A Lit House: 100 poems 1975-2011 by Al Basile

Author:Al Basile
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2012-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Mixing Day

Producer Duke and Jack the engineer

both sit behind the board in prime position:

eye level reference speakers face dead-on,

since it’s essential that the monitors

articulate to them the fine nuances.

I sit off-axis, as there isn’t room

for three between the board and the back wall,

and though today we will begin to mix

the tracks from my recording session, and

I’m client, singer, songwriter, and play

my cornet both in section and in solos,

I’m here to break the rare tie and advise.

Accumulated over days in rooms

in front of microphones, the tracks

are safely stored and lie in wait, to be

called up, manipulated, and assembled:

the rhythm section, horns, and vocals, with

my solos overdubbed, composites done,

all necessary fixes made – the pastes

are seamless.

Now to feather all together,

and set the song for us to hear, as close

as we can get to what I heard alone

on its first day, yet furnished for the world.

I listen as my voice carries the weight

of what I in my writer’s thinking cap

intended, while the cornet player in

his bluesman’s pork-pie colors in the mood

behind the vocal. I in different guises

strive to work in concert with myself.

While Duke and Jack determine how it all

should go to show the song off best (“Pull back

the horn, the vocal has to be on top”),

I do my Doppelgänger do-si-dos.

Our common goal came to me from beyond,

and uses me to reach into the real.

My several selves give way to an ideal.

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