Demonstration Tapes: From My Own True Love (Lost at Sea)

With added forgotten verse!

The author, recording the kick drum for this song at the Prescott Church, 2005

So here’s a funny thing that can sometimes happen while you’re in the studio: there’s so much to-do, so much activity, and the songs that you’ve carefully written and arranged over the preceding months and years are all collected together and you’re recording them one after another, always keeping an eye on that ever-ticking studio clock. Sometimes, in this flurry of activity, you lay down a basic track for a song and neglect to record the whole thing. That feels done, you say. That feels pretty done, say your bandmates. Sounds done to me, says your producer, and on you go, on to the next tune. But you won’t realize until it’s much too late that you’ve left out a big chunk of the song.

This has only happened to me a few times as far as I can recollect. Once was actually during this last go-round of recordings — thankfully the mistake was corrected by some studio wizardry. The most egregious case of this occurring was during the making of Picaresque, in which I recorded this song, “From My Own True Love (Lost at Sea)” and managed to omit its second verse. I don’t know how I missed this, or how it went so long undetected. In the end, it might’ve been for the best — the song, on the album, never felt like it was lacking anything. This might’ve just been a case of some unconscious editing. I’ve since gone on to stick it back in when we play it live (which we kind of rarely do).

Anyway, here’s the home demo, with that missing verse back in: