Brill Bruisers (vaguely in the style of Mungo Jerry)
I said "vaguely"
I said this was going to be a place where I try things out. I got it into my head that I’d do an acoustic cover of ‘Brill Bruisers’ but it started taking on a life of its own. For me, the important thing about a cover is that it deserves to exist. It doesn’t have to be better, it just needs to carve out its own space. A cover of a song I wrote is not quite a cover, sure. I knocked it out quickly, I’m trying hard not to be precious, but damnit I am precious. I will have to get over that.
This is of course the title track from our 2014 album Brill Bruisers. 10th anniversary! My solo album ‘The Slow Wonder’ just turned 20! I’m playing 4 shows in Nov and Dec where I play the album!
Go to acnewman.net for links to tickets!
Didn’t record this to celebrate an anniversary, it just seemed like a fun song to revisit. There was a fun Song Exploder episode about this:
https://songexploder.net/the-new-pornographers
So you can watch that and learn more than you need to know about it.
We played it on Letterman as well!
So this song has been around.
When I put down the piano part, I sensed that it was moving into Mungo Jerry territory, just a little bit. You know, these guys:
Honestly one of my favorite songs of all time, I thought it would be acceptable to add maybe 10% Mungo to the mix.
If anyone has a banjo (I don’t have a banjo), feel free to add it to this new version and send it back to me. If it had banjo, that would make all the difference.
I’m reminded of an old interview with Frank Black where he talks about ‘Mr Grieves’ being his attempt to write a Kinks song. Of course it sounds nothing at all like The Kinks. So it is with this song. It’s not important if it sounds like Mungo Jerry, what matters is that I wanted it to sound like them. That drive pushed me into whatever new direction I chose, however ill guided. You have to trust those feelings.
It’s all fertilizer for what’s next, that’s how I look at it, a vibe that I might steal for a new song. It’s good to have these things around when you feel out of ideas.
What do I like here? What do I think is worth exploring? I have no idea. I’ve always loved that famous Gandhi quote: “Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.” I’m assuming he was talking about arranging pop music.