The Regular Friday Post
Rando Lyrics: Summer came and summer's passing
Last week’s rando lyrics: The lyric, “Of the wide Pacific Ocean where the sun sets in the West” is from the song "Grand Coulee Dam”, by Woody Guthrie, released in 1945. Written by Woody Guthrie it is Track 13 on the 1987 compilation album “Columbia River Collection”. Produced by Moe Asch on the Rounder Label.
Ed. - See WIL2 section below for the album on Spotify
Welcome to The Regular Friday post!
So here’s a thing:
That’s a 2011 Martin DRS2, what Martin called their “Road Series” back in the day, with Mika. I bought this one used in 2016ish off of Reverb for around $500, I think, but not sure. Play the hell out of it still. A little on the heavy side though, sapele wood - sustainable, but heavy. Second acoustic guitar I owned - the first one was a gift, but this was the first one I bought.
This is the new version (renamed D-10E, but essentially the same guitar). They’re still “Road Series,” just renamed and in different styles and woods and pickups and such.
BTW, there was only one used Martin DRS2 to be found on Reverb - “excellent” condition - 2012 model - $1300 shipped…just sayin’…
The point? The DRS2 and my Yamaha FGX3:
(Ed. the same guitar last seen in the street music gig post from a few months ago) are my go-to practice guitars. Both less than a grand at the time, the Yamaha around $800 or so used off of Reverb (used “mints” on Reverb are around $980 right now). I think this Yamaha is a 2016 - 2018 or so (I did a serial # search on it, can’t remember now - somewhere in there), my other Yamaha (the gift) is around 25 years old - very mellow, play it often, great sound. I’m a fan of all my guitars, some more than others of course, but if I can’t stand playing a guitar because it just doesn’t fit my hand, I sell it. If you’re just starting out, either of these - a Road Series Martin or a Yamaha “FG” series are great choices and you can often find outright steals on used guitars on Reverb.
I’m not trying to sell you on any particular guitar - used “Epiphone by Gibson” are reasonable, but most Gibson branded acoustics are more expensive. I own a Gibson “Songwriter”, nice guitar, more in the Martin D-18/D-28 (yep, got ‘em) realm though.
I also own a Takamine, a Taylor, and a Zager - all great guitars - I probably wouldn’t buy any of those I couldn’t play first, though. Just sayin’…
The point is if you’re not sure if playing guitar is something you’re ready to make more than an “around the campfire occasionally” commitment to, don’t spend more than $1000 on a guitar, but also don’t buy a cheap “high pressure laminate” (HPL) guitar that won’t sound very good, doesn’t have electronics and will ultimately end up disappointing you if you decide to make it more than a passing hobby. If all else fails, go to Guitar Center (barf!), or someplace else like your locally owned guitar shop (they may not have a wide selection of brands, tho) and see how it feels in your hand, even if you don’t play yet. FWIW…
(But save up some $$$ for lessons!!)
News from around the “biz”:
All from Music Business Worldwide today:
Jason Iley, CEO, Sony Music UK - Interesting, but note lots of artists are buying annoying af “For Your Grammy Consideration” ads on MBW - just click on “continue to article”, those ads are most likely not aimed at you or I…
Confidential Information Lawsuit
Universal Sues Chili's - Ed. A headline I never thought I’d see, but here we are….
David Cassidy Music Rights Sold - Hey, Brad….!
Some Stuff
Ed. “They” may have been talking about cheap guitars tho…
Some Links For Today:
Today it’s Stuff NOT About Playing or Songwriting (mostly)!
Beatles’ History Section…..
From soundonsound.com: Beatles' First Audio Engineer
From Wikipedia: Musique Concreté
From: Farout Magazine: Sounds Beatles Pioneered
From cepi.io: Innovative Recording Techniques
From ASCAP: Good and Bad Stress
From Carvin Audio: Running Sound While Performing
From Acoustic Guitar Magazine: Flattop to Lap Steel Conversion
Ed. - not sure why you’d want to, but….
ED. None of these result in compensation to me in any way, and I’m not endorsing any of them, but some of my readers may find them as interesting as I did…
For Today:
Ed. I was born in Grand Coulee, WA, my dad and brother both worked on the dam for years, so this song always had a deeper meaning for me.
“If you ever want to build a house or light up a town, or bring the people power, the secret is this: Sing about your people, not about your millionaire play folks. The rich ones hired airplanes full of entertainers and stars to come up to Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Wyoming and tell the people that they didn’t need no Coolee Dam at all, that is, not for the next couple of centuries. Take too much work and materials and would make the wheels run entirely too nice and light up the country entirely too bright. The world didn’t need no more houses with electricity in them, no more factory towns singing with light metals and aluminum, no more flying fortresses zipping through the clouds. Then I sung another little song to sort of put these airplane loads of fonies back in their place.”
—Woody Guthrie, Library of Congress Archives
Kinda says it all, so it’s today’s…
…A Song To Play…
Key of GMajor (hmmm, great songwriters think alike…), 4/4 common time, a moderate 120 BPM, 3 chord I-IV-V progression. A very simple song, Mr. Guthrie pretty clearly spent more time on the lyrics than thinking through a complex melody. For what he was trying to accomplish, that simple structure works really well, and the Bonneville Power Administration definitely got their money’s worth…
Lyrics
(From Genius) Link>Grand Coulee Dam<
Well, the world has seven wonders that the trav'lers always tell
Some gardens and some towers, I guess you know them well
But now the greatest wonder is in Uncle Sam's fair land
It's the big Columbia River and the big Grand Coulee Dam
She heads up the Canadian Rockies where the rippling waters glide
Comes a-roaring down the canyon to meet the salty tide
Of the wide Pacific Ocean where the sun sets in the West
And the big Grand Coulee country in the land I love the best
In the misty crystal glitter of that wild and wind ward spray
Men have fought the pounding waters and met a watery grave
Well, she tore their boats to splinters but she gave men dreams to dream
Of the day the Coulee Dam would cross that wild and wasted stream
Uncle Sam took up the challenge in the year of thirty-three
For the farmer and the factory and all of you and me
He said, "Roll along, Columbia, you can ramble to the sea
But river, while you're rambling, you can do some work for me."
Well, the world has seven wonders that the trav'lers always tell
Some gardens and some towers, I guess you know them well
But now the greatest wonder is in Uncle Sam's fair land
It's the big Columbia River and the big Grand Coulee Dam
She heads up the Canadian Rockies where the rippling waters glide
Comes a-roaring down the canyon to meet the salty tide
Of the wide Pacific Ocean where the sun sets in the West
And the big Grand Coulee country in the land I love the best
In the misty crystal glitter of that wild and wind ward spray
Men have fought the pounding waters and met a watery grave
Well, she tore their boats to splinters but she gave men dreams to dream
Of the day the Coulee Dam would cross that wild and wasted stream
Uncle Sam took up the challenge in the year of thirty-three
For the farmer and the factory and all of you and me
He said, "Roll along, Columbia, you can ramble to the sea
But river, while you're rambling, you can do some work for me."
The “ME!” Section…..
What I’m Listening2: Link: >Woody Guthrie<
Ed. Just in case you wanted to binge Mr. Guthrie…
Shameless Self Promotion Section:
My song is out! Link: “>Long Road Back<”click on this link for streaming options, then scroll down for links (or just click on these links) to Amazon, Apple, Pandora, iTunes and even Spotify
Non-AI single cover art - It’s actually a composite of a WA State DOT pic from the 50s flipped a couple of ways, a photo I took of the moon from my deck one day, and wash coloring and text added in an iPhone app called Photo Studio…
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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 for any of the text that’s found here, things I link to (such as some images) might…
-Michael Acoustic
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This Week’s Conversation With Mika, The Cat:
Mika: “I’m not your damn guitar model!”
Me: “It seems you actually were….”
Mika: “Did you tell them you bribed me each time with 3 measly treats?”
Me: “You just told them you’re a cheap guitar model….”
Cheers and keep playing!!
Michael Acoustic
“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”
Hadn't heard about that Cassidy deal, Michael! It's the first one I've heard of that encompasses the artist's "publishing catalog, sound recordings, and name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights"! All the big names who are selling off (that I'm aware of) are strictly songwriters/composers who are "merely" selling their publishing rights/catalogs: Springsteen, Dylan, Simon (?)....going by memory here.
All of them are prolific songwriters, so their collective potential rights-values are astronomical! In fact, I can't recall any of those high-profile deals being for anyone no longer living. Previous deals were all (I think) for publishing rights by the still-living legends....to set up their children's children's children's children for life!
With all that said, I wonder how aggressive Iconoclast will be in selling his name and likeness, and how they'll propose to use his songs. Of course, in his Partridge days, he didn't write his hits. He may have gotten one song on each of those albums, but he didn't start writing in earnest 'til '75 and his first post-Partridge album for RCA. I'll do some nosing around to see what I can find! Thanks, Michael!