Walk Away Renee
By Jim
02/01/2006
This is a great song, and I play it all of the time, but it was tough to record. First, the strings dominate the original recording, and I never bothered with them as I banged out chords on the piano and sang along. The string section was written and performed by Harry Lookofsky, a professional musician and the father of Michael (Lookofsky) Brown, one of the composers of the song. The story is that Harry had a small recording studio in NYC and his kid was in a band. The strings add a level of complexity, but so does the fact that synthesized strings often sound just like an organ.
The other problem is that I can't hit the high notes in the original key (A). The verses are OK, but the chorus ("Just walk away, Renee...") makes my voice crack more often than not. I transposed the song from A to E, but this changed the entire feel.
One other problem is the tempo. I should put down a drum track first, because I find a metronome distracting and the clock in my head is not as steady as I thought.
I spent a lot of time fiddling with this (no pun intended), but I still am not happy with the result. Time to move on.
Voices: Piano, Guitar, Drums, Fingered Bass, Flute, Cello, Slow Strings, Synth Strings
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