collection. |
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Title: Re: Pete on Tunited.com Post by dr_john on 17.08.10 at 14:02 COTR is also in my Top Two, though I've always thought of it as more quasi-Philadelphia than quasi-Motown. I wouldn't mind hearing it relocated to Coventry as a ska song, though. (Sheffield heavy metal would probably be a step too far.) |
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Title: Re: Pete on Tunited.com Post by Gerry Smith on 17.08.10 at 15:20 Just heard COTR. Fabulous. Love ..Word Against The Spring too. Surely must be time for a gig? Make it a weekend one though, coz, for my sins, I'm off back to university to train to be a music teacher. Been told to expect a 60 hour week. And then teach on the afternoon after I'm dead? Wouldn't surprise me, the way things are going... Anyone got any ideas how I can get some PA into the curriculum? Gerry |
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Title: Re: Pete on Tunited.com Post by Mike Walters on 18.08.10 at 18:17 Yes, I suppose musically it is perhaps more quasi-Philidelphia. I think it was the industrial theme that made me think of Motown - Coventry as the Detroit of the West Midlands, or somesuch. I like the idea of a ska version, though. |
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Title: Re: Pete on Tunited.com Post by dr_john on 18.08.10 at 19:10 This YouTuber has uploaded several Beach Boys songs with the music removed - no Good Vibrations unfortunately, but God Only Knows is particularly fine, especially the "How was that, was that cool?" at the end: http://www.youtube.com/user/god8of8nz?feature=chclk#p/u/4/3_Z-6p7Hag4 |
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Title: Re: Pete on Tunited.com Post by Pete Atkin on 24.10.11 at 12:03 For anyone who hasn't yet picked up on it ... http://app-reportmail.co.uk/MO0-KDRR-904UF41EA0/cr.aspx |
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