Egoman
1.Egoman
[verse]
Look at the man standing over there with an Entourage
Just who the hell does he think he is with his hair so big
People kissing his ass one by one where is their courage
Loftier than thou flips the hair back and asks can you dig
[chorus]
Egoman
Who ‘s the best in the land
Egoman
Your head ‘s too big for your britches
Egoman
You best look out or you’ll need stitches
Egoman
Its time to bring it down if you can
[verse]
How did you get that position in life without a fight
How have you forgotten the small feet that brought you here
Where it did it go and dissipate to its lost from sight
Would you really like to remain in the cold spot light
[chorus]
Egoman
Who ‘s the best in the land
Egoman
Your head ‘s too big for your britches
Egoman
You best look out or you’ll need stitches
Egoman
Its time to bring it down if you can
[solo]
[chorus]
Egoman
Who ‘s the best in the land
Egoman
Your head ‘s too big for your britches
Egoman
You best look out or you’ll need stitches
Egoman
Its time to bring it down if you can
[chorus]
Egoman
Who ‘s the best in the land
Egoman
Your head ‘s too big for your britches
Egoman
You best look out or you’ll need stitches
Egoman
Its time to bring it down if you can
Song Length: 3:53
Writer: Jody Whitesides IPI/CAE 00196306650
Publisher: Too Much Music IPI/CAE 00456952518
Admin Publisher (Outside U.S.): Bluewater Music
Jody Whitesides: Vocals, Guitars
Jeff Scott Soto: Backing Vocals
Andy Miller: Drums, Backing Vocals
T.B. Player: Bass
Recording Info:
Cover Art: Jody Whitesides
Recording Engineer: Jody Whitesides
Mixing Engineer: Jody Whitesides
Mastering Engineer 2025: Jody Whitesides
Mastering Engineer 1998: Brian Fedirko of One on One
Vocal Engineer: Jody Whitesides
Producer: Jody Whitesides
El Padden Studio: All the guitars, bass and vocals were recorded here. The guitar room happened to be a small den room in the house Jeff and I were living in. The control room was a converted garage.
Blue Forrest Studio: The drums were recorded here.
Format: ADAT, the original black ones.
Console: Mackie 32 x 8 with the Mackie AutoMix system on a Mac. (for 1998 release).
Tracking Monitors: KRK.
2025:
Remixed at: Snow Park Studio in Park City UT
Mixed in LUNA
Mastered in LUNA
Guitar(s): Ibanez Universe 7 string guitar: This is number 96 off the assembly line. I got it for $400 with the case, about 6 months before Korn hit it big time. Then the value shot up to over $2000. Seymour Duncan Custom Custom 7 string model – custom wound. Plus my middle pickup was custom wound by a guy in Canada, sounds ok, but I don’t have his name. Neck pickup wasn’t used on this disc but is the stock pickup. Tremolo was useless with strings this heavy – so I blocked it off. This guitar was strung with Dean Markley Blue Steels medium gauge.
The Amp Setup:
MesaBoogie TriAxis
Hush IIcx
Ensoniq DP2 for creating the effects
Alesis MEQ230
BBE Sonic Maximizer
GrooveTubes Dual 75 Poweramp that has been modified to be true stereo
GrooveTubes 2 x 10″ cabs – two of ’em for stereo tracking
I had a cross section of GrooveTubes 12AX7’s & 12AT7’s & ECC83 pre-amp tubes for the TriAxis
I had KT88’s on one side of the Dual 75 and EL34’s on the other side
The guitar cabinets were turned back to back, for the stereo effect
Bass(s): Honer V: This is the bass that was used on this song. A 5 string bass that was relatively quite cheap but records very very well. At the time of this recording it was strung with GHS Boomers as I couldn’t afford the Blue Steels at the time.
The Amp Setup: The bass was recorded direct. Unfortunately you live and learn.
Drums: Tama – The exact model is something I don’t know. But Andy played the shit out of them and it was his kit
Cymbals – Combination of Zilidian, and Sabian. Two of the crashes where borrowed from Jamie Borger from Talisman. Andy ended up beating the shit out of them too
Snare – this snare was borrowed from Jack White. Not the guy from the White Stripes, but the original drummer for Rick Springfield. Jack let us borrow a couple of great snares
Remo drum heads – I bought them for Andy. I wanted to have fresh heads and the drum guy from Guitar Center and Andy both recommended that these were the ones to use
Mics: Sennheisers for drum overheads & hihats
Sure SM57’s on snare and toms
Mic Pres: API
Vocal: All vocals in this were recorded using a GrooveTubes MD1a.
Synths:
Song Story:
I didn’t originally write this song to be for me. At the time I first moved to LA I met the music manager for Patrick Muldoon. Jeff Soto was good friends with him. Anyway, they were looking for songs for Patrick so that he could do a grunge album and tour.
So Jeff, his girlfriend Julie, Simeon, and I started writing songs. My effort was Egoman. I ended up playing guitar on a few demos for Jeff and Julie’s stuff. The album was recorded with Chet Thompson on guitar, but he couldn’t do the tour. So Soto recommended me for the gig and I had it. Until Patrick got a full time spot on Melrose Place. Looking back on it, this was the first time in my career when something that was supposed to happen – did not.
Afterwards, I really liked the song Egoman and took it for myself. What’s funny is that I’ve had several friends think I wrote the song about them. But atlas I really wrote it about a fictitious rockstar who was full of himself. Not like that doesn’t happen in real life, but it’s not based on any one rockstar. But maybe someday it will sum up my career, who knows.
Another interesting thing about the whole Patrick Muldoon thing is that there are people that actually search out those demos because Jeff was singing on them. I never got a copy of them. I was buggin Jeff about it as I had someone in Germany asking me for a copy. Then one day that guy sent them to Jeff and Jeff made me a copy.
As I sit here listening to the song and writing this I notice a couple of things. One is I remember Jeff showing me a neat mixing trick to fading vocals in with an off harmony. So every other “Egoman” line has a tritone harmony that fades in on it. Then I just caught something that I don’t think I’ve ever noticed until now. Read on…
Andy recorded all of the drum parts for the entire CD in one 12 hour day. 15 songs, in 12 hours. That’s got to be some kind of studio record. We re-headed drums, and changed out 4 different snares for different songs. Andy came from Planet Drum as I used to say. So he was nailing stuff in one to two takes tops. that’s why it took only one day to track the whole album. However as I listen to the mix now, I notice in this song between the last two choruses you can hear Andy say something. It sounds like “oh!” to me. Maybe he fucked up in there and I didn’t catch it.
Factoids:
1. Originally written for an actor, Patrick Muldoon, attempting to do a music career – when the album didn’t happen, I kept the tune.
2. There are vocal harmonies that fade in in spots of the chorus that are very dissonant – on purpose. That idea was floated to me by Jeff and a song I had worked on from him.
You tend to use what you can get your hands on. This was a huge learning experience for myself and for Andy as well. However since I spent the most time at the board doing this stuff I learned what I did and did not like about the gear. First off, I hate ADAT. Not because its digital, but because it was a pain in the ass at a later date. It turns out that ADATs have real shitty converters and you lose all the “Air” of the recording, everything above 15khz. I originally over-compensated by mixing the CD with way too much high-end EQ.
The album was subsequently dumped into Logic Audio some years ago. I have re-mixed the album from the original tracks. I was able to create a better drum mix and redo the high end. Melodyne became my one of my best friends in the re-mix process for Andy’s Vocals. The result is the new version that is now available only on streaming sites. The original pressing of the album may become a collectors item as I’m not planning on ever re-pressing it.
Copyright: 2007/02/01
ISRC: USONR0301011
ISRC: USONR2400631
ISRC: USONR2400611
ISWC: T0709688276
SESAC Song ID: 594740
Harry Fox ID: E6259Y
Harry Fox Publisher ID: P8938Q
UPC: 654433000122
UPC: 656465269355
UPC: 656465269324