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The Life of Leon |
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| All My Life | |||
| Music/Lyrics: L Leon Sands Constructed and sculpted percussion: L Leon Sands Vocals: L Leon Sands All instruments: L Leon Sands Time: 3:17 Lyrics |
Written at the old Port Aransas beach house, my Pammy suggested the subject matter. This isn't a self-portrait, just a statement about how we find ourselves returning to a less than desirable situation despite knowing better.
This sketch was originally tracked using Acid Pro as an instrumental awaiting vocals. The vocals were tracked with Logic Pro. |
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| Norwegian Wood | |||
| Music/Lyrics: John Lennon and Paul McCartney Vocals: L Leon Sands All instruments: L Leon Sands Time: 2:27 Lyrics |
I've always thought this to be a true confession from Lennon about some hookup while on a Scandinavian tour. Here I interpret it as a phone conversation--we're being told about an evening of high hopes with a new friend, having the hopes dashed after the realization that there wasn't a mutual desire.
This was sketched using Logic Pro. |
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| You've Got to Hide Your Love Away | |||
| Music/Lyrics: John Lennon and Paul McCartney Vocals: L Leon Sands All instruments: L Leon Sands Time: 2:18 Lyrics |
This is one of John's most brilliant vocal compositions. The honesty of his lyrics reveal a vulnerable side. It's attributes like these that have made Lennon's writing my favorite among the Beatles.
Tracked with Logic Pro. I used the Epiphone Sheraton Elitist tuned down a whole step (not digitally transposed using the VG-88) for the electric accompaniment on the chorus and a Taylor for the acoustic tracks. That's a Les Paul Studio through the VG-88 using a modified violin patch for the flute solo at the end. |
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| When I Was Younger | |||
| Music/Lyrics: L Leon Sands Vocals: L Leon Sands All instruments: L Leon Sands Time: 4:24 Lyrics |
A play on the real events of my youth after being slipped drugs while on a high school spring break in Port Aransas. The reference to my father's son is not about my dad. It's about the Jesus syndrome that often accompanies psychotic behavior.
This was tracked with Logic Pro. The Roland VG-88 comes in very handy for emulating sitars and other intresting instruments. I'm using my 5-string bass rather than a transposed guitar on the VG-88. |
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the A1A |
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| Ponte Vedra East | |||
| Music: L Leon Sands Constructed and sculpted percussion: L Leon Sands All instruments: L Leon Sands Time: 3:46 Instrumental |
While on a year-long consulting engagement in Jacksonville Florida, I acquired the Roland VG-88 and began exploring the many guitar and instrument models it offered. I lived in a beach house amidst a long row of beach houses directly on the Atlantic ocean accessible from only one rather treacherous two-lane highway--the A1A. It was a rare treat and very inspiring, so I named the collection of sketches the A1A to recognize where I was at the time: Florida's Atlantic coast between Jacksonville Beach and St. Augustine--Ponte Vedra Beach.
As with all of the songs in this collection, these sketched were improvised ad liberation in the moment. |
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| What's This? | |||
| Music: L Leon Sands Constructed and sculpted percussion: L Leon Sands All instruments: L Leon Sands Time: 3:27 Instrumental |
Noodling along, I ended up constructing this piece. When I was finished, I had to ask myself, "what's this?" I found a great funky bass patch for this groove--a wah-enveloped synth bass. | ||
| Slow Night | |||
| Music: L Leon Sands Constructed and sculpted percussion: L Leon Sands All instruments: L Leon Sands Time: 8:16 (Can you ride the slow night?) Instrumental |
Mesmerized by the rhythm of the crashing waves, this piece went on for awhile with various peaks and valleys of energy and emotion. So many evenings on Ponte Vedra Beach were thankfully slow nights. | ||
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Plural Spaces |
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| A Slow Walk | |||
| Music: L Leon Sands Constructed and sculpted percussion: L Leon Sands All instruments: L Leon Sands Time: 2:02 Instrumental |
Not much to this one. | ||
| sHIFT | |||
| Music: L Leon Sands Constructed and sculpted percussion: L Leon Sands All instruments: L Leon Sands Time: 1:14 Lyrics |
An accident; this song literally fell together. While experimenting with loops and over-dubbing, I spilled a can of sound and this is what was left on the floor. Shift a bit to the left and everything changes. The lyrics are a cynical comment about the drama we can easily fall into during moments of self-pity.
Houston is a dismal concoction of chemicals and hydrocarbons and sub-life-forms who profit off the people dependent on the only option for power. God Money feeds their insatiable Ego. Record multi-billion dollar profits earned by all major petrochemical companies strong arm and defeat government probes into obvious price fixing and market manipulation using convenient natural disasters as a ruse and cover. 2002 |
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| Suicide Theatre | |||
| Music: L Leon Sands Constructed and sculpted percussion: L Leon Sands All instruments: L Leon Sands Time: 2:45 Lyrics |
After finishing Mark Rothko: A Biography by James Breslin I was overcome with anger and sadness—betrayal by what Mark Rothko did on his final day. I was in between consulting engagements staying at the Port A digs in the midst of writing and recording music when I finished the book.
Emotionally moved, I was compelled to write these lyrics. The music came from a piece I had been working on which had a rhythm bed strangly suited for the energy of the lyrics. This song was inspired by Rothko's seemingly ceremonially suicide. This is the moment of his decision to slice his arms, layback, and let his life drain away in a theatrical act for an audience of no one. The distorted vocals are a result of using a small Vox Pathfinder 15 as a preamp and increasing the Vox gain to saturate the signal before running it into Acid. This technique was also used on sHIFT. |
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