It Doesn’t Have to be Good

Day one. The blank page. 29 tracks ahead of me. 696 hours in which to drag music out of the aether.

Sigh.¹Saigon. Shit.

I don’t have a strong recollection of the instrumental portion of this track. It’s made up of mostly usual suspect synths like Pigments, Omnisphere, and Hive, and clearly sounds like one of my “just keep throwing things in there until it’s soup” recipes. Another Completely Successful Exercise in Planning and Self Restraint. Well, it’s not quite that bad. It has some form and doesn’t go so over the top as to have an auto-panned chicken running around like that track did.

In fact, it’s actually kind of ok. I clearly started out with some piece of that “I have to come out of the gate with a banger” mindset, but it stalled along the way. I like the groove, the suspensions, the various ornaments and quirks, but as the clock turned back over to single digits, I hit a point where I decided that it was what it was and that was enough. It grooves along and maybe just getting an instrumental track out of the way from the start will help me just get into things with less pressure; sort of like getting that first ding on a new car. It’s over. Now we can breathe again.

The Cold Light of Day

In the morning, while getting coffee, Mary asked me how my first track ended up. I told her that it was ok, that I’d attempted to make it go somewhere, but that it just never did. And that that was fine. True to the wisdom set forth by Derek Greenberg in 2016, it wasn’t necessarily good, but it was done.

I laughed that It Doesn’t Have to be Good would be a funny title for the track – a little self-deprecating jab. And in that moment, as would happen a few more times over the course of the month, inspiration struck and a song emerged fully formed from the forehead of Zeus. I took my coffee straight to the studio and got the lyrics down before they disappeared.

 While I’m sure I must have done some editing to fit the new lyrics in or add some lifts and breaks, I recall that the instrumental was mostly in the form you hear it. The key is a tad low for me on the verses, and I’m not as thrilled with the chorus harmonies as when I recorded it, but nothing’s flat-out bad.

This is one of my better Song-a-Day self-referential tracks. It’s not trying to disguise what it is, but it’s also not too terribly overt. I like the off-kilter feel in the synths and the groove is fun. It was well-received by other participants and, while I wouldn’t put it on one of my “best of” playlists, I also don’t skip it too often when listening.

Lyrics

Feeling like a vagabond
Creeping dread from way beyond
Plant my feet until the dawn
All I have is time

Empty pages leer at me
Good is not the enemy
Mute and deaf I cannot see
Everything is fine

Many steps in front of me
Tie me down to make me free
Nowhere else I’d rather be
Till the rising sun

Line them up and knock them down
None of this is hallowed ground
I was lost but now I’m found
Misery is fun

It doesn’t have to be good
It just has to be done

Lose the moment get it back
Begging for a little slack
Staring out into the black
Such a bitter pill

Running like a centipede
Seeking that unspoken need
Rocks roll down to intercede
Push back up that hill

Lost inside of my own mind
Never knowing what I’ll find
Am I evil? Am I kind?
Doesn’t mean a thing

Plant the seed and let it grow
Larceny and bergamot
Turn the tap and let it flow
Crowning myself king

It doesn’t have to be good
It just has to be done


Copyright © Ray E. Toler, Jr. All rights reserved.
www.raytoler.com

Colophon

Instruments & Samples

XO, Pigments, Omnisphere, Hive, Falcon, Generate, Choreographs

Effects, Mixing, & Mastering

Gullfoss, FabFilter Pro L-2, VUMT Deluxe

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Notes

• 1
  Saigon. Shit.