5) SOUL OF THE CIRCLE - 4:47 (NOTE slight alteration of mix uploaded 03-15-2023)
I love me some big ole D/A/E on guitar. It started only acoustic in the writing stage, but the grunting electric guitar got to make it’s way into the studio demo. This is one I toyed around with title quite a bit, Black and White, It’s like Lighting, White Lightning ‘at one point early before words changed’, and it eventually, as I worked it up with the guys, became Soul of the Circle. Sound kinda ying and yang, and I got no problem with that. I’ve spoken or written before about how we can sometimes identify things, people, places, Sin, etc… to such a degree, that we begin to enforce what we believe even though, truth be told much of it is from man (maybe even devout religious man) but not God. The problem is, well, you probably know the problem because history has proven it out plenty for all to see if they are willing to see. This song began on the evening of July 21st, 2018. Sometimes I make better notes than other times. A lot of changes in the basic lyrics, not concept but the way said, changed between this time and early 2019. I have a note that revision 5 was the last one, and heck it might not be exactly right. Such is art quite often. by February of 2019 I had settled on current title. The basic moral of this song would be, whatever we see, hear, feel, touch, taste, etc… may not be just as we perceive it, and especially when you bring in the perception of others. Yes there are some things more close to absolute, but Faith, well it’s like love, in that you can prove it, but not really like actually Prove it. Note how over the years, rules and laws have changed with the times. (“carousels of wrong & right”) Did God change? I would say No. And yet, at times we held these rules and laws like they were actually Gods, and then we changed them, proving that they were never really God’s to begin with. (see Romans chapter 14 to see a new testament struggle with what is acceptable and what is not) And yet, we continue to do the same thing. Oh my what a tangled web we weave. There is a danger in total freedom in this life, as well as total blind devotion. Somewhere in the middle of life beyond this tangible that we call reality, is another reality we don’t even understand, or maybe we understand it but only about as well as we understand Love. We need color, and we need black and white. We need freedom, and we need boundaries. I myself will listen and respect some men, but never ever (even the pope as some of you that know me know from my past songs) will I trust anyone more than God, even Jesus Christ. He was God inserted on earth at a certain time. And no one else has done it quite the same since, or before. If we actually lived by His teachings, well, you get it or you don’t. Sadly often, even in groups that go by His Name, we don’t. Bummer dood. But there is hope, there is Always Hope. And I think the greatest hope, is life beyond the physical we define. I may be right or I may be wrong. Regardless, I firmly believe that having Faith in Life beyond this one, is better for me and everyone else, than believing the opposite. And some think it childish, well, faith is faith, and childish is childish, and anyone who believes there is nothing after this life, well, they are only having faith in something less, and helping the rest of the world, less. We on this level of life, cannot Prove either way, so comes in faith. And I’ll say again, “If you believe there is nothing after death, you are only having faith in something less”. An awesome book of fiction that really paints an awesome picture of the tangibility of Heaven, and the concept that God does not send anyone to Hell, is the C. S. Lewis book “The Great Divorce”. I would sum up the concept to answer the question “Why would God let anyone go to Hell” as; “In the end, there are 2 types of people in this life. Those who say to God, ‘thy will be done’, and those to whom God eventually says ‘thy will be done’. Think about it. Peace. Frazier

NOTES RECORDING
I had fun with this one, and it was sort of a 2 phase process. Initially, I laid down Acoustic Guitar, and then Acoustic Drums. After this added bass (I had a scratch vocal to go by throughout) and then a harmonica. So my first mix on this, musically structure wise was done, but it was more acoustic sounding. So, I added electric guitar. One of those situations where I got to cut tracks with a Butterscotch MIM Tele just before it was sold and shipped out to someone. I played thru a Crate solid state head and 4x12 cab I’ve had in the studio for years. When I got it, you’d turn it on, and it would snap crackle and pop a few seconds or more, and then be ok. It’s a GREAT setup for distorted grunting tracks, and I usually double mic to get a close up and a room sound. It was a challenge to make the electric track work and fit throughout the many changes that happen in this song, but once I got the spots with just single string action, and especially the diminished suspension at the end of “carousels of wrong and right” section, I had it whipped. I doubled it. It might be hard to tell, because I strive to make it sound like one, but it sure fattens it up, tone wise, to double it. Then I re-recorded harmonica, and I used a little vintage Shure mic (I did not know was shure brand till someone told me) and plugged it through my Crate guitar rig. Wow, screaming harp made a great difference in the intro, and then harmonica is never heard from again, at least in this song. I also doubled some of the background harmony vocals (I don't do that with lead vocal because I can't pull it off). I am hoping for a studio recording at some point of some of these songs, and some others, where I have an engineer and players. But all this recording started in Covid19 times, so it was mono el mono. LAST but not least, some Alto Saxophone, pulling in a little David Bowie musical flavor, of which is also some of the flavor in the chord progressions of this song. I’m very influence by Blues, Classic Rock, and specifically the Beatles and David Bowie musically. Because of the change from rock to james bondish to flamenco style, the whole thing was a challenge at times, especially drums. But I got through it, and I’m pretty happy with it. I hope you like it as well. And if you then actually read through all this gibberish of mine up to this point, God Bless you! Peace be with you. Frazier