Reavis Re-Sing
Saturday, August 9th, 2025 05:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudio |
94F this afternoon, and sunny, going down to 74F tonight.
It's been around 90F all week, but this was the first time all summer that we had some hot, humid nights!.. three in a row!
Nothing worse than hot night!
The summer grind continues, and this would be the point where it starts to feel like Summer's never gonna end, but we do have the soundtrack of the crickets and other orthopterans by night, now, and they're at their resounding peak.
Also, I'm finally into re-sings, which means there's light at the end of the tunnel for my, Sweaty Summer of Studio C.
Reavis 309 was the first song I recorded vocals for in Studio C, way back on SAT APR 12th!.. the day my access code wouldn't work.
At the time, I wrote;
"I focused on vocals for two songs; Reavis 309, and, Our Cold Feet.
Reavis was first, and proved unexpectedly hard to sing! My voice was rusty, and I wasn't sure about the best affectation to use."
I did seven full takes of it... thinking that was a lot... and I comped it right away that night and Sunday night.
I was amazed at the results of the compositing at the time, and even shed a tear, feeling that I was hearing my old younger self.
But as the weeks went by, and my voice came back, this vocal came to sound pretty weak by comparisson to the ones from June and July.
To me now, that April vocal sounds like an old man with the flu, trying really hard to sing a song he's forgotten why he wrote, or what emotion ever inspired it!
And that was the final composited version!
Reavis Hall was the English & Communications building at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, named after William Claude Reavis, an educator and philosopher.
I was only 20 years old when I took the English 103 class there, in the fall of 1989.
And it was taught by a TA by the name of JoAnne Addison, who was only 21!
JoAnne was an insanely hot blonde, with glasses, and being an English teacher on top of that?.. well, she was ringing every kink bell in my nervous system!
I wanted the lyrics to be appropriately prose-like, and they are, in the start..
"Reavis 309. English 103.
I'm sitting in the hallway outside, peering through the glass.
At the ending of the class, there's students pouring out.
I squeeze my way inside and take a seat.
Infatuated with the English teacher."
However, the original 2nd verse got a bit creepy...
"Well, I often wonder why, as I concentrate on her
Photographing every line, and every curve..."
Last year, I finally rewrote that to be, "Conjugating every noun and every verb..."
The original bridge lyrics too, were male gaze creepy...
"Try to penetrate those eyes,
but I can't get through!
I must resolve once and for all
just what it is
that makes her do... this world is in a blur
that I can hardly even see..."
I rewrote it to be...
"Describe the beauty of those eyes,
but I just can't do it!
words cannot describe the vibes.
no poetry
can justice do... this world is in a blur,
such that I can hardly even see
yet there she is in perfect focus
right in front of me."
The updated bridge holds to the theme of being an English student, now frustrated that he cannot find words to describe her beauty... hence the song instead.
It's still a song about a guy staring at a hot chick, but at least now it all holds better to the English theme, and evolkes more of a poetic crush, than some leering horndog!
At any rate, I was much more in the headspace of my 20-year-old self, while doing the re-sing today.
And I was far better able to recapture the youthful voice I originally sung it with, back in that day... smooth and airy, from the head... rather than the barrel chested, hard shreding voice of a middle aged blob on life support.
Still this IS a deceptively difficult song to sing!
In theory, it shouldn't be... the whole melody kinda wavers between two midrange notes, with an occasional pop up or down to the octave... and it's only a 3 minute song, with the last eight measures being purely instrumental!
But because the melody is so simple... everything is riding on the emotion!.. The breathy nuance... the effortless control... like a person talk-singing his inner monologue... in this pseudo bosa nova number that is groovy, but bittersweet.
As I said, back in April, I thought seven takes were plenty, for such a simple song, and moved on to a second song in the same session.
This time around I gave it the full two hours, generating eleven full takes, with four additional takes of just the final phrase... because it's what the whole song leads up to.
The full final verse is...
"Then a desperate little voice
speaks up from the center of my being
poliely asks
would everyone mind falling off
the face of the earth
and leaving me alone, with the English teacher?"
And it's that phrase, "and leaving me alone, with the English teacher," which is this apex that leads into those eight measures of instrumental outro.
I do think this was a successful re-sing.
There should be a much better final comp out of today's vocals than from last April.
A vocal worthy of the music that I've put so much work into since last fall!
Next week will be, Never Rains all over again!
The song with the infamous F#5 that roundly kicked my ass last spring!
This coming week, the kids return to PVHS on Wednesday!
Far too soon, it feels like.
But I'll take it as a welcome sign that summer is on it's way out!
I can't wait until it's fall, and vocals are done & comped, and I get to settle in and just mix!
Speaking of comping... gotta get busy with, Live It Fast tonight and tomorrow.
°¦}
