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Two Forward

I wrote this to keep Smash (my drummer) busy.  He likes it, so that’s a good start.  It is meant to be the first in a series of “Prime Number” songs – songs written in time signatures with with prime number time signatures – 5/4, 7/8, 11/8, etc.  But I hate to make promises.

Oh, it it’s not really quite finished, but I think it holds together okay as it is.

©2013 Stephen G Brown

You take two steps forward
One back again
I wish I could make this
Different, my friend

The best I can offer
My best advice
Is just to be thankful
It’s once back not twice

You try something different
It comes out the same
You gave all you had
But still lost the game

It’s hard to decipher
You don’t have a key
The secret is hidden
And don’t look at me

round and round and
round and round and
round and round it goes

2 thoughts on “Two Forward

  1. This is 2x dope. Love the slapback on the voice. (Try a little 2K boost and taking off any other reverb to see if it makes it even more vibey.) The noodly bass and distorted guitar are perfect, but then I’m a sucker for anything 60s. The only suggestion I have (you didn’t think you’d get away with all compliments and no suggestion, did you?) is to trying changing the dry e guitar. You’re using the Take 5 rhythm which leads you into the standard Take 5/Living in the Past division of 3+3+2+2. What if the guitar played half note, quarter, quarter, quarter rhythm? That would keep it in 5/4, but with a more slidey, forward rhythm pushing it forward. If you’re confused, send me the Logic files and I’ll diddle.

    1. I feel the beat almost as a continuous 5 beat, but I break it up (probably because I’ve been taught that “that’s what you do with 5-time”) as quarter notes in a 3+2 pattern (which is also how i hear Take 5). I hear Living in the Past as if it were alternating tempos – two slow beats and two fast beats. I get your meaning on the 2/1/1/1, but I’ll upload the Logic files to see what you can do with it. The 7/8 song is still in the works with a 2/2/3 pattern. When I get into the groove of it (which I’m finding difficult to do), I start to feel it as alternating tempos (like Living in the Past) – almost like it is in 3/4, but the third beat is slower than the first two.

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