Tag Archives: Neil Young

DownTown Blog – Superstar (To Sir Elton With Love Mix)

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The song Superstar was originally titled Ode To A Superstar. My cousin Gordon (GT Sullivan) had written the lyrics and gave them to me on a visit to his home. We grew up writing songs together in our teenage years and he would write lyrics from time to time and give me a batch when we got together. It’s kind of ironic that we wrote Superstar the way Elton John and Bernie Taupin wrote songs, with Bernie writing lyrics and then having Elton putting them to music. I say ironic because Superstar was in no way written with Elton in mind.

Elton John & Bernie Taupin

I think the song was written back in 1974 and would become part of my band’s set list, usually as an opener. I remember the drummer would play it on his toms to help drive it. It fit right in when we played it at CBGB back in 1975. The drums changed when I went out to LA in 1981 and recorded a new version of the song with drummer Greg Thomas, who had worked with Neil Young and Leon Russell. He played it with a more straight forward groove, which I really liked. The song had always been a guitar rocker. Greg had Mike Finnigan (CSNY & Bonnie Raitt) put an organ part on it but it didn’t really do much for the track.

Greg Thomas

Fast forward 40 years…I had recently moved and was putting my computer together and listening to my iTunes library. One of the songs I came across was the 1981 recording of Superstar. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that great groove from Greg and I made it part of a playlist I put together of songs I was planning to record. The more I heard the song the more I seriously thought about recording it with drummer Steve Holley and bassist Paul Page. My wife commented to me what a cool song it was and I should record it. So I decided to include it as part of the demos I sent to Steve and Paul when I was planning to go into the studio.

Paul, Robert & Steve

So it’s January 2022 and I’m cutting tracks with Steve and Paul at Shorefire Studios for what will become the AmeriKarma album. When it comes time to track Superstar, Steve, as he always does, tells me the tempo of the demo. It’s really fast and I say I could do it a bit slower which Steve seems to be more comfortable with. So we try it at a few different speeds and settle on one that feels good to me. It’s a straight ahead punk rocker, the way it was written. I haven’t changed a thing to the song in over 40 years.

Elton John

It’s not until I’m listening to a playback and it comes to the breakdown part after the first chorus, for some reason, Elton John pops into my head. I can see him getting up from behind his piano and strutting across the stage to the groove like I’d seen him do on many occasions in concert. Elton John? Really?? Now I start thinking about Elton and his music. I’m a huge Elton John fan, having been there at the start when he hit in 1970 and seeing him at The Fillmore East in NYC opening for Leon Russell. Superstar is not an Elton John song but the more I hear the track, the more I’m thinking about how Elton would play it.

Jeff Levine

I had keyboard wiz Jeff Levine coming in for a session and told him to think of Elton’s song Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting as an approach for Superstar. Both songs are guitar based and I believe Elton didn’t even want to play piano on his track. He had to be talked into it! Jeff got into it right away and laid down a piano track very fitting of Elton. Jeff’s playing is as close to Elton’s style as you can get. It made me have to think about how I could make the track more like Elton. I hadn’t changed my guitar parts one iota, so I needed something else.

Elton John at Dodger Stadium

It happened when I was laying down my vocals. As I was listening to the playbacks I started to think about Elton’s vocals. It occurred to me that he always had harmonies and background parts that were like hooks in themselves. That was it! I needed to come up with a background part on the chorus. So I told my engineer Joe DeMaio I wanted to try a background vocal and went into the studio and basically came up with a part on the spot. I added a harmony to it and when it was mixed together with the lead vocal I had my Elton John track.

Elton

One of the weirdest things that ever happened to me in a recording studio happened to me as I was overdubbing a lead guitar part on my 1960s Gretsch Tennessean (the one that George Harrison used with The Beatles at Shea Stadium). I was almost finished with the part when the bridge of the guitar started to slip under the strings. I thought it was because of the Bigsby tailpiece but I wasn’t using it. Joe came rushing into the studio to try and help me get the bridge back under the strings and we came very close to doing it. I decided to put the guitar in its case and let guitar tech extraordinaire Billy Penn work his magic on it.

George Harrison at Shea Stadium

I figured it was my 1964 Strat that had sabotaged the Gretsch so that I would have to use it since I had it on hand that day. 🙂 It was very weird! After laying down some more tracks with the Strat, Superstar was finished. Listening back in the control room I could hear flashes of Mark Bolan (T-Rex) and even David Bowie. How odd I thought. Back in the early 70s, Bolan was the king of Glam Rock in the UK, playing with both Elton and Bowie. Nearly 50 years after writing the song I could hear all 3 influences in the track!

Elton John with T-Rex at at BBC Top of the Pops London 1971

I started doing 3 different mixes but it was obvious I had to focus on Elton as the main mix. Besides the piano I really focused on Steve’s snare. I always felt that the drum sound was a key element to the song like the guitars, so I made sure the drums were slamming. Besides writing the song like Elton and Bernie would, the other irony was that Steve Holley had recorded with Elton in the early 80s. So the stage was set. I would release Superstar as a single in October of 2022 with the To Sir Elton With Love Mix as the Radio single and for the release I added the Guitar Mix to show the way the song was played in 1975.

Steve Holley

The song received a great reaction from Radio with over 150 stations around the world playing it. Superstar (To Sir Elton With Love Mix) has also become the most streamed song in the DownTown Mystic catalog. I think part of the reason is that it has a vibe that hasn’t been around in a long time. So Elton, if you’re out there and read this, please know that the track was created out of love for a musical hero of mine. I tried to make it as close to one of your songs as possible and I think you’re the only one who could do it better. 🙂

DownTown Blog – 21st Century Rock’n Roll

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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 – DownTown Mystic: Used Records History 1979-1985 Part 2 “A Long Strange Trip”

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What a long strange trip it’s been…or words to that effect. Going back into my musical archives and listening to all the songs I recorded 35-40 years ago brought back memories…both good and bad…but mostly good. The main thing I took away from the experience was how much the music always mattered to me. I left a band that was my life for 10 years to go solo because I wanted to concentrate on writing better songs and getting more into the recording process…and that’s exactly what I did. I stayed true to myself and the music, and that’s not something many people can say.

When putting the album together I decided to arrange the songs chronologically by the year they were recorded, starting with 3 tracks by The Tupelos (1979-80). The only exception was the 1st track Please Be There, which features Garry Tallent from The E Street Band on bass. This song had been on the 45 single with Chuck Berry’s Sweet Little 16 from 1979. We changed the arrangement with Garry. I thought it should be the lead track because it was recorded as part of a Production Deal that was the last highlight for the band.

The Tupelos 1980

Actually, it was that single that attracted Garry to the band at the end of 1979, when he was recording The River with Bruce and The E Street Band. Garry came over to my house in 1980 to jam with the band and agreed to play bass and record with us when we got a deal. We got the deal and Garry came down with us to record in Washington DC and then last played with us on stage at The Fast Lane in Asbury Park. Garry would be our bass player from April to August 1980. There’s no other band that can make that claim outside of Springsteen himself. LOL

https://soundcloud.com/shalaman/sweet-little-sixteen

I left The Tupelos in early 1981 and went to LA, driving cross country with the bass player George (who we met at that Fast Lane show). My publisher hooked us up with Gregg Thomas, a drummer who had worked with Neil Young and Leon Russell and we recorded some songs with him. This was really the 1st time that I got to play with a pro drummer and I learned a lot from it. There’s something that I can only describe as “solid” by the way guys like him, Max Weinberg and Steve Holley all play. It was this same quality that I saw in Tommy Mastro when I heard him play with The Discontent that made me want to get back into recording my songs again.

Robert at Alley Studios 1981 N. Hollywood

 When I got back from LA I knew what I wanted to do and went solo, recording my 1st project in 1982. I would play all the instruments with the exception of bass, enlisting the help of my good friend and fellow Aquarian Monte Farber. Monte has since gone on to become one of the leading New Age authors in the world. Along with his wife, artist Amy Zerner, they’ve created some of the best-selling divination systems ever created. You can hear Monte on the Welcome To Sha-La Land release and his own album, Good Karma.

I chose the 3 best tracks recorded with Monte for this album. Baby Believe Me, Night Time Girl and I Just Want To Love You all feature piano as the main instrument. This was something new for me and helped to add a new dimension to my songs. Night Time Girl was written right after I wrote Brian Jones in 1980 and both were in The Tupelos setlist. I Just Want To Love You was one of the 1st songs I wrote for The Tupelos and it was the last song I recorded with the band. I also recorded it with Gregg Thomas in LA. I clearly had a thing for this song because I couldn’t let it go of it until I had a definitive version that I felt was IT. You’ll notice that I have 1979 & 1982 listed for Sweet Lies. This song was recorded with the band as part of the 1979 Single session and then I went back to it, recording piano and re-mixing it during my solo session in 1982. 30 years later, I borrowed the intro and verse chords to write Read The Signs with Bruce Engler.

The next 2 songs, You Didn’t Know and Same Old Lover are from a 1983 8-tk demo session which would be a very important turning point for me. It’s not these songs alone, but the ones that were also recorded and are missing–the original versions of And You Know Why & Way To Know. These were much different from the versions I recorded with Garry Tallent & Max Weinberg. This was also the 1st time I ever played bass on a recording, thanks to swapping my pedal steel with Garry for one of his bass guitars. I wish I could find those original demos, especially Way To Know. Most likely I sent the reel to reel tape with them on it to Paul Schindler, my music attorney at the time. It was another era.

The remaining 4 songs (1985) were the last recordings I did until starting the DownTown Mystic Project 12 years later. I think you can hear a marked improvement in my writing and recording. I hooked up with Joe Norosavage, a keyboard player I met through Garry Tallent. The 80s and MTV were in full swing, as were synths, sequencers and drum machines. I decided to forego a band to make a state of the art recording. Turn Around and Go gets the full 80s treatment here. Who could have guessed that Fly Like The Wind would be discovered 30 years later and become one of my top sync-licensing tracks!

If you’re wondering why I called the project Used Records it’s because those songs from 1985 would be released in Europe on a cd called Used Records by a German label called Long Island Records in 1995. I was managing bands by this time and was out in LA when I met the label’s owner and all-around nice guy, Sondi. He wasn’t interested in a band I was shopping at the time but then we got to talking about this project I had done with the likes of Garry Tallent and Max Weinberg. This seemed to get Sondi’s attention and we made a deal. I wanted to get my songs on a cd since all my tapes were wearing thin, so this was a win-win! 🙂

Robert & 1976 Les Paul

It’s been strange to go back over songs I wrote and recorded in another century. I still think about getting Nik Cohn’s letter in the mail 3 years ago and just how strange it was to read his words. I look at it now like someone tapping me on the shoulder, trying to get my attention to look at this music. There’s certainly karma at work here. So in a very real sense, this album feels inevitable to me now. As I said at the start of this post, what a long strange trip it’s been. 🙂

Listen to DownTown Mystic: Used Records History 1979-1985

DownTown Blog – The Wish

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DTM The Wish Single cover 1500

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

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

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. 🙂

https://soundcloud.com/shalaman/the-wish