RECIPE
INGREDIENTS
Speech sounds:
Vowels
/ɒ/ɔː/aɪ/ə/ɛ/ʌ/əʊ/iː/uː/
Consonants
/b/d/ð/j/l/m/n/p/r/s/t/v/w/z/
1 key of G Major
Chords: C, D, G, G7
3L of inspiration
(Serves as many as you like.)
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METHOD
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STEP 1
Pour the inspiration into a bucket,
bring to boil and leave to simmer for 10 mins
before setting aside.
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STEP 2
Shape the sounds into letters as follows:
A x 19
B x 5
D x 16
E x 67
H x 8
K x 5
L x 42
M x 19
O x 73
R x 4
S x 16
T x 6
U x 13
V x 25
W x 14
Y x 16
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STEP 3
Combine the letters into words, as follows:
ALWAYS x 4
BE x 4
DO x 15
I x 8
KNOW x 4
LOVE x 25
ME x 15
OH x 1
PLEASE x 4
SHALL x 4
SO x 4
SOMEONE x 3
TRUE x 4
WHOA x 5
YEAH x 2
YOU x 9
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STEP 4
Divide the chords as follows:
33 of C
4 of D
26 of G
4 of G7
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STEP 5
Divide three guitars and a drum kit
between an appropriate songwriter
and three other appropriate musicians
as appropriate.
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STEP 6
Decant the pre-heated inspiration
in equal measures
into two jugs.
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STEP 7
Shake the words into one of the jugs and stir well,
before gently pouring into one of the songwriter’s ears.
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STEP 8
Shake the chords into the other jug,
together with the key of G Major,
and stir well,
before gently pouring into the songwriter’s other ear.
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STEP 9
Give the songwriter’s head a vigorous shake
and leave to marinate for approximately 40 mins.
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STEP 10
Set the musicians to cook the marinated words
and chords
for approximately 1 hr
on Gas Mark 6.
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TO SERVE
Spread the musicians on a stage
together with their respective instruments,
plus amplifiers, microphones
and a harmonica.
Serve hot.
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Talk about original! What gave you the idea? Very funny and clever, Frank.
Thank you, Renée. When I was working at Birmingham Institute of Art & Design, one of the academics was doing a PhD about how art is mediated, e.g. (and stating the bleeding obvious) a painting is an arrangement of paint that’s intended to elicit some sort of emotion from the viewer, and therefore involves an element of fakery. Which is true, and yet… and yet… great paintings have to be something more than painting by numbers. So I had the (stupid) idea of comparing a song, including the inspiration for it, to a recipe.
“Love Me Do” seemed a good subject because it was the first of the Beatles’ own songs to be released – composed principally by Paul, some years before the group was formed, and with the middle eight provided by John – and because of all the shenanigans in getting it released – http://www.beatlesebooks.com/love-me-do.