Tag Archives: Rolling Stones

DownTown Blog – 21st Century Rock’n Roll

I decided to make a statement with the release of 21st Century Rock’n Roll. I’m releasing it the day before my 70th Birthday…so how’s that for a statement? Being an artist is not what it used to be, or is it? It’s not like it was in the 20th Century, that’s for sure. More importantly, I wanted to make a statement with regards to the current state of Rock’n Roll.

Right now, as far as the venerable genre goes, the only thing I can see out there are The Rolling Stones, speaking of venerable. I look at this as a good thing because it helps me make a case for 21st Century Rock’n Roll. The Stones are really the only band keeping RnR alive. Why 21st Century Rock’n Roll? Well, despite being compared to classic rock artists like Tom Petty and sometimes being classified as classic rock (really?), I don’t think my music could exist at any other time than now. There might have been a few years in the early 80s for a few of the songs, but on the whole I don’t seem to fit in any other time than the 21st Century.

The truth is I don’t really sound like anyone out there. My shorthand for my influences is Buffalo Springfield meets Rockpile. These are not 2 bands that sound like each other and were certainly not as big in their day, but both were highly influential. From the 60s, Buffalo Springfield spawned Stephen Stills and Neil Young and led to CSN/CSNY. Richie Furay and Jim Messina left to form Country Rock pioneers Poco. All of these artists and groups had a big influence on my playing and writing. In the 80s, Rockpile, formed by Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe, were at the forefront of New Wave. It was at a Rockpile show in Asbury Park, NJ that inspired me to create DownTown Mystic, albeit years later.

To make my RnR statement on 21st Century Rock’n Roll, I chose what I would consider to be my most rocking songs. These are not necessarily all my best songs but they are mainly my most rocking ones. Most are up-tempo. I like to think that I probably put out the most up-tempo tracks out there. Up-tempo tracks are generally considered harder to play and require a certain amount of skill from the musicians. Rockpile was an up-tempo kind of band, with great players, which is probably why I favor them. Of course, The Beatles were also a huge influence and I always looked forward to what new up-tempo songs they would record.

Ben Elliott

The other thing about this release is my chance to honor the late Ben Elliott, who was my engineer for 20 years. He sadly passed away in April 2020 as did his beloved Showplace Studios. Ben’s as much a part of 21st Century Rock’n Roll because his sound is on display. Our goal was to make records and I know we succeeded with these tracks. Just ask anyone who has tried to write and record Rock’n Roll. It’s not as easy as it looks. It’s all about great sound and getting that sound. Ben was a master at it. It’s definitely the end of an era for me, which is probably the main reason for releasing 21st Century Rock’n Roll.

To have these tracks that Ben engineered, at this point in time, is truly a blessing. It’s no surprise that Keith Richards name would also come up now. I mean, why wouldn’t Keith Richards name come up when you’re talking about Rock’n Roll? Keith Richards, the architect of The Rolling Stones brand of RnR and myself, have something in common. That something is actually someone, namely Ben Elliott. Keith met Ben at Showplace when Ben was working on Howling Wolf’s guitar man, Hubert Sumlin’s album About Them Shoes. It was sort of a tribute to the guitarist featuring Keith, Eric Clapton and Levon Helm among others.

Ben & Keith (photo courtesy Arnie Goodman Photography)

Ben must have hit it off with the Stone s legend because soon after, Keith hired Ben to be his personal engineer at his Stamford, CT home studio. Ben’s stories about working at Keith’s were hilarious as well as interesting. I think the other thing I have in common with Keith Richards is our love of all things GUITAR. My recordings are all about GUITARS as are Keith’s. The other thing is the SOUND. You can’t have one without the other when it comes to recording them. Keith knows something about sound, as well as guitars, and that’s why he had Ben as his engineer.

To me, Keith Richards is synonymous with RnR. If there was only one photo to have next to the definition of RnR, it would be of Keith’s face. Even before Chuck Berry and that’s saying something! Keith has doled out far more riffs than anybody I can think of that have any meaning. Yes, Chuck is the Father of RnR but it’s the Son who took it further. Keith took it to another level as an artist, particularly as a Recording Artist. That’s also something Ben Elliott gave me. I became a Recording Artist because of Ben and I will always be grateful to him for that.

Ben & Robert

DownTown Blog – The DownTown Demos

It seemed like an odd choice to release The DownTown Demos. I really didn’t think the sound of the demos would stack up against previous releases, mainly because they weren’t recorded in the studio. Well, technically the tracks were recorded in a studio to begin with, with the exception of Live. I did go into the studio to experiment with the Bong Bros. and cut close to 15 tracks. The results varied but I did have a blast working and recording the tracks. It was kind of like being the star of my own musical fantasy camp. Just me and my guitars alone in a recording studio, laying down as many tracks as possible.

When I was finished recording, I came home to listen to the results. There were a few tracks that I thought were very cool and decided to flesh them out a bit more, recording bass guitar and some extra guitars. I did this on my Tascam 8-Track Digital recorder, putting the studio mixes on Tks 1 & 2. This gave me 6 extra tracks to work with. Once I was finished overdubbing the extra tracks, I mixed the 8 tracks down to 2-Tk stereo. The last song I recorded was Live and that was the only song not recorded in the studio. I did it all on the 8-Tk.

One afternoon I decided to record something using the MP3 I had with beats. I got a killer guitar sound on my Stratocaster and recorded the instrumental version for Live, originally called Stratoblaster. All of the tracks sat around for a number of years until I decided to try and write lyrics and put melodies to some of them. I eventually would finish 3 of them by arranging the tracks of each song into verses and choruses. Then I would splice the parts together creating the entire song. Once again, I put the mix on Tks 1&2 of the 8-Tk, and then recorded my vocals. When I finished doing the vocals, I mixed them down to 2-Tk stereo.

1964 Strat

It was at the start of 2018 that I decided to finish writing the lyrics to The Wish, which in turn would be the starting point for the Better Day album. While working on the lyrics to The Wish I went back to my instrumental tracks and tried writing lyrics to a few of them. The 1st one would end up being Live. I thought the lyrics were very positive and life-affirming. Little did I know that about 10 months later I would be diagnosed with MDS, short for Myelodysplastic Syndrome, a pre-condition of Leukemia. As I’ve already chronicled here previously, I got a Stem Cell Transplant in May 2019, which is a cure for MDS.

The strange thing about the song Live was that I thought I wrote the lyrics after my transplant. It wasn’t until I went into my workbook when I was writing the lyrics to Shadow Walk that I saw the date for the lyrics of Live—January 2018! Talk about life imitating art!! They say that truth is stranger than fiction and here’s a case that bears that out. Somehow my subconscious was telling me I needed to have a positive frame of mind for something that was coming my way.

Shadow Walk is the other song with vocals on The DownTown Demos. I was originally going to call it Lucifer but thought that might be too provocative. I was having a bit of trouble with the lyrics until I realized the title of the instrumental track was Shadow Walk. I really like that title and in a way, it turned out to be what a song about Lucifer would be about. And no, I do not believe that Lucifer is Satan. That’s an old wive’s tale—The Fall of The Angels. He’s the Archangel with bad PR, made to be a scapegoat.

Now I know what you’re thinking because you’ve been taught that Lucifer is the Fallen Angel known as Satan. Remember, the Bible was written and compiled by humans. The fall of the angels is a metaphor to show how Lucifer lets his pride bring him down. But there’s something about the story that doesn’t ring true, which is that angels weren’t created that way. It’s a contrived story for the purposes of Religion. It’s humans who make judgments. It’s in our nature, not that of angels. The angels give selfless service to humanity. That’s why they exist. But there’s this one bad apple who rebels? Really?? I don’t think so. But I digress…

The other thing about writing a song called Lucifer was the problem of not wanting to say his name even though it’s written from his perspective. It then occurred to me to approach the song like The Stones did with Sympathy For The Devil, when Mick sings “hope you guess my name”. This gave me the idea to start the chorus with “do you know my name?” I wanted to conjure up the feeling of dread that would be present in a “shadow walk” with the music and lyrics. I try to end the song on a positive note by saying he will guide you back with his light. Lucifer means “shining light”.

If you look at the people I thank on the sleeve of the DownTown Mystic cd, you’ll notice I thank Viceroy & A Band of Angels on it. Viceroy is another name Lucifer goes by. Even he doesn’t want to say his own name because of the connotations associated with it! Shadow Walk refers to the dark side we are all capable of having. A “shadow walk” could refer to an addiction or a troubled soul. As I see it, from my experience, the Archangel Lucifer is there for humans on their “shadow walk”. He’s the Archangel of Fear and Despair, not something the other archangels raise their hands for. He holds a place for us without any judgment so that when we are ready to accept help, he’s there for us. Think about what he’s seen. It’s a scary place for sure, which is why the music is so foreboding. When it comes to the existence of “The Devil”, my sources in the Spirit Realm say it’s not so.

KoolSkool is a fun track. I had asked the Bong Bros. to create an old-school hip-hop beat for me and then played a rhythm to it on my acoustic guitar. There’s a song from years back by the Irish singer/songwriter Donovan called Goo Goo Barabajagal, which is strange enough. For some reason, the groove on KoolSkool brings Donovan’s song to my mind. When I listened to the track at home I thought I’d experiment with some lead guitars. The interesting thing for me on KoolSkool is the fact that I recorded 2 separate guitar parts that harmonize in spots with the exact same phrasing! It’s really wild because I don’t think I could have planned them that way. I remember feeling very fluid that day and just wanted to get my playing recorded. It was hearing the playback that blew my mind! LOL

The other instrumental is AcousticHeart. This is probably my favorite track from the recording sessions with the Bong Bros. and one of the few ideas I brought with me in advance. It’s a different kind of groove but it works so well, building as it goes. I’ve always liked the music and wanted to create a full song from it. After a number of attempts that fell short, I finally figured out a way to write the song. The new song is called When The Angels Sing and it’s quite special to me. The next studio album will be Biblical for sure. 🙂

DownTown Blog – Soul’d Out: Brian Jones

Brian Jones Cover DMysticBJCover

In the last blog post I mentioned that the new Rock’n’Roll Romantic album would not be released this fall, as originally planned, but in 2016. This is basically due to the 4 going on 5 months that the DownTown Mystic on E Street EP has taken up. But that doesn’t mean that there won’t be another release before the end of the year. To help bridge the gap, Sha-La Music is releasing the Soul’d Out Single, which includes the legendary Brian Jones.

I’ve always been a Rock’n’Roll Romantic at heart. Love the sound of old recordings and the rhythm…it’s the rhythm of my life. There’s a certain sense of style and flair that goes with the music. When you come right down to it, it’s a love of all things HIP—music, clothes, sex, etc. It’s a certain frame of mind that helps to keep one young on the inside, if you follow. There’s a definite sense of “taste” associated with being a Rock’n’Roll Romantic.

Which brings me to “a man of wealth and taste”, the original Rock’n’Roll Romantic—Brian Jones, the man who formed The Rolling Stones. Brian was the trendsetter for Swinging London in the 1960s. It’s been said that Brian lived the life that Mick and Keith only wrote about. For me, it was Brian Jones who caught my attention when I first saw The Stones, just as it had been John Lennon who I immediately gravitated to when first seeing The Beatles. Now there are 2 Bad Boys to idolize! 🙂

Brian Jones

There have been many books written about Brian’s short life and demise. The most recent is Paul Trynka’s excellent book, Brian Jones—The Making of The Rolling Stones. In the UK the book is called Sympathy for the Devil! One of the main points made in the book is that Brian was far more important in not only starting the band, but in the overall British Blues explosion that changed the UK music scene. I found it to be the best account of what it must have felt like being around The Stones in the early days. This was not a bunch of school chums getting together to form a band, but rather a group of individuals who could be very calculating with each other. For Brian, you get the feeling that none of them really had his back. But you also sense that Brian played a big part in setting that in motion.

It feels a bit odd talking about Brian and The Stones as being together because the band has been around for so long as the current entity that it’s hard to picture Brian in this band. When you looked at The Stones, Brian was the odd man out. He was his own brand for sure. Even with Mick Jagger out front singing and bopping around, it was Brian who would catch your eye…by simply standing there! Over the years there’s been a good deal of revisionism in The Stones camp as it pertains to the band’s history, with Brian’s role being minimized to that of a bit player. The truth is something that has gotten, shall we say, muddled.

BJStones2

The real story is an epic tragedy, almost Shakespearean in its unfolding. But as I write in my song Brian Jones, he did not understand his circumstances and certainly never took responsibility for his actions. He was a mojo man who fathered 6 kids with 6 different girls! He had an innate talent for playing musical instruments and he left a distinct imprint on the recordings that he played on. He gave The Stones sound an extra dimension that other bands didn’t have. But he also lived a decadent life, like nobody else around. They had to coin the term sex, drugs & rock’n’roll to describe his lifestyle!! 🙂

There are many who put Brian’s downfall on Mick and Keith. Did Mick and Keith, along with manager Andrew Loog Oldham, deliberately plot against Brian to take the band away from him? Maybe…probably…but the reality was that The Stones wanted to be in the same arena as The Beatles. That meant they needed to write their own songs and become more pop oriented. Oldham’s choice of putting Mick & Keith together as the main writing team has proven to be an inspired one. Given the personalities involved, Brian certainly saw the writing on the wall for himself.

Brian with Gretsch Country Club

My views of Brian are well chronicled so I don’t need to elaborate on them here. But part of the problem is that we always tend to see our idols or heroes in 2 dimensions. We see them live in concert or on TV, and we read what other people write about them. We don’t know them personally and what they’re really like, so we form our opinions based on assumptions based on a 2 dimensional portrait. There’s a whole school of “oh poor Brian” this and “oh poor Brian” that, but in the end we don’t really know him and what he brought on himself.

In his book, Paul Trynka writes that nobody saw much of Brian in the last year of his life. He went on drug binges for longer and longer stretches and was seen nodding out on quite a few occasions, even in the studio when he did show up. Just look at the changes in his physical appearance from 1965 to 1968. He goes from being the trendsetter for the hip and beautiful people of Swinging London to an overweight drugged out mess in just 3 years! Take a look at the photos on Between The Buttons, one of my fave Stones albums. Brian looks totally out of it and disconnected from the rest of the band.

Brian with Les Paul

I think the real reason they shelved the Rock’n’Roll Circus TV show in 1968 (Brian’s last public appearance with the band) was because of Brian’s physical condition. He was a train wreck! Mick, Keith and Brian had already been busted by the police for drugs. They were public enemies to the UK Establishment, so the last thing that was needed, was for any of them to show up on BBC TV (the only TV in the UK) looking completely stoned! If you’ve ever been in a band with one of the members always being fucked up, you’ll know what I’m talking about. They’re unreliable and bring everyone down.  At any rate, whatever went down between them personally is their business.

I once spent an afternoon talking with David Dalton, a Stones biographer, about Brian. He said an interesting and somewhat telling thing—that Mick and Keith would get very uptight at the mention of Brian’s name. I’m sure, deep down, they harbor some guilt. As for all the conspiracies about murder in Brian’s death, I don’t think he was murdered. However, I do think he died of un-natural causes. Actually, I think 1 of 2 things occurred on the night he joined the 27 Club.

Flash

Before I continue, there’s 1 thing that can’t be emphasized enough—DRUGS. Since it was the 60s, there’s a kind of playing down of the amount of DRUGS that were being consumed back then. Like tee-hee (yes I used tee-hee), everybody was getting high back then…NO! The amount of drugs involved with this particular individual was almost inhuman. Brian took more and did more of everything in massive quantities. Eventually, this had a serious impact on him. So contrary to the lore about Brian being in shape and getting ready to form a super group with the likes of Hendrix, he had no interest or ability in forming another band.

Brian was done.

Scenario #1…Brian had abused his body to such extent that all he needed was to have a nightcap and then float in his pool, that was heated at 80-90 degrees, nod off and float away. It’s real easy to fall asleep in a pool like that totally straight. Brian may have shown a bit of wear on the outside, but his inside was worse. The autopsy revealed that his liver was shot and that he had the flabby heart of a 60 year old man despite being only 27. I’d say that qualifies as un-natural! This is something that most people seem to overlook, his actual physical condition. He took drugs by the handful and drank on top of it, and everyone thought he was immortal. He wasn’t. There’s a physical toll to be paid.

BrianFlag

Scenario #2, which feels right to me, and again, the 3rd dimension that most people don’t know…The Stones had been Brian’s band and he hung on as long as he could until they fired him. He was not going to quit and I think it really bothered him more than he might let on. He had to have known that they were going to play a free show in London’s Hyde Park in a couple of days to introduce his replacement—Mick Taylor. This had to have been eating at him. That event would make his firing official to the world. In his fragile frame of mind, I can see Brian thinking he could give Mick & Keith one final F U and steal their thunder by having his death in the headlines. He played his final card…or chord if you find it more poetic. 🙂

Nobody really knows what happened that fateful night, but murder seems unlikely. It’s somewhat ironic that the conspiracy theories have helped to keep Brian’s name alive and create a legend. One thing is known—in his short life, Brian burned bright and then burned out like a comet falling to earth in true Rock’n’Roll Romantic fashion. 🙂