Lee Barry Composition (And Photo) Diary

  Possible lyrics: Moonrise in Hernandez Moonrise in Hernandez A burning of the sky At the roadside A moment that remains Forever in our mind's eye Moonrise in Hernandez Moonrise in Hernandez Inversion of the sun At the right time The light against a cross Emblazoned on the black sky   According to Adams, the original capture was on Halloween 1941.   How it looks in daylight 2021: The video: The original idea for the song came to me on a weekend outing to the Saganashkee Slough on June 6, 2021. The slough is a small lake in the Palos Forest Preserves southwest of Chicago. "We're goin' to the Saganashkee Slough" was the riff, and when I got home I notated it. It turned out much different, although this version with the meter changes is cool too. Also interesting--given that this ultimately became the "score" for the Ansel Adams photo, there are two dates on it: 11/1/1941 and 6/6/2021. Thoughts and ideas can sometimes encode the place in which they ...

  Muralino. 19.5 x 11 inches, acrylic and pencil on black lokta paper Small study for a possible mural (“muralino”). Uses vertical lines, curvilinear shapes and only black white and red. #2015 #curves

 A possible idea for an outro/fade out

This track is based on the photo series and book of the same title by Ed Ruscha. Left and Right are the orientations out a car window and would be hard-panned/antiphonal in the recording. The genesis of the piece was from singing the title as if it was a chorus, then played all minor chords against it for a somewhat "Bond" vibe, with a music production at that time (1966), with a AM radio compressed sound. It's the shortest pop song I've ever written at 1:48, and even has a middle-8.  The numbers recited at the beginning are text-to-speech, a kind of anachronism because obviously it didn't exist then. I chose British voices because I wanted an Avengers vibe (Emma Peel/John Steed) replete with sticky Cecil B. DeMille strings and french horns. At the end as an outro I did a short guitar duet ( Havenhurst ) based on the bridge chords which crossfades between a lofi radio sound to full stereo. Behind the guitars is a binaural field recording of traffic ...