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http://soundcloud.com/steady-eddie

This is a song inspired by a late 60's song that Colin's band played (a few years ago) ok, back in the late 60's.....We took the general idea of that obscure song, (what we could remember), and this is what we came up with--keeping a late 60's vibe, but hopefully finding a sound that could be appreciated today as well. Hope you like it!


SLEEP TALK'N -- c.ward/e.swartz


vs. 1

Well I heard you last night talkn' in your sleep
Yes I heard you last night talkn' in your sleep
Words that I hear coming from your mouth
Condemn you girl about your trip down South
It was cold here outside, snow on the ground
While I was being good, you were messing around, uh-huh

vs.2

Yes I heard you last night cryin' in your sleep
Maybe I'm wrong, and maybe it's just fantasy
As I laid there in bed, wide awake
My heart was pounding and I started to shake
I thought this beauty laying next to me
Would always be my lover, my family

Ch. Refrain:

It's going to be a long cold Winter, baby for me, Oh-h.....yea....


vs.3

Well I felt you last night breathing, heavily
Yes I felt you last night breathing heavily
Do you remember what I said, just the other day
We're not perfect, but we're ok
But now that truth has shown it's cheating face
I've been a fool, just taking up space


Ch. Refrain:

It's going to be a long cold Winter, baby for me,
Oh-h.....yea....

vs.4

You thought you could have your cake and eat it too, so cheap
Yes you thought you could have your cake and eat it too,you creep
Whispering words about your long distance lover
Smiling and moaning underneath your silk cover
Whispering words about your long distance lover
I heard you last night talkn', in your slee--eep!
In your slee-eep! In your slee-eep!
In your sleep....

great collab y'all!I enjoyed it!Mike

Fantastic collab. Eddie, your vocal has never sounded better and Colin's guitarring was spot on. No nits from me guys. WOnderful song.

Dave

Hey guys.........REAL COOL PERFORMANCE !

this is special....
You thought you could have your cake and eat it too, so cheap
Yes you thought you could have your cake and eat it too,you creep


Calvin


http://www.soundclick.com/bands/0/calvinstewart

woo-hoo..I`m a 60`s guy..., cool stuff.
takes me back to Jefferson Airplane, Santana stuff..I love Santana!

Thanks everyone.

Eddie gets the credit for remembering that my high school band played a song like this. He created the new lyrics and recorded the vocals and acoustics. I contributed to the music (then and now) and played the electric guitars, bass, cowbell and organ. We hired a drummer to drum. Ed mixed it to taste!

And there you have it.....we like it! All via the internet. Ed and I live 1,000 miles apart and the drummer lives in England.

Good one Eddie and Colin.

Loved it all but thought the 2nd line in the second verse should be the same as the first to match the verse pattern.

Cheers.

Hey Mike,

Thanks man!


Dave,

Thanks for the thumbs up!

Calvin,

I appreciate it--I used creep, as the youngsters of this day use that word a fair amount--it was also just fun to say!

Lane,

Thanks much, I like those old songs too!

steady-eddie.

Hey Colin,

It's always a big plus working with someone of your talent! It was cool and a bit ironic that you ended up recording a song with your #1 groupie who sat in on most of your band practices and never missed too many of your gigs--48 years ago! Nice work mate.

Cowbell? I don't hear a cowbell. Did your sneak that into your guitar solo?

steady-eddie.

TuiGorge,

Thanks man!

I did have the lyric repeat itself originally on that 2nd. verse. I decided to minimizing the repeats, as for me that gets trite. I kept the rhyme, yet opted to give the next verse more story and a slight difference of delivery and still keeping equal measure time. In my mind, this adds more interest to the song's lyrics, even though they are fairly shallow in meaning. (This is why I alternated all four verses in this manner). But you are correct, that would work as you mentioned and would keep more symmetry for sure.

steady-eddie

I recorded cowbell but the producer cut it.......

Yeah, it could have used more cowbell... In spite of that...this has a great sound and classic feel.

Just a couple of things that stood out for me: I would try to either keep that second line the same for all verses, or make them different for all verses, but that could just be me.

"You creep" didn't sit right with me but "You're so cheap" would have had a lot more impact and would have kept more to the storyline.

And finally, it would reinforce the title more if you had it in your chorus:

"Your sleep talking's gonna make a long cold winter for me" or something like that. Just a thought.

Overall, a really nice collab.

Ricki

Love the 60's feel! Reminded me of a cross between The Monster Mash and something by The Doors.

It's a real good performance vocally and musically and a real enjoyable listen. Lyrically, there were a couple of spots that struck a somewhat negative chord with me for some reason. In V2, "my family" felt a little odd in the context of the line and the line before it. I dunno, I don't think of "lover" and "family" necessarily going together in this context. Maybe, "my everything" instead. Then again it could just be me that found this a little distracting lol.

Also, in V4 "you creep" kinda made me feel the same way, like it felt a little out of place. I could hear a sense of sarcasm there and replace "you creep" with "how sweet" or something along those lines.

Those are just small nits however. Like I said, a really good listen. Like it a lot! -TK

Hi Ricky!

Thanks for the spin. I just don't have a "fever" for cowbell--(Sat.night/live reference).

I appreciate and get your sugs. Like I told T.G., for me, I feel the song is too boring with so many repeats and a bit "old fashioned," I kept the music from the 60's but wanted the lyrics to feel more current. My teenage daughter would never use the word "cheap" but would "creep"--and both terms are used anyway which expounds one on the other IMO.

I liked having the change with the 2nd line 2nd verse to also bring into the story a "slight" sexuality angle and is sang differently for that reason--a repeat wouldn't give me that passion there. The chorus is really more of a refrain, and this isn't really a strong chorus driven song; bringing in the title here IMO, would over-use the expression, besides it's tagged three times in the outro which in mind is plenty of reinforcement.

Your sugs however are accurate and certainly another good way to do this song, but these are some of the reasons why I did what I did, with the idea of embellishing the story somewhat, and "repeats" take away those opportunities.

Thanks so much!

steady-eddie.

TKO,

Thanks, for the spin! If there was one line I was a little in doubt about it is the word "family" in that spot--could be to conventional and awkward. Here's why I used it: A marriage with or without kids is a "family." This line was used as I can imagine this guy thinking that this girl was his future family--and he was lying there knowing it wasn't to be now......"everything" wouldn't rhyme.

Concerning the "creep" line, "sweet" might work. I like the idea of a "sarcastic sweet." Will think on that, not sure I want to take it back in production--but good sug and definitely a current expression, I may opt to change to that word--but I like saying creep. (it's fun)!

steady-eddie.

My era, the kind of song Brian Matthews might play on his famed Sound of the 60s show on the BBC of a Saturday morning, obscure but not totally forgotten by some.Well done
Travis

Hey Thanks Travis!

There is no doubt that the British had influence on this vibe!

steady-eddie.

Hey there Steady,

Nice tune.... I took some time on your page and really appreciated a few of your great songs and performances....Excellent!!!

Eddie, unless I'm missing something, the title of your song is Sleep Talkin and it appears nowhere in the lyrics. Talking in Your Sleep is not the title, but maybe it should be?

Ricki

Ricki,

Most of my songs do have the title/chorus relationship, and the song title from an exact phrase within the song. But I write different genres and different vibes, sometimes more conventional, sometimes not. With this song, I think the descriptive title is extremely relative and "understood" as they would say about a "subject" in English grammar. "I Heard you Last Night Talki'n in Your Sleep," would work and probably be more conventional title for sure. I just liked using the short phrase and I liked the sound of it--it seemed less "square" if your will, to me. There are many successful songs that have "titles" NOT used within the lyrics, for example: "Annie's Song" by John Denver.

I do however strongly feel a title if not part of the lyrics should relate strongly.

steady-eddie.

iggyiggy,

I appreciate your spin and thanks for checking out my music. There's a couple on my site that I'd like to re-do for sure--but thanks for the thumbs up!

steady-eddie.

Sounds great Eddie and Colin. Nice work. My biggest issue is the vocal delay effects during the chorus. Might be spread too wide or the delay might be too much but it irritated me almost immediately. I am listening in headphones so through speakers it might sound ok.

Great song though. Has a Santana vibe to me.

Ricky

Ricki,

Delay is only 1/16 at 20% with about 15% feedback throughout entire song in both lead vox and dup tracks. Some dups are exact copies, others separate or real vocal dups for effect in the more exclamatory spots. There also is fairly strong reverb which accentuates even the small delay but keeps the vocal not to much on top of the mix unlike a ballad. My purpose was to give attitude and a little edge to this song--if not your cup of tea, that's appreciated as surely it's not for everyone--and no question a real rock singer could do much better than me. This song was set out not to be the flavor vanilla however, lyrically or performance-wise--sorry I irritated you though! But thanks for the props as well. This one was a lot of fun; next song will be country, and 180 degrees from this one.

Thanks again!

steady-eddie.

This is excellent. Well written and performed. A fun listen.

Dave

Hi Eddie and Colin,

It sounds GREAT!!
Super COOL collab...I really enjoyed that!!
I was on the edge of my seat, too, wondering whether he was going to be right or wrong about her, biting my nails -- lol!

Lisa

I got the Santana vibe from this. Great guitar. I don't really notice a hook that gonna stick in my head with this song though.

Dave,

Thanks for the spin, glad you liked it!


Lisa,

How goes it? Maybe she wasn't guilty and was just dreaming; maybe his imagination got the better of his insecure ego--we'll never know--left for your imagination. (I think she was messin' around though in my mind).

steady-eddie.

Summeoyo,

Thanks for the spin and the comments! Yea this song has more of a "refrain" than a chorus, wasn't designed to be chorus driven. The melody "jumps" out of the gate, and we felt with that initial "lift," that a refrain was better than a chorus to give a couple of breaks and a dramatic statement as well--experimented with a bridge, but decided just to let this song gallop from beginning to end and use the refrain for breaks. I don't like all my songs written with the same formula anyway--hope that makes sense! Thanks again, and your observation may be correct, however, part of this song's melody made an impression on my memory for sure, as it has stayed with me for over 40 years and counting.

steady-eddie.

Thanks for all the compliments. Santana, eh? Me likee....

This is fab !
I really enjoyed the listen and performance.
Colin your guitar playing is smokin hot :-))
Guy's , keep up the good work !!

All the best
Jan

Does it move me? You bet! Enjoyed the song and thought it has a great deal of potential. Nice work, Eddie and Colin. Best of luck with this "semi-cheating song"... LOL!

Jan, Glad you like it and thanks for the guitar compliment. Ed and I have worked on a few together and I am sure there will be more!

Dave, Glad we moved you! That is the goal, right?

Hi guys,

Late to this, but I'm glad I found it!

It does have a strong Byrds meets Yardbirds vibe, and I have no nits other than a few esses are hissy.

Fantastic song and production overall, guys!

Mike

Colin and Eddie

This is a fine co-write and production!

It gets my vote tonight!

Write on!

Mackie

Hey Michael Z,

Thanks for the spin and kind words. You're right, some s's are a little too dominate and of course accentuated with the reverb/delay combination I used for this "vibe." My stock plug in D-esser though corrects to a degree, also does more harm than it's worth. A step up with a higher production capability (than I have) could cure the problem. If I take the song back into production, I'll attempt to perhaps re-sing a couple of those spots and utilize some cut-off fades perhaps. I appreciate your keen ears--good call!

If you have a Manley Vox box that you're not using, send it to me, it has a fabulous D-esser, (they're only $4,000.00 new) ---LOL.

Thanks man!

steady-eddie.

Mackie..........'s back in town! (aka: Bobby Darin)

Thanks pal!

steady-eddie.