The Beaten Dog (spoken word)

[Amberwolf]

New one, with lyrics (spoken word), less than a minute long. 

The Beaten Dog
https://amberwolf.bandcamp.com/track/the-beaten-dog

Please...save me
let me go
this life is kinda hard
why?
my people...my people,
they left me.
Why?
trust me--there's a reason: I'm a shadow...
I'm free....which way do you think we should go?

Not the lightest song in the world.

[Amberwolf]

04-21-25: 042025 000001 200030d  -- corrected version

https://amberwolf.bandcamp.com/track/the-beaten-dog

 

Something went wrong somewhere with the previous version, and all sorts of bits got mixed up in where they should have played, so the previous version is garbage.

I should've listened to the export before uploading it.

Been fixing that, new much much better version now, (I listened to the export to make sure!) you can tell what's what now. 

[Amberwolf]

04-21-25: 042025 000001 200042g -- extended, clarified, enhanced, filled.

https://amberwolf.bandcamp.com/track/the-beaten-dog

[Amberwolf]

04-22-25: 042025 000001 200049h --  added accents, emotionalized ending

https://amberwolf.bandcamp.com/track/the-beaten-dog

04-22-25: 042025 000001 200054i --  added backing sounds

04-22-25: 042025 000001 200058j -- cleanup and timing

Edited April 23 by Amberwolf

[Amberwolf]

This song was built from various sample packs, recorded sounds, etc.  Almost none of the pieces are used wiht any other pieces of the same 'kits" or "stems" they were intended to be.   Some are "loops" of patterns of sound, most are just individiual sound samples.     I used mostly spoken phrases from Veela's Siren bundle for the vocal sounds and words. 

 The sounds were from various bundles I don't recal with much certainty, but the sax bits are from a Basement Freaks bundle called Funk Legends in the Miles subfolder.  

I stretched or squshed them in time to fit the beat of the song, and pitch shifted some of them for variations in ones used more than once, as well as chopping them up into syllables and whatnot. 

(while I'm using existing recordings, it's not really much different in principle from playing a keyboard that uses samples of sounds to make it's instruments (which very very many of them do), except it is a bit more like creating that instrument in the first place (editing the samples for playback).   Or like paying an artist to record things for you that you then edit down into a recording....the main difference being that htese are recorded by such artists so that any other artist that wants to (and buys them) can create whatever they want with them, instead of being recorded to my specifications.   )

 

I had to cut and composite most of the vocal phrases from the ones available in that bundle to get the words I wanted, and pitch shift or time expand or compress individual syllables as needed to fit the music, and also to create expressiveness that isn't there in the original phrases.   

For instance, "My people" is just one phrase, said rather dully, and I needed it to be more emotional, perhaps wistful or sad when the dog is thinking about what happened, so I listend to the way I could say the phrase myself in different ways utnil I figured out the differences in the way I said it flat and dull vs expressed the way I wnated, and then did those things to the phrase.   I ended up  using the phrase twice in succession, as one might when considering something one may not really want to say out loud and have to pause after starting to, so the first is more matter of fact and the second more emotional.   

One phrase, had all the words I wanted, but all as one rapidly spoken phrase, and I needed it all slower and separated, so the first part was so fast that there are obvious artifacts in it after slowing it down and separating the parts enough to sound the way I wanted, and that's the "there's a reason", followed by the "i'm a shadow".   These aren't in any of the other phrases, so I'm stuck with those.   I found some other vocalist in a differnet bundle but had the wordes but they're not spoken, theyre sung, and they sound totally different than this vocalist anyway, so it wouldn't match. 

I wanted to tell the story more copmletely, but not al the words I need are in the Siren spoken section, and I don't have another source that sounded wistful or sad enough, or could be made so.  So for now, this is as long as the story can be.  I dont' have a specific set of words written down for it ohter than those I used, but the story of an abused dog from it's own point of view, up to it's end, is what this song is meant to be.   Kind of an homage to Kirin, who while probably not beaten, was certainly starved for her first few years along with other dogs at that place, and to Loki who was probably used as a bait dog and had probable cigarette burns all over.   

So at some point I'll expand the song once I can either modify the existing words and phrases I have to do what I want, or find another source to replace all of them with consistent new ones with the right emotional content. (that I hopefully won't have to modify syllable by syllable!).  

 

 

Edited Thursday at 04:56 AM by Amberwolf