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Today is Not That Day (Shadow)

from Foo Bar Baz by Common Lisp

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about

I wrote this track for SpinTunes 3, round 1, except that it was too late to qualify, due to a difficult work week involving a lot of overtime. I had planned to take three days off to work on this song, but that was not possible. To top it off, when I did manage to block out a few hours on the Saturday afternoon before the deadline on Sunday, my Apogee Ensemble audio interface decided to stop communicating with Logic and play blasts of noise through the speakers. I reinstalled its firmware and drivers; that didn't help. So I have been eliminated from the contest, although I intend to submit shadow entries for all the rounds as I am able.

It's now the following week and I belatedly got my days off. With some assistance from Apogee technical support I got the audio interface working (apparently the key was to delete the drivers entirely using a separate uninstall utility, and then reinstall them; that's good news, since I thought the hardware was fried from the heat!) I put an initial version of this track together in an afternoon in my sweltering studio room. The next piece of studio gear I invest in will be a portable air conditioning unit...

The challenge was "write a happy song about death." In my head last week, this was supposed to be upbeat and cheerful, like a Celtic reel. The 12-string is supposed to sound a bit like a mandolin. The second day I was considering redoing all the source tracks and changing the style, but I decided to "double down" on the style, change up the mix, and re-record all the vocals, adding some additional vocal tracks.

lyrics

There will come a day
When I will die
When you will die
When all we are has passed away
Today is not
Today is not
Today is not that day

There will be a time
When all we are is not
When everything we've got
Will not be ours, and that's OK
Today is not
Today is not
Today is not that day

No one can know the hour
The hour or the moment
Dance like your heart's on fire
Dance like it's your last chance

And when we are no more
We will join the dance
The dance of all who were
Everyone who was and will be gone
Today is here
Today is all
Today is not
Today is not
Today is not that day

credits

from Foo Bar Baz, track released June 23, 2011
yrics and music by Paul R. Potts. Recorded 22-23 June 2011. Instruments: snare drum, 12-string Adamas acoustic guitar. Oktava MK-219 microphone for vocals, Reflexion filter, Rode NT-5 microphones for snare, and an inconvenient thunderstorm. The bass drum sample is an Apple Loop called Shetland Bass Drum 07.

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Common Lisp Ann Arbor, Michigan

Common Lisp is Paul R. Potts, an amateur musician living in Saginaw, Michigan.

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