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All posts for the month March, 2014

Here we begin some demos from Act One.

Were these demos ever recorded to be the polished, definitive versions of these songs?

Nah.

Did I have a ton of money to spend on a band to play them?

Uh uh.

Did I have all the groovy gear then that I have now so they could sound as good as an up-to-date studio can make them?

Er…,would you believe they were all recorded on a 4 track and then later an 8 track cassette porta-studio?

Am I making excuses?

You bet, and if I were reading someone else’s account I’d probably be thinking, “Stop with the excuses and get on with it.”

Oh, and here are a couple more EXCUSES.

The demos were only intended to be a guide for my co-writers and myself to have some idea of how the show would sound. I’m playing and singing all the parts and they were done fast, like first or second takes.

Anyway, this story runs chronologically. Right now it’s all about what resources I had back then and what I was able to do despite their limitations.

One last question. Do these demos show the amazing musical promise and potential that this show can achieve?

Oops, one more. Are they good, well crafted songs with engaging lyrics?

Absolutely, and I can’t wait to hear them performed by a real blues band and singers.

Okay, as you read in the last post, Odelle has won the big bout with Turk McGraw in an amazing upset. There’s going to be a big party in the Venetian Room at Hank Desmond’s hotel to celebrate the victory. Odelle has turned down offers of rides to the party because he needs to ‘wind down’. As he’s walking to the hotel, a figure emerges from the shadows. It is Jimmy Shine, an old pal he’s known since childhood. Jimmy has just been released from prison. Jimmy has heard rumors about Odelle having an affair with a white woman. Odelle, jubilant in his love for Mona Desmond, sings this account to Jimmy.

She’s Some Lady

1

She’s some lady, she’s so fine, she means everything special to me.

I’m her baby and she’s mine, my heart opened with the turn of her key.

She’s my blessing from heaven, my seven-eleven, a light to make a blind man see.

Now this lady, she’s got eyes that pick you up and drink you in.

2

This lady, she got a soul that’s never known the taste of sin.

Her heart makes me stronger, I’m glad I’m no longer on the outside lookin’ in.

She gives me her strength when I’m feeling weak, her ocean of love it’s deeper than deep,

And she takes me, she takes me and lifts me up in the air.

Her magic it move me, her spell it undo me and scatters me everywhere.

Repeat first verse.

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