Outtake #2 Patron Saint - Is she still an artist?

 


                                                             



 You Didn't Know....


"Patron Saint" is another of the songs written during the initial Won Out sessions. Like "You Know Me Blues", "Whatever You Want" and a few others it's about reconnecting with my first love, the "little red-haired girl" of my dreams, Denise Evans. I've discussed this unfortunate series of events in an earlier post. Typical of my songs from this period it's a sad reflection on the hopeless sadness of lost love. I managed to turn what should have been a happy reunion of two friends into a tragedy of epic  proportions and behaved like a love-struck teenager. Got a few good songs out of it, though. I didn't call the song "Patron Saint" for any reason other then that it sounded good. I say it once in the song, apropos of nothing, and it's never brought up again. I found a chart of patron saints of various occupations  and activities. There isn't one listed for star-crossed lovers but St. Jude watches over hopeless causes (and Paul McCartney wrote a song called "Hey Jude" - coincidence? Yeah, probably). For musicians it's St. Cecilia (and Paul Simon wrote a song called "Cecilia" - coincidence? Yeah, probably).

Being a self-taught guitarist, sometimes the simplest little chord tricks or progressions, usually well-known to "real" players, are revelations to me. Noodling around on my guitar one day I found that if I moved my top 2 fingers of a G chord I could create an exotic-sounding C. The song came to me while alternating between the two chords. Remembering the shift into waltz time on "We Can Work It Out" (hey! Beatles again and not for the last time) I added a similar section to Patron Saint at the end of the middle 8 (just like the Beatles!). It's a cute trick that I've tried and failed to effectively work into other songs.

Australian singer-songwriter G. Platypus "Platty" Jackson never caught on in the US 
                                              but was rarely out of the top 10 Down Under.


In order to get the trebly, twangy, jangly guitar tone we put the amp in the bathroom (that could also be the reason the sound was so clean ha ha ha sorry. Bass was direct and the drums were in the kitchen. What I've posted here is the very first rough mix we made. I later went back and recorded a new vocal with slightly different lyrics (the line "And now my skies are filled with jet planes" - a placeholder - was changed to "if only she had seen things my way"), but I liked the ragged Neil-Young-and-band-in-the-barn performance. Had I been able to record a satisfactory vocal it would surely have made the album. I'm still fond of it. I even added a counter-melody later for Olga and Greg to sing, making it one of the most lyrically dense songs I've ever written. 


You didn't know she was an artist

You didn't know that she could paint

You didn't know that I loved her

Patron saint


I still don't know why she did it

I guess I shouldn't even care

All I know is that she's out there


My sky was there for her to steal

My life has since become unreal

If only she had seen things my way


I stood there on the sidewalk

I stood there in the rain

I saw your light was shining


And now my sky is filled with clouds

My life has been turned inside-out

If only she had seen things my way


                               The picture was taken on the upstairs porch of the family compound 
                                            his is a promo copy that found its way back to 


Again, thank you to my wonderful and computer-literate son for walking me through the many steps it takes to get these blogs done with pictures and music and all that stuff. I'd be lost without you, Ian! Igloo. Let's rub noses like the Eskimoses.




 
More stoof: I watched a movie called Sicario last night that was offered by Prime. It was okay in that I managed to stay awake through most of it. I'm not exactly sure what it was about but there was a lot of shooting and running around. The Mexican drug cartels, Delta Force, the DEA and corrupt cops were all featured. I found out today that there's a sequel with most of the same stars so I guess I'll watch it. While looking for the movie I came across a horror flick Sick, a story of a group of attractive 20-somethings alone in an isolated cabin being chased around by a knife wielding murderer. What makes this slasher film different than the gazillion others just like it is that the depicted events happen during the early days of Covid so there's tests and masks and jokes about the pandemic. It looks awful. There was a funny cabin in the woods movie, Cabin In The Woods, that was a fun twist on the usual plot. It started out good but fell apart during the final act. Still worth a watch, though. No spoilers, sorry. 


"They threw everything but the goddamn kitchen sink into this action thriller,
                              but even fans of kitchen sinks will be on the edge of their seats"
                                                                                           -Jean-Luc Critique, Paris Hunchback Times







                                                     


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