NASHVILLE, TN....5/8/08.... On the heels of launching his critically-acclaimed solo debut,
STICK FIGURE SOUL, Chicago Tribune staff writer and prominent rock journalist Lou Carlozo recently uncovered some lost Beatles lyrics scrawled on a manila envelope that make up a collection of seven original Beatles manuscripts at Northwestern University. As if that weren’t enough to make someone’s year, he also recorded an exclusive song for Shure mircophones while the new indie film “Eden Court,” starring Thomas Lennon (“Reno 911”) and Kimberly Williams (“Father of the Bride”) -- which features his song “Elvis in the Sky” in a climactic scene -- recently won top prize at the Nashville Film Festival.
While exploring the confines of Northwestern's music library at the invitation of head librarian D.J. Hoek, Carlozo discovered some missing verses and discarded choruses for "Why Did It Die?,” the song that eventually became "For No One" on The Beatles'
Revolver. The two missing choruses were previously known to but a few folks in academia, and never reported in a major publication until Carlozo found them--and wrote about them in the March 23, 2008 edition of the Chicago Tribune. The first unused chorus reads: "
Why did it die? You'd like to know. Cry--and blame her," which seems to fit the final-draft lyric "
No sign of love behind the tears, cried for no one." The second chorus has the same syncopation: "
Why let it die/ I'd like to know/ Try -- to save it."
The document suggests McCartney spent some time tinkering with these choruses before abandoning them. He wrote the middle lines to both in black ink that appear nowhere else on the paper. (He scribbled the verses, most of which made the final cut, in pencil.)
"I don't know which was more thrilling: making the discovery or getting to hold the manuscript Paul wrote in my own hands," Carlozo says. "If I never get to collaborate with Paul, which I highly suspect will be the case, this is the next best thing!"
Having recently recorded an exclusive song for Shure microphones with the use of just one mic, Carlozo’s tune "Time Can't Hide" will soon be posted on
http://www.shure.com to demonstrate how it's possible to do a world-class recording using just one type of micorophone, the SM57. The mic has a famous history; it was used to mic Lindsey Buckingham's guitars on "Rumors," Pete Townshend's guitar cabinets in The Who, and gets a workout in countless recording sessions every day, especially on snare drums. But it has never, to anyone's knowledge, ever been used as the only mic for every instrument on a professional recording session this widely released. You can hear the song on his myspace page at
http://myspace.com/loucarlozo.
"Using the 57 was so effortless, I forgot that I was doing an experiment after about 30 minutes," says Carlozo, who played all the instruments except drums. "I could concentrate on the song, since the sound quality took care of itself."
Carlozo is a features staff writer at the Chicago Tribune, where he works in the much-lauded Tempo section. Rated one of the Top 10 local releases in the Chicago area by the Illinois Entertainer,
Stick Figure Soul is also garnering enthusiastic praise from tough critics ranging from Minty Fresh Records head Jim Powers (who besides discovering the Cardigans and Cowboy Junkies, volunteered lots of time to help Carlozo out on the project) to roots-rock hero Peter Himmelman (yes, Bob Dylan’s son-in-law).
For more information and to hear clips from
Stick Figure Soul. go to:
myspace.com/loucarlozo.