Song #21: Don't Stop Me Now (1980)

This is last of the songs from my "burn in" time at Skyline Recording. We had allocated three days to test the newly installed equipment at the studio, by recording five songs I wrote with Damon Leigh.
Day one was devoted to recording the basic rhythm section (tracking), day two was for overdubs and vocals, and day three was for the final mix.
I wasn't confident skilled enough to engineer and produce myself while trying to perform with the band, so a prominent engineer/producer had been recommended to me.

He definitely had the credentials, and seemed amiable enough when we first met before the sessions, but the three days we spent working together were a stereotypical rock and roll nightmare.
O.K. during the daylight hours, but in the evenings, fueled by drinks and drugs, he became a monster.

I chalked it up to a life lesson, not realizing at the time that the music business was full of monsters, and maybe I was to become one too...

Time has a way of giving healing and perspective to life, and this is especially true when it comes to creations of art. The "monster" engineer/producer cleaned up his act and has a successful career, and what seemed to me at the time to be a simple passionate love song, now sounds (through a Tarentino lens), kind of "date-rapey".

Still, I still love this song. Damon's beautiful lyrics portray a more innocent time without cynicism or skepticism or scrutiny. A time when you would profess your love and passion in a song without hoping it would be re-Tweeted or posted on Reddit.

Don't Stop Me Now

After the party you came up to my room

No need to plead innocent

You lit a fire and I sang you this tune

Isn't that how it went

Juiced and seduced by the look in your eyes

Just take me as you are

Don't stop me now where there's no compromise

This time you've gone too far

No don't stop me now

Now that I've found you

There's nothing to lose

And no way around it 

No don't stop me now

Fly by the light until night is gone

Come on

Just let it go

And forget your implication there

Here for an hour or two

Don't give me reasons that I won't understand

Give me you

It's all I can say

You know what I've needed

And if you will stay

You'll come to believe it

So don't stop me now

Now that I've found you

There's nothing to lose

And no way around it

No don't stop me now

Britt Bacon: vocals, piano

Teddy Zambetti: drums

Dean Groves: bass

Alan Morse: guitar

Jamie Sheriff: synthesizer

Written by Britt Bacon and Damon Leigh

©1980

Source: 1/4" analogue tape 15ips

Song #14: Film at Eleven (1980)

One of the benefits of being a recording engineer: you work in a sound-proof room. There are no distractions from the outside world to impede your focus on the task at hand; i.e., to "make it sound good".

 

One of the drawbacks of being a recording engineer: you work in a sound-proof room. Shit happens in the outside world, and you are completely unaware.

The result is I am a really good engineer, but am often-times totally clueless.

I was mixing this song, on December 8th, 1980, unaware that my former girlfriend had entered into a suicide pact with Darby Crash the night before. She survived. He did not.

The evening of this same day, outside the Dakota apartment building in New York, John Lennon was murdered. Damon was watching television in the lounge when he heard the news, and he came into the control room to tell me.

Lennon's death totally eclipsed Crash's in the news cycle, and it wasn't until years later that I learned the awful details in an excerpt from Brendan Mullen's book in the L.A. Weekly.

Film At Eleven

We interrupt your fantasy

To bait you with this late situation

We've got it down for you to see

The best of the worst in the nation

The sunset strangler strikes again

His victim she's nude and it's heaven

There's bad news too it looks like rain

We've got the film at eleven

We've got the film at eleven

We've got the news we couldn't show you at seven

The stories are hot

We'll thicken the plot

See who the cops shot 

A half-hour sacrifice of sleep

We'll give you the suspect's arraignment

We'll even try and hang the creep

All for your late night entertainment

Forget the hapless state you're in

This pause for the cause to remind you

Swallow our sponsor's aspirin

And put all your headaches behind you

We've got the film at eleven

We've got the news we couldn't show you at seven

The stories are hot

We'll thicken the plot

See who the cops shot 

Safe in the warm security of bed

Play another scene of violence through your head

Film at eleven shows it all

See America's decline and fall

Britt Bacon: vocals, guitar

Alan Morse: lead guitar

Dean Groves: bass

Scott Monahan: Farfisa

Teddy Zambetti: drums

Written by Britt Bacon and Damon Leigh

© 1980

Source: 1/4" stereo analogue tape 30 ips

 

Song #10: Larger Than Life (1980)

Growing up in Granada Hills, our next door neighbor, Dave McClure, made his living as a carpenter and general handyman. I used to hang out and watch him work in his garage.
One day when I was around ten years old,  Dave was pulling some weeds around his house, and he asked if I would help.

A few hours of work later, he handed me a dollar bill!
I thought this was so cool, as it was the first money I'd ever earned.

Nine years later, I was working for Dave as his assistant.
We were doing a house remodel, and one of the other workers was the bass player, Bill Staebell. He recommended the keyboard player, John Serry from his band Auracle* as a piano teacher.

John went solo in 1979, with his album "Exhibition", and the gigs he played around town to promote the release were epic. The band was insanely tight, and his mastery of the keyboard was awe-inspiring. He nonchalantly walked on to Donte's stage with his keyboard scarf and cigarette dangling, and flipped the conventional jazz world on it's head.

All bets were off.

He taught me piano technique, and music theory, and his explanation of poly-chords was a game changer in my approach to creating music. He is my third musical mentor.

John recently released a new album "The Shift", and once again: all bets are off.

You can hear John's influence all over this song I wrote with Damon Leigh.

The ambitiousness of the music is matched only by the lyrics Damon wrote, which are based on "the Rubáiyát" by Omar Khayyám.

Recorded during the "burn in" sessions we did just before Skyline opened, I distinctly remember the guitarist Alan Morse bitching about the complexity of the song**.

And while Dave is comfortably retired in Arizona,  I hope he knows that he was also a mentor to me. He taught me an honest appreciation of people who work with their hands, and a deep respect for the working class heroes.

Larger Than Life

Now isn't strange that of everyone who

Before us has passed the darkest door through

No one returns to tell of the road

That for us to know we must travel too

There's something going on here

I don't know what it means

There must be something larger

Larger than life outside of dreams

I shot out my soul through the singular eye

Still thirsting to quench from this paradise well

And then by and by my soul came to tell

There can be no heaven in self-created hell

There's something going on here

I don't know what it means

There must be something larger

Larger than life outside of dreams

If heaven's but the vision of a found desire

Then hell's the helpless shadow of a soul on fire

Downcast upon the darkness into which it fell

Yet burning to emerge in time if only to expire

There's something going on here

I don't know what it means

There must be something larger

Larger than life outside of dreams

Britt Bacon: vocals, keyboards
Alan Morse: guitar
Jamie Sheriff: synth
Dean Groves: bass
Teddy Zambetti: drums

Written by Britt Bacon and Damon Leigh
©1980

Source: 1/4" analogue tape 30ips

*Researching this blog post I realized, in 1986, I engineered an album "Fresh Flute" by Steve Kujala, who was a member of "Auracle". I don't think I was aware of our John Serry connection when we were working together...

**Today Alan leads a prog-rock band, "Spock's Beard", and the songs on their new CD make "Larger than Life" sound like a nursery school song.

Song #7: Burger City (1980)

This is my dear friend Kurt Berhold, hanging from a rafter (joist?) as he makes a cut with a Skilsaw. I went to junior high, and high school with Kurt, and he was the construction foreman of Skyline Recording, and a master of all things wood (cue the Beavis and Butthead quips). He's also an outstanding cook.

When you build a recording studio, it's a good idea to test the equipment before you open to the public. This is called the "burn in" time.

I had planned to record our New Invaderz concept album at Skyline Recording during this period, but the band broke up two months before the studio's scheduled completion.

Damon Leigh wrote some lyrics, and we pounded out 6 songs in six weeks.

We assembled a band, rehearsed, and on October 1st, 1980, cut the first track at Skyline Recording.

This song is especially prescient, considering the foodie times in which we live.

Thanks to Kurt for the slides, and Tim for the transfer.

(BTW I love the blog A Hamburger Today)

Burger City

Run down Burger City
Be good to yourself
I've been Burger City
So good for your health
Take a lean one
Make a mean one
On a sesame seed roll
Shakin' and bakin'
Been breakin' me out
Finger lickin'
Meat flippin'
Burger City

Well I ran from the meat stand
To bleed on myself
Yes I took it in my hand
To feed on myself
I've been bleedin'
I've been feedin'
Off this vanilla soul
Shakin' and bakin'
Been flakin' me out
Finger lickin'
Rib stickin'
Burger City

Mustard, catsup
Pickles and onion rings
Smothered in mayonaise
Slay it under
All of your favorite things
Nothing can kill that taste

Run down Burger City
To see for yourself
Your town Burger City
So good for your health
You won't get no pity
I've got to run
Before it gets cold
Shakin' and bakin'
Ain't takin' it out
Finger lickin'
Tooth pickin'
Burger City

Britt Bacon: vocals, Wurlitzer electric piano, piano

Alan Morse: guitars, bg vocals
Teddy Zambetti: drums, bg vocals
Dean Groves: bass

Written by Britt Bacon and Damon Leigh
©1980

Source: 2 track 1/4" tape, 30ips

Song #5: Afghanistan (1980)

This is one of the "burn in" songs we recorded at Skyline Recording before it opened to the public.

In 1979, Richard Baskin, a client of Spoiled Brat Recording, recommended a composition teacher.
I studied for two years with the great Abby Fraser, and he always stressed the importance of NEVER using parallel 5ths in counterpoint. Although the opening notes to this song are not technically "parallel", I'm sure I was pushing Abby's buttons when I wrote them.

I was inspired to write the opening notes and following song, by Damon Leigh's most amazing timeless and poetic lyrics.

Special shout out to Mr. Dean Groves who plays a most profound bass solo.

The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979.

P.S. Recognize the opening "sample"?

Afghanistan

I believe forever

Nothing's here to stay

One day we may not see tomorrow

Don't let that stop you

You know there's nowhere to hide

Your pride inside of no man's land

You're coming to Afghanistan

Traveling through as fast as you can

Everyone here dies in the wool

Might better steer clear of Kabul

Stroking the lapis lazuli

Your desert's cut and dried

No eyes surmise precipitation

You stake your chances down

When you play the answers 'round

You're right

You're coming through Afghanistan

Do what you do as best as you can

You'll never know where it all ends

If we're nomad why can't we be friends

Stroking the lapis lazuli

Your desert's cut and dried

No eyes surmise precipitation

You stake your chances down

When you play the answers 'round

You're right

I believe forever

Nothing's here to stay

One day we may not see tomorrow

Don't let that stop you

Britt Bacon: vocals, piano

Alan Morse: guitar

Teddy Zambetti: drums

Dean Groves: bass

Jamie Sheriff: synth

Written by Britt Bacon and Damon Leigh
© 1980

Source: 1/4" stereo master 30ips