I have submitted my cover song of Paul Simon’s Kodachrome to Coverville for the Coverville Idol 1973 competition. It got a lot of attention – but not in a good way. I wanted to take a moment to define my reasons for submitting the song and vision I had for it.

The History

I have a long history of music in my family and I grew up around music. I picked up the piano in order to play percussion in elementary school. After two years of piano lessons (with a gracious teacher who put up with my Hyperactive, low attention personality at that time) I finally started playing drums in junior high/middle school. I played drums all the way through high school and continued in college playing in various groups. At around 12 I asked my dad to teach me how to play the guitar. He was in various high school bands and then later on lead music at various churches and youth groups as I grew up. I bought myself a chord book with paper route money and literally memorized every single chord and voicing in the chord book to help myself learn the guitar. I have a tendency to be a better rhythm guitar player than a soloist and I’ve never been able to play metal. At 14 they needed a bass player at church so I bought myself the cheapest bass I could find that was new and met with the approval of my friend and mentor Mike Schuler and learned the basics of playing the bass guitar.

In high school I was in two bands, the first as a bass player and the second as a drummer. I wouldn’t say that either of those bands was brilliant or amazing, but I also learned from those experiences. In college I played by myself or with a friend in various coffee houses. I also happened to take voice lessons somewhere in there. Yes, I took voice lessons.

Getting married during college I gave my drum set away to the pastor’s son who was learning. I had to trim down my ambitions because I lived in an apartment with my new bride. I got a job at the beginning of college at a Christian bookstore. I eventually became the music department manager there. There I was exposed to a wider array of music than I would have intentionally exposed myself to. I had to be able to help customers find music that I would not have listened to on my own, the Gaithers come to mind. If you don’t know who they are then you should Google for information on the Gaithers. I had to know the non-Christian artists to be able to help them (or their parents or grandparents) find artists that we carried that would meet their musical tastes. Believe me that I know there are a wide variety of styles, genres and nuances when it comes to music. I know it from formal musical training, I know it from having to help people find music that they like, and I know it from my own personal preferences.

One of the bands that we sold at the bookstore was Starflyer 59. Starflyer 59 is Jason Martin’s band. Jason Martin and his brother Ronnie are both very unique musicians who both have very different approaches to their sound. Starflyer 59 actually has some of the slowest music I’ve ever listened to. If you’ve ever listened to the Moonlight Sonata on the piano you will have some concept for the subtlety of music dynamic, including the power of slow tempos. Listen to Starflyer 59’s earlier works and you will find some of the slowest, saddest modern rock music you’ve ever heard.

Starflyer 59 also happens to have played my all-time favorite cover: they covered Steve Taylor’s Sin for a Season on the “I Predict a Clone” album. It is one of the most brilliant interpretations of a song ever in my opinion. You probably won’t find it on Coverville. That’s OK. If you can find it, buy it – it also has Sixpence None the Richer on it.
The Vision

When I prepared for coming up with a song choice and arrangement for this competition I actually started with Crocodile Rock at the request of my friend Robin. I couldn’t come up with anything that I liked no matter which instrument or effect I turned to. The song was a performance piece to me and it required all of the original elements to keep its value. So I looked at many other songs I had to choose from. I’m a huge Paul Simon fan and could listen to Graceland (and other albums) for days. When I looked at the Kodachrome song I picked that one for various reasons, including familiarity. I sat down with a chord chart, and evaluated the lyrics. What possible ways could this song be interpreted given the restrictions of 1) The chords are pre-defined 2) The melody should be respected and 3) The lyrics are known. What did the lyrics present?

I noted that the lyrics actually talked about the harshness of life and how as we reflect on life we’ll find that our romantic memories of things can often be different from the actual events as they took place. Having had a stupid junior year in High School my wife and I actually did correspondence classes for our senior year to finish up school faster and take on full time jobs. Talking about ‘crap I learned in high school’ seemed actually fitting. Being that my wife was one of two girlfriends I had in high school, and I only once barely kissed the other girlfriend the second verse held little actual personal value to me.

Getting back to interpretations of the song… I interpreted the song as having the potential for a slow, sadder feel because the lyrics could also be viewed from that perspective. Its not that it was the best way, or the only way, but that it was possible. So I explored that route. I really liked it. It was so different from what I had heard before and it was a rather weak homage to Starflyer 59, and Paul Simon.

My Perception of Coverville

I sent Brian an email after the show was released and I’d had the chance to hear the judges thoughts. Had I known the judges’ expectations a little better I would have most definitely submitted a different arrangement. This was a learning experience for sure. Nora’s comment about the heaviness of the song was exactly what I had intended to get across. It varies from the original arrangement from Paul Simon [and clearly the arrangement of the other Kodachrome submission which took the more bright elements of the original and added a more modern electronic feel], but that was the point! Dan Klass mentioned that the song was a long 3:40. You’ll note that I intentionally left off the ‘Mama don’t take my Kodachrome’ outtro that Paul Simon had in the song. That was because I didn’t want to submit a slow, sad six minute long song. It just wasn’t needed.
On Coverville I have heard very different arrangements of different songs. I have personal favorites that include the Toxic cover by Nickel Creek (that Coverville is my all-time favorite episode) and I really love it every time he plays Hurt by Johnny Cash.

One of the things I love about cover songs is the chance to hear peoples interpretations, artistic creativity, and sometimes their flubs. Is this recording of Kodachrome the best? No. Is it the worst? Possibly. Is it deserving of some of the negative feedback? Most certainly. Music is subjective, my time in recording the song was limited due to the fact that I’ve got a more-than-full-time job, a wife, and two young daughters. I don’t have time to sit and tweak for hours on end. However, I didn’t feel that the submission was of utter low quality and I felt that it met the requirement of the competition spot on.

It was a learning experience and the next competition, whether it be based on a year, a genre, an artist, a certain hit rank, or limitations to the types of submissions will more than likely have another submission from me, but instead of it being slowcore, it’ll be some other style. Something that I feel fits the requirements of the competition and still expresses my unique artistic style. Is it something you’ll want to listen to? I hope so.

Bonus

Through the magic of Garage band here’s a faster version of the song:  Kodachrome at 114BPM