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Love that rhythm and lyric, DC. Memories of Elvis Costello's early manic beats. Mix and tracks sound great.
Vic Thank, Vic. Love EC, especially the early stuff with the Attractions, including Pete Thomas on drums.
DC Ron BiaB Audiophile Presonus Studio One ASUS I9-12900K DAW, 32 GB RAM Presonus Faderport 16 Too many guitars (is that a thing?)
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Simpler but innocently romantic lyrics. Melody is pleasantly smooth and the chord progression feels modern and ageless. The band is excellent, I really enjoy how the big tom drums provide the catchy groove. And those lovely guitars... so nice pop sound, especially when mixed this perfectly. Guitar fills add small, but important ingredient to the whole. Vocals are tender and wistful, harmonies are sweet as always. You have made consistently high quality pop songs over 40 years, songs that don't get boring even when played on repeat, amazing  Janne Hi, Janne. THANKS for the nice review! I like those toms, too, but received enough feedback that I changed the drum arrangement to give the listener some relief. Have to admit, it does change the original dynamic significantly, but I think the resulting mix is dynamically superior while not giving up too much. Such is art. Even though these lyrics are over 40 years old, and others I've posted have been up to 50, we've only been turning them into songs for about ten years. But we're making up for the lost time, or trying to. 
DC Ron BiaB Audiophile Presonus Studio One ASUS I9-12900K DAW, 32 GB RAM Presonus Faderport 16 Too many guitars (is that a thing?)
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Hi Ron! A great song! I have a lot of affinity with the lyrics - girls I liked but didn’t care for what I offered and were more interested in the excitement of other young men. I am so happy with the girl who liked me, then loved me, then married me …
Your mention of the toms made me listen more closely. They gave me the impression, along with the jangly guitars, of how life seems to pull you along at a speed that sometimes seems thrilling and at other times too quick to control. In 1981, I was 19 and life felt like that.
Knowing you write to your brother’s lyrics - do you ever edit his words to fit, or repeat a line to make it work musically? Or do you make them work musically as is? From his lyrics - what becomes the chorus, or has he already indicated this? I guess I am asking if he wrote poetry/prose or did he know he was writing song lyrics?
My only nit is I would have loved the closing guitar solo to go on longer - but that is small considering how good the song is overall. Well done to you both.
Andrew Thanks, Andrew! To answer your question, the lyrics in the original post are a cut-and-paste from the lyric sheet he sent me. This is standard for us. I don't ever change the lyrics (on purpose) but I do often recycle a line, title, chorus, etc to serve the song. On this one I recycled the "We were kids..." section at the end instead of ending at "...more than friends from the start" as I thought it provided a nostalgic bookend. Plus the song was running short. I also sometimes will ad lib an accent like "yeah" if it serves the song. Once I ad libbed a line ending in "Hindu" with a "doo doo doo doo" BGV. That was fun, too. You got the toms exactly as intended, which is cool for me. At any rate I did update the mix to intersperse the tom fills with another RealDrum from the same drummer. It provides a different overall feel from what I originally intended, but I like the effect. The outro guitar fills were just a way of letting the song unwind a bit after the "We were kids..." section (and those toms!) pumped the dynamic up. If I had added another 4-bars I likely would have placed a harmonized second guitar over the same theme. But if I'm out of lyrics at the 3:00 minute mark, I usually quit. And so I did here.
DC Ron BiaB Audiophile Presonus Studio One ASUS I9-12900K DAW, 32 GB RAM Presonus Faderport 16 Too many guitars (is that a thing?)
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Ron, I'm so glad you retrieved this song from your archives. This is an outstanding song. Great lyrics and vocal. Super guitar tracks, backing band, and mix. Loved it!
OK, a random thought; Why does toilet paper need a commercial? Who's not buying it?
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
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Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.
ChatPG's knowledge base includes the full Band-in-a-Box User Manual and sales information from the website.
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Band-in-a-Box 2026 for Mac Videos
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Update to Build 10 of RealBand® 2026 for Windows®!
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