Blown away

[Roger Penn]

I have often wished they would do an updated studio recording of this. Maybe one day. I just hope that if they do they resist the temptation to completely rework it. The simplicity and guitar counterpoint really makes the vocals and the message swell with emotion.

[Jung Roe]

Hi David, Roger. Yeah I was blown away too when I learned this beautiful tender and emotionally expressive song was one of their earliest originals. It would be awesome if Mona and Lisa brought this one back and did a refreshed version like on a Duo Session. For now we just have to imagine what Lisa’s first solo performance at an Open Mic in LA must have sounded like.

https://youtu.be/mquSae6K3xE?t=116

[David]

Hi Roger and Jung,

I think we’re in agreement this should be in an upcoming Duo Session, just as it was originally performed. The delicacy of the original would be too easily broken with additional instrumentation. Now, who starts the petition to make that happen? 😉

Jung, I’m going to watch that interview now. I’ve been wondering if the Twins have ever done a song in which only one of them performs. I know Mona getting cold feet at open mic doesn’t quite count, of course…

On another random note, do you think it’s a conscious thing for them to always have Mona to Lisa’s right? It’s pretty rare to see Mona on Lisa’s left (our right). Even on the cover of “When We’re Together” where she is technically standing to Lisa’s left, they’re looking over their shoulders at the camera, putting Mona on the left in the frame. What do you think?

[Roger Penn]

I have always assumed that, not only because they’re twins but just for people who might be new to them and not know, since they’re the MonaLisa Twins, they take care to appear in that order so that people will know which is which. I think it’s quite considerate of the casual fan, actually. I had never even thought about the fact that on the WWT cover, because they’re facing the other way, they were technically reversed. Mind blown. LOL

[Jung Roe]

Hi David, yeah an interesting observation. I would imagine in the early days, maybe even going back to childhood they made a conscious effort for Mona to stand/pose to the right of Lisa, but I it’s likely by now it’s second nature maybe for them whenever they get in front of a camera. A music video with Lisa Mona is indeed a rare bird. I had to go all the way down under south of the equator to a cave in Australia to find one, where things tend to be opposite, like water swirls into the drain in the other direction I think??? ????

https://youtu.be/rVtl2qg4d6w

[Daryl Jones]

Well, since I discovered them back when, the hair color is a no brainer haha. But for a while even then it was easy to get them mixed up for me as I have a bit of a thing with names.

I had never heard “Alone” until yesterday, but I absolutely love it! Sure, it would be great to have an updated version done, but I would be very distressed to have anything lost in the feeling that is in the original recording. Something about it just sent chills through me. I wouldn’t want that to be covered up with additional (unnecessary?) instrumentation or accompaniment. It is just beautiful in its simplicity.

[Jung Roe]

Hi Daryl, I agree their Alone from 2007 is a musical masterpiece, right from the opening acoustic sweet guitar sounds to the singing, it is so beautiful. In fact I feel that 2007 live performance and the music they captured on the live album is absolutely stunning. Samba Pa Ti, Twist and Shout, Aufstehn, Aint’t No Sunshine, Wild World….so many. Love Lisa’s guitar on Samba Pa Ti (more expressive than Carlos Santana, seriously), and my drummer hero Mona on Twist and Shout (Ringo Starr, Keith Moon and Ginger Baker have nothing comparable to Mona’s stellar and dynamic performance here). Even though Mona and Lisa were so young when they did this, their naturally gifted talent shined, many of those songs I prefer over the original. When I first got that album, I use to sing “Wonderful Tonight” to my wife MJ while I played the track following Lisa’s singing. This from someone who never sings, I surprised MJ, and myself. I think though a refreshed Alone like in a Duo Session format would be great. We would have two magnificent performances.

[David]

Hi Jung. Good find in the land down under. Normal rules clearly don’t apply there. Apparently weeks even have eight days!

[David Herrick]

Ah, that would explain a lot. If you keep adding an extra day to each week, after a couple of years your calendar will be so far off that your seasons will be completely out of sync with the rest of the world.

[David]

Good point, though of course everything would all come back around again. If only we had a good math nerd to figure out how long it would take Australian seasons to go out of sync and back in with the northern hemisphere through the addition of one extra day per week. What an awesomely nerdy waste of time that would be!

[David Herrick]

The consensus conclusion of good math nerds is that if you extend the week by one part in seven, then the full cycle would take seven years: 3.5 years to get maximally out of sync, and 3.5 more to get back in sync, at which point you’d be one lap down, i.e. one year behind.

There’s actually an historical analog for this sort of thing. Due to an oversimplification in how the ancient Romans accounted for leap years, by the mid-1700’s the calendar was ten days behind where it should be based on the Earth’s position in its orbit. At that time, most European countries decided to jump the calendar forward ten days to catch up, and redo the leap year calculation more accurately for posterity.

[Roger Penn]

OK, if M&L don’t write a song about this silliness I’ll be sad. lol

[Jung Roe]

???? Yeah 8 days a week too, and the mice are huge as they hop around.

[Daryl Jones]

Gee, that rings a bell somehow…minus the mice