LINER NOTES FOR "OLD SCHOOL"

OLD SCHOOL OUTLINE

“We’ll sing the old Alma Mater,

And think of things that used to be.”

- Oh Baby Doll, by Chuck Berry

In a very real sense, this album was begun in the mid-1980s, when I went through a phase of deep listening to Medieval & Renaissance music. It was at that time I discovered not only the magnificent church music of the era - from monophonic chants to polyphonic masses - but also the shorter secular songs of composers like Machaut, Binchois, and Josquin. It was then I first fell for Ockeghem’s Ma bouche rit, which remains one of my favorite songs ever, of any genre. And the more earthy-folky Twa Corbies, which I learned from a Steeleye Span album. By 1986, I was making a rough demo of Innsbruck with a Rock & Roll beat. This new album, OLD SCHOOL, is the coming-to-fruition of all that.

Astute Four Last Things fans will know that we did this once before. On the first 4LT album, FIRST THINGS, there was a lengthy, Proggish take on an anonymous medieval tune called L’homme Arme, which was extended not only by a big group jam session in the middle but by a section incorporating the medieval English song, Sumer is icumen in. L’homme Arme had come to my attention thanks to the same Musical Heritage Society LP that contained Ma bouche rit, because it also held an Ockeghem mass based on the “Armed Man” tune. Something about the simple little two-part song, with its echoes of long ago knights & battles, said “Rock & Roll” to me, and I crafted a mini-epic out of it - originally clocking in at over 18 minutes - and employing both medieval French lyrics and an English version of the same. An early incarnation of the 4LT actually played the song at a gig somewhere in Boston (Bunratty’s, I believe) in 1992. And a studio version was recorded, as mentioned above, for the first album.

Over the years, I always had it in the back of my mind to do an entire album of similar material, and the concept finally became real in August 2018, when the basic track (guitar, bass, drums) was laid down for Foweles in the Frith. That song lingered lonely in the vault for over a year, until October 2019, when we did the basic tracks for Twa Corbies and Lyke-Wake Dirge. Rough takes, later to be discarded, of Belle, Es taget, and Innsbruck were made around the same time.

The general COVID-19 shutdown in March 2020 called a halt to work on the project. When restrictions eased, we got moving again, this time at Electric Treehouse Studios, where, in July 2020, we did remakes of Belle, Es taget, and Innsbruck. Subsequent Treehouse sessions yielded only a few vocal overdubs for these songs, as the main focus at that point was the League Of Existence’s LOCKDOWN SESSIONS. At a December session at Boy & Dog Studios, the final basic track for the album was laid down. This was Ma bouche rit, which had been attempted, unsuccessfully, a month or so earlier at the Treehouse. This time, the complex 600+ year-old song fell into line, and the album was ready for final overdubs, mixing & mastering, which took place beginning in March 2021, at Clark Creative Studios. The final touch was the vocal on Innsbruck in June.

The initial album concept included more pieces of music than what emerged in the end. I had thought about doing some purely instrumental tunes - a Danse Royale here, a Saltarello there. I thought about Kalenda Maya, O rosa bella, and Plasanche or tost. I regretted not having something by Machaut on the album. Ultimately, though, I found we had bitten off quite enough for one band to chew, and also that the seven final selections adequately filled the length of a typical 1970s record (a little under 40 minutes).

A few notes on the songs individually:

1. The Twa Corbies. This is an anonymous Scots-dialect poem from the 18th Century or earlier. I have no idea when its also-anonymous music was written, but I picked up the chords & melody from Steeleye Span’s rendition on their debut album. I made it heavier, adding the repeating low guitar riff, and, of course, a long guitar jam at the end. The story behind the lyrics is a good one. English Lit students know that Corbies is closely related to another old English poem, The Three Ravens. No one seems to know which was written first. In the Ravens version, the three birds are looking for a bite to eat, and see a newly-slain knight. Unfortunately for them, the body is guarded by the knight's faithful hunting hawk & hounds, and a female deer, who apparently symbolizes his pregnant lover. The doe kisses him, buries him, and then dies of grief herself.

The Corbies version of the tale takes a darker turn, and for those of us who appreciate an unflinching look at the grim realities of life, is far more gripping.

In this one, two corbies (crows) are looking for a bite to eat. They find the dead knight. They also find that his hawk & hounds have gone off with new masters and that his "lady fair" has taken a new mate. This leaves them free to pick out his eyes, use locks of his hair for their nest, etc., leaving only bare white bones behind

2. Belle qui tiens ma vie. Composed - maybe - by Jehan Tabourot, aka Thoinot Arbeau (1520-1595), who included it in his popular treatise on dancing, Orchesographie. The song had enough fame & staying power to be featured in the ballroom scene in MGM’s 1936 adaptation of Romeo & Juliet. My version speeds it up a bit and adds transition segments and instrumental counterpoint to the melody.

3. Ma bouche rit. Written by 15th Century Netherlands composer Johannes Ockeghem, generally acknowledged as the greatest composer of his time. Known best for his masses and other church music, Ockeghem also wrote a couple dozen secular chansons, including this little love lament that begins: “My mouth laughs and my thoughts weep.” Musically, this was the most challenging piece on the album. There are long passages of several bars in which the chords change on every single beat, while the eighth-notes of the melody barely rest. My arrangement sticks very close to the original music, though I did prolong a couple of chords and shortened a bit of the vocal melismata at the end of the B section to make it a trifle easier to play & sing. The instrumental interlude before the repeat of the A section is my addition, and the coda is a motivic development of the single-bar, two-chord sequence that precedes section B in the original. I was rather surprised at how easy the vocal was to perform, considering the trials we went through to nail the guitar-drum basic track.

4. Es taget vor dem walde. Composed by Ludwig Senfl (c.1486-1543). Senfl’s song tells of a nervous lover at dawn, prodding his girl to wake up and get a move on, beginning with: “The dawn is in the forest - Get up, Katie! The rabbits are on the run - Get up, Katie my dear!” Each verse of lyrics is structured similarly. To provide variety, my arrangement modulates for each verse, traveling from the initial instrumental in D minor to the closing vocal verse in F# minor. One of two tracks on the album (Ma bouche rit being the other) to include a keyboard part.

5. Foweles in the Frith. The anonymous five-line poem is of 13th century vintage, and the lone manuscript source includes a musical accompaniment. Like The Twa Corbies, this Middle English lyric is a common anthology piece, and I knew it well since the late 70s. I wasn’t familiar with the music, however, and years ago had determined to come up with my own melody & chords for the song. In August 2018, while simultaneously working on the TIME-STRINGS and ENDS & ODDS albums, I showed Gary Gagnon and Brent Godin my crude outline for Foweles, and, barely knowing what I was going to play myself, launched a 10-minute jam on the song. The verses required a little cutting & splicing later, but the middle was just a straight-on Cream-style jam. At some point, two minutes of music were excised, bringing the song to its final eight-minute length. The second vocal verse is my translation of the poem, the original of which may be almost, but not quite, sensible to the modern reader.

6. Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen. Composed by Heinrich Isaac (1450-1517), another of the great Netherlandish composers. My contact with this song predates all the rest, as I remember hearing it sung at the 1976 Olympics, held in Innsbruck, Austria. The lyrics begin, “Innsbruck, I must leave you,” and tell of a man’s regret at having to leave both his home and his lover. Ten years later, 1986,I was experimenting with playing the chords over a rock beat. This was not the hardest music to perform, but the vocal gave me the most trouble of any. Double-tracking most of it in unison, with a little bit of harmony at the end of each verse, finally made it click.

7. The Lyke-Wake Dirge. An anonymous English folk song from the 17th Century or earlier. Like the Tibetan Book of the Dead (only much shorter), this Northern/Yorkshire dialect piece is a kind of instruction manual for the dead soul as it sets off to the next world. It may have some older pagan source, but the version that’s come down to us is squarely Christian. It guides the soul from one precarious landmark to another, always with a moral lesson. Did you ever give shoes & stockings to the poor? If yes, OK, you’ll find shoes on your journey and the meadow of thorns will not prick your feet. If no, then . . . OUCH! Did you ever give of your silver & gold? If yes, you will cross safely over the Bridge of Dread. If no, you will tumble from the bridge into Hell. Like Corbies and Foweles, I knew this as a poem before I knew it as a song. It was recorded in an a cappella version by 1960s folkies The Young Tradition, and in a band version by British folk-rockers Pentangle. My version was worked out from those examples, and I added new music between the vocal verses for variety. It was an obvious choice to close the album.