One of my favorite Hollies tunes, this song was even played at the Las Cruces Inn a few times, but unfortunately was never recorded. I often wonder what visitors to Las Cruces thought about the odd, obscure R&R songs the Calhoon Brothers would play at what was, let's face it, a cowboy bar. Then there was the year we had a strobe light . . .
Monday, March 25, 2013
Sunday, March 24, 2013
July's Not the Hottest Month in Oz
It was back in 2012 that Knees joined a group of Canadians on Facebook and YouTube to make some music. It had been almost ten years since he thought about music very much. The group of about a dozen people was called the Cover Album Project Band. Each month they would do some recording project, usually covering all of the songs on a classic album like Revolver by the Beatles, Harvest by Neil Young or Joshua Tree by U2. But the project for February was a special one in which we were to write original songs about a month of the year (July was randomly selected for me) using the chord pattern: I V iv V or D A Bm G.
I was leery of getting back into songwriting after 10 fallow years but I figured with the chords dictated I should be able to knock this off in about 15 minutes. As always I grabbed the first thing that fell out of my mind, in this case, a heat wave in Australia. Then I laid down simple tracks. Nothing to it. Like riding a bicycle.
There's even a video!
When you find yourself in a sweat
Crank up the AC and take off your clothes
When it's too hot for even your pet
Remember it's summer and the world is a globe.
There's a place where toilets drain weird
Where the desert is north and the devil is south
And you won't feel like shaving off your beard
So cheer up my friend don't be down in the mouth
July's not the hottest month in Oz
In fact it's the month when the kangaroos roam
July's not the hottest month in Oz
So find you a wallaby and give it a home
July's not the hottest month in Oz
I can't wait to see those kangaroos roam
July's not the hottest month in Oz
I recommend a wallaby to spruce up your home.
July's not the hottest month in Oz
July's not the hottest month in Oz
July's not the hottest month in Oz
BONUS COVER!
There are still 25 songs by Knees and/or his colluders left till the big day but I've decided for each of these last 25 nights I'll include one of Knees' better cover recordings down here at the bottom of the page. Why not? Some are actually pretty good.
Grateful Dead
Saturday, March 23, 2013
One Tree Hill
This is a real departure for Knees. A song by U2! He considered it a "modern" song until he realized that it came out over 25 years ago. The instigation for the song was his joining a Facebook group that likes to do musical challenges every month, like covering all the songs on a classic album. For March the album was Joshua Tree by U2 and the song I picked was One Tree Hill. I had never heard it, or any of the songs on the album, before. It's easy to be musically ignorant when your only exposure to popular music is the time spent in Taco Bell waiting for volcano tacos.
My take on U2? Excellent singing by a guy with a voice to rival Don Henley's. They apparently know how to generate a truly hypnotic beat. I'm afraid the best I can do on modern songs like this is a Pat Boone version.
There's a video of me singing this song on Youtube and Facebook. Gawd help us all.
There's a video of me singing this song on Youtube and Facebook. Gawd help us all.
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Bad Weather 2012
I had forgotten about recording this 1985 Knees Calhoon tune until I spotted the file. It must have been one of those late-night Ambien-induced sessions. It's probably the least subversive of all the Calhoon tunes and is kind of a travelogue of Knees' meanderings.
Friday, March 8, 2013
The End of the Innocence
I have a relatively cheap electronic piano that was out in a trailer in the back yard because there wasn't enough room in my office for it. But I moved some things around and now the piano, a Casio WK-200, is next to my recording stuff, ready to be used in songs. This is the first one that came to mind, mainly because the piano part is not too difficult. I haven't played the piano in over a year.
When I first heard this Don Henley/Bruce Hornsby tune back in the late 80s I thought it was quite profound and catchy, especially the piano riff. When I figured it out I realized why. It's full of 2 chords.
2 chords, or mu chords according to Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, are what gave The Mothers and Steely Dan their sound. You play a 2 chord by simply adding a 2 note to the 1 - 3 - 5 of the major chord. You add D to a C major chord. When I played piano in a lounge back in 1982-83 I found that I rarely played a regular major chord. I always played a 2 chord.
A slow, odd phrasing of the Buckaroo lick appears in this song, except now it's on the piano, not the guitar.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
My Old Friend Fred 2013
This song has two distinct versions: the early one recorded in 1993 that's a C&W waltz and the R&R version in 4/4 time, done in 2013. I need to add another instrument to the R&R song but my minimalist guitar is so solid I can't think of what to add. If I went into a bar and heard this song, I would pay close attention. It's got a story, a lesson, a moral and it features a porn theater (remember them?)
THE C&W version has a florid history and was played a lot at the Las Cruces Inn. Since it's a rather long song (it has to be to get in all of the plot) it's probably better as the much shorter R&R song.
Written: Page AZ 1973
Knees wrote this song late one night in a motel in Page AZ in 1973 after ingesting what he was told was powdered THC. Whatever it was, it was incredible and he wrote the song in about an hour. The next day he went out on Lake Powell in a super speedboat (as a passenger, not the driver) and amazed himself by being able to remember all of the lyrics, probably because the song tells a story.
Well I know this is a bar an everbody’s drinkin
Well I know this is a bar an everbody’s drinkin
But an ol friend of mine just set me to thinkin
That mebbe we oughta try somethin else.
So if you just settle back an listen a spell
You’re liable to hear an educatin tale
About sex, booze and ourselves.
Well I was up in Denver bout two weeks ago
Wudn’t doin nothin thought I’d take in a show
So I parked my car an started walkin
The first show I came to was just my style
Triple X-rated called “Everthing’s Wild”
A whole buncha sex an not much talkin.
An on the poster I saw the name
Of a guy that I used to know
Ol Fred always said he was gonna make it big
An sure enuf he’s the star of the show.
So I paid my admission and went inside
Bought me some popcorn an a four dollar Sprite
Then I saw somethin that stopped me dead
Well remember I tole you a little while ago
About my ol friend who’s the star of the show
Well there, the projectionist was Fred.
We must have talked for an hour or two
Bout people and places like ol friends do
Relivin good an bad memories
An I wondered how Fred had sunk so far
When a few years ago he was a big porno star
So I axed him and here’s what he tole me.
Put the blame on the whiskey and wine;
They sucked the man outa me
I once had the world spread before my very eyes
But the bottle was all I could see.
So alla you people gathered in here
Guzzlin your whiskey, your wine an your beer
Remember bout my ol friend Fred
Well here was a man who had all he could handle
Till somethin took the wick right outa his candle
An that somethin, here’s what Fred said
Put the blame on the whiskey and wine
They sucked the man outa me
I once had the world spread before my very eyes
But the bottle was all I could see.
Well I know this is a bar an everbody’s drinkin
But an ol friend of mine just set me to thinkin
That mebbe we oughta try somethin else.
Why not? From April 21, 1977 at the Las Cruces Inn.
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Saturday Night
I recently watched The History of the Eagles on the tube and my first thought was, "Boy am I glad I was in the Calhoon Brothers." There weren't as many groupies or as much cocaine in Las Cruces as there was in LA, but the food was much better and the hassles far less mean-spirited. Maybe it was the big bucks that made their lives so much harder than ours.
There haven't been very many albums better than Desperado and this is one of my favorite songs from it.
Friday, March 1, 2013
When You Dance
Out of the 50 presets I have on the Boss BR-600 digital recorder that supplies my guitar effects, I would guess that about 42 of them are fuzzy and distorted. I can still remember 1965, when the only distortion device was the Maestro Fuzz-tone, which arguably produced the ugliest sound you can get out of a guitar. Only "Satisfaction" made it sound good. Even Paul McCartney's ambitious stab at using it on the bass on "Think For Yourself" doesn't make it. Then the Big Muff Pi (and others) came along and before we knew it the clean guitar sound was strictly for C&W and bluegrass. In 1969 The Band once again made it respectable to play an undistorted guitar.
I haven't used one of the fuzzier effects in ages so I decided to tackle one of my favorite Neil Young tunes, using an effect Boss calls "American". It's a heavily compressed sound, which means I can hit the strings as hard or as soft as I want and yet the volume stays about the same. Handy for R&R.
This song has been with me for decades. Here's a recording of my wife, Joyce, and me singing the song in my mother's living room. Maybe 1971? Apparently I had recently discovered the reverb knob on the reel-to-reel recorder.
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