album: Sometime in September (BOF-107) scheduled release 2020
recorded at Bird-On-Fire Recording | January 22, 2019
publishing: Blue Baker Music BMI
- vocals and all instruments: Doug Koempel
- drums: Toontracks EZX Drummer
- bass: Cakewalk SI Bass
- electric piano: Cakewalk SI Electric Piano
- acoustic guitar: Ibanez AEG10II
- sax: Yamaha Piaggero NP-V80
- piano: M-Audio Key Rig
- recorded at: Bird-On-Fire Recording Studio / West Union, Iowa
Doug's notes:
Hi friends,
In preparing material for my Sometime in September album, I had wanted to re-work several older tunes that hadn't gotten much exposure over the years - either they were obscure cuts on some of my older albums or they were songs that I simply didn't perform live.
One of these tunes was "Heartaches Laugh At Me" off my 1980 album, Sayin' Good-bye. (I had actually written this song in 1973 when I was 22 years old.) Although the instruments and background vocals on this song sounded great, my vocal performance and the actual song composition always bothered me.
The song was recorded at Music City Recorders in Nashville during a 3-hour session with three other songs, and in retrospect I've felt that things were a bit rushed. I remember having a bit of a "dispute" with the producer about how I wanted to record the piano. I had wanted to play triplets (à la Fats Domino,) but he thought that sounded too cliché.
I also wanted slapback delay on my vocal (à la Elvis,) but again he though that was too gimmicky.
Even though I had written the song, he stubbornly insisted that I not play the triplet figures on the piano track. However - regarding my second request - he reluctantly gave in and let me have slapback on my vocals.
So fast-forward to January of 2019. As I'm reviewing material, I thought this song might be a good candidate to resurrect for my 2020 album project - and this time I'd record it exactly the way I wanted to.
As I pressed forward with reworking this old song, I was still bothered by the lyric - it had always seemed a bit undeveloped to me. So I experimented with some rewrites; and as I got further and further into it, I got more and more frustrated. I eventually decided to simply abandon the rewrite, and develop this old tune into a completely new song - one with a stronger hook.
In the intervening 46 years from age 22 to age 68, I'd hoped that I'd certainly acquired a bit more savvy when it came to crafting a catchy lyric!
Because "Heartaches Laugh At Me" was written in the Fats Domino style, the story line of the lyric was super-simple - almost childlike. And that inspired me to turn this song into a children's song - or at least a campy, novelty tune. And you all know I'm a big cat lover, therefore "Bony Cat Boogie" was born.
That's the story of this song . . . and I'm stickin' to it!
Hi friends,
In preparing material for my Sometime in September album, I had wanted to re-work several older tunes that hadn't gotten much exposure over the years - either they were obscure cuts on some of my older albums or they were songs that I simply didn't perform live.
One of these tunes was "Heartaches Laugh At Me" off my 1980 album, Sayin' Good-bye. (I had actually written this song in 1973 when I was 22 years old.) Although the instruments and background vocals on this song sounded great, my vocal performance and the actual song composition always bothered me.
The song was recorded at Music City Recorders in Nashville during a 3-hour session with three other songs, and in retrospect I've felt that things were a bit rushed. I remember having a bit of a "dispute" with the producer about how I wanted to record the piano. I had wanted to play triplets (à la Fats Domino,) but he thought that sounded too cliché.
I also wanted slapback delay on my vocal (à la Elvis,) but again he though that was too gimmicky.
Even though I had written the song, he stubbornly insisted that I not play the triplet figures on the piano track. However - regarding my second request - he reluctantly gave in and let me have slapback on my vocals.
So fast-forward to January of 2019. As I'm reviewing material, I thought this song might be a good candidate to resurrect for my 2020 album project - and this time I'd record it exactly the way I wanted to.
As I pressed forward with reworking this old song, I was still bothered by the lyric - it had always seemed a bit undeveloped to me. So I experimented with some rewrites; and as I got further and further into it, I got more and more frustrated. I eventually decided to simply abandon the rewrite, and develop this old tune into a completely new song - one with a stronger hook.
In the intervening 46 years from age 22 to age 68, I'd hoped that I'd certainly acquired a bit more savvy when it came to crafting a catchy lyric!
Because "Heartaches Laugh At Me" was written in the Fats Domino style, the story line of the lyric was super-simple - almost childlike. And that inspired me to turn this song into a children's song - or at least a campy, novelty tune. And you all know I'm a big cat lover, therefore "Bony Cat Boogie" was born.
That's the story of this song . . . and I'm stickin' to it!
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