THE DIS COVERY OF MY OWN HANDS

Here is another track from my dad’s old band.  The song is called “Captain Bill” and my dad’s name was Bill, so not sure if their is any relation there.  I really like this track - the singing and the guitar playing is TIGHT.  And I especially like the “talking part”.

Again, I contacted my dad’s old buddy Phil Doyle (who is singing and playing rhythm guitar on this track) to get the low down on this song.

• Captain Bill - was, and probably still is one of my favorite songs.  It was also recorded by another local group that was a successful club band, but none of their material was ever released.  I’m singing and playing guitar, and Bill played bass and lead.  A guy named John Valentis played drums.  Though one of my favorite songs, I’ve never liked the way I sing it… very frustrating.  Bill’s guitar playing is the highlight of this particular recording: for me, it’s like a case study in how to weave a very lyrical guitar solo around a vocal… complimenting it, but never getting in the way.  Ironically, though recorded twice, the song was never finished (thus the ad libbed spoken portion).  Our producer wanted the song on tape to play for someone, missing verse or not, so we did it.  Perversely enough, people actually liked the spoken part.

Yes, I like the spoken part as well for some strange reason.  Cool song.  And I agree, the dad’s guitar playing here is pretty cool and perfect in the way it never over-powers the vocals.

• DOWNLOAD THE MP3 HERE (for free)
• yeah!!!!

OK, I am loosely trying to stay relevant with society at large, and so I got into the spirit of things, and here is a Valentine’s Day Song that I made today.  I suppose it is more for haters.  But not too much so.

• DOWNLOAD free mp3 HERE
• “I know I’m in love, I don’t need it to be a holiday”
• My wife & I tried to remember what we did last year for Valentine’s Day and neither one of us could remember.  I guess we did nothing - we were too busy getting ready for our wedding.  We already had enough love happening.
• This year she got me some new Timberland boots and I got her a small diamond necklace.  But other than that, we have stayed home all day, just kickin’ it, doing laundry and stuff.  It’s a great day.

Time to post another one from my ghost dad’s old band.  Because I only have a cassette tape and very little other information to go on, I’ve been in contact with my dad’s old musical partner Phil Doyle, who enjoys receiving these digitized tunes that he hasn’t heard in years, and then he can give me some comments about the origins and situations of each song.  Today’s song is titled “25 Silver Lake Drive”, which is a bit curious since I live in the small town of Silver Lake (Los Angeles).

Below is Phil’s response to the song and a link to download the mp3:

• “Though not my favorite song, if someone asked me to play one song of what ‘The Group’ really sounded like it would be this one way before any of the songs that were released as records.  That was our sound.  What’s strange is that it sounded much faster here than I recall it being, so either one deck or another was off speed during copying or my memory is going.  Brian Murphy played drums, Bill played bass and lead guitar (I played rhythm guitar) and Patty and I sang.  The song is about 40 years old, maybe more.  I was told to “write an acid song,” and so I did.  The lyrics are nonsense, but I’ve always loved the energy of the music, and the way the vocals sounded.”

I agree, it definitely sounds like a trippy acid song.  And I do think the vocals are good.

• DOWNLOAD MP3 HERE

Matt Kalish is still finishing up the music video for this song.  It should be different & interesting and hopefully I will be able to upload it soon.

This takes the version of the song, which I did on my Tascam 388 tape machine, and imports it track by track into Logic, where I remixed everything.  Then I played piano on top of it and added more vocals and some other background textures.  My wife Chloe singing on this track towards the end is one the featured welcomed additions.

• DOWNLOAD THE mp3 HERE  :-0