“Spaghetti Western”
(Written and performed by Reynold D. Philipsek copyright 1993 re-released and mastered 2012)
Reynold-lots of guitars, bass, knee slap horse hooves, wooden “train flute”, whoops and hollers
Recording engineer-Stymie Seamans (and some “whoops and hollers”)
I went through quite a protracted period where I wanted to make multi-track recordings of original pieces and perform all the parts by myself. Todd Rundgren, Stevie Wonder and McCartney all had done this. Not that I could match their results. This was hard but fun work. At first, I started this process at home with a Teac Four track machine but I am not much of an engineer or tech-head. I am way too frantic and technically disinterested to ever open a technical manual on equipment operation. I’m always just going full bore on the musical idea and always impatient to document it. That’s why I rarely go beyond two takes.
This song originally came out in 1993 and was re-released on the “Last Summer” album in 2012.
On all of the more successful “solo” recordings my friend Stymie Seamans was the engineer and they were recorded in his quaint and somewhat rustic studio near Lake Minnetonka. Stymie and I have worked together so long that not much talk is involved. He knows what I want and exactly knows how to get it realized. I have recorded in many studios great and small (including Paisley Park) but my best records were made in Stymie’s basement.
One source of obvious influence on this song was Ennio Morricone’s music scores for the so-called “Dollars trilogy” which were, as many know, three films shot in Italy starring Clint Eastwood with a Wild West theme; ergo the term “Spaghetti Western.”
Please all stay well.