floatsam and jetsam

These are some tunes which for one reason or other didn't make it into the main collection. Some were unfinished, some were just little exercises for school, some are not very good, some aren't mine, but here they all are for posterity.

Academic Dissonance
I took a composition class at the U or I when I went back to school in the 80s. My theory was that the rap about a piece of academic music was more important than the sound. So I came up with some elaborate spiel about this one, don't remember what it was, but the instructor really dug it.

ARP Tune
This was from high school. I had borrowed an ARP Odyssey synth from the local junior college along with some kind of stereo reel to reel. You can probably recognize my virtuoso drumming. It only speeds up a little bit.

Baroque Thingy
This was written for that university composition class. No idea what we were studying or what this demonstrates.

Blanky Monster
In the wake of the success of Fluffy She's My Kitty (see the 1980s page) I did this one. The idea seemed very funny back in 1980 or whenever it was but it's super creepy now. But fun vocals by young Jess and her friend Molly.

Could Have Been Kind
Keith Harden did vocals on a bunch of songs for me in the 80s. In turn I recorded several songs for him. This one was during the new wave fad. Nice tune, a little too much hiss from the old tape machine, but hey.

Dm 7/8
From high school, some pseudo-baroque stuff, done with that borrowed ARP synth. I think it was Rob Kennedy's Farfisa organ, not sure where the Leslie came from. My brother Keith on drums.

Do the Modulation
Another ditty for university theory class. We were studying modulations, cadences, and binary form. There are a lot of silly sound effects too. I believe I'd purchased an LP with a bunch of sound effects on it and I just dropped those in willy nilly.

F Major
High school tune, done on that borrowed ARP. Me playing drums again. I was listening to lots of Yes and Kansas.

Feel Good
This is one of my very first attempts doing a song on my TEAC 4 track. Steve Katz sang as I recall. I like the voice box guitar in the middle. I think I wrote this one with no concern for Steve's vocal range so he did the best he could. I think maybe it was Don Shelton on drums.

Flute Funk
This is my brother on drums and I think maybe Carol Brey came over and played flute. Keith thinks this is a tune we did in stage band written by Tim Weisberg.

Good Vibes Commercial
I was working installing car stereo at Good Vibes and did this as a prospective backing for a commercial. As I recall Steve First didn't think it was hifi enough for a hifi store which was probably correct.

Hate to be the One
Never quite finished this. I pasted some vocals from a previous chorus onto the end but it's pretty obviously a bad computer paste job. Tom Green played drums. Might have been Roger Prillaman's borrowed Leslie.

Mary's Gotta
This is a Tom Green tune we did over in his basement. Vocals by Dan Gherna. Nice tune. Just was probably around Edge/Fine Line time frame.

One Day
I wrote this shortly after my dad died. It's bombastic, maudlin, self-indulgent, and pretentious but otherwise a pretty good tune. Me singing.

Sacred Smile
I had Dave Gherig come over and sing this. I worked with him at Intercom Inc. He wrote the lyrics, I suspect I wrote the music. Got my Simmons clone electronic drums on it. Dave had a nice voice. I probably would have worked with him more but I was kinda into getting the ol' computer career going at the time, which was probably wise.

She's Mine
Another nice Tom Green tune, recorded in his basement, Dan Gherna singing. I thought I recalled coming a little closer to finishing this so maybe there was another tape somewhere.

Space Funk
The ARP Odyssey again, from that frenzy of recording I did with all that borrowed stuff in high school. I called this "Space Funk" and I think you can tell I was influenced by Herbie Hancock's Chameleon. It's my stylish drumming again. On this one I sped up a lot.

Weekend Lover
I was living in the trailer next to Tom Green. I recorded this using his Dokorder 4 track. I think he was out of town for the weekend so I worked it out to come over and use his gear. Kinda crufty but got some cool parts. I remember using two mics for the guitars, one far away across on the other side of the trailer to try to get a bigger stereo guitar sound. I'm not sure worrying about the nuances of the sound made a lot of sense though.

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