And You And I

Nice Day for A White Wedding

On my Facebook page I asked people to post a wedding song -- their own or someone else's -- and here are the results, starting with my own.

Word of Warning

Early Rumblings, Part 2: Two More Rough Tracks

Some more early versions of the songs that will make up the Abandoned and Heartbroke  album. You can listen to two other songs here.

I have a dream of making some LPs out of this. An actual record album would be fun to have and a blast to design.

Pay no attention to most of the lyrics on "These Times". They were meant only as a placeholder for finished lyrics, which still have not been decided upon, but in the meantime some of them make me cringe. I do hear a sweeping epic of a song in the making, at least instrumentally.

These Times

Into the Night

You Can't Sit Down

By (massively) popular demand, a list of songs about standing, as supplied by many, many Facebook friends. Take it away, kids...

Wanna Date?

Early Rumblings: Two Rough Tracks

The description of this blog includes the phrase "chronicling the creation of an album of original songs, by a guy who figures he might as well", and after a long hiatus we finally have the opportunity to do some serious chroniclin'. Drum tracks have been added to all five songs, courtesy of the great Drake Sorey, drummer for the splendid rockabilly group The Highballers and a gifted photographer to boot. This is a terrific breakthrough for the album, because now we can move forward on the songs.

For now, here are the rough tracks for what I consider to be the standout songs so far. More to come.

South Street

One More Day to Rain

The Greatest Pop Beat Ever

As far as I know, it doesn't have a name, but you know it -- three bass (kick) drum beats followed by a snare. Probably best known from the Ronettes' "Be My Baby", on which it was performed by the great Hal Blaine, and immortalized in pop songs over the decades since.

(Wrap Your Arms Around and) Cover Me

On his recent tour, Bruce Springsteen has been gifting audiences with some mind-blowing surprise cover songs, and though he has laughed delightedly at people's reactions to his choices, his versions are performed impeccably and with great respect. In celebration of this nifty twist to his shows, herewith is a selection of some of Bruce's best cover songs over the years. (Hat tip to old pal Jim Crisci for help and suggestions.)

Tex-Mex Serenade

Looming large in my musical and personal history is a long-gone bar and restaurant called the Tex-Mex Grille, once situated near the Potomac in Rosslyn, VA, just across the river from DC (and not far from, as I boast tirelessly to visitors, the site where they filmed President Bartlet's assassination attempt on THE WEST WING). Tex-Mex was torn down years ago, along with the building in which it was housed, but if you squint at the Chipotle that has since taken its place, you can  just about make out where the outdoor patio upon which I and my musician buddies performed once stood. Fridays and Saturdays were hosted by the one and only "TV" John Langworthy, who booked us musicians two performers a night, sometimes for four hours each. (!) At one point we hit on the notion that it made more sense to spare the nerves of artists and the boredom threshold of the audience if we mixed our sets -- I'd do two songs with David McKittrick,  (producer of this here upcoming Abandoned and Heartbroke album), then Dave and Eric Eckl would do a few of Eric's originals, then I'd go back up onstage. Then we'd jam on a few songs. It worked out well for us, but of course Dave never got a break at all.

One night in 1999, Eric recorded one of these gigs and presented Dave and me with CD copies. My copy didn't work -- in the 90s, it was not unusual for certain PCs and CD players to reject certain types of blank CDs -- so originally I never got to hear that gig. But recently McKittrick unearthed his copy and burned one for me, so tonight I got to hear these performances for the first time in nearly 15 years. They're not bad, although I opted to write off one track on account of having already shared better versions (it's Bruce's "Promised Land" in case anyone cares).

Fadeway

Wicked Game (Seriously! What was I thinking?)

Romeo and Juliet

Into the Night

Unanswered Questions

Nastygrams

Possibly the meanest act a songwriter can commit is to write a song directed at someone they are pissed off at royally -- the more talented the writer, the more savage the delivery. While it's completely unfair to the subject, especially if they are not equipped or talented enough to respond in kind, some of the greatest, most biting songs have been committed to record, and herewith are some of them, as well as some equally brilliant ripostes.

I'd Like to Fly But I Can't Even Swim: Songs About Comic Books

This should have been an obvious choice long ago, seeing as I often have one foot in music and the other in the comics.

BFFs

Kenny

Kenneth Cadmus was braver than anyone I ever knew.

I don't remember how I first encountered Kenny, but I do know the year and place -- 1973, Lincoln School, New Providence, NJ. We were eight. Most probably, we met on the playground, or the classroom, but the really important memory is this:  I was a new kid, having just been arrived from the small city of Charleston, West Virginia to this middle-to-upper-middle class suburb of Manhattan, and I was frightened out of my mind. I was thin, puny, no kind of athlete and hardly a scholar. I liked to read and draw superhero comics, which pretty much helped seal my fate right off the bat. My earliest and most important memory of Kenny is that he knew all these things about me and he did not give a shit.  I mean, look at this kid, right here: