I was working for a cable TV company in northwest Ohio as a manager in the early 1990’s. I had an incident where several people thought I broke the rules of political correctness (PC) and made my life a living hell for about six months, including having to go to “sensitivity” training. I wrote this song about that experience.
“Crumblin’ Walls”
[audio:http://www.linearcanvas.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Crumblin Walls 20101014_1050m256.mp3]
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My company’s regional office and training facility was in Newark, Ohio at the time. Newark was about one–hundred miles from my office in Ada, Ohio. They had begun an intensive supervisor training course that lasted for about a whole month. I was more than happy to take part and I still use some of the training to this day. Really there should have been some college credit, it was so intense. We stayed all week and work/class started at eight AM and usually let out for good between eight and ten PM.
I have this observation about evolution. It goes, something like someday in the future, because of natural selection, deer, dogs, chickens, etc. will be able to cross the road safely. Not a joke really, but discussions after I’ve said it have been interesting in the past.
Well, I made the mistake of saying in a mixed group once at Newark and most people thought it was funny. About half the people laughed really hard. But some others didn’t quite understand what I was saying. I will admit, the context of the that conversation did not lend itself to joking very easily. But I thought it worked at that moment.
The next day, I was summoned into an office by one of the trainers. She told me that several people had been offended by the comment and she accused me of being a homophobe, a racist and a sexist. Political correctness was in full swing at the time and the trainers were from southern California. A hot bed for PC then, if there ever was one.
What can you say? “No I’m not” seemed not to be working. I just had to take it. She told me that this would stay between us and basically “she’d be watching me”.
If that’s all there was, this song wouldn’t have been written. Before I even got home I had to explain it to my boss. I got written up for it and had to complete therapy and apologize for all I had said to keep from losing my job.
In the end the trainer apologized to me. After she got to know me, she better understood my sense of humor and the comment. She even advised me on how to pull it off better the next time. Some of those offended by me that day, were used to being the center of attention themselves, When I was in the room, the tall guy must’ve seemed more in control or out to get their jobs. I get that reaction from many people. Those imbeciles flattered themselves thinking I was even considering their puny selves (joke).
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The analog tracks were originally recorded on a Yamaha MT-100 II 4 track cassette recorder using high speed (3.75 IPS) and dbx noise reduction.
I made at least two big mistakes on these recordings. I accidentally had erased the beginning and the end of one of the guitars. I was able to restore the guitar to almost original using other recordings of the song. I can’t hear the repair. That’s what I wanted.
I also was able to do a MIDI drum replacement. I was able to mark the drum audio transients and then I mapped them to MIDI notes. The drums are me playing Yamaha MIDI drum pads many years ago. But the drum sounds are from Session Drummer 3. I made a few edits, but it is still me playing.
I played electric guitar on a Fender Stratocaster and maybe an Ibanez Les Paul (?). The bass was a Rickenbacker 4001. I digitally processed the instrument and vocal tracks using Cakewalk Sonar 8.5 Producer DAW and Sony Sound Forge 9 audio editor.
This was a basket case recording that I was able to rescue. I think it came out very nicely.