Tim’s Autograph Tune For Jason
Tim Smith of CARDIACS once autographed a copy of Cardiacs’ Rude Bootleg (Live at Reading Festival, 1986. ALPH 005) by writing 14 seconds of music in staff notation along with the message “Get someone to play this – A song especially for Jason. Love Timmy X”
Then… Martin Keary recorded Tim’s autograph on keyboards and piano in early 2018,
Keary, at the suggestion of Ron Synovitz, also lengthened the piece in a very Tim-like way. He transposed a phrase from the autograph using tools that Tim Smith often employed in his song writing. Synovitz then assembled the 14-second autograph together with the transpositions as a middle section and with a final repetition of the complete autograph.
The result is 76 seconds of music based on Tim Smith’s autograph “For Jason” and an extrapolation in the spirit of Tim Smith’s writing — a “lost” Cardiacs song, if you will.
If you enjoyed this musical experiment, visit and subscribe to Martin Keary’s “Tantacrul” youtube page at: https://www.youtube.com/user/martinthekearykid
And donate to Tim Smith’s ongoing healthcare fundraiser at: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/timsmith
(Compiled and mastered at Crypt Studio, Prague, by Ron Synovitz with Pavel Ice Cajthaml, February 2018; Autographed ALPH 005 from the collection of Sam Shepherd.)