Fierce storm
There’s a big storm in the British Isles today. I just measured a wind gust of 81mph! It is rocking the Nutmeg to her foundations…. er, bilges. Small domestic animals flying past the windows. No ships to be seen on the North Sea, which is unsurprising seeing as the waves look to be about 12ft.
I just finished a remix for Interscope/Geffen. It took me five full days, which is what I budgeted to get it done. I thought it would be a welcome break from work on my own album, provided it went smoothly. The biggest ‘gotcha’ was if the label wanted changes. Fortunately I heard back from them that it’s a super-hot remix and they love it. It’s a pop tune, kind of peripheral to the Lady Gaga family (not her.)
I don’t often get approached to do remixes. It’s the first paid work I’ve done for a record label in about twenty years. I feel if I ever go back to producing, I might need a reel including a few songs from the 21st century. But I did enjoy it, and it gave me a chance to explore some recent sample library acquisitions, including the rather intriguing RA which is a collection of exotic instruments from around the world, published by EastWest. My remix featured Dubuk, Tambur, Thai gongs, and Panaang.
Getting this done and dusted in five days reminded me that I have to not be too precious with my own stuff. I should be willing to take chances, have fun, get it down—there’s always the <undo> button. Unlike in life.
Am now making a little video of the lifeboat to send to our friend Abdellah in Marakesh. Our gardener is going there for a holiday tomorrow, and Abdellah offered to show her around. So we’re making a little DVD for her to bring him. Walking round the lifeboat trying to do a commentary in French, and struggling to translate words such as Wheelhouse, Rotten Wood, Pot-bellied Stove, Wind Turbine. Thank heavens for online dictionaries.
Then later off to see ‘Amelia’ starring Hilary Swank. If only because she was the subject of one of my all-time favourite Joni Mitchell songs. I’m sure she won’t mind if I reprint the lyrics:
Amelia
I was driving across the burning desert
When I spotted six jet planes
Leaving six white vapor trails across the bleak terrain
It was the hexagram of the heavens
It was the strings of my guitar
Amelia, it was just a false alarm
The drone of flying engines
Is a song so wild and blue
It scrambles time and seasons if it gets thru to you
Then your life becomes a travelogue
Of picture post-card charms
Amelia, it was just a false alarm
People will tell you where they’ve gone
They’ll tell you where to go
But till you get there yourself you never really know
Where some have found their paradise
Others just come to harm
Oh Amelia, it was just a false alarm
I wish that he was here tonight
It’s so hard to obey
His sad request of me to kindly stay away
So this is how I hide the hurt
As the road leads cursed and charmed
I tell Amelia, it was just a false alarm
A ghost of aviation
She was swallowed by the sky
Or by the sea, like me she had a dream to fly
Like Icarus ascending
On beautiful foolish arms
Amelia, it was just a false alarm
Maybe I’ve never really loved
I guess that is the truth
I’ve spent my whole life in clouds at icy altitude
And looking down on everything
I crashed into his arms
Amelia, it was just a false alarm
I pulled into the Cactus Tree Motel
To shower off the dust
And I slept on the strange pillows of my wanderlust
I dreamed of 747s
Over geometric farms
Dreams, Amelia, dreams and false alarms.
(c) Joni Mitchell
Mitchell’s Amelia (I like the original over the orchestrated version) reminds me of the lost wandering feel I get from Flying North, Leipzig, and Suitcase, a search for some sort of ‘home’ yet remaining in transition. I’m wondering if this unsettled theme was what drew you to the song (other than the fact that it’s just a beautiful song).
As far as the film goes, the previews certainly seem to be pushing the love story angle. Why does Hollywood have to turn every historical event into a love story (Titanic, Pearl Harbor, etc.)?
Beech
The movie unfortunately was not a patch on the song! It lacked a point of view. I kept thinking of other films that did a better job with similar material–notably Scorcese/Di Caprio’s Howard Hughes flick ‘The Aviator’, which had a swagger to it that was altogether lacking here. Gabriel Yared wrote a lovely score, but it was the writing and editing that let it down. Shame!
I much preferred the movie we watched last night, Coco Before Chanel. Plenty of insight into the curious French way of dealing with mistresses, as well as amazing costumes from start to finish, which were really central to the story.
Any date on the release of the remix? Would love to hear it. What other remixes have you done before? Can’t remember that I’ve heard any of ‘em. I know that my remixes sound a lot different then my own music so it would interesting to check it out.
Hi, Thomas! If Joni gives you any trouble about posting her lyrics, please let her know that at least one person had no idea the song existed until you did that. I went to iTunes and bought the arrangement on the Travelogue album, plus two other tunes from that release (Woodstock and The Circle Game). So thank you for telling us about it!
I had much higher hopes for the movie, I’m afraid, than it fulfilled. I wish the fine actors had been given a better script to work with.