I Will Provide

Note: This post was written in 2025 and backdated to appear on the day I wrote and published the track.

If Give It To Me was a swing and a miss, this track turned into¹On my personal scale, at least a triple. I’d continued to noodle with the guitar over the last three days and was looking for a way to use it again. I loaded up a rock kit in Superior Drummer 3. I’m not sure I would have attempted a song like this if I were programming the drums. I might have done something using Stylus RMX, but I feel like those sounds are a bit overused by me, and are also sounding a bit dated. Not young enough to be fresh, not old enough to be retro.

With the drums going, the guitar riff showed up pretty early . The bend is me bending the strings with my fingers and using muscles in my lower arm that aren’t used to having to perform such indignities as weightlifting. Ordinarily, I would have just enjoyed playing that riff for an hour or two, getting the muscle memory down and practicing, but after even just a few times through, I could feel my forearm muscles starting to complain. I think it was good to have something forcing me to just print it and go. I might have played it for so long that I lost the inspiration to do anything else.

One quick production note on the guitars. I used four different patches on the Chameleon Online multi-effects unit I use. I recorded in mono, using two guitars for the entire riff, and two additional for the bend notes. I then panned the first two to 3 and 9 o’clock, and the others to 2 and 10 o’clock. I like that the first three notes are crisp, then the bent four notes get dense.

I left myself a note when I recorded it that the project was 1.35 gigabytes on disk before I discarded all of my unused vocal and guitar takes. The project shrank to 785 megs, almost half the size! I must have done a lot of takes.

The only other instrument in the track is a sampled Fender P-Bass from Trilian. That library remains one of my most used.

Lyrically, well, it’s not going to win any poetry competitions, but they serve the song and have what I consider to be an appropriate level of macho for what’s going on.  

It’s rare that I’m satisfied with a song to the point where I don’t really want to do anything to it, but this one can claim that victory. The only things I think of are minor: making the guitars a little tighter and shortening the second pause to half the length.

I think this would be a fun song to play live. Maybe some day…

Lyrics

Slide over baby, I’m gonna drive for awhile
I see the checkered flag, but it’s gonna take a miracle mile
I’m gonna buy you a pony, and then we’re gonna go for a ride
You’re a keeper, baby, so you know that I am gonna provide

Yeah, we’re gonna go for a ride
Yeah, you know I’m gonna provide

We got thirteen hours to go before we reach the line
You got me loosened up and I’m feeling fine
I’m going coast to coast, yeah we’re taking this nationwide
You’re a keeper, baby, so you know that I will provide

Yeah, we’re going nationwide
Yeah, you know that I will provide

It’s a long haul babe, we got a ways to go
So take it easy, enjoy the show
Sit back, relax and I will be your guide
 
It’s the downhill stretch and then we’ll take a victory lap
Might seem a long way off but I know we’ll be there in a snap
You took a big risk but I turned out bonafide
You’re a keeper, baby, so you know that I will provide

Yeah, I’m bonafide
Yeah, we’re nationwide
Yeah, we’re gonna go for a ride
Yeah… I will provide


Copyright © Ray E. Toler, Jr. All rights reserved.

Colophon

Instruments & Samples

Superior Drummer 3, Trilian, Squire Stratocaster

Effects, Mixing, & Mastering

FabFilter, Gullfoss, MOTU Dynamics, PanMan, Nectar 3, Valhalla Delay, Rocktron Chameleon

---

Notes

• 1
  On my personal scale, at least