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Cold Turkey - John Lennon COVER


PavlovsCat

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  • PavlovsCat changed the title to MODERATOR: PLEASE MOVE TO SONGS subforum or DELETE! Cold Turkey - John Lennon COVER
51 minutes ago, cclarry said:

Nicely done PC!

Thanks. I was a bit horrified when I realized that I posted this in the deals subforum instead of the song forum. But thanks to you and @Old Joad for the encouragement. I never even had the nerve to share any music that I recorded with me singing on it until a few years ago (I was just a drummer back in the day and did background vocals at most).  Hopefully, one of the mods will see this soon and move it. I'm grateful that I'm not getting ripped on yet for this! 

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  • PavlovsCat changed the title to MODERATOR: PLEASE MOVE TO SONGS subforum. Cold Turkey - John Lennon COVER

I reported my own thread to the moderator -- that's a first! Now that you guys have made encouraging posts, I no longer want it deleted! This is great encouragement when I'm bummed about my tendinitis not allowing me to play (I'm limited to playing several minutes at the time, as I have pain, consequently, I no longer practice and can't play with other musicians -- unless they're cool with a jam session that potentially lasts for two minutes; I was invited to jam with two neighbors, one a guitar teacher, but it would be more frustrating to get together and be in pain within a minute or so and not even finish a song, so I crank out these little jams).

Thanks for the likes and encouraging words. Anyone can DM me and share their music and I'll be sure to provide encouragement back. My attempting to play 20 years after tendinitis stopped me has greatly taught me the importance of encouraging others in their musical endeavors. While, as the son and brother of music teachers, I always knew it, but I started playing again due to the encouragement of a musician friend and it meant a great deal. And now I'm pumping out lots of crappy music as a result! Hahaha.  

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  • PavlovsCat changed the title to Cold Turkey - John Lennon COVER
Posted (edited)
22 hours ago, equality said:

Great cover of this Lennon gem. Congrats! 

Btw, l remember in one interview J L said "I offered the Beatles this one but they didn't want it."

I'm a huge Beatles fan, and I know that John, Paul, and George later released a bunch of great songs solo that they said the band turned down. So thanks for that little nugget. I always appreciate Beatles' trivia! I was born a little late for The Beatles and became a Beatles fan after being a Paul McCartney fan. I love their music, but thought it was boring to play as a drummer. 

I only played it as a musician early on when I was a teenager.  

I've taken some criticism from people who claim that I'm trying to sound like John Lennon, but that is my regular voice. I find it easiest to sing Lennon songs out of all of the Beatles because the vocal range is very limited. 






 

Edited by PavlovsCat
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2 hours ago, PavlovsCat said:

I'm a huge Beatles fan, and I know that John, Paul, and George later released a bunch of great songs solo that they said the band turned down. So thanks for that little nugget. I always appreciate Beatles' trivia! It's funny, I was born a little late for The Beatles and became a Beatles fan after being a Paul McCartney fan. I loved their music, but thought it was boring to play as a drummer. 

At 18, my mother, a musician and music teacher, gave me advice on how to get work as a musician (I'd been playing publicly as part of a family band since age 4, trained on piano, organ, drums, and guitar). She gave me the number of a number of booking agents as she thought it was a good way for me to find working bands who need a replacement drummer for their band or even for a show their drummer couldn't do. So, one of the agents put me in touch with a couple of bands who needed a drummer for a gig or to replace their existing or recently departed drummer.  Then one day he calls me and asks if I'll do him a favor. His little brother, Jack, is a bassist and has a band whose drummer quit and have a gig in two weeks.  I take my drum kits and meet with his brother, a bassist, and the guitarist and they're really impressed with my drumming and say it would be a huge step up from their drummer to have me play with them -- so it's a total feel good meeting and jam. Jack, sings during this little session. Not a great voice, but it's a small gig at a dive bar and it's fine for that. 

Flash forward to the day of the gig -- I've never even played most of the songs with these guys that we're going to do, but I recognize all of the songs and my only concern is breaks and endings, so I figure we can cover that at the soundcheck.  So I get to the soundcheck and Jack asks me if I can sing the songs to adjust the mix. I reply, sure. Then he asks if I could sing the leads on the soundcheck like I'm going to do during the show. "What???" I do background vocals. Jack tells me that if I can't do the leads, he's going to cancel the gig, so I agree to sing lead vocals. The night ends up being a blast at this crappy, dive bar in a gritty, working class Chicago neighborhood.  I end up getting just about everyone in the bar to sing along with nearly every song -- almost all Beatles songs and  I find out that I can especially sing John Lennon songs pretty good (not great, but good for a guy with a lousy voice).  Flash forward to the end of the next decade (1999) and I have an injury that forever stops me from being able to play as a working musician. It was during the pandemic I started playing my son's new keyboard and a musician / developer friend heavily encouraged me to attempt to play again -- as I can play for 30 seconds to several minutes before it's too painful to keep playing. This song was the first song I attempted to play from start to finish in 20+ year (I think it was 2021 when I recorded it). Probably my best recording since trying to play again, because I was so excited to play again. 

I've taken some criticism from people who claim that I'm trying to sound like John Lennon, but that is my regular voice. I told my son that some people claim I'm trying to sound like Lennon and he said, "It sounds like your regular voice, but I can definitely hear how people find it has some similarities to Lennon."  Consequently, I've chosen a bunch of songs Lennon wrote  and sang because it's the only thing my voice sounds decent on besides my original songs. 






 

Thank you for sharing the history of your musical life. I am sorry to hear that your injury prevents further playing. Drumming as well? The drums are excellent on both Beatles covers. I am impressed by your result of I am the walrus, one of the most complicated Beatles songs of all time, harmonically speaking. It's definitely one of my favorite Lennon song along with Strawberry fields. It's also a great challenge to do Beatles covers since the original i so darn good. I think you did a great job on Walrus as well. I wish though your vocal would be more up front. I like Beatles trivia as well. You mentioned George Harrison. Frank Sinatra once sang Something live and introduced it as one the best Lennon & McCartney love song in fifty years. And by the way the number one hit rate Beatles song on Spotify is not by Lennon & McCartney. It's George's Here comes the sun.  

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Posted (edited)
16 minutes ago, equality said:

Thank you for sharing the history of your musical life. I am sorry to hear that your injury prevents further playing. Drumming as well? The drums are excellent on both Beatles covers. I am impressed by your result of I am the walrus, one of the most complicated Beatles songs of all time, harmonically speaking. It's definitely one of my favorite Lennon song along with Strawberry fields. It's also a great challenge to do Beatles covers since the original i so darn good. I think you did a great job on Walrus as well. I wish though your vocal would be more up front. I like Beatles trivia as well. You mentioned George Harrison. Frank Sinatra once sang Something live and introduced it as one the best Lennon & McCartney love song in fifty years. And by the way the number one hit rate Beatles song on Spotify is not by Lennon & McCartney. It's George's Here comes the sun.  

Thanks. I played semi professionally as a drummer from 12 years before my injury; now, I generally am in pain in less than 30 seconds of playing -- so I can do recordings -- which allow me to do one section at a time or go for the whole song if I can do it; but getting together with other musicians is not realistic and what I miss greatly.  I had my big opportunity to join a major band in the 90s, but declined. But I'm the son of a music teacher, so I had A LOT of musical training. Years of piano, organ, and drum lessons -- and months of guitar lessons (and around a year's worth of studying music theory with my mother; I went to other teachers for organ and drums -- for a grand total of 7 teachers from childhood to adulthood). My tendinitis makes it painful to stir in chocolate milk for my kids.  Two things, it's really strange when you stop playing 20 years and start again -- which is what my cover of "I Am the Walrus"  represents. It was me feeling surprised I could even play anymore. Of course, I no longer consider myself a musician and I can't play even close to how I did pre injury -- even if I wasn't injured, no one goes 20 years without playing and still has any technique left. What's more, because of the pain, I can't practice. So, back when I played, I was big into technique. Now that I have no technique, I stick to easier songs -- like The Beatles, which I love, but they're incredibly easy to play, even now, whereas, if I was trying to play Mahavishnu Orchestra, prog rock, or jazz, it would be a disaster. 

But the thing is, I've been making multitrack recordings since I was a boy. I never had the nerve to share anything that was just me playing and singing(beyond musicians and a few friends until "I Am the Walrus." So it's a bit strange, especially realizing my voice isn't very good, and of course, while I can't play well anymore, I'm still self critical, so any encouragement is really appreciated. That's the long version of my saying, thanks much to everyone. When I first started sharing this stuff, I expected people would be like -- this is total crap and I was embarrassed. But after the encouragement I've received in this forum and on SoundCloud -- DMs from some really talented people -- I mostly got over that embarrassment. So again, thanks to you and everyone else.  

 

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e In the same

 

I like this. I'm not one for cover songs, but I don't mind so much when someone does a cover song of Lennen and Harrison and do them as well as this cover. I thing Lennen himself would like this. Rock On. Down with AI,

 

Terry 

 

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Posted (edited)
4 hours ago, Terry Carroll said:

e In the same

 

I like this. I'm not one for cover songs, but I don't mind so much when someone does a cover song of Lennen and Harrison and do them as well as this cover. I thing Lennen himself would like this. Rock On. Down with AI,

 

Terry 

 

Thanks so much! I enjoy doing covers, but candidly, I largely have been doing them for practice -- as I only started playing again after a 20+ year after I had an injury and lifelong tendinitis that stopped me from playing (I can only play for a very short time without pain).  So these covers are largely my rehab assignment to practice playing again. But also, when I share originals, they get a lot less interest (although I do have two on SoundCloud that are some of my most popular tracks). But I will be doing more originals this year, after I finish a cover of "I'm Losting You" that I'm almost done with (I've done a bunch of Lennon songs because they fit my voice well, so they're easy to sing, and easy to play, and I love the music of The Beatles together and solo).  

Not sure what you mean  with "Down with AI." I'm guessing you're referring to its use in music and preferring humans over AI? FTR, I do use AI for audio repair (Izotope and plugin called Clear), vocal effects and reverb (Izotope and Focusrite/Sonible), and mastering (Ozone), but not for any playing and performance. Performance, everything I recorded was me playing in real time. I'm sure that AI could have done a lot better than a middle-age dude with tendinitis and a crap voice!

Edited by PavlovsCat
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