Project 28: David Bowie’s Hunky Dory
Songs were assigned in advance.
All songs will be due on November 18 and posted that weekend.
Changes
By Bill Fricke
Irony abounds for this one. Neil was originally slated to cover Changes, but due to changes in his work schedule, his changes prevented him from doing Changes. He asked if I might step in and see if I could do it with one week left. I’m always up for a challenge. I accepted. I was able to learn and record this in about 12-15 hours over several two-to-three-hour sessions during the week. I am not a piano player, and my keyboard is tiny, so I had to split a lot of things up into pieces. Which, proved to be beneficial for getting this done.
Normally, I would waste a lot of time trying to play all the way through and if I made a mistake, I’d start over. There are funky time ch-ch-changes so click track became almost useless. Breaking things down into bite sized pieces made it possible to get through this.
I learned a lot from this one. I hope you enjoy it.
Oh you Pretty Things
By Andrew Charon ft. Lucy Reverie
Taking on the challenge of covering this song proved to be quite an undertaking. While I had casually listened to the album in the past, it wasn't until the last month that I truly immersed myself in it. During the creative process for this particular song, I explored two distinct paths: a simple and minimalistic approach, and an alternate version that delved into complexity and intricacy. Ultimately, I decided to scrap the alternative version in favor of the simpler one, as it was simply more enjoyable to listen to. IE, the alt version ended up to be a bit of a mess.
I decided against recording vocals myself and instead collaborated with a vocalist Lucy Reverie. (As a side note, I did take on the challenge of providing vocals for project 27, and I must acknowledge myself for tackling that, but this one needed something better). Lucy chose a path that added a touch of elegance and delicacy to the overall sound, contributing to the final rendition of the song.
Eight Line Poem
By Noah Warren
I recorded a scratch track for this a while back just to see if I could bang through it and hit all the keys. I had an elaborate plan of incorporating strange instruments. I really wanted the instrument featured in Tom Waits' November. I looked it up and found out it was a musical saw and not impossible to learn (I even have a bow on hand). However it never came together and I was losing my voice, so I ended up turning in this version- maybe someday I'll get a saw going- I love that sound. I found a rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow on saw that makes me believe this song was intended only to be played that way.
Life on Mars?
By Mike Bettison ft. Emmaline Muchmore
This was a fun project. After a little research I was amazed to see how many people have covered this song. Lots of inspiration. And I had a unique opportunity to collaborate with my friend Emmaline Muchmore on the vocals. I'm really happy with how it turned out! The instrumentation centers around the piano - layered The Grandeur (NI) and Ableton's sampled grand. I programmed from sheet music. I layered the bass with bass guitar, double bass (in the buildup parts) and piano. I kept the drums super simple. For vocals we recorded the lead three times and also did a whisper track and some harmony tracks. I spent a lot of time just trying out different layering options to bring out Emmaline's remarkable performances.
Kooks
By Tom Stromsodt
Quicksand
By Colby Heston
Fill Your Heart
By Jon Hart
Andy Warhol
By Chad Haugejorden
Song for Bob Dylan
By Bill Fricke
This one was a little easier, but still challenging. I kept it fairly straight forward. Bowie’s vocals are weird and it was hard to try to come up with some kind of melody that worked. I toyed with singing it like Bob Dylan, but thought the better of it. Got to do a little “Brian May” guitar stacking by the third verse. His original version goes into an almost “Cripple Creek” vibe for the chorus, which was initially what attracted me to offer to cover this.
Queen Bitch
By Kelly Duclos
Bewlay Brothers
By Barrett Haroldson ft. Neil Fasen
I like how simple and emotive this song is and so decided to deconstruct it into a more ambient soundscape. I originally used a piano as a scratch track to replace the vocal melody. I felt a bit stuck and was really missing the lyrics so asked Neil if he’d record the vocal. I used a guitar sustainer called a Sound Stone to get a ton of variation with the guitar swells to layer over the keys. I’m happy with how all of the elements came together.