2 Songs: Final Tracks for Spiritual!!! Moi???

Click the links to listen
 MOBILE #3    -    10,000 MILE WIDE CLUB 

Watch MOBILE #3 Video

 

Many moons ago, I wrote a track for a friend who happened to be in a wheelchair but lived life to the full in every other way. He absolutely would not be held back. He asked me to write him a song. Its theme concerned two men: one, physically challenged, yet positive and happy with life; the other was sound in limb, yet constrained in mind. And so I wrote Moblie. (A song, incidentally, played by the organizers at the LA Marathon '91, as a sort of inspirational message to the participants, of which happily I was one.) OK, so fast forward twenty or so (Yikes!!!) years, and the song's message somehow paralleled my present situation, only the duality of friction is contained within the one man. So, I re-worked it: tweaked melodies, beats, added new chords & melodies and of course the soaring guitar of the prodigiously talented Mindmovie, and hey presto: MOBILE #3 Nice!

10,000 MILE WIDE CLUB

A fluffy bit of nonsense, really. I was playing around with a melody & lyric: I can't find my way home. Hmm ... this prompted a plethora of thoughts & ideas. I like the idea of the lyrical image of The Mile High Club; I like the idea of a select rich group of folk prepared to travel to the ends of the earth to indulge their passion, espresso. So ... blah, blah, blah ... add another great performance by the man, the myth, the Flaming Bess legend, Mindmovie, et voila!

Wackel Dackel / Nodding Dog; I'm a Yes Man for your love

New collaboration with Mindmovie

Click below to listen

Wackel Dackel - I'm a Yes Man for your love 

Art: LRW

Well it looks like I am inching closer to finishing up tracks for the new cd: SPIRITUAL!!! MOI??? set for release August 1, 2013. With Wackel Dackel now in the bag, I need a couple more and I'm done. 

Around September, 2009, I spent an idyllic week in Zakinthos, Greece with Achim (Mindmovie) and the very lovely Maria, his wife. We had a fabulous time just "hanging." I forget exactly who brought up the idea (Maria or Achim), but it was suggested that a song about the nodding dogs that wag their heads in the back of cars would be a good idea ... Hmm ... Upon my return to LA, Achim sent me a Euro-ish thumping Dance track, which I promptly jumped on added some chord changes, melodies and lost interest/got distracted ...

Now, I don't know about other song writers, but the reason I came to a screeching halt with the idea was because I didn't have an "angle" for the song. To me, it is not good enough just to sing about nodding dogs in the back of a pick up, there has to be something more engaging in a song. Well, to cut a long story short, it wasn't until a month ago, I came up with my direction. What if the Wackel Dackel/Nodding Dog were not a mobile domed stuffed animal, but one hell of a Love Sick Puppy (human); a Yes Man who is slavishly devoted to each and every whim of his beloved (whom treats him with great disdain), and it is all he can do just to stay in the game, for indeed, Better an obsequious & wretched mongrel existence with the love of his life, than not. Surely?

- "Life without you, ain't an option, baby."

So, this was my angle. I picked samples of Achims original track, tweaked my vocals, added different lyrics, chords, beats and new melodies, requested the fabulous soaring solo-ing Mindmovie guitar finale and Bingo! -  Wackel Dackel (Engl pro: Vuckl Duckl). Also included is a lovely hi guitar figure & harmony by LRW (Laurence Richmond Whiteley) to give the choruses extra jump and color. He also plays the 1st solo. Thanks, boys ... and Maria W. Nice!

Lyrics: Robin Thomas Quinn © 2013

   Wackel Dackel (Vuckl Duckl)
 Wackel Dackel (Vuckl Duckl)

I’m a Yes Man for your love 

I’m a nodding dog, I’m a laphound baby
 

Hanging round for scraps of love from your door 


- I can’t help myself 
Wackel Dackel—Yeah, Oooh, 

Ahah
 Wackel Dackel—I’m a lapdog, baby 


Hanging round for scraps of love from your door


I’m a Yes Man for your love

   Ooooh, Wackel Dackel, Ooooh - Can’t get enough of your love

   What good is self respect when you ain’t got love?


When you got no pride, when you got no stuff?


The kind of stuff inside that makes a dude feel manly


Dandy, Stanley & glad to be alive.

   Something strange is happening to me


When I’m with you, bang goes dignity


‘N so again what’s the point of pride, 


When the candle lit dinner for one
 is a fact from which I cannot hide?

   I’m a Yes Man for your love


I’m a nodding dog, I’m a laphound baby


Hanging round for scraps of love from your door


- I can’t help myself
, Yeah, 

Wackel Dackel—I’m a lapdog, baby 


Hanging round for scraps of love from your door


I’m a Yes Man for your love

   Wackel Dackel - Can't get enough of your love

   I hate myself for loving you,

leaving's on my mind


But life without you's not an option, baby - Ooh. 

Hey, yeah
, I'm just a Yes Man, baby, hanging round your door

   Wackel Dackel, Ooooh,
   
I'm a lapdog, baby, hanging round your door
   Oh baby, Oh, baby.


Life without you ain't an option, baby

New Songs, New Videos, New Collaborations

Click to listen:  THE FUTURE YOU  -  THE HEARTACHE BABY

                                                                                            

The Future You—Video —Watch

OK, so I’m winding up my collection of songs for the Artie Q VI cd "SPIRITUAL!!! MOI???," and I’ve got about another 3 tracks to go until completion. Hmm ... I’d like to give a lil variety to my usual Electronic Pop sound, so I decide to call on an old friend of mine, the very fab AERONAUT, with whom I have collaborated with in the past, but nothing recently. Aeronaut aka Jef De Corte’s passion in music is classical; mine is pop. “You got any ideas you don’t know what to do with, Jef? If so, you wanna send them my way?”

One in particular catches my ear: Beside You; it touches the bittersweet melancholy nerve. So Jef sends me the music files and I begin to play; have some fun. As the track develops, melodies sing to me; though what to write about, exactly?

One particular morning, I’ve been “hard at fun” for at least four hours; ideas are taking shape, but something weird is happening on the computer. As I look at the Mac clock, the penny drops. Uh Oh! On my “Music Dedicated Only Mac,” I have an old operating system: 9.2—I know, I know, I know!!! Before you TechnoGeeks barrage me with abuse ... 9.2 works for now, and I shall upgrade in time. Very infrequently, the computer will wig out, and the Date & Time feature will roll back the years to 1904! (I have spoken to other 9.2 system users and they have all had similar experiences. Still, it doesn’t make it any less frustrating.) Now, this problem has to be addressed immediately, so it will mean not saving/erasing all files date stamped 1904 and rebooting! Which means I’ve lost the last four productive hours. I’ll have to remember where the track was going—Argh!

I start to harangue the computer as if it were a person, You Fuckin' Fuckin’ Fuck! Get thee 'ere, Mr. Q; I’m gonna have some fuckin words—you, You, YOU—I hit the wall so hard, aah, my fist will be sore for days. Wow ... I am talking to the computer as if it were me from 1904—Yikes! Hey, what if the song were about a man from the present who could go back in time, and talk to the man he was back in ? ... So the man he was, could find out about the man he is to be/his future … AND, is he "allowed" to change it ...??? BINGO! “That” is what the song is gonna be about. But, as it happens (re-written for the song and video) our hero travels forward from the year 1973 to the man he will be in 2013. SERENDIPITOUS!!! MOI??? :)

Guitar, mix tips and technological advice: the very wonderful MINDMOVIE Thanks, Achim. —Couldna ha' done it withoucha, M!

The Heartache Baby Video — Click below

THE HEARTACHE BABY— Listen

Heartache Baby was a track I wrote many years ago, and always had a hankering to update it in some fashion. The perfect vehicle arrived one day in the guise of a track from them WI:RE boys. Claas Reimer and Achim Wierschem.  Claas sent me a laid back groove that took my mind to a sunny lazy vacation I spent with Maria and Achim Wierschem in Zakinthos, Greece in 2009. Somehow the track also reminded me of the melancholy feel of my original lyric. So ... I cut the track up into bite size 4bar/8 bar pieces added chords changes, melodies, lyrics and hey presto! No great lyrical message here, other than the Heartache Baby that resides in us all. Oh yeah, sent it back to Achim for his wonderful guitar that takes the song to it's final conclusion. Love it—Nice!

Artie Q VI: More Songs In The Bag

Ok, so. Where was I?—Ah, yes ... New songs to be considered for the next cd, Artie Q VI (promo vid, here)

Listen CROSSOVER: IF I DIE TONIGHT Or, click the pic:

 

Back in LA, 1995-ish, I had the privilege to get involved in theater, primarily due to the encouragement of the great DigiRob and was involved in a couple of LA Weekly Theater "Pick of the Weeks." One was "A Grimm Evening." A production directed by Robert Prior. Based on four stories by the Grimm Brothers, one in particular took my fancy: Godfather Death. The performance was a lot of fun. CROSSOVER (IF I DIE TONIGHT) is a somewhat twist on that scenario, only this time, the husband is bereft; his wife of 30 years is now deceased and he cannot get over it. He will do anything to have one last farewell/meet with her. He strikes a deal with the devil: One chance to see his dearly beloved & deceased wife for one last time. In exchange ... for his soul. Joining me on guitar, again, the wonderful Laurence Whiteley. Ah loves ya, bro.

NEXT! No, not the song by Jacques Brel; the next song for the album: COLUMBUS IN CAR WITH GUITAR.  <—Listen. (I think this will definitely make it.) This song concerns a technologically geeky friend of mine who, with his SUV, Sat Nav & other modern appliances sees himself as a sort of contemporary Christopher Columbus and longs for the days of Master Commander of the Far Side ... a captain of a Spanish galleon or similar. But if he were granted his wish, I doubt that he'd be able to take his iPad with him.
I loved the thought of listing notables who in their time, really were the Neil Armstrongs of their day. Folk who fearlessly trod (or fearfully, maybe) in order to further empower knowledge of their generations. Great stuff. I salute each every one of them; from eons ago to the present day. (I am sure that this list is a drop in the bucket of folk who dared to dream, but alas, all's I got is a four minute pop song! :( )

"Walter Raleigh, Robert Scott, Tenzing Norgay, Jacques Cousteau, Francis Drake. Marco Polo, Leif Ericson, Pedro Escobar, Livingstone, Neil Armstrong, Captain Cook, Juan Perez, James Of Ireland, Sven Hedin, Hannu The Navigator, Edmund Fanning, Ernest Shackleton, Edmund, Roald ... ... I’d rather be Columbus in a Car ... with a Guitar"

I built the track with LRW's guitar, and the fab Mindmovie/Achim Wierschem came in at various points & with a great solo at the end. Thanks, my Go 2 Guitar Boys—Nice! (I would have no others!!!) Thank you, Laurence & Achim.

Current Creative Communiqués for the Q Crowd!

Yo, Peeps!

The big news for me, right now, is my new cd Songs From The Bug 'Utch by Artie Q has been released on all major digital outlets, April Fools Day, 2012.

At this precise moment, we have ITUNES AMAZON SPOTIFY ... blah, blah, blah. :) You know the score!

You can also find the complete Artie Q catalog on CD Baby. All Q tracks available on physical cd, too.

Thanks for taking the time to visit. Nice!

RTQ :)