Demotron: “Please” & Performed Utterances (2008-2012) (Part 2)
This is a special podcast debut episode - Flash back to Feb 5, 2010, The day Ryno began songwriting again after a 15 year break. Bonus talk about the love of words.
If you missed Part 1, click here.
This is Part 2.
Here are 2 x ACOUSTIC DEMOS
These are the first known recordings of my song “Please”, with finished lyrics. I made them sitting at the kitchen table of my 4730 Vernon Blvd, 2F, LIC, NY. 11101 apartment. These are the first versions of “Please” on guitar. There’s a lot of guitar. I was practicing a lot with my new Martin DC-15E.
Here are the two raw, unmixed takes (the low quality is kinda nice?).
TAKE 1: “Please” AcG 4-Track (Demo)
TAKE 2: “Please” AcG 4-Track (Demo)
Podcast Episode story here
I created a podcast, Pretty City Lights Podcast, after making this recording. You can subscribe to the podcast on the platform of your choosing here.
PODCAST #2: Episode Audio (23mins)
PODCAST #2: Read-Along Video (23mins)
What it’s like to return to a song after 15 years
Considering you’ve heard my 1993 recording, “I Like Elvis”, from 15 years earlier (in Part 1), and now you’ve spent the time listening to my audio story, there’s not much more to tell you about this song. It’s been my companion for a long time. In fact, this song and I are a really old couple, who love each other enough to sleep in separate rooms.
I’ve used this song as a punching bag too. It’s my go-to experimental song. Over the years, when I’ve found a new instrument, I’ve run this tune through it.
In February of 2009, after a super long 10 year break from songwriting, I found myself starting fresh. Considering I stopped writing songs right after high school, and now was in my mid-30s, I couldn’t remember my songs. One of the songs I instinctually grabbed onto was “I Like Elvis”. This drop-D blues was what I played in the shop, when trying out guitars to purchase. By this time in my life experience, I had a truckload of lyric content waiting to come out that had much more significance than a dumb song about Elvis.
My first order of business was to write song. I chose this one as a great start, although my songwriting style quickly moved away from it. I think of it as the middle square in Bingo, which everyone gets free at the start.
The Omnichord Demo
You may love this recording? It’s pretty charming. I remember making it. It was early in the morning, after coffee, in bed. I played it into my phone. Later that day at work, I played it for a totally random person at my job, to see what they might say. They said I sounded like Rufus Wainwright. This was one of my first compliments about my music. Pretty great, right? Except, were they being completely honest?
‘non-pliments’
Learning to live with ‘non-pliments’ about your creation is at the heart of maturing as an artist. I cannot say I’ve gone easy on myself. You can make yourself sick over this tiny, smoke filled ‘non-pliments’. In a way, someone telling you they like your song, when they really don’t, is worse than someone calling your creation ‘total garbage’. A slight is worse than a putdown, I suppose. I’ve learned this.
About this recording
I don’t know what this beat is called. I bought an omnichord on Ebay as a songwriting tool. It has a bunch of beats you can play along to. You can run your finger along the touch sensitive sensor and the machine will play a ‘harp-like’ electronic scale of whatever chord you are holding down. Hold down the A-minor button, and the touchpad is an A-minor scale. It’s beautiful and bizarre.
I’ve cleaned it up a bit in Pro Tools.
Please Lyrics:
I love Words.
What are ‘Performative Utterances’?
I am not a person who should be writing about this, as I haven’t studied linguistics. However, I find it fascinating that there are single words like "please" that can mean all kinds of things when spoken. They can act as nouns, adjectives, verbs, and carry both positive and negative connotations. When I rewrote "I Like Elvis" to "Please" in 2010, I was mostly thinking about the exasperated, pleading version of "please." Thanks to the internet, I learned these kinds of words are called "performative utterances." It turns out that between 1955-1962 J. L. Austin, a British philosopher, used the term ‘performative utterances’ in a series of lectures (that later became this book, here) to describe statements that perform an action simply by being spoken, rather than merely conveying information.
I asked AI to come up with a list of 50:
Chat Jippity: "Here’s a list of the most common single-word performative utterances: 1. Yes 2. No 3. Sorry 4. Thanks 5. Congrats 6. Ouch 7. Amen 8. Cheers 9. Hello 10. Goodbye 11. Welcome 12. Please 13. Enough 14. Agreed 15. Stop 16. Come 17. Go 18. Fire 19. Help 20. Silence 21. Rise 22. Dismissed 23. Swear 24. Promise 25. Bless 26. Hush 27. Cheers 28. Present 29. Touché 30. Approved 31. Denied 32. Granted 33. Obey 34. Yield 35. Withdraw 36. Disperse 37. Retreat 38. Stand 39. Sit 40. Rise 41. Surrender 42. Speak 43. Attack 44. Charge 45. Hold 46. Halt 47. Begin 48. End 49. Quiet 50. Relax These performative utterances convey specific actions, agreements, or acknowledgments with just a single word."
I made my favorites in bold. I will laugh hard at a proper sarcastic use of the word ‘Congrats’, every time. My true friends know me,
“I was running 70 miles a week. I ran so much that I tore my calf-muscle” "Congrats!", said a friend sarcastically
In my 2025 Studio version of Please
In my ultra polished studio recording of Please, I found ways to sing the word/title with many different inflections and meanings. I’m not sure you can hear the differences in my performed utterance 😉, but I was thinking about those when i was singing. I cannot wait to share this with you. It’s a dense recording and I’m chipping away at it.
The Exasperated Plea
like, Please tell me I can do it.
‘Plea’ is inside the word
Urgency in an Emotional Request
‘Common, Please, i’m begging you’
Expressing Incredulity or Irritation–often sarcastic
“When I was younger, I was 100 feet tall. Oh, Please”
"Really? Please"
Provide satisfaction
This time together pleases me
“It’s your turn to please me”
The Courtesy, Invitation, or Offering
No please, you first, eat the last avocado
The Polite request, Acceptance, Agreement
Would you like to hear real drums at a live show? Yes please.
Wishful Ambivalence
Do as you please
Please, rob the place for all I care
“Please, take me an leave me alone”
Conclusion
Please is a song that has changed dramatically. I feel really good about it’s mutated past. It taught me many lessons in the making. Songs are not stationary things. They do not have to be treated like concrete. I cherish this song’s history, good and bad. Although it’s been with me, it’s time to put it on the shelf.
I feel great about where I am today, in 2024. So much so, that I have decided to release please as my first Pretty City Lights song. The Live version is already out.
You can listen to it, or watch the performance, if you like, here.
Next, in Demotron Part 3
“Please (Live)” recorded with the band in Seoul, at the venue Space Hangang.
WEAR OUT THE LIGHTS!
If you missed Part 1, click here.
For Part 3, click here.
About the author
Ryan OToole (aka, RYNO) is a skateboarder from Arizona with too many film degrees, who writes songs for Pretty City Lights—a new music project based in Seoul, South Korea. His songs have been described as, "alternative rock for people dying of middle age". Formerly associated with the band, Amateur Blonde, his songs have been featured in television and film - notably, The Walking Dead (S10 Ep21). RYNO is the author of Behind The Lights a freemium substack publication, documenting the Pretty City Lights song & album creation process with the slogan, “watch me make music”.