I finally got off of my ass and finished a song that I started working on last year. After I’d crash-landed with This Old Dawg, I started working on a song that I wrote for my uncle, Loyd Short. This song was called So Long, John. I recorded everything but the vocals, and then I got so frustrated because I wasn’t getting the sound I wanted that I wound up dropping it. I’d always intended to go back to it, but I never did.
Well, I finally did. In the time between now and the last time I worked on the song, I’ve learned a lot about Cubase, and recording, mixing and mastering in general. Mixing and mastering ten or so songs for my band, Systematic Chaos, gave me an incentive to finally wrestle Cubase and my DAW to the ground and provided a damned good laboratory to experiment in. Given how well So Long, John has turned out, I think I’ve earned the right to taunt them both mercilessly.
All I’ll say about the song is that it’s dedicated to my uncle, Loyd Short, for whom I started writing lyrics while he was laying on his death bed. So the lyric “I heard them say you’d leave today” is literally about waiting for someone to die. I couldn’t say what I really wanted to say to him before he died, and so this song is my way of making up for it.
As for why it’s called “So Long, John” and not “So Long, Loyd”, that’s sort of a long story. Suffice it to say that I called him John and he called me John. That’s all I’ll say about it. The rest is between us.
Below are some useful links if you’re interested at all in the song.
- So Long, John – lyrics page
- So Long, John – mp3 audio sample
- Loyd Short @ Wicasta’s Genealogy
