shut up and listen

Epic 10 minute track, it begins with a delayed static click that echoes across the stereo field, and then a spoken word intro, soaked in delay/reverb. It disappears completely for a second of silence.

The music begins gently with a mellow electric guitar arpeggio, the highs EQed out to give it a very soft, almost organ sound. The drums appear on the left and are very far back in the mix, with a heavy delay on the snare. The drums slowly fade out as the arpeggio guitar lifts in volume. (There is hint of drums at times throughout the track and i suspect it is spill into the rhythm guitar mic, so when it is brought up in the mix so is a faint hint of the snare).

The bulk of the song consists of a searing electric guitar solo, full of distortion, wah wah pedal and dominated by a delay effect that is positioned in the left (with the original signal in the right). There’s big reverb on the solo guitar, especially on the delayed signal. It is hard to tell how much of these effects are controlled by the guitarist live and how much have been added in post production. Certainly the volume swells and wah wah are part of the performance but i’d say some of the extreme reverb and delay effects have been added in mixing.

As the song progresses the arpeggiated guitar drops back and then rises again in the mix (particularly at the 2 minute 45 mark where it gets big reverb and a rise in volume). At around the 6 minute mark it is barely there but the hi hat beat returns keeping the beat. By the 6 and a half minute mark the arpeggiated guitar has dropped out completely as the solo slips into a funky riffing style. Then at the seven minute mark the arpeggios return and slowly build in volume. By the 8 minute mark that rhythm guitar as slipped into a strumming pattern as the track reaches it’s final climax.

At the 9 minute mark the intensity has dropped again, and the only vocal appears (reverb soaked spoken word) before the track closes with a final bit of soloing and delay swells. There are clicks and pops that are echoing in the delay as the track is quickly faded out.

Notes: Apparently the track was recorded in a single take, with a full band playing but in the mix, when it became obvious how powerful the solo was virtually on its own, Clinton made the decision to remove most of the rest of the band from the mix.