The lyrics for this song were written years ago, I think circa 2002 or so, but didn’t become a song until some time in 2006. I wrote the music for this and another song Caoineadh initially as piano instrumentals first. The lyrics for Caoineadh started to come as I was playing through the music for that one, but it was only as I was going through old ideas and words that I’d sketched out that I noticed that the other instrumental I’d been doodling on at the piano fit rather well with the words of Maria. I have two other melodic lines written (possibly two violins, but I’m toying with the idea of going with woodwinds for this song, as I think it’d suit it better, but that’s for another day I guess) but they’re not recorded in this demo at all.
It’s a song that I always mess up the verse order in when I play it live, but at the same time, it’s a song that I tend to pull out a lot when I’m playing live, as it’s just lovely to play to be honest. I might record an instrumental version of this when I work out the rest of the instrumentation. I think that would be lovely.
This song kinda came together in dribs and drabs over a wee period of time. The main chunk of the lyrics were written all at once, in a longer form that I edited down a good time later. But it didn’t really start to come together until I added what became the middle section and the whole idea of what the song was about started to take shape.
Initially I was going for a piano version of a surf-pop kinda song, to counteract the bite in the lyrics, I’m still not sure about what way the arrangement will go: whether to make it poppier and lighter, or to go for a more piano rock sound. I’m still toying with this song in that regards, but I do like playing it solo with just piano.
I’m rather terrible at programming beats, but I just needed something to play off and to start to give myself an idea of how the whole song would sound. So, it’s definitely a demo, and definitely quite rough still, but it’s helped me to see the shape of the song, and what I want to change or alter, and to give me ideas on how I want to flesh out the arrangement more.
When the wonderful Anna Lee was visiting back in May, we re-demo’d some of my songs, including “The Best Of Me”. Since the previous demo, I’d changed what key I was doing this song in, and quite simply, I wanted to just demo that much for now.
I’m happy enough with the piano & vocal combination, and it’s given me the space to listen to it and really hear the other parts that I want on it. As Anna was playing back the demo to me after recording it, I was clearing hearing specific parts in my head that I was humming along. I need to sit down and transcribe the string parts and the like, and see how well I like them when they’re added to the song.
I remember the first time I listened to a Tori Amos album – it changed my idea of what a piano could do. It was Under The Pink, which I listened to all the way through a few times alone in my room. Before listening to Tori, my notions of piano music were limited to classical piano or vamped-chords and simple piano riffs of some of the pop music I knew. I’d finished all the classical piano grades with the RIAM, and was feeling a bit frustrated with the limited scope of the piano material I knew. Hearing Tori by chance on the radio, and checking out the piano books in a shop made me decide to get the albums. – yeah, I honestly looked through the piano books for Under The Pink and Little Earthquakes before ever hearing them.
But the opening notes of Pretty Good Year, the first track on the album, still sticks with me as one of my favourite piano lines, probably because it was the first of her songs I really heard at home, but mostly because it showed me that piano accompaniment can be melodic, fluid, and have a life of its own under the vocal melody line of a song. Every piano part on that album is absolutely gorgeous, musically interesting, and completely makes the songs something else.
When I was doing a few rough takes in my home studio, I knocked out two quick cover versions: the Under The Ivy one I posted about before, and a cover of Tori’s Donut Song from the album “Boys For Pele“. I was mostly messing about with my Roland RD 120, exploring the other instrument sounds on it, and certainly it’s not well recorded, played or sung, but it’s there, so I may as well put it out. I actually used one of the bass instrument voices on the digital piano, and added some of the Rhodes voice from it too, to see how they matched. It was mostly an experiment. I’ve dicked about with the song a small bit too, I’m afraid. But still. Oh, and I think I mentioned that it’s a not-great recording with bad mixing, yeah? I’d fix it up a bit, but at the moment I’m in Dublin, dogsitting. No, really.
It’s not a patch on the original, which you should go and listen to (see the live video below), but it was an interesting experiment for me. It’s actually not one of the Tori songs that I’d usually play at all, but I think I was just in the mood for it that night. There are a few of her songs that I’ve loved and learned over the years, that always pop into sets or sessions every so often, but this is not really one of them. I guess it’s just a good song for a late night, home alone, dark bedroom with a piano.
The wonderful Anna Lee was around Galway yesterday, so she came and joined the family dinner I was having with two of my siblings. After a post-lunch walk on the prom, we came back to my house and listened to some music and caught up a bit. But she offered to work the desk for some recording work that evening too, which was wonderful, as a fresh pair of eyes sorted some of the random things I’d set up badly and helped iron out some of the wee quirks with my recording setup.
Being able to just relax into the role of the performer, instead of trying to do two things at once, was a really lovely feeling. I got to chill out and just focus on giving a good performance of the tracks we were going to lay down quickly. Ended up working on three tracks in total – just vocals and piano takes of The Best Of Me and Maria, and re-taking the lead vocals and the piano line on Take Me Away. I was keen to keep all the work that Meadhbh had done on the latter track, as her vocals are just beautiful on it, but I really wasn’t happy with the guide piano and vocals I’d laid down for her to sing off.
Maria I’d never recorded before, and I’m really pleased to have a nice little demo of it done at this stage, as I can go to the other arrangements I’d sketched out for various instruments, and see if those lines will fit the way I think they will. As it turns out, re-recording The Best Of Me in the key and tempo I now play that song in was really helpful too in terms of further instrumentation, as when I was listening back to the best of the takes, I could hear the other parts I wanted in the track. I have some arrangements for that to sketch out on some manuscript paper, but I think it’s a ‘cello and viola I’ll need. I’m not sure – I’ll need to tease it out a little bit more.
I’ve not listened to those takes again yet after last night, but I’m going to leave them to listen again fresh later this evening after I go and play some Samba drums with some kids from Youth Work Ireland as part of their fundraising day. The LGBT youth group I’ve been volunteering with for the last few years, shOUT!, are under the umbrella of YWI, so helping out the main body helps keep the LGBT youth group going.
