The First Day (2021 Version)

Robert James

It’s getting silly now. I haven’t finished Quarantine Tunes Volume 5 (actually, volume 50/90) and here I am uploading the first song for Volume 6. What a moron!

I am scraping the bottom of the barrel as far as the quality of songs to be re-recorded goes, though this one has now been recorded three times which is, again, just silly.

I wanted this one to sound almost live-ish and kinda ratty. I wanted it to sound like a bar band nearing the end of it’s final set for the night. I think I sort of have that. I was hammering really hard on the guitar and blowing it out of tune. I sort of meant to do that, but maybe if I ever do a fourth version of this I will tone it down a smidge.

As for the vocals, there is something wrong with my Shure SM58 so I used an SM57 without realizing this song sets the world record for plosive syllables per minute. Sorry about that. It also sounds a little thin to me. I think I may need to both invest in a couple of new mics and send the ones I have out to the shop for a look see.

This song was the first idea I had for the 2009 RPM Challenge. I had yet to switch to a DAW and was using an ADAT and a Roland Drum Machine. I was also only working at the crack of dawn before anyone else woke up. We were living in a duplex at the time so I was also trying to work before anyone in the other apartment woke up too. I did a second take of this a few years later after I started using GarageBand. The arrangement here is based on the second version, though I changed the very beginning quite a bit.

The guitars are all Gibson Les Paul Standard 50s through a Fender Bassbreaker 15. The pedals for the rhythm are a Ryra The Klone into a Keeley D&M Drive. The leads are the Ryra into a Wren and Cuff Super Russian.

Verse 1 & 3
blank page
clean slate
first stage
feels great

verse 2
open door
all clear
first floor
start here

Chorus
today is the first day
today is the blue print
today has the first say
today it begins

Break
everything is new
everything I do