BREAKDOWN ANALYSIS by Planet Giles
TRACK #3
SPIKE FUNK
(from the INSIGHTS album released in 2022)
“GREETINGS! WE COME IN PEACE FROM PLANET GILES...”
These are the legendary opening words spoken by an Extra-Terrestrial being at the very start of this track.
It has often been said that if an advanced being were to venture onto Planet Earth, he would die laughing at the carnage he witnessed here. The advert for, “For Mash get Smash” immediately comes to mind! But there is a difference. The advert was making its point about Earthlings ‘backward’ ways in a humorous, ‘pisstaking’ way. Ours is a sincere plea to think about ourselves in broader terms - that we all feel the same things, think the same things and want the same things. We are part of a global family consisting of other humans who are, in fact, our brothers and sisters. Because we are all part of one group soul.
The ‘IMPORTANT MESSAGE’ FOR ALL THE WORLD TO HEAR’ is one that is relevant and current in our times:
“Everyone is Chosen People”.
This is an obvious biblical reference. But we have said that EVERYONE is chosen.And on a much vaster spiritual level, we are. Because we are all part of one group soul who have incarnated in unique and individual forms in order to serve a common purpose. The song is a celebration, not of our differences, but of everything we have in common:
“No one wants to live in fear It’s not the way to be”.
The best way to express this desire for unity is - TO HAVE A PARTY - to which EVERYONE IS INVITED !
“We starting up a worldwide party Reaching cross the sea”.
Then our tongue-in-cheek nod to give the words ‘ global warming’ a more positive meaning:
“A special kind of global warming...”.
This is meant as a call to everyone to warm their hearts by celebrating together in the spirit of equality and friendship irrespective of all differences.
‘Spike your funk with me” was just a phrase we came up with to artistically express individuality (one’s ‘funk’) and to parade it (‘spike’) at the party.
Then the celebrations begin! I particularly love the small and large celebrations of life itself, condensed into a chant of four verses.
We celebrate the Universe and its Planets whose energies govern what happens on Earth.
We celebrate the rising and setting sun on each day of our lives on Earth.
We celebrate our individual lives and our own unique day of birth.
We celebrate all others who share our home on Earth with us, and theirs and our individual identities.
I was particularly happy with what I chose to do musically in the last part of the song. I had always heard this, and referred to it as The Club Mix. I could hear it being remixed as a Dance track by a DJ, and wrote the keyboard and string solo melody with that in mind. I chose to make the melody slightly poignant, as the future of Humankind really has hit crunch point, and it is not just the responsibility of the few to make things right, but us all, in whatever way large or small, to do what we can to unite and make changes in the right direction as we proceed through our evolutionary journey.
Lastly, the Clavifunk Bass line that I had to play on this track was hilarious to work on. I had never played any funk-type thing before on keyboard (in the vein of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Superstition’). And Pete has the habit of writing certain things for me to play that require A GREAT DEAL OF PRACTISE because of their newness to me and my style of playing. Many a tear was shed trying to make this part sit and happen in the mix (so that it gelled with all the other parts), and I am not entirely convinced that I pulled it off! We were determined not to quantize anything, and we didn’t. So make of it what you will. It wasn’t for the want of practising - or crying - let me tell you that !!
For the record (pardon the pun), I call Pete GEORGE MARTIN, quite simply for the fact that he has the sort of mind that can hold every single musical line, sound, panning and placement in the stereo mix IN HIS HEAD and know how it should sound before it has been recorded. All I can say is,
‘PETE, YOU DA MAN. Respect’.
Please do contact me via the Contact - Touchdown page here if you would like a recommended read from me on the spiritual evolutionary happenings great and small, and your own personal reading pertaining to your own personal journey from this book’s website.
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