Eye of the Needle

repertoire:
* eye of the needle
* bicycling to afghanistan

diatribe

preface

part one:
moments with a small “m”

part two:
moments with a capital “m”

preface, take two:
one year and a half later

part three:
first encounter

part four:
preparation

part five:
the ghosts

part six:
the need

part seven:
arrival

Some notes on the evolution and history of Eye of the Needle. These are gleaned from a combination of first-hand memory (often unreliable) and available recordings (often surprising).

1. The first recording of Eye of the Needle was on “Live!”. Recorded either Saturday December 14 or Sunday December 15, 1985. These were the final performances of the first Level II, and the piece had appeared during the two weeks of that course. This is Eye in its most rudimentary form. The 13/4 Intro is only played in the basic A Minor configuration, and then the piece transitions directly to the 4/4 version of A minor. While the bass players were spared the difficult descending line that later evolved, the transition from 13 to 4 was, for them/us, challenging. The anticipated C-D-E is completely different coming at the end of a bar of 13. The piece is pretty brisk, about 76bpm, although it is possible that at least some of that was performance adrenaline. The 5 against 4 polyrhythm of the Coda is entirely ascending through the chord changes, with the basses playing a quietly pulsing 4. 

There is also a video of the Sunday afternoon show on December 15, which I have not compared (I really should buy a VCR some day). Obviously the arrangement is the same, but I don’t know if this is the performance used for the album. 

2. The next recording I have is from a radio broadcast on December 6, 1986 at WMMR in Philadelphia; part of a short tour we did during the Level II that occurred just after we returned from the first Level III in Dorset. It was a large performance team, about 30. The arrangement is substantially the same as “Live!”; much slower (~66bpm) and the bass part now includes 4s descending through the changes in the Coda.

3. “The League of Locals”, April 1987. This Washington/Baltimore-based group was the very first local or regional Guitar Circle. The tape comes from a small studio recording project we did of the then-current League repertoire. The arrangement of Eye is identical to the WMMR recording, just a bit slower still (low 60s).
    
4. Simply marked “League – Muhlenburg March 1988”, my next example comes from what I presume is a live performance, in Allentown, PA. I don’t know much more about it. The timing coincides with a Level III that was taking place at Claymont. There is no audible audience, so it would have to be a board tape. It is obviously edited for this presentation.

Eye is again at the slower tempo; close to 60bpm. The full Intro through the 4 chord changes in 13, and the return to 13 in the middle are now part of the arrangement, including the descending bass melody. The high octave melody makes its first appearance here, as well.

“Get Crafty” was recorded in late 1988, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a version of Eye on the cutting room floor, but it doesn’t show up on my tape of rough mixes. 1989 was the year of the “Bogo Tour”. I’m waiting for a board tape of one of the last shows we did from that tour. I don’t know what it contains.

5. “Show of Hands”, recorded in June 1990. Virtually the same arrangement as the 1988 recording. In the 66bpm range. In the Coda, the 4s seem to have been relegated to the descending pattern, with the 5s ascending. It is pretty hard to hear for sure.
    

6. “Live II”, made from the board tape of a performance in October 1990. Speedy; ~74bpm. Again, largely the same arrangement, except that the piece is introduced by the solo guitar on the high octave for the first two figures of 13. The other melody players join in at the 3^rd repetition of the figure, the same time that the descending bass line comes in. The high octave part ends on a high E here. Either Robert had a guitar with a 21^st fret added, or an exceptionally hard and accurate callus on his finger.
    

7. “Intergalactic Boogie Express”, recorded on the final League tour, Europe, March 1991. Once again, essentially the same arrangement as “Live II”, including the solo high octave guitar in the Introduction and the non-existent high E at the end. This recording contains what is generally considered to be an error; the wrong descending bass line in the middle 13 section. For a long time I cynically attributed this to deft editing in post production. However, I now realize that this particular combination of parts occurs nowhere else, and the cutting and pasting necessary for the rhythmic juxtaposition would have been wildly difficult, pre-ProTools. So, I’m inclined to think we just played it wrong. I really must ask Singleton sometime.

• To start with the solo octave melody or with all the melody players together; depending on the capability and confidence of the octave player.
   
• The low C# in the bass in the second half of the “F#” section. If there are a number of players on the bass part, one sometimes drops down to this note in bars 5-8 of that section.
   
• Similarly, sometimes one player begins the descending bass line that starts on “B” (second line in the Intro, only line in the middle 13s), down an octave – jumping back up into unison when it runs out of room.
   
• Downstrokes vs alternate picking on the running 5s (known unofficially as the “burbles”) and in the Coda. Europeans and South Americans tend toward the downstroke, while North Americans favor alternate picking. I think it can be pretty much boiled down to “it depends on who you learned it from; Robert or Curt.”
   

Curt Golden, November 5, 2002