This Time (I'm Gonna Try It My Way)

DJ Shadow
"This Time (video)" from The Outsider (2006, Island Records)

The story on this song according to DJ Shadow from an HMV.com interview:

"The vocals on 'This Time' are about 40 years old. A recording studio in the Bay Area closed down and a friend of mine got hold of all these reels. It's literally 1 minute 20 seconds of this guy tuning up his guitar, singing this little song, and I just fell in love with that vocal track so I literally built the song around it and I'm happy with the way it came out. I have a lot of imitators back home following the 'Endtroducing' model so I just wanted this album to be as hard to imitate as possible. That's one of the reasons I called it 'The Outsider'."

Some additional insight from Austin, Texas audio engineer Mike Manewitz via the SoulStrut.com boards:

"I can absolutely 100% guarantee that the vocals on 'This Time' are not redone. I did some tape transfers for Soulstrut's own Jinx74 ~18 months ago and the vocal was on one of the reels. Labeled in yellowed tape 'Joe'. There were a few other songs on the reel, but 'This Time' was the standout. I must have played that track on repeat for months. Just vocals on one track and acoustic guitar on the other. SO AMAZING. When Josh [Josh Davis, DJ Shadow] was doing some work in the studio I was at, I asked him if [Jinx] had played him any of the reels we transferred and gave him a copy on CD in case he hadn't heard. I mentioned the 'Joe' tracks and how he needed to hear them. Next thing I heard was Jinx calling me up to get the reel because Josh was in love with the song and wanted to use it on the new record.

I was pretty amazed with how the track turned out, especially after listening to the raw version for so long. Maybe at some point that version will get released. I have been a fairly unapologetic Shadow geek for a while, so it was a very cool experience."