The six chord progression of this tune has been lingering for many years. I was never happy with the arrangement or combination of vocals and mostly acoustic instruments so the attempts to record it were put aside for a while. This is an early example of a home recording of it with the Sardinian singer Roberta Setzu. At the time the working title was L'inventa Canzoni which translates to The Song Inventor.
https://soundcloud.com/zero-times-everything/linventa-canzoni-edit
When I started working on new material for ZXE’s Sound Of Music I decided to give it an other shot ZXE style; those six chords came back with an entirely different purpose and feel. I plugged in my Les Paul and started fiddling with preset sounds on my computer to find a suitable one for the main arpeggio - it didn't take long. BINGO, there it was. A pretty hot and compressed signal, Marshall type amp but with the neck pickup, volume at 2, treble at about half was exactly what I was looking for; so I added the 4,1,5 turnaround to resolve the loop.
I put on my headphones and started to record the first track, - it all made sense , the music played itself; a feeling of warmth and sadness was with me in the room. What you'll hear is the second take. To record the second guitar track I looked for a different sound but came back to the main arpeggio preset. I chose a slightly brighter sound with the switch in middle position.
What was needed at this point was a melody with some sort of crescendo to complement the other two tracks. While trying different distortion types I came up with the idea to try the simplest melody; one note, the root, for each chord. I liked it right away. Crescendo = Steve Hackett Volume Swells; one of my and Tony's heroes. I am not sure about Richard. I think he was into disco back in those days. In fact, he was the Disco King of Queens, New York. After a few takes I felt I had enough material to work with. I ended up using the first take along with the ending of the second one.
https://soundcloud.com/zero-times-everything/tears-in-the-waterfall-edit
Perhaps the most significant part of this piece is the title. One late afternoon in the Fall of 2019, I was taking an afternoon walk with my wife in Battery Park and going back home through the Ground Zero Memorial. While walking along the north pool, I suddenly started to hear the tune in my head and felt chills up my spine. Five or six more steps and that music had a name.
I realize this year will be the twentieth anniversary of that tragic day which I personally witnessed with my own eyes and ears. What I remember the most is the drone of the first plane passing over of our apartment before crashing with a deafening sound followed by total silence.
True story.
I hope all those souls found peace in whichever heaven they chose.
True story
Ciao,
Pietro