Category: Rock and/or Roll

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Rock and/or Roll

Did Greg Invent Techno?

Back in 1987, I went in the URI recording studio to lay down a few songs on the 4 track reel-to-reel. The first two were “Walking” and “1,000 Hands” with Stephen Brown and Royce Gibson under the moniker Canon Tallis. The next was music for a short film called No Sneakers, which, incidentally, I never heard or saw in its final form. The final song was a sonic experiment called “Was Habe Ich Gemacht?” (“What Have I Done?”) that was comprised of layers of my bass and voice, sometimes at half speed and double speed. The final result sounds suspiciously like techno. But in 1987 techno was only a fledgling movement in Detroit. And I had never been to Detroit. So I must have invented it. Or co-invented it. While you wait for history to vindicate me, take a listen to “Was Habe Ich Gemacht?“

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Rock and/or Roll

Walking

I’ve been taking walk down my musical memory lane as I digitize some old recordings I made on reel to reel and cassette. One of my favorites is a song called “Walking.” The song was written 1985ish and recorded 1987ish with my good friend Stephen Brown under the name Canon Tallis. Though it features all the over-introspection and the mimicked British accent that you’d expect from a college student of that time, I think the song holds up quite well even today. Listening to this reminded me of all the things I wanted to do with music before I learned what you were supposed to do. Maybe I can regain my youthful wide-eyed wonder about the craft while retaining what wisdom and experience I’ve grown since then.

In any case, this is dedicated to Stephen’s mom, Nancy, who wants us to play it at her funeral.

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Church Congregational Songs Demos Psalms Retuned hymn Rock and/or Roll

Psalm 82: Stick it to the Man

Update: For sheet music or to adopt this orphan tune, head over to gregscheer.com.

This Sunday at Church of the Servant we sang the Psalter Hymnal version of Psalm 82, “There Where the Judges Gather.” After the service Ron and Deb Rienstra commented that the tune which accompanied the text was too nice. What it really needed was a tune that got across the “stick it to the man” tone of the Psalm.

How could I resist?

I spent the next few days writing and recording this new version of “There Where the Judges Gather.” The tune, appropriately enough, is called “STICK IT TO THE MAN.” Do punk rock and metrical Psalms go together? You be the judge. Listen to the MP3 here.

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Demos Rock and/or Roll

Greg Scheer, Live at the Morris Inn, volume 2

Here are the rest of the songs I recorded last weekend while at Notre Dame. Please listen with gracious ears–there are lots of musical warts.

“Everything to Me” is a song I’ve sung a million times at coffee houses and such. I often start a set with it because I could sing it in my sleep. Also, I like the way the first line gives voice to what most people are probably thinking: “That’s just what we need–another song.” “Hope and Humor” is another song that’s seen well over a decade of action. I wrote it at the end of my year in Austria as a travelogue of an itinerant musician. Strangely, I told the staff of COS one of the stories from this song (“Standing in the rain for hours”) yesterday at our staff retreat. “Have I Gone Too Far?” is another one of my many songs about songs. In this particular case, I was obsessing about the fact that my music is usually to complex for the pop world and too simple for the art music world. My rendition here doesn’t really capture the jazz ballad style I’d like it to have. (As a matter of fact, there are certain chords I didn’t capture at all.) Finally, “Five Days without You” is a goofy song I wrote the first time my wife and I were apart for more than a day.

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Demos Rock and/or Roll

Greg Scheer, Live at the Morris Inn

I attended a conference at Notre Dame this weekend. In my spare time I annoyed people at the Morris Inn by recording some songs in my room. I’ve only had time to gussy up two of them so far: “Silent Star” and “Let It Go.” They’re just rough, one-take demos, but they get the idea across. I’d love to hear some feedback on these, because I’m thinking about making some “real” recordings of a few of them in the future.

Two technical sidenotes: 1. A few people have said that they can’t get the mp3 links to work. Are other people having that problem? I tried a different linking system for the above songs, so let me know if it solves the problem. 2. When I mixed these songs in Audacity I got a muddy, slightly overblown sound. It sounds fine in Audacity, but when I play the mix in iTunes it’s much louder. Anyone have any ideas?

Addendum: Here’s another one along the same lines–“Happy Birthday, Goodbye.”

Categories
Live Rock and/or Roll

True Confessions

The new year is a good time to reflect on one’s life. A few years ago some of my reflections turned into a song named “True Confessions.” This recording is from a chapel at Northwestern College. I’m on vocals and guitar, Cory Grimm is on the other guitar, Adam Grimm is on bass and Joseph Barker is on drums.

True Confessions by Greg Scheer, October, 2003

The second hand keeps on ticking, the hours fly, but I
find the days grow short as the years go by.
Half my life may be gone—even though I’ve tried and tried
I’m still not half the man that I thought I would be.

But I’m older and wiser, and happy and tired, and richer and wider,
and just now getting comfortable living inside this skin.
Even though half the things that I thought were me recede—
just get forgotten—lost in the living.

My true confessions,
my best intentions,
I guess in the end that
is all I can give.

My true confessions,
my best intentions,
I guess in the end that
is all I can give.

Dive below the surface and you’ll find things in me
that even I don’t know or choose not to believe.
But I’m open to your reviving streams. You see,
I want to be a tree whose roots grow deep.

CHORUS

What on earth is the problem with humanity?
Why do we run to wrong? How can we be so mean?
But if I had been Adam and you were Eve, I think
I’d bite any apple that you offered me.

The serpent is speaking
so convincing and sweetly.
The spirit is willing
but the flesh is weak.

Since the garden of Eden,
with our sweat we’ve been reaping
the price of our pride
and our disobedience.

CHORUS

I’m in trouble sometimes, but I still believe I’ll see
the goodness of my God while I’m still living.