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From the Archives: Love the Magician (early demo) (Patreon)

Published:
2023-07-08 02:00:03
Edited:
2023-07-08 02:20:05
Imported:
2026-10
Tags:

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Well hello friends!

After a very frustrating couple of months wrestling with storage problems on my laptop, I finally got my clunkity old machine cleaned out enough to begin digitizing and organizing this collection of concerts, demos, and interviews on CD. The archiving is underway again! Hallelujah.

I've only been at it a few days. I think I'm gonna need to take it slow. As I listen down, the tracks have me laughing, crying, and even talking back to Dave (!). Good thing I live alone right now. Sheesh! In the first dozen CDs or so, I've found some treasures, some curiosities (ahem), and a lot of hilarious banter. I'm looking forward to culling and sharing more broadly at some point but right now, the job is simple and straightforward: listen down, label tracks, import, and back it up. This phase is going to take me a few months but a little every day will get it done.

And so. Yesterday I came across a collection of demos Dave Carter and I recorded in our home studio in preparation for the drum hat buddha recording sessions. I'd looked at this collection before but hadn't listened to some of the tracks all the way through. I was surprised to find that the lyrics I sang in the demo of "Love the Magician" only match the final by about half. The chorus is completely different! And ... I'd totally forgotten this version!

Whenever I find one of our early drafts I thrill -- there is much to appreciate about the songwriting and arranging processes when we compare them to the finished work. But as a writer -- and now a songwriter -- I'm keenly interested in checking out how Dave evolved a lyric. What got cut, what remains, what (if anything) can be discerned as the "seed of intent." I have my own theories about this song, but I'm curious: what do you notice?

There's something about seeing his drafts that liberates the writer in me too: to go forth boldly, with a wild and wily first draft and faith that time, air, performing, intuition, intellect, and other forces will help me clarify and correct whatever in the song misses the mark or rings false. So I offer this demo to you as a curiosity, as entertainment (because the Bubba chorus really *is* kinda funny), and heck -- maybe to inspire and liberate your artistic self a little, too. I know Dave would be in favor of that!

Anyway -- enough jib-jab. Enjoy this early version of the song -- another Patrons-only offering -- and thank you as ever for your support. When I say I could not do this work without you, I mean it. Ever-grateful, xotg

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Files

Comments

Ron Greitzer

Oh wow, SP, that’s just all kinds of fun. As many duo shows as I was lucky to have seen over the years, most “early” versions turned out to be pretty much what wound up being on the official release, with “Lord of the Buffalo,” as you know, being the notable exception. Anyway, more, more, more!!

Pat Daddona

Dave shows instead of tells in the final cut while still leaving whole verses from the original intact; his new word choices add depth and twists to this "lovebirds" story: angry sun instead of Texas, night instead of knife. But the changes in the chorus are profound. What was he thinking originally with "Bubba"? 😆 these lyrics side by side reflect his artistry, brilliance and refusal to settle.

Debra Giannini

I like reading just to be reminded: AH! The Buffalo song! This changes, with so many masterpieces, but for me at top of the list of his creations

Randall Smith

The early version sounds to me like a Texas version of the story in the ballet El Amor Brujo, leaning towards the meaning “enchanted love”. And I agree with Pat that it tells instead of shows. I have always taken the album version to show the lovers escaping via the metamorphoses performed by Love, the magician. Fascinating to see these versions side by side.

Steve Budas

You are certainly in a position in your career to better review these past recordings. I love that you have maintained the quality of singing in your voice that you have had in the past. Thank you for sharing.

Mark Hardy

Hi Tracy, thank you for sharing this gem. It seems to me that both versions work. Your voice is amazing (as usual). I assume that Bubba means brother? Forgive me, I am British! Looking forward to more precious work from the archives and to “hilarious banter”. Hope the IT gremlins have gone away and that you have lots of storage space on the clunky old machine. Best wishes

Tracy Grammer

Thanks for the comments, Mark. I think Dave intended "Bubba" to mean an unsophisticated, impulse-driven, and in this case overprotective character from the South. What we used to call a "redneck" though I'm sure that term's gone out of favor. Same guy you might find in the song "Don't Tread On Me."

Tracy Grammer

Thank YOU for listening, Steve, and for helping make this work possible.

Tracy Grammer

I think so too! Love confers the power to shape-shift. We see Dave hinting at this in the last verse of the original version and developing it fully in the final.

Tracy Grammer

Yes, Lord of the Buffalo was borne from pure emotion, inspired by our trip through the plains of Wyoming where we saw exactly zero buffalo roaming. The emptiness broke his heart and filled him with the longing the led to that poignant song.

Tracy Grammer

Nice insights, Pat! Outcasts, gods & goddesses, southern "bubbas", lovers & dreamers, prophets, spirit guides, critters, truckers, and the landscape. Dave had quite a selection of mythical, magical characters with which to populate his songs, and the "bubba" type is one. See also: "Don't Tread On Me." Haha.

Pat Daddona

Woah. His intellect was so expansive. Thanks for clarifying

Jeff A Southwick

Hearing the extra part was a fresh breath. I remember both Brian May and Andrew Calhoun saying that playing the song the same way every time is a stifle boring.