Hero Unexpected
Hero Unexpected
[Verse 1]
I’m getting glimpses of the man I’m to be
They’re pushing me on a historic journey
Its my turn to be someone this time around
I start with flying then I’m falling upside down
[Chorus]
But I can fly
I can heal
Sketch things that will be real
Inside my mind I wanna feel
I’m disconnected as your Hero Unexpected
[Verse 2]
I begin to understand all the reasons
A stranger says save her to save the world
I’m determined to be going down that highway
Knowing I could die to prevent her death
[Chorus]
I hear your thoughts
Control matter
Or jump through space & time
Inside my mind I wanna be fine
I’m disconnected as your Hero Unexpected
[Bridge]
I’ve got to learn
To take control
Clear my head and let you in
Or I may explode
[Chorus]
I can change face
Disappear
I may go nuclear
Inside my mind I have no fear
I’m disconnected as your Hero Unexpected
I’m disconnected as your Hero Unexpected
Hero Unexpected
Song Length: 3:18
Writer: Jody Whitesides IPI/CAE 00196306650
Publisher: Too Much Music IPI/CAE00456952518
Admin Publisher (Outside U.S.): Bluewater Music
Donny Gruendler: Drummer
Jody Whitesides: Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Synths
Recording Info:
Cover Illustration: Kim Whitesides
Cover Coloring: Jody Whitesides
Cover Editing: Jody Whitesides
Recording Engineer: Jody Whitesides
Recording Engineer: George Leger III
Mixing Engineer: Jody Whitesides
Mastering Engineer: Gavin Lurssen @ Lurssen Mastering
Vocal Engineer: George Leger III
Producer: Jody Whitesides
Co-Producer: George Leger III
Remixer: Chris Hellstrom
Remixer: Jesse Stern
Remixer: Chris Carter
Remixer: Liquid Vision
Remixer: Robert Vadney Guitar(s): Left side guitar: Desert Guitar: my first guitar which was a Fender “Japocaster” as it used to be referred as, 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. A single Seymour Duncan Custom Custom hum-bucker pickup. Standard bridge. Strung with Dean Markley Blue Steels medium gauge.
Right side guitar: Joe’s Guitar with Jesus paint job: This guitar has a Seymour Duncan Custom Custom pickup and a Cool Rails in the neck position. It has a Wilkinson Tremelo installed by Trev Wilkinson himself. Strung with Dean Markley Blue Steel medium gauge strings. I used the bridge pickup for this sound.
Vibrato lick guitar: Joe’s Guitar Whitesides Viper 7 Redwood: This is a custom 7-string guitar that Justin built for me to specifications for the neck. The body is two different woods, the back of the body is alder with a redwood top. The neck is maple with a bubinga fingerboard, jumbo frets. Strung with Dean Markley Blue Steels. The bridge pickup is a custom built Seymour Duncan Custom Custom, made specifically for me prior to 7-string guitar pickups becoming an actual line. Thus it’s pieced together by Seymour’s custom pickup department. The neck is a stacked humbucker, also created by Seymour Duncan’s custom pickup department. This was voiced to be more like a custom.
Extra guitar chorus: 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 part is using the Cool Rails pickup in the neck position.
The Amp Setup:
GrooveTubes Solo 150 head
GrooveTubes Dual 75 Poweramp that has been modified to be true stereo
GrooveTubes 2 x 10″ cabs
I had KT88’s on one side of the Dual 75 and EL34’s on the other side
The cab was mic’d with an SM57 Beta on the grill center of the cone
Bass(s): Hohner B Bass V. Strings were Dean Markley Blue Steels. This was run thru a Line 6 Bass Pod Pro. Two outputs, one that was direct out and one that was an amp sim from the Line 6 Bass Pod Pro to give it some grit.
Additional Bass sounds were done with the ESM from Logic Pro
Drums: Drums are sequenced from samples out of Stylus RMX by SpectraSonics.
Kicks are from the Kicks Boomy and Kicks Punchy menus.
Snares are from the Snares Vinyl menu.
Vocal: Lead vocals in this were recorded using a Telefunken C12.
Background vocals were recorded using a Neumann 87a.
Synths: The synth parts were created using Logic Pro’s ES2.
Misc Instruments: Handclaps are created from me doing about 40 different takes of handclaps from various different positions around the studio to create more depth.
Song Story:
There’s a bit of history behind this song and it’s long…
In the late 90’s there was a group of investors that were starting up a football league for women. Someone reached out to me and asked if I would write a song that would be a theme for the league. I was given a set of values and ideas that I had to hit on in order for it to be uplifting for the female football league.
Within a couple of days I had whipped up the song. Musically I had envisioned a stadium anthem. Which meant keeping the drums simple, making it easy for people to clap and or stomp along with the song as it could be played over the loud system. For the chorus, I came up with that pretty quick. I wanted it to be easy to sing for anyone, including those who claim to be tone-deaf.
The guitar parts were kept quite simple for the same reason. I wanted any guitar player to be able to pick up a guitar and be able to play it within a matter of minutes. Plus I layered several simple parts to give it a bit more change to it. The hardest part to play likely the lead lick with the vibrato. But even then, it’s not difficult to play.
The verse lyrics took a bit more time. Working on incorporating those values and ideas I had to spend a little time working it so that they would rhyme and work in more of a storyline aspect. It wasn’t overly troublesome, but I did make sure there was progression.
Once it was all put together I sent it along to the contact. The league worked on getting underway, but never got to a point where the song was used for the theme. They never ended up doing a theme and we never signed a deal for it.
Fast forward a few years and I’m going to an LA Kings hockey game with my good buddy Chris Hellstrom. He wanted to get me into hockey, and the best way is for me to go to a live game. I was having a great time. During the game every so often (who am I kidding, very often), they were playing a semi-musical thing that kept shouting “Go Kings Go!”* I told Chris, dude, I have a song that is substantially better than that.
That night when I got home, I pulled out the WPFL theme I had written. I started looking at the files and then went to bed. The next day I started retooling the verse lyrics. I needed them to work for hockey instead of the football. Which required me to pester Chris with questions about hockey and some of the various terms used to talk about what happens on the ice.
A day later, I had it re-tooled. Updated the vocals. Asked Chris to add some bits to the arrangement, then I made a mix of it. Shortly after that I opted to do a version for each major league team in LA at the time. Which mean tweaking it for Basketball as well. A few more days later and I had versions for each team.
Basketball had a huge following and my decision was to use a basketball related photo that I took at a park to be the cover of the release. Then I put the various versions out under the title Do You Want to Play.
Another year or two later I was linked up with Jerry Davis from Fox Sports. I was going to be doing a lot of music for their sports network. During the course of getting the deal done, Jerry asked me how much music I have and in turn I told him how many production music CDs I had. The deal changed in my favor as they would just license my library instead of me writing stuff and them owning it.
While doing that deal I mentioned the song for all the LA teams. Jerry liked it, but felt Fox couldn’t make use of it. He felt strongly about it, and pushed it out to the head of marketing for the NBA, then gave her my contact info. She contacted me and we spoke about the song and what else I was doing musically. She asked me if I could do a version of the song for the WNBA and the D League. I had to ask what the D League was. She explained and I said sure I can. She also wanted to have me come play at halftime events at various live games; based on a tour that I was supposed to be doing at that time. It was going to be a huge plus.
While pulling the song out again for doing those two versions, I got a wild notion that I should just do a version for every team in all 3 of the basketball leagues. That’s what I did. I started keeping track of each team, and swapping out vocals for each one.
Once done, I sent them all to her and it was a bit overwhelming for her.
Unfortunately the tour didn’t happen, and thus the live halftimes didn’t materialize. But I had the ability to use the songs as I owned it. So I started releasing the versions for each league. They did well on their own without me pushing them.
Years later, I’m still occasionally updating the song for new teams that arise over time. Much like this one for the Lehi Pioneers. The question might be, why would you do a version for a High School team? The answer is, for my girlfriend who is the assistant principal at Lehi High. You know, the place, kinda made famous by the original Footloose movie starring Kevin Bacon. Oddly, I’ve been to more of their games than I attended in my own high school.
Factoids:
1. Originally written when I had a brief online encounter with Milo Ventimiglia, I thought it would be fun to write a song from the viewpoint of his character Peter Petrelli from Heroes.
2. My first tattoo I ever got is a part of this song – it’s on my left shoulder.
Copyright: 20090101
ISRC: US32P0900001
ISRC: US32P0900002
ISRC: US32P0900003
ISRC: US32P0900004
ISRC: US32P0900005
ISRC: US32P0900006
ISWC: T9055765827
SESAC Song ID: 656183
Harry Fox ID: H7171V
Harry Fox Publisher ID: P8938Q
UPC: 654433002034