HERE COMES THE SUN
When I was little I would put Abbey Road on the turntable and put the speaker in the window of my bedroom and run around all day with the album on repeat as we played in the sun. To me this song says "get out and be in nature and feel the seasons change" and I thought it would be the perfect first song for the record. I sped up the original tempo and gave it an energizing feel so that you can move and groove to it. This is the only use of synthesizer on a Caspar Babypants record!

ALL TOGETHER NOW
I thought it would be fun to put tension into this song. The original is loose and ragged but I thought that the theme of being all together would be illustrated and supported by making the recording tight and very together. I was not going to do this one originally because it seemed obvious and over done, but when I found a way to make it my own it became one of my favorites. Sing it.

EVERYBODY'S GOT SOMETHING TO HIDE EXCEPT FOR ME AND MY MONKEY
This was and still is my number one tippy top of the mountain favorite Beatles song of all time! I used to put it on at full blast and run around the house naked refusing to take a bath! I ended up making the energy small and tight and making it feel like a soul groove tiny little plucky thing and I LOVE IT!! that oddball beginning was really fun to dissect and understand too. I figured out the secret of it....but I'm not telling! Fysah sings the lead here and I chime in from time to time. She sounds soul-tastic!

YOUR MOTHER SHOULD KNOW
I promote the idea that old fashioned music is worth listening to and getting into and I quote music from many years ago in my own songs. I certainly raided my own parents record collection for inspiration when I was a kid and found some amazing bits that still influence me. Plus this song is a call to get up and move to the beat so I like it near the beginning of the record to keep the dance party moving along. And mother's usually know what is what!

BIRTHDAY
A simple rocker that I wanted to strip of all of it's noise and make it funny and little. SO I DID! This good time little celebration thing gets a boost from Rachel Flotard on backing vocals doing the Yoko parts. The inspiration for this song came from an improvisation in India that The Beatles did for Mike Love from the Beach Boys on his birthday. It kind of stuck and turned into this song from there.

YELLOW SUBMARINE
It's Ringo's turn to sing folks! With this song I noticed that the call and response at the end was always my favorite part. The song seemed to open up and get really fun at that point. So I took that dynamic and made it the whole focus of my version. To take it a bit further and make it simple I took out almost all of the music to make the story and images really clear. Dust off your signing voice and join in! Rachel Flotard and Jen Wood are doing the responses. Jen had to sing EXTRA high to do her part. THANKS JEN!

OB LA DI OB LA DA
The story goes that this was the first song that the band tracked for The White Album and Paul ran everybody ragged with many many takes and attempts at getting the feel right. I love the family as a rag tag band of fun lovers feel to the lyrics and thought I would push the envelope on tempo and see how fast I could get this thing to move. I also cut it down by half almost to make it a quick burst of energy. Jen Wood plays the part of Molly and does a great job with the bubbly bouncy sing along attitude.

LOVE ME DO
This was the FIRST song the Beatles recorded as an original composition with George Martin and the LAST song that I recorded for this project. What I love about this song is how the skiffle influence is still apparent in the feel and rhythm of the original. I thought I would bring that out by turning it into a bit of a hillbilly vibe. I think it works really well as an old mountain song don't you? I can just see the Beatles sitting around on the back porch of a busted old shack in the swamps.

PENNY LANE
A great nostalgic stroll through the idyllic memories of a childhood neighborhood. I drive around in my old neighborhood every so often and soak in the atmosphere of my super happy childhood and can hear this song echoing around in the air. This song captures that feeling so well that it seemed like a natural fit for the album. It was extremely fun and even though it was a bit hard to replicate that French horn solo on the clavinet I finally nailed it!

MOTHER NATURE'S SON
This was one of the most delightful songs to record of them all. Someone suggested I take a look at this song when I was choosing which to try and I did and it just worked so well. Thanks for the idea! It turned out to fit exactly into the open tuning that I use on my 3 string guitar (D/A/D). I am not sure if Paul recorded this in a drop D tuning but it sure worked for me. A pretty faithful version but with a bit more energy. It is also hard to NOT do this one with the words "mother" and "son" in the title!

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE
One of the best little uplifting songs the Beatles ever did. This was the first song I recorded for the album over three years ago. I wanted to contrast the verse and chorus by making the verse really sparse so the message of the song could come straight through. I chopped the song down to it's essential parts and kept it short and sweet and simple. It turns out that love IS all you need! Those mop tops were smart like that.

LITTLE CHILD
This is a classic example of changing the context of a song for this album. The original is rocking and loud and obviously about the object of the singers affection and desire. I just made it musically innocent by sprinkling some Buddy Holly vibrations on it and the meaning changed to be literally about a child. This was a fun chemistry experiment! AND I got to play my little harmonica. I was glad to sneak another early career Beatles song in to the mix as well.

OCTOPUS'S GARDEN
Of course Ringo has to have at least one song on any Beatles album (and I gave him three!). This is one of the obvious choices that I resisted at first again because it has been done many times, but found that once I broke it down to the basics and simplified the layers a bit it stared to feel more like a Caspar tune. Since I love songs that allow you to travel to places that normal life can't take you I had to include this ticket to the bottom of the sea! The beginning part was really hard to figure out but I stuck with it all afternoon and finally got it!

ANY TIME AT ALL
This one was FUN! I started out with a crazy drum machine thing on a little cheap keyboard and built it up from there. In the end I got rid of the messy drum machine sounds and let the song breathe. The sentiment of unconditional love seems to make it a really good parent to child love song. Jen Wood helped out here with a sweet high harmony too.

CRY BABY CRY
Well it has the word BABY in the title right? John's original lyrics were from an advertisement he saw that said "cry baby cry, make your mother BUY" but he changed it a bit. I did a pretty straight forward version of this song just because it felt really good to play it that way. This one unfolds like a classic children's picture book and has that timeless nursery rhyme vibe to the images of kings and queens. My favorite part is the "séance in the dark"...spoooky!

LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS
Written about a drawing that Julian Lennon did with the same title this one seemed like a great addition to the album. I had to record this song twice from scratch because I had such a hard time getting the images to really pop out of the music. I tried it in the original key at first but it was too shrill for my taste so I lowered the pitch and changed the sound of the main instrument to be softer. Finally the images began to come to life and I think the extra effort paid off. I used to sing this one along with the record over and over when I was a kid matching John Lennon's vocal inflections word for word.

BEING FOR THE BENEFIT OF MR KITE
When I was a kid I loved the circus atmosphere of this song. It completely transported me to another place and that sensation became very important in my own songwriting later on. I found out later that John Lennon told their producer George Martin that he wanted to "smell the sawdust" from the floor of the circus tent when the recording played back. This was written about a circus poster that John found in an antique shop. Almost every word is from the poster! John loved to make lyrics out of found materials and I think that is very childlike.

BLACKBIRD
This one was an interesting experience. I thought it would be great to change the main instrument away from that iconic guitar part so I figured out a very simple way to play it on piano. The trick is that you have to have a 10 note reach to do it! Luckily I can do that and have been able to since I was a kid. I never had a reason to use that skill until now though. I like the way playing it on piano makes it feel like a Bach piece and almost makes it a lullaby.

I'M ONLY SLEEPING
As I was researching for the record I found a demo version of this song that was just the first verse and chorus and was an instrumental track with a jazzy feel. The choice of vibraphone and a light drum beat worked perfectly and I thought it made a lot of sense since it is about being all groggy and sleepy. I made it even MORE sleepy by adding space and removing the drums. A great pre-last-song-lullaby lullaby! Time for a nap now....

GOODNIGHT
I kept this one in the original key and same tempo but removed the heavy sugary strings and tried to make it light and airy. I must say that I get very sleepy every time I hear this recording so I think it will work well for your baby in the night time. The last whispering bit was fun to do too. It took one take and I just nailed it. Then I fell off my chair and napped for hours.