The Wish is one of those songs that has had a life of its own. I first came up with the main chord changes sometime in the mid-80s and played around with them on and off over the years. I would come up with 2 other songs that formed sort of a trilogy, having chord changes to 3 songs with no lyrics or melodies. I would work on these over the years, trying to fine-tune them into actual songs.
One of these songs wasn’t what you could call a song. Just this chord sequence that intrigued me to no end. Eventually, I would take what was the original chorus of The Wish and add it to the chord sequence and make it the chorus on that song, which I would eventually give to Bruce Engler to write a lyric and a melody for. That song would become One More Chance.
courtesy of @markmaryanovich
The other song of the Trilogy was a fully contained track, with melody, verse and chorus. It would find its way to Eddie Walker, who would write the lyrics and become Think A Little Louder. So with 2 of the 3 songs of the trilogy now finished, I thought I would do the same for the music of the 3rd one, but the situation never quite presented itself. I never found a potential co-writer for it, so I guess it would have to fall on my shoulders to finish it.
With a new chorus in place and nearly 25 years after I first started doodling with the chord changes, I decided to record a track as part of the Standing Still project. I had written some lyrics and recorded a demo to send to drummer Steve Holley and bassist Paul Page to learn for the recording sessions, which would take place in December of 2009 and consist of 15 recorded tracks. The last being The Wish.
Steve, Robert & Paul
The original version of The Wish was more uptempo than the finished version. I recall drummer Steve Holley not being a fan of the uptempo version. Steve had a suggestion, which he usually started with the phrase “I know you’re probably going to hate this but”…Now Steve Holley is a very distinguished musician and only a fool would not listen to what he has to say. I asked him what his idea was and he said he heard the song in half-time as a cross between Neil Young meets Pearl Jam. How could anyone not want to hear what that would sound like?
And so we started to try out Steve’s idea. It was fairly obvious that this was the new version we would record. Steve’s idea of slowing the track down by using half-time made the groove much stronger. What was also obvious to me was that the new track did not fit in with any of the other tracks recorded for Standing Still. And so The Wish, as the track was now called, would once again find itself in limbo for another few years.
Fast forward to 2018. It’s time to think about a new album and I’ve already got some songs to work on. One is already “in the can” and just needs me to finally finish the lyrics and put a vocal on it. I’m determined to finish The Wish. I spend a couple of weeks honing the final draft of the lyrics and demoing the track at home until I’m satisfied. Then in late September, I go into my old friend Stephen DeAcutis‘ Sound Spa Studio. Stephen is also an artist, aka Stevie D. He lends his support by adding some tasty lead guitar to the track and in early October I’ve got a finished mix of The Wish.
Over 30 years after I first came across the chord changes, I’ve finally finished writing and recording the song The Wish. In April 2019 I release it as a single and then in May as The Wish EP in Europe via Last Man Music in the UK. Talk about what a long strange trip it’s been. That certainly would describe the journey of The Wish. 🙂
The new single Think A Little Louder is probably the song with the most unusual recording history in the DownTown Mystic catalog. I came up with the music back in the 80s and kind of shelved it since I had no lyrics for it. It wasn’t until I met a NYC singer/songwriter named Eddie Walker that I would bring the music out again.
I met Eddie at the old New Music Seminar that took place every summer in NYC. We struck up a friendship and eventually began working together. Eddie had a band and was looking to do some recording. I told Eddie that I would help him out with the producing and began to go to band rehearsals to work on the songs. After listening to the material that Eddie had, I suggested that he needed to have something a bit more up-tempo and commercial.
He asked me if I had anything and I played him the music for the song that needed lyrics. I told him that if he liked the song to write lyrics for it and we’d record it. Eddie liked what he heard and I told him I’d get him a tape with the music and melody so he could work on it. A week or so later at rehearsal Eddie said he had finished the song and wanted us to hear it.
We all knew that Eddie was looking to take his relationship with his girlfriend Ann to the next level and that things were not going as smoothly as he would like. Now Eddie was on mike strumming his electric guitar, playing at a slower tempo than the song should be played, but the slower tempo somehow made it more intimate as Eddie began to sing “well my heart isn’t bound by tradition”.
The other members of the band and I stood there in rapt attention listening to Eddie as he continued to sing the new song called Think A Little Louder. When he finished we were all blown away. To this day I don’t think I’ve ever heard a better version of the song, stripped down bare like that. Eddie sang it from his heart. We recorded the new song a few weeks later and it came out really good. Unfortunately for Eddie, his relationship with Ann did not turn out as well. They would break up and Eddie would leave NYC and go down to Austin, TX.
I kept in touch with Eddie down in Austin. He was becoming part of the music scene down there and seemed to be getting along nicely. It was around this time that I would go into the studio to cut 6 tracks with members of a band I was managing. Little did I know that this session would be the start of what would become DownTown Mystic.
One of the 6 tracks we cut that day was Think A Little Louder. As far as I was concerned, it was the worst of the bunch. It just didn’t seem to gel. Whether it was the key or the arrangement, something just wasn’t working for me. I put it aside while I worked on the other tracks. 3 years later I decided to go back in the studio and finish work on it. When it came to Think A Little Louder I made a somewhat drastic decision.
The first thing was that I didn’t like the key it was in. After listening to the original track I decided that I wanted the rhythm guitars to be played on acoustics. The original track was in B but the acoustics would sound better in A. So I made the decision to do something I had never done before—erase all the guitars, bass and vocals, keeping only the drums. Tommy Mastro who played the drums on the track had locked in and played a really solid track, so I felt I could keep his track and recut new parts to it.
Having had 3 years to listen to the track, I was determined to make it work better. Besides changing the key to the song I was also going to change the arrangement. Part of the problem for me was that it was too long. Eddie had written 3 verses to the song and there was also a guitar solo that I just wasn’t feeling. Getting from the solo to the 3rd verse had always felt and sounded awkward to me. The solution was to eliminate both.
I came up with the idea to replace the solo with a bridge that would get me back into the chorus which I could fade out on. For those of you not familiar with a “bridge”, it’s an old-school songwriting device that allows you to “bridge” one part of a song to another part of the song. If you’re really old-school you might call it “the middle eight”. The tricky part was coming up with a bridge that would time out exactly to the length of the guitar solo, then edit out the 3rd verse and splice in the chorus. In theory, it should work. 🙂
At this time I was managing a band that included 2 of the founding members of the band Trixter. I brought in PJ Farley to record a new bass line and Steve Brown to add guitar. But first I had to record the acoustic rhythm guitars in the new key and with the new bridge. Then we made the edits eliminating the 3rd verse so now the song flowed from the bridge to the final chorus just as planned. Then PJ laid down a great new bass part and Steve recorded these hard-sounding power chords throughout the song that really gave it some muscle.
I sent a tape of the song to Eddie with the new bridge and he really liked it. Eventually, for the Rock’n’Roll Romantic album, I got Bruce Engler to sing harmonies and he added a guitar part on top of Steve’s power chords on the intro part that plays throughout the song. We mixed it and this is the final version of Think A Little Louder that you now hear. I’m not sure if Eddie has ever heard this current version because I lost contact with him years ago. Wherever he is, I hope he’s rockin’ and I’m glad our paths crossed long enough to write this song together. 🙂
The recently released single Turn Around And Go has always been one of my fave songs. From the moment I came up with the music, I knew that I just couldn’t settle for anything that didn’t live up to it. When inspiration did strike I knew immediately that it was a perfect fit for the music.
Her name was Starr and in just a few seconds she inspired me to write one of my favorite songs…
Before I tell you about that inspiration, let me back up a bit. My 1st summer home from college I got a job driving a van for a Tuxedo store during their busy prom season. One day I was told to go into NYC for a pickup in the Garment District. When I got there I was told everyone was on their lunch break and that I might as well take one too. So I walked down the street and came to the corner and saw a small luncheonette across the street. I went in and ordered a sandwich and was told to take a seat inside and they would bring me my sandwich when it was ready.
I walked through another door into a dimly lit room and realized I was in a bar and that the luncheonette was actually the kitchen to the bar. Had I been walking down the street from the other direction I probably would have walked right by because the bar was really nondescript from the outside and I wouldn’t have even noticed it. So I went in and took a seat at the bar and ordered a beer. About 5 minutes later these bright lights went on to reveal a stage behind the bar and this great looking dancer came out and began to do her thing.
What was really an eye-opener was when she took her top off! I had never been to a Go-Go bar before and certainly didn’t think I had wandered into one. But the room behind me started to fill up with various businessmen who I assumed worked in the area and probably came in for lunch on a daily basis. At a nearby table, 3 guys in suits sat down. By this time the 1st girl left the stage and another came out. If I thought the 1st dancer was hot, the 2nd dancer was really hot!! 🙂
I assumed she was the headliner because she wore a sparkling sequined 2 piece and was built like the proverbial brick sh!t house. (whoever came up with that expression??) Anyway, she was stacked in the right places and was drawing the attention of those 3 guys at the nearby table. One, in particular, a chubby redhead was quite vocal yelling up at the stage. They looked like accountants and the chubby redhead looked like he was showing off for them. It didn’t take long for him to get the dancer’s attention and she walked to the front of the stage and asked the chubby redhead for his tie.
After getting encouragement from the other guys at the table, the chubby redhead took off his tie and handed it to the dancer, who proceeded to turn her back to the crowd and tie the tie around her waist. When she turned around the tie was dangling between her legs and she started to grind her hips forcing the tie to swing back and forth between her legs. This got a roar from the table, with the chubby redhead continuing to yell at the dancer, which sounded more and more like heckling.
The dancer continued to strut her stuff and was not going to ignore the chubby redhead. She exchanged words with him as she danced, keeping her cool. Finally, she turned to him and asked him for his T-shirt. The chubby redhead yelled back something like “no fu**king way” but now his compadres began to egg him on to give her his T-shirt. After a few minutes, the chubby redhead relented and took off his suit jacket and then unbuttoned his dress shirt revealing his white T-shirt. Unbelievably, he took off his T-shirt and threw it on the stage!! I’m eating my sandwich and drinking my beer, looking at a half-naked chubby redheaded man standing in this nondescript dimly lit Go-Go bar and thinking “only in NY”!!
The dancer proceeded to pick up the Tshirt and rolled it up, putting it around her neck. She turned her back to the crowd and I could see her doing something to the shirt with her hands. When she was finished she rolled the T-shirt down over her body and when she turned around she pushed her quite amble boobs through the 2 slits she had made in the T-shirt and shouted at the chubby redhead, “now explain this to your wife!!”. The place exploded, with the half-naked chubby redhead mortified. I paid my tab and walked out laughing. Only in NYC!! 🙂
That was my 1st experience in a Go-Go bar and it was certainly quite memorable. But I digressed from my story about Starr…as you might have guessed, I was sitting in another Go-Go bar. It’s about 14-15 years later and my cousin had found this out of the way place that was literally “on the other side of the tracks”. He had taken me there a couple of times before and all I remember was driving on a road that seemed to go through all these towns in NJ and finally crossing over these railroad tracks and this Go Go bar called Cheequessuddenly appearing.
On this particular day, we were sitting right in the middle of the bar with a perfect view of the stage. The lights went down and the next dancer was announced as “Starr”, who came strutting out on stage with a top hat on her head in a sequined tuxedo jacket with tails and high heels. As she reached the middle of the bar, directly in front of us, she threw her leg out with her high heel balancing her between the stage and the bar. She then bent over, and with her hand, grabbed my face and proceeded to plant a kiss on my lips!!
She then pushed off the bar, back onto the stage and went into her dance routine. At that very moment, I knew I had the inspiration I had been waiting for. I knew right then that I would write the song with the music that would become Turn Around And Go. Meanwhile, I turned to see my cousin’s face staring at me with his mouth open in disbelief. I looked at him and said “what?” He shook his head and in a somewhat outraged voice replied, “do you know how many times I’ve been here? You come in here and get a kiss! I’ve never seen anything like that in here!!”
What can I say? Call it kismet. Something always seems to happen when I go into a Go-Go bar. On that day it seemed like this dancer Starr had been mystically drawn to me when in reality, she was going to kiss whoever was sitting there as part of her big opening. As luck or fate would have it that would be me and not my cousin. Even better, I got a great song out of it. 🙂
Recently I posted a link for a movie trailer on FaceBook that would garner the biggest response from my family & friends that I ever received (outside of my birthday). The reason I posted the link was because my song Fly Like The Wind is actually in the last 35 seconds of the trailer for the Indie film Better Start Running (originally called Monumental). The movie was supposed to be released in late 2017 but nothing ever happened. So for over a year I knew I had a song in the movie but had seen or knew little of nothing more than that.
I have to admit I was taken by surprise when I saw the trailer for the 1st time because I was just curious to see what the movie was about after all this time. Plus, there are some recognizable names in the film like Oscar winner Jeremy Irons, so it can’ be too shabby. lol The last thing I expected to hear was Fly Like The Wind playing over a large chunk of the final sequences of the trailer!! Lol How cool is that??!! Obviously, very cool because my FaceBook page lit up like never before! 🙂
Hearing my song in the Better Start Running movie trailer made me think about writing and recording Fly Like The Wind, and the long strange trip it took to get there. Every step of the way seemed to set up the next thing that would happen. Understand that I’m talking about a song I wrote and recorded in 1985. Each step took 10-20 years to occur but without that step, Fly Like The Wind would not be in this movie. So how did it happen?
Back in 1985 I was still a struggling artist trying to get a record deal (this is 20 years before my mid-life crisis to become DownTown Mystic). I decided that I would write the best commercial songs I could as an artist/writer/producer to showcase my abilities and talents. These songs had to sound like the songs that were heard on MTV & Radio at that time. In 1985 I was committed to using the cutting edge tools available at the time like a Linn Drum machine and synths to fashion a sound that would be immediately recognizable.
Fly Like The Wind was written to be a “hit song” (whatever that is), nothing more and nothing less. Just get to the chorus and the hook as quickly as possible and repeat. The one thing I remember about working on the track was that I wanted the snare drum on the verses to sound HUGE. I was having trouble getting what I wanted so much so that I called Garry Tallent and asked him to come to the studio to help me out. Luckily, Garry drove over and we worked for over 2 hours using the state of the art PCM Sound module to finally get that HUGE 80s snare sound!! 🙂
Unfortunately, there would not be any record deal and I would never get to know if I had written a “hit song”. I finally decided to give up on being a struggling artist and become a struggling publisher, starting my company Sha-La Music. I continued to write and record songs and send them out to other artists looking for material. I sent Fly Like The Wind to quite a few but with no luck. In the 1990s I began to manage artists. My 1st client was a band that had a release in the UK and I began to do business in Europe for them.
It was the mid ‘90s and the CD was now the standard used for recording. I had all of my songs on reel to reel and cassette tapes, so I really wanted to get my best recordings on a CD. I was no longer an artist but I saw a chance to create a project for the purposes of getting my music released on CD. I called the project Used Records and used the nom de plume of Walker Reeves as the artist behind Used Records. I sold the project to a German label calledLong Island Records, run by a very nice chap named Sondi. I signed a Licensing Deal for Used Records (which included Fly Like The Wind ) with Sondi, who unfortunately passed away much too soon in the early 2000s. Used Records was a bust but I got my CD. 🙂
I mention the Used Records CD because, without it, my future sync licensing success would be in jeopardy. Doing business in Europe took me to Midem in Cannes, France. Midem is the largest and most important International Music Business event that takes place every year. I attended Midem a few times in the 90s and went back in 2011, getting a Licensing Deal with another German Label, this time for DownTown Mystic. I mention this because I met a great character named Eddie Caldwell from Chicago there that year. We hit it off and made plans to do business together.
I mention Eddie because a year or 2 later he sends me an email asking if I have any songs that were actually recorded in the 80s, particularly in 1984-85. Now I ask you, what are the odds? Of course I tell Eddie that I do happen to have some songs recorded in the very period he’s looking for and Eddie says to send them ASAP!! It turns out that Eddie has managed to get to probably the #1 Music Supervisor in LA—Alexandra Patsavas of Chop Shop Music, and she’s looking for music for a new show she’s working on called The Carrie Diaries, a sort of prequel to Sex and The City. Not only that but she wants authentic sounding 80s music and it has to be recorded in 1984-85. WTF??!!
This is a HUGE opportunity!!! The problem for me is I don’t have any digital files of the songs to send to Eddie. But wait…I remember I have a copy of the Used Records CD!! All I need to do is convert the cd to digital files…YES Used Records!! Now Alexandra Patsavas has a reputation for having “great ears”. She’s been known to discover “hit songs” for her TV shows. Of the 3 songs that I send to Eddie, she picks Fly Like The Wind, which appears on the last show of the 1st season of The Carrie Diaries. There’s a party going on at the hip fashion magazine that Carrie works at and playing in the background at the party is Fly Like The Wind!! 🙂
I had to hand it to Alexandra Patsavas for having “great ears”. She picked the best song of the ones I sent to Eddie. As far as I ‘m concerned, her picking Fly Like The Wind was an affirmation for me that I had written a “hit song”. For the 2nd season she picked another one of my best songs—And You Know Why. Eddie wanted to release the songs he had sent to Chop Shop as an independent project, so I told him to call it Used Records and even sent him the cover art from the original cd. YES… Used Records rides again!!
A couple of years go by and Eddie tells me he has a deal for Fly Like The Wind to be in a movie called Monumental. I’m thinking “how cool is that to get the same song picked again”? I also thought they wanted it because the movie must take place in the 80s. So I was even more surprised when I found out that Monumental was now being called Better Start Running and after seeing the trailer, the movie was not set in the 80s. They must have really liked the song!
I told you it was a long strange trip. If I hadn’t become a manager and started doing business in Europe, I wouldn’t have gone to Midem or made a deal to create the Used Records CD. Years later when I wanted to get a deal in Europe for DownTown Mystic, I went to Midem again and met Eddie Caldwell there. If I hadn’t met Eddie Caldwell I probably would never have a 30 year old song, that I all but forgot about, become my biggest sync success to date. Without the Used Records CD I wouldn’t have been able to create the digital files needed to send that song to Eddie. As I stated earlier, what are the odds??!! 🙂
On December 1, 2017, UK Label Nub Music (via ADA/Warner Music) released the new DownTown Mystic EP, On E Street featuring Max Weinberg and Garry Tallent for the Holiday season in the UK & Europe. As you probably know, Max and Garry form the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame rhythm section for Bruce Springsteen’slegendary E Street Band. Personally, I think the rhythm guitar player should also be included as part of the rhythm section since the bass & drums won’t know what they’re playing to. 🙂
The On E Street EP contains 4 rare recordings with Max on drums and Garry on bass. Rare, because they’re playing with someone other than Bruce. There are only a few times this has happened, despite all of the studio work both men have done separately. As far as I know, other than Bruce, the only artists that Max & Garry have played together in the studio with are Ian Hunter, Gary U.S. Bonds, Ronnie Spector and me—DownTown Mystic. I know, that can’t be right, right?
I went to Columbia High School in Maplewood, NJ, the same as Max, who’s a year older. We had mutual friends and even then he was known as “the drummer”, walking the halls with his drumsticks in his hands. He played in the HS Orchestra and also the best rock band in the school. It was not surprising to me and others that he was playing in an orchestra pit on Broadway after graduation, or when we heard that he had become Springsteen‘s new drummer after auditioning for him.
I met Garry after giving his girlfriend a 45 my band had recorded and that I was handing out at a very “in” club in NYC that we were playing. She gave it to Garry and he dug it and came out to hear us play. He ended up playing bass with us in the studio for a production deal that we got from playing that same club and even did a live gig with us in Asbury Park, NJ. The band eventually broke up and I stayed in touch with him. I contacted Garry and asked him if he wanted to work together to record some songs of mine. He brought in Max to play drums. What are the odds, right?
The 1st track on the EP, Way to Know, was recently released in the UK as a single for theRage Against The Brexit Machine project by Nub Music. It’s not the version that I played for Garry. The original demo that I recorded for the song was a bit more mid-tempo and much sparser in the arrangement. It also featured a piano. Garry was the one who changed the tempo and the arrangement, so I have to blame him for this recorded version. lol As I’ve stated previously, the funniest thing I remember about cutting the track was hearing Garry tell Max to “play like Charlie Watts”. 🙂
The 2nd track, And You Know Why, features a very economical bass line from Garry and one of the most restrained drum tracks from Max that I think he’s ever played. And You Know Why has a great deal of meaning to me personally. It’s a song that came to me at a time when I was burnt out on writing and playing music. I was seriously thinking about giving up music altogether and this little tune would not let me quit. Then to have the good fortune of getting to record it with the E Street rhythm section is really quite a blessing.
The 3rd track, retro rocker Hard Enough, is an up-tempo number that owes a great deal to the great New Wave band Rockpile, which featured guitarist Dave Edmunds and bassistNick Lowe. The funny thing about this song is that I was not that thrilled to record it. I had given Garry 2 songs to listen to and decide which one he wanted to record. He picked Hard Enough, which was not the song I favored. Garry said he liked the George Harrison-type riff that I played but I think he picked it for more obvious reasons. When I hear his bass line it reminds me of his bass on Springsteen’s Ramrod from The River album, which is one of my fave songs by Bruce. So what’s not to like, right? 🙂
The last track Sometimes Wrong (Demo) was an idea that I had to rock up the song from the way I originally wrote it. Garry and Max gave it their best shot but I don’t think it really quite meshed the way I had envisioned it. I finally decided to go back to the original version when I recorded the track with Steve Holley and Paul Page(the rhythm section for Ian Hunter’s Rant Band). It leads off DownTown Nashville and I think it’s much better as I wrote it. I did keep most of the guitar parts from this demo version and the guitar solo I play on the end of the song is one of the best off the cuff solos I’ve ever put down on tape. It was a one-shot live take that I was able to pull off. I just wish I could mute the incessant vocal track singing “sometimes wrong” on the fade out! 🙂
I’ve been asked many times what it was like to play with Max & Garry and I always say it was one of the easiest sessions I ever played on. They play so intuitively together. Just a look at each other and they instinctively know what they’re going to play or where to go next. All I had to do was play my guitar. It gave me an appreciation for what Bruce has with these two anchoring his E Street Band. The other thing I get asked is why there are no photos from the studio. There are a couple of reasons. #1, the E Street Band has very strict rules as its own entity. They don’t do endorsements as a band and photos are a bit of a gray area. So #2, I didn’t want to seem like a “fanboy” taking pics and possibly creating a bad vibe in the studio. I think it’s always better to err on the side of caution in these types of situations.
One of the coolest things for me personally from On E Street is that I realized one of my deepest musical ambitions. After my band broke up so many years ago, I made a goal for myself to play with the very best musicians possible, and with On E Street that became a reality. My sincerest gratitude to Garry and Max for truly making that dream come true. 🙂
Way To Know was released as a single by Nub Music in the UK on October 20, 2017 as part of the Rage Against The Brexit Machine project. The project, spearheaded by business author/musician Peter Cook, had released 3 previous singles. What made Way To Know different was the fact that it was from an American Artist—DownTown Mystic. So how did this come about you might ask?
One day in September I was on Twitter and saw a tweet from Nub Music looking for songs for a project called Rage Against The Brexit Machine. Since I had a deal with Nub I thought I’d take a closer look. I clicked on a link that was provided and read about the project and what it was trying to accomplish. Much to my surprise, it was a campaign aimed at stopping Brexit using pop music to get the message out. I was under the impression that Brexit couldn’t be stopped, so now I was curious.
I decided to contact Mark Lee, the head of Nub, and offer Way To Know to the project. Mark thought it was a great idea and got Label Manager Guy Thompson to send the song to Peter Cook. Peter gave it a listen and liked what he heard. He gave me a call to see where I was at and to tell me more about the project. When I asked if it was possible to stop Brexit, Peter paused and said that Parliament could reverse it. He said the impetus for the Rage Against The Brexit Machine project was the effect that Brexit would have on generations to come. People were not aware how it would hit their pocketbooks until it was too late.
I told Peter that the one good thing that had happened in the US with the election of Trump was the Resistance Movement against Trump that had been started. People here in the US were truly pissed that Trump was elected despite losing the popular vote. Peter felt the people in the UK needed a bit of a push in that direction if stopping Brexit was to become a reality. And the British people should be pissed because the British Supreme Court ruled that Parliament never made a decision to stay or leave!
Peter told me that one of the reasons he really liked Way To Know was that it didn’t preach and laid out the problems in a matter of fact way. This was great to hear and I told Peter as much. I also told Peter that it wouldn’t hurt PR wise that the song features RnR Hall of Famers Max Weinberg & Garry Tallent—the rhythm section from Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. That info might come in handy, especially at Radio.
So that’s how I got involved with the Rage Against The Brexit Machine project and got to know Peter Cook. He’s a very decent chap (as they say) and has really put himself out there. You can feel his passion when he speaks and he’s doing the project for all the right reasons. As a fellow artist I’m proud to stand with him and help out in any way I can. The stakes are truly high as the future of the UK hangs in the balance. Check out the Article 50 Challenge for yourself and help Stop Brexit!
To quote Pete Townsend of The Who, “Rock is dead they say”…whatever. This is a tired old chestnut that “they” bring up over and over. I’m not sure who “they” are, and I’m not sure what “they” mean by “rock”. Are we talking ROCK from the 70s, 80s or 90s onward? Or since the turn of the century? It’s a very broad term for a particular kind of music. For the sake of this blog post, I’ll be talking about the original “rock”—Rock’n’Roll.
Since I’ve already made certain statements in interviews about my intention to bring RnR into the 21st century, I’ll back it up. Rock’n’Roll is a totally other animal than “Rock”. As Tom Petty said earlier this year about his discovering RnR, “Not rock; this was Rock and Roll. The roll designates a swing — there’s a swing in the roll.”That’s what I’m talking about. There’s a difference between Rock and Rock’n’Roll, and just to be clear, it’s RnR that I’m putting out there.
All that aside, I intended the Rock’n’Roll Romantic album to be my statement about RnR in the 21st century. I took over a year to build up to the release of it and when I finally did release it on CD in October 2016, it proved to be my most successful release to date. The CD starts off with 2 of 3 songs that feature RnR Hall of Famers Max Weinberg & Garry Tallent—the rhythm section from Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. In fact DownTown Mystic is the only artist in the world that can make that claim. Not even Garry Tallent and Little Steven can say that about their new solo records. Not too shabby! 🙂
A big part of the success of Rock’n’Roll Romantic was at Radio. The previous release of the DownTown Nashville EP at Americana Radio in the spring last year was easily DownTown Mystic’s biggest release at the format and helped to set the stage, so to speak, for Rock’n’Roll Romantic. But I also knew that Rock’n’Roll Romantic had a broader appeal to it than just Americana. The strategy of going to the AAA and College formats along with Americana garnered DownTown Mystic its largest radio audience, going from 16 to 36 Adds and more than 70 radio stations playing the music. For me, these results show that RnR in today’s marketplace is not dead, to say the least.
2017 started out by continuing the success of Rock’n’Roll Romantic when DownTown Mystic signed a deal with UK indie label Nub Music to release Rock’n’Roll Romantic in Europe. How apropos for 2017 to be the 50th anniversary of the release of The Beatles classic Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the 1st Concept Album. Besides the noise of “the death of rock” is the noise about “the death of the album” and “the death of the CD”. Besides being a true RnR album, Rock’n’Roll Romantic is also a true concept album.
The truth is Rock’n’Roll is here to stay…it will never die. Wait, that sounds like a song I once heard. Nevertheless, it’s true. There’s something undeniable about an electric guitar playing along to a groove that’s being put down by a real drummer and bass player. It’s an irresistible force. Sure, it might not be what’s popular on Top 40 Radio but who cares? There are millions of people who don’t listen to Top 40 Radio.
Meanwhile in the UK, Nub has already released the Side 2 EP to help set up the release of the full Rock’n’Roll Romantic album later in the year. What better place to release some new RnR than in the UK? Oasis has been the biggest band there since The Beatles and they’ve been around now for 20 years. So it’s safe to say that Rock’n’Roll is still alive and well there. This next chapter with Nub Music may turn out to be even more exciting than the success at US Radio for Rock’n’Roll Romantic! 🙂
In the last blog entry I wrote about one of the musicians involved in the making of Rock’n’Roll Romantic who I owed a debt of gratitude—Garry Tallent from The E Street Band. In this blog entry I want to talk about someone not as famous as Garry, but just as important to the making of Rock’n’Roll Romantic—Tommy Mastro.
Tommy & Robert
I first met Tommy when he was playing drums for a band called The Discontent. This was in my previous life as a Manager. It was obvious from the get-go that Tommy was clearly the best musician in the band (I don’t think any of them would disagree) and he played a big part in my decision to manage them. It wasn’t just his muscular playing with “old school” feel that impressed me like Kenny Aronoff (drummer for John Mellencamp & John Fogerty), but perhaps even more importantly, his attitude and personality. He loved to laugh and kid around and was there to be a cheerleader when necessary. His positive vibes were very contagious and many times lifted the band up whenever challenges arose. As a manager, I can’t tell you how important it is to have a guy like that in a band!
I was either lucky or dumb to have 2 bands recording their projects at the same time in different studios. It kept me busy shuffling between the 2 and it also got my juices flowing to record my own songs again. I had always wanted to produce and make records as an artist, but I let go of that dream to start my own company Sha-La Music. However, I started working more and more in the studio with The Discontent and that’s how I met studio engineer Ben Elliott, who the band was working with at Showplace Studios in Dover, New Jersey. Funny thing, the Showplace used to be a club and my band had played there 15 years earlier opening for acts like Robert Gordon and Elliott Murphy. Now it was cut in half, divided by a wall with a GoGo Bar on one side and the recording studio on other side, where the stage used to be. I could usually find the band in the bar when there was downtime in the studio. 🙂
Besides managing The Discontent, Sha-La became the band’s label, releasing their 1st cd societydidit. When it came time to work on new material, I decided to take the band into the studio to record some demos. It was also at this time that I decided to record some of my own songs. I’d been watching Tommy play drums and I could see how solid he was. I had recorded with some real pros like “Mighty” Max Weinberg. The drummer is the engine that drives a band, especially in the studio. The basic track is really all about the drums. A great drummer can make all the difference in recording a great track.
I could see that Tommy had that ability too. I saw and heard what he had done on societydidit. The Discontentplayed punk with a metal edge and Tommy would put a groove in that you don’t usually hear in those kinds of songs. I began to wonder what he could do with my more “old school” songs and was looking forward to making that happen. So when the time came to go back to Showplace Studios to cut some demos, I asked Tommy and the bass player Eric Hoagland, if they would be interested in cutting some of my songs before their session. Both were enthusiastic and one night after a Discontent rehearsal we ran down the songs and it was off to the studio.
Tommy & Eric
It was very cool for me to be making music again and recording with Tommy and Eric made the experience even cooler. I could see Tommy was a bit of a “head case” when it came to playing in the studio. He would stress himself out. I told him not to over think it because he was a great drummer and just needed to let his intuition guide him when playing. He would start to relax and lock in the groove. When it came to playing rock’n’roll he was a natural. He kept it fairly straight but he played with such power locking in on the groove. It really allowed me to enhance the rhythm. I think the 1st track we cut was Turn Around And Go. You can hear how he attacks the track but keeps the groove together.
We cut 6 tracks in that session that I could work on at my leisure when I had some down time. I was also very impressed with what Tommy played. He knew who I had worked with and wanted to impress me. He also knew what I wanted and he knew how to make the songs rock. I started calling him “2 Take Tommy” because we would be doing the 1st take and at some point he would stop. Then he would nail the 2nd take! 🙂
Little did I know at the time that these sessions would be the start of what would become DownTown Mystic. Looking back I have Tommy (with an assist from Eric) to thank for that. As I became more involved with working on the tracks, I decided I needed a name for my project. As it would turn out, The Discontent would indirectly help me find one. On a trip up to Providence, RI for a gig with the band I saw an old wooden sign on the side of the road that read “next exit Downtown Mystic”. Presto! I had my name for the project. On all our trips up to New England I’d never seen it before. Never saw it again. 🙂
Tommy would eventually leave The Discontent, but I stayed in touch and never hesitated to call him to play on my DownTown Mystic sessions. His playing is all over Rock’n’Roll Romantic, playing on half of the album. One of the tracks, Dead End Space, was written with The Discontent after he had left the band and we cut my version with just the 2 of us in the studio. I’ll always remember that session because it was late at night and the only time I was set up with my acoustic guitar in front of the mixing board in the Showplace control room. Tommy was set up with his drums in the studio so we could see each other through the control room glass as we cut the track live to tape. After the 2nd take Tommy was beaming. I could hear him say (in true Tommy fashion) through the glass, “that was so coool”!!
It occurred to me that just about everyone involved in the making of Rock’n’Roll Romantic is, like me, a Rock’n’Roll Romantic at heart. I think that’s very cool and it certainly helped make the project come alive. Since I’ve made it my business to help promote all those kind souls who have helped me, my way of “paying it forward”, I wanted to talk about one of them who has been a big influence—Garry W. Tallent.
Garry is Bruce Springsteen’s bass player. That’s something nobody else in the world can say. He’s a quiet easy going guy and you would never figure he was the 7th son in a family of 13 kids. He’s also a great musician and has an encyclopedic knowledge of all things Rock’n’Roll. Of course, being in The E Street Band definitely has its perks. One of them is you get to play alongside Bruce Springsteen (not too shabby). His rhythm partner in time is drummer Max Weinberg, not to mention playing with the other great musicans in the band…not too shabby either. 🙂
On Rock’n’Roll Romantic, Garry and Max play on 3 songs—Way To Know, And You Know Why and Hard Enough. I can kick myself for not getting a photo of us together in the studio but I wanted it to be cool for them without walking around snapping pics like a fanboy. It was quite an experience working with them, watching how they work together. I learned a great deal in the process, and you might say, they were somewhat responsible for my creating DownTown Mystic. It’s also easy to figure out why Bruce has been so successful, particularly live. Having Garry & Max as your personal rhythm section has got to be a perk for The Boss as well. These guys can rock with the best of them. 🙂
Now, after many years of playing bass, Garry has put out a solo album called Break Time. He is now stepping up to the mic, both figuratively & literally speaking. This was not something I would have ever expected from him. Singing out in front of a band has got to be a new experience for Garry and it’s been very cool to see it happen. I asked him why now, and in typical Garry fashion, he replied “why not”? Truth be told, he said getting older was motivating him to finally get his music out there. Truth be told, it’s good having good timing too. 🙂
He’s got a built-in audience with E Street fans from around the world and he’s made a very good record for them. As far as I’m concerned, whatever was on the wax when I listened was going to surprise me, and Garry didn’t disappoint. On the other hand, it shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise, given that Garry is somewhat of a Rock Historian. Going back to the music that caught his attention as a kid, early RnR, makes perfect sense. He delivers authentic sounding old school 50s RnR in a style that recalls so many of the greats from that period, as well as show his dry sense of humor. Hearing Garry sing Ants In Her Pants is worth the price of admission! lol
Of course, playing in The E Street Band and putting out a solo record has got to be somewhat of a daunting task for everyone in the band. There’s been a very high bar that they’ve set for themselves and then there’s also that guy named Bruce. His name alone brings so much attention to anything in its orbit. That can be a double-edged sword of sorts, but for Garry it only enhances what he’s done.Break Time is a great testament to the talent (no pun intended) that Bruce has placed around himself.
Hearing Garry’s influences gives one the feeling that Bruce could throw anything at him and get 3 or 4 styles to choose from in return. That has to inspire confidence in The Boss to have a guy like Garry manning the Bass behind him. Also, I think it’s important that guys like Garry are around and still interested in putting out music that might be in danger of going extinct. He was an eyewitness to that initial Big Bang and let all that music wash over him . Putting together the crew of musicians to help bring out the authenticity of those influences is also a talent (pun intended). 🙂
If you have the chance, get yourself a copy of Break Time, and judge for yourself. Also, keep your eyes out for Garry on tour this year and if you see him, tell him DownTown sent you. 🙂
February 28, 2017 would have been the 75th birthday of the man who started The Rolling Stones—Brian Jones, the man they called the Golden Stone because of his perfect blonde hair. There’s a reason why I wrote the song Brian Jonesand why it’s the centerpiece onthe Rock’n’Roll Romantic album. The main reason for the song being at the heart of the album is that Brian epitomizes the Rock’n’Roll Romantic. 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! ?
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.
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.
In recent years it seems like there’s been a whole cottage industry that has sprung up around Brian. Many see him as a multi-talented hero who was “stabbed in the back” by his band, 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 had blackouts. He 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.
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 were very superstitious when it came to Brian and would get very uptight at the mention of his name. I’m sure, deep down, they harbor some guilt. As for all the conspiracies about murder in Brian’s death, he wasn’t murdered. When you look at the cast of unsavory characters who hung around Brian in the last weeks of his life, one thing is clear, he was the last person they would want dead. The main reason being, he was famous, and that was why they were there. If he was dead, no more hanging out with fame.
However, I do think he died of un-natural causes on the night he joined the 27 Club. 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. 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.
As I said earlier, there is a reason I wrote the song Brian Jones. I was in contact with his spirit when I wrote the song, and this was many years after his death when he was all but forgotten. No cottage industry, no Brian was murdered books being written. Of course, it’s hard to know when you’re in contact with the other side. For years I wondered about what I had written in the song and how I knew it. Paul Trynka’s book helped me to understand that I was right. That and a Channel, who I’ve been working with for about the last 8 years, have helped me to understand that I am also a Channel via my music. Things that came through in the song were not things I could have possibly known about at the time.
Now I know I’m opening myself up to a good deal of skepticism, but this is my reality as an artist. I know ideas and creativity come from another place and that we are all capable of tapping into them if we are open enough to receive them. So I will share my experience with those who are open to it. In a recent Channeling session I asked to contact Brian and his spirit came through. I asked him (via Dr. Peebles) what happened on that night he died. Here is an MP3 of the session and you can draw your own conclusions:
It’s somewhat ironic that it’s the conspiracy theories have helped to keep Brian’s name alive and create a legend. “The Truth will set you free”. On the day of what would have been Brian’s 75th birthday, I want the Truth to be known by those with ears to hear it. In his short life, Brian burned bright and then burned out like a comet falling to earth. He deserves to be remembered in a Good Light, as a true Rock’n’Roll Romantic. ?
