Club version of Rock oldie "The Letter".
This is my first modern cover version of an evergreen. If you listen carefully, you'll hear that I slightly altered the lyrics, now it goes: ... my baby wrote me an email. Furthermore I've inserted a little choral intermezzo to go beyond 3 minutes - the original song is only 1:58.
Remix note: The original and all embedded clips can be found on Splice (http://www.splicemusic.com/songs/Asaguare/gimme-ticket).
Cover version
I like it! Nice update to the classic track. I was thinking about doing a cover version of the first song I ever learned how to play. I haven't decided how to add my own flavor and interest just yet.
Covering
Which one is this first song you ever learned how to play?
Mine was "Tom Dooley" (C and G7 on guitar) btw, haha...
First Song
The first song I learned how to play was "Breaking the Law" by Judas Priest from their British Steel album. Easy song, fun to play though. I could probably rip through a straight cover in no time. I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate some electronica into it without losing too much metal!
Judas Priest
Never had a real hardrock/metal phase in my youth, hence I didn't know Breaking the Law in particular. Anyway, just quickly analyzed this tune... 2:33, 162 bpm, key C/Am. Looks like a good target for remixing, because it's being rather short, having a no flats/sharps (means alot of matching additional stuff can be found - or made by yourself only using white keys) and - last but not least - having a perfect high tempo for techno/electronica backing drums. Even an aggressive Gabba style version might be possible.
Well, me got a couple of nice ideas already - for instance recording own Zappa-like rhythm/lead guitars - but the vocal part is out of my range, I'm just no rock singer. Including the deep chorus (which I had to pitch shift down, haha), the voice is spanning almost 2 octaves... no chance for me.
On the other hand: Your voice is pretty rocking, man. I absolutely can imagine you're able to create excellent vocals for it...
Irony
Wow there is an irony in these posts. First off I like the work you have done here and good luck with any other Collab or remix you might take upon yourselves with this tune. Sad to say though this tune is probably covered under the copyright laws so unless you have permission to remix or even post to this site it probably should be removed. I wouldn't want to be "Breaking the Law" or served with "The Letter" if you know what I mean. No offense guys just got to keep on the up and up, we all slip from time to time. If you have the rights to this song by all means feel free to use it here. Thanks for understanding.
Groove On!!!
Breaking the Law
It's groovy. I wasn't gonna upload it if I did the cover. Just may cover it for my own amusement. :o) At most, might do a temp upload to my site and provide a link... if it even turned out decently. Which I haven't even started anything yet, so may be moot anyways! I have too many songs in my head. More than is good for me, really. Keeps me up at night. (Which makes it a good thing I work for my uncle. A little understanding if I'm late... don't want to try his patience though!)
Licensed Letter
Yep, this is a serious point. Of course I investigated a bit last week before I decided to put hands on "The Letter". Well, there's alot of profile pages concerning "Wayne Carson Thompson" - who wrote the song - and a couple of hints to A&M Records and Universal Music Group, but no details on their sites.
However, the song was covered/used by about 20 artists (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Letter_%28song%29). Maybe I should ask one of them about it...
Eric, isn't there kinda central (online) register/database where licensing issues for music can be looked at?
If you think there's some trouble in the air... remove it - or deactivate it unless we know for sure.
audio file
I will remove the audio file for now. It's safe to assume as much as I hate to assume, that unless you own a license to reproduce a cover song, that it is probably a good idea not to reproduce the cover for any type of broadcast or production purposes. They would probably see this site as a means to rebroadcast such a song. It's probably not a worry of being pursued by the copyright owners if you were to play the song out in a public area because they can't be everywhere all of the time. However a site like this one is an easy target for those to pursue. We could leave this post up in order to discuss the realm of copyrighted work, just book mark this page if you would like to return and make another post on the subject of copyrighted work. I personally don't agree in the Copyright of Music as original ownership. I believe music no matter how original it sounds is nothing more than a borrowed or stolen pieces of sequenced sound patterns that earlier creators expounded upon some original ideas of controlling such sequences and patterns, dating back to primal chanting in caves. Somewhere along the way these ideas have been pervertedly converted into what people in power call tangible things of which can be owned. Dare I make the analogy of a hunk of air that somehow you have been able to grasp and mold with your bare hands and then release it in a special way and then call it your copyrighted chunk of air. If I were to let you take my chunk of air and manipulate it in any fashion you so desire then that piece of air becomes your actual thing to own? I think not, it is merely another distortion of a piece of air for which you have no ownership on just the ability to share a new idea or way of manipulating. These silly absurd copyright laws on music need to be abolished all together. Of course this is just my opinion and has no effect on the current laws, for now we all just have to abide by them. Most countries respect and protect these works under current existing copyright laws. Check out the link I have on the right side of this site that goes to Clever Joe's web site, his site covers Copyright issues in great length. It also has links to the publishers databases etc.
Groove On!!!
removal
Yes, I second your opinion.
Just out of curiosity I dropped a mail to Dan Penn (publisher of The Letter) this morning and asked about permission things concerning this song. Let's see if he answers - in case of denial I don't mind, I'm not that eager to spread my version.
Btw: Please uncheck the 'Promoted to front page'-flag of the entry.