zedmelon's Journal: November One

Okay, so it's only still officially the first of November in a time zone or two. The late post is partially because I wanted to actually watch The Daily Show for once and partially because I took so long to find the damn CD.

Preamble:
It's amazing how your memory of a particular tune can distort with time if you don't hear it for years. I experienced this upon finding a CD when what eminated from the speakers sharply differed from the version in my head. Trying to remember *which* song it was, I Googled variations on the phrase "80s singles hits list" but it doesn't matter for my point: I didn't remember NEARLY that much keyboard, and the guitar was much thinner than I thought. And wow, I can sing better than this guy, but I'll be damned if I can recall feeling this specific brand of smugness fifteen years ago.

Similarly, I should never have purchased Flash Gordon on DVD back in 2001, and zedette shouldn't have watched Duran Duran on whatever late night show featured them an hour ago, promoting their slightly-less-makeupped "comeback" (read: outta money). These simple comforts could remain pleasant memories rather than embarassing us, "Did I *really* enjoy this tripe?"
[/preamble]

Okay, to make a short story longer, I have to prequalify things by saying this is from March of 1996, since which time have transpired nearly nine years of learning how to play guitar, microphone and engineer instruments, mix recorded tracks, and above all, sing. Holy crap, I evidently thought I was Eddie Vedder. We recorded this track with a guy who had a fair amount of studio experience, probably a little more than I have now. He had a great ear for country music, but that is unfortunately not our genre, so we were never really happy with the EQ or the mix. The guitars are thin, and the vox are a bit too far out front. And now, it's worse by nature of the preamble.

So my memory of this song is rather tainted, but not quite as drastically as I mention above, since we performed it regularly for years, through losing the other guitarist (he provided the lovely solo through the whole damn thing) and changing bits as we grew tired of the version we had. The bassist wasn't quite ready to record this, but he can play the track well now ;) I'll try and find recordings, I believe there are a couple.

I'm actually laughing as I listen to this; I sound like there's blockage in my teeth and nose. But of all the songs I have this age, I still like this one. The overall vibe is still there in this version, and the drums still sound pretty good, although I hear that he's improved as well. Oh yeah, the weird rising sound is a harmonic on a fretless bass. I forgot he used to do that.

All right, enough excuses. I didn't plan on this much, but observation kept flowing. In summation, every year since probably 1994, once Halloween is gone, this piece gets stuck in my head, and I think of my brother (this is one of three efforts composed upon his lyrics). No events to commemorate, nothing in particular requiring homage or reflection, this is just my personal attachment to the date November One.

Update - 3 November:
It was Eric Johnson.

I'm not sure if it was High Landrons or not, but that's the song which was running through my head when I awoke today.

Eric Johnson is such a great guitarist, and when I blew the dust off the album Ah Via Musicom, I was as excited as when I purchased Flash Gordon for something like nine bucks. Fortunately, Eric fared better than the "Quarterback, New York Jets," and I was still able to appreciate the technical skill required to make a guitar do that, because the songs themselves sound quite dated. Not only does Eric have the perfect voice to blend in with hundreds of bands like Falco, Howard Jones, Ah-Ha, Dexy, and all those Midnight Runners--whose albums are only "cool" when played in nostalgic situations, like "Thursday! 80s Night!"--but each tune is also heavily produced, which by itself dates the music. In a way that dates it even more.

While I still like the music for the occasional "Wow, MAN, is he good. JEEZ, listen to *that* part!" it gives me, I won't be searching today for his CD like I did for mine two nights ago. ;)

Afterthought: All but the last of those bands came from a trip down Memory Lane. No one under 22 admitted.

WooHoo!!!!!

[sedawkgrep]

I have this disc in my changer. This and another one sporting Jer's lyrics are my two favorites....the bipolar band. I'm surprised you didn't recognize it though.

The whole 'rose-colored glasses' thing really holds true. There's a lot of music I hear from 'way back when', to which I think 'Wow. I thought this was soooo much better than it really is.'

I wonder how you'll feel about the Slenderizers in 8-10 years? I bet largely how you do now since you're a more mature musician and certainly more SAVVY.

Re:WooHoo!!!!!

[zedmelon]

Well, I'm not surprised at all by your claims. Yes, he does [meandsomefriends.org] kick ass. [meandsomefriends.org]

I have this disc in my changer

Thank you for the occluded compliment, but I know for a fact that the only reason this crap is in your changer--how long ago did you last listen to it?--is because you have a 300-disc changer that you're too lazy to re-program.

There's a lot of music I hear from 'way back when', to which I think 'Wow. I thought this was soooo much better than it really is.'

*cough*Iron Maiden*cough*