Episode #215: Righto (Song starts at 4:10)
It struck me tonight as I recorded this episode, how grateful I am to be doing this. It is such a buzz, letting the song lead the way as I look at the creative process of how a song comes together.
Don’t worry, you don’t need to have any musical theory up your sleeve to enjoy the show.
I believe the creative domain is an inclusive one. The more the merrier.
Ok Righto, song #262 was written in 1993. The recording you’ll hear on this episode became the title track for the album Righto. You can find it here www.petepascoe.bandcamp.com
We wrote it in a beautiful place called the Bay of Islands - we being Paul Dredge and myself. We had a van, we were on the road, on holiday - and we were making some music, as usual. Paul had an old ovation guitar. It had a broken neck from memory. Someone had glued back together. He picked up for next to nothing so it became his ‘on the road’ knock about instrument.
I’d written the words first. There’s a very up sort of vibe about this song. Before I’d finished saying to Paul “I have in mind, a some sort of Dave Dobbyn ish ‘up’ song”, away he went, strumming away with serious energy on his guitar. Going with moment - when energy flows like this, you go with it - I opened my mouth an winged the melody.
And very quickly we had another new song.
Being Grateful became a bit of theme on this episode.
I’m extremely for grateful for the longevity of the song writing relationship and friendship I have with Paul dredge. We are putting the finishing touches to our next album right now, in 2024. Righto was written 30 odd years ago. That amazes me.
What amazes me about this demo is the very up, fresh energy. Much like the country I wrote the lyrics about : New Zealand. The lyrics are a series of observations about what made the country I was born and raised in a great place to be.
This song is not a piano vocal ballad. It wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for Paul. But then it wouldn’t exist if I hadn’t sung it …or written the lyrics in the first place.
It’s great thing to write songs with someone. Well, in my experience, it is. Paul and I have a very easy going manner when it comes to creating a song together. It comes from, I think, perhaps, hours and hours of flying hours, spent gigging.Thousands of gigs. Which we loved.
So we’ve carried on writing songs and recording them together after all these years. It’s something we both love. Arranging songs is such fun. And we mage it, even though we are in different countries.
Righto is an interesting one. You wouldn’t put much piano on it. So in the studio, I played sparsely, the odd sort of a piano lick, around Paul’s harmonica and a few chords in the choruses.
So it’s good to be aware of what to leave out. It’s the same with sing writing: often, less is more. This song doesn’t have a bridge. It didn’t need one. It would have just got in the way of the straight forward presentation.
Ok , hope you enjoy hearing about how Righto came together.
Very grateful to have you reading this, and having a listen . Enjoy.
You can find the lyrics here www.petepascoe.wordpress.com search for righto.
Pete