FAWM: "Jazz Is Ghosts"

Jazz Is Ghosts

2 weeks ago by @carleybaer · @troubadette · @negasi · @aeye · @florian

Jazz Is Ghosts

carleybaer +4

00:00

Liner Notes

#slackcollab

The fawm slackchat was the gift that kept giving last year, and here's my first offering this time around: a conversation about jazz and overtones turned into ghosts, and then suddenly everything was ghosts. (An earlier tangent concerning a CRAB FIGHT may also be coming soon, in case you're wondering what the reference to Fight Crab is about)

Most of these lines are lifted verbatim from the chat, with a couple exceptions just to make the rhyming fit.

Many thanks (and maybe also apologies) to my fellow slackers.

Lyrics

Overtones are ghosts Jazz is ghosts Blue ghosts, mostly The NHS is ghosts Dr Ghost Did not get a PhD If your doctor’s a ghost Did they get their degree When they were dead or alive? A medical degree Would be unfinished business Just ask Mr Hyde

The body is weak but the spirit will always be willing And the student loan company’s left wondering who they’re supposed to be billing

If jazz is ghosts How do ghosts Turn into ghosts? Embarrassment or jazz Or embarrassing jazz Or methods such as those If you’re not self-conscious about jazz Then you’ll never die And Fight Crab is waiting With Old Bay to blow you Up into the sky

Just follow the circle of wraiths if you’re looking for harmony And if you gotta go, just say “Happy haunting, friends and enemies”

Sometimes Out of the blue The conversation gets ghostly Overtones are ghosts Ghosts are ghosts Jazz is ghosts, mostly

Comments

@melodic 5d

This is great! I'll try to come back and add more detail when my brain feels better, but for now, I just dig this and the whole approach/process.

@stephenwordsmith 1w

Now I'm regretting not taking part in this conversation.

It all sounds a lot less nonsensical when you sing it, Carley. I swear you could sing a shopping list and make it sound profound. The little ethereal notes hovering beneath the twinkly picking are sublime, and on brand. The ghostly/mostly couplet is delicious - I almost wonder why it doesn't get used more often.

@andrea 1w

I enjoy mysterious songs. This is quite mysterious ;) Love the vocals and the intrigue!

@wolfriend1 1w

I have no idea what this song is about but it’s gorgeous and your voice is gorgeous!

@cowex 1w

I <3 this so much. Surreal, amusing lyrics with a very clean, matter-of-fact delivery.

@chill4matt 1w

I like the use of metaphors in this piece. Ands the ukulele shines. Both make the song that much more fun to follow.

@kahlo2013 1w

I love how you have strung the chat together in such an intriguing and inventive thought provoking way! Love the melody flow and gorgeous vocals. Really love that last stanza, mostly.

@headfirstonlyMod 1w

I've been meaning to give this one a listen since I read the conversation that inspired it, and here I am and this did not disappoint. Oh, those references; the Old Bay one had me roaring! But "Circle of wraiths" is truly inspired.

@aeye 1w

I’d like to take credit for those lol

@elainedimasi 1w

Oooo! I like the refrain line best. Awesome chord change on "and the student loan company"...

@ambroise 1w

If blues and jazz are ghosts, what about soul ? Lovely "story" with its own logic wandering. I tried to spot the ghost notes, but maybe they're hidden during daytime ? The "circle of wraiths" made me giggle. Maybe making music takes you to a happy haunting after-life situation ?

@joshalmond 1w

I listen to jazz, by people who are gone, so maybe they're still playing jazz somewhere as ghosts. Nice pleasant tune there.

@betoMod 1w

So cool! I wish ghosts could leave comments on songs.

@aeye 1w

I mean if you block an account they definitely leave comments on songs ;)

@danvaillancourt 1w

Yes! Immediate drew me in! Love every part of this. Wonder performances all around. Beautiful and love the slightly off-kilter, poetic, almost stream of consciousness but more sophisticated lyric with the repeating words and sounds. 🙌🎶

@csecooney 1w

What a great collab! The line "jazz is ghosts" just struck me.

I love this too: "Dr Ghost Did not get a PhD If your doctor’s a ghost Did they get their degree"

The guitar is so clean, a hopeful and wistful counterpart to the melancholy, philosophical lyric!

@debs 1w

Part of me really wants to read back in the Slack chat to see the origin of all this gold but I want to leave the mystery of how you pulled this together so perfectly unsolved. I feel like I’m being rocked while in a room with those lights that throw stars around the room. The “mostly” at the end of the last line is such perfection. The whole song is.

@alicelimoges 1w

I always love your songs, Carley. This is just perfect. Such a vibe in this sonic world

@froggymagee 2w

These lyrics are brilliant! Love the soft picking and your vocals too, but oh, I just can't get enough of these lyrics!

@jdschramm 2w

Love the melody and gentle picking, the lyrics are hilarious.

@n1742 2w

Such a great voice which is a lovely listen in itself but then the fascinating lyrics. What's the gentle instrument - tenor ukulele, harp?

@laurenoxford 2w

how can something so silly and absurd also be so beautiful and somehow (dare i say) profound? what a charming little collective hallucination 🥹👻

@nadine 2w

A beautiful lullaby for ghost and ghosts to be surrounded by too less ghost notes. Just hope I don't get ghosted for this..

@sapient 2w

This is gorgeously bonkers. I love all the harmonies and extra instrumentation. Oh, wait, wrong song... ;)

@florian 2w

🤣

@jimdgreen 2w

oh, i could listen this again and again . . . somehow this is comforting and I don't know why . . .

@helenseviltwinMod 2w

This is lovely and strange and beautifully done.

@frenchcricket 2w

This is charming! I like how it just about clings to sanity, like most of us in the Slack

@edwinb 2w

This is fun! So many lyrics just hiding there in the slack waiting to be turned into music. Bonus points for rhyming harmony and enemies.

@ayeahmur 2w

If nothing else, I've come away from this certain in the knowledge that I now understand jazz. Ghosts, blue ones, mostly. Got it. Love the surrealism that the musing that form the lyric source brings to the song, but also moments of profundity too. Can I just say though, the melody and delivery as superb.

@florian 2w

👻❤️ 🎤🥹 🎸🤩 🎶👍👍

@gardeningangel 2w

I'm not in the slack so I'm sure there are some zingers that went right over my head but even for the clueless, this is gold. Er, this is ghosts. Gholdsts? It's ghosts all the way down.

@aeye 2w

This is so good! long live the slack collabs