Early on in my “music career,” I was impressed with the recording techniques employed by the producers of the Chipmunks’ music.
Which is to say, I recorded this song with my sister at a very slow tempo, played it back at high speed on the “high-speed dub” setting on my home stereo, and then recorded this high-speed playback with a tape recorder while accompanying the playback with live instruments. The result is one of my earliest experiments in multi-tracking, and it is the only one that survived the years.
The extraordinarily loud noise floor is the product of a) the sound of the tape hiss from the high-speed dub, which is pitched higher than normal tape hiss because it is being played back at a faster speed, and b) the sound of the tape hiss from the tape recorder that is recording both the high-speed dub and the live instruments. This tape hiss occupies a lower frequency niche. Because the tape hiss occurs at two different frequencies, it feels decidedly louder and more overwhelming. Fun audio factoid.
I played the Balalaika. I sang. I played our awful family keyboard, which did not produce a single, remotely organic sound.
I do not recall what my sister Alyssa did, but it sounds like she played a tambourine. To my knowledge, however, we did not own a tambourine.
It was 1991. I was almost 13. Which probably accounts for the lyrics.
They read as follows:
I’m truckin’ down the street,
and I’m lookin’ for roadkill for meat.
Now I’ve smashed a dog.
His nametag read “I am Og.”
I took him down to the corner,
sold his carcass for half a dollar,
bought a Twinkie, choked it down.
Then I coughed it up at the next town.
This is my song, and I ain’t wrong.