Los Dorkos perform Americano Pharaoh (The Donald Trump Song). I wrote the song and produced it for them and it was so much fun to work on. I’m interested to see reaction to the song. It’s a novelty song and like with musical theater, you never quite know how it’s going to land until you put it in front of an audience. Humor is a fine line between what is funny to one and not another. So here it is, just released today – let’s find out what happens…
P.S. – Am I the only one who has problems spelling “Pharaoh?” I keep wanting to spell it as Pharoah. Wouldn’t it be easier if we could just say Faro…
LYRICS – Donald Trump the Americano Pharaoh
Donald Trump el Americano Pharaoh
His hair just like naranja
He has a big banana
y corazón muy sincero
Donald Trump el Americano Pharaoh
We build-o big-o wall-o
To pay back what we borrow
Now Mexico great again
Donald Trump el Americano Pharaoh
Hola me llamo Pepe
Soy de Mexico
El bordello take my money all away
Need to get a trabajo
I sit around all day in my chair-o
So Uncle Don give me a wheelbarrow
Now soy feliz to wear mi sombrero
And build a wall for the Americano Pharaoh
Mexicanos we love the Gringo
And comprendemos how to use wheelbarrow
You think-o that we rape-o
You think-o that we kill-o
We feel so lo siento
When we finish the precast plank-o
And the Pharaoh happy with his grande tall wall
Then the Mexicanos win the lotto
And build a bigger wall by Montreal
Donald Trump el Americano Pharaoh
His hair just like naranja
He has a big banana
y corazón muy sincero
Donald Trump el Americano Pharaoh
We build-o big-o wall-o
To pay back what we borrow
Now Mexico great again
Donald Trump el Americano Pharaoh
His hair just like naranja
He has a big banana
Now Mexico great again
Donald Trump el Americano Pharaoh
RECORDING NOTES
The drums for this track were recorded at Threshold Studios in New York City in mid 2015. I did many sessions there to build a library of live drum tracks that I could use later in production. I really wanted to have my own tracks to use instead of using an existing sound library, loops or midi re-creations. The sound and feel of real drums by a live player are so important to me. To my memory, the sessions were recorded through an SSL console and had a great live sound in the studio.
For this song I recorded all the other instruments and vocals myself. There is bass guitar, piano, acoustic guitar, vocals and accordion.
The piano is laid in very soft to accent the snare, kind of providing the function of a bajo backbeat. There are four different acoustic guitar tracks, put into two groups that are each panned. The focus on the backbeat, muted single note eighth note rhythm and a more 16th note “gallop” rhythm on the chorus sections.
For the accordion I actually spent many hours recording live accordion tracks with an Excelsior accordion through a Neumann U-87, but I wasn’t happy with the final sound. It sounded thin on the recording and didn’t quite have the pop of a tejano style accordion. So I ended up scrapping all the live accordion tracks and going with an accordion patch from the East/West library and playing the accordion tracks on a keyboard. It misses just a bit of the bellow action from a live accordion track, but the trade off to my ears was more punch and more of an authentic tejano feel.
The vocals are in 4 parts double tracked. A two part inner harmony (the main vocal and harmony) with a highest vocal on the top harmony that is also doubled down an octave. The outer harmonies are lower in the mix to add support to the lead vocal and harmony. In all, 8 vocal tracks (4 parts double tracked).
Mixing for this song was done in Ableton Live and I also relied heavily on UAD (Universal Audio) plugins, with a few Wave plugins primarily for notch EQ cuts.
I know i might not be popular by saying this, but I’d feel more safe if Trump was chief executive actually. This world is crazy.
Hi Ashwood,
Now it’s January 2021 and your words ring more true than ever.