It’s time to let a new recording of an old original song out into the world…
When my dad passed away a few years ago, he left some money to my brother, sister, and me. The money didn’t last long. My wife and I paid down some debt, put some away for our kids’ college education, bought a car, and took a family vacation to London. With the last little bit, I bought a used iMac, a couple of decent microphones, two good speakers, and a digital audio interface (for you gearheads, it’s a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20). I downloaded Logic Pro X audio editing software and found an amazing series of training videos on YouTube from someone who calls himself MusicTechHelpGuy. (The videos were so good, I supported MTHG through Patreon for more than a year. I’m believer in supporting the free content we love). I went through the entire training course and re-learned the art of recording and mixing.
I say “re-learned,” because I spent a fair amount of my teens and early 20s in recording studios. At both The Loft in Bronxville, New York, and Ace Studios in Atlantic City, New Jersey, I learned how to mic a drum kit, how to EQ a vocal track, what reverb and compression did, and a whole lot more. But that was a long time ago, when the world was an analog place. (I suppose the actual world is still analog, but you know what I mean.) Sound recording today is decidedly digital. The concepts are the same, but the tools to get the desired result are orders of magnitude more powerful, and more complex.
When my band (Woofing Cookies) wanted a “stereo tambourine” sound on our song Girl Next Door in 1985, we set up microphones on opposite ends of the studio and watched as Scotty, our singer, ran from one side of the room to the other, jingling all the way. (If you listen to the track through headphones, you can hear the tambourine moving from the left side your brain to the right and back again.) While it might be less fun today, the same effect is cleaner and easier to do.
Armed with my new-found knowledge, and my shiny new tools, I set out to record some of the songs I’d written over the years, songs that hadn’t otherwise been recorded in a way that was satisfying to me. I have six “finished” so far (really, no song is every finished) and it’s’ time to release one into the wild.
The first of these songs I’ll share is called She’s Nearly a Saint. This was a song written about a woman who barely knew I existed, and who definitely never knew this song existed.
I think her name is (was?) Carol Costa, and she had the unenviable job of booking bands at CBGB, the legendary punk/rock club on the Bowery in New York City. I remember watching Carol handle all of the bands, all the egos, all the bullshit, with style and grace. It left enough of an impression on me to write this song. Of the hundreds of songs I’ve written over the years, ten, maybe twenty, are worth remembering. This might be my favorite of them all.
My vocals are pedestrian at best (though made slightly less horrible by a magical feature in Logic Pro called “pitch control”), and I play all of the instruments other than the drums. (The drums are Apple loops, which are basically prerecorded drum tracks you can mould to fit your project.) Anywho… here, for your listening pleasure, is She’s Nearly a Saint. Enjoy!
And Carol Costa, if you’re reading this, thanks for all you did at CBGB to help nurture young musicians, including me.
She’s Nearly a Saint
Words and Music by Len Vlahos
(c) 2022
[Verse 1]
Phones ring
Voices meander like waves beating up the air
None of those voices ever sing
She wonders if she even cares
[Chorus]
She’s nearly a saint
No one notices when she scrapes the ground
She’s never had the time
To hear pleasant sounds
[Verse 2]
Every garage roars
Take me in and give me your home
Her tired sympathy is getting bored
Why won’t they just leave her alone
[Chorus]
She’s nearly a saint
No one notices when she scrapes the ground
She’s never had the time
To hear pleasant sounds
[Bridge]
Run away
Hide away
Go away
Sneak away
There’s got to be an easier way
To face each day
[Verse 3]
Her ears ring
Deafened by noise of boys playing with toys
But the noise is nothing
Maybe it’s why she’s so silently annoyed
[Chorus]
She’s nearly a saint
No one notices when she scrapes the ground
She’s never had the time
To hear pleasant sounds