This 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.
[audio:http://media.libsyn.com/media/dooce/03_General_-_Remastered.mp3]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.
