SOLO CDS ALMOST DONE

I haven't been blogging lately- too many other things going on. I've been transferring/saving a lot of my old VHS movies to DVD, creating youtube videos from them, and transferring a LOT of original songs from my old writers tapes and 4 track cassettes, which desperately need to be preserved. The 4 track recordings began around 1985- and went until 1998 or so. there's a lot of material. It's a major work... there are at least 10 original songs per 4 track cassette- and I have over 100 of these 4-track writers tapes.

I also have maybe 100 or more 'normal' writers cassettes, with sometimes 15 songs on each side! so, it's really mega [instead of major] work. The 2 tracks go back to the early 70s- my Hollywood years and before. Unfortunately the sound quality [me w/an electric piano & old cassette recorder with a built-in mic] are not so good. Some of the songs are good...some very good... but would have to be re-cut from scratch.

A lot of the 4 track stuff is amazing [to me] and more relevant than I'd imagined. Some of the songs written in 1985/1986 are socio-politically "right on time" now. Luckily, i bought a Cubase/Steinberg unit which has 4 inputs, and records the 4 tracks at once into my PC, saves them as individual tracks, and files them. It also has a 16 track 'studio' so i can edit the tracks, add to them, etc. A lot of the songs have been professionally cut and gone onto my various cds- but a lot never did- due to genre issues. But, i am seriously thinking of editing and cleaning up the tracks and releasing them as cds soon. i don't really want to mess with them too much; i really like the sound and feel of them just the way they are: lots of old analog drum machines and synths. However, with modern technology, i can sample the best parts/sections and make them a bit more consistent.

[c]2007 doug duffey

TECHNO DISCO CABARET

this song- "disarmed" -eventually went on my 1st cd ["danger, sex & sound fx" rabadash records/new orleans] - as did a few more from this show. although this is on my youtube site i'm posting it here, too. it's a real "flash from the past"!

it's from my 80s period, where i was pretty much writing/recording songs on my old 4-track cassette recorder [i still have and use it!] daily. i didn't use midi- i didn't want the music to be "perfect" or too mechanical- i wanted some 'real' life to it. these were basically writer's tapes. BUT, i mixed the instrument tracks down to 2 track cassette- 4 sets [45 minutes each] of original songs- then we [moi, linda bailey, bill dunn & tim blunk] sang all the vocals over them LIVE.

we pretty much tried to recreate the vocals/backing vocals from the original tapes- which was not so easy, because tim and i would lower the speed on the machine and do crazy backing vocal parts... which when put back to normal speed threw our voices up much higher-or lower! linda managed to wail the high parts! her voice could peel paint off the walls! we had a crew [dr. pete harris & woody]; had great sound & lights/ black backdrops- and we blasted the music LOUD!

there is only this one video of one set of this show, to my knowledge, and it is in BAD shape... but i am saving it as best i can. there are song parts that are too garbled... i tried syncing the original backing track to it- but they're [for some weird reason] in different keys- and the beats wont match up. so much for that... it is what it is... and it was FUN!

[c]2007 doug duffey

LOUISIANA- LIVE THEATER VERSION

i think this is a beautiful 'production' of the song. many thanks to the dancers, who did an incredible job... and to my very talented cousin, Donna Ward, who choreographed it.

[c]2007 doug duffey