one time (demo) volume 4 number 13sometime in 1992 a rich chicagoan bought the crooked cottage I was renting, tore it it down and built a swanky home. I moved to the next city over, a town called williams bay. population: 2,000. I rented a very nice place on lake geneva and asked my girlfriend martha to set up house with me. not long afterwards we enlisted the help of a brilliant young intern noah evans, whom we eventually hired, and went about setting up a real studio of my own in the bottom floor of the house (just like now.)
one day robert flew in from england to visit and talk about the idea of there being a new king crimson. it was the first we'd seen of each other in a long while apart from my visit to him the summer of '91. for two days we sorted through robert's outlines for pieces we might play beginning with something called vrooom. robert left me a DAT tape of some of the ideas he thought I might work with.
one in particular caught my ear. it was only 39 seconds long, a piece robert thought would be
thrown away. sounded like an intro of 4 chords followed by what could be a verse. immediately a melody came to my mind.
I wrote a passage of chords and melody which could be added as the chorus. I was inspired enough that I don't remember slaving over the lyrics like I usually do, already having decided to be ambiguous and universal in my approach to words. after a few days work and refinement I felt confident enough to make a demo playing string bass, drums, guitar, and singing one vocal. so noah recorded the first thing I'd written for krimson in 10 years.
in april of '94 the new king crimson (now a 'double trio') convened in woodstock, new york. this is the demo I played for them. everyone liked it so we learned it. I was especially happy that tony liked my descending bass line in the chorus enough to keep it that way. we decided to add a middle instrumental passage which the band improvised on the spot. we had a new ballad and were off and running.
instruments and vocal:adrian
engineer:noah evans
recorded at home in Williams Bay, Wisconsin
on february 24, 1993
length:4:03
Thank you, once again Adrian, for another enlightening blog-stepping-stone along the path of your growing anthology.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to hear your demo of this incredible song - 'One Time' continues to be one of my most favourite songs! I never tire of hearing it, One Time always hooks me with its seemingly simple, yet intricate dance of multiple layers and differing time signatures that all seem to merge so perfectly.
It seems that I have read somewhere - quite erroneously it seems now - that your Martha wrote the lyrics for One Time. As a result I have always considered the words from her perspective. I now have a new perspective from which to consider it - certainly an excellent reason to play it right now....
Now...which version should I choose....interesting dilema (we have so many ;-) from which to choose)....can't wait, as usual, for the download in the morning!
I think you may be getting confused with the KC song "Two Hands" which I believe was co-credited with Ade's first wife, Margaret.
ReplyDelete"... I don't remember slaving over the lyrics like I usually do ..."
ReplyDeleteAh-ha! I've always wondered about that.
I love your lyrics and this song especially. It helped me through times when I was losing somebody most important to me. It's hard to describe.