Here's the latest installment of my ongoing (and now officially titled) Facebook series: Pulling Back The Curtains.
Writing and recording "Dig Down Deep"
Wrote this one in my house in Wilton, Ct. on an old Acrosonic upright my brother had given to me. We were at the tail end of recording the first record so i was already forming a sequence of songs in my mind and attempting to write songs ( especially from a rhythmic and musical standpoint) that would help fill in some gaps. I wanted to make the record as great and complete a statement as possible. I knew we needed another (relatively) up tempo song...something that had a little lift-off built in... and i had a sense that DDD might be ticket.
Along with Ghost Train, DDD represented a pivotal turning point for me as a songwriter. After a year in the studio...attempting to cast each song with the proper players...NOW i was writing with a BAND in my head.
Prior to these two songs, when i sat down to write Memphis, Walk On Water, or Thunderbird for instance, i wasn't thinking about production or what the recording might sound like. By the time Ghost Train and DDD were being written though, i was also conscious of trying to fashion a SOUND. Even during the initial songwriting process now... alone in a room with just a piano...I had started thinking about what the recording would sound like. That was new for me.
I'm writing about this song today because Van Morrison has essentially been the artist of the week...coinciding w St Patricks Day. Lyrically, musically, and production-wise...DDD is such an obvious homage to Van the Man and the influence his whole sensibility had on me from the first time i heard his music.
The lyric is spiritual, romantic and sensual. Saturday night and Sunday morning. It's a call to start the difficult work of intimacy. Nice work if you can get it...but not for the faint of heart. It's a strange and lovely ride.
Honorable mention: In the studio, John Leventhal listened to my piano-based song and suggested we change things up and leave the piano out until the bridge. This was a crucial and brilliant arrangement/production idea. Coming out of the piano-centered arrangement on Thunderbird, the fade-in of DDD's percussion and John's amazing acoustic guitar playing, made for a beautiful and unexpected transition. Man's a genius. 'Nuff said.
