Song: I Keep Forgettin’ performed by Michael McDonald, remixed by Jason Ward
When the tears from your break up mix with the rain on the windscreen and nobody in the city tonight is listening. You drive.
Maybe slowly, maybe quickly. Did you jump a red light back then?
You did your best but it wasn’t down to you. The door slam, lights out and no sign of her watching you leave. She told you that there’s no going back but you Keep Forgetting you’re not in love anymore.
I Keep Forgettin’ is one of my favourite songs. The combination of the moody, relentless, deep funk bass line with McDonald’s smooth tone made jagged with pain has always suggested something with darker possibilities.
Louis Johnson from The Brothers Johnson was the bass player on this track. He may well be the most influential bassist you’ve never heard of. He also played on Michael Jackson’s albums Off The Wall (check out the opening to Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough), and Thriller - Billie Jean anyone?
A poet might refer to the song’s repeated phrase “I keep forgetting” as anaphoric, and its duality is what gives it power; the narrator literally keeps forgetting that this relationship is done but also he is bitter about its ending.
In this version I wanted to maintain my favourite parts, the vocal and the bass line, and enhance them with strings and the descending grand piano line that reflects the loss of energy the narrator feels. The later female vocal line can be understood as either the other partner feeling the same or maybe even mocking the narrator. I couldn’t decide and I wonder what you, the listener, thinks.
I used simple tools to create this: Virtual DJ to isolate the lines I wanted and Garage Band to reconstruct it.
I Keep Forgetting is from Michael McDonald’s 1982 album If That’s What It Takes.
Check out this Soul Train performance in which you may notice Jeff Porcaro from each rock masters on drums
