TO WHERE I AM NOW

Waking up feeling better and getting into the studio to cure all ills with music. That’s what music is supposed to do, heal. But it seems that music affects people differently, some people hear the beat, others the bass, the words or the melody, the players’ skills, the singer’s voice. Others hear the production and then there’s those that just want to dance. Drug enhancement, praising the higher powers, ritual, lifts/elevators, restaurants and bars, some loud, some soft. Groove, political vehicle, sending the kids to sleep, birth, seduction, however you use it, treasure it, it’s a gift to everyone. Today in the studio was mystery day. Space Summit Track 9, the basic guitars, electric and acoustic, drums, bass, lead vocals, backing vocals, all done and yet nowhere near finished. I’ve been asked before ‘how do you know when it’s finished?’. The answer is, when you are satisfied that your dissatisfaction cannot be satisfied. But seriously, a song knows when it’s done, even if you don’t.

Today was interesting because we knew we weren’t done but we also didn’t know what we wanted. There was a small idea on the demo, but the song was a long way from the guitar finish line. This is why you have different guitars, different amps, different effects and this is why having your own unique equipment serves you well. I may have to explain. The internet, music programs, digital effects’ companies release things called plug-ins. Millions of created sounds by thousands of companies allowing you to capture the sound you want for your composition – without leaving your desk. The problem with that is that these sounds, samples, plug-ins, are available to everybody. Of course, people use them differently, manipulate them differently, disguise them completely by blending them with other sounds. This is amazing, it makes the possibilities endless for home recording, or any kind of recording. BUT, what we mostly use here is a collection of unique analogue instruments. Guitars sound different to each other even if they are actually the same instrument. For example my sixties Rickenbacker 12 string sounds completely different to my eighties Rickenbacker 12 string despite them both being Rickenbacker 12 strings. My Fenders, ’59 Jazz, ’77 Strat, 2017 Nash Tele are worlds apart and my Fender seventies 6 string bass, ’68 Hagström 8 string bass, sixties Hofner bass and my hybrid seventies/eighties Rickenbacker bass are the difference between butter, cheese, milk and yoghurt.

Finding the right part for a song might not be as simple as plugging in your favourite guitar. The guitar collection is an armoury of possibilities. Today that library of unique sounds became available for us to experiment with ideas to enhance the song, bring it to life, put the icing on the cake. The later model black Rickenbacker 12 string was perfect, adding the other Rickenbacker as a double track was superfluous, we had to try it to know. The Nash Tele through the Electro Harmonix Tremolo pedal was perfect and Dare’s 1961 Gibson 345 with wah wah and then the older Electro Harmonix Big Muff that I found in a junk shop in Portland was exactly what the song needed. All this through a 1962 Vox AC30 with modular bass and treble tone controls in the back casing of the amp. Generic sounds, average guitars and digital effects could not have done this. It might have been different but working with these original instruments is another world. After all this Olivia sang some backing vocals, robots sing too but it’s not quite the same.

Music on the stereo today has been a trip into the obscure, starting with 1969 and Mind Garage. The net tells me that is the first Christian Rock record although you’d never know it. It sounds like records did in 1969, musically and lyrically. It’s not blatant worship like those American eighties metal bands like Stryper, Soldiers Under Command (1985) was a little, let’s say routine. Apparently Mind Garage made the ground-breaking move of playing Rock music live in church with their Electric Liturgy. Nobody had done that before. Without explanation the band disappeared after one album. The Fleshtones cite them as an influence. Another fascinating fact is that Fleshtones guitarist Keith Streng’s partner Katarina had me babysit her cat, Gorm, when I lived in Stockholm.

I followed Mind Garage with an even bigger obscurity. Mirkwood formed in Dover in 1971 and only made this one album released in a limited edition of 99 copies. This reissue is even hard to find. I bought it at a market stall in New Jersey one sunny afternoon. It’s a Rock album from 1973 that needed recording with a better engineer, but has some neat fuzzy guitars. The second track on side one, Love’s Glass Of Sunshine, steals directly from Deep Purple’s Child In Time, including the crescendo for the lead solo. Presuming Child In Time (1970) came first, which the chronology shows. The fascinating fact for this album is that after the original drummer left he was replaced by Topper Headon who joined, wait for it – The Clash.

Not too difficult to follow this obscurity, because I have the Grannie album! They were formed in the late sixties and made this one album in 1971, again only 100 were made. I found this reissue (probably a bootleg) in Italy, when I was there playing at a festival close to Milan with Anekdoten. It’s a great Prog Rock album. Highly recommended, but hard to find and pricey even as a reissue.

Mad River were from Ohio, formed in 1966. They moved to San Francisco and released their debut album in 1968. You have to get used to Lawrence Hammond’s vocals on this one, rather like you do with Pavlov’s Dog, but once you do, then it’s another forgotten classic from the era.

Song Of The Day today is No One There from Nightjar (2008) in honour of the bands that didn’t get past their first or second album.

 

No One There

The pale sun leaves weaker shadows
As daylight wanes and gives in to the dark (dark dark dark)
People hurry into buildings for secret meetings
As the gates close in the park (park park park)

Behind the curtains silhouettes are disembodied
Dancing in the frame (frame frame frame)
And with all the conversations over
The quiet freezes like they never came (came came came)

Pull me up from deep inside this pillow
Feathers soft I lay my head in sorrow
There’s caverns dark and then there’s eyes that stare
And I hear fingers snapping but there’s no one there

Once upon a time with all the world before me
I moved toward the sun (sun sun sun)
But all that brightness, left me sightless
Made it hard to see where I had gone (gone gone gone)

And finally the simple questions
Turned into the ones you shouldn’t ask (ask ask ask)
And still the sharks have fools believing
As all forget the troubles in the past (past past past)

But fear is just an ugly face, who cannot
Win…unless you choose surrendering
Your value drops if you let go
You must hold on
The game is short but the lie is long

Oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh

Pull me up from deep inside this pillow
Feathers soft I lay my head in sorrow
There’s caverns dark and then there’s eyes that stare
And I hear fingers snapping but there’s no one there

(Willson-Piper)
Nightjar (2008)