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CHRONOLOGY 69: JLHS Part Three 22

Sat., Sep. 25, 2010

6:04 p.m. I’m finally getting on here. I was completely exhausted after going out for a run and a Mexican omelet and had to take a nap, which ended up lasting from about 3:30 till 5:30. At least I can recognize exhaustion now. I was out late last night with Andy, Ben and then Zack and Stephanie Kallicharan and her boyfriend Jesus but I’ll get to that maybe tomorrow. I didn’t get drunk but didn’t get to bed until 2:00 this morning. When I got up around 9:30 I finished putting the latest Threads session into the computer – I had started that on Thursday night - and then went out for a run at noon in 90 degree heat and sun. I felt good and my left leg felt normal but it really drained me. Now here I am with a little energy in the early evening.

So first about the Threads. We got this email from Edward about the play list. This came either yesterday or Thursday. Greg didn’t want to sing 3 songs in a row as he had been doing so Edward changed it slightly and I then I sent back the suggestion to reverse Sadie’s Shell and Parched. Then I’ll be singing the last 2 songs and that will be the only time that either of us sings 2 songs in a row. But after listening to all of it while I was out running, I’m thinking now that maybe Parched ought to be moved forward. We sound pretty good on many of these songs – at least through my headphones – put Parched really came out nice. Every week it’s a different track that stands out and that’s a good thing. That means that all of them have some value. I haven’t heard back from anyone yet but I sent this suggestion to all 3 this morning at around ten o’clock when I started back to work on putting the tracks into my computer.

From Edward / Sept. 23, 2010

Play List

1 – We Can Never Know

2 - Delaware River

3 – Just Not You

4 – Lily

5 – Only For A Moment

6 - Lies You Tell

7 - Sadie’s Shell

8 - Parched

9 - What Do You Do

10- Nothing That You Do

I was really looking forward to hearing the songs this time. I could feel on Wednesday that the energy level was good in spite of the stifling heat in that little room – Studio 3. It had been nice Sep. weather the 1st 2 days of the week and then went into a torrid Indian Summer on Wednesday.

So I started on Thursday evening putting the stuff in but I was tired and only got the 1st 3 songs done and sent out. I finished it this morning so that I could take it out with me while running. That was the 1st that I’d heard it – I put the tracks into the computer only listening enough to see where to trim the chatter, mostly off the front. I tend to start the machine going so that I don’t have to worry about it when we’re ready to start the song. We usually try to remind ourselves what we intend to do with each song. The arrangements are still evolving. Here’s how the track list came out:

Threads 083 / 47th St. Jam / Sept. 22, 2010

Greg / Edward / Dave / Clete

Sound Check
We Can Never Start
We Can Start
We Can Never Know
Lie Talk
Lies You Tell 1
Lies Start
List You Tell 2
Lily Talk
Lily Start
Lily 1
Only Talk
Only for a Moment 1
Only for a Moment 2
Delaware River 1
Delaware River 2
Just Talk
Just Not You
Parch Talk
Parched
What Talk
What Do You / Nothing That You Do
Sadie Talk
Sadie’s Shell
Speed It Up
Lily 2

Greg called me on Tuesday to say that this bass player he knows is ready to listen. He wanted to get good recordings both this week and next week, record each song twice, and then pick the best version of the 4 to send along to this guy. He said he’d give me the guy’s email at the session, which he did, and that this guy is close to a professional bass player. I think that with a good bass player we can really sound like a band.

On Monday, Sep. 20th, school went well – it went well all week. I had one of the most stress-free weeks of teaching I’ve had yet in the NYC DOE. I had been invited by Edwyna David to attend a theater workshop at the end of the day at the Minskoff Theater – that’s at 45th & Broadway where the Lion King has been playing for some time. I said I’d go because I usually agree to this sort of thing. It was gong to be her, me and Phyllis Correlli, excessed art teacher now helping E. David teach ESL. It was to run from 3:00 to 7:00. Phyllis would drive but Edwyna was at the courthouse doing jury duty. She ended up taking the train. I had to miss Katheryn [name]’s piano lesson for the first time I order to get down there as quickly as possible.

I rode with Phyllis across to the West Side Highway and we parked in a lot on 46th just off Broadway. The thing was taking place up the escalator on the 2nd floor of the theater / hotel. About 20 Broadway shows had people there at small tables ready to talk about the shows; some of them were offering discounts or contests where you could win tickets. Lombardi, which is about to open was one of those. There were some young girls there promoting it and so I got into it with them about how contact sports are brutal and have to go. I’ve made this argument for amusement at various times. They were good-humored about it and probably just thought that I was some eccentric old man.

Edwyna showed up and we all 3 made the rounds of all the tables. I went to a presentation on Behind the Emerald Curtain. This is a pseudo-show that purports to take you behinds the scenes of a Broadway production. It’s done by 2 guys, one of whom is now in Wicked and the other used to be in it. Evidently they use that show as the basis for their presentation, which can be done on Saturdays down here at some theater or they’ll bring it to a school for $27 / head if the group is 20 or more. It sounded interesting.

More interesting to me was the talk given by the guy who is the composer of a show that’s coming to Broadway based on Alice in Wonderland. It’s called Wonderland. Let’s see if I can find out this guy’s name. It was Frank something ….

No problem finding him. His name is Frank Wildhorn and he’s living a life close to what I would have chosen for myself. He said he had never had a music lesson and had picked up the keyboard when someone left an organ in his garage when he was a kid in Florida. From there he started bands – this must have been in the 70’s – and somehow ended up as a song writer in NY writing for Clive Davis and Sony and people like Whitney Houston and some boy bands. In other words, he got rich from writing songs and that is what I would have liked. He’s living some sort of dream life now, having got several big shows up on Broadway, including Jekyll & Hyde, which a woman there said that she had seen 9 times. There were about 40 people there to listen to him.

They were starting the six o’clock raffle as I walked back to the escalator but I didn’t hang around for it even though I had 2 raffle tickets in the pot. I’ve never had much interest in Broadway or the theater but I guess I have a reputation now as the guy who puts on our main performance show, the Poetry Café, as someone who is interested in that stuff. There was going to be another presentation or two but I wanted to get home and rest. So I walked to Penn Station and caught the 6:23.

8:25 p.m. Real Time – I just talked to Greg on the phone. He said that he ran into Clete today – Saturday. Greg has been wondering if Clete is really going to commit himself to the band – we’ve all been wondering. Today he seemed to be convinced that Clete is into the band and believes in the music. Clete said that he could get us a once-a-week gig whenever we want. He wants to rehearse a few more times and then do that but when Greg asked if he’d go out now, he said he would. Evidently Clete is connected to the music business somehow – he DJs at the very least. What else he does and where, we don’t know but he has drums. He even has a keyboard but it would be best for me to get one for myself so that I can learn to use it well. Greg suggested that I borrow $2000 from the union and get one and that is what I’ll do. (I’ve also get to get my hands on a guitar.)

Greg said that Edward has a problem with paying for Clete. That’s Edward. He’s straight up with money, a real businessman. But if Clete can get us into the music business and get our music out there, what is that worth? Is it worth the $13 a week or so that is his share of the rehearsal cost? I’m so happy to have a drummer that I’d just carry him as long as I have some money. Greg said that Clete may even have a rehearsal space that we could use for free. That would be great.

In any case, Greg said he had heard Lies You Tell and thought it sounded really good. I’ve just made some notes on Sadie’s Shell, which is almost 10 minutes long but never flags. The songs really came alive this week on my birthday. I was thinking earlier that I’m starting to feel like Van Gogh or Kafka – we’ve got this great stuff that no one has heard and it might be only after some future miracle that it is heard. I’m feeling that way about my novels, too, and after getting nearly to the end of Dragon Tattoo and realizing that Colors of the Past is far superior, I can only think that it’s all ordained. The music is starting to feel that way, too. I know the songs are good. There is no doubt in my mind about that. Now I think even that we may be the ones to put them over. We can sound very good now. We’ve come at least as far with this new Threads as the original Threads got. Maybe we’ve come further. Both groups started out unable to do anything and both evolved into good, live bands.

On Tuesday Sept. 21st I had scheduled Jaha [name] for a piano lesson. She’s a senior now and spent much of her 10th grade year in Africa, where she got very thin. She’s still much thinner than she was in the 9th grade. She’s Muslim but not as strict as she used to be. She isn’t covering her hair anymore. In fact, she came out at the graduation last year, now that I think of it. She was an usher and she showed up dressed very western, a surprise to all of us because she had been so conservative to that point. That’s a positive step normally although in the Bronx it can be dangerous to get too immersed in pop culture ….

Note: As for the songs rehearsed during that birthday session, an earlier demo version of Just Not You can be heard in chapter 73. A later rehearsal of Parched is in chapter 545. From this Sep. 22, 2010 date I’ll include We Can Never Know along with a bit of the chatter that came before it. I always thought this was one of the Threads’ best song. It’s done here with two guitars (Greg lead and Edward rhythm), drums (Clete) and me on keyboard / vocal. Greg joins on the bridge. I filled in the bass on the low end of the keyboard. Clete was the first drummer we encountered after the breakup of the Original Threads at the end of 2007. He lived on E. 1st St. not far from Greg’s E. 3rd St. place and Greg hooked up with somehow. We played music with him for about a year on 43rd St. and at a spot on E. 1st, a basement that he had access to. It was big enough to invite 20 or 30 people in for a sort of jam party, which we did on at least two occasions that I can recall now during that year. We had great fun playing with Clete because he had some real chops and truly loved music. No idea what happened to him but he was a good guy, too. About 40 years old at the time and a single dad. I wish him well.

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