The Patterico Music Project: The Original Version of “Alien Song”
Here is the original version of “Alien Song,” which I debuted here. Lyrics are here.
I’m slightly mortified as I visualize the reaction to this one, because my guitar playing is so inaccurate. As I post this, I am listening to it again, and I challenge anyone to listen to this track without cringing. Upside: if I can find the courage to post this, I can post anything.
In my defense, the guitar part is pretty hard to play: furious arpeggios moving around the fretboard . . . and I’m not very good. I’m much better at stuff like, you know, strumming.
It’s a tribute to Parthenon Huxley that he could listen to this track and get past the horrible performance to hear the possibilities in the song . . . because I think it’s actually a pretty decent song.
The benefit of hearing this is mainly hearing what Parthenon Huxley did with the song. As you can tell, he did a lot. So you can hear for yourself the difference, I am also including Parthenon’s version below. If you haven’t heard that yet, do yourself a favor and give it a spin. If you have heard it, listen to it again. It gets better every time you hear it.
My original, inaccurate version from around 1992:
And Parthenon’s excellent version:
The fifth song in the project will likely not come for several months, at a minimum. You are off the hook for a while.
I never get tired of listening to that second track.
Patterico (9c670f) — 4/22/2015 @ 7:34 amI agree Parthenon Huxley did a lot with his arrangement of your song, but I like your voice.
DRJ (e80d46) — 4/22/2015 @ 10:39 amWell, for once, I think the remake was better. The original harmonies were kept and expanded instead of reworked. Which meant, for me, kept it musically whole.
felipe (b5e0f4) — 4/22/2015 @ 10:51 amYour to hard on yourself, Patterico. I enjoyed it both times.
mg (31009b) — 4/22/2015 @ 3:05 pm