The Evolution of a Song part 5

I have detailed most of the songs on Evil Clocks, from their first midi versions through various studio versions and finally to their released versions. I have a few more pieces sitting around but with the exception of Scales, most of them sound almost like the final versions. So, Scales will be the last one I'll post in this evoltion series.

The song itself is from 1979 and was my first contribution to the punk-jazz band I was in at the time called 3C-236. The name itself apparently describes a "Fanaroff and Riley Class II (FR II) radio galaxy" but as I didn't name the band, that was never really uppermost in my thinking of the unit. Anyway, we had a pretty cool approach to music I think. The guitarist and the drummer (Gerry Henri and Ralph Piedalou) were both Toronto ex-pats who had spent a lot of time jamming at the Music Gallery with CCMC stalwarts like alto-player Maury Coles. Combined with that spontaneous composition aesthetic was a charted-out punk energy and earnestness. It was quite a band, and we would often play a frenetic punk-rock head arrangement that would usually devolve into free playing and, with the inclusion of composed cues, back out of the blowing into a re-cap of the head. The songs might last anywhere from 3 minutes to an hour depending on our moods.

I brought Scales in as a number I would sing. The song's thudding 12/8 pulse was inspired by Robert Fripp's Exposure album (the song "Chicago" which itself was a prog-bluesy outing). We had the accordian free section (ie the length of the soloing was free to expand or contract as we saw fit, NOT something that was ever meant to be played on accordian, Pauline Oliveros notwithstanding).

I liked it well enough in that context because it was my vocal spot-light and the first song I ever wrote to be played by others (usually I wrote stuff where I played all the parts on jerry-rigged cassette decks), but it was a bit of an anomoly for the band as the tune sounded neither all that punky or even jazzy. It was fun to jam on though and that qualified its inclusion.

28 years later I did a version of the song that I put to 10T for their approval for the Diagramma CD (at this point we decided to expand the original release of 5 songs to a 7 song one and were dusting off "suitable" songs). It never made the cut. This time out I thought it might work as the lyrics were suitable to the vague album concept so I whipped up a demo for the lads. The tune was pretty well what 3C-236 did with it, even to the point that the solo section starts off almost identically (I played bass in 3C-236 and the bass part I played on the demo was almost identical to the original one). This time though the solo is a defined length.


Scales Demo stream
Scales Demo DL

Ange never played on the song actually and Aaron and I tracked the album version during our spring session at my home. I re-did the guitars, added vocals and keys and tracked a bass-line that Claude Prince later learned and replaced. After that I sent Guy Leblanc the tune and asked him to put a solo on it. Done. Scroll down to #4. "Scales of the Ebony Fish" to hear it.

Rebel Wheel at 10T