I wrote this song several years ago while I was heavily involved in the study of John Lennon's music and song writing. I was so enamored with his phrasing and use of harmony that I felt compelled to write my own Lennon song. Um, yeah. And it wasn't good enough to write a song in his style, I had to sing it like him too, at least as best as I could. Ah, the arrogance of youth. :)
 
So I fired up Band in a Box, entered my chord progression and hit play to generate a backing track. I then did several vocal tracks and some guitar crap over the top of that. And here is the result. There's a bunch of silly stuff in here. For example, you can hear the metronome ticking away in the back ground on the vocal track. And there's a part in there where I didn't have a lyric or two and just scatted some stuff. Left it all in there. In the end in a moment of uncharacteristic maturity I shelved this song because it was too much not me, I was clearly working hard to be somebody else and I put it away until I could figure out how to really make it my own. 
 
But if you cut through all the wannabe-isms in this song, I'm beginning to believe that there is something here, and I wanted to get your opinion on it. I know this is not typically how things are done here but what the heck. 
 
So, here it is, Kevin trying hard to be a Beatle. Be nice, please, we were all young and idealistic once. 
 
https://soundcloud.com/kevin-ibsen/apple-on-a-tree-v1

Music is spirit, the holy ghost unless you're nietzche. That's your muse, it makes you unique.  Nobody can take that away from you.

Yes, I guess I can hear shades of Lennon in there and you've tried to capture the sonic qualities of Lennon's sound.
We've all gone through that phase where we want to emulate our favorite artist or some sonic quality that we thought was the ultimate. Eventually, we all come back to ourselves and try and make the best of it.
 
That said, if you get rid of that jangly guitar and put a real one in there, I reckon you've got the makings of a good song, even if it is a bit Lennonish.
I rather like it, for itself.
 
Cheers
Wal

Ha, real guitar, I like that. Thanks for the thoughts.

Kevin,
 
Good song, you have something here. 
 
Regards

 
whatever your intentions, the resemblance to anything Lennon is only marginal. If this isn't you, I'd like to hear more from whoever it is. I think it's an excellent song. Maybe it deserves a little more attention, but I like it.

Yeah, I know it doesn't really sound like him, it was more that I was trying awfully hard to sound like him. Perhaps it's a meaningless distinction but it was important to me at the time. Thank you for your feedback, it's nice to have someone else's opinion. I guess I'm not enough of a writer yet to fully trust my own instincts.

Kevin, you picked a good source of inspiration, and did a good job of evoking Lennon's spirit.  There's a lot of room to grow in this genre, as John would have if he would have lived.  My only technical advise would be to soften the upper mids a bit because to my ears it's all a little bright.  Perhaps a little tape or tube emulation on the master bus might smooth this out.  Or, it could be just the mood I'm in at this moment that hears it that way ;)  All in all, damn good song!

Nice. Clean. I think you captured the vibe very well.

My only complaint is the drums. If you used human in a room instead of band in a box I think it would fly further. Jangly didn't bother me.

Edit - sorry, I've never used BIAB -I didn't realize you write in chords and it makes the song for you. I thought you just did the drums that way - pretty amazing.

Yeah, Band in a Box. I never became very proficient with it and this tune was the only time I ever did anything with BIAB. I did this one as an experiment with the various styles it has in its library. It's a pretty amazing program though, but it's not magic, and if I take this song any further, I'd be starting from scratch. At the end if it all it's a lot more fun to just do it the old-fashioned way.
 
I wrote the song (structure, progression, melody, guitar fills & solos) and BIAB generated a bassline, pad and piano accompaniment based on a specific style. It generates a rather machine-like rendering, but a pretty sophisticated one. Still, it's like doing a painting and then using a stock photo as the background. In the end a rather unsatisfying experience and one that, as I said earlier, I abandoned.