40 songs

Portrait of the artist as an old man; db in October 2011

I just spent the morning uploading songs and song fragments that I found on my hard-drives.  All told, there are 40 of them!  And there's more hidden on my drives somewhere.

The songs go back to the mid 1980s.  It's really cool to hear my young voice, warbly as it was.  I can't sing that well now because of ear troubles and asthma.  Listening back, I get a clear sense of how age takes things from you one little bit at a time..

Over the next few days, I want to do a sketch on each tune, going as chronologically as I can.  So with that in mind, first up is "So Long."  I must've written and recorded this song in 1985 or so after meeting a girl I thought quite a bit of.  It ended tragically, of course, but the first flush of new love and impossible longing is evident in the performance.

So Long

I think this was the first time I tried to record with an acoustic guitar.  I had been trying off and on to learn to play the guitar over the years.  I wasn't able to do it, and my brother generously pitched in with the acoustic performance you hear.  The bass is a solid graphite Steinberger -- if you've heard them before you'll recognize that sound immediately.

I first started playing bass in 1980 or 81, I think.  I know it was shortly after Rush's Moving Pictures came out, which I loved as soon as I heard.  I resolved to learn how to play those intricate bass lines, and with a lot of hard work, I did.  Eventually I graduated to Exit Stage Left, the classic Rush live album, which I would play from end to end.

I was in various small bands in Hattiesburg, Mississippi during those years, playing whatever people wanted to hear, and some things that they didn't.  I would try to get the bands to play some Rush tunes, which were not especially popular at the time.  We had a little trouble with the singing -- often I was called on to try it, and my voice wasn't really up to it.  This song brings it all back to me -- all the small, smoky bars where we played Free Bird.  I remember one band was called The Lonesome Bogey Band, after the keyboard player, who went by the nickname Bogey.  Our big original hit at that time was "FOaD" which stands for just what you might think it does.  It wasn't one of mine.  Bands never played my songs.  I wasn't pushy enough to get them into the lineup.

The next tune comes from later on -- probably 1991 or so.  It's called "I will be there."

I will be there

I wrote it thinking of George Harrison, but I can't find anything about it that sounds especially like George now.  I had a tough time with this tune, re-recording it at least three times, which is a lot for me.  Generally, I record something once and move on, whatever it sounds like.  But with this one, I wasn't satisfied and would try it again.  The bass here is a Rickenbacker 4001v63 -- the one that you see in the picture on ReverbNation.  Last I saw, it was still hanging in the local music store I sold it to.  I tried to talk to the owner about buying it back a few years ago but I don't think he wants to part with it.

I was never satisfied with the v63 because it couldn't quite manage the famous tones from Chris Squire or Geddy Lee because it used the new wiring scheme rather than the old one that were in Squire and Lee's basses.  Recently I owned a 4001c64S, and it had that tone.  Even so, I sold the bass because Rickenbackers really only sound like Rickenbackers, and I didn't have the resources to own enough basses to cover all the sounds I wanted to make.  I now use my trusty Made in Korea Tobias that I tricked out with new pickups and all, and also a 2007 Warwick Corvette Standard 5 string, which is so versatile you really would never need another bass.

Now that has gotten me to thinking about the various basses I've owned over the years.  If you aren't a musician, you won't be familiar with a particular malady that infects all musicians to some degree or other.  It's called Gear Acquisition Syndrome, or GAS for short.  You'll be forever chasing a sound that you can hear in your head, but that your gear always fails to produce in just the way you want.

If you are just starting out -- beware!  The sound in your head is a chimera!  It will never be found!  Turn back while you still have your cash!

My first bass was a Peavey t40, which I traded a beautiful Bach silver trombone for.  I still feel pretty guilty about this because my grandpa had given me that trombone as a gift.  I told him that I wanted to make the trade, and he was resistant, but agreed in the end.  Sorry grandpa!  It was a terrible trade on my part.  No recording of that bass survives as far as I know, but I had a real tough time with it.  Mississippi is a notoriously humid place, and most woods will warp there pretty badly.  I don't know what that t40 was made out of, but it would warp so bad it was pitiful.  The salesman at the music store gave me that piece of crap, and a piece of crap amp and fuzz box, for the trombone, and couldn't get me out the door fast enough.  He knew he had made a killing.  Over the years I slowly began to recognize how music store clerks' eyes would light up when they saw me coming.. Easy mark = me.

I'm not sure what came next directly, but it might have been a Rickenbacker.  I've owned four of them.  The Steinberger, of course, and there was a Fender Precision Elite, which showed me that some basses are just too big for my small hands.  I had a Japanese made Fender Jazz which I could kick myself for letting go.  I put some new pickups in it, I don't remember what now, but it turned in to a tone monster.  I'm sure I got rid of it for another Rick..

For a while I had an Ibanez of some sort.  These are more popular now than they were.  Mine was made of such a light wood that it's tone was extremely lacking in muscle, but it was cheap and all I could afford at the time.  I'm pretty sure I have a picture of myself holding it, a very young man at the time.

The author c1982

I don't know what that expression is supposed to mean.  I know I was nervous because we were playing with a really good drummer at the time and were hoping to get him to stick with us.  It was a no go.

Looking at that bass, I remember at that time I had an obsession with making sure my bass had 24 frets.  I used to use all of them too, with the weird all-bass songs I would do.  I wonder if I can turn one of those up?

LATE EDIT:

I found a couple more songs that are pretty old.  This one comes from 1992, and I wrote it for the girl who became my girlfriend and then my wife.

How I love you (Oh Donna)

You can hear all the work I put into that.  I remember being immensely proud when I was finished.  It is a little over-produced and under-engineered, but I still like it today.  I really enjoy the youthful fervor you can hear in it.  Even if you didn't understand English you'd know it's a song that celebrates something.

I recall that Donna hated it.  But she never has liked my music, except for the odd exception here and there.

Another that may actually be older than So Long up above is She's a Parallelogram.  It must be from 1985 or thereabouts.  I remember I had a bunch of songs like this one -- quirky and weird, but very 80s.