Misfits and Slow Learners Track 4: Pickin' a Road by Cub Lea as Hot Spot Last updated 12/04

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Download 32kbps 44.1kHz full-length (3:48) mp3 (mono) 892kb
(Full-fidelity versions at 128kbps and VBR-HQ bitrates are available on "the CD")

Hot Spot version (1987)

	Credits:	Words, music, arrangement & production by Cub Lea, 10/83
	Players:	Cub Lea (all instruments)
	Drums:	Roland TR-505 digital rhythm composer
	Notes:	Recorded and mixed on a Tascam PortaStudio 0.5 4-track cassette recorder 12/87 in a Toronto, Canada rooming house

Winter Heat version (1989)

	Credits:	Words, music, arrangement & production by Cub Lea, 1989
	Players:	Cub Lea (all instruments)
	Releases:	the bunctions: what the hell was that?
	Notes:	Recorded and mixed in Calgary, Canada on a Fostex A-8 deck through a Fostex 12-channel mixer; ripped from Cr02 Dolby C cassette using a SoundBlaster Live! Value.
		Additional notes applicable to all tracks

Download Winter Heat version 32kbps 44.1kHz full-length (4:00) mp3 (mono) 948kb
(This version features much higher fidelity and stronger but less emotive performances)

Concept

This song was almost four years old by the time I tracked it for this album. It was originally "multitracked" by recording a beatbox and bass into a tape deck, playing and mixing it while recording the guitar onto another tape deck, and playing and mixing that while recording the vocal onto the other tape deck to produce the "final" mix. Hey, it was all I could afford! My family was worth millions at the time but they weren't about to risk any of that family fortune on unproven talent. Family is family, after all, but money is business.

After doing several tracks in this fashion to produce at least marginal evidence that I was at least somewhat capable of stringing three chords together in a half-listenable fashion, I wrote this as something of a subtle, and perhaps not-sly-enough statement of my contempt for my situation. Needless to say, it didn't go over well with family, although my cousin, the son of a famous surgeon who worked on a processed-foods production line at the time, quite liked it!

The song basically grew up from the bass line, which I invented as a warm-up exercise while touring with Indio Rivera. As strange as it may sound, the inspiration for that bouncy bass was Deep Purple's Space Truckin'

The lyric is more or less a spit in the face of the new-age millennial nonsense that, sadly, still possesses far too many of the people I know, and while it's arrogant as all fuck-off, it stands as one of the best I've ever done for this kind of song.

I listened to the low-bitrate version while double-checking the lyric transcription; I really am amazed at how well Lame downsampled this...it's surprisingly listenable for only 32kbps!

This was another quirky rocker along the lines of The Heart that Wishes, and I felt strongly enough about the core value of this song to re-record it in 1989 for the Winter Heat demos, even though I knew it didn't really fit with the material I was producing for that project. (Given the benefit of hindsight, however, I realize now that this would have been an ideal transition piece after one of the more desperate tracks such as Real Time or Dark Time. But by then I was pretty beaten up, and the performances on the much higher fidelity eight-track version don't quite match up against the raw energy of the original Hot Spot recording.

Execution

For such a simple track with such obvious hooks and "easy" punch, it was very hard to pull off. In the first place, I'm a horrible guitarist; the solo is incredibly simple but took all the technique I could muster to pull off. Yeesh!

The guitars were tracked using an overdrive pedal into a cheaply-mic'd Fender Champ (rhythm) and straight into the multitracker using (I believe) a pair of overdrive devices chained, and I believe they were a TS-9 Tube Screamer and a Boss Super Overdrive.

The song is as complete as it sounds here primarily because I'd had four years or so to think through how I wanted it to sound. The intro, gimmicks and ending were all well established in my mind and came pretty close here to mimicking what I heard in my head.

The vocals on this worked out surprisingly well; this was, I believe, the last track for which I had to do vocals, and I was pushing the limits of my range in the screams on the third verse. Not long after this, I realized that if I had any plans of playing this live, it would have to be tuned down at least a full tone.

While it's sonically not quite a fit for the album I still have planned for the Winter Heat project, I may yet do this one more time and "finally get it right". I'm reasonably happy with this one; I've tried to do it better and failed.

Pickin' a Road

Pickin' a road; pickin' the road I wanna go
Pickin' a road; pickin' the road I wanna go
And if you want to ride with me, ride with me
The going won't be easy but the company's free
I'm pickin' a road; pickin' the road I wanna go
And whether or not I get there is something maybe I should never know

Spin in a storm; the night is dark, the scream and howl
Spin in a storm; ain't you gonna miss your best friend now
Slow fade to seeker, intent on the trail
Stoned on redemption with gum on his heels
Spin in a storm; and we'll make it through the killing ground
And whether or not it takes you, the name of the game is to show each other how

Get in my car; rest your thumb and prick an ear
You are a star, playin' the role of a bum in tears
Feed on my freedom; you best get your fill
Cause if you don't take it, somebody will
Get in the car; where you wanna go, I'll take you there
There's always a chance I'm a killer but if you didn't know the risk you wouldn't be here

Lid gonna blow; fire and water rising high
Lid gonna blow; go get the Saviour on your side
Gift bearing God-men who talk in their sleep
Promise triple happiness and bury you deep
Lid gonna blow; how will you know if the God-man lied
If age or the fates ever take you, all you can do is pray that you'll arrive

So where do we go, and why do we lighten up the load
So where do we go, and why don't we take a speedy road
Cause if you're moving quickly and the load is light
You might arrive before you're ready and miss the sights
So where do we go; they tell me that no one really knows
And whether or not we get there is something very few of us will know

Copyright ©1983, 1988 Living Skill Music