The Birth of Miss Lonely Hearts

So last night after class I biked over to Wyatt's for a little band practice. When I got there he and Barbara were still eating dinner so I joined them outside for conversation and a can of Bud. I am not usually a fan of canned beer but I have to say it was quite refreshing.

Soon later Barbara was replaced by the knitting Stephanie and we started working through the songs. Stephanie, as a violin player has a great musical ear and can play with harmonies well. I'm super jealous since it takes me a while to lock in. Luckily I worked on some of the music during the day yesterday so I was able to duplicate the harmonies from the down and dirty recording that Wyatt did.

When we got to From the Big Oak Tree, I was finally able to ask about altering lyrics. The song is supposed to be a creepy stalker song, but I don't think it's quite icky yet. He was a little hesitant at first, but Stephanie came up with some great changes. Like instead the narrator of the song "seeing" the woman he loves with another man, he "spies" on them. And after he stabs her the final line of the song was changed from "No man will have my love again." to "No man will ever have her heart again." So much creepier.

I also opened the conversation about just what our roles are. Are Stephanie and I back-up singers for Wyatt's leads? Or will we be more collaborative? Luckily, Wyatt was more in the collaborative camp. He said that eventually he would like to write songs for each of us. That sounds good to me, however I mentioned that there's one song of his that I would like to sing. It's told from a man's perspective but it's about a man who is about to kill another man and is obsessed with guns. Wyatt was a little shaken with that comment, I think, so I'm going to let it go for now. Out of all the songs, it's the only one I really connected with. I think it's the theatricality of the song and (of course) not the subject matter.

I did a quick recording last night in Garage Band just so I will remember the harmonies I sang, but it was a good way to hear where we need work. I sat closest to the laptop so my voice was much louder than everyone else's. it also allowed us the start the conversation about what we all want. For example, I did a pure "oo" in our back-up stuff and Stephanie had a less defined "oh." I asked Wyatt which one he wanted since I thought mine sounded a little too much. But we will continue to play and mold our styles together. Wyatt is building a My Space page, so as soon as that's up and running I will post the link so you can hear.

And in terms of the name Miss Lonelyhearts is the title of a book by Terry Southern. Wyatt really liked the homage to the perversion in the book and then the ring of the title itself. It sounds good to me. And hopefully our music will, too!