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Joanne Cooper (JosieC) gave me her rough idea for this song, words by her friend Peter Geech, and wrote "I think it could do with some “Gibsonizing” ". So I ignored her rough version and gibsonised it as she requested! She then came up with some beautiful vocals.

It is all BIAB.
vocals me and Joanne.
Train Surfer
Video by Joanne Cooper
Thanks Peter for the great poem and thanks to Josie for thinking of me.

It is also a free audio download
on this page

Train surfer up on high
Why’d you playing with that fire
You must have been high on the wire
You know you’ll land up in your funeral pyre

I seen you up on that roof and your body begins to morph
Riding that rickety snake as it rattles towards the big smoke
Street teen I see you lying back on your hips
And watching that coil of blue flash by
Always daring, never expecting that a change of tempo
Will ruin your death defying dance

Train surfer up on high
Why’d you playing with that fire
You must have been high on the wire
You know you’ll land up in your funeral pyre

And now the platform approaches and your fun and games are over
Others have been watching and they’ll be hoping to cuff you down
Your dismount happens to be the most dangerous part of your act
Your heart is pumping and your head is still dizzy
As you struggle to find a foot hold
As you climb down through the window
And there’s a jolt and a change of pace
You’ve run your race for too long now
The wheels of steel are waiting
As the train surfs in
Surfing in without its rider

Train surfer up on high
Why’d you playing with that fire
You must have been high on the wire
You know you’ll land up in your funeral pyre

RealTracks in song: 2149:Bass, Electric, NewOrleansBoogie Ev 165
RealTracks in song: 1293:Bass, Electric, TexMexCountry Ev 120
RealTracks in song: 2021:Piano, Acoustic, Rhythm CountryBalladJohn Ev 120
RealTracks in song: 1726:Piano, Acoustic, Rhythm HonkyTonkJohn Ev 120
RealTracks in song: 602:Harmonica, Soloist Train Ev 130
RealTracks in song: 2110:Horn Section, Background, R&B Ev16 110
RealTracks in song: 2407:Synth, Rhythm JazzFunkPlucky Ev 110
RealTracks in song: 1935:Synth, Rhythm, EuroDance EnergyStab Ev16 120
RealTracks in song: ~~591:Banjo, Bluegrass Doc Ev 100 (Soloist)
RealTracks in song: 691:Guitar, Acoustic, Strumming AcRockBright Ev 120
RealTracks in song: 607:Guitar, Nylon, Chet Train Ev 130
RealTracks in song: ~2201:Guitar, Nylon, Background CountryBrent Ev 120
RealTracks in song: 410:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm Country Cowboy Ev 165
RealTracks in song: 580:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm Blues Roadhouse Ev 120
RealDrums in Song: NewOrleansMardiGras8ths^01-a: Snare Groove , b: 4 and Hat
RealDrums in Song: RnBClassicUptempo^04-a:HHSnr, b:RdSn
RealDrums in Song: BossaBrushesPerc^1-a:Congas, No Kit , b:Congas, Shaker, Triangle, No Kit

enjoy
Alyn, JosieC and Peter.

The story behind the song. In South Africa there are a whole bunch of youths who surf the trains in Soweto. Life is cheap for them. There is a video here It's a bit long at 33 minutes but flippin' heck![u][/u]

I like this song.

Great result from the collaboration.

Nice sound

Sergio
Crazy! Just plain crazy what these guys are doing (I saw the video). Alyn, JosieC and Peter you guys were very creative on this song. I think that you captured the essence of what these guys are risking their lives doing. Great collaboration on all fronts. I of course did not hear the rough draft but it appears that Alyn polished this diamond with his crafty skills. Great job guys!
Sonny
Alyn/Joanne/Peter -

Cool project. Watching those guys scared the hell outta me...

An interesting subject to write a song about. Both the music and the lyric had a "dangerous train" kind of feel to them.

Alyn - I don't think you used enough RealTracks... nice job on the vocal! All mixed together well...

The BGVs were cool!

Cool stuff.

floytd
Great collaboration. Wonderful subject for a song. Love the chorus.
The rhythm of the verse throws me a bit but certainly sounds train like.
Enjoyed hearing Joanne sound more funky.
Good one. Cheers.
Really a wild ride!! Love the driving train feel of the music. The groove is pretty addicting. Arrangement and production are wonderful. Particularly loved the BG vocal sound. This is extremely creative and interesting. Great job, great collab!! Love it guys! Take care. Greg
Originally Posted By: Sergio Guarneri

I like this song.

Great result from the collaboration.

Nice sound

Sergio

Thanks Sergio, we are all glad you liked it

Alyn
Originally Posted By: SRP
Crazy! Just plain crazy what these guys are doing (I saw the video). Alyn, JosieC and Peter you guys were very creative on this song. I think that you captured the essence of what these guys are risking their lives doing. Great collaboration on all fronts. I of course did not hear the rough draft but it appears that Alyn polished this diamond with his crafty skills. Great job guys!
Sonny


Thanks for the praise Sonny, I'll pass it on

Alyn
Originally Posted By: floyd jane
Alyn/Joanne/Peter -

Cool project. Watching those guys scared the hell outta me...

An interesting subject to write a song about. Both the music and the lyric had a "dangerous train" kind of feel to them.

Alyn - I don't think you used enough RealTracks... nice job on the vocal! All mixed together well...

The BGVs were cool!

Cool stuff.

floytd


Yeh there are a few RTs not all running at the same time tho' laugh as I made loops out of some of them. And then the old slice and dice
Glad you liked the mix tho' as that was the hardest part.

Alyn
Until the this moment I'd never heard of train surfing. grin

Catchy collab!
Originally Posted By: RichMac
Great collaboration. Wonderful subject for a song. Love the chorus.
The rhythm of the verse throws me a bit but certainly sounds train like.
Enjoyed hearing Joanne sound more funky.
Good one. Cheers.


The rhythm in the verse was meant to be edgy to try and portray the danger.
Yeh Funky Jo really got down with her vocals grin
glad you enjoyed

Alyn
Very cool collab everyone. A gibsonisation and and Josie C- section. Now that is a unique subject and a unique production. That sure is a lot of real tracks. Very very entertaining. A very creative effort by all three. Tom
Interesting topic and nicely done. Thought the harmonica fits really well. Bu the stand out was the vocal phrasing - getting those words to fit Alyn was very clever.
Hey team.

Great rolling backing with excellent vocals and a super video.

Never heard of train surfing but it sounds like fun.

Can't wait to try it.

ROG.
Thanks all for the comments about this collaboration. Alyn really did an absolutely wonderful job of this production. Thank you Alyn!

I just wanted to add a little to the story of how this song came about

We were having a lovely family spring break in Groot Mario in August and I was strumming away on my guitar (as usual). Pete was inspired by my recent collaboration with John C Gull on "Cecil the Beautiful". Pretty soon after the weekend, Pete drove over to my house and presented me with two hand written poems scratched out in long hand on plain A4 paper. One was titled "Train Surfer" and the other was titled "Toxic Surfer".

I took "Train Surfer", put a blues progression to it, modified a few lines, molded a chorus and then did a very rough recording. I also did some investigation to see if I could secure some train surfing footage. I was depressed to learn that it would cost a gazillion dollars per second to use bona fide train surfing footage and obtaining the footage myself was near impossible. So I filed the song away for another day.

Then Alyn posted "Old man rapper" which I absolutely loved and had the idea to ask Alyn if he would like to collaborate on Train Surfer. Alyn, in true spirit, jumped right in hands and feet. Some mp3's and wav files flew back and forth between Wales and South Africa and after some very hard work from Alyn, this song was produced.

Thank you Alyn and Peter. What a wonderful rendition!

Btw the youths in Soweto don't have money for hanggliding so they take up train surfing instead.
Hi Alyn, Joanne and Peter,

what a great collab! A very interesting topic.
The music transports that "rhythmic danger" very well.
Very interesting arrangement. Liked the vocals and the background vocals.

Guenter
Hi, Alyn, Jo & Peter !

What a fun song so superbly
executed tune both vocally
and instrumentally !

I enjoyed this really much !!!

Cheers
Dani
A great collaboration and a great production by the entire team. Excellent vocals - perfect Gibsonizing -

Terrific backing vocals
Smiled all the way through this song. Very original idea. Most entertaining.
I do hear a touch of Trex Im sure.
Rob
Originally Posted By: Sundance
Until the this moment I'd never heard of train surfing. grin

Catchy collab!


I had heard of it happening in India, what a fun hobby....NOT

glad you enjoyed

Alyn
Originally Posted By: tommyad
Very cool collab everyone. A gibsonisation and and Josie C- section. Now that is a unique subject and a unique production. That sure is a lot of real tracks. Very very entertaining. A very creative effort by all three. Tom


Thanks for listening and the praise.
As I wrote in my reply to floyd I used snippets from them all as samples, only a few ran continuously. I just sorta got carried away grin

Alyn
Originally Posted By: PeterF
Interesting topic and nicely done. Thought the harmonica fits really well. Bu the stand out was the vocal phrasing - getting those words to fit Alyn was very clever.


Thanks Peter,
You mentioned the 2 parts that were time consuming, going through the harmonica RT to get the rhythm right drove me mad!
I practice singing every song I do as I write them in BIAB so I soon noticed the bits that needed to be worked on. The hard part with the words was not tripping up on them.

Thanks for listening

Alyn
Originally Posted By: ROG
Hey team.

Great rolling backing with excellent vocals and a super video.

Never heard of train surfing but it sounds like fun.

Can't wait to try it.

ROG.


Train surfing cetainly beats the British sport of folding neatly one's copy of the Financial Times, looking at one's watch and tutting when the train is yet again delayed because of the "wrong type of rain" grin

glad you enjoyed

Alyn
Thanks Josie for the invite laugh

Alyn
Hi Alyn,

I really like what you've done with Peter's poem. It's excellent. The phrase 'hiphip alla gibson' springs to mind smile Hmm... that looks good in the instruction area above the stave. There's nothing like a bit of Italian music terminology to add a touch of class...



Seriously, though, you and Joanne have done a really awesome job with this audio and video. Top notch all the way!

All the best,
Noel


Originally Posted By: floyd jane
Alyn/Joanne/Peter -

Cool project. Watching those guys scared the hell outta me...

An interesting subject to write a song about. Both the music and the lyric had a "dangerous train" kind of feel to them.

Alyn - I don't think you used enough RealTracks... nice job on the vocal! All mixed together well...

The BGVs were cool!

Cool stuff.

floytd


Yeah, I'm down with floyd...that paucity of tracks is really notable smile

Y'all have fertile imaginations that go waaaaaaay beyond my more pedestrian approach to writing.

Other than the aforementioned virtual lack of RT's we most enjoyed this entire production
including the video. Again, as mr jane alluded to .... dark and scary.

Assuredly interesting and enjoyable!

J&B
Originally Posted By: boehm
Hi Alyn, Joanne and Peter,

what a great collab! A very interesting topic.
The music transports that "rhythmic danger" very well.
Very interesting arrangement. Liked the vocals and the background vocals.

Guenter


Thanks Guenter,
I spent a lot of time trying to achieve that train rhythm; wasn't too happy with the result ,but gald it worked

Alyn
Originally Posted By: dani48
Hi, Alyn, Jo & Peter !

What a fun song so superbly
executed tune both vocally
and instrumentally !

I enjoyed this really much !!!

Cheers
Dani


Cheers Dani,
Good to hear from you and thanks for listening

Alyn
Originally Posted By: Charlie Fogle
A great collaboration and a great production by the entire team. Excellent vocals - perfect Gibsonizing -

Terrific backing vocals



Thanks Charlie,


Thanks for listening and for the praise

Alyn
Originally Posted By: Rob4580
Smiled all the way through this song. Very original idea. Most entertaining.
I do hear a touch of Trex Im sure.
Rob


Cheers Rob,

Not too sure what you mean by Trex. I assume you mean Marc Bolan not the largest land carnivore of all time, so I take that as a compliment, Thanks grin

Alyn
Originally Posted By: Noel96
Hi Alyn,

I really like what you've done with Peter's poem. It's excellent. The phrase 'hiphip alla gibson' springs to mind smile Hmm... that looks good in the instruction area above the stave. There's nothing like a bit of Italian music terminology to add a touch of class...



Seriously, though, you and Joanne have done a really awesome job with this audio and video. Top notch all the way!

All the best,
Noel


Haha,
I do like that, thank you. This song certainly needs a bit of class crazy
Joanne had a great idea and i am so glad I did Peter's lyrics justice.

thanks for listening, and all the best down there in the sun cool

Alyn
Originally Posted By: Janice & Bud
Originally Posted By: floyd jane
Alyn/Joanne/Peter -

Cool project. Watching those guys scared the hell outta me...

An interesting subject to write a song about. Both the music and the lyric had a "dangerous train" kind of feel to them.

Alyn - I don't think you used enough RealTracks... nice job on the vocal! All mixed together well...

The BGVs were cool!

Cool stuff.

floytd


Yeah, I'm down with floyd...that paucity of tracks is really notable smile

Y'all have fertile imaginations that go waaaaaaay beyond my more pedestrian approach to writing.

Other than the aforementioned virtual lack of RT's we most enjoyed this entire production
including the video. Again, as mr jane alluded to .... dark and scary.

Assuredly interesting and enjoyable!

J&B


I did wonder if there were enough RTs crazy I didn't realise how few many I had actually used.

So glad you-all enjoyed this, wouldn't this forum be so boring if we all posted similar style songs,
And it certainly shows what a great program BIAB can be.

Thanks from Joanne, Peter and me for the nice comments

Alyn
Alyn, Josie and Peter,

Very good song, well sung and great video!

Rob and Anne-Marie
Originally Posted By: RnAM
Alyn, Josie and Peter,

Very good song, well sung and great video!

Rob and Anne-Marie


Thanks Rob and Anne Marie.
Joanne did a wonderful video, didn't she

so glad you both enjoyed

Alyn
Well now ...

That was really different, but in a good way. That repetitive rhythm was like a "drone of death" in my ears, which is very effective for the song. Loved the video ... pretty scare what they do!

And holy smokes ... that's a mouthful of words! Very creative and well-done ... great listen! Congrats to all three of you!

Alan
Great combination of music and video. Works really well. A mighty fine musical production as well.
Originally Posted By: Al-David
Well now ...

That was really different, but in a good way. That repetitive rhythm was like a "drone of death" in my ears, which is very effective for the song. Loved the video ... pretty scare what they do!

And holy smokes ... that's a mouthful of words! Very creative and well-done ... great listen! Congrats to all three of you!

Alan


Thanks Al,

I tried to make the rhythm a bit edgy so and glad it worked.
Yup, those words brought back the memories of my speech impediment when I was a kid and proved I had definitely overcome that p-problem grin

All the best

Alyn
Originally Posted By: David Snyder
Great combination of music and video. Works really well. A mighty fine musical production as well.


Cheers David,
glad you like our efforts.
Thanks for listening

Alyn
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