Backwards guitars!  I’ve been working with the original recorded material for “Nothing Can Hold Me Back” to see what some digital editing enhancements might add — adding 1 extra guitar part before starting the edits.  So this is the same source material as the previous post — only tweaked in Pro Tools.  Having lots of fun turning the guitar parts backwards (huge Beatles fan) and adding some vocal mic and amp effects.  More updates on this one will follow.  See my last post (below) for lyrics.

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...from backwards guitars

I’m taking a sidetrack from “Now’s When”, which I’m finding difficult to get a good vocal track on.  (Let’s just say that Winter 2009/10 will be remembered as the “winter of phlegm” for this—ahem—”vocalist”.)  As a diversion, I’ve started to record a 17-year-old song called “Nothing Can Hold Me Back”.  This song is darker, with the chorus turning the positive “Nothing can hold me back” upside-down with “from a fall”.  I always loved the way John Lennon would do that to a McCartney write.  That device was a big inspiration for this.

Dubbed as “Big Philly Rock Hit” by the boys in the Thangs (don’t worry, you’re not the only one who’s never heard of the them), this song was written around 1992 while we were begging for gigs in downtown clubs.  This recording was begun in late-January 2010.

Sonically, this is a good example of how I’ll quickly record and mix a demo for myself once a song is written, then listen off and on for a week or so to see what parts I want to change, mix differently, re-record etc.  Pardon the vocal done in one take — these days I steal the time I can to record.  Randy on Idol might call it “a little pitchy dog”.  And so it goes for this fermenting songwriter; an update with new vocals and harmony, a true guitar solo will come when more direction forms over a few listens.  Some of these tracks will be saved, some will be trashed and replaced.  But I thought I’d post.  I think it needs a better incorporated chorus riff.  I do like a dirty intro and ending like this anymore though … and had fun running the vocal through the little box amp.

It’s very interesting to record a song with words and chords finished almost 20 years ago.  There’s a deep knowing of the song — like an old friend trying on new clothes: it’s fun to try on different trousers and see what works … and what’s silly-looking.

A low, low quality mp3 here being shared here.  I’ll be happy to email you a 320kbs instead of this dreadful 128.

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You’ve got nothing to worry about
with life so pretty and all,
the wild flowers you hold in your hand
while those bugs creep and crawl,
you say it’s just like me
to see the underside of it all

Get to know me and learn my real name
I’m Mr. Negativity,
perfect one way, I can’t keep it the same
it’s in the way that I see
when you say you feel the same
I say “I don’t feel different at all”

Nothing can hold me back — from a fall
Nothing can hold me back
I’m here to push us over that wall,
Nothing can hold me back — from a fall

Get something I want, I don’t want it no more
strange disease,
passes me by I kick and scream on the floor
it’s in the way that I see,
when the light’s shining on you
you’ll find me where the shadows fall

©Jerry Buckley – words and music by Jerry Buckley