All We Knew Written by Janice Merritt & ray cochrane
Vocal recording, engineering & production by Bud Merritt.
Vocals & vocal arrangements by Janice.
Mastered by Fran Ashcroft Happybeat Studio
This as total collaboration. It started as a lyric. Janice had written something resonant when discussing events from the past. That something stuck in my head. Weeks later I wrote a stanza that quoted Janice's words and, I hoped, her intent. I added a couple more, developing that stanza into a narrative. I then made contact & asked permission to develop the ideas into a song. With Janice's nod I did a bit more and sent the lot to her for editing, reworking etc. I also built a simple backing in BIAB. Janice read & listened, modified words so that the voice was authentic and modded the backing to support the melody developing in her head.
That done I tweaked & tracked away, updating J&B when I made a solid step forward. Bud recorded & processes Janice's "scratch" vocal. That "scratch" is the lead vocal still..some impressive itch. An harmony was added, the song went through a few mixes iterations, mainly as I fought with the solo track, and, once we were all comfy, it was off to the M.E. and it became what you now hear.
BIAB info:
NewWave Light 80s
Drums: RealDrumsSoulRock70sEv^4
Baritone Guitar solo: 2444 (there were huge problems with this...glitch sounds that weren't carried by the trem which suggests they're edits...much multiriffing and cut paste later it seems okay)
Piano: 2825
Organ: 673
ray bits:
Trem guitar: Squire Bullet, J.S.Trem & Spectrum Matcher
Bass: Vantage -> Alesis Microlimiter -> ReaEQ
Mixed in Reaper with NOTHING on the master/stereo bus
Exported as 24bit .wav file and sent to the M.E.
Lyrics:
When I asked my Mamma
why we moved here anyway.
Mama simply looked at me
There/Wasn't much to say:
Well, honey, your daddy
Your daddy he wanted to.
See, in those times,
those cultural climes.
That is all we knew.
When I questioned granny
As I was want to do.
Granny'd turn and smile at me
Like she always used to:
Well, baby, your grandaddy
It's what he wanted to do.
See, in my day,
Only men had their say.
& That was all we knew.
When I asked my daughter
What she proposed to do.
She turned her face and smiled at me
Like she always knew:
Well, mamma, any man I take
Will do what we agree to do.
See, this new day,
I will have my say.
& he'll believe in me too.