Song of the week, 19 January 2003:

Pencil!

mp3 available by email request

Ah, the internet. So self-referential. This web site was put together to give me deadlines, and thus to squash writer's block. Eventually I had to write this song, yes?

Vocabulary note for those who don't sit in a studio at 2 a.m. on Sunday: 'riding the fader' is the process of actively messing with the volume fader of an audio channel in real time during mixdown of a song. It is often needed to make up for a vocal take that, ahem, lacks in control what it has in passion. Modern automation systems have begun to make this technique somewat old-fashioned, but I suspect the term will stick around as long as there are singers.

Pencil
(c) 2003 Mark Frey

you've got a spark of passion
full of insight with something to say
but a paralyzing reflex
always gets in your way

you like to think you're chasing perfection
making every word a drop of gold
but at the rate you're doing it, boy
you'll never make it half way before your corpse is cold

Just write it down in pencil- you can come back later
just sing it with feeling- we can ride the fader

everything's got to start somewhere
some time and in some way
might as well be here and now
and in the state that you're in today

Just write it down in pencil- you can come back later
just sing it with feeling- we can ride the fader

just get it all down before it's gone
keep the date with your muse before she moves on

Broad strokes, just capture the gestures
one line leads to another and back for more
the first step is the toughest
get that idea out the door

Just write it down in pencil- you can come back later
just sing it with feeling- we can ride the fader