Burn Swim Burn – General
June 11th, 2009This and about a dozen other tracks on the CD were recorded at the same studio that we did I Wish I Had a Raygun, with Lou the guitarist doing the engineering and Merkley taking primary producing. Others weighed in, but Merkely was there for most every session. I was there for some of the sweetening/mixdown, but I didn’t put anywhere close to the time that Lou and Merkley did into these tracks.
This was written in the spring/summer of 1991 and always reminds me of starting shows. We used this as our intro for awhile. Merkley would introduce us in the fashion of the BYU halftime show announcer, super cheesy and sarcastic. This song was the slow build and then we’d kick into one of the harder, faster songs to whip the crowd into an early frenzy.
I recall playing a summer show at a waterpark in Provo, Utah and this song was the intro. The kids loved it. I’m not sure any of us had seen James Brown perform, but if Rod would have worn a cape and had a cape wrangler, I think this song might have been the ska equivalent.
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Direct download: Swim Herschel Swim – Burn Swim Burn – General (MP3, 320kbps constant)
I’ve figured out how to get these tracks sounding good with minimal tweakage. It’s only taken a few weeks. A good mastering tech can take about 2 hours to get a solid master done. At least that’s how it used to be back when I followed and knew about such things. Today, I’m just keeping the audio nerd dilettante alive. o
Tags: Burn Swim Burn, BYU, college band, General, music, provo, ska, skeletons in daddy's closet, swim herschel swim
I always thought that this song captured how tight of a band we became near the end. It’s also the only song I can listen to from BURN and not cringe at my performance.
The horns nailed it and I especially love the 2x time through the intro melody when the harmony kicks in…awesome. No other ska band had horns as powerful as ours (at least none that I have heard).
Also worth mentioning is how much of an influence the first Rage Against The Machine album was on the production of this album. Up to that point I recall getting all Stewart Copland (ie. super tight) with the snare and then RATM got me to tune it down and go for more of an smash-mouth/impact sound.
Thanks for this comment. I think that you’re dead on about the horns.
I think Rage Against the Machine and Fishbone…
Oh yeah. Fishbone for sure.
i was keeping my salsa dancing dilettante alive with this number.