robgalpin.com

talking with my buddy kenny king on saturday –

we talked about Mark chapter 10.

“No one is good, but One…”

it stuck with me – so i wanted to try and capture it in a song – and so far this one gives me the chills – the idea came up on my way to work this morning – i had to record it tonight – so it’s just a start and it’s fresh out of the oven…

i’m a complete dork about this stuff – i’m sitting here listening to it on a loop with my arm hairs standing at attention!! HEE HEE!!

see what you think…
i like this.
a lot.
maybe you will too.

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re: Missing the Heart
i spanked HEART and put it to bed. the next time you hear it, it will be all shined up and pretty.

-robertino exquizino

verse 2 had turned into a redo of verse 1 with pieces literally cut and pasted from V1 to V2 – so it was time to make some difference between the two so that the song has a feeling of progression and not just running in circles – which happens to be the natural activity for my brain – the default – but anyway – check out verse 2 for a little spice – there’s more treatment coming to it in the vocals with some harmony and answer back sort of stuff that works well with that little beatle flavor that comes thru there in there – right there.

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i admit there are a couple juicy tidbits i added to other parts of the song but they’re just too juicy to share – i have to save SOMETHING for the actual release!

-robertisimo volumisimo extremioso

the last song was KANSAS – i figure i could start calling this one HEART – that means the next one’s gotta be – YES. it’s either that or OINGO BOINGO.

the chorus has been reworked…this is not a final take – it’s a first shot to see if the idea even works – i hear some stuff that i know needs to be different as far as delivery goes. and it could be that this won’t even make the cut – i wasn’t totally hating the old chorus – i just hear untapped potential – so i’m poking around to see if i can eek it out.

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i was missin’ the heart
you were missin’ the signs
i was basically dead
you were basically blind

sayin’ all the right words
it was soundin’ so good
but we were missin’ the heart
yeah we were missin’ the goods

now here we still have the 100% rhyme between “good” and “goods” – say wha? but and however though these two words are spelled and sound the same it’s a legit rhyme because they are two completely different words as far as meaning goes. it doesn’t clank in my ear like it would if you said:

roses are red
violets are blue
the grass is so green
and the sky is blue

discuss! if you can even find the COMMENT button. i tried once and it was not as evident as one would presume – indeed, i never found it at all. doesn’t make for much of a KITCHEN TABLE does it – it’s more like the DINING ROOM MONOLOG.

more to come on this… as well as moron this to come.

-robertito del frito

the introduction for Missing the Heart…

this is something i heard in my head on the way to work friday – it bounced around in there all weekend – finally had a chance to get it out tonight – might be a keeper. this has a motive in it that will appear later in the song after the piano part – other than that it might seem pretty unexplainable as a beginning for what turns into a real pop sounding song.

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and the longer version…

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still grappling with the lyrics on this… grapple grapple grapple…

what’s that i hear? monday morning barrelling down…

-rob out

last night we recorded the guitar solo for KANSAS. i am loving the way it sounds – it soars and then at the end it’s crash and burn – what i played right there at the end makes no sense anyway – it’s fitting that the amp says – huh?

we used a bunch of stuff to get the sound right including my ‘74 Marshall SL spec 6 KNOBS ON 10, a phase shifter that my buddy PLEXIFIED gave me – a Boss Phaser a green PH-1R – lots of control and we used it in a subtle way – we didn’t want “phase-city” just some color. PLEXIFIED is from the Metroamp board, http://forum.metroamp.com, great guys on there – i have learned so much and been inspired by the innovators on that discussion board – all chasing their individual DREAM-TONE. when i posted on there about some slouch stealing my EVH Phaser from the local fire hall gig at a million o’clock in the morning – PLEXIFIED felt my pain, and sent me a phaser he found that kills! what a good dude who just happens to be a monster player! thanks DAVID (plexified).

we also used the Eventide H3000 panned hard right.

we hit the amp with a little mid boost from the GE10.

we put a delay in the jumper loop – my digitech set to TAPE DELAY.

all this wonderful stuff was sent blasting into my WEBER Stan Spec (Pre-Rola Treatment) TED WEBER speakers!

we talked about running it through the budda because of the crash and burn break up at the end – but i’ve decided i like it. it doesn’t need to be perfect – it just needs to be RIGHT.

so – here’s an audio clip of the solo.

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enjoy! the final version of this tune will be available on iTunes and Amazon within the next week or so. if you dig it, it’s yours!

thanks as always to mark [schenker - KIX, Funny Money] for creating a great mix on this stuff and sprinkling his magic dust all over it.

mark’s there on the right next to that BEAU HILL dude – mark’s friend with all THE GOLD on the walls – and what’s that there behind them? well it appears to be the KANSAS ProTools project open – huh!! well waddya know about that? i wonder if they… and if maybe BEAU… nah – it couldn’t be… could it?

-rob

Missing the Heart is basically done but…

there is that one accidental 100% rhyme. lets’ see… what rhymes with “good?” OH OH OH, I KNOW… “good!” that is a perfect example of getting too far “inside” a tune as you work on it. i’ll be back with a better lyric there and a couple other places too.

the lyric is kind of all over the place really – the “you” turns into “I” unexplainably at the chorus – most of the lyrics spring from just an emotion that seems to fill the space with the correct vibe to propel the song forward. side by side with that effort is my inner lyric watchdog mechanism that is supposed to keep things on track with regards to actually telling an interesting story or sharing an interesting take on a familiar subject. in this case, the watchdog was asleep at the point when the chorus turned into “I was missin’ the heart…” anyway – so far the lyric is confusing, at best. i’ll have to brush up the meaning a little without destroying the feel. sounds simple. but no. it is not. not at all. it’s like changing a couple notes in a solo you have come to connect with and expecting it to feel the same. each syllable packs it’s own energy and works against the energy of the surrounding syllables – and each twist of meaning fits into the energy of the music in a unique way – once you start diddling you can dig a deep hole very quickly.

Missing the Heart

by the time
you read this i’ll be gone
and by the way
there ain’t nothin’ wrong
it’s just that i heard a brand new song today

from the heart
here’s my state of mind
i’m seeing things
clearly and i find
we play the part the same way everytime we play
it’s comfortable that way

well i was missin’ the heart
i was missin in action
makin the moves
gettin’ no satisfaction

sayin’ all the right words
i was sounding so good
but i was missin’ the heart
so it did me no good – well

if the wind
should whisper in your ear
give you words
listen up and hear
maybe draw you in and bring you near in time

make a change
change is in the air
you can smell
the answer is right there
sweet refrain the songs that take me where i find
you’re always on my mind

maybe not my finest hour lyrically.

but these are a work in progress – so we’ll see.

-rob

dear david bowie,

oh, wait that’s another movie.

well here we are with the result of a few days under the hood on this song… i get so far inside these songs i lose objectivity and it becomes more a matter of what i find entertaining to do on the song as opposed to what “makes it better.” what is “better?” this kind of thing isn’t better or worse it’s just different flavors – and who is to say whether raspberry sherbet is better then cookies and cream – what have you – ad nauseum (is that an ice cream and a vomit reference in the same sentence?). so that’s my “different flavor speech.” thanks for noticin’. and that’s a POOH reference which is always a popular follow up in such cases.

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for all i know… this thing is basically done. i’ll be back with a better lyric though – that’s still not done.

…and fish.

-will

here we have some pics and an audio clip of the session in which the guitars for my song “Kansas” were re-amped. and by re-amped, i mean the guitar performances are captured straight into ProTools by plugging into a mic pre and running the signal into the computer where an amp simulator is used to approximate the sound of an ear splitting fire breathing TUBE BURNER. when we do the final mixes, these tracks of raw guitar input are piped out to real amps to get – well – to get what we’re all looking for – which is exquisite guitar tone.

check out the audio clip.

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Bogner on the left with a 57 and a 121 and Budda on the right with a 57 and an e906 – scooped.

the pics were taken with the settings as recorded. check out that MID knob on the Budda… NOYCE!!

KAH-RUNCH!

thanks mark!

-rob

now this one is a bit of a drastic change – i removed the chorus because i like it so much that i think it’s going to be a whole ‘nuther song…

so, i went back to the original chorus on this and rewrote it to try and give it some more FEEL – before the lyrics were nice but they read kind of like a laundry list – this swings a bit more.

i also changed the verse – using another BEATLE flavor that maintains the energy a little higher – i also added harmonies to the verse and chorus that weren’t there before. so this iteration is quite different.

please feel free to chime in and give your opinion. there are no wrong answers in art. it’s great that way.

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