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All Them Trimmings - Part 2
81 Plays5 months ago
Who would have thought it possible?
That a random set of lyrics, found by a pair of young music nerds in a “how to be a rock star” book would eventually spark a middle-aged creative renaissance.
And that this in turn would lead to the establishment of a post-apocalyptic cult that would ultimately save the world?
Some of the above is true.
In this episode, Giles and Steve listen to more versions of the song we’re calling ”All Them Trimmings” and have a jolly good time doing it.
Featuring their own interpretation, alongside valid contributions from MJ Hibbett and Frankie Machine.
It’s not too late to record your own version!
Related audiovisual material is available on the This Are Johnny Domino blog
Visit the Johnny Domino website
Connect with Johnny Domino on Facebook and Instagram
Podcast artwork by Giles Woodward
Edited by Steve Woodward at PodcastingEditor.com
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Transcript
Introduction and Headphone Troubles
00:00:00
Speaker
Wish I'd recorded all that, you faffing around with that B. Yeah, you should have. It's telling it off for being stupid. Well, it was being silly. Right. I really need to, my headphones are sh- I'm not happy with my headphone situation at the moment. Cause my good headphones broke and I've got some slightly shitter headphones. Okay. And these are just not doing it, man. It's like, I don't feel as in it as I was.
00:00:30
Speaker
Right, okay, I'm going to psych myself up for the intro. Okay, get fluffing. This is not a lyric, this one. Okay. So we're changing it, or it doesn't have to be a lyric.
Art's Historical Impact
00:01:01
Speaker
Art has the power to change the world through history. Let me start again.
00:01:16
Speaker
Art has the power to change the world. Through history, art was used to intimidate certain people, to exclude certain people, and to control people. It's been a tool to maintain the status quo for the benefit of those in power. But now we understand how it works. We decoded it. We know the game. We can understand art, and we have the tools to make it.
00:01:42
Speaker
Now we can make art that can change how people see the world. Art can change the world.
00:02:20
Speaker
Oh, what was that? Unplugged. Was that you? Of course it was.
00:02:30
Speaker
Live and direct. Live and direct. In the house, in the house. It's early in the morning. What can I say? Steve is in the house. That was unexpected and quite nice. There you go. Thank you very much. No problem.
Podcast Concept: Reassessing Songs
00:02:46
Speaker
Thank you for joining us for our podcast, the This R Johnny Domino podcast, where myself, Steve and my brother Giles. Hello.
00:02:57
Speaker
We listened to songs that we recorded up to and over 30 years ago and we reassessed them with our new ears the original concept for the podcast that we would be selecting songs that we have played in the past for a purely imaginary best of compilation track list.
00:03:15
Speaker
But now we're on volume two. Because we got carried away and we decided to release the first volume of the best of This Are Johnny Domino available on all music streaming platforms.
American Adventure Memories
00:03:29
Speaker
It's true, it's true, it's true. So that was the premise, but it seems to be developing slightly. Yeah.
00:03:36
Speaker
And I think it will. It will grow and it will change. But the mission stays the same. Last episode, we were talking about America, kind of, and particularly talking about a place that we used to work called the American Adventurer theme park. So if you've not listened to that episode, go back and check it out.
00:03:59
Speaker
Since we recorded it, lots more things about the American adventure have kind of come into my head and through conversations with people and things like that. I think we are going to talk about that some more. So if anyone has any particular memories of that place, please do share with us.
00:04:17
Speaker
But my man Paul from Turkey was telling me that he went to the American Adventure on the very last day that it was open. And he described it as being like the fall of Iraq. So that's too good a story to not
00:04:39
Speaker
know about. So I think I'm going to get Paul, you know, just put that, put a little bit of a description of that on tape and send
Worst Drummer Experience?
00:04:46
Speaker
that to us. We need to hear about that. And also, we also need to mention what we've got a story about, possibly the worst drummer that we've ever played with. His name I'm not going to mention at the moment, but we definitely need to talk about that
Steve Albini's Legacy
00:05:04
Speaker
as well.
00:05:04
Speaker
because he was a cowboy he was an actual he was an actual cowboy at the American venture and we rehearsed there we did anyway we'll talk about that yeah we'll talk about that another time right in other news obviously we are recording this a couple of days after the sad death of Steve Albini
00:05:23
Speaker
And 61 is obviously too young for anyone to die. And since his death, I've been, and I'm sure a lot of people who listen to this podcast have been engaging with his music, whether it's music that he actually created or music that he recorded. And his shadow is long. Yeah, it really is.
00:05:46
Speaker
And, you know, key musical touchstones of certainly my life and I know your life, Giles. Definitely. I mean, I've been... He's all over them, yeah. I felt this. And I don't normally, you know, when, you know, a famous person or some public figure dies, you know, it's like when Bowie died or whatever. I mean, I remember that. And, you know, it's sad and everything, obviously. But this one actually hit me.
00:06:14
Speaker
I don't know why but you know he was somebody who had a hand in a lot of my favorite music really and definitely had an effect on how I heard things.
00:06:29
Speaker
I think also for better or for worse, the way he carried himself had an effect. That kind of snarky, smart-ass nerd persona that he had certainly in the 80s, we had a bit of that and we carried it on. But obviously in recent years he evolved and took responsibility for all the things that he did at that time.
00:06:53
Speaker
I think it was the uncompromising thing, really. It was like, this is what I think. And he had a confidence about what he thought and his viewpoints, and he was very forthright in the way that he expressed his viewpoints about music and recording. And you know, you maybe didn't always agree with him, but I just like that confidence that he had, you know? You know, he knew what he wanted to be.
00:07:17
Speaker
Yeah. And I loved that. And I really respect that really. And, you know, we went, we went seashell like a few years back, didn't we? Yeah. And it's a regret. It's a regret that we didn't. Shake his hand. Shake his hand. We didn't shake his hand. I saw Lee Ronaldo and I shook his hand.
00:07:34
Speaker
and didn't wash my hand for a bit because, you know, I used to listen to Sonic Youth on my headphones in bed. That was, again, a key touchstone. But I think there was something quite intimidating about Steve Albini.
00:07:50
Speaker
Yeah, but the way he carried himself, certainly in Big Black, he would light firecrackers on stage and throw them in the audience and be very confrontational with the audience, very antagonistic with the audience. I mean, and I almost expected him to be like that. And when we saw Shellac, he so wasn't like that. He had the lights on so they could see the audience. They were in the room with the audience, to sound like a bit of a hippie, but it was
00:08:19
Speaker
It was a conversation, it was a communion effectively. The whole question and answer thing. At the end of the set, they said, give us five minutes, we'll pack our stuff up or
Engaging with Admired Figures
00:08:32
Speaker
however long it takes, but come and talk to us. And the Steve Arbini of the Big Black Years,
00:08:39
Speaker
I don't think I'd have gone anywhere near him because... No, but he was anti-rockstar, wasn't he? He was like the very, very much the ultimate anti-rockstar. And, you know, let that be a lesson to us, right? You know, if you ever get a chance to be in a room with somebody that you really admire and you've got a chance to possibly go and shake their hand, actually do it. You know what I mean? Yeah. And tell them what they mean to you. Yeah, definitely do it. Right. Carrying on. Carrying on. Okay.
Interpreting Lyrics
00:09:09
Speaker
As I mentioned at the start, our usual MO for the podcast is we listen to songs that we recorded in the past and we choose one to go on a speculative compilation tape. Recently we have been running a challenge where
00:09:23
Speaker
In our past, I think Jim from the band bought me a book called Rock Talk written by Julian Colbeck. It's a very slight book, 44 pages or so, and it's all about being in a rock band and getting involved with the rock scene and writing your own songs. And there is a page of lyrics by a band called Out to Lunch that we took a great deal of enjoyment from. They made us laugh. It made us laugh. We thought they were quite ridiculous lyrics. Yeah. But we can't lie.
00:09:53
Speaker
No no we can't. Now we've put the lyrics out there and we've invited listeners to submit their own interpretations of those songs. A couple of episodes ago we shared four songs that had been sent in already and we're going to talk about some more that we've received and all created.
00:10:12
Speaker
we are because the first one we're going to listen to today is, well it's our version, isn't it Steve? It's by a band called Johnny Domino. It's the Johnny Domino band.
00:10:45
Speaker
You always have to take this long You said, don't push it too far Just let it fade away But I felt I could do something Just let it fade away
00:11:29
Speaker
Dash of creativity that's all it needed Creativity with all them trimmings that come with love All of them trimmings that come with love
00:12:12
Speaker
Yes, that's how you talk, yeah Can't you see what I see?
Morning Recording and New Tools
00:12:27
Speaker
Where are you going? To the ways, to the ways, to the ways
00:12:55
Speaker
Just a dash of creativity that's all it needed Creativity with all that it remains That come with me, all of that it remains That come with me
00:13:43
Speaker
All of them dreamings that come with love All of them dreamings
00:14:07
Speaker
There you go. That blew the cobwebs away a bit, didn't it?
00:14:12
Speaker
When we've talked about other people's interpretations of the lyrics by Out To Lunch, we kind of got deep. It might be difficult to do that with our own version. Yeah. I don't think we're going to go too deep with it. But I'm going to mention it's a morning. It's a pretty early morning recording session and it's a beautiful day. But I am feeling a bit fuzzy. But that's sounding good this morning. You've added a bit of a keyboard bit at the end that I quite like. Yeah, just a little bit of
00:14:42
Speaker
I didn't hear that before. You just stuck that on. It's got the Twin Peaks keyboard bit on. The Twin Peaks Johnny Domino Vibraphones. Yeah, I like that. That's nice. Yeah. Good addition. Yeah. What can we tell people about it? Well, it's not a sample.
00:15:00
Speaker
using the kind of johnny domino heath robinson cobbled together stickyback plastic version of recording even though i'm recording on a computer i took a snippet of a song called doing the mustang by don bryant is called doing the mustang is called doing the mustang and it's a it's a groovy little song.
00:15:24
Speaker
doing the Mustang! That's pretty much it.
Digital Recording Challenges
00:15:30
Speaker
And ever since I heard it, I thought, oh, that riff's kind of cool. It's such a groovy song, isn't it? Yeah, and I just thought... Do you know what? It's another song that's not on Spotify.
00:15:41
Speaker
Is it? Yeah, songs that are not on Spotify. Well, it's on YouTube. So we'll include a link to it in the show notes. It's, as I say, it's just something that I chopped it and I happened to figure out what tempo it was in.
00:16:03
Speaker
It's at 110 PPM. Thanks for that. Another problem. And I basically just kind of went, there's a bit, there's a bit, there's a bit. I changed the pitch on a couple of bits so that when we go into the, what, I struggled a bit. Also on the pre-chorus,
00:16:25
Speaker
The music changes because I changed the chords. So I had to kind of drop the pitch and also raise the pitch. And then it goes down an octave and goes double time. And then it also goes down an octave in regular time. There you go. That's boring.
00:16:40
Speaker
No, you want to write a good play around with it. I write a good fertile around and then I recorded some guitar and some keyboards and then I sent it to you and you did your vocals. I did a bit of singing on it, yeah. I do like the the the Kree
00:16:56
Speaker
Hey, thanks. I like that bit. You see, I can say that because I didn't do the vocals so I can be complimentary. Well, I'm glad, you know. We enjoyed doing it, didn't we? Yes, absolutely. And we were in the privileged position of hearing everyone else's interpretation as they came in. So we did, I think we kind of borrowed a little bit, didn't we?
00:17:17
Speaker
Well, I think we'll talk about that later, but it's definitely been formed. It's been quite an interesting process. But yeah, I'll talk about that in a bit. But because one of the other songs, I think, kind of like links with that whole idea. Yeah. But yeah, I did enjoy doing it. And it made me think that this way of working, which is a different way of working to the way we did it when we were making our older recordings.
00:17:47
Speaker
We're in separate houses and we're just sending stuff to each other. It does work. The temptation to just keep throwing things at songs is very strong these days though. It's not like back in those four-track days, when you add a limited number of tracks, the temptation there is just to keep, let's have another vocal.
00:18:17
Speaker
Well, how many tracks did you think you sent me? Seven vocal tracks. Yeah. Yeah. Let's just keep adding them. There's the sample track. There's a garage band rhythm loop track, which is kind of like an AI creators loop.
00:18:34
Speaker
Then there's a Trumbachini beat. There's a whoop whoop keyboard sound, and the vibraphone sound, and your many, many, many, many vocal tracks. Yeah, it's good. Enjoy doing it, Steve. Me too. Let us know what you thought about it, people. Yes, be kind. But yeah, so that was our version of the song that we're calling
00:19:02
Speaker
all them trimmings.
Exciting Song Developments
00:19:04
Speaker
Absolutely. That's not the title of the song. We don't know what the title of the song is, but we might find out. Dot, dot, dot. Shall we move on to the next one? We're not going to tell them about that yet, are we? No, no, not yet. No, no, it's just, you know, it could all come to nothing, which will make a story in itself. I know, but just let people know there may be something exciting afoot. Hmm.
00:19:31
Speaker
The next song we're going to talk about today is by our friend and artists against success label boss, MJ Hibbert, beloved of the indie track scene and Steve LaMac.
MJ Hibbert's Musical Quirkiness
00:19:46
Speaker
And remember a couple of episodes, well, a few episodes ago, many episodes ago, we had our mate Tom Cox on talking about his work as an A&R scout for a label that was run by Steve LaMac.
00:20:00
Speaker
Remember? And that was the whole thing about they liked the song New Pink Shirt, but they didn't want anything to do with us because we both wore glasses and they thought we looked like the Proclaimers. Oh yeah, that was a good story. It was a good story. MJ Hibbert.
00:20:15
Speaker
Yeah, I didn't want to put this one in this episode. I'll be straight up. Why not? I wanted to save it for the next one. But then Steve said that apparently he's got loads of followers who will listen. So we need to put it in this one. Is that right? I might not include that bit. Look, it's in. So let's just leave it. But I'm just going to apologize to all those people that sent in songs ages ago. We've bumped this one up to the front.
00:20:45
Speaker
No, because that's how you run a podcast, apparently. It's for the sake of the episode. It's like a varied episode. It's fine. Leave me alone. I've got my reasons. They are multiple. I know, but, you know, I'm just letting people know that I don't always agree with you.
00:21:06
Speaker
I think that's obvious. Yeah. But here we are and we're going to listen to this one and I'm happy to listen to it now, but I just wanted to let people lift the curtain a little bit into the, uh, the, the machinery, the machinery that goes on behind the scenes here. Right. But yeah, I'm happy to have this one on now, but we did have a discussion and, uh, yeah. MJ Hibbert. What's your favorite MJ Hibbert song? I like payday is the best day.
00:21:36
Speaker
Yeah that is, I think that might, that might be mine actually. And also like This Is Not A Library, that's a good song as well. Yeah. And Born With The Century, a very very early one but I really like that one as well. Yeah but Hibbert did lots of gigs with us. Yeah. Which was interesting, it was a mad idea to put us on with Hibbert I think. Why?
00:22:01
Speaker
My thoughts are there's not that many people that like Hibbert, MJ, I'm referring to him as Hibbert, sorry, MJ, Mark. Not many people who like
00:22:16
Speaker
Mark, MJ Hibbert's music. I don't think there's that much of a crossover, people that perhaps like our music. I mean, to be honest, Steve, I can't imagine us fitting in the indie tracks festival. God bless it, you know, and all who sailed in it. I think we're a bit too new wave. Whereas MJ Hibbert probably had his own tent. The times when I went to indie tracks and when I was performing with Frankie Machine,
00:22:46
Speaker
It was going into a world where people were like, can I get a photo with MJ Hibbert?
00:22:54
Speaker
And it was pretty crazy because you know him. And yeah, people were kind of, oh, can you get you to sign some stuff? And this guy is a star. He's a star of that scene. That's why he's got lots of followers. That's why we put him in the episode. Yeah. But we did a series, a grueling tour with MJ Hibbert, the Players with Words tour, because we both released albums on Artists Against Success.
00:23:23
Speaker
at the same time. Players with our album and his was say it with words wasn't it? Yeah, it was a grueling schedule. It was the 21st of March in Leicester, then the 27th of March in Nottingham, then the 4th of April in London, I mean there's a week between all of these gigs, 4th of April in London, 10th of April in Derby. How did we do that? All I can remember is in Leicester I think it was
00:23:51
Speaker
sparsely attended. In Nottingham, it was a gig, which I think was tied into a label called Intramit. And it was pretty well attended. And if you look at Mark Hibbert's website, he's got a complete list of all of his gigs. He just took that.
00:24:09
Speaker
Yeah, and he talks about these four gigs and he does say in Nottingham that we went down, Johnny Domino went down really well and MJ Hibbert and The Validators, which is his backing band, did not go down as well. That's what I'm saying. I think it's crossing over different audiences there really.
00:24:27
Speaker
I don't think it's a problem. But if you think about the London date, I think we went down quite badly. And he had a storming gig. Yeah, exactly. I don't know. I mean, I just think, I think Rob probably likes both types of music. But it's quite a specific music taste. So there you go. Anyway, shall we get into the world of MJ Hibbert?
00:24:59
Speaker
Searching for time that just is not there Does it always have to take this long? You said don't push it too far Just let it fade away But I felt I had to do something Before we threw it all away Just a dash of creativity That's all it needed Creativity
00:25:30
Speaker
With all of them trimming to come with love So take heed
00:25:43
Speaker
Before you jump that gun Settle your conscience Can't you see what I see? Girl, are you blind To the ways of a loving man? You need just a dash of creativity That's all it needed Creativity
00:26:10
Speaker
With all of them trimmings that come with love Creativity With all of them trimmings that come with love It's grabbing on me
00:26:37
Speaker
The thing now you said that you found it difficult to fit those words in. Yeah, a lot of people have said that the words are pretty clumsy.
00:26:48
Speaker
Yeah, they're pretty clumsy. That's one of the things that we enjoyed when we read them, because I don't think lyrics to many songs make sense on the page, but these ones really don't make sense on the page when you hear them in your head. The thing I liked about MJ Hibbert's version is he made it sound as natural as breathing. I don't feel he's struggling to fit the words in.
00:27:16
Speaker
So when I heard it, I thought he'd done something borderline miraculous because he'd made these words sound like they were written to be sung in a song. And, you know, he doesn't seem to be struggling with fitting them in, which I think is magical.
00:27:38
Speaker
I might be overstating it somewhat, but I think out of all the versions we've received, he's not having to think, oh, God, this line's a bit weird. It just flows. Yeah, well, I think that's his thing. He sings quite unusual lyrics anyway, right, in his own songs. And he makes them kind of fit into his tunes quite cleanly, I think. And in his message to me,
00:28:07
Speaker
Mark did say, I must say, I was very surprised indeed when it got to the second verse and it worked.
00:28:16
Speaker
Well, in the second verse, he does the sort of like, he goes higher. Yeah. He does the, oh, what's the line he does? Hold on. He says, yeah. Can't you see what I see? That bit, right? Girl, are you blind to the ways of the loving man? Yeah. Yeah. He does that in a lot of songs on the second verse. Yeah. I'm going to use the word winsome, but not in a negative way.
00:28:46
Speaker
I thought that was kind of a winsome version. Attractive or appealing in a fresh, innocent way. It was lovely to receive that from Mark. I've not seen him for a while. Probably the last time I saw him was at the aforementioned indie tracks. Yeah, but he's still gigging, isn't he? Oh yeah, he'll never stop.
00:29:08
Speaker
He's still gigging and he's still doing stuff and he's still doing his thing. And for that, we salute you MJ. Absolutely. We salute you and stand by you as a brother. Brother, well, what's the song Black Hair and Glasses Brigade? Indeed. Yeah, that was on the tour that we did with him when that song started. I thought, he's talking about us.
00:29:33
Speaker
I was collectively, definitely. Unfortunately, no longer black hair. No, no, me neither. No, no. The passage of time. Anyway, next is a song by a forementioned Frankie machine, his interpretation.
Frankie Machine's Song Inspiration
00:29:52
Speaker
And I think, I think there's a lot to say about this.
00:29:55
Speaker
He sent us quite a few versions, but the one that we're talking about is the complete Frankie Machine interpretation of the words, which we are referring to as all them trimmings. Has he given you any sort of description to what he's done? He said, three minutes of pop glory incoming with all of them trimmings.
00:30:17
Speaker
And I said, loving them trimmins, blah, blah, blah. I said, I think Giles approves cause I sent him a copy of your message. And the Rob went, he's the star of the show brackets song. I assume you recognized it. And I said, Oh my God, there's a lot going on there. Obviously I spotted the spoken bits because he has taken bits from the podcast. We spoke through the lyrics. I can hear that in it, but didn't recognize Giles's favorite JD song until the second go round.
00:30:46
Speaker
What's Giles' favourite JD song? You know what he's based it on, don't you? No. Oh, my God. This is... Right, OK. Podcast gold, motherfucker. Right, this is actually going to be good. So it's always good.
00:31:05
Speaker
So this is new to me. What, what, what, what's, okay, number one, seriously, what's my favourite Johnny Domino song? Because I don't know what my favourite Johnny Domino song is even. Right. And I didn't hear it. And I've listened to this a few times. Yeah. Okay. Well, that's, that's quite telling. So do you want to play the song? Right. Then we'll figure that out. Okay. Let's see if you can hear it this time.
00:32:23
Speaker
But I felt like I could do something
00:33:08
Speaker
Can't you see what I see from you blind in ways of the love
00:34:25
Speaker
So that was an interpretation of all them trumings by Frankie Machine. Did you not hear what it was based on? It took me a while. I actually, I'm a bit embarrassed to say literally until like two minutes ago, I didn't notice it. So I feel quite bad about that because I have listened to it quite a few times. But if you listen back to episode 21,
00:34:51
Speaker
the Space Special, you will hear me having a little bit of a Mardi about a song that I didn't like very much called, was it called Alien Song? It's called Alien Song. Alien Song. Which I reacted quite badly to Alien Song.
00:35:15
Speaker
Oh, please stop it. Stop it. It's ghastly. It's ghastly. God, that was horrible, Steve. New section. Songs that we need to erase from tape and never listen to again. I don't want to hear that in my history. That's a terrible song. That's really bad. So bad. So bad.
00:35:43
Speaker
I don't think you need to be so cross with your past self. We were just trying different things. I don't want to listen to that again. That's so bad. I should have known, right? When Rob said Giles' favourite song, it was his trademark sarcasm coming in there. It wasn't my favourite song. It was my least favourite song. I call it your favourite song. Oh, it's your trademark favourite sarcasm, none of it. Right. OK. Then Frankie responded with,
00:36:11
Speaker
Ha ha, yes, I based the whole thing on Alien Song as I thought it got a bum deal on the podcast. Musically, I thought it had a lovely vibe. Yeah. Well, maybe we'll listen to it again then, Rob, at some point. Absolutely. And he also vocoderised us reading the lyrics out on the podcast as well. Yeah, I like the auto tune.
00:36:33
Speaker
Yes. Sort of sound. It's really good. It's a bit Drake, isn't it? It is a bit Drake, yes. Post Malone. Yeah. Well, Rob Franke said he was messing around with something called Suno, which I think I've ever heard of, but it's a generative AI thing where you go, here's some words, do it like this. Yeah.
00:36:54
Speaker
He said it's mental. It's fair to say that it's not coming for the charts anytime soon, but here are some examples. And he sent me four or five different examples of all them trimmings lyrics in different styles. Nice. Before we get into that, I want to hear one of them. Maybe at least one of them today. Yeah, yeah. But that version that we just heard,
00:37:17
Speaker
Musically, it sounds to me a bit like a football anthem. Do you know what I mean? It's like football anthem ready, that one. It's like the theme tune to Question of Sport. Yeah, or I could see it. I'll tell you where I could see it, you know, on Match of the Day. Oh yeah, today's action section, you know. Goal of the Month. Yeah, you know, that kind of thing, right? When they have like compilation matches, I could see that one playing there.
Indie Bands and Dance Music
00:37:44
Speaker
I enjoyed it for that. The other thing that it reminded me of, you know when bands like Bell and Sebastian try and do things that are kind of dancy? Yes. And they don't quite do it. It's like when an indie band tries to make sort of a dance version. It's got that kind of thing, which has its own charm.
00:38:06
Speaker
But they always kind of, it's very weird. Isn't it weird? Yeah. How it kind of has, it's like they have their own little sub genre of like not quite dance music. It makes me think of like when McCartney does reggae. Hmm. I think there's something about when people go, oh, that's easy. I'll do that.
00:38:29
Speaker
You know, it's like the story about Captain Beefheart. The reason he played soprano sax is because he saw Ornette Coleman or heard Ornette Coleman and went, well, that's easy. And it's not. And, you know, in dance music.
00:38:46
Speaker
and it's really not easy to make it really good dance music yeah we used to try i used to think i never had a phase of liking metal music i never had a phase of doing that and i used to go well that's easy and then try and do some heavy metal and it's never right no
00:39:05
Speaker
It doesn't sound anything like it, it just sounds like someone's taking the pee. And Black Mitty, I think they did at least a concert or some recordings of country music because country music's easy. It's not. It's really not. It's not easy to do it properly. You could do it in a kind of a pee-taking sort of way. Yeah, it's absolutely right. It's very easy for it to just turn out like a cod pastiche kind of thing. You know what I mean about the Paul McCartney and Reggae thing though?
00:39:35
Speaker
Stick a reggae band. If you're going to jump, do. Awful. You see, this sounds like we're talking trash about Frankie's version. I'm not talking trash about Frankie's version, I enjoyed it. But it made me think of that, you know? I think he was just having a lot of fun. I quite like some of the Bella Sebastian's more dancey stuff, to be honest. I've got a problem with it. But I think it's interesting when people kind of try and do something and it isn't quite the thing that they're being inspired by.
00:40:06
Speaker
And I think that's where some creativity can happen. You know what I mean? You try and do something, but you fall short and you make something different. Do you want to hear it? I mean, the most successful, in my opinion, version of all them trimmings that he generated with AI was the reggae version. Oh, come on. And I think it's kind of spectacular. Let's have a blast.
00:40:32
Speaker
Surfing for time that just isn't fair Doesn't always have to take this long Say don't push it too far Just let it fade away I felt I had to do something before
00:41:05
Speaker
creativity, with all of them trimmies that come with love. So take heed, before you jump back on, settle your conscience, can't you
00:41:42
Speaker
It kind of works, doesn't it? It kind of works, but you can tell it was struggling with the structure of the song because musically the chorus just went on forever and it went into the second verse. It was very peculiar. But you know, it does make you think, are people going to make music?
00:42:03
Speaker
Yes, I think people are still going to make music. People want, they crave the human touch and connection.
AI in Music Creation: Boon or Bane?
00:42:12
Speaker
I mean, it is good for faffing about with. I think that's as far as it goes. It is good for faffing around with. I like that, but you can tell it wasn't.
00:42:20
Speaker
It wasn't a real thing you can tell it wasn't human but do you not think technology is gonna get to the point where you won't be able to tell it's human because it's gonna very seamlessly mash all these things together because it's basically just taking like as you know all of the different.
00:42:37
Speaker
reggae bits and just mashing them together from like all of the most popular reggae songs of that type. Yeah. But it's not as good as a popular reggae song. No. It sounds a bit like it, but it's not. No. Do you want to hear what I think you put grunge in? I don't think it's quite grunge, but shall we have a listen to that? Let's have a little blast of that. Okay.
00:43:11
Speaker
Just let it fade away I felt I had to do something for me through it
00:43:24
Speaker
You're just a dash of creativity That's all I need in creativity You follow them trimmies that come with love So take it Before you chop that gun And saddle your conscience Can't you see what I see? Girl, are you blind to the weight of a loving man? You need just a dash of creativity
00:43:59
Speaker
that kind of raised up bit at the chorus that yeah nice I think if I was Nickelback I might be worried that's it maybe maybe that's the people that should be worried by AI people who make kind of really
00:44:14
Speaker
generic, generic music. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think there's anything too concerning about it at the moment. Yeah, I know. You know, the whole analogy about, you know, if you've got like a million, a billion monkeys with typewriters, eventually one of them is going to write a great novel or something. Yeah. Is it not a bit like we've now got like
00:44:41
Speaker
we've got all the monkeys we've got all the monkeys we've typewriters and they're banging those keys and they're writing not that great grunge songs there you go i mean look i think it's a diversion i don't think at the moment i don't know i'm probably being
00:45:00
Speaker
If this was a dystopian science fiction television programme slash movie slash not what a Welsh one, a Welsh one, possibly a Welsh one, then it would be me saying, I don't think it's anything to concern ourselves with. I think it's just a bit of fun and everything's going to be fine. Then it would be a hard cut to a desolated landscape of no culture whatsoever. Absolutely. This is going to be evidence looking back.
00:45:28
Speaker
Do you know what though I was actually I was thinking about the future good and I was imagining a future where this podcast could be kind of like uncovered.
00:45:41
Speaker
It's a series of podcasts where we're taking this obscure set of lyrics and ascribing incredible meaning and trying to sort of eke out different versions of it. Obviously, you know Bill and Ted. Bill and Ted, yeah. How they find a future where the future finds them and an entire society has been built on the weird heavy metal music.
00:46:10
Speaker
You're thinking Dale and John T are going to be the new gods. I think they're going to be like the figure heads of this new religion. We're going to be Peter. We're going to be St Peter. Where's St Peter? And these versions that we're playing are like the hymns, right? And people are going to, you know, they're going to base their lives on this.
Podcast's Influence on Creativity
00:46:32
Speaker
It's going to be a lovely society because it's all about creativity. Exactly. That's all you need is some creativity. The truth is there. The truth is in the lyrics. Right. Wow. I thought we went deep last time. And now we're talking about the basis through an entire society. Exactly. It's always all in there. That's all it needed. Take heed before each of them. Take heed.
00:47:00
Speaker
You said don't push it too far as a little fade away. I had to do something before we threw society away. I had to do something to stop the relentless onslaught of AI taking over, taking out creativity. We had to do something before we threw it all away. Just a dash of creativity. That's all needed. In that post-apocalyptic society, they're going to find this podcast and go,
00:47:28
Speaker
There's the truth. The truth. But if they are listening to this in the future, we've got to say that we are not responsible for the words. No, no, that's that's I don't want it to appear as if we are.
00:47:40
Speaker
All hail Dale and John T. All hail Dale and John T. Yeah, we're going a bit far now. No, we need to stop. Right, carrying on. There you go. They are the three versions of the lyrics, all of them trimmings, for this episode. We've got a couple more.
00:48:00
Speaker
yeah possibly an exciting denouement as well but we'll talk about that maybe but it's uh it's been a good episode it's good i've enjoyed this one today steve and thank you thank you from the bottom of uh our hearts to rob and mj for sharing their versions with us and it was it was really really lovely to have you involved
00:48:24
Speaker
And please do get involved in the future because, you know, there will be future engagement opportunities. And we've been thinking about them, haven't we, Steve? You've got loads of really good ideas, haven't you? No, I haven't been thinking about it. I've been too busy editing the last episode. I know. I know. I'm joking. I'm joking, of course. I'm not an ideas person. I'm the horse.
00:48:49
Speaker
as we've discussed before I'm the horse you're the master on my back I'm the ridiculous man in the pink suit right okay so I've got a few ideas do you want me to share them now or do you want me to share them in the next episode
00:49:04
Speaker
Give us a couple. How many have you got? I've got a few. I'm trying to find them in my notebook, so give me a second. Okay. Possible future engagement opportunities. Right. Okay. This one was an idea given to me by S.J. Richardson.
00:49:25
Speaker
who actually is going to, who centres a lovely song that's going to be featured in the next episode. And he suggested songs written for a specific occasion, e.g. someone's birthday or someone leaving work or someone's wedding.
00:49:42
Speaker
I think that might be quite nice. Or putting their car in for an MFT. Yeah, or, you know, having a smear test, you know, that kind of thing, you know, more mundane occasions, perhaps, right? So yeah, I think that's a possible one. Yeah, I think people, people might have some of them already in the bank. That's what I'm thinking.
00:50:01
Speaker
That's true. I mean, the example of a smear test that you just came up with does point out that so far, the versions that we've had and the people who get engaged, it's a bit of a sausage party. If we've got some female listeners, I'd love to hear from some women. It would be really nice. This doesn't have to be a boys club, does it? Yeah. Boys club. Okay. Idea number two. I was thinking kind of initially about a musical motif.
00:50:30
Speaker
coming up with some kind of a musical motif that then we then get everybody else to kind of try and write a song about. And then it made me think of an episode of Married at First Sight. Married with Children, I think you'll find. Oh, not Married at First Sight. What the hell am I talking about? I mean, Married with Children, the very, very funny 1980s comedy program where Al Bundy can't remember a song.
00:50:56
Speaker
Al Bundy is the patriarch of the family. He is and he's a very funny character and he's desperately trying to remember a song so that he can go and buy the record and he basically just goes up to everybody in the family it's like trying to get them to guess the lyrics and he goes yes
00:51:19
Speaker
motif, right? That's the whole episode. The whole episode is him going, come on, you know what it is, that kind of thing, right? Yeah. So I thought maybe we could get people to write songs which feature him in it, perhaps. Yeah. I thought that was an idea. Actually, it turned out to be a song that we, it is, which is called Anna Go To Him. Yes. You see, that's my only worry with that is that
00:51:44
Speaker
It's obvious what it is now. At the time, I had no idea what he was singing. But, you know, then now you can only think of go with him. Yeah, Arthur Alexander's version is very good. But maybe we could think of another alternative musical motif, right? And then I would say, well, you know, this is a bit of a weird one. At my gym,
00:52:05
Speaker
There's a cleaner who sings while I'm in the shower regularly and he kind of serenades people.
The Singing Gym Cleaner Highlight
00:52:12
Speaker
He sings in French. I think he is from Moroccan descent or some kind of North African country, but he's got a lovely voice and he sort of sings these kind of hymnal type songs while I'm in the shower and I can sort of hear him while he's cleaning.
00:52:29
Speaker
And it's like a highlight of my day to be honest. I really like the sound of it. And I don't know, maybe you could do songs that you've heard people singing. Done with my kind of interest. All of these are a bit high concept.
00:52:44
Speaker
I've got one more. Go, go. Is this it? One more. OK, we should write alternative music to the song Weekender by Floured Up. Yeah, that's... It's nearly 30 minutes long.
00:53:02
Speaker
You could do a short version of it though, couldn't you? You've got to move on from flowered up. No. You've got to move on. No. No, Weekender is a great song. I admit it. Right. When I say that I like the album Life of Brian.
00:53:16
Speaker
I'm mainly being ironic, it's rubbish mostly. But Weekender is an absolute classic and I think you could do something with them lyrics. Definitely. Just do something for me. Just repeat this little song I'm going to sing to you. Just sing it back to me. Go on, do it.
00:53:45
Speaker
Are you doing Northside? You took part in the Northside revival. Well done, Steve. Good job.
00:53:54
Speaker
Can we take a trip down memory lane? Something, something, something. In the acid rain. I'm getting into north side. I'm getting into north side. Mega drug related, like Sesame's Treats, if you remember that one. Yeah, that was a good one as well. Anyway, I like that song. Right. Is that the end of the podcast so far? I think it is. I think we're there.
00:54:19
Speaker
Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. We don't mention other podcasts very often. No, you're about to, aren't you? But I want to mention another podcast. And if you've heard it before, I apologise, but I want people to go out and listen to this.
00:54:37
Speaker
It's the history of rock music in 500 songs by Andrew Hickey.
Podcast Recommendation for Music Lovers
00:54:43
Speaker
I know it's been well established for a while but if you've not listened to it or if you've not listened to it for a while go back and listen to it because I think it is an incredible piece of work actually, an incredible piece of work.
00:54:58
Speaker
as the New Yorker magazine puts it, it's a heroic and wild effort. Andrew Hickey is trying to sum up in 500 songs in great detail the entire history of popular music from 1938 to 1999. And the scale of it is incredible, right? He's a really interesting character. He's got quite a nasal voice, but I've sort of learned to love it.
00:55:26
Speaker
He's written a number of books, he's written a history of Doctor Who, apparently a history of Doctor Who, and he's got a very caring attitude towards listeners. He always has a trigger warning, very detailed trigger warnings at the start of his episodes, which is nice, I like that. But it's all part of what he does. At the moment, he's in the late 60s.
00:55:48
Speaker
But every episode is incredibly well researched and it's just him presenting his research. Each episode is like the transcript must be like basically like a book.
00:56:00
Speaker
You know, they're incredible, right? I mean, then the detail in there is amazing and he presents it to make a point quite often. It's not just like presenting sort of dry history. Just tell the, he creates a narrative with it. Favorite episodes, Say a Little Prayer, Aretha Franklin, amazing. Runaway by Del Shannon, brilliant, really interesting episode as well. But if you like
00:56:24
Speaker
Music and you like finding out interesting facts Like for example, do you know that chubby checker? Do you know what his name is a derivation of? No chubby checker, right? He want tickly fat, but he used to be a fat's domino impersonator So chubby checker fat's domino. All right. Oh My goodness, how good is that right? Oh
00:56:49
Speaker
That's mental. And you find out really interesting things like that. And also that Joe Pesci was once a guitarist in a band called Joey Dee and the Starlighters in New York. And they were the house band for a mafia run bar. And a young Jimi Hendrix played in the band as well. How mad is that?
00:57:07
Speaker
That's crazy. You find incredible things out, right? So, go away and listen to a history of rock music in 500 songs. Start anywhere. Well, you say that. Could you possibly suggest a couple of episodes that you've particularly enjoyed? Because my problem with this podcast...
00:57:25
Speaker
It's not a problem. It's just the intimidating length of the episodes. Yeah, definitely. I mean, don't go straight in with the Grateful Dead one because that is very, very, very epic. Just put them in the show notes. It's fine. OK, I will. I'll put them in the show notes. Yeah.
00:57:43
Speaker
If you enjoyed the podcast, please like and subscribe wherever you're listening right now, because the This Our Johnny Domino podcast is available everywhere. And if you know somebody who you think would be interested, please pass it on to them.
00:57:59
Speaker
If you also would like to send us examples of your own home recordings for entrance into the eternal halls of the Fortran Gods, gods gods gods gods gods gods, get in touch. And if you still feel an urge to record your own version of All Them Trimmings, or I can feel it coming on,
00:58:23
Speaker
If you can feel some trimmings, if they've been brewing, it's time to unleash them, then go for it. Yeah. All submissions gratefully received. Absolutely. And there'll be another Trimmins episode coming soon. Yes. With possibly some interesting news. We'll see how it goes. Don't have the promise. It's going to be exciting anyway. Goodbye, everybody. Goodbye, Steve. Goodnight, John Boy.