Thinking Parisienne Walkways (Track Tear Down 2)
- Roy Fry
- Nov 2, 2021
- 6 min read
Gary Moore is my all time favourite guitarist, singer, and composer. (week 5 Blog 1)
Gary Moore's Album - Back On The Streets. Song - Parisienne Walkways
Song breakdown No 2 for this trimester.
Pure classic Gary Moore in action in this video below. No gimmicks, No live auto tuners.
He sings and plays guitar from his heart and soul. I'm looking forward to finding out how they recorded the Album - Back On The Streets and the song - Parisienne Walkways
The song became his signature for his virtuous guitar playing ability. A Gary Moore classic.
The original demo was presented on a cassette and had a drum machine, keyboards and guitar solo.
Back On The Streets - A little bit of background to Gary Moores first solo album.
The album was recorded in 1978 and is considered his first solo album even though he had a band called the Gary Moore Band in 1973.
Parisienne Walkways was the only singles released of the album and the song was originally meant to be an instrumental. His friend Phil Lynott (Thin Lizzy) convinced Gary it should have lyrics to make it more commercial so Phil wrote the lyrics. The song reached position no 5 on the Irish Singles Charts and positioned No 8 in the UK Single Charts in 1979. The album reached 70th position on the UK Album Charts 1979.
The Album's Production Crew
Engineer, Producer - Chris Tsangarides
Assistant engineers - Andrew Warwick, Mark Freguard, Mike Dutton, Mike Hedges, Perry Morgan and Simon Wakefield.
Parisienne Walkways - engineered by Chris Tsangarides
Produced by Chris Tsangarides and Gary Moore.
The recording location for Back On The Streets was Studio 1 at the Morgan Sound Studios was located in North West London, but since this recording was done, it has now changed hands and been rebranded.
Phil Lynott and Thin Lizzy Drummer Brian Downey played on Parisienne Walkways and another 2 songs for Gary's first solo album. (A great pic to the right)
I think this is the original video clip.
It's title Thin Lizzy - Parisienne Walkways
Check out the video link below
https://youtu.be/YWZbWiIYuYc
The Song Structure
Tempo 87bpm
Time signature 6/8
The key - Am
Gary Moore uses Parisienne Walkways to explore the circle of fourths. This shows me he is always looking for new ways to express himself through the medium of music.
l just get so inspired by 'thinking musicians' who are searching for different ways to create music through techniques, music theory, sounds and lyrical expression.
When Gary Moore composed the song, he original wanted to do it as an instrumental so he could show his versatility and his technical abilities as a guitar player. After all, the album Back On The Streets was his debut album as a solo artist in 1979. He had already been considered a virtuoso on the guitar, so Parisienne Walkways helped establish him as an artist - singer / guitarist.
The beginning of the song has a 3 note introduction. The notes are A, E, and C. After the 3 single notes it starts the beginning of the verse with an A minor chord.
The A minor is the first chord in the circle of fourths progresses through the first verse. The circle of fourths is repeated in all of the verses as well as the lead in notes, whether they have vocals or guitar.
How they record this Album at Morgan Sound Studio in Studio 1
The audio engineer was Chris Tsangarides
Gary Moore was Chris Tsangarides first engineering and co producer role.
In 1978 there was no digital DAW software recording system connected to an interface and then the box. (computer)
It was all 2 inch tape machines. Analog was state of the art.
Using the frequency charts below you can pinpoint which bass notes are more emphasised than others.
You can visually see that Gary's guitar is sitting just under the bass guitar at the 470Hz to the 1K and when the vocals come in they sit slightly under the bass guitar even though the vocals sound in front. They have created separation of parts through EQing and panning.
Below are some charts that can be used to workout the sonic layout of the instruments.
Recording Studio 1 Equipment
Console was a Cadac 24-input and 16-output.
2-inch tape machine by 3M. It has 16 tracks.
Tannoy gold monitors.
Outboard Gear
Two EMT 140 echo plates.
EMT Compressor.
A couple of Pie Compressors.
2 Urei 1176s
Eventide Flanger
Four Kepex
Four Gain Brain Modules
Drum Kit Microphone Setup (Brian Downey's)
Kick - U47 Neumann
Snare - KM84
Tom Toms - U87 Neumann
Overheads - 3 x U67s
Phil Lynott's Fender Precision (Bass Guitarist)
Was a combination of Ampeg Portaflex and Marshall amplifiers and cabernet mixed with a DI Box.
Gary Moore
Guitar -1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard
Amplifier - Mesa Boogie combo plugged into a cabinet with 4 x 12 speakers.
Mike was a Neumann U87
Synth - Solina string
Conclusion of Parisienne Walkway
l just love the feel of this song and to think it was done in a couple of takes, which tells you it was well rehearsed before they recorded the song.
The recording technique l think they used for this song was:
To record the rhythm tracks as a live band.
Do the Synth parts next played by Gary
Gary's guitar solos
Recording Phil Lynott's vocal parts
Recording Gary's vocal parts
When they were recording the rhythm sections, Gary left his booth door open so that he could hear and communicate with Phil (bass guitarist) and Brian (drummer). By Gary leaving the booth door open while they all played, limited Gary's opportunity to making any alterations to the rhythm tracks later on. The overspill from each others instruments would make it impossible for Gary to alter his rhythms as you would hear the original guitar work come through the other instrument rhythm tracks.
Once the rhythm section was recorded, then they would've started to do the overdubs. I'm not sure of the order they did the overdubbing, but to me it sounds like the synth first then the lead guitar, and then the main vocals (Phil), and Gary's harmonies would have been left till last.
Listening to the mix, l think that the bass guitar has been brought up front at the start of the song to give depth and warmth at the beginning. When the vocals come in, they fade the bass guitar to sit under the vocals.
The guitar arpeggios have been panned to the left hand side of the mix and it sounds mellow and warm. It sounds as if the volume has been left at the same position throughout the song.
The synth has slightly been panned to the right and it has a bright sound, the volume level seems to be roughly the same, even though l do hear a very slight fluctuation within the volume.
The bass guitar is also slightly panned to the right side and the lead guitar is mixed in the centre of the stereo panning position. (It sounds like Gary has double tracked his lead solos to give it some depth.) On the first verse of the singing, Gary's guitar solo intro theme is mixed right in the background.
The snare drum is panned slightly to the right, and you can hear the springs under the snare drum have been engaged to make the snare sound brighter, which makes me wonder if they have used the instruments to balance out the tonality evenly for stereo.
When Gary does his harmony vocal, his vocal has been mixed on the right hand side and is tucked away in the background, so it doesn't interfere will Phil's vocal.
Really like the way this song has been presented through the stereo system. You can hear all the instrument clearly and how the producer has complemented each individual tone from the vocals through to the kick drum. The way they have mixed the song, brings out a real sense of space between each instrument whether it is in left or right hand speaker.
References
“Thin Lizzy - Parisienne Walkways.” YouTube, 6 Mar. 2014, youtu.be/YWZbWiIYuYc.
“Gary Moore - Parisienne Walkways (Official).” Guitar.Com, 29 Sept. 2017, tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/gary_moore/parisienne_walkways_official_2115497.
“Gary Moore - Parisienne Walkways - Live HD.” YouTube, 7 Feb. 2011, youtu.be/vkUpfw4Hf3w.
Buskin, Richard. “Gary Moore 'Parisienne Walkways' Classic Track .” Gary Moore 'Parisienne Walkways', 1 June 2019, www.soundonsound.com/people/gary-moore-parisienne-walkways.
Published July 2012
Frequency Spectrum. (n.d.). Retrieved July 13, 2019, from http://www.bass-guitar-info.com/FrequencySpectrum.html
Copyright 2009 - 2017
Pouska, A. (n.d.). Bass Frequency Range: Bass Gear. Retrieved July 13, 2019, from https://www.studybass.com/gear/bass-tone-and-eq/bass-frequency-range/
Copyright 2003 - 2019
Discovering Minor Chord Progressions. (2019, June 05). Retrieved July 15, 2019, from https://www.musical-u.com/learn/discovering-minor-chord-progressions-minor-chords-part-one/
By Musical U Team
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