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SUBJECT:	The new "Are You Going With Me" ? Back to Subjects
amotta Jan 22 2014 at 4:56 PM	Dear fellows, forgive my poor English. Portuguese is my native language. I believe that "Are You Going With Me" is a kind of hymn for many of us. For years (I listen Pat since 1984) I have heard "Are You Going With Me" almost every day. Currently I listen Pat almost every day, but different songs each time. I bought the Unity Band CD when it was released. An amazing record. But after the Pat’s concerts in Brazil last year (I saw the concerts in Rio de Janeiro on June 10th and Salvador (Bahia) on June 12th), I am fascinated with "Signals (Orchestrion Sketch)". This is the only song I’m listening every day ! I’m not a musician and I think the first minutes of this song are "unusual", this is not for a novice in Pat Metheny’s songs (I call this introduction "the Sketch"). But after 2:45 (2 minutes and 45 seconds) the song turns into a magical, amazing, incredible and fascinating song. The song begins and grows and growing and growing, becoming a beauty and rich piece of music. Am I the only bewitched? This happens to any of you too? Does "Signals (Orchestrion Sketch)" is the new hymn among the fantastic compositions by Pat Metheny? Best wishes, Andre Motta. http://www.andremotta.fot.br/
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tiny_tim Feb 26 2014 at 7:21 AM	The wonderful answers I am reading express my same sentiments.....what a universal gift.
radeem Feb 26 2014 at 4:02 AM	Chris Potter plays a beautiful flute solo in this song.
mountain Feb 25 2014 at 4:21 PM	JamesInNC, your post was as if you were writing my experience and introduction to Pat. I did as well first hear Pat when I heard AFWSFWF during my first semester at college in a communications/music curriculum. I entered the collegiate environment with a rather boring and very limited classic rock and High School marching and jazz band background. The sound of the bass, the crowd noise and then... Well, it certainly had a similar impact on me rewiring my understanding and appetite for music. And then along came the double album, Travels. I wore it out. Pat’s soaring synth guitar solo on AYGWM, quickly replaced the Jimmy Page solos, raising the bar on what a guitar can say and its voice. The AFWSFWF experience opened my ears and mind up to discover quite alot of new music and I feel at right at home with anything from John Abercrombie to John Zorn to Steve Reich to Coltrane to Sonny Sharrock to Varese, Cage and Philip Glass....in large part thanks to Pat’s music. Signals is wonderful, but AYGWM was first and also is nested in a place of nostalgia in my mind and heart that can not be replaced. Love hearing everyone’s experiences and the way music has impacted our lives. Lookin forward to seeing Pat and the Unity Band in March.
JamesInNC Feb 24 2014 at 9:32 AM	Very apropos comments, Saxond.
Kooltrane Feb 22 2014 at 6:41 PM	My first PMG concert was at Town Hall in NYC sometime around 1980 just prior to the release of "Offramp." I clearly remember the band blowing myself and the audience away with AYGWM. It was a revelatory, stunning experience.
saxond Feb 22 2014 at 5:00 PM	Pat made an interesting statement in a recent interview. It was regarding the subject of "giving the people what they want" vs. wholeheartedly following the artistic muse. He said that you CAN’T simply give the people what they want, because they don’t agree on what they want; people seem to name the album that was their personal gateway into Metheny music; the one on which, perhaps standing in a record store, people heard their first sample and said, "WHO is that?" I think that’s extremely true. I knew a guy who went back to the first group album (the white album) and even helped do the mix board at his college for a concert. No matter what PM or PMG or PMUG ever puts out, that first album will be unchallenged as his favorite. I discovered Metheny around the time of First Circle, got the album on vinyl and Metheny’s music has dominated my listening for three decades since. I’m still discovering cuts (such as "Signals"--thanks!) that I hadn’t fully appreciated the first time or two through. That’s why whatever comes out, it’s pretty much all good because you know your taste is going to catch up with it. For me, Still Life/Talking and perhaps Speaking of Now will be the peaks difficult to surpass. But I’m still growing, still expanding thanks to where Pat’s gift leads us. There’s an old saying, "Walk to the edge of all the light that you have, and take one more step." This what Pat does musically. He goes to the edge, and he has the charisma and track record to get us to take that step with him into what is at first dark and unsettling. Soon his talents will light it up for us and we will see a new landscape. I won’t do that for other artists, but Pat has my trust. What a joy and a privilege to grow in musical appreciation into old age with this music.
amotta Feb 21 2014 at 7:04 PM	I have read the answers in this topic and I’m impressed with the degree of relevance, depth, maturity and respect to our beloved Pat Metheny. It is curious that the individual experience that each of us has with the compositions of Pat, and it’s quite obvious that there is something greater that unites us all. I do not know what it is, but at least is a great musical identity that is common to all. This is fantastic. Thank you all for the answers and let´s continue on this journey! JamesInNC, thanks for the compliments to my photos ! Your report impressed me and at this moment I am hearing again As Falls Wichita So Falls Wichita Falls ... A big hug !
JamesInNC Feb 18 2014 at 10:16 AM	I discovered PM in 1981 in a record store that used a turntable to play in store music and it just so happened that one evening while the deep red rays of a setting sun poured in through the large glass entrance and over the record bins, they played the title track "As Falls Wichita So Falls Wichita Falls." Now...I heard the crowd but was only half conscious of it...It was that ground quaking bass guitar string that stopped me dead in my tracks. I just stood there watching the oncoming headlights of the cars coming down the boulevard, and listening...I didn’t know it at the time but then and there a paradigm shift had occurred...Heavily into prog rock at the time and any song over ten minutes long, I kept coming back to this particular album...it was like my musical interests were being re-wired and networked...But it really wasn’t until the double live album "Travels" with its version of AYGWM that sealed my permanent devotion and deep appreciation for Pat Metheny...No other musician has influenced, molded, expanded and matured my musical interests like he has...not only the music I find interesting, but the way I listen to it...Sure there have been and will always be many of Pat’s compositions that will come to the fore...but my personal anthem or the one that has become a symbolic musical emblem for me will always be the live version of AYGWM...Every album has that one composition that sparks with where you are at the moment but I think for me...and maybe I’m just old and nostalgic...when my gold disc was being pressed and getting ready to be sent into space, in a manner of speaking...it was AYGWM that was on it. So many convergences during that time in my life...and so many that will never be repeated...interestingly enough, my 15 year old son has been drawn to "Signals," and its one of a select group of PM songs that he listens to regularly no matter what, it’s on all his playlists. So you may be on to something here...By the way Andre, your photographs are wonderful...worthy of a PM cd cover :-)
mountain Feb 14 2014 at 9:58 AM	I have the Unity Band CD and the iTunes download that contains the tune Signals, but looked it up on Spotify and found it is the only song from that release that is not available on Spotify. Interesting. The first section leading up to 2:40 reminds of some of the orchestral works by Frank Zappa. Apart from the Roland guitar synth/synclavier blowing through the song, it in no way replaces "Are You Going With Me" as one of the all time favs. Keep in mind that AYGWM represented something new at the time it was released.
foper Feb 10 2014 at 10:05 AM	‘Signals (Orchestrion Sketch)’ has a similar feel to ‘Improvisation #1’ on the Orchestrion Project DVD.
foper Feb 10 2014 at 9:57 AM	naut… Yes, I think Pat is still using the GR-300 guitar synth. It has various foot switches for a wide variety of purposes; one of them to have a sound move up or down an octave.
concord743 Jan 24 2014 at 8:46 PM	You are spot on Amotta. The track is bewitching. The interplay between Pat and Chris is very special. I can’t stop listening to it either. I find something new each time I hear it.
naut Jan 24 2014 at 1:57 PM	"To the End of the World" is kind of like that for me. It also features an amazing synth solo and has that pleasant adagio going on. Does anyone happen to know if Pat uses switches or buttons to get that high-pitched soloing? I don’t know if some of those notes he plays can even be reached on a standard guitar.
lorenantolik Jan 23 2014 at 6:56 PM	I agree, this song has something going for it that not all other Metheny songs possess. I think it has a more ’jam’ feel to it, similar to bands like the Allman Brothers or the Grateful Dead - and also similar to earlier Metheny work, such as The Fields, The Sky. The other element is much of the improvisation and support work is in a major key, which contributes greatly to the joyousness of that tune. Within it all is the edge/intensity that Metheny puts in all of his solos - that special ’it’ that so many people can point to but can’t describe. I think this conversation about this particular song and these particular elements can be applied to just about any style and any Metheny tune though - he really is so versatile and can excel at just about anything he chooses to - but also within that is it is evident he just loves all kinds of music.
saxond Jan 23 2014 at 4:52 PM	Yes, I do understand what you are saying. I respond to that song, particularly the main body of it after the rather abstract into, the same way you do. There is the joyful ecstasy we look forward to in the very best of Pat’s work. Another piece that achieves this ecstasy is the "Orchestrion" opener with the same title. It builds to a crescenco that is, again, something like the speaking in tongues of religious people. Unbridled joy expressed that is never expressed so well in music as Pat’s melodic soul is able to express it. I think this new album by the Unity Group is going to have these moments, based on the samples I’ve heard. And I couldn’t be more excited.
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