Delicious Grace

[alcaponedudu]

Cool tub, John.

Regarding the lyrics... Yeah, it would be nice to have some advice on that. My first priority was to get the music itself right. The instrumental part. The lyrics came after. It just came like a ''wave of words'', very naturally. I liked the feeling of it.

I think John Lennon said something about George Harrison worrying too much about what words would fit the most in a specific song. John said something like: I just sing whatever comes to mind and then I'd rewrite. This way I can finish a song quicker.

 

[John Watt]

alcaponedudu! I decided not to take over your link and start a new thread,
and I really want to listen again and comment tomorrow, planning on being in my apartment.
I bumped into the businessman I've been making signs for at the library,
and he said he's got more work for me, and wants me to repair some furniture for two days,
so I really want to use my time tomorrow here.

John Lennon said a lot of things, and everything he said was to put your head through to make him seem better.
I guess that's what happens when everyone thinks Paul is the cute Beatle.
The early Beatles did have a conversational style of songwriting, coming from the folk and beatnik era.
Don't forget, the Beatles were a skittles band until getting a drummer with rock drums made them a rock band.
John got heavily into symbolic and suggestive lyrics, to go along with the LSD artwork,
as their own drug use took them away from singing and writing from the heart.
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is the only Beatle song I still do,
and that's about doing it because so many guitarists do it, and I do it Jimi and jazzy style, always better.
Playing with the bass strings on the bottom lets me drone upper strings for a really nice sitar imitation.

It's nice to have that feeling.
When other musicians talk about where the songs come from, it all can get very spacey or too trippy,
when one song can be a lot of work, or a combination of parts of other songs that don't work out,
or you can sit down and write the lyrics and hear the music all at once.
Just to let you know how wrong I can be,
I thought that song about "the money... money... money...", was Katy Perry when I heard it on other's radios,
but I saw a video and it's Jessie J, who probably is now my favorite female pop vocalist,
even if it's more about her legs and moves, seeing a live show.
Hey! I'm going to get a link. I'll be back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GReIQJc_1xw

She starts off a little too out of breath for singing the song,
and she's doing the stadium thing, but half-way through there's a nice musical moment.
She makes me think about what I was seeing in the music business around here in the late '70's,
strippers having the money to pay to record and becoming a singer in their own band.
Girls who said they were Miss Nude Texas usually made the most.

"Dark are the skies above, blue are the seas,
I know this love of mine, will never die, and I love her".
That's maybe my favorite slow Paul and John song from back then.
What they did that was different from folk and beatnik bands,
was playing in Gb, and other sharps and flats.
The British Intelligence Service also gave them a new invention,
that let them speed up or slow down their tapes without changing the pitch,
so they could speed their songs up or slow them down and see what sounded better.
yeah... how's that for a musical innovation?
When the American C.I.A. asked Magnavox to build the first two twelve-track tape recorders,
they gave one to Jimi Hendrix.
I still think Clan Watt has the best electrical trivia.

In a way, I can't imagine what it must be like to write a song in your native language,
and then try and translate it into another language, and still be as poetic with it.
Translating a foreign song into English is a big business in itself.
"My Way", by Frank Sinatra to Elvis Presley, is just English words to an Italian song.
Paul Anka, an Italian singer from Ottawa, did that. His first pop hit was "Diana", sounding fifties.
He also had a mob connection by the time he moved to the States,
and when he did the theme for "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson,
the deal was he got $2,000 every time they used it on the show.

I know you and I aren't the kind of musicians who either want to own a Las Vega casino,
or feel like we own it when we play there.
How many people are on the dance floor is better than the body count backstage.
I said Las Vegas, but the Ontario owned casinos in Niagara Falls are the same.

Unless you and I have a big cultural difference,
don't watch that Jessie J video if you're sitting with your girlfriend.

A couple of verses from a slow song I'm working on.

Darling you've been gone so long, it's amazing I still feel this strong,
times have changed and times have gone, how could I have been so wrong.
I don't know just what to do, when this cold dark night turns deep dark and blue,
you're not here to talk so what more can I say,
I'm just glad to have this old guitar to play.

I know for a fact that I don't have these words protected anywhere in South America.
Jus'sayin'.

"There once was a girl, whose heart was a frown,
'cause she was crippled for life, and couldn't speak a sound.
Until one die, she decided to die, so she took her wheelchair to the shore,
and to her legs she smiled, you won't hurt me no more.
But suddenly, a sight she had never seen before made her jump up and say,
look, a golden winged ship is coming my way...
and it really didn't have to stop... it just kept on going...
and so castles made of sand slip into the sea... eventually...

my favorite Jimi Hendrix, the third verse from "Castles Made of Sand",
and something tells me any castle made of sand looks better in Rio.

 

[John Watt]

"Delicious Grace", "On My Way to You", a music review by John Watt.

At the beginning of this thread, when I first listened to this link,
this song made such an impression on me I took it seriously, and at the time, really not knowing why.
Right away, the piano playing, the chords and sounds, reminded me of so many "hippy" California recordings.
When I say hippy and California, it's because that's where the technology to record yourself first became public,
making your own cassettes, video-tapes, even starting your own recording studio with left-over Hollywood technology.
The first few days, I kept remembering it, but I was trying to think of songs it reminded me of.
I could name a lot of bands that sounded like this, but one song didn't come to mind.
That could be because that was the late 60's for me, when I was getting into jazz and classical.

When alcaponedudu began to reply to my lengthy typing, he seemed sincere and to the point.
That's all you need to be to start anything with me, and as you can see, I kept typing away.
So did he, despite the weight of all my font.
Before I said anything about the song, I wanted to remember when I sounded like this,
a young man always putting himself into his music, not the pro getting paid to play.
My life, as I'm living it now, has created new, and just as deep, stresses,
that has brought my emotions to the surface, making me feel more alive, and serene.
And I don't want to be seen as trying to hurt the feelings of any new band or musician,
here at Magle.dk, when "tripping over" other musicians was an ordinary thing to try to do,
when being a lead guitarist was very competitive, before synthesizers took center stage.

So I can say I feel the emotion, I get the sincerity, and I recognized the recording style.
I'm hearing what could be a generic clone of early hippy bands, or southern rock bands,
but the chords move around and, with more chords being used, go beyond those older recordings.
I'm not surprised, after seeing replies, that the singer isn't singing in his native language.
The musical style is there, but it's a foreign version, singing with all feeling, but missing more personality.
I can type that, but if I was trying to sing in alcaponedudus' native language, I'd be far worse.
I'd not be missing all the English, or North American expressions, I wouldn't have the South American rhythms.
Towards the end of the vocals, the chords again moving to new territory,
I was reminded of some older David Bowie, how he used piano and guitar, with a Sargeant Peppers' influence.
And then the music turned, coming to a departure from the song,
and maybe I've been reading the postings of the professional classical musicians here too long,
because I'm thinking of a glissando, thinking a kind of cadenza, not the end,
not a crash and burn ending that became a cliche for most rock bands.
That's when the piano and guitar didn't just keep going, but find a new beauty in sound.
No, I'm not going to say it reminded me of Pink Floyd or any other slow jam,
using a piano with a tastefully distorted electric guitar, all using studio effects.
It's the playing, a beautiful interplay between the pianist and guitarist,
and just as I was expecting the guitarist to launch into your typical lead guitar shredding,
his riffs became part of the piano playing, an interplay, making more listening more rewarding.
This wasn't spaced out blues playing, didn't copy deep south or country-rock stylings,
and even if the sound was familiar, I knew I was listening to music from somewhere else,
somewhere else in the sense that this music was coming from foreign influences,
and somewhere else in the sense that the heart, the soul of it, came from a different native culture.

Now, that might be a lot to say I'm getting it just from listening without seeing a band video,
but I went back and put on some cassettes of my friends and I jamming in the 60's,
and early '70's, when I was a teenager and in my early twenties, how I think of these players.
We had all the new music at our fingertips, and we were also into jazz and classical,
listening to music from all over the world, as seen from the Niagara Peninsula in Ontario.
But we never sounded like this, hearing differences in riffs, even if the technology sounds the same.

My mind wanders, it always has. It takes a lot to get my full attention, I've heard and seen so much.
Seeing the artwork of the naked female statue, and thinking of the name Delicious Grace,
I thought calling the band "Grace Notes" would be better, as if the woman who posed for the statue had that name,
and for not being "Delicious Grace", what I hear as a slightly clumsy use of the English language,
but "Notes" for being the music, and "Grace" for being the delicate and meditative beauty of the music.
At first, I thought the name "Delicious Grace" was trying to be a play on a typical rock band name,
like Iron Butterfly, Led Zeppelin, Guns and Roses, names with a heavy contrast, trying to be heavy.
Delicious is such a word of the flesh, your taste buds, pleasing your senses,
when Grace is a word heard often with religions, such as being in a state of grace, or being graceful.
Seeing the nude statue with a piano reinforced that, not seeing a lover or any other kind of man.

This song made such a strong impression on me, I'm not able to make my usual decisions,
such as who was playing what, and who was singing.
Was it the pianist who was singing, and playing the piano kept the vocals down,
as much as singing in English, or was it the guitarist...
and it's so easy to focus on those two instruments,
because when the vocals come to an end, it only progresses with the piano and guitar,
no bass and drums, even I was wishing they would come back in.
There was enough of a classical interplay between the piano and guitar,
the bassist could have used a bow to sound upright, or used pedals for a low, organ bass-pedal sound.
That organ bass-pedal sound would easily accent the piano,
even if the bass player was just playing what the piano player told him to.

No no, I'm not going to confuse myself even further by trying to figure it out, or suggest more.
I will say, I'm more than willing to listen to another song, and this time,
it would be nice to see these musicians as they're playing,
because for sure, I'm not hearing a lot of synthesized machinery or multiple overdubs,
I'm hearing a real band playing some real music that makes me want to see them.
The only question I have of this Brazilian band is, do you take requests?
I have to ask that.
A band is a band, but a band that can take requests from the dance floor,
is the best kind of band to be in.
My girlfriend and I would like to hear a fast song.

 

[John Watt]

Just in case my review makes someone want to hear this song,
this is the link that started it all.

I hope viewers notice I did not have to edit my past posting,
remembering the music and feeling it as I typed away.

DELICIOUS GRACE: On My Way to You

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUwFibhINwA

 

[John Watt]

Before I see any reply, and that's hoping to get one, from alcaponedudu,
I want to make a point about the music business in the disUnited States.

Here is a new artist getting heavy promotion, the big news being five Grammy nominations.
She didn't win one, but that's what she's all about for promotion, getting five Grammy nominations.

Sza, that's her name, as small and empty as it is. Her first corporate album is called Ctrl.
Yes, that's a computer key name, as empty and only technological as that may be.
What comes next is her first corporate song and video.
Look at how cold, how faded, the high-rise apartment is, how florescent the basement parking light is.
Is she cold, half undressed, looking more a fashion model or ex-stripper trying to move to the music?
See for yourself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMD63TwzB1o

This next video is a live performance. Look at the adoring crowd and the wonderful stage setting.
Listen to her begin by asking what day it is, when it was a rock cliche to shout the name of the city you were in.
Listen to her non-stop use of hard-core profanity.
The music is so weak, so quiet in the background, her voice is more than half of what you hear.
The song sounds like the vocals have no relation to the music, conversational, ranting, with some oohing and aahing.
The video really tries to sell her, showing a band with an expensive stage set-up,
showing fans in the audience who could be fashion models themselves.
She begins the video asking if it's Saturday or Sunday,
and ends by god blessing every time she mentions someones' name or the audience.
If this was scripted, it was a very small script.
Don't believe me? Again, see for yourself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5taFnj9J7Jg

alcaponedudu! What is going on here? Are you feeling anything from this video and the music it contains?
Does the way she looks make you want to see more? I wouldn't call her a dancer at all.
Her insistent arm movement while she sings is very amateurish, and she hardly moves around at all.
When she's moving her rear from side to side, they dub that in from a behind the stage camera,
so they were all set up for that, and there are no dancers onstage to make her look untalented.
But no matter what I say here, this is what is being promoted as new, alternative r'n'b.
She talks about smoking blunts with her family... she talks about sharing her boyfriend with others...
and when you see how she's getting around, seeing her other performance videos...
she might even look like a star...
Some of the comments under her videos on You Tube question the reality of all of this,
so that's okay. I'm thinking, when she gets enough comments that really like her,
the ones' that don't will be deleted.
Hey! I just came up with a name for this kind of career, Dele music.
When you go to a deli, you're looking for a little of a specialized product you want, and then you take it away.
When you go for some dele music, you look and listen to what's trending and then you delete yourself away.
If you're making videos of you and your band playing, alcaponedudu,
please, make sure the camera gets to look you in the eyes. That's a basic thing for human contact,
and surprisingly enough, something many video makers don't do.

 

[alcaponedudu]

Hello John. Sorry for taking so long to reply. I don't know if it happened to you but I wasn't able to access this website.

Thank you for the detailed review you made about my music. John, I really appreciated everything you said. It just felt so good to finally read someone being so sincere.

About taking requests... I usually don't do it but for you I would. The thing with Delicious Grace is that we only play original songs. I got tired of making versions of songs I liked. I do have some faster songs and heavier songs. My background is Rock N' Roll. That's what I really love.

 

[John Watt]

Oh! I actually felt some anxieties, when I couldn't access Magle.dk. I've been waiting for your reply.
Playing original songs is best, and when I say request, that really is the difference between fast and slow dancing.
Yes... that's such a local thing, when you don't get rhythms or waltzes like you see on TV.

Getting into it with you has inspired me.
I wrote an email to the Toronto music store I first went to in 1972, ordering a replica neck,
so I could build my first left-handed guitar, and sell my right-handed, 1964 Stratocaster.
That's Ring Music in Toronto, who specialize in Fender and custom guitars.
I asked about a left-handed Stratocaster tremolo unit, so I could build a Strat copy.
I really can't just be an acoustic guitarist, so using a Strat and strapping on a portable amp is best for me.
And I've never sat onstage, so even if I started going to open stages for singer-songwriters,
I'd just want stand up and plug in. Everyone plugs in acoustics now, no-one miking them anymore.

You're saying you love Rock N' Roll, rock and roll, but I'm hearing the beginnings of classical and jazz.
Will you ever get into some r'n'b and funk, only time will tell.
I sold the small acoustic I used to make my You Tube videos, just for this domain,
but as soon as I get another guitar together, I'll put up me singing one of my songs.
And then I'll see what you have to say.
Oh yeah! Don't forget to say I have a place to stay, if I ever make it to Bra-zeel.

This posting was powered by the pure power of Niagara Falls, the first commercial hydro generation in the world.
If you ever want to visit to try the most viewed and historic electricity, you've got a friend in me.

 

[alcaponedudu]

Yes, John. If you ever come to Brazil it would be a pleasure to meet you.

Looking foward to hear your music. Is it a band thing? Or would it be just you solo?

 

[John Watt]

alcaponedudu! When I write a song, I always strum chords, playing along with the beat.
That makes it easy for me to jam out the melody, seeing what I can get out of it.
And then, depending who I'm playing with and how my guitar sounds, I arrange it.
Sharing a song for you wouldn't be me trying to do everything I can, expecting you to copy it.
I would sooner show you the basic song and see what you can get out of it.

I just got off the phone, trying to buy a full-scale Stratocaster copy.
Hey! I just got an idea.
Do you have Kijiji, or something like that, where you are?
If you can give me the address or supply a link I can look around,
and get a good of what's happening with your music scene.
In Scotland, it's not called Kijiji, but Gumtree.
In England it's called Eggslist.

Please remember I'm not hot on recording, never wanting to do that.
I've hung around a lot of recording studios, just being a friend,
and I've always got ideas for words and chords, and different styles,
Being able to use You Tube to make a video with sound is just a new kick.
It's not as much fun as getting my wah-wah and distortion going.
If I was thinking of a band production, it would be expensive,
and that's something I would never want to pay for.
If I was in a band, the most I'd want to do is make live recordings.
Around here, that could be done every time you play to sell at the end of the show.
Selling them almost as just a souvenir might be more profitable than marketing.
If you had a video of the show, also showing the audience, it would be a personal thing.
I'd be collecting in advance so I could mail or deliver a disc copy.
yeah... I can see delivering... yeah... even making a big delivery...

 

[alcaponedudu]

Hey John. How are you?

I live in the northeast of Brazil in a city called Recife. I'm not very keen to the music scene around here. Actually there are just a few artists that I respect and that's it.

 

[John Watt]

Oh! You had to ask how I am, when I'm thinking about the past.
And that's mainly about buying a right-handed Strat and changing it to be more lefty.

I've been telling you that I never wanted to record and played in showbands, dance bands.
Here's some scans to show you some set lists, if you can recognize the songs from the names.
In the Trouble Clef photo, the bassist on the left is nineteen, and the drummer on the right is twenty-one.
That's me in the middle, thirty-two. These young guys asked me to start a rock band with them,
because they were both playing in different country bar-bands.
The drummer sang the Billy Idol songs, and backed me up for the rest.

The handwritten set list was done by the female lead singer of a rock show-band in Toronto.
The last I heard of her, she was fronting a big band jazz band for New Years Eve,
at the new casino in Niagara Falls, about fifteen years ago.
I betcha she wasn't wearing spandex and crouching down on her haunches,
being sweaty and holding the mike out from between her legs and waving it around.
Sometimes I had to hide behind my amplifier to get her to leave me alone so I could concentrate.
I just joined the band to fill in for a guitarist and never did sit down to learn the songs.
yeah... Toronto... the only time the drummer wore some clothes was onstage.
He had a custom set of the biggest drums Ludwig made... yeah...
you can imagine his backstage presence.

I hope you can read the poem, one of the nicest things someone ever gave to me,
after hearing our band jamming one afternoon.

The Tribune stuff is there to show you I was a music columnist and part-time reporter.

The Niagara Falls Review article is there just to pump up my name.
The smaller ad is for a different band years later, using the same name and stationary.
The rest of the band didn't want to be in the photo.
That was a nice gig. The bar was right on the Parkway along the Niagara Gorge,
and many of the customers would go outside and cross the street,
to stand by the railing to look into the gorge, more smoke than mist down there.

I might be going for a road trip today to buy one of the guitars being offered to me.

When you see the songs we did as Trouble Clef, it was supposed to be a new wave band.
You might wonder how we did the songs that had synthesizer sounds and different guitar sounds.
I custom ordered a Redmere Soloist from Scotland in 1977.
It had three pre-amps, Fender, Marshall and Vox, with multiple effects built in,
some calling it Jimi Hendrix in a box. I paid $2,700 plus tax and shipping.
I took apart the foot pedal it came with, and bought 18 double-pull, double throw switches,
custom ordered from the United States, that cost $15 each wholesale, a music store helping me.
I separated the pre-amps and effects so I could use my feet to change it any way I wanted,
with three channels, and used LEDs so I could pre-set other channels and see what they had.
I wasn't exactly tap-dancing while I was playing, but other guitarists called it that.
David Bowie used a Redmere Soloist for Let's Dance, what sounds like the synth being a guitar.
Redmere is a Scottish name for a swamp that ran red with the blood of English highwaymen.
The new invention was a silent switch that let you change anything without making a sound.
I could put my guitar down, turn it up and kick it, and play with the knobs to make mini-symphonies,
or wars between the robots, or a locomotive starting up and running you over.
Having all the pre-amps and effects built into one box, without all the stage wires and different power sources,
which could include wall sockets, transformers and batteries, made everything sound deeper and cleaner.
My new stereo Marshall pre-amp system is better, being interactive with effects and volume,
as phasing and panning, speeding up or slowing down, nicer than a Hammond Leslie.
Now I know what it feels like to be taken up in constant flight. And then I get to sing.

A man who said he heard of me came down to see me working in the basement making signs.
He said he was a keyboard player who sang opera when he was younger.
He sang a song, surprising me, and that really made my day.

 

[alcaponedudu]

That was absolutely beautiful, John. Thanks! I could spend a whole day reading your stories. It feels so good.

Do you have something recorded from that time?

 

[John Watt]

alcaponedudu! I'm glad you share the feeling, that's all I ever want to do.
And your compliments are all I need to keep typing back at you.

Here's some photos of the guitar I bought in St. Catharines this afternoon,
and yes, there's a sweet feeling story to go with it.
On the way for lunch at a social services agency that has its own kitchen,
that lets me eat as a member, I got the meal of the day, a fish-burger with sweet potatoe fries.
I was a little late, timing myself for the bus, and they had a left-over fish patty on the grill,
so I got to double up. They had fresh salad left over from the day before, and I got some of that,
with my choice of salad dressing. I'm going to use a photo to illustrate me and food. Total cost, $2.
I got talking so much with young placement students I forgot to pay.

I stopped in at the store that wants to hire me as a strolling troubadour, where I made signs this week,
and he gave a bus pass with one trip left on it, saying someone gave it to him. That saved $5.

I made it to the bus, waiting just a few minutes, talking with a cute young college student.
She had a cake for her fathers' birthday, and said he played guitar too.
The seller lived right behind the lane-way entrance to the cinema parking lot at the Penn Center,
a stop on the bus route, so I only had to walk five minutes to get there. It's a beautiful sunny day.

He offered me the red Stratocaster for $90 with a black nylon gig bag, my first. I gave him $100.
He also had a green Ibanez full-scale for sale for $130.
He has a greenhouse business and brokers plants and trees for Canadian Tire stores in Toronto,
and this was his winter season, so we had a nice, long visit, and believe it or not, he talked more than me.
I gave him a nice guitar lesson, and blew his mind. When I started playing fast he leaned forward and shouted wow.
I showed him how you could use an open chord G formation as a barre chord,
to play chords that are G minor or major that can be Em or E major, adding a layer of effects driven sounds.
Those are called relative keys, in traditional music, but Jimi took them up into a new chordal relativity.
I say that, but Frederik Magle does that all at once with layers of keys and pedals at his feet.

That's my 1972 custom ordered Fender Stratocaster Tremolo Unit plate, showing this guitar is full-scale.
The black plastic tremolo arm came with it.
I went to Thorold Music, beside the Penn Centre, a three minute walk from the bus stop,
and they had a box of used tremolo arms, finding two that worked. I paid $9.95.
The other one was had a bigger angle and stuck up more, what I call a dive-bomber,
not the kind you have resting under your hand all the time, floating with it, for feedback control,
and what can be a constant being in tune and de-tuning that sounds better, floating your pitch.

The burnished aluminum piece is something I made to extend the right-handed horn.
I've been moving and dancing around with a lefty body for so long, I need the same balance.
It's not built in yet. That's a Fender Heavy Thick pick, what Jimi and Ritchie Blackmore used.
When you play with your fingers and have a pointed thumbnail for playing fast, single-note runs,
your thumbnail gets ground off when you're using round-wound nickle-plated steel strings,
and a heavy guage, tens for the first E, to have a more jazzy set-up and feel.
These picks heat up in your hand and stick to your skin, and are easy to palm or hold between fingers.
Just like Jimi and Ritchie said, the first two guitarists to use a Stratocaster and Marshall onstage,
I used to walk around with one in my hand all the time, getting that together.

I told you I wanted to make this a decorative guitar, doing some Haida symbols on it, so here' my newest toque.
I have a Haida style humpback whale symbol I made up, because they don't have one.
I'm thinking of having that swimming along the side of the pick-guard towards the end of the body,
with some smaller salmon rounding it out. You should hear me sing imitation humpback whale frequencies.
I want my next bassist to use a bow and get some sounds of the deep, saying humpback me up on bass.

I hadta round it out to six photos, so here's a tree in Niagara Falls with a lot of red.

I want you to realize, Eduard, if I remember your spelling, that your music and intense replies,
have helped to motivate me to get going in a new way.
And that's the only way I can get going, no matter what I do.

Oh yeah! I got an email from someone saying they had a lefty tremolo arm,
they want to drop of for me, maybe today. I said I'd pay $10,
even if he wants to give it to me for free. Anything lefty is rare.
I also got an email invitation to visit an open stage in St. Catharines.
Even I'm going to want to watch some video proof of that.
The first new song I want to get together is Crazy by Gnarls Barkley.
If you knew what was going on in my life in Welland, you'd say right on.

 

[John Watt]

As for your question, yes, I do have some recordings that were given to me.
People around, other musicians and the guys I was jamming or playing with,
would have a machine on, playing with their equipment, and sometimes gave me a copy.
I have to admit, sometimes when I listen to some, I think wow, I really did that.
What I play on guitar is more about how I sound and who I'm playing with,
but it's my singing I see as getting better as I grew older.
I listened to vocal coaches when I was hanging out with lead singers,
and they all said if you're going to sing every night,
you should talk quietly during the day and don't shout.
I've been doing that ever since.
And if a good-looking girl has to lean in closer to hear what I've got to say,
yeah... it works for me that way.
It's easy to type about all of this, but I've got to adjust the neck,
sand the frets on the left-handed side, sand the finish off the back of the neck,
put on new strings, set the bridge pieces with an oscilloscope,
add a humbucker by the neck, change the other pickups to new DiMarzios,
making a new pickguard for that, and for one volume control with a three-way Switchcraft switch.
Being able to use the Humbucker for mellow, jazzy sounds, and Les Paul rock sounds,
with the single-coil Strat replicas for Strat sounds, has been my set-up since 1972.
Using a three-way Switchcraft switch, with the switch in the middle for all three pickups,
makes a softer sound, a little quieter, that's perfect for finger-picking acoustic style.
It also lets me change from the humbucker to the humbucker with the single coils,
to the single coils, so that you don't hear any snaps or pops when pickups aren't on.
That's a five-way Switch, what Fender thinks is hot. It's not.
And why have two tone controls? You only need one, and for me, that's what your amp is for.
I don't need anything getting in the way of my hand and fingers.
Tapping different parts of a Stratocaster when you're using feedback is part of playing one.

I better stop typing. It's time go upstairs for the Flea Market, open today, Saturday.
I'll see if I can get the sign out on the sidewalk before Larry gets here from Fort Erie.
I'm not an employee, but his girlfriend is undergoing chemo cancer therapy,
and her mother is in the hospital, dying, so he needs all the cheering up he can get.
Thinking about your invitation if I ever come to Brazil,
is almost as good as the long distance bike-hike I can't go for.

Let me tell you this, alcaponedudu, don't be shy.
Just like musicians who are starting out who say they don't sing,
I say if you're going to sing you should start right now.
Sooner or later, you're going to have to sing backup to get the gig.
Society has changed so much with technology all around,
what your fingers do on the keyboard is just as important as playing your instrument.
You should start typing about yourself and see what your fingers say,
and your life in Brazil is very interesting for those who have never been there.
Even National Geographic is now admitting it was a racist and sexually exploitive magazine,
how it portrayed your people, and other natives around the world.
You can help everyone understand. You know that's part of what I do.

 

[John Watt]

I just want to sqeeze one more in before you reply, if you ever come back.
You should feel swamped here by the weight of all my font.
That could be me trying reverse psychology.

When I was on the road, playing six-nighters in different cities,
I decided to make it a challenge and go for free food.
All along, no matter what's happening, people are surprised I like to talk about food.
I could be the rock star, the lead singer, the lead guitarist, or a co-worker,
but when I spoke over the microphone I'd talk about what I like to eat,
saying maybe some audience members could turn me on to a nice local restaurant,
or invite me over for lunch or supper, to be the family I had to leave behind.
That worked for me. You'd be surprised who invited me over.
I also asked about canoes and paddling around, or playing tennis or pool,
and got invitations to do that.
As far as not looking for more alcohol or sex and drugs with everyone else,
being known for liking food and eating as family got me some very nice invitations.

The St. Catharines Standard is the biggest newspaper in the Niagara Peninsula.
They decided to have an annual picnic at the new water park in Prudhommes, by Lake Ontario.
It featured a huge water slide, and yes, no-one went to swim in Lake Ontario.
There isn't even any public beaches for that heavily polluted with chemical warnings water.

I was just invited as a guest, saying I didn't have to bring my guitar, and was a little fat already.
Being able to help cook the burgers meant I was passing them out and met a lot of new people,
and keep some going for me, getting them well-done and a little crispy.
That's one of my favorite Jimi t-shirts.

When I was invited to be a special guest at the Port Dalhousie music festival,
with streets lined with buskers and bands on every corner,
I was told that allowed me access to the organizers all-day buffet.
Some Port players weren't happy that someone from Welland got to be the special guest,
but when I got there with my famous guitar and a very nice portable amp,
and started jamming with everyone I met, I hardly had time to hit the buffet.

A St. Catharines Standard reporter, the first woman to cover the police beat, and very cute,
said she had free passes to see the Phantom of the Opera in Toronto,
and that's when it first opened and was a hot show at the rebuilt Pantages Theatre.
Do you think I turned down her invitation to go with her?
Did we end up kissing beside her car on top of the escarpment in Hamilton,
when I told her about my friend with the cherry farm with the best view?
I'll let you decide. I'll tell you this, I went for the black cherries first.
That view was looking over the entire city of Hamilton and Burlington,
with Lake Ontario past that with the lights of Toronto across the water.
When I lived in Toronto or was coming back, driving on that nasty highway,
I'd pull into Hamilton for the last 7/11 south of Toronto,
and take a Super Big Gulp and some munchies up the escarpment to take a break.
When I saw the farmer one year, and got talking, he invited me to help myself,as long as I didn't start filling up my trunk.
Sometimes I leave an envelope with money in his mailbox and comment on the cherries.
I went for a summer job picking cherries when I was in high school,
but I got fired before lunch because I was eating more than I turned in,
even if I was turning in more than most of the pickers.
Same with raspberries and strawberries.
I'd say 60% of my sign customers were restaurants, pizzerias and sub shops.
I'd be eating there, and I'd say I've got to eat and you need some signs.
That's all that took, and it's better to get behind the counter to make your own.

Now, how could all of that happened, if I was only there to sell a CD?

 

[John Watt]

No, I'm not trying to take over alcaponedudus' thread, I'm not trying at all.
This won't last long, but here's a link for a guitar from Brazil who now lives in St. Catharines, Canada.
I see so many immigrants who come here with art or music who think they are going to make it,
but they're doing stuff everyone around here grew up with.
I answered this ad, asking if he played Brazilian music and encouraged him to do that,
but he said he was heavy metal all the way.
He's got on of those ads with a video you can watch and listen to.

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-artists-mus...th/1340465213?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true

It's colder and windier outside again. I was I was back in time at that bar-b-que.
I tested the link and saw a new feature here for the first time,
warning and asking about continuing with this link when it leads out of the domain.
The as-yet-untitled Frederik Magle is either too nice,
or is being forced to comply with new American internet security regulations.

 

[alcaponedudu]

Hello John. Sorry for taking so long to answer you. I was travelling and got a little too busy.

I'm glad you have a new guitar. That's always awesome. I sometimes dream of a instrument or something. Good instruments are very expensive here in Brazil.

Next week I'm going to record a demo of a new song I made. Maybe it'll take a couple sessions actually. But this recording is not going to be in a professional studio. That's more of a homemade thing. The song is about brazil's present politics and politicians (I told you about that in a previous post). Our current situation is so bad that it makes me sick. Really sick!

 

[John Watt]

alcaponedudu! Hey! Don't apologize! If you have a life, that's your fault.

Getting this guitar has become more than awesome for me.
I've got a bass player and another very good guitarist wanting to start a band.
So far, after two days, no drummer. I thought a drummer would be easy.

I'm looking forward to hearing your new song.
I hope you mention the life-giving waters your nation is built upon.
I'd use a view looking into one of those ancient ritual sites,
and instead of the historic things natives threw down there,
you could show modern images to be sacrificial about.
Or you could be down there in a canoe pulling traditional values back up.

When you say instruments, what exactly would you want for yourself?

Here's how my lefty addition turned out.
When I played a right-handed Strat upside-down when I was nineteen,
I cut away the right-handed scallop for better upper fret access.
I also removed the right-handed strap-holder.
Saying my guitar was left-handed kept a lot of strangers from wanting to try it.
Now that I'm wiser, more mature, more gracious, more loving and giving, richer and better looking,
I did something for the first time, adding this extension so it straps on the same as my lefty,
and I left on the right-handed strap-holder so a righty can play it.
I'm also leaving the body the way it is.
It's like having a change in me staring me in the face.

 

[alcaponedudu]

Nice addition to your guitar, John. Never saw one of this thing before.

Exciting news! You're forming a band? That's awesome. Any ideas for a band name? I find that as important as the music is. For me it's like a combo: music+name+the look. The order doesn't matter.

Well, I'm looking for a Grand Piano (6' to 7'). That's very expensive here and hard to find.

 

[John Watt]

alcaponedudu! Wow! The only grand pianos I see are on concert stages.
Everyone else has a big synthesizer that does it all.

I like the name "gigsters".
I was surprised when it went through online as never having been used before,
so I could register gigster, gigsters and be gigsters.ca.
I would have thought someone during the big band and jazz era would have thought that up.
For me, gigsters means a band of players who are there to do the gig and be professional all the way.
That's a dream band.
If I got a bunch of old guys together who used costumes to be old old men,
who played like crazy and jumped around, I'd call it "Geriatricks".
Geriatrics is the science of growing old, and being Geriatricks is playing with it.
I say young people are hot to trot, but old people have geriatricks.

I have to mention "The John Watt Experience".
No-one will ever see or hear that. Never. It cannot be recorded or video-taped.
Part of that is because I do my best work in the dark.

Off the Cuff, Riverend, Mister-E, Barn Stormer, even Bandudu, It All Depends,
and as seniors, having Depends is important for long shows.
Sent A Mental....

Up until the late seventies, there were two companies that made electric pianos in Canada.
They both used two strings for every note, and had to be tuned every time you moved them.
They looked like smaller scale uprights, and the keyboardist could look over them at the audience.
When synthesizers hit, you never saw them onstage again, becoming souvenirs in homes.
I saw a few arguments where musicians said the pianist had to help move the band equipment,
before they stopped to tune up.
Finger Ring, that's not a bad name for a guitar based band.

So far, two bassists, three drummers, one guitarist and one keyboardist,
all online, no-one getting together to jam and see what happens.

Take a peek at the "artists and musicians" in St. Catharines Kijiji.

https://www.kijiji.ca/b-artists-musicians/st-catharines/c2l80016