Coming-Going

Robert James

Urgh, this song. Destined to be last on the April RPM Challenge album, not because it’s a good closing number, but because it’s crap and everyone will have stopped listening before they get this far.

I started this on guitar. I set up a drum loop and I just started playing. I had high hopes for it, but everything is just… off. The timing on the guitar and the bass, the pitch on the vocals… everything is just a tiny bit wrong, often enough to make the whole song feel wrong.

The verses are a good example of why you shouldn’t write your melody out without singing it first. The modulation from E to A just slaughtered my voice. Even when I hit the high notes I still managed to slide out of tune when I came back down to a manageable register.

There are two gimmicks here that almost redeem the whole thing.

First, just toward the end of the song there are two vocal lines where the audio track plays backward. Awesome.

Second, did you ever listen to Pink Floyd The Wall? Did you notice how at the very start of side one you can hear part of a sentence, but only the end of it? Then at the very end of side four you can hear the first half of that sentence? On this song, if you loop the song at just the right moment you can hear a harmonic played on the guitar on the 4th beat of the last measure, which then continues as it loops so that the rest of the tone is heard at the beginning of the song. How nuts is that??

Rhythm guitars are SG, lead is Les Paul. One pedal used on all tracks, a Keeley D&M Drive, and one amp as well, a Fender Bassbreaker 15.

verse 1 & 3
I’ll tell you
what I’m thinking
come try me
come take a look
i’ll give you this
I’ll give you that
I’ll tell you
what I’m thinking

verse 2
I feel it
that old pressure
I knew it would (add another note)
come back to me
I see you here
I see you there
I feel it
that old pressure

chorus
old days coming going
that old feeling showing
don’t you try to fight it
its all being knowing

break
look around
hear that sound
never found
underground