Critical Darling
©2003 Granny Vegas Music (ASCAP)

This started out as a double album - one disc of mellow songs (creamy), the other one rockers (extra crunchy). But after I'd worked on it for a while, the line between which was which seemed to blur, so I threw the original concept out and soldiered on. The recording took place at my stuffy little studio in Santa Ana, CA between October 2001 and November 2004. I recorded 20 songs, but settled on 16 for the final disc. I recorded using Cubase 5.0 on a Macintosh G4 The fantastic cover photos and figures are by Shelly Frasier.

Click on title to view lyric.

Critical Darling: The first song on the disc was the last one recorded. This track has been through many makeovers, trying to massage it (and sometimes thrash it) into a strong opener for the record. The verses follow a somewhat chronological (dis)order - the first: 1960's, the second: 1970's, etc. - but that implies more thought than actually went into it. Hah! The snippet at the beginning and at the end features the voices (and piano) of my dear, departed Granny Vegas, an 11 year Curtis Herron, my Mother, as well as Larry Storch as the Groovy Guru from a snippet of an old Get Smart episode. Believe it or not, I have cassette tapes with sound bites off TV shows that I recorded 30 years ago. I'm a freak. Those stupidly high vocal near the end of the last verse are Kurtis Gentile and John Hoskinson in full castratto mode. Ouch! Dave Owens played the drums fast, and Barry Hovis played the piano quickly. I, I'm ashamed to say, did the rest.

Death by 1000 Cuts: I'm pretty pessimistic about the state of the world and particularly our crazy, spoiled, stupid-ass country (and county). Makes me weep just thinking about it. At least I can get a song out of it. The drum loop is the very first thing I laid down for this record (10/11/01 - one month after you know what) . Stevie D. played drums and I did the rest. My silver Epiphone is featured on the verses and that's David Walsh's gold top Les Paul on the bridge. What about that Hammond playing? See what the Thorns missed out on... "the bland leading the bland" indeed!

Levitation: I saw a video ("Weakened State") of Sarah Harmer wearing a t-shirt with a woman being levitated on it and this song just fell out of my head right then and there. I love when that happens. Dave Owens played the wonderfully simple drum track, Curtis Herron played wurlitzer and David Walsh played slide from a melody I had worked out, but couldn't seem to play in tune. This is a fun song to sing 'cause the melody kind of floats along all over the place, and there's a certain joy in that that pleases me. Also, I use a couple of fancy jazz chords in this one, for those of you keeping score.

Danny Flowers: Former Gypsy Den waitress Danielle Flowers inspired this piece of frenetic nonsense. Her gender bending boyishness was always charming...so I wrote a song about her (sort of). Some pretty good lines in this one I think. Barry Hovis pounded the ivories in his usual magical and maniacal way. On the verses, where the piano and bass play together, Barry and I sat there playing four octaves on piano at the same time to get that big chunky sound. I hurt my fingers doing it. Young Dan Loren played six trumpet parts to make a fake horn section. If it ain't fake, why do it?

Famous Last Words: Not the Supertramp song. Not "Our House" or "Mr. Bojangles". A folk song in Eb? That's what capos are for. When David Walsh did his 12-string guitar overdub, we had to retune his guitar just so he could make sense of the stupid key. My lovely pump organ is also featured. I was stuck for the longest time on the middle verse, where she has to get sick of the guy (really the whole turning point of the story) and literally on the night when I decided I'd make a stab at some vocals, I wrote the whole thing on the spot. Pressure is always good for creativity. "...fortified with irony".

Waking the Dead: "One Take Johnny", Dave Owens, played the amazing drum part having never heard the song and just following me through the twists and turns with arms flailing (me) at him (arms also flailing) and just nailed the first take so hard that I saw no reason to do another. His fine playing inspired everyone else into superior performances - Steve Marsh channeling Stephane Grappelli, David Walsh going bongo on the banjo, and Kurtis Gentile showing off with his piano prowess. Don't I sound like the Andrews Sister on the bridge?

Unspoken: Many of these lyrics are a decade old at least. It took a long time to find the missing bits, as well as the right mood, but I think, in the end, I finally got it. At one time it was called "The Ghost of Brian Jones". I'll have to use that someday. Catherine played some beautiful percussion over Dave Owen's moody drums and Curtis Herron did his finest Hammond work ever - "and the room beacme the color of a crow". I'm not usually one for a lot of reverb, but on the vocals on this track, I just slathered a whole cathedral's worth on them. Yummy!

Sleepwalking World: 3 chord anthem. I wish I could write more of them (with less chords). The sound at the beginning is a highly treated, backwards mandolin. Sounds cool don't you think? See I can still put together a five minute epic when I have to. Up until the last minute, this was intended to be the last track on the record, but I had a little brainstorm and moved it up to the end of side one position, and the rest of the tracks seemed to sit a little better. If you like, you can put it back there with your fancy computer, Mr./Ms. Smarty-Pants. "To the top of the mountain - at the bottom of the ocean". The rock 'n roll dream is dead. Long live... doing it (for) yourself.

Sad Ever After: Happy/Sad. Who can decide? Written about a close friend whose marriage was going through a rocky passage. Yeah, it's power pop, it's bubblegum - I wish I had a real band and some pinstriped bell bottoms! Crazy double tracking vocals and guitar solos (Tim Nienhuis), and eight of me singing over Ben Heywood's Keith Moonisms on the outro. Makes me believe I'm 20 again.

Play it Smart: Aspiring to write something clever can be a dangerous path to go down. You may end up with something like this. Beware! The magesterial tempo, big guitars and groovy drums make this a fave of mine. The guitar solo is played through my tiny Fender Bronco amp, double tracked and sounding just huge. Jason Foster played the smoking guitar fills, Debbie Lemmi slid the cello notes and Kurtis Gentile noodled on the mellotron flute and came up with a great part. It's good to have friends (but why do they all hate me?). I pounded the piano on the bridge so hard, that I thought me fingers was gonna fall off (sic)!

Vodka Chaser: "Blind neon prophets of industry" indeed. During my days as a Long Beach Yellow Cab taxi driver(!), I would often pick up these poor, pathetic drunks, who at 6:30 in the morning had gotten off the curb after a night of drinking, just in time to head back to the bar when it reopened at the crack of dawn. Makes an impression on you. I doubt if they remember me. When it came time to record the drums, Dave Owens and I tweaked the kit a bit by turning things upside down and hanging chains off the cymbals and generally messing stuff up to get a sort of drunk sound out of it. Me like. Courtney Montgomery did me the favor of singing harmony on the choruses and Dan Loren played the melancholy flugelhorns.

Better Than This: I wanted to write something that had the feel of those first crushes, those halcyon days of being thirteen, riding your boss Schwinn bicycle with that cool banana seat and sissy bar around the block, playing cards in your spokes going clack, clack, clack... One of the first tracks recorded for this project. it features Stevie D. is playing the drums and the percussion at the same time (genius) and , as always, he made it a very easy track to play along with. He also sang the bubblegum backup vocals. That's the Danelectro 12-string electric playing the main figure. Curtis Herron played the beautiful counter-point organ on the last verse, and two friends/fans from the Trainwreck days, Warren and Jim, contributed the handclaps on the choruses. And I do have a girl who's pretty and smart.

Beautiful Accident: I started writing this song during the Mother's Favorite Sons days, and I think Jason Foster contributed a line or two to it ("amped up and belligerent?"). Originally in four, I made the switch to 6/8 just before the recording began and Ben Heywood did a great drum track using blast sticks on the kit and just nailed the feel I had wanted. Curtis Herron came in and did a scratch track on the Hammond organ, and it sounded so good that I had to keep it as the master. So fat (phat)! The rhythm guitar on the verses is my trusty '65 Fender Jaguar. I love several of the lines in this one: "...high above the shallow end" and "...strapped down, sedated". About some of the rock stars (real and imagined) that I know personally.

The Perfect Fool: This song had been around forever in different incarnations. Well, tarnation! It was written about a friend who was dumped by his chick and he just couldn't get over it. For years. Still hasn't. Chris Meyer (Trainwreck Ringo) played the drums, Oh! Catherine shook the tamborine (amongst other things), and Barry Hovis played electric piano. Those backup vocals could only be David Walsh and Kurtis Gentile - "a fool and his honey are soon parted". Who wouldn't love that?

The Beautiful Clown: This had been laying around for a while (no bum pun intended). After numerous key changes, I finally settled on one that I could sort of sing the ridiculous melody I had concocted. Barry Hovis and I played the original track together and then I layered everything else on top of it (with a fine cello contribution from Debbie Lemmi). The otherworldly voice at the beginning of the song is a Vietnamese radio signal that was coming through my amplifier while I was recording the Baritone guitar parts. I made a little loop of it and stuck it into the mix. Added a bit of atmosphere. Andy Packham has a fondness for this song (I hope he likes the recording, too).

Another Day Tomorrow: As you may know, I have a long history with early '70s prog rock (Yes, Genesis, King Crimson) ... and dammit, I'm not ashamed to admit it! I listened to this stuff all through junior high with my best pal Curtis (he played Hammond on this track) and when I hear it today, dammit, I still dig it. This track certainly has some prog overtones - "a flower?" And maybe a bit of Brian Wilson ("Surf's Up") thrown in there too. Kurtis Gentile came in late on the sessions to help figure out what the heck I was doing and laid down some lovely Gretsch guiter fills. I started playing a cello part along with one of his lines and suddenly I was off writing a whole string section. I love writing this stuff! Enjoy.