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An interview with Jamie Thompson
Q: Who is your audience for this project? Who's been "waiting for" this CD?
JT: The person I have in mind is someone who enjoys Beatlesque, Bruce Cockburnesque songwriting and blues-oriented lead guitar playing. Early Eric Clapton, Duane Allman and Phil Keaggy come to mind.
Q: What's been so long?
JT: IT!, I tell you! So many things at once, which is why I chose the title. First of all, I wanted to make a music recording of my own ever since I saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show when I was five years old! That's been a few years!
I felt like an oddball when I was a kid because I always had original ideas for creative projects but not many people that I knew appreciated that as a talent or encouraged me to develop, refine, and perfect my ideas - including my teachers at school. No one did that sort of thing. I used to create my own imaginary characters and draw original cartoons... and the kids on my street referred to me as "Jamie the Retart"... not a very encouraging environment for creative arts! In my neighborhood you were cool if you could play sports, fight, spit, smoke... things that I generally didn't much care to do. It took a long time for me to recognize that, while I may have been an eccentric fellow, I was certainly not alone in the world with regard to my natural artistic sensibilities... and that my sense of being misunderstood was more a reflection of the poverty of culture in my local environment. I was well into my teens before I started to transcend my upbringing.
Secondly, I also always dreamed of being able to produce my own high quality recordings at home. That way I could record what I wanted to record and take all of the time I wanted to record it. Whenever I read the story of an artist that I admire it seems to me that record companies were always trying to control what they recorded and how it was recorded - the production style and how much attention was paid to the fine details. The focus was always on the bottom line. The very thought of that kind of working environment discouraged me from ever seeking a recording contract. It's been decades since I first started dreaming my dream. And now the technology is finally here... and, consequently, so is my first CD! The song "It's Been So Long" (along with the reprise) itself is a perfect example. It's 7 minutes 40 seconds long. That's a no-no to start with. And then, from start to finish with all of the experimentation and attention I paid to the fine details, it took me three months to record and mix that song. Just ONE song! Of course, I didn't work on it eight hours a day for three months. More like a couple of hours a day... not every day. But still, there are a lot of hours invested in that track. No record company person would EVER put up with something like that... unless I was Paul McCartney in 1967 or something. And yet, without that kind of time and care, the track wouldn't be anywhere near what it is.
Thirdly, it's been so terribly long since I was in a position where I could actually take the time to do a project like this. I have my wife, Judy, to thank for that. She's my benefactress. After we got married in 1995 she went off to work and I stayed home because our plan was for me to be a stay-at-home-dad when our kids came along. Well, it took four and a half years for our first child to arrive! In the meantime, home digital recording technology came of age and I found myself suddenly with the time and the tools to get started! I jumped on it!
The fourth point has to do with Judy as well. I didn't get married until I was 36 years old... not because I was afraid of commitment but because I was afraid of making a mistake and ending up in a devastating divorce like my parents went through. In the meantime, the single life just never agreed with me very much. I crave intimacy on every level of my life but, in spite of that longing, I waited until I found the person who was really right for me. Judy is that person. Thankfully, I recognized that before she slipped through my fingers! And so it seems that, after many years of dreaming, waiting and searching, a whole bunch of things that were just hovering over me in space suddenly converged at once - the technology, the time, the situation, the woman - and I found myself starting this project. I remember the day I received a bunch of boxes full of new recording equipment. I cried. I literally cried like a baby. Thanks God!
Q: So, what's the story behind the cover of It's Been So Long?
JT: I've always loved natural forms and shapes. I think that God's the greatest artist of all so I endeavored to incorporate His work into mine. I think of it as a form of worship.... not of the creation itself but of the artist who created it. I've always particularly loved two Paul McCartney songs: Fool on the Hill and Mother Nature's Son. In Fool on the Hill you have this character who is completely misunderstood, gossiped about, and characterized as some kind of con man/so-and-so that all the people in his community are suspicious and wary of. In reality, though, the Fool is the one who is fully conscious and tuned in to what's really happening in life... not in the context of the world of men (the real fools) but in the wider world of all living things, seen and unseen. In Mother Nature's Son you have another character who seems not even connected with the world of men at all but who lives in and among the flora and fauna without a care for the things that inspire passion in regular people - power, money, possessions, etc. My goal with my CD cover was to project the image of a sort of amalgamation of these two characters. A guy all in green sitting in the dirt putting on a concert for the grass, trees and critters for the simple, honest pleasure of it. You see, as an indie artist, I made this CD because I wanted to make it. It's a very personal expression of the things that are in my heart and on my mind. It's meaning and value are there for those who have ears to hear. Because of that, I may never have a vast audience of people to perform for. I accept that. I'd much rather perform what I want to perform for the grass, trees, and critters than for people who would pressure me to create a product that appeals strictly below the belt - which, in my humble opinion, is where most corporate-backed, widely distributed music aims for these days.
Q: What about the traycard shot that appears on the back of the disc? What's that about?
JT: First of all, the picture itself is from the side of an ancient garage in the backyard of Mr. Bungawingee's house in Springmount, PA. There's this very old stone wall that used to have a door in it. Sometime in the distant past someone decided the door had to go and they filled it in with stones. So, there's this very old stone wall with a kind of ghostly shape of a door that's all rocks as well but clearly not quite as old. The image of it just caught my attention. It was beautiful but I'm not sure I can tell you why I think so. It's just an impression. The thing that I really like about it is the single piece of ivy crawling up the face of it. It's like there's this cold stone wall that's been there seemingly forever but now there's a little upstart of a green thing crawling up it... contrasting it's life and greenness with the lifeless rock. Of course we know it's inevitable that the wall will fall and be consumed by time and a horde of living things too powerful to resist. In many ways I believe it tells the story of the indie musician... and that's why I decided it should play an important role in my CD cover art.
Q: I noticed that your special homemade edition of It's Been So Long has a clear case and a rather striking, psychedelic image on the reverse side of the traycard. What can you tell me about that?
JT: I took the original picture at Wimea Falls Park on the NE side of Oahu, Hawaii back in 2001 when Judy and I were visiting her brother and his family. Hawaii is just full of exotic natural shapes and I had a field day snapping pix of trees, flowers, birds,... you name it! Of course, as any photography person will tell you, for every couple of tens of pix you take you get one really good one. This one was a standout for me. The twisting tree trunk and the lovely curves of the branches which became increasingly enchanting as the branches became smaller and more dense in space. I imported the image into my photo software and proceeded to reflect it on all four edges. Then I made it negative and had a lot of fun stretching it in various ways and playing around with the various color saturations and hues. The idea that I was going for was this notion that I've had for years that the energy of life and the wavelength of human consciousness is broadcast from some spiritual, inspirational epicenter somewhere. Our natural limitations of perception keep us from seeing it coming and going clearly but we have faint intuitions that are rooted in it. I imagined lying on my back in the forest and looking up into the flow of the broadcast as it came in. I guess it's a pretty far out idea for people who like to keep their feet and ideas firmly on the ground but it's an idea that I've carried around in my heart and mind for a long time so I thought I'd try and express it somehow. That's what the arts are for!... let's get people out of their "boxes" and looking around! Lord knows I've been kicked out or busted out of a lot of "boxes" over the years. I'm sure it'll happen again.
Originality and the Artist
It wasn't until I was in my teens that I found a few kindred spirits. Most of the people that I played music with in the 1970's just wanted to play cover tunes. We dreamed of "making it big" in music but somehow we thought that it might happen if we copied the music that famous people were doing. One day it dawned upon me that making a unique mark on the world meant writing original songs and developing an original identity as an artist. I lost contact with most of my old music friends by pursuing that epiphany to a product. Not because I lost interest in them so much as they thought I went crazy or something. Why go to all the trouble of writing and recording original music when your hometown cohort will love and admire you just as much - maybe even more! - if you perfect the art of imitation? I was visiting an old keyboard player friend of mine a few years ago and he played me a tape of this band he was in where each member of the group had perfected imitations of famous people. They played James Brown tunes, Michael McDonald, Jackson Brown, etc. and it was squeaky clean and polished to perfection. It was at once impressive and pathetic. I didn't know what to say. I felt uncomfortable in the same way as Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin did when they finally arrived back home at the Shire only to find the place was just the same as it was when they left it - as they hoped and dreamed it would - only it was they who were utterly changed from their odyssey. How do you explain yourself to people who you love, but who have never been over the horizon?
In the 1980's I finally managed to construct a band that actually was focused on writing and performing original music. It was great in many ways but I generally was dissatisfied with the way my songs ended up sounding. One thing that I did enjoy was the way other musicians added their personal touches to my ideas. I think the thing that bothered me was being constrained to the instruments that we had on hand. I often heard these great soundscapes in my mind's ears but they were far too detailed and complex to create in a bar. So, I just let 'em go and hoped for a day when I could really communicate what was in my head.
In 1982, or so, Fostex came out with the first more or less affordable eight track multi-track 15 ips reel to reel tape deck. I was SO EXCITED because I believed that if I could just get my hands on one of those babies and be left alone for a while I could probably produce something that approached the sounds that I was hearing in my head. A year or so later I moved to Santa Cruz, California and became a musical recluse. I stopped performing live, sold off most of my stage equipment, and reinvested the money in the new generation of 8-track multi-track analogue home studio equipment. I had a lot of fun and I think I created some worthwhile tracks (two are 'bonus tracks" on the It's Been So Long CD) but I was frustrated by the degradation of quality that resulted in the mastering process. I mixed the 8 tracks down to stereo on a reel to reel mastering deck. Then I copied the stereo tracks to cassette. Each step in that process added noise to my recordings and the final step of copying onto cassette lost a lot of the quality of the source tape. I found myself dreaming of a day when I could mix my source tape straight to CD... but in 1983 a CD burner cost $50,000!
Stay tuned! More to come! ibsl.com
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Song Commentaries
"With the One I Love" was written before I was married at a time (one of many) when I had come to the end of being single. I was up in the middle of the night because I couldn’t sleep and I was feeling so lonely I didn’t know how I could go on. At the time I had hoped to be married sooner than later but I just couldn’t find the person that I could trust with my life. I had been dreaming for years about what it would be like to be with the one I love and I was believing that God would send her my way right soon. On the night that this song was written, though, I had lost hope and I felt as though God wasn’t noticing my need or being sensitive to my pain. Of course I knew better, and I had such high hopes, but now I imagined that for some reason my dream had turned around.
It was late
summer and the crickets saturated the night air with currents of sound and
energy. I imagined they were praising God and that the sound flowed upward into
space and on to His throne, filling his ears with sweet worship. By contrast I
felt as though my little set of troubles was somehow earthbound with no way of
gaining God’s attention. So, I prayed and imagined that I was stowing a
message away with the cricket calls and that they carried it off to God for me
like a message in a bottle.
I designed the song to progress through four distinct but logically
consecutive moods. The first is self-pity, which gives way to anger/frustration,
which gives way to euphoric fantasy, which gives way to bitter reality.
After I got married I wondered if I could ever again perform the song
with the same passion and conviction. I soon discovered that everyone wants to
be with the one they love whether it be a spouse, a close friend or a family
member… yet so many people live with the pain of breakdown in the
relationships that they hold dear.
I had a lot of fun experimenting with the various sounds that appear throughout this recording. I spent a day just making feedback on various guitar and amp combinations. Slide parts were performed on a Stratocastor. My beloved Fender Strat XII makes many appearances. The first guitar solo was performed on a Les Paul. The second was on a Stratocastor in full treble position. The tones of both solos are composites of dual sound sources: The Soldano Lead amp simulator in the Roland 1680 and my little Peavey 208S with a 12 inch Peavey Sheffield speaker plugged into one side. I recorded the two sounds on parallel tracks and then mixed them together into a stereo field, panning them apart just enough to make a nice thick sound texture that varies nicely throughout the sound space, giving a nice sense of depth. The Moog sounding melody that backs the first verse is not a synthesizer but me using an “Ebow” to “bow” a Les Paul. I recorded the cricket sounds between two-thirty and four o’clock in the morning back in August of 1989 when I was living in a rural spot several miles outside of New Kensington, PA. I put two microphones back-to-back on my front porch to catch a nice stereo effect, hit the record button, and went back to bed! The light wind effects were actually made on my old Roland Juno 60 synthesizer that I don’t own anymore. I happened to have some old recordings of wind effects that I made on the Juno 60 years ago so I rescued them from oblivion and used them on this recording.
Jamie Thompson: vocals, guitars, keyboard, percussion/drums, sound effects. Dan Kelly: bass Ken Volz: vocals Judy Thompson: vocals Mark Appiotti: flugelhorn Jack Otto: congas Scott Gurney: piano
"Unrequited Love" is a musical illustration of the pain one feels when one loves someone and that person, for one reason or another, doesn’t love you back. I think everyone has gone through it. Being jilted is part of growing up. The situation becomes more complicated, though, when one loves a family member who is a sociopath and responds to your good love with hatred and bigotry... all because you are, perhaps, the only person they know who won't stand by and do nothing while they destroy themselves, their family, ... your family.
It
seems to be a universal problem that people don’t establish proper boundaries
between themselves and those who would hurt them. I am guilty of this. Too many
times I have handed my heart someone that I thought that I loved, and who I
believed loved me - either because they said they did, or because I just wanted
to believe it - only to watch in horror as they drop-kicked my heart into the
sewer! It’s a terrible, fiery hoop of pain to have to jump through and get on
with life but you gotta do it!
One afternoon I was in the middle of recording this song when a summer squall moved in. It was a nice gentle storm with a hypnotic rainfall. It seemed like a gift so I recorded it in stereo from windows on the north and west sides of our house and then chose a nice bit of rain and thunder out of what I got.
This track starts with the summer squall which introduces the pain of unrequited love. The transition illustrates an unrealistic hope that there can be a resolution/reconciliation - even though the mood changes the storm persists. Then there is the apex of the piece where there is a sense of breaking free and letting go... which resolves back to unrequited love but with a twist - the chorus of cicadas at the end represents the end of the storm and gives a sense of moving on..
The acoustic guitar is my Taylor LKS-6 recorded on three tracks. One is a live mic (a Rhode Classic vacuum tube microphone), another is the Sunrise pickup in the sound hole, the other is a pair of Fischman transducers mounted inside the guitar. Judy worked up an eq setting for each track that complemented the other two. The three tracks were mixed together in the stereo field to give a nice sense of depth. The ebow was done on the Les Paul. The guitar melody lines were done on my Stratocastor using the whammy bar and with the tone switch in the middle position.
Judy says this is her favorite track on the disc.
Jamie Thompson: guitars, sound effects
Ever
since I first
gave my heart to God back in 1977 I have been plagued by a thorny
challenge… what does it mean to be a believer? What do I do with my new life?
How do I talk? How do I act? To be very honest, I didn’t always conduct myself
like one might expect a believer would. In fact, there were seasons of time in
my life when I knew in my heart that I was just giving God lip service while I
was really serving myself. The Bible calls it “holding the form of religion
but denying the power of it.” This led to what I refer to as the yo-yo effect.
I would get serious about my Christian walk for a time but then, little by little,
I would chip away at my own integrity until my life descended into calamity.
Then I’d get serious again and the whole thing would start over. What it
finally came down to was this - I wanted to serve God on my own terms - sort
of like Joliet Jake Blues striking a match, lighting a ciggy and saying, “Me
and the Lord… we got an understandin.” I learned the hard way not to be
seduced by such an idea. I can say from experience, it doesn’t work!
I wanted to mature in my faith and have a deeper relationship with God yet I never seemed to grow past the basics. Even worse was the fact that I was always being caught off guard by situations that I thought a faithful person would’ve seen coming. What was wrong? Answer: I had to surrender my whole heart mind and strength and I wasn’t doing it! I was personally obstructing God from wielding His power in my life.
Yet
God was patient and longsuffering with me. He just followed me around and waited
patiently for me to get the message. This is what the song “I Can Change
You” is about. God knows everything about us. He can see us in the dark. He
can read our hearts. He feels our pain. He hears our cries on the inside and
out. He’ll follow us through every ridiculous mess we can make for ourselves
and even save our butts from time to time just so we can eventually get to that
place where we finally get it and willingly give Him everything. This is because
His love is pure as sunshine and sweet like the rain and His desire is forever
burning to have an intimate, living relationship with each and every one of us.
So,
after years of professing Christianity, but all too often really serving myself and working
hard to change myself using my own strength, I finally gave in to God. I realized and came to terms
with the idea that only He has the power to change me from the inside out. He
made it possible for me to be changed by sending Jesus to pay the price for it.
And this is the most beautiful part: it’s FREE! There’s nothing we can do to
earn it. All we have to do is desire it and ask God to do it!
The acoustic guitar is the Taylor LKS-6. The little picky/strummy guitar parts were done on the Strat XII with several alternate tunings and capo positions. The piccicato strikes during the chorus are a composite of three sounds: a Stratocaster in full treble position, plinky triads on my Alesis QS-8 digital piano, and a wood block. The guitar lead at the end was done on the Stratocaster.
Hats off to Scott Gurney, Dan Kelly, Mark Appiotti, and Dave Detwiler. What would this recording be without their contributions? Scott did a beautiful job comin’ up with all kinds of variations on how to apply piano to this song. Dan Kelly worked with me two nights in a row recording about eight different bass lines for me to work with. Mark Appiotti did a beautiful job of playing the horn part with just the right snap and timbre… it almost sounds like laughter! Dave Detwiler has a hypnotic velveteen quality in his voice that I am very envious of. His performance singing the countermelody in the last chorus made the perfect crescendo to top off the vocal part of the song. Thanks guys!!
Jamie Thompson: guitars, keyboards, percussion/drums Scott Gurney: lead piano Dan Kelly: bass Judy Thompson: vocals Dave Detwiler: vocals Mark Appiotti: flugelhorn
One day I was living in State College, PA and walking home from taking a final exam at Penn State when, suddenly, I spotted a group of what appeared to be moms standing around on a street corner. It looked funny to me because I used to hang out in a benign neighborhood gang when I was a teenager and these people just looked out of place. They were definitely too old to be hanging out on street corners! The answer to the quandary arrived a moment later when a school bus pulled up and stopped to drop off a gaggle of kids.
One little boy in particular made a big impression on me when he ran down the steps of the bus yelling, "Mommy!" and proceeded to wrap his arms and legs around his mother's rather voluminous leg. As I passed the scene I could see in his smiling face that he was in little boy heaven... meanwhile, his mother patted him lovingly on the head and calmly continued her conversation with one of the other ladies in the "gang."
I said to myself, "Little kids. All they want is to be loved and wanted."
I got to thinking about that and I realized that children, by nature, don't have much of an agenda other than that. It's we adults who have the complex agendas that all too often leave the needs of our kids far from the top of our priority list... or even in the trash out by the street to taken away to wherever.
Isn't it a shame when it seems that we have to pass a law that requires parents to love their children? Our children need our love but even more, they need our sacrifice. To a great degree we have to sacrifice our goals and ambitions so that we can be there for them. If we fail to do that, then they pay the price... all too often with their very lives!
Someday people will look back upon our time and ask the question, "What was the greatest holocaust of that generation?" Was it Hitler? Stalin? Pol Pot? Saddam? I believe that the answer will be the 45 million (and counting) American little ones whose lives were cut off, erased... whose voices were silenced forever... because their parents, for one reason or another, couldn't love them... and because they were unable to hire a good law firm or political action committee to lobby for the protection of their rights.
With whom lies this failure to love? Is it the children? And when the price for that failure is paid, and the resulting circumstances are weighed, who among us can say that it was worth the price? I can't.
The unborn are the most innocent and vulnerable people on earth and we have exploited that vulnerability, making their systematic destruction into a multi-billion dollar industry and cloaking the sheer horror of it with inspiring phrases like "freedom of choice" and "right to privacy."
There was a time when I would've told you that I was pro-choice... and a time when I would've told you I was pro-life. Nowadays I ask men and women alike a simple question: Is it worth the price? Are your goals, dreams, ambitions and plans for yourself worth the price of the very life of your son or daughter? You may say that it's none of my business or perhaps a private matter... but there's still an answer to the question, isn't there? I don't need to know your answer. But YOUR answer, whether unspoken or shouted from the hilltops says it all.
Thank God for Jesus who cleanses us, makes us whole, and gives us hope to love with a true, unconditional love that comes with the gift of grace. His was the only unjust death that was worth the price because it was worth the price to God to redeem us... a very high price indeed. What value do you place on it?
The Price was recorded using the Taylor LKS-6. I used the Stratocaster to make the few guitar leads. The little bit of ebow was done on the Les Paul. I used my Alesis QS-8 to record various synthy effects, organs, cellos and the piano arpeggios. Jay Kratz came over and played the introspective sounding Rhodes-style part. Scott Gurney performed the tiny, magical keyboard sounds that are sprinkled into the background throughout the song. He also played the lead organ part during the last verse. Most importantly, he created the musical motif that characterizes the "she" that will be waiting for me, leaping and bounding - like his keyboard playing - when I "sail across the sea" someday. Thanks Scott!
Jay Kratz came up with the idea of laying the melody for Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in the background of the second verse. What a beautifully elegant idea! After all, that is the what's at the heart of the debate, isn't it? What is life? When does it begin? Is it's value inherent or established by the sentiment... or lack of sentiment of someone else?
Jamie Thompson: vocals, guitars, keyboard Judy Thompson: vocals Verna Law: vocals Scott Gurney: keyboard Jay Kratz: keyboard
This song was written for my church to be performed as “special
music.” That’s when, after the message, a song is performed during the
offering that fits hand-in-glove with the message.
The message that weekend, as I recall, had to do with finding your true purpose in life by seeking to “know God” intimately in such a way that God is able to lead you to the place where you belong. As I understand it, the word “know” in this context implies the most intimate, dynamic, real-time knowledge you can have of another – like marriage. As in Adam “knew” Eve.
We all have dreams and it is part of our American culture to be encouraged to take risks and follow our dreams. In the world, though, even here in America it’s sort of like the lottery… there can only be so many big winners. The rest of the dreamers just keep passing each other on the road to dreams but end up settling for whatever reality eventually pans out.
On the other
hand, God has a dream for each one of us. He knows us better than we know
ourselves and He wants so much to give each of us our heart’s desire. The
trouble is, if we don’t “know God” then we don’t often know what our
true heart’s desire is. We are so easily distracted by our own worldly dreams that
could precipitate riches, beauty, reputation and possessions that we try to
serve God on our own terms. We try to pigeonhole God into rewarding us with what
we want by holding the form of religion – going to church, saying prayers,
saying religious things, and taking part in religious rituals – but denying
the power of it – giving God our whole heart, soul, mind and strength, and trusting
Him completely with our lives, all of which enable Him to lead us to our
heart’s desire.
James 1:8 says
that a double minded man is unstable in all his ways. I learned the meaning of
“double-mindedness” when God revealed it to me with regard to myself. For me
it meant repeatedly choosing to do what I knew was wrong while presenting myself
as a true believer. I wanted so much to be a true believer but I didn’t want
to let go of that control. I didn’t really trust God. I doubted that He could
or would really do right by me so I endeavored to tip the hat and wink at God
and then go serve myself. The result was one catastrophe after another! It took
many years for me to finally let go. It was something that I willfully had to
choose to do and it was very hard sometimes. But God always comes through when
He sees you genuinely giving your heart to Him.
I remember watching the movie The Color Purple when the message was given to the stubborn, prideful, unforgiving preacher: “We’re all God’s children!” Yet in John 1:10 – 12 we read,
The teaching is clear. Being a child of God, that is, a member of God's family, is not a natural birthright to all humans, as Steven Spielberg would have us believe. It is, however, a free gift from God that is available to all humans as the result of receiving Jesus and believing in his name.
So, if you’re tired of dreaming dreams that go nowhere or worse (like I was), then receive Jesus and believe in his name so you can become a child of God and find your true heart’s desire.
Jamie
Thompson: vocals and guitars
Our friends Marcy and Russ Long have four kids: David, and a set of fraternal triplets, Becca, Elizabeth, and Jonathan. I had given Russ a crumby 4-track demo of Light the Fire so that he could perform it with me at a gig. Toward that end he started listening to it in his van while driving around town with the kids. The kids went bonkers over the song and asked to hear it repeatedly for months until the tape finally wore out! They called it, "The Cowboy Song." I never really understood that.
Anyway, one night we were visiting the Longs when little Jonathan kept arriving at my chair with family pictures from all over their house. The game was, I was supposed to name everyone in the picture. Of course, what he wanted most was for me to recognize him and say something like, "...and that's Jonathan!" Instead, I drew from my bottomless reservoir of silliness and, on the spot, came up with the name "Mr. Bungawingee" and claimed that was the name of the person in all of the pictures that really was Jonathan. Every time I pointed to his likeness and said, "...and that's Mr. Bungawingee!" he got all excited and shouted, "No! That's Jonathan! You're Mr. Bungawingee!" We played that game for hours that night and before long all of the kids were gathered around my chair arguing over who exactly was the real Mr. Bungawingee.
When I finally got around to making a proper recording of Light the Fire I gave a copy of it to Russ for the kids and they immediately renewed their obsession with it, asking their dad to play it over and over again. This time it was on a CDR so it wasn't going to wear out any time soon!
When I finally got around to finishing up the It's Been So Long CD I decided that I just HAD to include the Long kids somehow. My solution was to take my recording equipment over to their house and do the Mr. Bungawingee game with them. And that's how that bit of madness came into being.
Light
the Fire basically wrote itself when I was taking a shower one morning. As I
recall, Judy and I had been on the worship team at Branch the weekend before and
we were still pumped from the praise and worship sessions. I knew the Spirit was
at work because typically songs can take from several days to years for me to
write… this one came through in about an hour! I can always tell when a song
is more directly inspired because, once it’s written, I can look back and
analyze the patter and rhymes and discover all sorts of cool language art that I
wasn’t even aware of when I was working on the song! God is SO cool!
I
purposely made the melody “sing-songy” because I envisioned the song being
sung early on in a worship service as a *praise song. Hence, I wanted the melody
to be easy to learn. One of the things that makes Light the Fire a good
praise song, I think, is that it has an infectious beat. I’ve observed that
people instinctively clap and/or tap their feet as soon as it gets going.
That’s great because it makes the song accessible to ANYONE… and that’s
important to me because woven into this fun, happy little tune is the Gospel
Message in a nutshell… check it out, it’s all there!
I’ve
been a Beatles fan ever since February 1964 when I was five years old and saw
them on the Ed Sullivan Show. One standout Beatle tune for me is Lovely Rita
Meter Maid from the Sgt. Pepper CD. I’ve always been intrigued by the
groove in that recording – the bouncy, melodic bass and the swishy hi-hat
punctuated by a snappy snare drum. When I started conceiving up the style of Light
the Fire I used Lovely Rita as a model. Dennis Law played the drums and he
carefully studied the Beatle recording before doing the session with me. Thanks
Dennis! If you know Lovely Rita, sing a couple of bars in your head and then
compare it to Light the Fire.
I had a particularly fun time using the Strat XII in this recording. I’m very pleased with the dual fingerpicking solo that introduces the Les Paul solo. I always wanted to do something like that – very Byrds. Before the Les Paul solo was recorded my friend Dan Kelly advised me on how to fashion the bass line. He gave me some very valuable ideas that I used. He also told me that when the main guitar solo comes in, it had better “light the fire” pretty good! I was hearing Dan’s voice in my head when I set the tone of the Les Paul and put down the dual lead parts. Thanks Dan!
Jamie Thompson: Vocals, guitars, percussion, keyboard Dennis Law: drums Judy Thompson: vocals Jay Kratz: vocals
Nomad was written bit by bit over a few years. Back in 1979/80 I was working full-time for RCA as an electronics technician. It was kind of a mixed blessing because, on the one hand, I was living independently for the first time, which was cool, while on the other hand, I felt as though I had sold out my dream of being a professional musician, which was not cool! It was my first experience with a real 9 to 5 job and I was amazed and disappointed at how little time was left in a day after all of my duties were fulfilled.
During
the six months that I worked for RCA my engineer and I built a machine from
scratch that scanned videodiscs for flaws. When I say scratch, I mean literally
from scratch! Most of the physical construction of the thing was handmade in a
machine shop either by me or by one of the professional craftsman that worked in
the shop. All of the circuit cards were hand wired. It was about the size of an
overhead projector on steroids. Anyway, after months of putting our hearts and
souls into this machine, we finally packed it up and sent it out to be used in
an RCA videodisc factory somewhere. As we stood there, misty-eyed, watching the
delivery guys cart it away, my engineer said in his impeccable King’s English,
That’s
when it hit me. I had just spent the last six months pouring my heart and
soul… MY LIFE!.. Into a project that was doomed from the start! It was a
complete and total waste of time. It was as though I had taken six months of my
life and flushed it down the toilet! I could just about hear the devil laughing
at me from somewhere inside the fabric of space.
At
lunchtime that day, I spent a lot of time thinking about the situation and I
couldn’t get around the fact that I had no desire to waste even one more
minute of my life at RCA. So, I left a note for the guy who gave me a ride to
work that day and just walked out! I got on the highway and hitchhiked back to
my home. It was when I was hitchhiking that I started singing, “I said hey
man. Could you give me a ride to my home?” The music behind that part
represents cars and trucks speeding by. I remember it like it was yesterday
mostly because of the totally invigorating sense of freedom that I had. One
minute I was cooped up in a little office every day with little concept of what
was happening in the natural world. The next minute I had the sun on my face,
the wind blowing in my hair, I had no idea what was going to happen to me, and I
was coated with road grime! For a couple of years that was all there was of
Nomad. It was just a fragment lurking around the back of my mind.
In the spring of 1980 I moved to State College where some friends of mine were playing music. I spent the next two years there riding the roller coaster of a band called Red Rose Cotillion. That incarnation of RRC lasted about two years. By the spring of 1982 the band was toast and I was pretty bitter about the whole thing. There was a lot of madness that went down. I suppose, though, that it wasn’t much different than any other band. Bands are volatile by nature because of the kind of people who join bands – typically left-brained, creative, passionate, megalomaniacal people.
When
it was over all I wanted to do was get as far away from that situation as I
could get… without leaving the free world! So I decided to hit the road and go
see the west coast. I bought an old van, packed it full of stuff, and spent the
next 7 days chasing the sunset on I-80. It was during that time that I finally
caught a glimpse of where my old hitchhiking fragment would go. The neat thing
was that I had no destination. I had a few friends in California so I figured I
would go visiting for a week or two and see how things went. It was all very
romantic because I barely had enough money even to get there!.. I was a nomad…
just movin’ on!
This
track was originally recorded at my home studio in Santa Cruz, California on a
Teac 38 eight-track multitrack tape deck. It ran ½ inch tape at 15 ips with dbx
noise reduction. The rhythm guitar was performed on a very nice old Yamaha
acoustic guitar. The lead guitar work was performed on a 1967 Gibson SG
Standard. I had a Peavey Bandit 65 amp. The bass was a 1970’s Fender Precision
Bass that I picked up out there. I also picked up an old rag-tag drum set at a
yard sale that I played on this track. The keyboard parts were performed on a
Roland Juno 60 synthesizer. I added
a little touch of digital acoustic piano to fatten up the bottom end a bit.
After all these years I really didn’t expect to be able to resurrect my work from those days. All of my mastering was done on cassettes and they didn’t do any justice to the sonic quality that I knew was on the original master tapes.
Then
one day, a couple of months after I acquired my digital workstation, I spoke to
my Pittsburgh friend Bob Fields and found out that he still had my old Teac 38
multitrack machine. I arranged to spend a few days out there and during that time
I managed to archive digitally everything I ever did on that machine. What a
blessing! And that’s how this original master recording of Nomad was rescued
from the abyss. Thanks Bob!!
Hats off to Ken Volz for doing a fantastic job of singing harmony with me! Ken spent a couple of days recording with me here at the house. In order to achieve an acceptable level of silence in the background we turned off the air conditioning. It was VERY hot. We were both wringing wet with sweat but Kenny hung in there with me through it all. Thanks Ken!
Jamie
Thompson: vocals, guitars, bass, drums, keyboard Ken Volz: vocals
One
of the most poignant observations I’ve made in my life is that war is the
ultimate obscenity. It’s a tough
subject because we all know the cost of freedom… so please believe me when I
say that this little idea is not meant as a slam toward the people (and their
families) who have sacrificed their lives so that I could enjoy living in a free
country. My father-in-law is a World War II vet who served in the infantry in
Germany. I think of himas a hero. Consider
war from a Spiritual perspective. What do you imagine God thinks of war? After
all, it is a relationship between people where they indiscriminately butcher
each other - all codes of decency, dignity, and respect for human life just go
out the window. And when people die, that’s it! Their lives are set in stone
along with their eternal fate. I have often thought that the sound of war is the
unveiled laughter of the evil one… because nothing gives more pleasure to the
devil than when people who don’t know God… die.
Madmen
who are clearly inspired by the devil start wars… and then otherwise
peace-loving people go out and are inspired to blow each other to smithereens
because it is apparently the only way to stop the madmen from spreading tyranny
and murder all over the world. It’s a dilemma.
Meanwhile,
Jesus instructs us to “love our enemies.” Woah! How could that be reconciled
with the common understanding that enemies are to be killed? It can’t be! And
that disparity of conduct toward our enemies brings into focus the fact that
people who are truly born of God are no longer of this world and, therefore, no
longer think and act in the ways that are generally accepted by people in the
natural world.
In
the Old Testament God has many titles. Each one illuminates some aspect of
God’s character. One of them is “Jehovah Nissi” which means “God is my
banner.” Another is “Jehovah Shalom” which means “God is my Peace.”
When I was born into God’s family all of my hopes for experiencing anything
good and meaningful in this life (and the next!) became directed toward God. And
so, I think of that as a kind of banner over my life. A clear message to
all concerned that God is honored here in this body, soul, and spirit. Likewise,
I became aware that any “peace” that the world has to offer is tenuous at
best because wherever people go, war and calamity seem to follow. And so the
idea of true peace takes on a new meaning. God is my peace. As long as I am
reconciled to Him, then I experience the only peace that abides forever
regardless of the circumstances here on earth.
This track was originally recorded at my home studio in Santa Cruz, California on a Teac 38 eight-track multitrack tape deck. It ran ½ inch tape at 15 ips with dbx noise reduction. The rhythm guitar was performed with my old fire engine red 1979 three-bolt neck Fender Stratocastor with a stop tailpiece and an Elecroharmonix Electric Mistress flanger. The lead guitar was a 1967 Gibson SG Standard. I played these axes through a Peavey Bandit 65 amp. The bass was a 1970’s Fender Precision that I picked up out there. I also picked up an old rag-tag drum set at a yard sale that I played on this track. The keyboard parts were performed on a Roland Juno 60 synthesizer.
Thanks again to Kenny Volz for singing with me on this track. I am very pleased to feature Kenny singing solo on the second verse. I believe that Kenny is a world-class singer and my hope is that you will hear him on these tracks and think so too! I believe that I've never harmonized with anyone with whom I've blended so well as with Kenny.
Jamie Thompson: vocals, guitars Percussion/drums, bass, keyboard Ken Volz: vocals Judy Thompson: vocals
"I
Know Your Pain" I Know Your Pain was written at one of the lowest points in my life. Back in the summer of 1994 I developed what I now believe was Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. At that point in time I had been in school for five and a half years and I had never in my life dedicated myself to an endeavor with such ferocity – even guitar playing. First of all, I just LOVE learning so being in college in my 30’s was like a sumptuous intellectual feast. Secondly, I was a full-time student so I was dirt poor and one of the ways that I managed to pay for part of my education was earning scholarships for academic excellence. So, I studied very hard and almost never missed a class. In the meantime, I was also working as a musician in order to keep the bills paid and something like food in the cupboards (I used to call it “Purina Bachelor Chow”). Hence, after so many years of burning the candle at both ends, I was exhausted.
On the emotional
front I was, as always, struggling with being single. My loneliness was eating
away at me and I had been chewed up and spit out of a few relationships in a
short period of time. Basically, my life had become a maelstrom of madness. But
worst of all, my faith was out of focus. I was so busy and so tired that I
stopped going to church regularly and I rarely took the time to pray and hang
out with God in His Word. It was just a matter of time before something had to
give… and that something was my brain (and you thought I
didn’t even have one!).
One day early in
the summer of ‘94 I woke up and there was a fog that seemed to move into my
cranial cavity. I couldn’t concentrate, I couldn’t think clearly, the ground
seemed to move up and down with my footfalls, (like walking on a trampoline) and
my usual forgetfulness was compounded by a factor of about 1000. It was awful! I
didn’t have any health insurance so I resolved just to tough it out and see if
it would go away on it’s own. It didn’t.
When the fall
semester came around I was toast but with graduation only a semester away I dove
into school anyway thinking that I would get through it somehow. After several
weeks of trying it became apparent that I was getting worse instead of better. I
remember one Friday I arrived home with a full workload for the weekend and I
knew that it was over. I spent the weekend in bed and then when Monday rolled
around and I didn’t feel any better I went up to Shields Building and withdrew
from school.
Over the next
several months I had the battle of my life. After resting for a couple of weeks
I didn’t feel any better and I began to wonder if I would EVER feel
better again. The idea that I might never get well confronted me every minute of
the day and I sank into a DEEP depression. I had to face the possibility
that everything I ever hoped for and dreamed of for my future might be
permanently out of reach.
In addition to
that, most of my “friends” picked up on the fact that something terrible was
happening to me. Many people who were dear to me stopped calling and didn’t
come around anymore. No one knows you when you’re down and out, right? THAT
was an eye-opener!
Then I had a
revelation. For the first time in my life I understood why a person might commit
suicide. Let me be perfectly clear and say that I was definitely NOT suicidal.
Up until that time, though, the notion that anybody could or would commit
suicide was a mystery to me. But with the onset of this darkest time of my life,
that mystery was solved. For the first time, I understood. And with that
understanding came the realization that my only hope was to cling to God for
dear life and let Him guide me out of the hellish labyrinth that I got myself
hopelessly lost in. I rededicated my life to the Lord and along with that new
beginning came this little song.
BTW, I feel much
better now.
Thanks to my beautiful wife Judy for singing like an angel with me. The timbre of her voice when she sings her harmonies gives me chills!
When
I first started fashioning this song I was thinking that I wanted it to
sound like something that might have appeared on Bruce Cockburn's Joy Will
Find A Way CD.
I performed this song with my wonderful Taylor LKS-6 (Leo Kottke Signature) acoustic guitar. I had a dual pickup system installed in the guitar when I bought it from Medley Music in Bryn Mawr, PA. One is a Sunrise acoustic guitar pickup. The other is a dual Fischmann Transducer system mounted on the underside of the guitar’s top. When I record the LKS-6 I use three parallel tracks: two for the pickups and one for my Rhode Classic vacuum tube microphone placed near the guitar’s sound hole. My very talented wife Judy worked up the best three-way complementary parametric EQ setting and I pan the three tracks into a stereo field. The difference in the tone/timbre of the tracks creates a nice sense of depth. The electric guitar volume swell solo at the end was performed on my trusty 1962 reissue Stratocastor (made in 1981). The slide guitar at the very end was performed on an ancient Danelectro hollow body electric guitar. The picky overtones came out of my Les Paul. There’s also one deep piano note that strikes at the word “pain.”
Jamie Thompson: guitars, vocals, keyboards Judy Thompson: vocals
Over
the years I have been intrigued and amazed at the many instrumental acoustic
guitar pieces that Bruce Cockburn has written. They appear on his discs
consistently from earliest times through to today. Some of my favorites are Deer
Dancing Around a Broken Mirror (Circles in the Stream), Dialogue With the
Devil ( Sunwheel Dance), and Skylarking (Joy Will Find a Way). These
pieces have an interesting characteristic: Bruce uses his right thumb to pick a
droning bass line while playing a guitar solo with his other fingers. It’s
pretty hard to do because you have to get the point where you can do the drone
thing with your thumb without thinking about it so you can concentrate on the
rest of the fingerwork.
Over
a period of a few years I spent time practicing just that. After a while I was
very pleased to discover that I was able to do it! Once I got proficient enough
I started kicking grooves and licks around and eventually this little ditty came
into focus.
It’s a very positive and happy mood. I wasn’t at all sure what to call it at first but eventually I realized that it played like a soundtrack to the excitement and exuberance of my wedding day. While playing it I can see the church in my mind’s eye with people arriving and everyone all dressed up (except Ken Kruger who played Lord of the Starfields as a pre-service tune in khakis and bare feet!) and kids chasing each other around the halls. That was one of the very best days of my life and I am pleased to share it with you in this musical form.
Thanks
Bruce!
Jamie Thompson: guitar
The
Lamb is a very old song. It was first written in 1977 with a different set of
lyrics. I had written the music and my friend Roger had written the words.
I’ve
always really liked “psychedelic” music – feedback, weird harmonies,
backwards guitars and vocals, etc. The Byrds’ song Eight Miles High
comes to mind as an example. This song was always one of my favorites to
perform, even though over the years a few people have said they think it’s
dated stylistically or simply annoying! The problem for me was this: after I
became a Christian I really couldn’t sing it in good conscience the way it was
because of the subject matter. (Sorry Roger, you know I love you!) For me it was
a tragedy to have to throw the song on the scrap heap but it had to be done.
When
I was in California in 1984 I decided to record the song anyway just because I
really wanted to hear it again. I enjoyed recording it very much and for a
couple of years it was one of my secret delights. Personally, I didn’t care
what the words said, I just enjoyed the patter and the harmonies along with all
of the ‘hot smoke and sassafras.’ I knew that wouldn’t fly too well in the
Christian circles I was moving in, though, so I just kept it to myself.
Then
one day I was driving to Pittsburgh from State College by myself and decided to
spend the approximately three hours musing on new lyrics for the song. By the
time I got to the Burgh it was all done. As soon as I got home I whipped out the
master tape, loaded it onto the Teac 38, erased all of the old vocal tracks, and
recorded the new vocals for… The Lamb. Hooray! For some reason,
though, not too many people seemed as thrilled about it as I was. Of course, you
must remember that those were the days of “big hair” and “corporate
rock.” The hits of the time were songs like Don’t You Want Me Baby
and What’s She Gonna Do About Him. And let's not forget my all time
"favorite" hit song from the 80's: Walk Like an Egyptian...
Meanwhile British psycho - hooligan - soccer - rockers were singing about
beating their girlfriends to a pulp… because they loved them…? And I thought
the 70’s were bad! Whew!! If I had to I would take Muskrat
Love over that stuff any day... but I digress!
After all these years The Lamb still holds a special place in my heart and I am pleased to present it on this disc as a stylistic dilemma for anyone who thought they had the scope of this disc nailed down. I especially enjoy the contrast when the feedback starts right after Wedding Day comes to such an all together charming and pleasant finish.
I
am pleased, though, to be able to say that many people have told me that
they love The Lamb and that it was definitely not a mistake to include it
in this work. I hope you agree!
All of the guitar work was done on a 1967 Gibson SG Standard. I used a Fender Precision Bass and my rag-tag yard sale drum set. The space alien effects were done on my long gone Roland Juno 60 synthesizer. I redid the vocals because I have a much better microphone now than I had in 1987. I did, however, keep the original flanged vocal effects tracks. I actually sang this track originally through my old Electroharmonix Electric Mistress flanger guitar pedal and recorded the flange effects on separate tracks from the main vocal tracks. That created an interesting depth effect because the main vocal tracks no longer matched the effects tracks exactly – a new twist on double tracking! When I recorded the guitar solo at the end I plugged the SG into every effects pedal I had. As I recall there was the flanger, an MXR Distortion Plus, my Cry Baby wah wah pedal, and I plugged all that into the dirty channel of my Peavey Bandit. The result was a tortured, nasty sound that randomly fed back, screeched, and wailed. It was very hard to control! It reminded me of the tone of Jimmy Page’s Telecaster in the song Black Dog. So, I decided to adopt Page’s style for the solo and, after many retakes, I finally managed to get the solo down. I think it sounds something like a meteor burning up in the atmosphere! My favorite part is at the end when the guitar sounds like it flies apart into gleaming white-hot flaming shards and sparks!
Jamie Thompson: vocals, guitars, keyboard, bass, percussion/drums
Back
in the 60’s and 70’s when I was growing up I had three older brothers who
profoundly affected my taste in and perception of popular music. For example,
when I was 10 years old I was listening to Cream while they were still an
obscure “underground” phenomenon. One of the characteristics of their music
that most intrigued me was their extended jams. “Spoonful” from the Wheels
of Fire CD is an excellent example. I used to enjoy turning out all the lights,
putting on a pair of quality headphones, reclining in a big cushy chair, closing
my eyes and letting the music take me on a “journey.” I used to call it
“the movies” because, without the aid of any drugs, I used to “see”
splashes of color and whirling patterns in my mind’s eye as the music
developed. I especially loved the way the music seemed to tell a story.
There was a nonverbal but definite beginning, middle, and end to it. A year or
two later I got into the Allman Brothers Band and The Grateful Dead. These
groups were also known for their extended jams. The Grateful Dead, especially,
had a huge impact on me with regard to improvisations that tell a story. I used
to listen to Dark Star from the Live Dead album over and over again. To
this day it is one of my favorite recordings. It is a veritable feast of
subtlety and it amazes me to think that a group of people could work so
cooperatively in a live concert situation while improvising.
Of
course, in order to be successful, or even meaningful, perhaps, this kind of
endeavor requires the sensitive and appreciative ear of the listener. As time
went by it became apparent to me that people in general didn’t seem to want to
take the time and energy to actively interact with music. The result was that
the newer people who were making popular music seemed to have no concept of a
jam that “tells a story” and, to my great disappointment, the genre seemed
to fade into obscurity.
Over
the years, though, I have tried to keep the idea alive by always taking a block
of time in a live performance for some kind of improvisation. Let Him Reign
is an excellent example of that effort. I remember the event like it was
yesterday because the band was very pumped that night. We were white hot and all
the stops were pulled. Our emotions were on full throttle and, amazingly, our
audience was right there with us! Anyone who has performed live knows that
doesn’t always happen! The result was a relentless positive feedback energy
loop between band and audience, audience and band, etc. that yielded this little
gem of a recording. After all these years of protecting the original tape and
sharing it with a few friends that I thought would appreciate it, I am very
pleased to present it here in this forum as a part of an overall “journey.”
Many people have contacted me to tell me that it’s their favorite track on the
disc… it does me heart good!
I
was playing my fire engine red 1979 three-bolt neck fender Stratocastor with the
stop tailpiece and a maple neck. I was playing through a 1960 brown panel Fender
Deluxe Amp that had a JBL K-120 in it. It is my feeling that this recording
wouldn’t be what it is without that amp because it was the loudest and most
raucous, interactive 18-watt critter I ever played through!
Hats
off to Roger and Ron! Those guys played GREAT on this track! We blended like the
various parts of a roaring steam train! Thanks guys! You hold a special place in
my heart because it’s rare to have such magical fun with friends.
It's very common for sound personnel to be overlooked in live shows. The fact is, this recording was made straight out of our stereo mixing board. It was mixed live by our soundman, Jim Greene. Jim's role in this work is like the lens through which an image is viewed. This very clean, balanced, and honest recording wouldn't be what it is without his contribution. Nice job, Jim! Thanks!!
A power trio improvisation recorded live in February 1981 at Zeta Psi Fraternity in State College, PA. Drums: Ron; Bass: Roger; Guitar: Jamie; Live mix: Jim
In the New Testament there is the story of the “rich young ruler” (Luke 18:18 – 25). In this story the rich guy comes to Jesus and says,
This scripture formed the foundation of a message that was given at our church a couple of years ago. I was scheduled to perform special music during the offering that day so I wrote the song Riches for that occasion.
When conceiving up the song I imagined what I would say today if I were a rich man and ran into Jesus of Nazareth on the street and he made the same offer to me… I imagined that would be a pretty tall challenge for someone who had a lot of money and possessions.
Then I changed the scenario. I imagined that I was one of the nameless, faceless onlookers at the scene who witnessed the exchange between Jesus and the rich young ruler. I imagined that, after the rich man walked away and the crowd dispersed, I approached Jesus - what I would say to Him? That’s what this song is. It picks up right at that moment. The first two verses are what I would say to Jesus. The second two verses pose questions that flow naturally from Jesus’ challenge to the rich young ruler.
This
song was performed on my Taylor LKS-6 and my 1962 reissue Fender Stratocastor. I
really enjoyed assembling the different strat sounds and their various delay
effects. The continuously changing key from C to D and back again and so on made
a very nice shifting tonal reference point to improvise on.
Jamie Thompson: vocals,guitars
This song was
written back in 1996 when Judy and I first moved to Harleysville, PA. She had
just started working for PQ Corporation and we had decided before we got married
that, if we had children, I would stay home with them during the day. The
implication, of course, was that there was no point in me pursuing a regular 9
– 5 type of career. That suited both of us just fine, actually, because Judy
believed that what I really should be doing was writing songs and recording.
On one particular morning, that fall of ’96, the sky was perhaps the richest shade of blue I had ever seen. It had been cool over night but as the sun rose it contrasted the crisp air with a penetrating warmth that made my heart want to leap and dance for joy.
When Judy was ready to leave that morning she kissed me and said that, as far as she was concerned, my “job,” aside from taking care of her, was to write songs. After she left I laid an oversized pillow on the grass, sat on it, and started playing the guitar for the new day. The extreme beauty of the morning kept crashing over me in waves. But the thing that blew me away the most was that I was there to experience it with a guitar in hand and nothing more important to do than to write a song! It was the first time in MANY years that I was in such a position – probably since I was a teen-ager on summer vacation from school!!
While musing
about this, for a joke I started saying things that I might have said back in
the 70’s. Things like, “I’m gunna let my mind sail on the wind! I’m
gunna listen to the river singin’ my song!” It all sounded rather trite but
I was laughing and in a great mood so I started singing those words to some
chords in a tongue-in-cheek spirit. In an attempt to come up some more lines the
phrase “It’s been so long” just popped out because it rhymed with the “I’m gunna listen to the river singin’ my song!” line.
I was taken by it. I had to stop and ponder it because it seemed to be true in
every way. It had been so long since I felt so free. It had been so long since I
said anything like, “I’m gunna let my mind sail on the wind!” It had been
so long since I had the freedom to just hang out and enjoy such a beautiful day.
That’s when the muse kicked in and the song just poured out.
Once I had the
basic tune down I began wondering how to start it. I didn’t want just to come
in with a bash so I considered the subject of the song and decided to come up
with a way to illustrate musically the sun coming up with me there watching.
That’s what the beginning of the song is – the slow accumulation of sound
represents the dawn glow. The crescendo peaks with the first ray of sun as it
peaks over the horizon and illuminates a person doing a jig in celebration of
the new day.
Note that after
the last verse that talks about my wife, the next jig has TWO characters
dancing. After that there is a theme of duality throughout the rest of the song
as the guitars banter back and forth. This is a celebration of marriage in
general and my marriage in particular.
I didn’t
intend the “reprise” to be a separate track or song but, after I passed
around a few early copies to friends for constructive criticism, more than one
person said they wished there was a track marker at the second jig so that they
could choose to listen to all the guitar solos at the end without having to
scroll through the song to get to them.
There are MANY
guitars in this song and several tunings. I used the Taylor for the rhythm
guitar. It was tuned down a whole step because I like singing the song in D but
I needed to have the strings in a certain orientation so I could play the chords
the way I wanted to. The Strat XII sprinkles a fingerpicking ditty throughout
the song. I put a capo on the 5th fret to get what I played in the
key of D. I played the slide parts on the Les Paul, which was tuned to open D. I
used the Stratocastor to play the last phrases of the guitar solo because I just
needed to have the squealy strat tone there. Nothing else would do!
I call the
feedback section that backs up the bass solo “the cloudburst.” The feedback
sounds were rescued from a recording that I made way back in 1986 in Pittsburgh.
I spent the whole afternoon one day making feedback on the 1967 SG Standard. (SG’s
make good, stable feedback!) I had my Peavey Bandit plugged into a friend of
mine’s 4 by 12 closed back Carvin cabinet with four 12 inch Celestion speakers
in it. That thing was MONSTEROUS!! I loved it!!! Anyway, I knew that I had
digitally archived the feedback sounds when I was at Bob Fields’ house so I
dug them out and track imported them into the IBSL song file on my digital
workstation. The problem was, the feedback was in A… and IBSL is in D. So, I
used the WONDERFUL audio processing capability of the Roland 1680 to change (and
tune!) the pitch. It took a whole afternoon to get it right but when the
feedback sounds were all in place I was just terribly pleased that I rescued
that feedback from the abyss, use it for something, and that it came out better
than I ever could’ve hoped.
Dennis
Law did a
fantastic job playing the drums on this track. All in all, he put down three
different performances. One with all real drums and two with my very real
sounding set of Roland V-Drums. It took me several days of experimenting but I
finally assembled a composite of all three of his performances. Thanks Dennis!
Verna
Law (Dennis’ wife) did a wonderful job of singing back up with Judy. Frankly I
can’t shake the feeling that there’s something wrong with Verna singing
backup for the likes of me. She is a world-class southern gospel/Creole/R&B
singer. I am pleased and honored to have her voice on this recording! Thanks
Verna!!
All in all, I probably worked on mixing and laying down tracks for this recording for a total of about three months. Enjoy!
Jamie Thompson: vocals, guitars, bass, keyboard, percussion Dennis
Law: drums Verna
Law: vocals Judy
Thompson: vocals Ken
Volz: vocals David Young: hand claps
Vocal characterizations for Geoffrey the butler and the bloated British windbag: Jamie Thompson Nancy Thompson: the phone call
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