{"id":111,"date":"2009-12-05T09:52:19","date_gmt":"2009-12-05T14:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=111"},"modified":"2009-12-05T09:52:19","modified_gmt":"2009-12-05T14:52:19","slug":"essay-dont-fret-or-i-write-the-songs-garage-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2009\/12\/05\/essay-dont-fret-or-i-write-the-songs-garage-style\/","title":{"rendered":"Essay: \u201cDon\u2019t Fret,\u201d or, \u201cI Write the Songs\u201d Garage Style"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/center><\/p>\n

For several years starting in 2002, I led a little ol\u2019 cover band. We played much-loved and little-known garage-psych classics in reasonably faithful arrangements. Songs like \u201cYou\u2019re Gonna Miss Me\u201d by the 13th<\/sup> Floor Elevators<\/strong>, \u201cIncense and Peppermints” by the Strawberry Alarm Clock<\/strong>, and the Choir<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cIt\u2019s Cold Outside.\u201d \u00a0<\/span>Those were the well-known ones. No originals. Our thought was: until we can write songs as good as these, why bother trying to.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p>In the group\u2019s early days, we had some difficulty holding on to bass players. There wasn\u2019t some underlying reason; it was just bad luck. So we often found ourselves in the position of running ads in the local altweekly, and then scheduling auditions with likely candidates. I did my best to pre-screen people on the phone. What we were doing was a pretty specific, narrow style, and I had no illusions that it was for everyone.<\/p>\n

Some people would answer the ad, and quickly reveal themselves to be what I\u2019d call \u201cmusical mercenaries.\u201d Sure, I\u2019ll play that<\/em>, they’d say. For cash, I will<\/em>. Well, that wouldn\u2019t do; we wanted people who had a \u201cfeel\u201d for the music. They perhaps didn\u2019t have to love it, and I wouldn\u2019t expect them to feel about garage\/psych the way I do (my love for the genre borders on the obsessive), but they had to at least understand it. Plus, in our little city there wasn’t a huge market for what we were doing, so gig opportunities — though they did exist — would be sporadic.<\/p>\n

I could write volumes chronicling the funny-in-retrospect epsidodes we endured during our many bassist auditions (we did finally find one, and he was fantastic). And perhaps someday I will get all those stories down in words. But for now, here\u2019s a short episode that ranks as one of my personal favorites.<\/p>\n

This guy sounded ok on the phone. I guess I had fielded quite a few respondents that day, so I didn\u2019t fully vet him: in later years you might say I almost \u201cpulled a McCain\u201d in not doing so. At least my <\/em>lack of oversight didn’t endanger the country.<\/p>\n

The guy showed up, and he was a sight. A human tattoo canvas, he was. Now, of course there\u2019s nothing wrong with that, but if I may stereotype just a bit, guys covered in tattoos are usually into, well, other kinds of music. They don\u2019t usually want to play Vanilla Fudge<\/strong>\u2019s arrangement of \u201cYou Keep Me Hangin\u2019 On.\u201d But, whatever; let\u2019s give the guy a chance.<\/p>\n

He got his amp all set up, and then opened his instrument case to reveal a fretless bass<\/em>. What? I thought. Again\u00a0 <\/span>I experienced a bit of cognitive dissonance. Yes, some great rock bassists \u00a0<\/span>played fretless: Colin Moulding<\/strong> from XTC<\/strong>, John Munson<\/strong> (then of Semisonic<\/strong>, now of The Twilight Hours<\/a><\/strong>), and that guy from the Firm<\/strong>, Jimmy Page<\/strong>\u2019s post-Led Zeppelin<\/strong> group.<\/p>\n

Attentive readers might notice the above list of examples doesn\u2019t include groups with names like Bubble Puppy, Electric Prunes<\/strong> or the Sonics<\/strong>. But the guy was here, and he was set up. So let\u2019s play and see how it goes, I thought. At this point, why not?<\/p>\n

So we played for a bit. It wasn\u2019t terrible or anything, but neither was it a transcendent experience, or even a really good fit. I\u2019ve always half-joked that when a band is deciding on a bass player, everybody gets one vote except the drummer. The drummer gets two, since he hears and feels things about the bass player\u2019s style and ability that the rest of us might miss.<\/p>\n

Anyway, we never got to that stage. Even though I had clearly outlined what our band\u2019s approach and goal was, after playing with us for about forty-five minutes, this guy stopped and spoke to us.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I really want to be in a band that plays originals<\/em>,\u201d he announced.<\/p>\n

I was perplexed. I had made it clear beyond question that we were a cover band, pure and simple. But I figured I had nothing to lose in trying to draw him out a bit. So I asked him, \u201cOkay, so do you write songs yourself<\/em>, then?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I don\u2019t,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell,\u201d I continued, \u201chave you ever heard any of these songs that we\u2019ve been playing here this evening?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNope. I\u2019ve never heard any of them,\u201d he admitted.<\/p>\n

I grinned. \u201cWell, I wrote them all. Are you happy now?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/o:p><\/p>\n

As I say, we eventually found a bass player who was nearly as big a fanatic about obscure 60s music as I am. He laughed when I shared this tale with him. Maybe you did too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For several years starting in 2002, I led a little ol\u2019 cover band. We played much-loved and little-known garage-psych classics in reasonably faithful arrangements. Songs like \u201cYou\u2019re Gonna Miss Me\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essay","cat-27-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}