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    Moderator: D-Mod
    Nov 01, 2018
      ·  Edited: Dec 21, 2018

    This Is My Building (Now Posted Below)

    in Rarities & Unreleased


    True, we asked if you had this track, to please not share or post it yet; we'll put it here soon enough. But that doesn't mean you can't tell us what you think of it!


    Anybody here in Queens on Sunday? What's your take on 'his building'?

    26 comments
    Barbara Strauch
    Nov 01, 2018

    It's playing on repeat as this is written. Walter scatting! Amazing! First impression is wonderful. I'll need a few more listens to get all of the lyrics. "My body's broken like a tired punchline..."

    Thank you for releasing it. What a treasure.

    Moderator: D-Mod
    Nov 01, 2018

    super -- thanks! PS There's a lyrics file on the drive.

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    lizking593
    Nov 02, 2018

    I was there and got one of the drives. I hadn't heard Becker's solo stuff and now I can't get it out of my head. Thank you for this. Turns out I had one more bang to give.

    Moderator: D-Mod
    Nov 03, 2018

    one more bang. lol.


    ok, cultural touchstone, anybody; without looking it up on the google machine: where's "Big Daddy's gonna live!" come from?

    0
    Moderator: D-Mod
    Nov 02, 2018  ·  Edited: Dec 14, 2018

    lizking593 - can't tell you how good it is to hear this....thanks for checking in; means a lot

    0
    Moderator: D-Mod
    Nov 03, 2018  ·  Edited: Nov 03, 2018

    Martha! you were there?! if your email has changed since '09, please get in touch!

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    jake6120
    Nov 04, 2018  ·  Edited: Nov 04, 2018

    Greetings and soulful appreciation (deeper than heartfelt) for these efforts. I grew up a few stops down Union Turnpike on the Q44A from WB Way and it was a great pleasure to attend the naming ceremony (I was the one who correctly responded "cup of spleen"). Howard Rodman's lovely comments alone were worth the drive from Ann Arbor in torrential rain. Perhaps his words could be posted on this site.


    I finally had the chance to plug in my flash drive and scroll through the titles. I started with "This Is My Building" since I had just been standing in front of Walter's. I believe I understand reservations you might have had putting this one out considering the paucity of production. However, I hear so much more than a drum machine, dissonant note clusters on time-worn synth patches and a relatively dry mic. The under-production works more effectively without orchestration- it's a Rorschach blot: listen and extrapolate as semi-tones clash (and harmonics blossom like tubes in a boutique amp) the greater musical context with a third ear.


    Considering the protagonist (the subject of the abject subject matter) it doesn't need further embellishment. The voice. In this simple demo, Walter's voice is fully exposed- drenched with raw nuance and expression. We can hear the rasp, the breaths and breaks- perish the thought of that good stuff getting buried in a bigger mix. Like Bob Dylan with just a guitar and a harmonica, no one but Walter could properly sing this song. The voice is alone as this guy is alone: a naked singularity of a soul at liberty- and he's okay for having gone low. He's playing falsetto tuba, scat singing! This is yet another "darkling" down. He's accepted it, then embraced it and, finally, celebrating it! Why not float the little flag on the buoy at the surface so everyone knows there's a diver down there. Bulls and Bears make money; Pigs like this get slaughtered (or kill themselves with three-martini lunches) Fo weal!


    If there are more like this- please be encouraged by these reviews and kindly set them free.


    cheers

    David

    ps: that would be Big Daddy from Cat on a hot tin roof. However, Big Daddy learns that contrary to what he thought, he will not live to celebrate his next birthday. Perhaps this is another haunting specimen of Walter's "late show" metaphor. We've heard it in "Door Number Two" and "Circus Monkey" - oops, I meant Money. Perhaps if our short-seller's wise-cracking heart was leaking like a sieve with one more bang to give, then maybe he's not destined to make it to the opening bell after all...

    pps: hello Martha, it would have been nice to shake your hand.

    Moderator: D-Mod
    Nov 04, 2018  ·  Edited: Dec 14, 2018

    Thanks for the kind words David...and good fever dreaming :-) Seeing as you're relatively new, you may yet to fully plumb the "Rarities and Unreleased" category, which carries a wide range on the unfinished - > finished continuum. Welcome!


    [Edit to David] In case you missed it, text of everybody's speechifyin' now on walterbeckerway.com and you can find video on youtube

    0
    Matthew Kerns
    Nov 04, 2018

    Great to hear that people are enjoying This Is My Building. It really hit me hard, and I really love that it became part of the Walter Becker Way festivities. I'll be forever convinced that Walter toyed with the idea of saying "Turns out I had one more fuck to give."


    And I love the bass on the track. Thanks for the feedback, Lizking and jake, it really does make all of the effort that went into putting the event and the usb drive for the event together worthwhile.

    Moderator: D-Mod
    Nov 04, 2018

    ...and right you are, Matt: .says so right here in my notebook of hand-written lyrics. "one more fuck to give". Not one for editing himself just to get an R rating, I can't help but think that he made the right choice in the change; "bang" does indeed give the better scan to the line.

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    David Brailsford
    Dec 13, 2018

    something to look forward to

    0
    Moderator: D-Mod
    Dec 14, 2018  ·  Edited: Dec 14, 2018

    This Is My Building

    Becker/Klein

    First, a very rare exception for this otherwise vociferously hi-fi site:

    this demo is going to be the worst sounding thing you’ll ever hear at this location!


    But…but….it's a special one we think;


    This Is My Building is a very rough demo of a song

    written for “Circus Money” (2008) by Becker

    and Larry Klein. This recording is unique (on this site) for its extremely

    rudimentary form and rough audio quality, which includes some media

    damage we’ve been unable to correct. It’s the only copy on either

    Larry’s or Walter’s hard drives or collections of CDs.


     It was first released exclusively on a

    USB Drive given away on the occasion of the dedication of 

    “Walter Becker Way” on Oct 28; its appropriateness to the 

    occasion was obvious and undeniable. Moreover, 

    its rough quality aside — vocals were recorded in 

     Becker’s living room! — both Walter and Larry were 

    greatly amused by (and proud of) this song and worked to

     complete the lyrics — and put down this rough demo— even 

    though it was almost certainly too late to include on 

     the recording. 


    We —or maybe a guest — will have more to say about the etiology of this

    great tune later on.


    We hope you agree that shortcomings

    aside, it was well worth presenting to mark the

    dedication of Walter Becker Way — and is worth sharing with you all now.





    This is My Building

    Walter Becker and Larry Klein

    © 2005, 2018 Zeon Music LLC/Strange Cargo/Downtown Music



    On a so-so day with the best among us selling short and cracking wise

    And the also ran's are going belly up bust with the dollar signs in their eyes

    Look at God's good fella in a push position drawing dead on an inside straight

    Trading three martini lunches at L`upo for a South Beach diet plate


    I love my job here

    Hope I don't blow it

    This is the good life

    You'd never know it


    So I hit the the street on the blazing backend of a drop dead margin call

    Where I take my chances with a black car bandit with the deep Punjabi drawl

    Now we zoom uptown hurry up slow down til brakes begin to smoke

    Til my body's broken like the tired punchline of a bad cabdriver joke


    God bless you Chandalur Singh

    Thanks for next to nothing

    Smooth ride notwithstanding

    All the way all the way all the way all the way home


    This is my building

    I stake my claim here

    Look on the mailbox you can read my middle name here

    This is my building

    This is no trash talk

    This is me standing on my chunk of god's own sidewalk


    So I settle on down with my brandy snifter and my beak packed full of cake

    With the Knicks game over and I guess it's time for my poontang popcorn break

    So I swallow my pride and I dial the number which has never failed up ’til now

    And the girl on duty says I'm pleased to please you if you'll only tell me how


    My soul's been broken

    My skills all rusty

    Who's young and curious

    Sleek blonde and busty


    So a half hour later when the door swings open and she's framed in golden light

    With a smile on her lips and a song in her heart and a cash-driven appetite

    As I whisk her bedward in my classic seven and my prospects start to float

    And I tell myself ain't it lucky buddy that your old man caught the boat


    Good evening star eyes

    Your dream has come true

    Please let me rock you

    All the way all the way all the way all the way home


    This is my building

    You're very new here

    There's only one thing for a monkey girl to do here

    This is my building

    This is no freak thing

    This is no jokey play on words or tongue in cheek thing


    My heart was leaking like a sieve

    Turns out I had one more bang to give

    Hallelujah honeychile big daddy's gonna live!

    Ever and ever and ever and ever and more


    This is my building

    Can't be improved on

    So hows about you make like a tree and get a move on

    This is the real deal

    This is no fakeout

    This is the eight PM at God's own bloody steakhouse


    This is my building, baby

    (Fo Weal…)



    hourstuff
    Dec 14, 2018

    This is fantastic! God, I miss Becker! ...and the sound quality is sooo much better than I was expecting. Absolutely, no complaints here!

    Moderator: D-Mod
    Dec 14, 2018

    @hourstuff 😘

    0
    Moderator: D-Mod
    Jan 09, 2019  ·  Edited: Jan 09, 2019

    Lyric File Tailpieces

    I can’t find it now, but I’m pretty sure a while ago I said that some of the funniest/most illuminating/ most amusing things in Walter’s computer files were the tail ends of lyrics files — where the final lyrics, cleaned up, appeared from the top of the page, and bits of rejected lines or sometimes just idea themes, having been typed as “inspiration” or backstory, just never got deleted.


    here’s a few from the end of his lyric file for “This is My Building (thanks to Larry Klein for approval of posting this work product) ©2017 Xeon Music LLC/@ 2017 Strange Cargo/Downtown Music Downtown Music/


    this is what I like

    sure I did it my way

    no use pretending

    where's my gal friday 

    where's  my happy ending


     this is my building 

    this is no rental 

    I know it' s a funny time for getting sentimental


    you must be new


    please take a dollar 

    send it straitaway to the folks in guatemala


    this is my building

    my dream came true here

    and now we don't need another wannabe like you here



    this is my crib now


    and talking to joe blow off the streets aint why I came here

    thus its not possible that I'm the one to blame here

    quite impossible that I should be to blame here