The Story of Therapy Dog Tails 571
Where Everyone Gets a Dose of Puppy Love
BACKGROUND 251: JLHS Part Two 24
Sun., Oct. 7, 2007
… But it is exciting. We turned down the option of taping the Red Lion show, thinking at that time that we’d be doing more of those and that we’d be better each time. As it turned out, that was the last such show and that’s now about three years ago, I think. There is some dispute about when that was so I’ll have to go back to the journal to check it at some point. So this was our first live performance in a long time so we were excited about it and now it looks as though we’ll get a video of it as well. We’ll appreciate that now since it’s clear that there is not going to be a lot of gigging in our future and we’re not getting any younger. That was one of the topics of our discussion yesterday at the Mean Fiddler and so without further ado, having recounted the Bowery gig, I’ll get back to talking about that little meeting which happened actually the day before yesterday now because although I’m still calling this Sunday, it’s actually early Monday morning and I’ve been writing now for a couple of thousand words trying to finish up what I started yesterday. ( See first paragraph in next entry.)
Anyway, back to Sat., Oct. 6 and the Mean Fiddler and waiting around for Austin’s band Ginger Nash and talking about the meaning of the gig. That led to our next issue, which is getting this second album finished. This subject is related to the gigging that is the ongoing debate. When we recorded the first album, we did a lot of intense rehearsing. We were forced into that because of the financial constraints involved in buying the time. It was like gigging. We made a lot of progress practicing for this Bowery gig. On this we all agree. And we’ve been unsuccessful in getting tracks down for the album. So we and especially Greg figures that gigging will help, even if the set list for a gig is different from what we are trying to record. But at least we set the next rehearsal date for this Thursday at six. We were happy with how things went that afternoon and figure we don’t need much more rehearsal on the four songs that we’ve still got to get down. Let’s hope that’s true. If so, then the next time will be out here on a Saturday or Sunday to do the recording. The 14th was floated but Geoff said he had a birthday party and so the 15th, a Sunday, was scheduled to do the actual recording. If they can come out early and spend the day, then we can probably get everything done. I’ll be hardly involved. Most of what I do can be overdubbed and should be overdubbed. It all depends on how things are going with just two people trying to get the feel for the songs. Edward relies on my rhythm guitar a lot in order to follow where we are.
If we can get the basic tracks for these songs down, then Greg will have to come out for overdubbing. If we’re lucky he can do some singing that same day, maybe even some lead guitar. I’ll have time to put in whatever I’m going to be putting in and I still have work to do on Why Won’t You Love Me. There is still guitar to be added to What Do You Do also. Greg needs to work on that as well as Geoff and that one needs some manipulating at the beginning. But it’s nothing that can’t be done by Geoff and me.
The idea is to have this thing done by Christmas. Now, you’ll remember, friend, that we were not even able to get four little “Christmas” songs done in much more time than this last year. But then, the real problem was that those songs were not Threads songs. I think that what we did was prove that we really have to stick to our own songs. There may be an occasional cover that we are up to but for the most part, we have to do our own stuff. Even if we wanted to be a cover band, I don’t think we could do it. At least, not without hours and hours of practice, which we just don’t have the time, money or inclination to do. That’s not why we’re in this. We are in this to create music, not to become a bar band or to become studio musicians or to get whatever it is that people get out of playing Satisfaction for the trillionth time. I don’t know what there is to get out of that. I’ve never had any desire to play anyone else’s music, let alone to try to reproduce it just as they did it. And I guess that’s a good thing. But we know that we can do our own songs. We can’t do them the way professionals might do them but that is also a good thing. I think a lot of people are going to hear our songs and want to do them the way they want to do them. That would be good for us. No one is ever going to do them the way we do them. No one is ever going to even want to do them the way we do them. Maybe I’m being a little hasty in saying that but it might be the case and it would be surprising to us but we don’t care about that. We like being different.
And, as I said to Greg, it is primarily his guitar style that makes us different. He’s self conscious about his own playing because he doesn’t play the way guitarists are supposed to play but in the long run that is precisely what separates us from the herd. That is a good thing. The rest of us are a competent rhythm section. But the songs are superior and my singing may not be the preferred style for rock singing these days but it is pretty good and it is what it is in the same way that Greg’s playing is what it is. I think he is going to be happy with himself when he hears the Bowery gig. I think there is good reason for all of us to be happy with that. We were playing, of course, only our songs and that’s how it is going to be. We’ve got enough songs right now for three more good albums and the 2nd one is going to be much, much better than the first. All we have to do is keep it together long enough to get it all done but that is a big if - if you ask me.
I suggested that if we can get the album done before Christmas, then we ought to have either a CD / Christmas party or even a CD / Christmas party / Jam gig to celebrate it. Greg liked the idea of the Jam gig and was insisting that it was up to Edward to get to Jam Greg and make that happen. Edward didn’t think it was such a big day and that Greg would be happy to put us in any show. After all, Edward and I each invested $2500 in the place when they made the move to 47th St. On the other hand, they have not offered us anything in a couple of years and in my opinion Eric doesn’t like Greg. I said this to Greg, that I thought Eric didn’t like his guitar playing and resented the fact that Greg even has a band. It could be that Eric likes one of us (Geoff) and therefore has some resentment about not being in our band himself, being a guitarist, I guess. He doesn’t think that Greg is a real lead guitarist and that could also be a contributing factor the our not getting gigs through them - that along with the fact that we didn’t bring in any people in the three that we did play for them. On the other hand again, Greg himself suggested that we have a coming out party for the first CD so maybe he will go for that idea again. I mean, if we can ever get our friends to join us, it would be for that, right, friend?
But getting the thing done in time for that means having all of the recording ready to go in about four or five weeks, by the middle of November. That would give us about a month to have the CDs made and the packaging done. We’re agreed that this time we’d like cardboard rather than he old jewel box. We’re also agreed that Eliza will do the artwork again, this time a surrealistic picture of a lake because the title right now is “By the Lake” (from How It Seems). Greg likes the line or the image or something. I suggested having the lake and then having weird things leaping out of it and that idea seemed to go down. But Eliza will have to get to work if this is going to be done in a month. And we will have to have already set up who we are going to use to do the reproducing of both the disc and the cover. We agreed that we’ll send it out again rather than buy a machine and attempt to do that ourselves. Of course this will be a financial burden on me again. We have little money again now.
At five-thirty Austin’s band still had not arrived so Edward took off for home to change his clothes for dinner. Greg, Geoff and I made up a playlist for whatever gig we might be able to play and it went something like this: From Now On, It’s 3 O’clock, What Do You Do, Why Won’t You Love Me, Lily, I Know What I’m Thinking, Sadie’s Shell, We Can Never Know, You Know It’s So, and Love Canal. We were shooting for 45 minutes and for the most rocking songs we could come up with. I said that I thought What Do You Do made for better live performance than It’s O.K. and Geoff thinks that the bass interlude is more than a live audience can take. I don’t but What Do You Do is better for screaming. It’s O.K. is really a ballad. Ballad of the Lost Bluebood might be in there. I think I’ve got the list here with me somewhere because I had my briefcase with me Saturday. I was carrying copies of the Bowery CD - one for Edward and two for Greg.
We finally went downstairs with what was probably our 4th beer. Austin still was not there. Instead we witnessed a funk band with a Stax style horn section - baritone sax, tenor sax and trumpet - drums, bass, organ and guitar. The guitarist turned out to be the star but they sounded like a cross between Booker T. and the MGs and Chicago. They were good and well rehearsed - no vocals. At the end I went to congratulate the guitarist and he immediately asked if I wanted to buy a CD. I asked if there were any vocals and when he said there weren’t, I declined. I thought he should have been more appreciative of the fact that a stranger would compliment him on his music but these guys were a bit older, around 19-20 I’d say. The first band had been very young kids and Austin’s band, who followed, are all about 16-17.
Austin had arrived and Ginger Nash set up fast. By this time Edward had returned and was wearing a suit. Lisa was there and I was introduced to Austin’s uncle, who must have been Lisa’s brother. I’ve heard about this guy because I think he is in some t.v. show - either acting or writing. I don’t recall. But he’s got money and lives up on the river where they have the country houses. He might even live on the Pennsylvania side, as I recall Greg talking about.
Austin plays rhythm and he’s got a nice Gibson. They’ve got drums, bass and lead guitar but the leader is the singer / keyboard player who also took out a trumpet a couple of times, something I found superfluous considering that they sounded more like the Allman Brothers than Herb Alpert. From where Greg and I were, way off to the left and behind the P.A., the vocal was mixed way down, although Geoff said he could hear it better out front and didn’t think much of it. The lead guitarist was decent and played with more of a Clapton tone than Duane Allman. I guess you’d have to play some slide to sound like him. Austin didn’t do much and he was standing almost right in front of Greg and me. They were allotted about 30 minutes for this competition, which had something to do with the Calhoun school, a name I remember from the old private school teaching days ….
Note: Some of the songs discussed here have been included in previous chapters. The live Bowery Poetry Club version of From Now On is in chapter 566. Two versions of Why Won’t You Love Me, one with a vocal by me and another with the vocal by Mandy Manning, can be found in chapter 148. Then the original demo of that song made by me and Geoff is in chapter 149. A rehearsal of It’s Okay is in chapter 199 and the studio version is in chapter 200. The Bowery Poetry Club version of Love Canal is in chapter 567. The plan is to get around to more of these songs as the spirit moves me. As of this moment there is a total of 31 Threads tracks within these 571 chapters. More will come, life permitting.