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 |  | about Hospital Loop
| 5/26/2008 - Hospital Loop
The original title for Hospital Loop was Clanranald. This is the name of the street where the Beth Zion synagogue is located in Montreal. I used to dress in my tux, take the metro to Snowdon get out on Queen Mary, walk in slush, rain, ice to Clanranald to play orthodox Jewish weddings. These Freilach melodies are now part of molecular structure and I attribute many of my compositions like Weird Dream, Syriana and Slow Steps to these ditties that Bill Mahar, Aron Doyle and I, and a lot of horn players would blast away at for hours while men dressed in black filled with "naches" would dance and burn hats. I don't know exactly why I wrote Clanranald for THIS idea because its real source is stolen from Joni Mitchell's "In France they kiss on Main Street."
I liked this melody and worked it out on piano and guitar with my Fostex MR-8. I changed the key colour from G7 to B7sus add 3. When I play this on guitar, It sounds Purple and "60s"ish to me. It reminds me of a recording that my brother made called "Remember Peace" and when I go back and forth between B7sus add 3 to E7/G# I do a "search" into my "fixed memory tonality" and I find another of Nate's songs. This harmony combined with the "Valiant" melody brought to mind a person who did brave and courageous things a long time ago. I also thought about medieval Celtic symbols and fields of clover because it sounded a little Scottish to me. So I came up with titles like Purple Loop and Purple Cross. Then I remembered a place that I use to love exploring when I was younger. "Old Hospital Loop Road" was beautiful landscape with a view of the Chignecto Bay that was hidden until the end of the ride. I thought this was a perfect title for the landscape because it evoked the past when there was a marine hospital out on the marsh and lives were perhaps saved there.
It wasn't until we performed it in Paris that I kept hearing the Tears for Fears tune “Shout Shout let it all out. These are the things we could do without. Come on. I'm talking to you. Come on." crept into my head while we were vamping the last two chords and the end. I liked the way Kenny played the chords on electric and I wanted him to overdub even more guitars. Later I realized that I stole the arrangement idea from Crosby Still Nash and Young's Carry on" also.
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 |  |  | | | |  | about Hospital Loop | Hospital Loop
The original title for Hospital Loop was Clanranald. This is the name of the street where the Beth Zion synagogue is... | | |
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| | | | | | | Joel Miller Tantramar CD Participant with mail order | | | For everyone who enjoyed the album Mandala, this is for you. Since the release of this album in 2004, the ensemble has received praise from audiences and critics across Canada, the United States and France. Highlights include winning an Opus Award... |  |
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