Day 4
GOT GOTHAM GROOVE?
Greetings! Welcome back.
Seeing as we are a couple of New York City boys (Bobby from Staten Island, Andy from Brooklyn), and seeing as this will be our fourth album, it dawned on us that we hadn’t yet ventured to do a song about our hometown.
Why not, we thought? We certainly couldn’t do any worse than anyone else. (Huge assumption).
So, never losing our train of thought, staying on track, never once railing against the enormity of our task (bad pun meter peaking into the red now), it hit us! What says “New York” more than the subway? (Well, the words “New” and “York” actually do, but you get the drift).
Today, we take a ride on the “Q” train.
ONE FOR YOU, ONE FOR ME
Today’s tune is called “Uptown Q.” It features something that we have done several times in the past – namely, a separate guitar solo from each of us within the same song. No, we don’t do it on every tune. But when it fits, we enjoy giving each of our unique styles of expression a moment in the musical sun. It’s the Elm Treason way. We talk about it here:
THE MUSIC (SONG 4) – “UPTOWN Q”
“Racing, grinding, killing… just to hurry up and wait“
Written by Andrew Roman and Robert Steel
Produced by Elm Treason
Recorded, Mixed and Mastered at Realm Tones Music
It’s a steady bluesy romp through the streets of the Big Apple. Confusion, madness, magic, and an array of sights, delights and smells are everywhere at every turn. People are driving, diving, knivving, striving and thriving. Where can you go to catch your breath, to cool out and re-set? Where are the answers to be found? Perhaps underground? Wait…. hear that sound. It’s the Uptown Q……
“UPTOWN Q”
(Listen now. Listen Loud!).
LYRICS
Off from the train, where you get that smell, trucks and scum and street meat and its hot as hell.
A busking strummin’ mister with a face to match says he’s lost and would I help him find his way back.
“Help me, dude,” he said it freaking, “Don’t know what to do.” “You’ll find it if you just take the Uptown Q.”
Monkey diving killer biking ‘cross Broadway. Chaos smells like duck and beer and old shrimp paste.
Davey’s sure the middle card is black, but he don’t play. Dealer says, “You’ll be sorry if you walk away.”
Davey grabs a pretzel and a cold Yoo Hoo, then quickly slips away to the grab the Uptown Q.
Junkies on the ferries, singers at the gate racing, grinding, killing just to hurry up and wait.
Lady grabbed a blade and said “I know a better way.” Then lost her cell and money on an outbound A.
Tried to switch and wound up at the Prospect Park Zoo. This never would have happened on an Uptown Q.
All the ‘Chocks” are Dunkins now, all the phones are smart, and if you time your jumping right, don’t need a MetroCard.
Mikey say he’d rather spend the money on a slice. Jumping stiles, Mikey say, “I get it. Ain’t too nice.
I’ll take my chance, I never had a problem on the 2, but I’d always drop the coin to take an Uptown Q.”
Gonna take the Uptown Q. Find it riding on the Uptown Q. Gonna make it on the Uptown Q
Na, na, na, na on the Uptown Q. Ooooh, make the Uptown Q. Make it, make it, make it, gonna make an Uptown Q
EXTRA EXTRA BONUS CONTENT
Bobby talks about his contributions to this song.
Andy talks about writing, singing and soloing in this song.
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Wow! Ok, I kinda get a Lou Reed vibe offa this one. Cool details, finger snaps,harmonica ,mandolin, love the little disco/funk guitar stabs too. Lyrics are genius. Harmonies on the outro great as well. Great drum fills too, Bobby. Another great track!
LOLOL! Very glad you caught those little disco/funk guitar hits….Even though the song is not disco and funk, we figured that NYC was the center of that scene for a while, so we’d pay tribute to it without actually rolling out that vibe. This is a fun one…and the explosion into double-time is a hoot for us. We were going to make this one into a video, but Covid shut down and completely changed New York City’s complexion. Thanks, brother. Sincerely. Nothing like getting high praise from a fellow composer and music maker.
Has the be one of the best Chunk-groove-funk-move songs ever. I totally love this piece. This brings out some of the stuff Andy has always done ever since we were little. Glad to see it. You and Bobby just nail this song. I think I will play it again………for the 318th time. Great Job fellas!
They say the 319th time is a charm! 😉 Thank you, brother. Sincerely. Love those kind of “Fort Misery” lyrics, painting a picture with fun words, laying down the mood. We also love it when we can each get solos in the song. That first solo, with it’s bluesy bends is definitely an “Andy” type solo. The second solo is Bobby paying homage to our song “Honey Feet” by taking the riff of that song and turning it into the solo. Very clever, I thought. Cannot thank you enough, Chris.
Outstanding
great job
you make New Yorkers proud !!
Hi Vincent! So good to hear from you, brother. Love your encouraging words, although I’m not sure exactly how other New Yorkers would feel about this tune. LOL! We might not get the under-21 hardcore hip hop crowd. Your positive words rock our world. Truly.
Yet Another great song! I love the opening Bass guitar riff and hearing Andy’s “Yeeaaah!” What a great feel to this song. I’ve never been to New York, I may never get to go, but somehow I feel like I’ve been there. Thanks guys!
That opening bass riff was, quite literally, a last second idea, if you can believe it… We thought the snapping fingers and the slightly overdriven bass was something a little different for the album… We didn’t want the songs to sound too familiar, even a little intro like that. 🙂 Thank you, brother! Sincerely!