THE MAKING OF...
STOP WORLD PEACE
Around November 2003, with my song recording schedule for CD #4 Lead Foot Lucy virtually stopped, I thought I would burn a bunch of four-song CDs with some new stuff on it, but not necessarily to be a preview of Lead Foot Lucy. I originally hoped to finish Lead Foot Lucy in March 2004, but with a new home purchase in October 2003, my recording studio, Clairemont was out of commission for over a month (in boxes - lots of boxes).
Song 2 on the STOP WORLD PEACE EP CD, Love The Bomb, is the only tune on here that appears on Lead Foot Lucy. Song 1 is just a instrumental I threw together for this EP CD, while song 4 is a remix of the backing instrument tracks from Over Now off of my 2002 CD, bikini.
When I began work on Lead Foot Lucy in late 2002, I played around with a few different covers, including The Beach Boys' Don't Worry, Baby. I finished it up for STOP WORLD PEACE and since is didn't turn out too terrible, I threw it on here. Tim Randolph handles the guitar solo in that one - thanks Tim!
By doing this, I guess I get a sense of accomplishment of finishing something, while letting my friends know I'm still alive. Besides, four songs at a time isn't a bad way to listen to my music.
By the way, I'm not against world peace or anything. I do believe, however, that there is right and wrong in this world and that battles, figurative or literal, need to occur from time to time, such as the current war on terrorism (appeasement and capitulation are not the answer, in my humble opinion). I know, I know - way too deep in here...
CD ARTWORK
Stop World Peace
Love The Bomb
Don't Worry, Baby*
Over Now (instrumental remix)
1 -Stop World Peace
I turned out this song during the Thanksgiving week, while my basement studio was still being finished… I went to an Interpol concert with Tim Randolph in October, and I was trying to capture a similar vibe… I really had the recording bug and I had these two stupid chords going around in my head, so I unpacked a guitar and a bass and laid down the basic tracks… there's basically two parts to the song - the first part (D# - G) and the second part (F - G), which starts around the one-minute mark… my original idea was for the tune not to have percussion, but it sounded pretty good with the drums coming in, so plans changed… the basic chords of the first part of the song (D# - G) are similar to the ending of Slate (F - A) off of 11 expressions of me…
GEAR--Just one guitar (Hohner G3T) and one bass (ESP Jazz) and a drum machine (Boss Dr. Rhythm) were used… I manually added some ride cymbal in the second half of the song… 10 tracks were used for guitar and nine bass tracks give it some serious bottom end… no keyboards… I swear that sometimes my ears pop during the chord change of the first part to the second part (G to F) around the one-minute mark… 26 total tracks…
2 -Love The Bomb
I wanted to include a new song on STOP WORLD PEACE, my 2004 4-song EP CD, so I picked this song as a preview to Lead Foot Lucy… this is the same version - no remix or anything… I recorded this song between May and July 2003… this is the first song I ever recorded where I had the melody line and backing chords in my head first, and then transferred them to guitar… I wrote the tune when I got my Dean Nouveau CR electric/acoustic… instead of plugging it in, I miked it which gives it a more honest tone… I recorded the vocals at a neighbor friend's home while I was house-sitting… I more or less stumbled on the "bomb" harmony in the chorus… the lyrics were inspired by the 1964 movie, "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" and the then-current Operation: Iraqi Freedom… instead of a guitar solo, I wrote in a different drum patch and put a little Motown Spiritual in there (or however one would describe the break)… God, death, and sunshine…
LYRICS
GEAR--the left and right guitar tracks are five each, with my Dean Nouveau CR making up the main parts… I also used my Hohner G3T for the phased verse adds and my Gibson Les Paul Special and Kramer Neptune for the bridge section… the rotary guitar during the chorus is my Silvertone LP Standard, while the clean chorus guitar is my Epiphone 335 Dot… the guitar during the weird break is my Fender Mini Stratocaster… I also used my Peavey EVH Plus for the section right after the break… the bass is my Yamaha keyboard… note that I added extra bass drum percussion for the middle break… I even added a touch of flange to the entire drum track for the break… the opening bomb is a bass drum with some serious reverb… 27 total tracks…
3 -Don't Worry, Baby*
a classic Beach Boys song… Brian Wilson wrote the music to this and Roger Christian helped out with the racing lyrics… the song was originally released in 1964 on their Shut Down Volume 2 album… I tuned the guitars down one whole step for this song – D G C F A D…
LYRICS
GEAR--I put down five tracks of basic guitar (Ibanez Bolt and Scootercaster), three tracks of percussion (Dr. Rhythm, Alesis cymbals, shake), and 10 tracks of arduous vocals… I dialed in a classic setting on my Zoom Bass effect for my Precision Bass… no keyboards used on this tune… Tim used my Kramer Pacer for both the guitar chirp during the intro and the solo… 20 total tracks…
4 -Over Now (instrumental remix)
I recorded the song in June 2001… the original version from bikini has vocals, but the tune cooks just as good without them… technically, this is an instrumental mix, not a remix, but I printed the CD inserts as remix, so… for this mix, I added room reverb to the drums and lowered the keyboard part, except for the final chorus section… the biggest change was removing the drums for the first two bars of the solo break… I still think this is the coolest tune I've written to date…
GEAR--I doubled the guitar (left/right) with my Peavey EVH Plus and my old Gibson Les Paul Junior… the background keyboards and the synth bass are courtesy of my Yamaha… stereo drums are from my Boss Dr. Rhythm… I did the guitar solo on my Ernie Ball Music Man EVH… the original track with vocals had just 11 total tracks… see The Making of... bikini for more info on this song…
* written by B.Wilson/Christian 1964
back to the STOP WORLD PEACE page