Sixty songs
(2014) ·
Too Deep for Me (2014 Remix)
Too Deep for Me (2014 Remix) [2:41 · download]

 

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Sixty Songs, 2001-2014 (paper, ink, pencil, audio take-up reels, audio splicing tape, masking tape, Scotch tape)

During a recent fit of spring cleaning, I came across a pile of old notebooks containing drafts of some sixty songs that I wrote in my impetuous youth (my 40's). Some of these songs I performed at folk music venues in the Boston area. A few others briefly saw daylight in Timmy Riordan's Sunday Somerville songwriting critique group, the "Chaise Lounge Lovers". Most, however, mercifully, remained tucked safely away in my notebooks, never again to see the light of day. This spring, after years of dis-use, the time had come for these old notebooks to move along.

But what should become of old work that no longer has an audience? Where do the scraps and debris of boring, unsuccessful, or no-longer-relevant art ultimately belong? The recycling center? The landfill?

Perhaps the answer is transformation. So I tore out the pages from the notebooks, cut each page into quarter-inch strips, spliced them together, and wound them onto some old 7" reel-to-reel tape hubs. Now they are conveniently and compactly archived — not for posterity, but for an entirely new audience.

The attached sound clip is the song "Too Deep for Me" (words & music © 2001 JT Bullitt), digitized from reel #1. Perhaps this track is a sampler from a forthcoming CD. We shall see...

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Rebirth

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Another reason to save your old sound gear