EVOLVER

[csnyfan]

Beautiful once again.
the "and when I look..." isolation is painful though, want me to run the source through demucs?

[rhino]

Sounds good Lord Reith !

[Wah-Wah]

Really great, Lord Reith (and csnyfan)!

[Lord Reith]

Thanks guys. I might do a video for this song too.

Beautiful once again.
the "and when I look..." isolation is painful though, want me to run the source through demucs?

I know, I tried all the demixers but they all spat out garbage for that line. I can't get demucs to work, so yes please if you can try doing the vocal for take 5.

[InnerLight]

Thanks for the demucs mentions. I have some of the other demixing / stem tools but out of curiosity I went looking for demucs. I seem to have it installed and working. I just ran it on a song of a band I was in and it did quite a good job just using the defaults. A little bit too much bass bleed into the guitar, but the vocals and drums are almost spot on. I'm not even aware of what control you have over any of it, if any. I have a lot of old "garage band" mixes from my youth that I'm looking to improve with spectral and demixing and this looks like it may help.

edit: sent you a PM, Lord Reith.

[Rupert Pupkin]

Here's another Lennon demo: Mirror Mirror. Apparently John was going to use this in a musical about his life with Yoko. The lyrics hark back to something he revealed to David Sheff around that time for Playboy:

“Even as a child, when I looked at myself in the mirror or when I was 12, 13, I used to literally trance out into alpha. I didn’t know what it was called then. I found out years later there is a name for those conditions. But I would find myself seeing hallucinatory images of my face changing and becoming cosmic and complete. It caused me to always be a rebel."

Unfortunately, John never really got beyond jotting down a few lyrics and musical ideas for this song on a cassette. But I have taken his vocal and the gist of what he seemed to be getting at and tried to interpret it into a studio recording. Not many people really seem to like this song, but I thought it was good and worth rescuing from the trash can of history. Hope you like it!

https://tinyurl.com/expitres-feb-19

Thank you so much. This is an haunting piano song with some of the darkest John Lennon lyrics. I like the hypnotic piano coda which reminds me Neil Young's "Words (Between The Age Of...") coda.
I remember that there are several piano takes on the "Between Lines" set by Pine Apple records, but all these piano takes were never never sonically approved by a tape transfer since His Master's Choice appeared in 2008 (thus, all these piano takes are coming from the LLTs broadcast).

You did a fantastic job - obviously you have listened to all piano takes and figured out exactly what best melodies was here and there (especially the instrumental coda) and recreate while respecting John's piano ideas the best polished demo of this unreleased song.
I'm particular fond of the ending transition with the piano kind-of-hammered, then suddenly a subtle drums+discreet strings arrangement.
Very nicely done. Some POB atmosphere there like on "Isolation". Amazing work!

Do you think that there could be a Lewis Carroll from Alice in the Wonderland reference in this song ? (even in Cleanup Time, John put a Lewis Carroll reference from Alice in the Wonderland... (in the stripped down mix from the Double Fantasy reissue)
In psychanalyse, one of the crucial development about "being there", and not going into depersonalization syndrome (like pre-schizophrenia like poor Syd Barrett) is facing in the mirror when you are a child and being "welcome" by the mirror, as well, in someone else look, such as of course, your parents.
I'm not Dr Freud, but after Plastic Ono Band primal therapy, apparently when John was recording at the Dakota in mid-75 (1977 I think) "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall" and other Dakota song, he was kind of depressed ("Solitude" aka "Stranger's Room" - first working title of "I'm Losing You", or singing that he even tried to "jump out of the window" in "You Saved My Soul")

When you think that one of the gloomiest album is Pink Floyd "The Wall" (the beginning of the melody of Roger Waters's "One of My Turns", on synth reminds me a little bit "Mirror, Mirror" atmosphere); apparently John Lennon's song "Mirror..." was tormented to say the least...
Unfortunately, no song upgrade by His Master Choice surfaced contrary to "She's A Friend of Dorothy take 2" which is available through His Master's Choice sonically improved (but the much more elaborated take 7 has not been released by His Master's Choice. The best source for take 7 is on the Library records CD from the late 90's (a Vigotone subsidiary label and the best composite source is on Pine Apple records fan set "Between The Lines"). Trying "She's A Friend Of Dorothy's" would be great Lord Reith, because this is great piano song with a much more faster tempo and a catchy melody (and a lovely bridge-middle-8)- but extracting the vocals of take 7 will be difficult (not as difficult as "Mirror, Mirror On The Wall")
Thus, all best sources for "Mirror, Mirror...." (using LLTs, various bootlegs CDs prior to HMC "apparition" in 2008) is on "Between The Lines".

I know that Lennon also demoed "Mirror Mirror, On The Wall" on guitar. I would have liked to listen to this guitar demo (uncirculated).

How about finishing "Help!" 1970 arrangement on piano ? (you could do a semi-instrumental chorus, since John never go further the chorus, since he was blocked; had to find out the chords for piano; and perhaps duplicate the verse (like Spector did for I Me Mine) to extend a semi-instrumental song
Really I'm impressed by the vocal isolation for "Mirror, Mirror On The Wall"- I know these piano demos and the sound quality is really average to poor.
Sorry, but it's so good, now that you can't just stopped now, I want a piano album now

[Lord Reith]

obviously you have listened to all piano takes and figured out exactly what best melodies was here and there (especially the instrumental coda) and recreate while respecting John's piano ideas the best polished demo of this unreleased song.
I'm particular fond of the ending transition with the piano kind-of-hammered, then suddenly a subtle drums+discreet strings arrangement.
Very nicely done. Some POB atmosphere there like on "Isolation". Amazing work!

As you know there are several takes and each one is a bit different because he is just thinking out loud rather than recording something already worked out. It's hard to know where he would have gone with it but I suspect the final version would have been different still. However since he never got to that point, the only I could do is put down neatly what he had at that time. So I took a bit of each take.

Do you think that there could be a Lewis Carroll from Alice in the Wonderland reference in this song ? (even in Cleanup Time, John put a Lewis Carroll reference from Alice in the Wonderland... (in the stripped down mix from the Double Fantasy reissue)
In psychanalyse, one of the crucial development about "being there", and not going into depersonalization syndrome (like pre-schizophrenia like poor Syd Barrett) is facing in the mirror when you are a child and being "welcome" by the mirror, as well, in someone else look, such as of course, your parents.
I'm not Dr Freud, but after Plastic Ono Band primal therapy, apparently when John was recording at the Dakota in mid-75 (1977 I think) "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall" and other Dakota song, he was kind of depressed ("Solitude" aka "Stranger's Room" - first working title of "I'm Losing You", or singing that he even tried to "jump out of the window" in "You Saved My Soul")

Well, actually the first thing i thought of when I heard it a few years ago was Peter Sellers. Peter always said that he was "nobody", that he had no true identity and was merely a shapeshifter who took on different personas. I think maybe John felt a bit like that too, that he was unwanted by his parents and was a 'nowhere man" so to speak, as opposed to Paul with his large loving family whose identity had always been solid and immutable. It's really the spookiness of this song that got me when I heard it. It's not a fantastic world class melody or anything, but the lyrics and delivery give us a voyeuristic peek into the inner life of one of the great artists. And it seems to be a stark and lonely place. But then, in the middle of one of his takes the cat jumps up onto the piano (as any pianist will know, this happens all the time) and he stops to sing "Moggy moggy moggy!" and shoo it away. The way he breaks out of his melancholia in the blink of an eye also gives us an insight into what kind of person he was. He could be melancholic, but he could break out of it easily and become the fun outgoing guy that everyone liked being around.

I know that Lennon also demoed "Mirror Mirror, On The Wall" on guitar. I would have liked to listen to this guitar demo (uncirculated).

Well, John says out loud that he thinks he did a guitar demo but is not sure. If it never turned up then I'm guessing he didn't.

Really I'm impressed by the vocal isolation for "Mirror, Mirror On The Wall"- I know these piano demos and the sound quality is really average to poor.
Sorry, but it's so good, now that you can't just stopped now, I want a piano album now

That demo is horrible quality but I kind of like the squeaky brittle quality to the voice. He had such an interesting voice. Even when he sang badly, it sounded interesting and good. Not an easy trick to pull off.

I'll think about more piano demos that might work.

[csnyfan]

Thanks for the demucs mentions. I have some of the other demixing / stem tools but out of curiosity I went looking for demucs. I seem to have it installed and working. I just ran it on a song of a band I was in and it did quite a good job just using the defaults. A little bit too much bass bleed into the guitar, but the vocals and drums are almost spot on. I'm not even aware of what control you have over any of it, if any. I have a lot of old "garage band" mixes from my youth that I'm looking to improve with spectral and demixing and this looks like it may help.

edit: sent you a PM, Lord Reith.

Best settings are -n mdx_extra --shifts=10

[beatlesaint]

Lord Reith, would it/is it possible to do anything with Gone From This Place ?
Its a wonderful little tune but as you know John's vocals are somewhat buried.
It would be fab if the technology could perhaps bring the voice up a little!

[Track06]

I know, I tried all the demixers but they all spat out garbage for that line. I can't get demucs to work, so yes please if you can try doing the vocal for take 5.

Have you tried running it within your browser? (https://colab.research.google.com/drive ... sp=sharing)
Does using it this way have any major downside? I think you can add --shifts=10 here: cmd = ["python3", "-m", "demucs.separate".....
mp3 = False of course.