I actually have seven completed backing tracks waiting for me to record vocals over them - including a nicely lush string quartet version of "Them Heavy People" and a banging house cover of "Girl U Want".
Which means I have a fairly impressive number of half-finished jobs.
I've cobbled together some updated lyrics for Heaven 17's "Fascist Groove Thang". Here's the original:
Intro:
Everybody move to prove the groove
Verse 1:
Have you heard it on the news
About this fascist groove thang
Evil men with racist views
Spreading all across the land
Dont just sit there on your ass
Unlock that funky chaindance
Brothers, sisters shoot your best
We dont need this fascist groove thang
Verse 2:
History will repeat itself
Crisis point were near the hour
Counterforce will do no good
Hot you ass I feel your power
Hitler proves that funky stuff
Is not for you and me girl
Europes an unhappy land
Theyve had their fascist groove thang
Chorus:
Brothers, sisters, we dont need this fascist groove thang
Brothers, sisters, we dont need this fascist groove thang
Verse 3:
Democrats are out of power
Across that great wide ocean
Reagans president elect
Fascist God in motion
Generals tell him what to do
Stop your good time dancing
Train their guns on me and you
Fascist thang advancing
Verse 4:
Sisters, brothers lend a hand
Increase our population
Grab that groove thang by the throat
And throw it in the ocean
Youre real tonight you move my soul
Lets cruise out of the dance war
Come out your house and dance your dance
Shake that fascist groove thang
And here's the update, as it stands:
Intro:
Everybody move to prove the groove
Verse 1:
Have you heard it on the news
About this fascist groove thing
Evil men with racist views
Spreading out across the world
Rising crime, blame immigration
Falling work the same thing
Living in a suspect nation
Don't need this fascist groove thing
Verse 2:
History comes round again
They always say it's different
Finding someone new to blame
For the same old problems
Germany in thirty nine
Burning with a hooked cross
Then too late to see the signs
Marching fascist groove thing
Chorus:
Brothers, sisters, we dont need this fascist groove thang
Brothers, sisters, we dont need this fascist groove thang
Verse 3:
Democrats are back in power
Don't think we can trust them
Still think they can win somehow
In this war on terror
Oil men tell them what to do
Stop you thinking too much
Cameras on me and you
Fascist thing advancing
Verse 4:
She's the latest threat to peace
Woman with a headscarf
Smiling hatred on TV
Beamed into your own room
Brothers, sisters, take a stance
Together for the future
Live together, love and dance
Kill that fascist groove thing
Can I be immodest and say I think my lyrics are better than the original? Oh alright then.
The original version had a rather inconsistant rhyme structure, jumping irregularly between ABCB and ABAC, with a few quatrains that don't rhyme at all - mine's all ABAC, which is fairly unusual.
I'm finally getting to grips with the massively complex Nuendo sequencer. And a dozen carefully chosen VST plugins. I've spent the last five years making music with Reason, including most of this album, but there's no way I could make the punky guitar stabs in "The Dreaming" or those real-sounding strings in "Them Heavy People" in Reason.
The thing is though, it takes hours (or days) to find your way around a new synthesiser, especially when it works with virtual hammers, bows, strings and resonators instead of virtual oscillators, filters and envelopes.
UPDATE: Okay, three hours later, make that eight finished backing tracks. The Heaven 17 track is now rechristened "Acid Groove Thing", on account of harking back to the minimalist acid scene of the late 80s. Sampled 808s and a rough approximation of two 303s.
Incidentally, Heaven 17 seemingly like to compose in A-Minor. Probably for the same reasons I do.
Your lyrics are better than the original.
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