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Minute

from MELT by Joel Bourret

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about

I wrote this song in London in August 1994. It's still one of my favorite songs and I've performed it solo in London, Vancouver, New York and Memphis. We also played it periodically with Melt at gigs in London and Vancouver and on tour down the West Coast of the U.S.
I wrote it about a creepy fan sending letters to his idol. Then phoning him up and asking if he received the letters.
We recorded this song in Vancouver 1996 in January in my bedroom on a 16-track tape recorder.
I had recorded the main riff on a crappy acoustic guitar and I couldn't get it perfect from the start of the song to the end. So Kurtis tried it next and he had the same problem. Next up was Willie's turn and he got it right after a bunch of takes. So it ended up being Willie's guitar for the verse and mine for the chorus.
Then Kurtis over-dubbed his slide guitar parts using a small crappy transistor 5 watt practice amp, but he got this amazing sound out of it. Willie played the snare part really quietly so we wouldn't get any noise complaints from the neighbors. We were already on thin ice there.
Willie over-dubbed the bass drum, which was propped up on the bed and he used a mallet to hit it like he was in a marching band. I had this cymbal that I stuck on the tip of my finger and lightly played it with a mallet. Then put some effects on it to give it that swirling wind sound. Willie did the shaker and in the second verse I rubbed two pieces of sandpaper together for a counter-point rhythm. We recorded a few other instruments like synth and glockenspiel, but the kitchen sink approach was too much, so I left them out of the mix.
In New Jersey, I re-did the vocal and added two zithers on the ending replacing my original glockenspiel part. The song was mixed in 2016 in Memphis.

lyrics

MINUTE (lyrics)

I wrote a letter, you didn't get it
I tried to tell you, you wouldn't hear it
So much confusion, so much to answer
Each day you take less chances

I'd walk three days in your shoes
Won't you spend a minute in mine

So let me tell you about myself
I've got everything that you've done
Don't think of me as some star fucker
You'd love me once we met

I'd walk three days in your shoes
Won't you spend a minute in mine

credits

from MELT, released May 11, 1994
Joel Bourret - Vocal, Acoustic Guitar, Zither, Percussion, Treated Cymbal
Kurtis Hannas - Electric Guitar
Willie Cortes - Acoustic Guitar, Shaker, Drums

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Joel Bourret Memphis, Tennessee

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