The Regular Friday Post

Rando Lyrics: A crack in the sky and a hand reaching down to me

Feb 02, 2024

Before we get started: Tomorrow, February 3, is “The Day The Music Died”. On February 3rd, 1959 Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper (J. P. Richardson), and pilot Roger Peterson died in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa shortly after takeoff, bound for Fargo, North Dakota. From Fargo, they had a gig scheduled in nearby Moorhead, Minnesota where they rest of the performers were to join them. Link (Wikipedia): The Day The Music Died

Last week’s rando lyrics: The lyric, “Still it's hard to explain, oh What your love meant to me” is from the song "If I’d Been The One”, a song by by the band 38 Special , released in 1983 as Track 1 on the album “Tour de Force”. The song was written By Donnie Van Zant, Larry Steele, Jeff Carlisi & Don Barnes, and produced by Barnes, Carlisi and Engineer/Producer Rodney Mills.

Links: Wikipedia 38 Special, Tour De Force Discogs: If I'd Been The One

Welcome to The Regular Friday post!

For Today:

Kind of that time of year when I start thinking about spring, and kinda also how it’s not here yet, but maybe not too far off. More so than New Year’s resolutions and all of that, I begin to plan my year, or at least think about planning my year. A little, maybe. So what will the change of seasons bring? Spring is my favorite time of year - a time of renewal, awakening from the the winter cold, the trees and flowers blooming - the pollen that comes with that a necessary evil, a price for watching the green leaves return, the grass regain its color, warm days returning (though as winters go, this one admittedly hasn’t been that bad here in the Upper Left Corner…so far…). So, things to look forward to, time to clear out the cobwebs, finish stuff that needs finishing, get started on things that need to be started.

Meanwhile - the music remains! And that’s always something to be thankful for, whether discovering the new, revisiting the past or getting on with making our own. Plenty of that awaiting me and maybe you as well. If you’re just starting, or finishing a project - writing lyrics, beginning to put chords to lyrics or just working out a melody that’s going to support lyrics soon, I’d love to hear about your projects as well. Nothing seems to stimulate the creative process as much as hanging out with other musicians, jamming, trading ideas, listening to each other’s new recordings or ideas.

Connecting with other musicians is, for me at least, a really important part of my growth. I’m fortunate to have found a couple of groups of (mostly) musicians to meet with regularly. Not all of what we talk about is music, some of our initial meetings have been icebreakers, trading background stories, sometimes diving into the non-musical, commercial and technical side of the “biz” - that sort of thing - but I imagine all of these connections will continue to grow into rewarding experiences for us all.

I urge my readers who are performing musicians, singer songwriters, recording artists or engineers, music students, or just interested in being more involved with those who are, to reach out to like minded folks and make a plan to meet once a month maybe, or whatever works for your schedules. It’s easy to let the winters, the years, the opportunities pass by and leave us thinking coulda, shoulda….

So I don’t have much else this week as I wait for “the warmth of the sun” to return, but as always if you have a question or whatever, please hit the comments section, and thanks for joining me on this journey!

A Song To Play -

Yeah, yeah it’s the Rando Lyric song from this week (again). Cowboy chords in GMajor, a quick 143 BPM, 4/4 time - fun to play with the YT video above

Link: Chordify

Lyrics:

[Verse 1]
I've been lost inside, empty space in my heart
And some things never change, oh
How it hurts me and how it's tearin' me apart
And it just goes on and on

[Pre-Chorus]
Can you read my mind
Take a good look at my face
Could you take the time
Just to stand here in my place

[Chorus]
What if I'd been the one to say goodbye, goodbye
Could you smile when inside you just wanna cry, look inside
Can you read my mind? Oh, oh

[Verse 2]
When I hear your name
Feel so cold deep inside
Still it's hard to explain, oh
What your love meant to me
They say time will heal the pain
But it just goes on forever

[Pre-Chorus]
Can you read my mind
Have you closed the door on love
Can you be so blind
Did you think I'd just give up

[Chorus]
What if I'd been the one to say goodbye, goodbye
Could you smile when inside you just wanna cry, wanna cry
What if I'd been the one to say goodbye, goodbye
Could you smile when it hurts so deep inside
And it never fades away
Fade away

[Bridge]
Time can't erase the reasons why
Count my mistakes and the heartaches
Since you said goodbye

[Chorus]
What if I'd been the one to say goodbye, goodbye
Could you smile when inside you just wanna cry, wanna cry
What if I'd been the one to say goodbye, goodbye
Could you smile when it hurts so deep inside
And it never fades away
Never fades away
No, it don't fade away

Link: Genius

If you’re enjoying our content, please let your friends and musician acquaintances know about us!!! Thanks for supporting this free newsletter!

Share Michael Acoustic

“The news is blue (the news is blue)
It has its own way to get to you (ooh)” [Driver’s Seat”, 1978, Sniff ‘n’ The Tears, Paul Roberts]

The News:

Our Substack friend Brad Kyle at:

…has a weekly feature called “Tune Tags” where he engages with other Substack writers in finding detailed background minutiae regarding songs sent to one another. Check out Brad’s Substack for some interesting finds where this week I assisted with some background information, while heroically resisting the urge to explain myself using the Circle Of Fifths. It was a difficult day for me….

But I feel better now…..

More news:

For independent and Do It Yourself musicians, singer/songwriters, recording artists and everyone who doesn’t like bullies….

Labels And Spotify Collaborate

Universal Music Group Snubs TikTok

Again, while I’ve decided I’m off my soapbox about Spotify’s perfidy, the Bigs working together to crush us “littles”, and all their other shenanigans, it doesn’t mean it’s not a valid topic for this space - I’m keeping track of it, and I hope to see some much needed legal action(s) commence soon - I’ll let ya know!

WOW!! - Mark Knopfler Sold Many Of His Guitars - $11M worth....

This made me laugh - from X (Twitter):

Some Links for today:

From Blues Guitar Unleashed:

Chord Inversions - we’ve talked about the basic triad and other types of chords - 7ths, adds, and such, but I haven’t talked lately about how we use chords, especially on guitar, as opposed to pianos and keyboards where things are more linearly one dimensional - on the fretboard we move laterally and linearly and that adds complexity to finger arrangements. One thing that’s common is playing chords sort of “out of order” we don’t have to fret strings (and pianists don’t have to press keys) in the “order” of chordal notes - so long as some or all of the chord in any of it’s forms are there, the listener hears the chordal result. That’s a different result than with horns, winds, strings and most percussion which mostly produce melodies rather than chordal harmonies. Here’s a primer on that.

Clapton's Secret Move - guess it’s not a secret any more….

5th String Root Pentatonics - It’s true, not every pentatonic scale box needs to start on the low E - find out more here.

From Carvin Audio:

EQ and Compression Techniques - this article is about some fairly advanced recording techniques - if you’re into recording in a home studio, or talking to your audio mastering engineer without sounding like a complete noob, this is worth the read.

From Acoustic Guitar Magazine:

Identifying Guitar Shapes/Sizes - really interesting article - ever wonder what the difference between a dreadnought, a guitar type that has one or more “O”s and others is? - learn how to tell at a glance. Especially helpful because manufacturers use different terminology (imagine that…).

Unique Chord Progressions - yeah, spruce them up a bit - spring is a time of miracles…

Literature And Poetry In Songwriting - I’ve visited this subject a number of times, and without getting too far into the music theory weeds regarding rhythm, meter, rhyme, syllable counts and all that (see what I did there?) - poetry especially is helpful for those concepts, and well written prose can be a source for great lyrical inspiration.

From Reverb:

Strat vs Tele - yeah, the world isn’t just about acoustic guitars (shocking news!!) - two iconic electrics and what’s up with each.

From Disc Makers:

The Circle Of Fifths - why it’s just soooo cool - and why you need to know about it

Music Producer Points - Yes, they want to make money as much as you do - here’s how to help them help you so everyone gets a piece of the pie.

Thanks, New Subscribers!! This Week’s Conversation With Mika, the Cat:

Mika: “Mmmm, yogurt! I’ll do the work, you don’t touch the whiskers, pal….”

Me: “Whatever, ya little beggar…”

Disclaimer Section

This Substack is free, I receive no compensation of any kind from companies or products I mention. Some linked or quoted material may be copyrighted by others, and I credit them. I rely on the “Fair Use” doctrine for educational purposes (Link: Fair Use). *I do not use AI, things I link to might though. -Michael Acoustic

*Exception: For the next few weeks at least I’ll be testing out a beta feature offered on Substack that produces an AI image based on a text input - the image of the week can be seen in the upper left corner of this post… (it’s not me in the pic, just sayin…)

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support this newsletter.

Shameless Self Promotion Section:

My song is out! Link: “Long Road Back” (click on link for streaming options)…

What I’m Listening2:

LINK»> It’s Not Spring Yet….click the underlined link, it’s on Amazon

Ed. - Eclectic? Yeah! - I never get enough of listening widely! The six people I’d love to have a beer with (though some are no longer with us…) are represented on here, as well as some kinda rando, genre hopping selections. Doesn’t matter. Some of these artists I’ve seen in concert, some I want to see, some I wish I would have had the opportunity, and yes, a couple I’d never even heard of before I put this together, but every one of them caught my ear in some way.

Cheers!….. and keep playing!!

Michael Acoustic

“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”