The Tale of the Cypress Girl by Drusilla Online (Original song)

[AndyJ]

A couple of months ago, I started looking for singers to collaborate with. The first song I used for this search was The Tale of the Cypress Girl. ronws even "shocked" me by saying something like I've captured the spirit of John Lennon with this song, but ... well ... maybe he simply heard something that was there all along, but I didn't hear it until I found a singer who took my lyrics and put down the vocals you can hear here:

Dug really put some Lennon into this, I think

And of course: Yes, this was only a HOME-MADE DEMO, it is NOT a (semi) professional recording with special hardware and stuff. There is no bass, but it would do the song good. I'm a poor guitar player, I play sloppy and have timing issues. But this is only a demo, so what?!? A demo always comes first before recording a song properly. So if you like the song and know how to record music properly, don't hesitate to contact me. I'm definitely willing to record the music properly, but I don't have the means myself. So please, the focus of your feedback should be the singing. This is a singers forum after all ;)

[ronws]

Definitely a good song idea, still got that Lennon and Beatles sound. The song doesn't have a bridge, being an A form cycle, whch is cool. A refreshing break from AABA format. So, yeah, as a demo, there is enough there to flesh out a fuller arrangement.

But trust me, I am just learning how to record and edit my own stuff. I know theoretically what to do. And even if I was to take a stab at your sound files, it would probably have to wait for the weekend. My weekdays are unreal.

[AndyJ]

Thanks for your response, Ron. And yes, there was no bridge in this song, because it didn't feel like it when I wrote it. Basically, I tend to fall into that exact scheme that you described as AABA. Always a bridge. Or at least I used to fall into that scheme. My recent work came with guitar solo parts instead. I'm trying to write something fresh when I write something new, because I don't see too much sense in writing the same stuff over and over again. I've written 40+ songs back in the days, so ... considering, I'm a limited musician, it's not that easy for me to come up with fresh ideas.

As for this song right here, I already thought of adding a decent rhythm guitar pattern in the chorus to make the music sound "fuller". But for this demo, I kept the original demo recording from back then. And back then, I always tried to write the music for one guitarist only. That's because of my main influence, Bernard Butler. The problem with that approach, of course, is that the music might sound a bit "thin" at times. But, there's always room for improvement and we'll see if I can gather some musicians to contribute to this song or any of my other songs. Whenever people give me the feeling that a song is worth being re-recorded properly, that's what I intend to do.

But I also know how limited time is when music is only a hobby and you're not making your living from it. I probably could have finished my current main project already if it hadn't been for lack of time.

Just for the record: This song really wasn't inspired by Lennon/Beatles, but by a Bernard Butler piece (but I do realize now that the song does sound somewhat Lennon-esque ... but that wasn't intentional, it just happened ... and that's partly the beauty of making music ... when things just happen ...)

[ronws]

And who was Butler inspired by?

[Chavie]

Good voice, great tune with lots of potential here....

That being said id like to here a more complete recording of this....as the quality is holding it back a lot.

This day in age you can get a DAW pretty cheap (Reaper is only 60$ after 60 day trial)

Ezdrummer is also a Great investment

There is also an enormous amount of Free VST plugins out there, that sound amazing.

[AndyJ]

EZ Drummer is on my list. I only wished there was a demo version. 100 bucks to give some software a try seems irrational to me.

I don't quite understand the concept of these DAWs. It seems to me that this is more for producers that like to shift levers while someone else is singing or playing an instrument. I've browsed a music store again and am currently thinking of buying an audio interface for 25 bucks, which is supposed to allow me to record my electric guitar with less loss/oversteering.

@ronws: I'm not sure about all of Butler's influences, but Johnny Marr certainly was. Basically, I think it was Brett Anderson that once said something like "We're a British guitar band, so it's just natural we're compared to the Beatles outside the UK." That's not the exact quote, but it's basically what he said. I think, outside the UK many people still only know the music of The Beatles or maybe also Queen. There have been so many other bands that were hardly successful outside the UK. I bet there's plenty of great British music to discover on youtube. ;)