This next new release is an instrumental that is both one of the oldest and newest songs that I’ve written and recorded…
and here it is... Shake 'n Bake
But first… the title
Coming up with a title for a song is often more difficult than you’d imagine, and is especially tricky for an instrumental song.
This particular song has been stuck with 4 or 5 different working titles, none of which I really liked or fit, (although of few of these titles may become songs in the future)
So, as I was thinking of why I had even came up with a song like this and what it meant, I realized that I wrote this song for one reason
I just wanted to go fast.
Yep, that’s right, I just want to go fast, just like the immortal Ricky Bobby.
So in honor of one of the greatest teams ever, Ricky Bobby and Cal Naughton Jr., I’ve decided to call this song…Shake 'n Bake
Now back to why this is both one of the oldest and newest songs that I’ve written.
I actually made up the main guitar part that opens the song 20 years ago, way back in 1994.
I had just seen The Reverend Horton Heat at the Odeon in Cleveland, and I made up this part the next day.
I was playing with a band back then that really did a mish mash of musical styles.
We wrote comical songs that would jump genres form verse to chorus. There would be a thrash metal inspired part that would mush right into a ska or reggae part, or a hardcore punk riff that would jar right into some hoedown music.
Although I wrote this part for that band, it never made it into a song.
But year after year it stuck with me, (even though I can hardly remember any parts from any of the songs that that band actually played in its sets or on the albums.)
I once read an interview with Stevie Ray Vaughn and he described the guitar part to the great song Scuttlebuttin’ as just some little doodle he would play whenever he picked up a guitar.
Sound check… Scuttlebuttin’ riff
Just changed his strings… Scuttlebuttin’ riff, and so on.
He never considered it a song at all.
But he was warming up in the studio one day playing that riff, and the band kicked in, and the engineer hit record, and it became a song.
Well for the last 20 years or so, what is now Shake 'n Bake, has been one of my warm up doodles, (for lack of a better term.)
This “riff” has resurfaced a few times over the years but never found a home.
The last time it resurfaced was back in 2010 in a RumbleDaddy song.
Unfortunately the song that it turned up in, was in my opinion, probably the worst song in the RumbleDaddy catalog.
I really hated that one! And I wrote it!
Well, I got to thinking about this part last July (2013) and decided I couldn’t let it die such an ignoble death, so I started monkeying around with it.
The rest of the song is all new stuff I came up with that seemed to work pretty well, so I kept it.
I think that this trusty old guitar riff has finally found a permanent home in a decent song.
Now… the nuts and bolts, for my friends that like to see how the gears turn…
I recorded this one with my 5128 Gretsch Electromatic, (my main guitar for the last 6 years or so.)
I ran the Gretsch into my no-name vintage crap amp that I use in my live shows
I split my signal out of the guitar. I ran one side direct into the mixer, and the other side into my amp with one mic in front of the speaker.
I mic’ed up the drums just like normal, and played.
That’s about it!
Nothing fancy on this one, except it’s really hard to play it on both guitar and drums, so there was about 500 “takes” and lots of cursing haha!
But remember, if ya ain’t first, yer last!
~SRT
and here it is... Shake 'n Bake
But first… the title
Coming up with a title for a song is often more difficult than you’d imagine, and is especially tricky for an instrumental song.
This particular song has been stuck with 4 or 5 different working titles, none of which I really liked or fit, (although of few of these titles may become songs in the future)
So, as I was thinking of why I had even came up with a song like this and what it meant, I realized that I wrote this song for one reason
I just wanted to go fast.
Yep, that’s right, I just want to go fast, just like the immortal Ricky Bobby.
So in honor of one of the greatest teams ever, Ricky Bobby and Cal Naughton Jr., I’ve decided to call this song…Shake 'n Bake
Now back to why this is both one of the oldest and newest songs that I’ve written.
I actually made up the main guitar part that opens the song 20 years ago, way back in 1994.
I had just seen The Reverend Horton Heat at the Odeon in Cleveland, and I made up this part the next day.
I was playing with a band back then that really did a mish mash of musical styles.
We wrote comical songs that would jump genres form verse to chorus. There would be a thrash metal inspired part that would mush right into a ska or reggae part, or a hardcore punk riff that would jar right into some hoedown music.
Although I wrote this part for that band, it never made it into a song.
But year after year it stuck with me, (even though I can hardly remember any parts from any of the songs that that band actually played in its sets or on the albums.)
I once read an interview with Stevie Ray Vaughn and he described the guitar part to the great song Scuttlebuttin’ as just some little doodle he would play whenever he picked up a guitar.
Sound check… Scuttlebuttin’ riff
Just changed his strings… Scuttlebuttin’ riff, and so on.
He never considered it a song at all.
But he was warming up in the studio one day playing that riff, and the band kicked in, and the engineer hit record, and it became a song.
Well for the last 20 years or so, what is now Shake 'n Bake, has been one of my warm up doodles, (for lack of a better term.)
This “riff” has resurfaced a few times over the years but never found a home.
The last time it resurfaced was back in 2010 in a RumbleDaddy song.
Unfortunately the song that it turned up in, was in my opinion, probably the worst song in the RumbleDaddy catalog.
I really hated that one! And I wrote it!
Well, I got to thinking about this part last July (2013) and decided I couldn’t let it die such an ignoble death, so I started monkeying around with it.
The rest of the song is all new stuff I came up with that seemed to work pretty well, so I kept it.
I think that this trusty old guitar riff has finally found a permanent home in a decent song.
Now… the nuts and bolts, for my friends that like to see how the gears turn…
I recorded this one with my 5128 Gretsch Electromatic, (my main guitar for the last 6 years or so.)
I ran the Gretsch into my no-name vintage crap amp that I use in my live shows
I split my signal out of the guitar. I ran one side direct into the mixer, and the other side into my amp with one mic in front of the speaker.
I mic’ed up the drums just like normal, and played.
That’s about it!
Nothing fancy on this one, except it’s really hard to play it on both guitar and drums, so there was about 500 “takes” and lots of cursing haha!
But remember, if ya ain’t first, yer last!
~SRT