Around the Next Bend

Robert James

The first song for the 2023 RPM Challenge is complete! This month has been incredibly rough for me. We lost my mother on February 5th after a horrible nine days in hospice after a horrible eight months in a dementia ward in a nursing home after a horrible two years of rapid mental decline after a horrible 10 years of slow but stead mental decline after a horrible year fighting a brain tumor. To say my heart hasn’t really been in it for RPM this year is an understatement, but I am doing my best to self motivate and I expect to have a complete project this year.

The vocals on this are pretty awful. Almost as bad as the lyrics. The melody feels all right though. I have barely touched my guitar over the last 8-9 months so I am pleased I was able to shake off enough of the rust to get through this. That’s good news at least.

I had planned to use two amplifiers for this project but some equipment difficulties have made me scrap that plan. The rhythm guitars on this song (and one other) did use two amps though. It sounds all right to me.

All of the guitars are a Gibson Les Paul Standard. The pedals on the rhythm tracks are a Klon KTR into a Keeley Super Phat Mod. The amps are a Fender Bassbreaker 18/30 and a Fender Deluxe Reverb. The leads used a Real McCoy Custom RMC10 into a Wren and Cuff Super Russian into the KTR into the Deluxe Reverb.

erse 1
I never thought about me
I never thought it was something that could be
It spins you till you can’t see anything
I don’t care to know whatever it brings

Chorus
It comes ‘round again
No matter how hard you pretend
Makes no difference when
It’s always around the next bend

Verse 2
Just one word before you go
It matters much more than you ever could know
I’ll try to teach you the ways and the means
It makes no difference how ever it seems