“Well then, to work: our cannon shall be bent
Against the brows of this resisting town.”
W. Shakespeare
Cannon = Willpower
Work = A Walk in the Rain
Brows = Bad Excuses
This Resisting Town = My Weak Body
I was so pleased when I saw that the fine French Westcoast music blog Cool Night posted this flattering piece on my song “Julie,” and I am also very grateful to all those of you who have visited this site after reading the post.
I uploaded this video of a song I recorded back in 1997, because I think some of my new viewers — particularly those with a special interest in David Foster and perhaps mid-80s TV themes — might enjoy this instrumental piece. As I mentioned on YouTube, the structure of the song is more or less identical to Foster’s “Love Theme from St. Elmo’s Fire” — but sadly, there is no raspy saxophone solo.
You can download the song for free on Soundclick: http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=11354076
I’m a little bit surprised at my disbelief, but mostly I’m just sad. As a teenager in the 1980s, I was definitely a fan, but, being a guy and all, it was simply impossible to admit it. Free from teenage angst and other insecurities, I can safely say that I loved her big, romantic Michael Masser ballads, and I still enjoy some of them, like “Saving All My Love for You.”
Today The Guardian tells us about the renaissance of flannel shirts, grunge and Trainspotting. The idea of a 90s revival is enough to make me feel like I’m older than a mountain (even the 80s revival in the 90s was), but what really reminded me of my age was this picture of The Stone Roses. They look older now than Paul Anka did in 1989. Hell, they look older than Anka does now, but that has less to do with age than with injections (in both instances, I suspect.) I thought they (and I) were still kind of young — but the brutal reality of life is catching up with us. I should know it by now — I have seen recent pictures of Paddy MacAloon, after all.
I entered this version of “End of Time” for Beyoncé’s current End of Time Remix Contest, and I have been flattered by the response. I basically kept the vocal track intact and built a brand new arrangement around it. I kept a couple of references from the original — the march drums and the horn riff somewhere in the middle — the rest is played out by me, and there are no other samples. This is also more harmony-based than the original, and the main object was to build support for the vocals rather than rely on booming drums and explosive effects. It’s quite the opposite of what most people seem to to choose, so I hope that will set my version apart.
Please visit my track on Beyoncé’s website and vote for me if you have the time — and I hope you enjoy the track.
I have this habit. I protect myself from the world by never wearing my heart on the sleeve. When I’m insecure, I hide myself behind a sheen of detachment and use humor (or lack thereof — which brings me to my third protection technique: self-deprecation) to hide or obscure my true feelings. I have perfected these techniques to the extent that some people think I’m a shell.
It’s usually very practical. It makes me altogether very… even. And when it comes to music, it (sort of) allows me to say in public that I’m a really smooth square who likes to listen to David Foster, Christopher Cross and Stephen Bishop and still be in with the cool guys. Even more importantly, I’m able to write and publish music that no ‘serious’ music fan would ever touch in 2012. Power ballads, songs about Barry Manilow and faux r&b: Joking while I’m serious, and preaching the good, but hopelessly lost cause while I’m joking. Or am I? No one cares — everyone makes their own interpretations, and I’m invisible behind my carefully constructed layers of meta. Or do they? Or am I? And so the circle goes…
Anyway, all of this makes it very hard to say what I’m about to say: That I absolutely and unapologetically LOVE my new song. This objectively — or, in the minds of the p.c., which may again turn out to be most people in this case — totally clichéd, Bacharach’y, Graydonesque fantasy of a 1981 hit is probably the favorite thing I’ve ever done. No irony, no sarcasm. Yes, it may be an anachronism, but who cares? This is the kind of music everyone loves to hate — mentioning Christopher Cross without smirking is like drinking your beer without sipping — and yet it is the music I love. I adore my own musical arrangement, and I think that the melody is a lost classic. Now, I wouldn’t be me if there wasn’t at least one little bit of self-criticism in this piece, so I’ll admit this: I’m no vocal prodigy.
It’s hard to think that you will enjoy the music as much as I do, but I hope that you do. Anyway, it doesn’t really matter, because first and foremost I did it for myself.
DISCLAIMER: This is not really me writing this post. Except, it is.
Coming up soon:
Julie
(Terje ‘Foster’ Fjelde, Terje ‘Graydon’ Fjelde’, Andy ‘Champlin’ Furlong)
Produced by Terje ‘Mardin’ Fjelde
Rhythm arrangement by Terje ‘Buchanan’ Fjelde
String and horn arrangements by Terje ‘Hey’ Fjelde
Recorded and mixed by Terje ‘Gatica’ Fjelde
Drums: Terje ‘J:R.’ Fjelde
Bass guitar: Terje ‘Hungate’ Fjelde
Rhythm guitar: Terje ‘Parker, Jr.’ Fjelde
Fender Rhodes: Terje ‘Omartian’ Fjelde
Acoustic Piano: Terje ‘Foster’ Fjelde
ARP string synthesizer: Terje ‘Graydon’ Fjelde
Moog solo: Terje ‘Boddicker’ Fjelde
Synthesizer Programming: Terje ‘Underwood’ Fjelde
Trumpet and flugelhorns: Terje ‘Hey’ Fjelde, Terje ‘Findley’ Fjelde
The video is currently in post-production!
(Also known as Ain’t Nobody’s Business or Tain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do)
This song was written by Porter Grainger and Everett Robbins. The lyrics were published in 1922, which means they are now in the public domain in the US — they are no longer under copyright protection and therefore free to use for any musical purpose or otherwise. It’s the first blues song I’ve ever recorded, and I wasn’t sure how to adapt my voice to this genre — but I ended up with a gruff mixture of Tom Waits and Steve Earle. Just don’t expect too much after I casually dropped those two names into the conversation.
Musically, my version is closer to Randy Newman than it is to Fats Waller. I can’t seem to be able to arrange a piece without adding at least a couple of string pads. The theme is related to violence against women, and with the exception of Eric Clapton, most recordings of this song are by female black artists, and great artists like Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Abbey Lincoln and Carmen McRae at that, which makes it feel a bit pointless to publish my little piece of gruffy fluff at all, but I won’t let that stop me.
Terje Fjelde, (f. 25.august 1971, Stavanger). Norsk komponist og musiker; beskjeden produksjon; mest kjent for lett populærmusikk av tvilsom kvalitet.
Utvalgte verk: The Barry Manilow Task Force (2008); The Dixon Campaign Incident, Part 2 (Or When Did American Conservatism Begin To Crumble?) (2008); Ballerina Boy (2008).
