This is the last song for my upcoming cd release, and I’ve decided for now to continue
my tradition of having one Beatle song included. On my first cd, ‘I Am The Walrus’ was chosen
by my songwriting partner, on my first solo cd, Box o’ Chocolates, ‘Norwegian Wood’ was a collab
presented to me by Forum member Kurt Regner. This is the first time -I’ve- chosen the song,
I heard a connection between this song and their song ‘Within You Without You’, and so I included a bit
of that on the bridge(and outro). Imagine my surprise when I went to purchase the licensing and there were two listings.
One was ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ - and the other was ‘Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows’ - which
as it turns out was done by George and Giles Martin and the Cirque Du Soleil people for the ‘The Beatles Love’ show.
George Martin and I made the same connection! - though he beat me to the punch release wise.
In any case, my production bears little resemblance to either of theirs, so it’s all good.
My friend Richie Scarlet played guitar, and it was the first time in a while that I’ve had a player ‘in the house’
laying their tracks. Richie was a challenge, because he’s amazing, but he likes to come in unprepared
and just have me hit record. No two of his takes are anything alike - he just likes to play from the heart.
I got three complete takes and comped his performance.
Excellent track – it takes a cue from its psychedelic progenitor and then makes it something completely modern and progressive – pretty good work given it’s such an iconic song.
At first I wasn’t digging it, probably BECAUSE it challenges one’s familiarity with the original. But slowly you built it into something that is totally your own – the whole point of doing a cover tune, IMO. I also dug how you didn’t rewrite the essential ingredient of the tune – Ringo’s drum pattern, with the double-hit on the snare on the upbeat of 3.
Smokin’! I really like your version of this classic, I think the boys would concur. You have maintained the trippy sound they were so into at the time, yet gave it a fresh twist. Well done.
I decided to have a good listen to your song, rather than searching for the Beatle’s verson to see what that sounded like.
Very strong, and I think that guitarist got some of your style of energy … I bet he’d heard you singing before - You were both able to be thin and sharp yet with punch. Also, I loved the way you and he kept a kind of Eastern Romance throughout.
Nice! I like this fresh new spin on this classic tune… in fact, while I know it’s almost sacreligious to suggest a cover could better than a Beatles original… well, I for one certainly think this 21st century version gives the original a run for it’s money.
Nice work all round. Smokin’ guitar!
PS: Shouldn’t this be in in the “Made With Cubase” forum??
As long as the song has already been released in some format you’re welcome to do a cover. The owners of the work will be due any publishing revenue from it though.
And you’re right, if you do a cover tune just for fun or to post on soundclick, that’s fine. It’s when you’re going to potentially make money off of it that you need to pay a licensing fee.
You can actually do this online nowadays, as long as your run is less than 5,000 units I believe. (Beyond that you’re talking about royalty payments, if I understand it correctly). You just go to the Fox Agency website and locate the song(s) you want to cover and then pay the fee. It’s actually a reasonable fee, but if I recall, they add an “agent’s fee” too (of course).
Thanks, Doug. I appreciate your comments. I tried to make it my own, but not have it be so ‘out there’
that people wouldn’t relate.
Yeah, I wanted that Ringo beat to be in there somewhere, though not throughout as the Beatles did.
FYI - I used the Abbey Road 60’s kit from Native Instruments for the Ringo beat (with no added reverb - that’s the natural ambience from the overhead mics) - then I used the Avatar kit from Superior Drummer for the heavier groove that comes later.
Thanks for giving this your attention, Glyn. I’m glad it’s working for you.
Yeah, Richie’s got energy to burn. I can’t wait to hear his reaction when I tell him we’ve had an ‘Eastern Romance’.
Hey Mauri. thanks for your comments, mate! Yep, my arrangement. Richie Scarlet played the guitar, and yeah, he
burns. I was in his band in the early 80’s, and he’s had success as a hired gun for some names in the industry.
He’s toured with Ace Frehley, Leslie West/Mountain, Sebastian Bach, Neal Smith and Dennis Dunaway from Alice Cooper’s original band, among others.
