SONG OF THE MONTH During 2015 I will be posting 12 original songs, one song for each month, dating back to 1964-1966 when I was most fortunate to be part of a basement band comprised of my older brother Don/Codge (14-16), Nic Baker/Stump (12-14), and myself Jim/Chick (12-14). Because of The Beatles we formed our band on on February 10, 1964, the day following The Beatles first Ed Sullivan appearance. Though none of us could play an instrument, we quickly learned to play guitars and drums, play cover songs, and began writing our own material. Januarys song features WHEN I MET YOU written mid August 1965. I will never forget the night when the song came together. After the dust settled from our latest vehicular assault, the five of us were sitting on Terri’s front porch debating who threw the largest balloon the farthest. I noticed two familiar silhouettes walking toward us. Their eager voices gave away their identity before I could recognize their features. Codge and Nic called to me with unusual excitement in their voices. I sensed their summoning was something band-related. “Jim, you’ve got to come hear this!” I hadn’t seen Nic this animated since Codge and I returned from a two-week trip to Maine in the summer of 1963. Our friend was so ecstatic about our return then that he lavished us with multiple rounds of Cherry Cokes at Fernwoods and presented us with a book of elephant jokes. Codge joined Nic’s excitement. “I’ve got to admit it, we wrote something that seems pretty special.” When it came to writing original songs, I was not part of the process because I had nothing to offer. I was a drummer and a singer. Nic and Codge co-wrote our original tunes, save the one or two written individually by either. Their collaboration was somewhat of a private matter as I had never attended one of these creative sessions. They would play a new song for me at our practice sessions and I would offer ideas on vocal harmonies, since that was one of my strengths. I said goodnight to my friends and anxiously followed Codge and Nic back to the practice pad, cutting through the corner gas station (making sure to step on the vehicle alert hose, much to the annoyance of the station attendants), and bypassing the lure of Fernwoods. On this particular August night, Codge and Nic performed “When I Met You,” by far the best song they had produced to date. I was dumbfounded by the chorus, or what we called the “alternate,” having no idea how to articulate musical form. I became excited about what they had created and began making suggestions about playing a drum part with a certain textural feel. I began to experiment with playing brushes, but changed to sticks after a few rehearsals. The song’s energy required more of an edge, supplied by my pounding out a simple rock beat on cymbal and drum clutter. We worked on a two-part harmony with some background “ahs” to complement the chorus section. “I think Lennon and McCartney would even like this song!” My bold declaration was too vainglorious for Codge and Nic. “Get real!” shot back Codge while packing up his guitar for the evening. “I think this night deserves a reward. Drinks are on the house,” shouted Nic. We left Nic’s just in time to enter Fernwoods before its ten o’clock closing and to celebrate our success with the usual round of the house special. The great strength about Codge and Nic’s writing partnership was two-fold: their excellent melodic vocal lines, along with their skill at emulating the sounds of our pop heroes by borrowing ideas from Lennon and McCartney, Ray Davies, Jagger and Richards, among others. Even though all our originals were written with the same basic major and minor chord patterns, there was a good variety of musical ideas expressed in some simple two-line vocal harmonies. https://youtube/watch?v=I7tab_-82rc
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 12:53:15 +0000
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