King of the World

ka-klick

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Description

Sat down and wrote this today.
Musing about people like Martha Stewart and Ken Lay, but also sort of what it feels like to be an American in the world today. Letting my inner pessimist come out to play.

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Lyrics

When I was the king of the world

All my banners, slowly unfurled

When you're up on the top

Everyone wants to take his shot

Chorus

When you're on top, there's no where to go but down...

On my way up I lost a lot of friends

Sometimes I wonder was it worth it in the end

Never had enough time for love

Had to see what it looks like from above

chorus

Had everything that I really need

Wanting more was simply greed

When I think about it, it makes me sad

Trying to get more, I lost everything I had

chorus

Song Stats

Hits: 3115
Comments: 9
Fans: 2
Plays: 428
Downloads: 72
Votes: 11
Uploaded: May 22, 2004 - 08:15:18 PM
Last Updated: Dec 11, 2004 - 11:42:04 PM Last Played: Sep 07, 2009 - 09:33:52 AM

Song License

Creative Commons License:
Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial

Song Actions

Hardware:

iMac G4 17" 800mz,
Fender Telecaster,
Home-made bass,
Washburn Acoustic,
Cheap condenser Mic,
Mackie 1202, Behringer Compressor, etc.

Software:

There's a couple loops (Drums, perc, bass on the chorus)

Comments

Mr. EI Oval	Mr. EI Oval said 1996 days ago (May 23rd, 2004)
	Kings, Queens, Jesters Great song. It had me hooked from the first bar. The guitar lead is great. Your voice is pretty unique. Is M. really going to feel the depths you describe here? I doubt it. Good stuff. Check out my latest song called Dance under the Clocktower

ka-klick

ka-klick said 1996 days ago (May 23rd, 2004)

Kings, Queens, Jesters
Yeah, I doubt M. will feel any of this. As I said it was just kind of an influence
on what I was writing, I wasn't going for any one person per se. The voice was
also sort of the kernel of the song. After I recorded the some of the first
guitar bits I started trying to figure out what to do with them and thought
about a "Tom Waits" type of voice singing about being "King of the World" and
that's what most of this evolved from. Actually singing that way was pretty
tiring but it was a core concept of the song to me.

---
Beauty should be edible, or not at all.
-- Dali

Check out my latest song called Big Bad World - Live 1-16-2009 plus - MJRF

fosod

fosod said 1991 days ago (May 28th, 2004)

Here you are!
Two criticisms:

1. The (I think it's called trochaic) hippety-hoppety easter bunny beat and New Bohemians bongo tappin'. Really sets a light tone for a kinda heavy song. The contrast is not redeeming... it's distracting. I'd like to hear it with a straight beat. Something big and stompy like a Led-Zepplin song or somethin'. Or even clinkety-clank if your into the Tom Waits thing.

2. The intro is a bit long. I really thought it was just gonna be a guitar song. I don't know though. Not a big blues guy, so I don't know what's acceptable/unacceptable practice within the historical frame of the genre. I know you called it Indie Rock, and maybe that has something to do with the drum loop you chose, but this is blues friend!

Now, onto the nice stuff:

The guitar work is solid. Sounds like your fingers are YEARNING for a straight beat; maybe they're used to them? The vocals are executed very well. It's tricky, trying to stylize the way you have: obviously, you don't show up at work and say, "Heeeeyyy Booobbbbb" in that dark, muddy, groany tone. It's a style that you taken on to fit the song... and it does. As well, the vocal style is the perfect fit for the lyrics... which otherwise could've have come across cheezebally. You're balancing a number of unstable elements really well... you're singing is confident and unrestrained, your guitarwork is thoughtful (by the way, did you sing while you played the lead? Just curious.), and the bassline sneaks right in there without garnering any undue attention. Overall, I'd say this is a great song and one to learn from.

P.S. I love that one REALLY sour note the lead guitar hits about 3/4 of the way through the song:

Defiant.

Check out my latest song called Totally Hoany

ka-klick

ka-klick said 1990 days ago (May 28th, 2004)

re: Here you are!
Thanks Fosod, I'm glad you're back. You always seem to be able to cut to the
chase honestly and interestingly. The comment about the bongos is well
taken, I put them in for a bit of variety on the chorus parts, but it might do
better w/o them. I might try it. I really need to get DOD so I have a bit more
percussion palette to use.

I hadn't really thought about it being a "blues" per se in that it's not the
traditional I IV V7 12 bar format, but at the heart of it, you're probably right,
that this is essentially blues.

Anyway, I may play w/ it. Won't promise I'll change it, but This is good fodder
(or should I say fosod-er) for thought.

Also, the intro is just 1 chorus length, might be a bit long, but I like it, and no
I didn't play lead and sing at the same time. THough I think I'd rather do that
on this one than try to do the bass work and sing.

---
Beauty should be edible, or not at all.
-- Dali

Check out my latest song called Big Bad World - Live 1-16-2009 plus - MJRF

Momotamus	Momotamus said 1988 days ago (May 31st, 2004)
	Damn Cool Song Very creative. Cool to assume a character and write. Somehow it's hard to imagine Keneth Lay or Martha Stewart with such a deep scratchy voice (unless it's their bedroom voice ;-) , or rather their inner-devils respectively). Check out my latest song called Like A Wink

	BluesFan said 1985 days ago (June 3rd, 2004)
	Actually... There's nowher to go but up.

	armadilloray said 1969 days ago (June 18th, 2004)
	King of the World This song song has an excellent groove. I really love how everything fits together on this song. The vocal performance is interesting and works well fro this tune. On a more personal note, it makes me think of a recording session in the Mod and how I felt watching you make music. To me this song rates up there with The Road.

TobinMueller	TobinMueller said 1792 days ago (December 13th, 2004)
	Martha's conscience sings Excellent guitar playing, sound, mix. Very pro, ready for CD release. I like how you imitated the sound of Martha's conscience in your vocals, too. Check out my latest song called Forge A New Life (MJRF)

	said 1510 days ago (September 20th, 2005)
	Not bad! Slobble mc fury boots pan san blodo humper!

Fan List

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Artist Info

Name: Bryan Baker

Bryan Baker (Kaklick Martin) makes some music that can be best described as the honkey tonk meets the metaverse, in the album "Roadhouse Ranch and Saloon" he sprinkles ideas like cybersex, furries and pose balls right along with the sawdust, tradit... [see more]

Check out some of my other songs:

Genre Info

The terms alternative rock and alternative music[1] were coined in the early 1980s to describe punk rock-inspired music genres which didn't fit into the mainstream genres of the time. At times it was used as catch-all phrase for rock music from under

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