Big Hand Dave

Last night’s practice was a lot of fun, despite the fact that we played a lot of material for the first time. It was a night of fab firsts as many of the songs we played were new to everybody. Thank goodness for PJ’s charts. As an added bonus, Corn-Squeezer Dave returned my hymnal and it was actually no worse for the wear, though he did forget it initially and fetched it whilst changing into his Magnum PI outfit.

We warmed up with “Birthday” by Underground Sunshine. Yes, the Beatles had a bigger hit with it, but Underground Sunshine was a One Hit Wonder. And that’s our schtick. Bonus for us if the song is a mega hit from a mega band. We continued the warm up with Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” which is a beautiful and powerful song with a lot of contemporary overtones. There is a lot of opportunity for some nice harmony and backup vocals in that one. It should be a fun one to work on. Songs like that don’t lose their punch. We did a version with drums and a version without and I’ll be interested to hear the recording. We followed our newfound political awareness trend with another song espousing similar inflections: “I’d Love To Change The World” by Ten Years After. Its carefully crafted lyrics, written to shock in order to make a point rather than to offend, are just as moving as when it was on the lips and minds of the denizens of Haight-Ashbury back in the day. It also happens to have some really wonderful guitar playing, a task which PJ is all about. Dave loves this song and wants us to open it up a little bit more than our arrangement calls for. We did so at the end and that worked out pretty good. After revisiting the song, I found that it takes off after the second chorus, runs hard through the third verse, and then calms down again on the final chorus to close out softly. We may have to try it that way as well.

Next we tried “When A Man Loves A Woman.” Mmm, mmm, mmm, what a song. I think Percy Sledge stood in line twice for that kind of talent. PJ said it right when he noted that we don’t really have a good slow, grinding, slow-dance song. This one covers that pretty well. On the first run through PJ sang it and I have to tell you it was awesome! I was a happy egg-shakin’ fool! Dave kicked some ass on the drums on that song too. It also has a really cool progression on bass. We ran through it again with me singing, and it wasn’t as good as PJ’s version. I will have to do some practicing to sing it the way it should be sung. Dave’s suggestion as to how to accomplish that was somewhat shocking and at best counterproductive. Sicko.

We continued our adventure down Nostalgia Boulevard with Procol Harem’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” a truly beautiful song. I suggest that those boys were quite cerebral, though PJ maintains that perhaps they were simply high. Procol Harem’s version is the best ever, though one of my favorite versions of it is an instrumental by Canadian Brass. Annie Lennox did a really nice job with it too. The Chaucer reference may be lost on some, but here is nice image of him as a pilgrim from the Ellesmere Manuscript.

Next we played “Here Comes The Sun” at which point Dave, who hates the Beatles (wtf?) lodged a formal protest. “That’s two Beatles songs that ya’ll have snuck in here!” he cried, flailing his arms about wildly. PJ patiently explained that this song is by Richie Havens. The Beatles simply made it famous. If you want to see something really good, go to YouTube and check out Richie Havens’ video to this song. It’s awesome.

It was at this point in the evening that Dave, for reasons a bit obscure and still not entirely known performed his “Carlton Dance.” That’s something that is simply begging for some exposure. Or treatment. One or the other.

“End of the Line” by Traveling Wilburys was next. George Harrison, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynn, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan - what an amazing collection of singer/guitarists. With a performance by that load of talent there is a lot of room for some cool vocal work. I look forward to practicing this one.

Oh yeah, there was also the drummer guy.

The video for “End of the Line” was made after Roy Orbison’s death. When Orbison’s singing part comes up in the song, there is a rather haunting image of a rocking chair with his guitar in it, moving by itself.

Next we tried out a medley of a song we’ve practiced and one we haven’t. There is a tiny key change at the overlap, which has the potential to be a little tricky (for me, at least,) but a little practice will take care of that. The songs are “Ain’t no Sunshine” and “Lean on Me” by Bill Withers, a good ol’ WV boy. We cut out the last verse of the first song and we may want to look at putting it back in at the end of the second one, just to see how it works.

Then we were ‘treated’ to Dave’s exercise description. Be glad you weren’t there. We did, however, at Dave’s insistence, play “867-5309/Jenny” next, and nailed it. We ran through “For What It’s Worth” again with the rhythm guitar. We played it a little down tempo, but it was still cool. With just a little bit of practice, that will be really nice. “Chevy Van” was next and we still do that one really well.

It was really beautiful at the lake tonight, with the sun going down reflecting off the water and the birds calling and the frogs singing. Quite nice. In fact, it’s the perfect setting for our next song, “Dancing In The Moonlight” which is really coming along now that we’ve figured out how we’re doing the chorus. PJ did a really sweet solo on that one and it was the best ending ever. “Fire Woman” was next. It had been a while, but it sounded pretty good. We need to figure out how to let the guitar end that one, though. “Save Tonight” with the new and improved Door Slide was next. The high and low harmony Wes and I have going on in that one sounds really good.

“Layla” was next, and even though we played it a little bit too fast, it still sounded good. I love the bass line in that song. And when that sweet and nasty guitar kicks in, oh Baby! We played it a second time and got the tempo just right.

And Grasshopper Dave (wax on, wax off) killed a bug with his drumstick. The boy’s got skillz.

“All Along The Watchtower” made an appearance after a hiatus of some weeks. We started out way too fast, but got it closer to plumb the second time around. We play that song really well, and it’s easy to see why it’s our signature song. We played “Baker Street” after that and it somehow evolved into “You Really Got Me Now.” But once we got it straightened out, the drums and bass teamed up to lead the guitars all the way home. We followed that up with “New York Groove” and I love that Bo Diddly beat.

I should interject here to say that Rodney’s little buddy was clean-shaven tonight. It is yet to be determined if that affected its performance.

We played “I’d Love to Change the World” again and it rocked! It will be really nice to work out the background vocals for that song. Rhythm guitar on that one kicks ass. To wind up the evening, “Secret Agent Man” made the scene, along with those fabulous guitar effects.

Again, it was a really fun practice. Sometimes learning new material can be a little frustrating, but it really wasn’t that way at all. It was absolutely enjoyable. PJ’s charts go a long way in making that happen.

There were just a few memorable quotes.

“Way to go ‘A-Game’!” ~Rodney

“Uh, yeah.” ~ Dave

“If we do it at the end, we can kind of train wreck it.” ~PJ

“I like that term.” ~Rodney

“Dude, you just play it where you feel it and we’ll try to keep up.” ~JD

“Maybe if I sit this way…” ~PJ

“It’s a good thing you were here!” ~JD

“It’s about time somebody said that!” ~Dave

“He snatched it like a @#!&*!” ~Dave

“Oooh! Door slide!” ~PJ

“He’s trippin’ on the shrooms, dude!” ~Dave

“Quit actin’ all single.” ~Rodney

“Yeah we can pull that off!” ~PJ

“If you could quote your expression, that’d be great!” ~Dave

“Oh, is that the bassline? For what?” ~Rodney

“He jumps every time and he don’t have shit.” ~PJ

“JD, make him stop looking at me!” ~Rodney

“Don’t make me turn this band around!” ~JD

” 20 years I’ve been putting up with this shit.” ~Wes

“Like the back of our hand.” ~Dave

“It’s time for some hand-clappin’, sticks-bangin’, something!” ~JD

“He printed out a bunch of shit and stuck it somewhere.” ~PJ

“That’s an open term.” ~Wes

” I was following you!” ~Dave

“But you started!” ~Rodney

“It didn’t start so good but it ended great!” ~Wes

“One minute wonders. That’s what we’ll do!” ~PJ

“The intro? You’re a little late for that!” ~Wes

“I was just trying to demonstrate the tempo!” ~PJ

“That would make a great ring-tone too.” ~Rodney

“I can barely compete with you on a noise level” ~Wes

“That’s where you’re sadly mistaken.” ~PJ

“It’s hard to stop when you’re having that much fun.” ~JD

“I’m trying to find the right pick so I don’t play it backwards.” ~Wes

“That makes my leg hurt.” ~PJ

“Please tell me that’s not on.” ~JD

“It doesn’t say that. It should say that!” ~PJ

“Can you add a sus and let it dangle?” ~Wes

“Ain’t nothing like a dangling sus.” ~PJ ( I have no idea what they’re talking about)

“That’s what I like about you, JD. You’re not afraid to lay on the cheese.” ~PJ

“I don’t want to see any quotes with me saying “shit!”" ~PJ (I believe ‘shit’ may be the secret word)

And the best exchange of the night:

“That’s such a pretty guitar riff.” ~JD
“Too bad we don’t have a pretty guitarist.” ~Dave
“Yeah well, we were told we were getting a hung drummer but we’re outta’ luck there, too.” ~Rodney