Patterico's Pontifications

4/22/2015

The Patterico Music Project: The Original Version of “Alien Song”

Filed under: General,Music,Music by Patterico — Patterico @ 7:34 am



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.

4 Responses to “The Patterico Music Project: The Original Version of “Alien Song””

  1. I never get tired of listening to that second track.

    Patterico (9c670f)

  2. I agree Parthenon Huxley did a lot with his arrangement of your song, but I like your voice.

    DRJ (e80d46)

  3. Well, 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. Your to hard on yourself, Patterico. I enjoyed it both times.

    mg (31009b)


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