Going through this experience made me take a closer look at my life and reflect on many experiences. I took stock of where I’d been and where I was going despite trying to stay centered in the present moment. As I said at the end of Part 2 of this blog, I was going to have a Better Day in more ways than one and when I started the Drug Trial and chemotherapy, I began to focus on how to promote the new music I just recorded. I needed to keep my mind on my music and keep myself positive and moving forward, while I was spending 6-8 hours a day for a week each month sitting in the Infusion Center. I had music business to deal with.
In 2018 I signed a new Digital Distribution deal with AWAL/Kobalt Music and released a couple of singles off of Rock’n’Roll Romantic in the second half of the year. I promoted them to Worldwide Radio via the iPluggers online Radio platform and scored some good success. The plan for 2019 would be to release 3 new singles before putting out the Better Day album by the end of the year. I had new music but couldn’t decide which track to release first.
The decision would be made for me when iPluggers ran a special promotion for Valentine’s Day looking for love songs. With Love Light ready to go, it was a no-brainer for me. But instead of just releasing 1 track, I decided to add a B-side with the Americana tinged Tomorrow’s Clown. This is without a doubt the most unusual and unique track in the DownTown Mystic catalog and I wanted to give it some extra exposure before the album release. This song would also bring back an epic memory about how I came to write it because it involves meeting the legendary songwriter John Prine.
Way back on December 16, 1972, a month from turning 21, my band Trilogy would play a sold-out show opening for John Prine who was headlining with his self-titled debut album on Atlantic. A buzz was building in music circles about his unique songwriting skills. A week before Christmas, a capacity crowd of over 2000 people filled the gym of my alma mater Rowan University in historic Glassboro, NJ to watch an amazing all-acoustic show. We were the big band on campus so this was a really huge deal for us and as you might imagine, this was the largest audience we ever played for. We were out of our skins!! LOL Looking back we managed to play a strong set of our original songs and went over very well with the audience. However, John Prine was somewhat of a surprise headliner that night when compared to the other artists on the bill.
That bill included a young up-and-coming Bonnie Raitt, who was very popular in the Philadelphia area, which was only a half-hour away. She was touring behind her new critically acclaimed 2nd album Give It Up on Warner Bros. and getting a lot of radio play. But the guy from South Philly who really should have been the headliner instead of being the Special Guest, was the guy whose career was taking off like a rocketship with his 2nd breaking hit single Bad, Bad Leroy Brown—the late great, Jim Croce. He was the main reason the gym was filled to capacity and that WYSP in Philly was simulcasting the show on the radio. Also, his sideman, guitarist Maury Muehleisen, who left school at Rowan to sign and make a solo album for Capitol was returning home to Glassboro! It was heartbreaking to hear the news that both men had been tragically killed in a horrible plane crash only 9 months after this show.
Jim Croce was a really cool, humble, open kind of guy. You would not know he was on the verge of a meteoric rise to stardom, and he graciously gave me a great tip that night. He went on after us and did a killer set that brought the gym to its feet. I saw him backstage afterward and asked him how he could play his acoustic guitar without being miked up like we were. He showed me a brand new tiny acoustic pickup called a Barcus Berry that he taped to the bridge of his guitar. You couldn’t even see it from the stage and I was right up front watching. The next time I went home I made a trip to W.48th Street in NYC to visit the mecca of music stores—Manny’s Music and bought 3 brand new Barcus Berry pickups for the band. It changed everything. Thank you Jim Croce!! But I digress…
Bonnie Raitt would actually close the show because her flight from Syracuse had been delayed by a snowstorm. So John Prine followed Jim Croce as Bonnie was being driven from the airport to the show. As he was walking up the back of the stage, the backdoor to the gym suddenly opened and in walked Bonnie with her bass player Freebo. She ran over and grabbed John around the neck in a hug that nearly pulled him back off the stage. Luckily he was able to maintain his balance and avoid a nasty fall. He then went up to the mike and with a sly smile muttered something like “I knew a little snow wouldn’t stop Bonnie”, much to the delight of the crowd at hearing Prine’s inside joke. But I digress…again…
On this night John Prine was 25 and just starting out on his musical career. He had recorded his major-label debut album and in 1972 he earned a Grammy Nomination for Best New Artist. Nearly 50 years later he shed his cult status and was honored with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. That debut album, John Prine, is now considered a classic, filled with little masterpieces that got the buzz growing on the mailman turned songwriter from Chicago. Backstage there was definitely something about him that was different from other people. You could see it in his eyes and I was intrigued by him. It made me want to see him play. We chatted a bit as he sat a bit bemused by his headline status, quietly drinking beer to take the edge off his nerves before the show. I probably spent more time talking to his manager Al Bunetta because the 2nd artist that Al was managing, Steve Goodman, was having a breakout hit with his now-classic song City of New Orleans.
It’s funny thinking back to that night and just how much I absorbed from watching John Prine’s performance. I was like a sponge back then and I was paying very close attention to him and how he started every song with a certain style of fingerpicking that always had this little rhythm to it. It certainly rubbed off on me because it wasn’t long after that show that I came up with the fingerpicking for the music that would become Tomorrow’s Clown. The other thing about John Prine was his way with words and how he just seemed to have a knack for writing about life. He could take something small and natural and make it sound offbeat and still get to you.
I know he got into my head that night because not only did he influence my fingerpicking, but he also got my attention with his lyrics. Tomorrow’s Clown is a love song about a serial killer (pure Prine). The inspiration for the song came from watching an episode of Kojak, a popular TV series at the time, but the lyrics are definitely due to John Prine. I say this because I’ve never written anything like it before or since and I can only conclude that there’s just no way I could have written the song if I hadn’t seen and met him that night.
Tomorrow’s Clown is one of the oldest songs that I’ve written and recorded and like a John Prine song, there’s something particularly poignant about the song itself, as well as the recording of it. 2 of the people involved have recently passed away. My engineer of 20 years, Ben Elliott, who recorded everything DownTown Mystic ever recorded, just passed away a couple of weeks ago as I write this. Ironically, the only time I’ve ever used his voice on a recording is at the start of Tomorrow’s Clown, when he hits the record button on the Studer tape machine and says ”we’re rolling”. It’s something he said to me hundreds of times in my headphones over the years and I have it for posterity now.
The other person who’s no longer with us is the drummer on the track, Tommy Mastro. Tomorrow’s Clown is the last track we ever recorded together. Once again, it turned out to be a totally unique experience. We had started that last session around 1 pm and it was now 1 am. Tommy was set up in the studio and I was set up in front of the mixing console with my acoustic guitar miked in front of the floor to ceiling studio glass so that we could see each other. It was the only time that I ever did this working at Showplace Studios with Ben. The basic track was cut live as you hear it. Ben says “we’re rolling”, I start the count and then start fingerpicking my acoustic in the control room looking at Tommy playing in the studio, just the 3 of us. I’m forever grateful to have it on tape. As I said earlier, Tomorrow’s Clown is the most unique song I ever wrote or recorded and I’m lucky enough to owe it all to one man. Thank you John Prine!! 🙂
To be continued…