This is a song from Disc 2 of my upcoming double CD, DINO’S 50. Like most songs on that album, BACKYARD HOUSE features a Fender Stratocaster on the left speaker, a Gibson Les Paul on the right, Fender Bass, drums, and vocals.
I wrote this song shortly after buying a blue Silvertone electric guitar at Costco. I was playing it unamplified in my back yard, and began improvising these chords and lyrics while looking right at the intrusive house of the title.
Later, I copied the demo into Pro Tools, edited out the mistakes, and then played drums along with the demo. After tweaking the drum tracks, I overdubbed temp guitars and vocals in order to learn the song. Bass, drum overdubs, final guitar tracks and vocals were added in that order. Most of 50 was constructed in this manner, to create a feeling of live-band continuity among all the songs.
DINO’S 50 is my tribute to the recording style of TROUT MASK REPLICA: A double album with lots of short songs, using the same basic instrumentation.