Wave Descends....Studio Diary Dec 14, 2020

 

Next year will be my 50th year of professional recording.  Today, December 14, 2020 we mixed six titles in 4 hours.  Generally I would like to spend about 24 hours doing that kind of intense work, and emerge with about 30 mixes...but the team is quite efficient after all these years.

"Wave Descends" was a song I wrote for my third French album, The Intuition Element, produced by the legendary Jimmy Miller (Let It Bleed, Goat's Head Soup, Jumpin' Jack Flash, Gimme Shelter etc.)...recently I extended the ending to the 1983 rendition of "Wave Descends"...we ended it much too quickly, but one of my tech guys did a magical cross fade and it is superb.  For an example of one of the most famous cross fades listen to "You Can't Always Get What You Want" by the Stones.  Jimmy crossfades the London Bach Choir with the Rolling Stones and it is sweet.  As Jimmy said to me "The little old ladies in the choir singing "I knew she would meet her connection" - with a smile.   Not realizing (or did they?  Probably not...) it's a song about a drug connection.

                        

I saw her today at the reception
A glass of wine in her hand
I knew she would meet her connection
At her feet was her footloose man

Mick Jagger/Keith Richards  "You Can't Always Get What You Want"

WAVE DESCENDS / LES DESCENTES de VAGUES

Words and Music Joe Viglione

Copyright (C) 1983, 2020

English and French

- Les descentes de vagues - (Wave Descends en francais)

Thank you to Alan for the translation!

 

Je suis de l'ombre (I am from the Shadows)

tu ne sais pas ce que c'est

de sentir cette vague tomber la nuit

Ici dans l'ombre

dans la toile de ta lumiere

et j'ai besoin que tu me serres fort

que tu me serres fort

Chaque fois que cette vague me tombe dessus

et me pousse de l'autre bord

quand cette vague me tombe dessus

je n'ai rien rien rien a cacher

quand cette vague me tombe dessus

c'est une lueur si subtile

que je sens

juste ici

dans l'ombre

je derive dans des pensees solitaires

pour repousser le courant

je rassemble les forces pour cette nuit fatidique

quand je t'aime je le fais de toute mes forces

de toute mes forces

quand cette vague me tombe dessus

• In 2015 Carly Simon's long-time music director created a multi-track guitar/bass instrumental for me.  He did a great job, but I had yet to work out the new arrangement so we abandoned it until last week, December 8, 2020 when Mike, a world class piano player, entered the studio and put magic to tape, complementing the guitarist ...both musicians never meeting, the beauty of file transfers and serendipity.  Serendipity in that the combination of the two fell into our recording lap quite by coincidence, these two musicians would be totally perfect in a band together ...have to introduce them someday.
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• What's truly majestic about today's work is that just two musicians sound like a full band, the multi-track guitars with piano floating sparkling notes that are lively, a tapestry of miraculous playing.  As I told the engineer, no drums are necessary, don't want or need additional instrumentation ...the two influential musicians putting such a groove and flow together sometimes one has to know when to let the magic sit pretty.
•     Michelangelo is said to have created the Pieta by taking away the marble that wasn't necessary.  In a reverse of that, this producer likes what is already there and rather than over-produce, I would be content to develop mix after mix after mix after mix.
•       It isn't just the craftsmanship, as I said in the studio today, it's their "touch" of both guitar and piano that is so perfect...elegance.
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• These tracks will be on my forthcoming album, due first quarter of 2021.  Stay tuned.  9:37 pm....been on this since 1 pm this afternoon...
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