Many years ago, I wrote about sequencing the Van der Graaf Generator song, "House with no door". At the time, I didn't like the first version that I sequenced so I created a second version. As I wrote at the time, "Last night I wasn't too convinced about the new version, but having listened to it several times this morning, I think that this will be 'the one'".
Both versions popped up on my headphones the other day, which is when I realised that there are parts of the first version that are good (and parts that are not so good) and that there are parts of the second version that are good, along with parts that are not so good. As a result, I decided to create yet another version of this song!
The first major production decision was to remove all percussion; this was one of the problems that bogged down the original versions. The second decision was to remove the completely instrumental third verse - this is where David Jackson plays the most beautiful multiple saxophone counterpoint - but in my versions, this verse was slowing things down and causing problems. I decided to create my own chord sequence for the instrumental break; if the song were in C (as is the original, but I'm playing it in Bb), the chords would be Dm (four bars), Fm (four bars), D7 (two bars), G7 (two bars), C (three bars). The D7 is the secondary dominant of G7 that is the dominant of C.
I also simplified the instrumentation slightly but added a marimba at the beginning of the final verse: I could hear something in my imagination that was not in the original nor in either of my earlier versions.
Now all I have to do is become familiar with the new arrangement and eventually sing it.
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