Greg and Larry wrote this preliminary version of the song several years earlier for a pre-Dead-Ringer project. The recording was made in Larry's recording studio. Larry is singing and playing the song. Mike Oltersdorf (Paul McCartney look-alike) recommended that Greg contact Anthony and contract him to re-write/arrange/record the song for the movie. Anthony and Mike have worked together on previous projects and Mike was aware that Anthony was able to sing like Paul McCartney and that complimented Mike's ability to look like Paul McCartney.
I Could Have Been Somebody (original version by Greg and Larry)
Greg asked Anthony to make the song sound like the Beatles. After listening Anthony asked Greg if he could re-write the song to sound like a John Lennon song instead of a Paul McCartney song since the original style resembled a John song much more than a Paul song. This was contrary to the movie idea which is about Paul getting amnesia. The thought was maybe a John Lennon look-alike could make a cameo appearance where this song is played. Greg said "Great idea!".
So the writing and recording went forward. Anthony listened to the original song a couple of times and then rewrote the music. The verse lyrics were refined to jive with the new music but stayed pretty close to the original. The new bridge utilized much of the original lyrics cut and pasted to fit. The following tracks were recorded in Anthony Walker's Perspective Music Recording Studio in Fort Collins, Colorado and are mixed into the mp3 recording below using Samplitude. This is the version presented at Beatle-fest in Chicago and performed (lip synced) on camera for the movie.
I Could Have Been Someone (John Lennon style rewrite)
Raoul Rossiter:
DrumsAnthony Walker:
Acoustic Guitars
Bass Guitar
Electric Solo Guitars
Background Falsetto Vocals
Paul McCartney-like Harmony VocalShawn Tybor:
John Lennon-like Lead Vocal
The plan is to refine the recording by moving the multi-track recording to ProTools and adding a few new tracks and remixing. The acoustic guitar intro will probably be re-played and a Coral Electric Sitar added to the intro. At the moment, we're only hearing one or two of Shawn's vocal takes. There are about 8 takes there that can be used to cut and paste into a killer composite lead vocal. The multi-band compression etc. in ProTools should really bring out the drums and make the mix powerful. This was not done prior to the Beatle-fest because Anthony was re-directed a week before the Beatle-fest.
Exactly one week before the Beatle-fest, Greg communicated to Anthony that the song really needed to be in a Paul McCartney style. Anthony complained that he could not re-write the song and record it in one week. Particularly, recording the drums would be an issue. Greg suggested that Anthony simply use a drum machine. Further, Greg had a preliminary agreement with Billie Preston that he would play a live piano solo track to the song which would be preformed and recorded at the Beatle-fest.
Anthony was actually able to re-write the music in about 30 minutes. It took a few hours to re-write the lyrics during the next few days. The Paul version of the song has a verse, chorus and bridge part so the lyrics needed substantial rewriting. The original lyrics were used almost verbatim on the verse but the chorus bridge needed a complete lyric re-write. A lot of the ideas came from the movie script. Because the original lyrics are so cocky sounding, they didn't really fit the pretty Paul melodies of the chorus and bridge. In order to make the original lyrics sound like Paul, Anthony decided to sing the song in a Wings Paul fuzz voice. This approach seemed to work. In addition, the boogie guitar fills also sound like the Wings era. This is the version presented at Beatle-fest in Chicago and performed (lip synced) on camera for the movie.
The long intro was intended to go with the script as understood at the time. The script said that a band would leave Ringer in the dressing room and run out on stage to play w/o a bassist. Then, Ringer would gather his confidence and run out on stage and direct the band to play his song. The long intro was intended to allow all this conversation to occur. Billie Preston decided not to play the piano solo in the end so that space is blank.
I'm Gonna Be Somebody (Paul McCartney rewrite)
David Pinsky:
Drums MachineAnthony Walker:
Acoustic Pianos
Bass Guitar
Electric Solo & Tremolo
Paul McCartney-like Lead Vocal
The plan is to refine the recording by moving the multi-track recording to ProTools and adding a few new tracks and remixing. Real drums will be added and used for the fills and maybe some of the groove. The beginning and ending of the song will be shortened. There are about 6 or 8 solo guitar tracks. The plan is to cut and paste these tracks into a better composite solo track. The spot for Billie Preston's piano solo will either be deleted or we'll track someone else in there.
Here is a song written and recorded by Greg and Larry. This may be re-recorded with a more authentic John Lennon or Paul McCartney vocal. No re-write has been done to this song at this point.
This is a very very preliminary working idea for a theme song for the movie written by Anthony Walker. The idea is to have a song that has the big 3 part harmony vocals like the Beatles were performing on Rubber Soul (e.g. Nowhere Man) with the name of the movie (Dead Ringer) high-lighted in the lyrics. Also to create a feel reminiscent of the psychedelic era like "Northern Song", "Baby You're A Rich Man" or "It's All Too Much". Hence, the vocal melody and instrumentation includes several Indian instruments and melodic ideas: Audio & more detail...
The lyrical concept is to take the movie plot (everyone telling Ringer that he looks like Paul) and tell the story in reverse. Ringer has a dream (nightmare) that he's recognizing various people (e.g. Elvis or Martin Luther King etc.) then describe what he sees. Then at the end of each verse he realizes that it's not who he thought it was (i.e. "It wasn't him") and then sings "He's a Dead Ringer". The bridge lyric is sort of introspective in that Ringer is expressing how he feels about not knowing who he is.