…With You
1.…With You
[verse]
Stand tall in the face of adversity
For you won’t fall when you are free
Step lightly away from animosity
And your friends won’t believe what they see
[verse]
I can face the heat of criticism
For my actions show I don’t lie
I can feel the tongue of sarcasm
But it fails to hold until I die
[chorus]
Walk with you
Talk with you
Your strength will be my guide
Walk with you
Talk with you
I’ve got nothing to hide
Walk with you
Talk with you
When I’m with you
[verse]
We can climb atop the highest mountain
And our future crystal clear it will be
For whatever may be for certain
We can spread our wings and fly today
[chorus]
Walk with you
Talk with you
Your strength will be my guide
Walk with you
Talk with you
I’ve got nothing to hide
Walk with you
Talk with you
When I’m with you
[solo]
[chorus]
Walk with you
Talk with you
Your strength will be my guide
Walk with you
Talk with you
I’ve got nothing to hide
Walk with you
Talk with you
When I’m with you
[chorus]
Walk with you
Talk with you
Your strength will be my guide
Walk with you
Talk with you
I’ve got nothing to hide
Walk with you
Talk with you
When I’m with you
Song Length: 4:22
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): Joe’s Guitar with Jesus paint job: This guitar has a Seymour Duncan Custom Custom pickup and a Cool Rails. It also has a Wilkinson Tremelo installed by Trev Wilkinson himself. Strung with Dean Markley Blue Steel medium gauge strings. This is the guitar used on the guitar solo.
Fender Guitar: my first guitar, the only original thing is the body. Everything else has been replaced or modified. Think of the Van Halen Frankenstein guitar only this one has a Desert landscape for a paint job. Had a DiMarzio at the time the PAF pro. Standard bridge, one Humbucker. 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.
Song Story:
As I’ve stated in another song story, I’m not a religious guy. However for some reason this song seems to exude the possibility of hanging with God.
Now, mind you it could be construed that way. But I remember that I really wrote this as a way to stand tall for yourself when you’re looking to share your life with the “love-of-your-life” type of person. I guess for some people that is God.
I remember in the writing process of the song I let Jeff Soto listen to it without the finished chorus. I got an interesting response: “There is no way that chorus will work.” To which I had to reply “Wait until it’s finished.”
There’s a lot of structure things in this song that are weird. First you have a verse in a 12 feel with swirly distorted guitar. The Ensoniq DP2 allowed me to create a leslie type sound on one side with a heavily chorused side on the other.
Second you have a chorus that instead of punching in even heavier distortion goes to a clean guitar thing with delays. The timing also is a huge issue over the chorus. The drums curtail to the guitar riff while keeping the “12” time. The guitar riff cycles into something that takes a full two measures to come full circle on. Then there’s the bass. It becomes this free flowing melody line between the guitar and the drums. Then there’s the vocals which are calling and responding over a “4” type feel, then syncopating. I grant you that it’s a lot to chew off and listen to. Once Soto got to singing on the song and heard it mixed he admitted that the chorus was actually very cool, but that he couldn’t figure out how in the hell I got it to flow altogether like that.
Then there’s the solo. I fully worked this one out as the chords actually change keys every two measures. I also wanted a really melodic type solo with some nifty little licks in there. One of the licks I remember stealing from Weezer (I had a student who wanted to learn a particular Weezer solo and I ended up diggin that lick) and morphing into something that fit me. That’s how it came to be in there.
So in terms of commercial songs, this song is completely backwards. The chorus comes down and gets all fluid, and there’s a crazy pulsing of the beat within a 12 feel that you just won’t hear in anything on the radio. But it’s a fun song to listen to.
As a side note, I had to start performing this song live. To actually be able to sing and play the guitar part took me two fucking months of real practice. I can still play it but it’s damn hard.
Factoids:
1. When Jeff first heard this being pieced together during recording he stated: “This will never work” once finished, mixed and done he rescinded his remark by saying: “That’s is an extremely cool mix of different timings”.
2. The bass is a very heavy melodic factor to the song.
Copyright: 1996/06/15
ISRC: USONR0301007
ISRC: USONR2400627
ISRC: USONR2400607
ISWC: T0709688232
SESAC Song ID: 594735
Harry Fox ID: W69036
Harry Fox Publisher ID: P8938Q
UPC: 654433000122
UPC: 764656471828
UPC: 764656471804