"Volare"


What a week it's been. Rocky road (but not with "rock" in the good sense). I feel 500 years older. I don't know how I managed without my processes before. I guess I was younger and could afford the waste.

My wip folder has grown with project after project that seemed straightforward but it turned out to not really. On new year's eve, I completed one of those "given" songs I'm sometimes gifted with, but it still shows several obstacles: in the heat of the moment, I wasn't sure if it the style was an OK homage to one of my heros, or if it reached the degree of servile plagiarism. Listening to it with distance, I think it has enough merit on its own, but it still presents several problems to be solved: 1) There is a difference in the tone of the lyrics; the first 2 verses were literal, while the 3rd one is poetic. I'm substituting the approach of those first two, but this process is a "dripping" one. The fragments are still coming. In addition, I have to redo the drums, which currently sound like a trainwreck.

There is another cover I'm working on, but I have to work the drums too, and my energies have been a bit short this week for the task.

And today I intended to record another cover, a guitar+voice quicky, but the song turned out to have a solo, and confronted with the choice of doing a goofy version or playing the solo, I decided to take the time to learn it, as it contains certain guitar techniques I want to look upon.

So today I publish a small recording I did last Summer, when it occurred to me that "Volare" could sound nice with a syncopated SKA rythm. (The song is in fact, wikipedia explains, entitled "Nel blu dipinto di blu", and the original author is the Italian singer Domenico Modugno).

It's just a quick rehearsal done with the two-track app, but it has the bonus that I had access to an actual guitar amp, and there is always this additional warmth in the sound when you are actually moving air... Very appropriate for a song that speaks of "volare" (to fly" :P )

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