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Improving "Temporary Secretary"
24 May 2015
6.36pm
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I saw the recent live version; I like the real drums as opposed to the synthetic drums he used in the original.  The vocals, however, I think were better in the original.

Anyway, as I started thinking about the song more, it seems to me that Paul should have made it in an unorthodox time signature, not the usual driving 4/4 beat.  What I have in mind is a 9/8 pattern.  Right now, I can’t provide a recording of what I mean, but I can diagram it:

0-x-0-x-0-x-X-x-x / 0-x-0-x-0-x-X-x-x / [etc.]

The zeros are bass drum hits; the capital X (only one per measure) is where the snare drum hits its emphatic beat.  The small x’s are the hi-hat hitting every 8th note (they should be hit simultaneously with the 0’s and X’s).

If the reader counts this out, imagining drums doing it (or actually play it out on drums), then fits the song into it, they will see that it forces the song’s tempo into a kind of jagged effect — which I think would fit better with the techno vibe of the song.

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Into the Sky with Diamonds

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24 May 2015
7.57pm
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vonbontee
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That’s an interesting idea, I can really agree how an unnatural-feeling time signature like 9/8 would fit with the technovibe. One of my favourite aspects about the song is the notes played by the sequencer – they’re so angular and anti-melodic (atonal?) that they seem more machinelike, sounding like something the average human would never think to play. And a herky-jerky undanceable rhythm couldn’t help but feed that. I don’t think Paul’s ever created anything with such an unnatural time sig for any sustained length, other than maybe the occasional bar or two of 5/8 here and there, has he? (I have no idea, I’ve only heard like 30% of his solo output.) It doesn’t strike me as the kind of thing he’s inclined to do, seems more like he instinctively comes up with tunes that people can relate to. 9/8 is really alien-sounding.

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24 May 2015
8.39pm
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I understand 4/4 and 3/4 time but not 7/8, 9/8… Even with Pineapple Records’ explanation. Maybe there’s a youtube video out there…

Sounds interesting.

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24 May 2015
10.06pm
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Into the Sky, here’s a short tube chop of a guy explaining a basic 9/8 drum pattern.  The tempo is considerably slower than Temporary Secretary , so one would just imagine it a lot faster (plus the bass drum isn’t hitting at the places I’d like):

http://swf.tubechop.com/tubech…..id=6049396

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24 May 2015
10.19pm
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Yes vonbontee, seems we’re on the same page on this. 

I don’t think that synth moog type sequence Paul has for the song is dissonant; I think that’s more of a feature of the two chords he’s using throughout, going back and forth, being a half step apart — at least I think so:  something like, for example, A to Bb back to A to Bb, etc. — so the notes fitting melodically with one of those chords would be dissonant if they were happening during the other chord and vice versa, but they’re not dissonant when with their own chord.

Actually, Paul created one song in a sustained odd time signature — his song “222” (from Memory Almost Full album), mostly sustaining 7/8 (except for an interlude of 4/4):

index=16&list=PL2D658F53793E4473

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25 May 2015
12.51am
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Personally, I wouldn’t change it. It’s already a love-it-or-hate-it kind of tune. Making it even more Out There (see what I did there), will drive some people from the love-it side over to the hate-it side. I think the solid beat, the danceability, makes it such a strong tune. Without that, it’d just be noise with lyrics about wanting to get it on with a girl from the secretarial pool (but it’s Paul, so we’ll see past thata-hard-days-night-paul-10)

I just hope he plays it in Amsterdam too. I’m sure even shy little me would be unable to not dance and scream if he does!

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27 May 2015
5.31am
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Now might be the best time to stick my copy of ‘TS’ on Ebay, since I haven’t had it on my turntable for, well, years.

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28 May 2015
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How to improve it?  Put it on a double A sided single with Revolution 9 .  Put the single in a paper bag.  Put the paper bag in the back of an inaccessible cupboard.  Sell the house with the cupboard in it.  Move to a different country.

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28 May 2015
5.52am
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I love the song but then i love ‘McCartney II ‘. So i dont think you could improve it. Different Paul = good. 

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28 May 2015
11.37am
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vectisfabber snarked 
How to improve it?  Put it on a double A sided single with Revolution 9 .  Put the single in a paper bag.  Put the paper bag in the back of an inaccessible cupboard.  Sell the house with the cupboard in it.  Move to a different country.

I’m not saying I agree, but it did make me laugh. ahdn_ringo_09

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23 June 2015
3.43pm
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Zig
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vectisfabber said

How to improve it?  Put it on a double A sided single with Revolution 9 .  Put the single in a paper bag.  Put the paper bag in the back of an inaccessible cupboard.  Sell the house with the cupboard in it.  Move to a different country.

I would have burnt the house to the ground first and then sold the vacant lot before leaving the country, but I get it.

Finally, someone who dislikes this song as much as I. For the life of me, I don’t get what everyone likes about this techno-pop-Devo-like dreck. It’s like nails on a chalkboard. Every time I think, “hmmm, people seem to like this, I’ll give it another go”, the first 2 notes make me realize I listened to 1.5 more notes than I should have and I regret it. If he played this crap** last year when I saw him, I would have run screaming for the box office demanding a full refund of my ticket price. When this album came out, my best friend at the time bought it. He tried to give it to me and I reacted as one would when a leper approaches you offering a rectal exam.

Seriously, WTF?

**I apologize to crap for insulting it.

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To the fountain of perpetual mirth, let it roll for all its worth. And all the children boogie.

23 June 2015
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a-hard-days-night-ringo-8 Yeah!!

 A @Zig rant.a-hard-days-night-ringo-6 stuart-sutcliffe 

This track goes up in my liking solely for giving us one of those. apple01

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23 June 2015
6.13pm
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I don’t care for McCartney II , and the only song I like on it is “Temporary Secretary “.  It’s certainly not my favorite McCartney song; but it is on my long list of “I kind of like that one” songs.  (I also think the dislikers are approaching any given song with a standard up their sleeve of something along the lines of “this song better ‘mean’ something ‘significant’ and not just be aesthetically pleasing — Heaven forbid I should be merely aesthetically pleased…!”.)

Liking or disliking a song is on one level obviously purely subjective and relative, and there’s no way to prove the song actually is whatever the Liker or the Disliker thinks its merits or demerits make it — though there certainly is room for someone to give it the old college try and try to articulate with an argument why he likes (or dislikes) it so.  It’s a curious exercise, however when the articulator seems to go further and seems to think he’s actually going to prove his subjective conclusion is an objective fact.

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24 June 2015
10.59am
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Zig
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ahdn_paul_06Fair enough – and pardon me for flexing my comedic muscles all over your thread. In the interest of keeping this thread one in which the song can be discussed in a positive light, I answered your charges here. Follow me…

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24 June 2015
3.19pm
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Necko
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I’ve actually never heard this song before, but hearing how much everybody hates it is making me curious and tempted to listen to it.

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24 June 2015
3.23pm
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Everybody doesn’t hate it. I love it a-hard-days-night-paul-5

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24 June 2015
3.24pm
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Zig
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Not everyone hates it.

To the fountain of perpetual mirth, let it roll for all its worth. And all the children boogie.

24 June 2015
3.28pm
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Necko
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Yeah, but you know what I mean…

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24 June 2015
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@Necko, you really should do, even if you find you dont like it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehqKpPmVcK4

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24 June 2015
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I made a gigantic error in a previous comment above, when I said I didn’t care for McCartney II with the one exception of “Temporary Secretary “.  I forgot all about “Coming Up ” — a fabulous song.

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