A letter arrived in the mail back in June 2017. The return address listed the Asbury Park Hotel with Attn: Nick Cohn. This was strange. What could this be? The letter opened with Nick Cohn saying he was a British music journalist. He had been in Asbury Park for the past few months working on a project to chronicle the historic music scene that took place in and around Asbury Park in the late 70s and early 80s. Well now…I had a band that played in AP during that time.
Mr. Cohn continued. He said he was looking into the records of bands that made an impact, big or small, during that time period and had come across “one curiously unknown band that seemed to pop out of nowhere then mysteriously disappear”. He said the band was called The Tupelos. WTF??!! That was my band!! Mr. Cohn went on to say that The Tupelos had done a show in the now defunct Fast Lane club, and in interviews with locals, it “was the best rock n roll show they’ve ever seen”. Ok…am I being punked?? This is really weird!!
The letter went on to say that he had traced the origins of the band back to me and he hoped he was correct. He apologized for taking up my time if he had been wrong, but if I was a member of the band, then I should read on. Mr. Cohn said that he and his publisher were putting together a very detailed account of that music period, along with any live recordings they could find. He wanted to consider The Tupelos for a chapter titled “Almost Famous” and then went on to ask some questions he wanted me to answer. He ended the letter by saying he was flying back to the UK and gave me his email to contact him.
Wow…this was a lot to take in. Was this for real?? I immediately googled Nick Cohn and found that he was indeed a British music journalist. But he was listed as Nik not Nick and was considered by many to be the father of rock criticism. His book Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom, written in 1969, is considered to be one of the best ever written on rock n roll. His 1976 New York Magazine article Tribal Rites of The New Saturday Night would be the basis for the movie Saturday Night Fever. Are you kidding??!!
When I emailed him I asked him how he found out about The Tupelos and if he was the same Nik on Wikipedia. He wrote back and he said he was the same Nik on Wiki. He also said that he had run into Pat Fasano, the former owner of The Fast Lane, who had a 45 record of the band. That would have been the 45 single we put out in 1979 with a cover of Chuck Berry’s Sweet Little 16 on one side and my song Please Be There on the other. This would be the same single that would get the attention of E Street bassist Garry Tallent.
That was 3 years ago and as far as I know, nothing has yet to come of Mr. Cohn’s research in Asbury Park. But his letter did make me go back and start to look into my music archives and rediscover some of the songs that would be the musical seeds for DownTown Mystic. All of the music from that period starting in 1979 was on reel to reel and cassette tapes. I tried to get as much of it onto DAT when I got a DAT machine in the 90s. Listening to the music I was making in those days took me back in time…from my work in The Tupelos to my solo stuff after I left the band. I took what I thought were the best tracks and had Larry Bentley master them one night at Cellar Dweller. The thought of possibly releasing them one day began to intrigue me, but when and how would I be able to do that?
It seems that after 3 years the right time to release those songs has presented itself. In January 2020 Sha-La Music released the DownTown Mystic Better Day album. 2 months later the Covid-19 pandemic hit and was closing down everything here in the NY/NJ area with everyone having to quarantine in their homes. While Better Day was having a good run at Worldwide Radio as well as Americana Radio here in the US, it provided a good time to revisit the idea of releasing the early material. Sha-La Music looked at its catalog and thought this was a good time to release projects that DownTown Mystic has been involved with and tie-in the early material. To that end, the DownTown Mystic: Used Records History 1979-1985 album was created.
To kick off the catalog releases, Sha-La Music released The Discontent Specialty Shows album last month in July. This album had been released on cd but never digitally. Its release coincides with the 20th anniversary of The Discontent making the Specialty Show charts, which brought the band national recognition. It was produced by DownTown Mystic (Robert Allen) and the late Ben Elliott. The track Dying Breath features DownTown Mystic and is a perfect single for this time of the pandemic, but might hit too close for comfort. In November the DownTown Mystic: Used Records History 1979-1985 album will be released and then the Bruce Engler One More Chance featuring DownTown Mystic album will come out in 2021.
Sha-La will release the 3-Way Heartbreak Single in September as a way to introduce the DownTown Mystic: Used Records History 1979-1985 album. 3-Way Heartbreak is the original track that was recorded in 1985. The single also includes the 1983 recording of Same Old Lover, which differs slightly from the original version on the album. 3-Way Heartbreak is a pure 80s track with the use of synths and drum machines and should fit in with the current comeback of 80s music.
Stranger Things Music Supervisor Nora Felder loved the song and wanted to put it in the 2nd season of the show until she found out that the song had not been a hit in the 80s because it had not been released. It was recorded at the same sessions that included Fly Like The Wind, which was selected by Music Supervisor Alexandra Patsavas for her TV show The Carrie Diaries because it was recorded in the 80s when the show takes place. Fly Like The Wind has become one of DownTown Mystic’s top sync-licensing tracks and will be in the upcoming Disney movie Flora and Ulysses. 3-Way Heartbreak will be released at Worldwide Radio and I’ll talk more about the album in Part 2 of this blog post.
To be continued…
Click link below to listen to 3-Way Heartbreak Single: