Originally Posted By: Pat Marr
I'm late to the party because this hit while I was travelling, and I didn't have ear buds that would do justice to showcase songs. I skipped past all the other comments, so apologies if I say a lot of stuff that has already been said. Anyway, here are my thoughts:

1) The title is good use of Irony, as "Way To Go" is usually used in a positive way, but the theme of the song is anything but positive.

2) I thought the phrasing of the harmonies was innovative. Most people would have harmonized the whole phrase, but the choice to harmonize only parts of each verse gave it a fresh feel. I especially liked the harmony at "If you're hangin' around to see..."

3) I liked the alliteration:
"Cracked, Crumbled"
"Resisted Repair"
"Teetered Tumbled"
The fact that the alliteration only occurred in one verse struck me as a missed opportunity. Including it in both verses would have been a binding theme... in fact, the fact that it appeared only in the second verse makes me wonder if there was a collaborative split in the lyric writing, and the verses were not written by the same person. I think that if the same person had written both verses the alliteration would probably have been employed the same way both times.

4) I also like the interesting mutations of the same words in various places:
in verse 2 there is PASSED, PASSING and PAST
later in the bridge there is HELD, HOLDING and HOLD, all used in different ways. Very interesting attention to verbal detail!

In verse 1 I liked the segue between HEAVEN and HELL. I also liked the rhyme between LEAVIN' and BELIEVE IN

5) I liked the guitar intro, the way it flowed from low to high. I'd be very surprised if you said it just generated that way! I'm thinking you took pains to make that happen.

The fiddle is totally believable as a live embellishment to the song. And the backing guitar is also just perfect for the song! You couldn't have done much better at finding appropriate real tracks for the song!

I also like the sustained cello

6) I noticed that in verse one the written word was:"if you walk out that door, " but the vocals substituted "OUR door" for "THAT door".. a change I like, BTW, but it caught me off guard as I followed along with the printed lyric sheet

Like I said, I skipped past the other comments.. but I'm betting that if I end with "WTG!" it won't be the first time you've heard it! But it's exactly the right summary! Way to go! Awesome song in every way!

update:
in rereading my post, I realized I omitted any comments about the most important parts of the song!

Janice, it almost doesn't need to be said any more because your singing is legendary! But I want to say it anyway because you deserve to hear it! You have the perfect voice for delivering mournful lyrics, and this song was a good write for your vocal delivery!

Bud, you should count it as flattery that your mix was so seamless and invisible that I closed without even commenting on it! A mix that gets noticed is probably not a good mix. But yours is so clean and free from anything to comment on that the cleanness speaks for itself! Someday maybe I'll know how to do that! But until then, I'm glad you and a few others here know already!




Pat, just taking the time to write your comments is greatly appreciated. And the icing on the cake is that, as usual, they are incredibly astute. For example your observation that floyd wrote one of the verses is spot on. And that likely accounts for me not using an alliteration as I wrote mine first. You can thanks Mr jane completely for V2 and the bridge. And he came up with them in a few nanoseconds. Or so it seemed to us grin

Glad you like the irony in the title...cause it was intended!

Thanks for the comment about the opening guitar -- it is comped from several generations. I got lucky and was able to, hopefully, seamlessly paste in the first few notes also.

The fiddle was comped from many generations but the cello was just one generation (got lucky).

Your comments about the mix/mastering are hugely appreciated and your remarks about Janice's vocal put a large smile on her.

Thanks again so much.

J&B

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