Ol' skool -- back in the day -- when I was a young man...

[_Sweet Willie_]

I had to do some driving in my car today. It is the only place now where I sometimes listen to cassettes. There is some music I have only on cassette and not on CD or on my computer. Most notably included in this collection of music are recordings of bands I played with in college (about 15 yrs ago).

 

So, today I listened to a lot of this music. I was in three bands that played mostly originals and a few covers: one band from my soph year, one I played w/ in Italy my junior year, and one from senior year.

 

The recordings vary greatly in quality. A few tunes were laid down in a studio, most were done with a single mike into a 4-track recorder in a rehearsal room, and a few were recorded live.

 

I really enjoyed my "stroll" down memory lane, and I was pleasantly surprised by a few things.

 

1. I was new to fretless my senior year in college and on the recorded tunes my intonation is really pretty good. Whew!

 

2. The band I played with in Italy was pretty mediocre, but the music we played -- even if not always played well -- had some good hooks and nice arrangements, and always had a nice vibe.

 

3. I did some nice work on these recordings. I like to think I'm a stronger player now than I was then, and I still think that's probably true. However, I think I was a stronger player then than I had remembered. This was a refreshing revelation.

 

4. It stirred up some great memories of some really great people that I got to play music with during those years. I miss seeing many of them, and I wonder how many are still playing drums, guitar, keyboards, and percussion, how many are still singing, and how many are still writing music. I don't think there is a single person from those three bands with whom I still keep in touch.

 

If I have the opportunity to move some of the recordings into the digital realm I'll post a few tunes for fun. However, there's a chance that such a transfer may never happen.

 

Anyone else pull out old recordings of themselves from time to time and find themselves pleasantly surprised, or at least awash in fond memories of yesteryear?

 

Peace.

--Doctor Luv

[Quinn]

That's cool, Willie! It's important to keep in touch with your roots.

 

My wife still insists that her favorite band I ever played in was the chaotic psychedelic garage band House Of Grady. I switched from guitar to bass in that band and was just learning the instrument. My brother was our drummer and an eighth grade prodigy, the rest of us had just started college. Our specialty was the 45 minute two chord jam amid the rock posters, beer bottles, and eerie blue light in our rhythm guitarist's parents basement. Eventually we even played a handful of gigs.

 

We were primitive but very high on rock and roll and our music crackled with the energy and ecstasy of a first love.

[moot]

Great topic Doc.

 

I stumbled across an old cassette from 1984 wyhen I was in a band called Assault. Recorded at Pearls Place which was a nice little studio chocked full of Janis memerobilia. Anyway, it was terrible! LOL! I was doing the lead singing and the songs were rediculous like "Mother Wanna 'Nother" and "Heavy Metal Woman". The guitarist was red hot though and I really got a good laugh out of it.

 

I also listen to a CD of The Modulators which was the only band I have ever been in that made real money and toured. Great stuff with a rockabilly feel and a groove you could drive a bus in. Ahhhh, memories.

[Rick Hoffman]

There has to be a few lost recordings out there from my beginning days. I think back to when I would record myself playing along to my favorite songs. Those tapes are long lost. Thankfully.

 

I do listen to this one various assortment of jams from a couple of years ago with this one band. We never sat down and wrote songs, we would just walk in and play and we had the chemistry and energy to keep things going. That was the most satisfying band I've been in. We called ourselves Insurgence, but never got to gig because our drummer quit due to personal reasons.

 

Looking back on the rough recording sessions with Insurgence, I am at most barely satisfied with what I hear. Apart from just playing the wrong note in some spots I also hear things a little differently now and would probably play something else. Once in a while I amaze myself and wonder how I would have ever played that. But I'm mostly critical.

 

I have some music in digital form maybe I'll post something

[Cozmicslop]

Every now and then I go digging through those old tapes. When I first started playing bass I was lucky to be in a band with complete badasses who had a lot of patience with me. I can hear my improvement over the years. I'd have to sit down and study some of the lines I came up with having had no knowledge of theory at the time.

 

Man did I get away with murder!

[JBFLA]

I enjoy going back and listening to stuff from the 70's and 80's that I did.

 

My daughter gets an even bigger kick from it.

"You played THAT song? I remember that song from VH1's 80's series!!. Kinda sucks, but you guys did a good job. sorta. kinda. whatever."

 

ahhh, youth.

 

Some of my best original stuff came from the mid 80's. I was pretty much out of my league and challenged to do something good. Sting's "The Dream of the Blue Turtles" was just out, and they wanted something similar in feel. I'm still satisfied with the results.

 

The kicker - I have a 'Live' VHS tape of a Top40 band from just before my daughter was born (1990). Singer thought she was Madonna. She wasn't. I thought I had good hair. I didn't. I thought my daughter would find it interesting. She didn't.

 

She's still laughing.

 

Just not in my presence.

 

Yet.

[EddiePlaysBass]

Well I'm still very much in the early stages of my "career" (3.5 years and counting) but I do have a vcd of a rehearsal with my first band, and it always cracks me up to see what difficulties I had with anything faster than quarter notes

 

If I compare that to the dvd I have of my gigs with Absence and De Hamse Bier Crew, well I guess I have improved a bit already but I look forward to all that is yet to come ...

[Graham Jacobs]

I've played in a range of different bands over the years with material ranging from rock to bluegrass (in South Africa too, I kid you not!).

 

Had a couple of my old casettes burned onto CD and still listen to them occasionally in the car when I'm alone. My kids of 10 and 13 are definitely not interested although my wife thinks they're rather cool. Actually, they're not bad. When I dug them out the first time and played them back to her, it got a whole new romance thing going between us so hey.... maybe it will work for some of you guys too!

[Swed_bass]

I have a recording that someone made on a C-cassette mono recorder at my band´s rehersal, when I was 13 years of age. Played bass on all, and sang on two of the tracks. I can´t say that I enjoy listening to that attempted music today and I certainly don´t play the tape when I have a guests at home :-D

 

Still I´m glad that I have it saved, to amuse me every few years.

 

The picture I posted of me in another thread a month ago was from around that time.

http://www.musicplayer.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/ubb/get_topic/f/5/t/012750/p/2.html#000058

[_Sweet Willie_]

I wish I had some recordings of my high school band! I'd like to hear one of our gigs when I got to play and sing Cream's "Strange Brew" -- one of the very few instances of me singing and playing.

 

Thanks for the stories. Really interesting to hear about how y'all reflect back on prior days. How many of you are still in touch with some of those first musicians you played with?

 

Peace.

--SW

[EZ]

Willie you were never young. ô¿~

[Quinn]

Originally posted by Dr. Sweet Willie:

How many of you are still in touch with some of those first musicians you played with?

I still play occasionally with my brother (drums) and the guitarist of my first "serious" band House Of Grady. We all moved west at approximately the same time and settled within an hour's drive of one another.

 

After 15 years of playing together, we've developed "band telepathy" and sound incredibly tight and interactive as a unit.

 

Regrettably, I've lost touch with a few of my bandmates in other states.

[Rick Hoffman]

Doc, the first guitar player I ever actually sat down and jammed with is the only one I've seen recently. He's gone on to do some pretty good stuff with guitar, going on to school for music, and doing classical and jazz performances. He's one of the few guys I know from back in grade school/high school that still play.

 

I remember we used to sit and jam in his room, and he was so big on The Black Crowes. They had just come out and he knew all their licks. He had been playing for a couple of years by the time we met, and he was pretty good. I got to hear him recently on some recorded work and I can't believe how good he's become.

 

Someone above mentioned a hot guitar player being in the band. I think every school or town with some young local bands has a handful of guys like that. I thank my uncle for convincing me to take up bass.

[moot]

Originally posted by Dr. Sweet Willie:

How many of you are still in touch with some of those first musicians you played with?

The guitar player from "Assault" died of an overdose back in '89. I lost track of the drummer shortly thereafter.

 

Now, the guitarist/songwriter from The Modulators still travels in the same musical circles as I do here but I can't play with him any more. After playing/writing with him for 7 years and giving him a job that I had to go to his house and wake him up for, I got a little tired of being his mom. He always had a Meth problem and too. When it came to shooting himself in the foot he never missed. Sad. Great songwriter.

[Gab]

One thing that surprises me all the time is how i expect myself to suck on those old tapes and then finding out that i wasn't that bad at all.

 

Now this is strange: i have this feeling that i have developed so much through the years that my current playing is so much better, it simply cannot be compared to my previous stuff. And then it strikes me that i actually had good ideas back then as well.

[Seamy ALB]

My first band was called "Public Disorder" and I formed it by lieing to both the Drummer (who is the Guitarist/Vocalist in my current Band) and the local guitar genius at the time. My cousin and best buddy at the time was also in the band on guitar. Thats when I made the shift to Bass as we had 2 guitarist, I was at the early stages in my learning.

 

We wrote a song a week for the 8 weeks together played our fist gig supporting a local band with a completely original set of songs. The very first tune we wrote together won us studio time in a local studio and we recorded a demo. The demo was reviewed in Kerrang magazine with a mighty 2 k's saying it was full of youthful punk energy.

 

When I listen to it now I am amazed at how fast I was playing and how caustic some of the tunes where. I also laugh a little at the Dioism's that where present in some of the lyrics. This was early '91 who was to see the way punk would come into vogue again.

 

I also learnt a few valuable lessons in that band, we decided that my cousin wasn't trying hard enough, although he was working, studying, providing the van and as a joint decision we kicked him out. He was quite correct to be pissed at me and he didn't speak to me for a few years after the event. Lesson no 1 Family and Friends always first. No 2 Never fall out over music walk away yourself first.

 

In my defence I was 17 at the time this was my first band and my first experience of leading a band, but I know that I was wrong not to back him. We are cool again now and he now plays in a band with my brother so its all good.

 

Overall when I listen to my playing from back then I am proud of the music and I hear how I have progressed as a musician. I just hope that in another 15 years I will hear as much progression again.

 

Great thread!

[ATM]

Originally posted by JBFLA:

The kicker - I have a 'Live' VHS tape of a Top40 band from just before my daughter was born (1990). Singer thought she was Madonna. She wasn't. I thought I had good hair. I didn't. I thought my daughter would find it interesting. She didn't.

Hair?

 

 

ATM

[Flemtone]

Originally posted by Dr. Sweet Willie:

How many of you are still in touch with some of those first musicians you played with?

It's been 30 years since my first high-school band.

 

We're still together.

 

Talk about on-stage telepathy...

 

peace,

Tim from Jersey

[JBFLA]

Originally posted by ATM:

Originally posted by JBFLA:

The kicker - I have a 'Live' VHS tape of a Top40 band from just before my daughter was born (1990). Singer thought she was Madonna. She wasn't. I thought I had good hair. I didn't. I thought my daughter would find it interesting. She didn't.

Hair?

 

 

ATM

Ohhhh???!!!!

And this coming from YOU, my equally "follically challenged" friend??

Santa's got a lump of Minoxodil to stuff in your stocking!!!!

 

 

Jim

[ATM]

Huh? Oh yeah, I keep forgetting it's not like this anymore:

http://www.Musburger.Net/andy4.jpg

 

Seeing as how we both suffer from the same affliction, I figured I could be the one to poke fun.

 

Rock on, and if your daughter keeps snickering, take the sweatshirt back.

 

ATM

[JBFLA]

Originally posted by ATM:

Huh? Oh yeah, I keep forgetting it's not like this anymore:

http://www.Musburger.Net/andy4.jpg

ATM

Or like this:

http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0TAAAAH0XGI*lCcjHsO8sF2DLqyXYtAFdoN6ITII1y3fVHiF4dx573hbe3XP90QOHVUTTzhfm1*FbPFw9k!gxZP2e!J0o6xNFT5ofFRlXsWH3dOBnMbkACw/70spromo.JPG

 

So not to threadjack this: Yes I do keep in touch -

 

Far left: Mark still plays in Detroit.

 

Bottom: Kevin owns a studio in Studio City doing jingles and Pre-Production for TV/Movie soundtracks. Played on and asst. produced the "Beverly Hills Cop 2" soundtrack

 

2nd from right: Kenny also owns a studio in Studio City doing jingles and Pre-Production for TV/Movie soundtracks. Toured with Jermaine (or was it Tino?) Jackson.

 

Far right: WB plays in shows in Reno, last I heard. He's a tough bugger to follow.

 

Top, 2nd from left: Hack bassist from S.FLA. Gear Whore. Questionable reading skills, even more questionable ears. Obviously the "Black Sheep" of the 'Family'.

 

Great Hair, tho' (then).

 

It's all gone now - even the hair. Just a shadow of his former self.

Except his self-deprecating humour.

And his Gear.

It's all good.

[Tom Capasso]

If you look in the dictionary under the term "musical narcissism", you'll see my picture. I think I was always great, and when I wasn't, it was funny.

 

I've got tapes that I made with my cousins - not live, but recording experiments. I've got tapes of bands I was in (some of which I've transfered to digital). I still love to listen to it - even the CD from one band's third practice. It's unmixed (we sang into the recorder mics and let the sound go where it would) and raw, but I still enjoy the energy, arrangements, and writing (I didn't do the writing).

 

Thanks for reminding me - that Snooky Tweak CD has been languishing for too long. I need a dose of "My Tattoo Hurts" circa '75.

 

Tom