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Tuneback: Eastern Standard Tribe

August 29, 2007 | Author: Joel Falconer | Filed under: Tunebacks

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Eastern Standard Tribe is a tuneback based on a book I just finished reading for the second time: Cory Doctorow’s Eastern Standard Tribe (yes, it’s the same name). I haven’t written a tuneback in a couple of weeks and love basing them on Cory’s work, so I decided that it was a good way to get back into it. It can be a hard job finding inspiration for songs in the ‘blogosphere’, as the tuneback guidelines recommend, but Cory’s fiction has always spoken to me lyrically and prodded musical ideas.

This is the third time I’ve written a tuneback based on Cory’s work and from the outside it probably looks like sheer fanboyism. While I’m a huge fan, I think it’s more the fact that the ideas and concepts in Cory’s work mesh with the musical concepts I want to create - even if, in this setting, I have to portray them in an hour or less. This song was a close cut, but I made it.

Eastern Standard Tribe is a song that broaches what I took as two of the main concepts from the book: the question Cory poses at the start, as the theme of the book, would you rather be smart or happy? and the betrayal of the intellectual that occurs when Art’s closest, most trusted friends turn on him for his ideas. This happens to artists of all kinds, all the time. Artists are preyed upon and thrown to the side when they have been used up, without a penny to send them on their way. It’s a topic I feel rather strongly about and which we regularly write about at the Free Articulator.

I started with the guitar on the song, crafting the almost-reggae sound and rhythm with the atmospheric delay, before putting together the lyrics and arrangement. It took me 58 minutes to put together, and though I was tempted to keep polishing and do a few more takes, I obeyed the rules, which is not always easy.

DOWNLOAD “EASTERN STANDARD TRIBE” HERE

What is the theme of this story?
What is the theme of life?
Do you want to be smart? Do you want to be remembered?
Do you want to be happy? Do you want to be content?
If you want to be smart gotta be unhappy
If you want to be happy gotta live in ignorant bliss
If you want to be remembered gotta go down in flames
If you want to be content you ain’t gonna be missed

 

Doesn’t matter where or when you are, doesn’t matter who or why
These lines are blurring between you and I
Hometime replaced hometown and nobody means to pry
In Eastern Standard Time, for the Eastern Standard Tribe

 

You can measure intelligence by the quality of your ideas
And when you got ideas you’ll get dogs waiting for scraps by your side
As soon as you ain’t looking, they’re gonna take all that’s yours
Your dogs are gonna leave you hung out to dry
Maybe in a looney bin, or maybe just dead, but someday you’ll discover
That all the pain and suffering could have been stopped in your head

 

Doesn’t matter where or when you are, doesn’t matter who or why
These lines are blurring between you and I
Hometime replaced hometown and nobody means to pry
In Eastern Standard Time, for the Eastern Standard Tribe

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 and is filed under Tunebacks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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2 people have left comments

Joel!

Awesome song. I really dig the vibe of your voice on this track. It’s got this “Doors” meets the modern rocker sound. Great song.

Quick tip: Don’t be afraid to turn up the volume of the drums … I could hear them mixed to about to about the volume of your voice.

Great Job!

Teft wrote on September 6, 2007 - 5:09 am | Visit Link

Hey that’s good stuff right there mate, enjoyed the Tuneback.

Nice work

Mick C wrote on September 15, 2007 - 7:02 pm | Visit Link

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Alfadir's Piercing is the blog of Australian grok rock band Midnight.Haulkerton, bringing you free songs, tips and guides for songwriters, musicians and band leaders, and Midnight.Haulkerton news.

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Sci-fi writer and great guy, Cory Doctorow.

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