| Home recording and general music post from the archived Yabb Recording Website Message Board. Some of the info here may be outdated but many of the audio recording and home studio tips are still good. Note: The only tags I made and attempt to convert are italics, bold, center and underline. So if you see some gibberish surrounded by brackets, just ignore it.
Recording Website Archived Yabb board Post
Febuary 2001 Yabb Message Board Archive
Subject: The Graveyard Shuffle - Time honored subject
by Curtis Cameron | 05/06/01 at 01:54:46
Well, the last song was about Greed, the one before that Anorexia, the one before that Spousal Abuse, the one before that, Lost Love, Death of a Loved One, Lonliness, Alcoholism, Prostitution, Empotional Pain. Gosh... I've become an Angst Writer... Wow! That might actually be an accomplishment. I don't know whether to celebrate or... kill myself... (Just humor folks).
Anyway, this newest song is about murder in the time honored tradition. I'm not familiar with the genre, but this seems like it could be sung in a musical. Am I right. Or wrong? Any playwrights around?
Curtis
The Graveyard Shuffle
©2001 Curtis Cameron
V1
Moonlight, midnight
Shadows made of stone
The boys are gettin’ nervous
And they wish they were at home
Shouldered spades, their vows are made
The truth cannot be told
Their secrets gettin’ colder
Like the scent of promised gold
Chorus:
The Graveyard Shuffle
It’s as old sin
A buried secret never keeps…
They dig it up again
V2
Earthworms, hearts squirm
Stomachs turn to stone
The boys are gettin’ scared now
They wish they hadn't come
Words are said, their fears are fed
A lie cannot be true
Redemption’s quest leads straight to death
The hole is dug for two
Chorus:
The Graveyard Shuffle
It’s as old sin
A buried secret never keeps…
They dig it up again
V3
Wills clash, eyes flash
A shovel head is swung
A crumpled shadow groans aloud
The boys are down by one
Whispering, the shovels sing
And two are set to rest
Double deep, the secrets keep
The rest have passed the test
Chorus:
The Graveyard Shuffle
It’s as old sin
Buried secrets never keep…
They’ll dig ‘em up again
The Graveyard Shuffle
It’s as old sin
Buried secrets never keep
They’ll dig ‘em up again
Subject: Re: The Graveyard Shuffle - Time honored subject
by old_dan | 05/06/01 at 05:20:54
You're scaring me :)
I like the rhying scheme. You might want to tighten it up a bit (Shouldered spades, their vows are made could be Shouldered spades, vows are made)
And in the chorus did you mean to type 'It’s as old sin'? I was expecting (cliche alert) 'It’s as old as sin' but I think 'It's an old sin' works better.
Cool song tho. I like the way it works. You paint a picture of a slice of time and leave the listener to fill in the story.
But I don't know about it being in a musical, I can't see Julie Andrews singing it :)
Take care,
Dan
Subject: Re: The Graveyard Shuffle - Time honored subject
by Curtis Cameron | 05/06/01 at 05:22:41
Hi Dan, Thanks for the response.
Spooky Huh!?
I'd hate to run into these 'ol boys in a graveyard. Reminds me on some level of the story in Huck Finn where Tom and Huck witness Injun Joe murder that other fella...
I didn't think about the cliche factor on the "sin" line, but yes that was a typo. But your seggestion gave me another idea
The Graveyard Shuffle
It's an age old sin
A buried secret never keeps
So they dig it up again
Thanks again for the look see and the comments Dan,
Curtis
Subject: Re: The Graveyard Shuffle - Time honored subject
by pafaustine | 05/06/01 at 07:43:05
Hi Curtis,
Well, I think you've gone beyond 'angst' this time. This is downright creepy! Though it sets the scene very nicely, I don't see it on stage. It's a piece of exposition that doesn't depend on the singer's character - kind of a narrator's song. And that seems pretty unusual for the theater.
Doesn't matter to me though. I think it stands on its own just fine. I agree with Dan that it doesn't need any more story than what you've givin it.
Now as for your mental health lately, well, as Ann Landers would say, "Please seek professional help."
Subject: Re: The Graveyard Shuffle - Time honored subject
by Curtis | 05/06/01 at 15:21:19
Hi Paul,
I wasn't sure about the Theatre thing, as I know NOTHING about the genre. It just seemed to be a very "story telling" song and painted a pretty clear picture to me, and music wise all I could imagine was some theatrical, telling score behind it.
It started with the title and developed from there.
As far as my mental health, you didn't qualify that statement with a Smiley :) but I imagine you were joking. I don't know why my themes lately have been on the darker side, but for some reason, they seem more worth writing about. I suppose I could write about flowers and love and sunshine, but just like a newspaper, people have a tendency to glance past human interst stories, whereas, the stories about another humans misery always keeps them reading. I would of course hope that being among writers, my audience understands the difference between "truth" and "fiction". Although I'm perfectly capable of writing on the dark side, I'm actually one of the nicest men you could ever hope to meet. Perhaps that's the source of "angst" in my writing, it's an outlet for those feelings I don't express on other humans...well... That's what Anne says anyway... ;)
Curtis
One other thing that I thinks contributes to my subject matter and that is that I am trying to write songs that would be suitable for a Modern Rock musical treatment.