I was sad to hear about Gerry Rafferty passing away yesterday. Obviously I had heard “Stuck in the middle” many times growin’ up, partly because of the popularity it gained from “Reservoir Dogs”. It wasn’t until about 10 years ago I listened to Gerry’s solo music properly. A French dude who had a dodgy old Volkswagen convertible over in Glasgow I was chatting to whilst at uni happened to be playing his “Baker Street” compilation disc in his car with the top down (not exactly something you’d do often in Glasgow) and I just HAD to go out buy the CD myself. I went down to the local record shop, Fopp and bought the CD for £3.99 which in those days was ridiculously cheap (now it seems a more normal price for a CD ).

I was in awe of “Days gone Down”. I love the original version but I always wondered what an acoustic version would sound like (partly because of the piano/vocal only intro). So anyway last night I was playing this through a few times as a mark of respect to my fellow Scotsman. Here it is:

Love the lyrics “You still got that light in your eye”, “The first time I set eyes on you and I listened to you sing / We didn’t have to speak cause the words said everything”….

RIP Gerry…

I recorded this version back in April after I got my hands on the East West Complete Composers Collection library. It was a quick recording of the song without much practice. Not my best but the ending (duet part) isn’t too bad.

Peace,

Andrew

Another Bruce Springsteen cover I put together a few weeks ago. It’s “Thunder Road” with just piano and vocal… Not incredibly impressed with my version, think I could have done better here. I will see how it pans out in amongst the other songs on the second tribute album. If I still don’t like it then I will rerecord it.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Well sooner than I thought I am working once more on some Bruce Springsteen songs which I will probably turn into another full album. Here is my version of the title track taken from the 2005 album Devils & Dust by Bruce Springsteen. I changed the arrangement quite a bit by settling for Piano and vocal (which I actually think will form for a large part the basis of the full album). I have tried to express the emotions in the song by including contrast both in the vocal (low to high range) and in the piano part (starting very low and ending with a high improvisation part). The original I think is a brilliant song and one of my favourite Springsteen songs from recent years.

Here is my version which will also be the first song on the new tribute album which I hope to complete within the next few months.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

I recorded my piano and vocal version of “Human” (by The Killers) a few days ago. Believe it or not inspiration for this recording actually came from Jonathan Ross’ show on the BBC where his crazy “four poofs and a piano” did part of the chorus when some guest was introduced. I actually liked the simple piano arrangement so I looked up the chords and give the song a shot.
The original song I think is great and so far the best I have heard from The Killers. The lyrics are perhaps not as universal as could be (there is apparently a very specific meaning for “or are we dancer”, which is perhaps far fetched). However I love the melody and certainly parts of the lyrics (“My hands are cold”, “and I am on my knees looking for the answer” etc..). To top it off playing along to this song on Guitar Hero is fun too!

Here is my version:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Peace,
Andrew