Hi everybody, my name is Rich Kretzer but I'm going under K Man for this contest because I'm a Superhero with a Secret Identity... Whooops!!! Not any more!!! ..... actually, it's because a lot of people have problems pronouncing my name, and I got this nickname at work about 15 years ago, (T-Bone was already taken), and I thought this would be as good a time as any to bring it back.
I picked "A Hard Day's Night" as my Beatles song because that opening Chord, to me, sums up every musical emotion there is or ever was. Happy, sad, hopeful, whatever- it's all in That Chord. Ever since I heard That Chord in 1964, I thought, "When I grow up, one day, I'm gonna use That Chord to record a Beatles/Beastie Boys Mashup on Odd Todd's website." Pretty amazing considering computers then were the size of Greyhound buses; nobody but the Government, the Russians, and Batman had one; and the Internet hadn't even been invented by Al Gore yet. (K Man invented Al Gore.)
I'm a guitarist, not a singer, and I think my vocals add more fuel to the White-Men-Can't-Rap Theory. Just so you know that I already know that.
For those who like technical details, I recorded everything on a 4-track tape deck (just like Sgt. Pepper!) with one bounce and various punch-ins to squeeze the most out of all tracks. Drums, bass, mandolin, assorted guitars, E-Bow, and coffay-can cowbell were played by me. (I used Maxwell House, but other brands might work too.) My musical dog made a guest appearance in the third verse. Credit and big thank-you's must be given to Ron, who did a great job mixing it down to CD, and Sam, for graciously hosting it on his site. Thanks Guys!!!
I also have to thank all the other contestants, for putting in all the time and hard work to pursuit of their Musical Visions (and a guitar!)-EVERY Mash has something great going for it!, and the blokes in BeatlemaniaNow, an AMAZING Beatles tribute band, for showing me how to play That Chord. Couldn't 'ave done it without yer 'elp.
And thanks Todd, for letting us all have this party on your site!
Feelin' like I gotta go play That Chord again.....
I decided to listen to this song again (full version) to see what other people are apparently seeing. Originally I dismissed it because the guitar riffs were basically off the mark for this contest instead of anything remotely close to the Beatles or the Beastie Boys.
So I listened all the way through this time. Hmmm. Well, it *is* original I suppose. For the first half of the song the singing style on the lead comes across as David Byrne of Talking Heads. The guitar theme seems to be predominantly Smoke on the Water (Deep Purple, if I recall correctly). Other than this and the volume cut-off at around the 3 minute mark I'd say that this is a decent-enough song. It's innovative and the band plays well together. At the beginning and at the end you get a bit of a reminder that the Beatles are somewhat involved in the mash. Am I being a little too cynical here? (Perhaps)
The song is good, no doubt about it. I'm glad this wasn't a cheap mix of CDs but two groups and that you guys did the work yourselves. I personally think that two of the other songs are better built overall and should be in the lead. There's some good guitar work going on. You should be proud of the effort you put into it.
Hey, it's not my fault the Beasties stole / borrowed / mutated the riff from "SOTW", who in turn stole / borrowed / mutated the riff from any number of surf instrumentals. I'm just continuing the fine tradition.
I always liked how the 6th chord in on "SOTW" sounds like a mistake, like he meant to play the chord that follows instead. Anybody else think that?
I don't mean the false start on "Made in Japan". I'm talking about the riff itself- G / Bb / C / G / Bb / C# / C . I always thought the C# sounded like a mistake that they then built the song around. A cool one too.