Papples Album Diary – Day 2 (Part 1)
November 28th, 2011
The morning was broken savagely by Chris waking up and walking into the room. I had hoped for a little more snooze time however when you know you have something to do I suppose it’s hard not to do it. Breakfast was a feast for the eyes and the nose, and then it hit the mouth and all I wanted to do was start over again. I think I may have had too much toast and beans because the rest of the day was fraught with unpleasant sounds.
To the music! Lion Song was already “papped”, it just needed to be recorded. Chris nailed it practically in one take. After a lot of reverb we could continue. We followed up with Dubsteppin’ Across The Border and The Only Problem is You. Using our excellent skills we managed to shoehorn Dumb Kitty, an energetic ukulele song that I’d only written a shaky three chord chorus for, into a hard-hitting piece of music. The same for Hairy on the Go, the legendary missing track from Masterpiece only previously available on bootlegs
Dinosaur Gal, a Phoning It In original, was done in a single take albeit one which required a fake introduction only for me to fluff the very first chord and create the ambiance required to hit the chuffer between the legs. Vocals pitch-perfect, again in one take and some smooth BVs from Chris meant another was in the can.
We were getting close. January was perhaps the easiest to record. All it required was to put the order of the things in the right order. Which took longer than expected. This will make sense when you hear it.
How stupid can we get? Well how about a song using the names of animals to try to put across how much you love someone? That’s where Owl Do Anything comes in. A rough draft was knocked up in ten minutes several weeks before and Chris, with his keen eye for a hearty pop nugget, skimmed and chopped and added until nothing more was required. And then it had to happen, the traditional Papples cover. Crooned all over. If there is a better version of anything by Starship then it remains to be heard.
Entry Filed under: Bedtime stories,Chris,Ian