One of our goals here at WBM is to provide a peek into the processes of creating music which is, at every stage — from infant idea through shrink-wrapped adult — nourished by revision, refinement, and experimentation.
At the player level, arguably no Whack-era tune received more exploration, in feel and arrangement, than did Becker and Dean Parks' Cringemaker. A true survey of this vast terrain would require an aural version of a topo map….but we’ll sketch it out by planting just two ranging rods here [both to be compared, of course, to the shrink-wrapped version on 11TOW]
Photo: Amanda Parks
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This first clip is a run-through from the crew at Hyperbolic Sound in Maui, with John Beasley on the venerable B3. I labeled this audio “Swamp Cringe” in my files, which you may or may not understand after listening. No man can control that, y'know.
Dean Parks - Guitar || Adam Rogers - Guitar || John Beasley - Keys || Fima Ephron - Bass || Ben Perowsky - Drums || Walter Becker - Vox
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BONUS ALT-TAKE: This is an instrumental of the same keys-forward arrangement, but has several hallmarks of an actual “track take” (which are to be distinguished from the more casual or exploratory “run-throughs with vox” like the audio clip above). By Download Only
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This second clip is a run-through from the truncated Signet Studio experiment. Although it’s not radically different from what you’ve heard before — except for an outro of crazy couplets — it may be of interest as we all continue to ponder the compelling (but often opaque) issue of a writer’s progression through the iterative process of choice — as in W's ultimate preference on Whack for either his “machine” versions, or tracks from the Maui band.
Interested to read your thoughts ...
(Provisional: some credits may be corrected) Dean Parks - Guitar || Bob Sheppard - Sax || John Beasley - Keys || Neil Stubenhaus - Bass || John Keane -Drums || WB -Vox
I fell into a bit of rhythm with Cringmaker last summer, listening to it practically every day. It was my gateway into finally exploring 11TOW beyond the couple songs I knew. Somehow this post alluded me back then but as I listen tonight, I am utterly enthralled with the Swamp version. As DF once said during the intro of a live performance of King of the World “….cookin!”
One thing that I appreciate more with time with their collective catalog is the musical motifs and lyrical ideas that travelled with them through the decades. In Walter’s performance here, the “dog eat dog eat dog” versus “dog eat dog” on the album version made me instantly think of Dog Eat Dog from the You Gotta Walk It Like You Talk It soundtrack.
Coincidence? Maybe, but I like the idea of WB dipping into the archives and finding a nice little phrase that maybe didn’t get the play it deserved in the first go round.
Similar is the “If I got the bear or the bear got me” from Down in the Bottom and The Bear outtake circa Gaucho.
And I just love the repeats of “down in the bottom” across 11TOW too.
Anyway, maybe it’s all coincidence but it keeps me coming back. Sweet little cringemaker.