We’ve been rehearsing with Jason Booze, our new drummer. Last night’s rehearsal was our third together, I think. And I just wanted to say: It was hilarious and impressive that he actually figured out the changes to “Long History” on his own, and then NAILED IT on the first playthrough!
That particular song features a weird shifting time-signature, switching fluidly between 6/8, 7/8, and 8/8. We expected it to be the most difficult song in our set for Jason (or any drummer) to learn, so we’d been waiting to introduce it until some later point.
Jason told us the song caught his ear when he was listening to the CD, and he realized there was something strange going on with the rhythm, and so he listened to it until he figured-out what the pattern was.
“Hold on! We’ve got it written-down somewhere,” Eric said in reaction to Jason. He found a spiral notebook lying by his amp and showed the open page to Jason. “Was it this?”
On the page, in bold black Sharpie, was written-down the pattern of changes for the verse:
6 6 6 7
6 6 6 7
6 7 7 7
6 7 6 8
“Yes!” Jason laughed. “That’s it! That’s what I figured out!”
“Damn, man,” I said. “He figured out the secret code. I guess we have to let him into the band.”
But then Jason went one further, demonstrating his knowledge of the code by playing the song flawlessly, first take!
Anyway, the point of my story is this: Apparently, if you want to impress us, one way to do it is to reveal your knowledge of this secret code. We were not aware of this until last night. Isn’t it funny how one thing becomes something else, acquires additional layers of meaning?
My other point is: Booze, you da man!