Original Song: Thirteen

posted by Rob on December 2, 2009 at 12:04 am | Comments (0)

I’ve been meaning to start posting my original music for almost a year, but have been focusing on my video guitar lessons and more recently my Beatles remastered CD reviews. I’ve also felt self-conscious. I really like my own music and am proud of it, but maybe I’ve felt a little embarrassed because I haven’t written or recorded an original song since August 2005.

I want to write new songs – I really do – and there have been wonderful new people and things going on in my life to inspire me. Yet, I continually feel like I can’t come up with lyrics or chord progressions that are good enough. I’m experiencing severe writer’s block and I don’t know how to break through it.

Maybe I simply need to start playing with other people again (and not just Beatles songs). I’ve always had fun bouncing ideas off other musicians and have enjoyed the friendly competition of trying to write better songs than everyone else in the group. In high school, I used to write songs with my friend Jim. I feel like we were constantly pumping out new ones every week, some of which were really good! After high school, I was very prolific and wrote and recorded more than two albums worth of original material, completely solo. I was also collaborating and playing in the band Fuzzy Daupner and briefly, The Cephalopods.

What happened?

I don’t know, but in an attempt to get back into songwriting, I’m finally posting my original music, one song at a time. This particular song, “Thirteen,” was requested by YouTube user Inzult last month. The fantastic thing about Inzult’s request is that he remembered this song from back when I was posting my music on MP3.com in 2000 and 2001. The fact that there’s a person out there who remembered my music enough to request it nine years later blows me away. I mean, I like my music and some of my friends like my music, but there are strangers out there who like my music, too…and who have liked it for nine years? Wow!

Inzult, thank you so much for looking me up and contacting me. Reading your messages on YouTube last month was totally unexpected and awesome!

Work in Progress by Rob DiCaterino/Guitari (2000)

I wrote and recorded “Thirteen” fairly quickly in my bedroom at my parents’ house in Belleville, NJ, in early 2000. I was 22 years old. I had actually recorded an entire album called Work in Progress and posted it on MP3.com (the old MP3.com) under the name Guitari. I hate that name now, but I thought it was clever at the time. I grew up loving music and video games, so I put them both together. “Guitar” + “Atari” = Guitari. It’s stupid.

“Thirteen” became a favorite among friends and, evidently, fans I didn’t even know I had until a month ago! Here it is:

Listen:

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Download:
1:29 second MP3 file – 3.4 MB (right-click to save)

Most of my songs back then seemed to flow out of me naturally. I had a great time creating all of my recordings and experimenting with different techniques in my bedroom studio. “Thirteen” features one lead vocal track, two background vocal tracks, three acoustic guitar tracks, an electric guitar solo played by “Larry” (me), a bass track, and one drum part recorded in wide stereo onto two tracks. That adds up to nine tracks and since I was using a Fostex digital 8-track recorder at the time, I must’ve bounced-down a couple of them to make room for the extra one.

The Greylocks logo, 2003-2004

In 2003 and 2004, I was in a band called The Greylocks with my friend Carrie Engdahl. We performed “Thirteen” live on June 3, 2004, at The Continental in New York City, which was a lot of fun! Carrie was on vocals and electric guitar and I was on drums (the opposite of The White Stripes):

Listen:

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Download:
1:43 second MP3 file – 3.9 MB (right-click to save)

The Greylocks, June 3, 2004, at The Continental in NYC (pictured left to right: Rob DiCaterino and Carrie Engdahl) – click to enlarge

The Greylocks, June 3, 2004, at The Continental in NYC (pictured left to right: Rob DiCaterino and Carrie Engdahl) – click to enlarge

The Greylocks, June 3, 2004, at The Continental in NYC (pictured: Rob DiCaterino) – click to enlarge

UPDATE December 2, 2009, at 7:00 p.m.

I shared the link to this blog entry with my friends on the Digital Press video game forums and within two hours, members NE146 and SpasticFuctard pointed out that “Thirteen” is almost identical to the old Sesame Street song “Ladybugs’ Picnic” (sung/written/animated by Bud Luckey, with lyrics by Don Hadley). They’re right:

YouTube – Sesame Street – The Ladybugs’ Picnic

I responded:

Wow! As far as I can remember, I’ve never heard “Ladybug’s Picnic” before, nor have I ever seen that cartoon. That’s so weird and embarrassing. Evidently, none of my friends have ever seen or heard that clip either, because this is the first time in nine years that anyone has pointed that out to me, including internet fans.

Now I know how Michael Bolton felt.

I’ll post more original songs soon. Hopefully, none of them are identical to existing songs!

I have a very good memory and remember things from when I was only a couple of years old, including animated clips and songs from Sesame Street, but I really don’t ever remember seeing or hearing this clip. Yet, based on how similar “Thirteen” is to “Ladybugs’ Picnic,” I must’ve heard it at some point, maybe in the background while playing with toys, and just forgot about it or didn’t even process it at the time. That’s the only explanation I can think of.

What baffles me is with all the people who’ve heard “Thirteen” since 2000, nobody pointed this out to me until now. Thank you NE146 and SpasticFuctard!

Anyway, I just thought it was funny how I finally built up the nerve to post one of my own songs online again and it turns out it’s not really my own song at all. D’oh!

I guess now the question is which version is better, “Ladybug’s Picnic” or “Thirteen”? :)

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