Last night I pulled up a copy of Life’s Been Good by Joe Walsh to test out a copy of an app called CAPO. The idea behind the app is that it can “listen” to a song and transcribe it for you. Showing you the chords, and give the ability to tab it out for guitar players. My initial reaction is – hey that would be really cool to learn songs faster. That’s how they approach selling it and it’s ability. I downloaded it, installed it and fired it up. Then I started traipsing through my iTunes library to find a song that I’ve never learned and wanted to know. That’s where I picked Life’s Been Good by Joe Walsh. I had CAPO “listen” to the song and up popped it’s interpretation of the song. To put it mildly, I wasn’t impressed with it’s chordal rendition of the song. While it was in the right key, however it didn’t get things accurate by any stretch. After which I tried another method in the app to see how good it was for dealing with the tab. Unfortunately even at version 3 with this software it’s not great for something like a Joe Walsh song. I’ll try it out on a more modern song in another day or two, but so far, my ear is 1000x faster and more accurate than the software was on Life’s Been Good.
As for Joe and this song, it’s got such a cool vibe that I when I hear it, I wish I was born in the era when what is no called Classic Rock, was king. I think I would have had a completely different life being a writer and guitar player back then.
Life’s Been Good
I have a mansion forget the price
Ain’t never been there they tell me it’s nice
I live in hotels tear out the walls
I have accountants pay for it all
They say I’m crazy but I have a good time
I’m just looking for clues at the scene of the crime
Life’s been good to me so far
My Maserati does 185
I lost my license now I don’t drive
I have a limo ride in the back
I lock the doors in case I’m attacked
I’m making records my fans they can’t wait
They write me letters tell me I’m great
So I got me an office gold records on the wall
Just leave a message maybe I’ll call
Lucky I’m sane after all I’ve been through
Everybody says I’m cool (He’s cool)
I can’t complain but sometimes I still do
Life’s been good to me so far
I go to parties sometimes until four
It’s hard to leave when you can’t find the door
It’s tough to handle this fortune and fame
Everybody’s so different I haven’t changed
They say I’m lazy but it takes all my time
Everybody says Oh yeah (Oh yeah)
I keep on going guess I’ll never know why
Life’s been good to me so far
Enjoy your day! I know I am – I’m out skiing for a few hours before I have to hunker down and work on the mix for my next single.