It's inevitable perhaps, that thrilling highs be followed by dispiriting lows, and Full Coverage is the latter.
A couple of old favorites ("Stars in the Backyard" and "A Dying Man") did draw their first breaths here, so it's not without merit, but in terms of lost classics, it is fairly bereft. There is proof near the end of side B that I did really pen a song called "Robophobe," and it isn't bad, but I've since heard that portmanteau elsewhere, and it no longer brings a smile to my face.
Numerous attempts to wring a song out of the Gormenghast novels lead more or less nowhere, and even now, mere days after previewing this tape and taking notes, I cannot remember the melody of any of the titles I have written down.
2/12/2017
Reclamation Tape #11: Doing Stuff With Things (Belle's Lament)
This is more in line with that I was expecting to find on this journey. Forgotten gems, the hatchlings of soon-to-be classics, all nestled among interesting ephemera and noble, if doomed, efforts.
Really there's only one true keeper that slipped off the radar - that's "People Hurt Worse," which was once such a mainstay of the slate of tunes awaiting their studio moment that it even got played in a very rare open-mic performance! This was definitely performed at the Fire in Northern Liberties, and may have even been aired out in one, or both, of the only other two open-mic performances I can remember playing (one in Manyunk of all places, and the other in pseudo-Fishtown).
However, DSWT is filled with other top-shelf bric-a-brac - including not one, but two covers! The Gordon Lightfoot cover might not be so surprising, but the Heptones?! Yup, it really happened.
Really there's only one true keeper that slipped off the radar - that's "People Hurt Worse," which was once such a mainstay of the slate of tunes awaiting their studio moment that it even got played in a very rare open-mic performance! This was definitely performed at the Fire in Northern Liberties, and may have even been aired out in one, or both, of the only other two open-mic performances I can remember playing (one in Manyunk of all places, and the other in pseudo-Fishtown).
However, DSWT is filled with other top-shelf bric-a-brac - including not one, but two covers! The Gordon Lightfoot cover might not be so surprising, but the Heptones?! Yup, it really happened.
Reclamation Tape #10: Beyond Feedback (Boxes & Boxes of High-Quality Weed)
This tape is especially disappointing, lacking as it does in both salvageable ideas and tunes that have since gone on to join the Oxford Boy canon proper, with maybe one exception.
What it does have to redeem it somewhat is "All My Life," which I do half-suspect might be demoed somewhere else, but under a different name. To keep this tape from being a complete waste of time, though, let's mark the genesis of that particular song here. A poignant tune, it has one glaring flaw in a recurring augmented chord that completely throws the mood. This is easily remedied however, and we can guarantee Beyond Feedback at least a little of the eventual Oxford Boy glory.
What it does have to redeem it somewhat is "All My Life," which I do half-suspect might be demoed somewhere else, but under a different name. To keep this tape from being a complete waste of time, though, let's mark the genesis of that particular song here. A poignant tune, it has one glaring flaw in a recurring augmented chord that completely throws the mood. This is easily remedied however, and we can guarantee Beyond Feedback at least a little of the eventual Oxford Boy glory.
Reclamation Tape #9: Rueful Graffito (Stars Dig Deep)
Another tape whose authority is compromised by the fact that it ends on side B with about 20 minutes of blank space, Rueful Graffito is also hampered by the lack of a true standout.
There is, of course, yet another version of "DJ's Pity" - this one earning one check, so it may be worth working on - and a couple of B-listers in "After the Violence" and "Lump Sum."
But it must be said, I was relieved to run up against that vast amount of silence after so much uncharacteristic Oxford mediocrity.
There is, of course, yet another version of "DJ's Pity" - this one earning one check, so it may be worth working on - and a couple of B-listers in "After the Violence" and "Lump Sum."
But it must be said, I was relieved to run up against that vast amount of silence after so much uncharacteristic Oxford mediocrity.
Reclamation Tape #8: Cauterized Stretchmarks (Peripheral Daypart)
This tape may have very well followed the previous one in a temporal sense, as it contains some of the same snippets, only somewhat further developed. However, what the previous tape lacked in buried treasure, this one has more than its share, at least in terms of quality, if not quantity.
"One Less Lawyer" is the exact reason I decided to do this - in the hopes of finding a fully-formed song of exceptional quality that had completely fallen off the radar. The inspiration can be traced to Doylestown, PA, the seat of Bucks county, though the incident itself is shrouded in either mystery or opaque banality.
Nevertheless, and allowing for the fact that it is a slow song with a nearly catatonic tempo, it's a vivid tale of karmic readjustment whose antagonist's sufferings are observed from a comfortable third-person vantage.
Other possible re-invesitagtees include "The Runaway" and my brutal takedown of Thomas Kinkade, aka the "Painter of Light." His eventual death revealed him as a pill-popping boozer, which made me respect him much more than his ghastly paintings, so I'm less inclined to pursue that particular tune.
Also, yet another version of "The DJ's Pity."
"One Less Lawyer" is the exact reason I decided to do this - in the hopes of finding a fully-formed song of exceptional quality that had completely fallen off the radar. The inspiration can be traced to Doylestown, PA, the seat of Bucks county, though the incident itself is shrouded in either mystery or opaque banality.
Nevertheless, and allowing for the fact that it is a slow song with a nearly catatonic tempo, it's a vivid tale of karmic readjustment whose antagonist's sufferings are observed from a comfortable third-person vantage.
Other possible re-invesitagtees include "The Runaway" and my brutal takedown of Thomas Kinkade, aka the "Painter of Light." His eventual death revealed him as a pill-popping boozer, which made me respect him much more than his ghastly paintings, so I'm less inclined to pursue that particular tune.
Also, yet another version of "The DJ's Pity."
Reclamation Tape #7: Of the Hump (Rusty Bidet)
Public domain poetry has often been the source of lyrical inspiration when mine own has run dry, and this tape has more than its share of dead poets represented.
But, since the purpose of this project is to find forgotten and unrecorded songs, this tape must be seen as a lost cause, regardless of the many gems it inspired (most notably, the timeless "Talking Dog" - which did NOT rely on some fusty Victorian for its lyrical brilliance).
"The DJ's Pity" manifests itself here in numerous versions - not all bad, but of such an overwhelming variety that the very fecundity of the idea may be its own undoing, as I have no stomach for sorting through all the many variations.
Reclamation Tape #6: Straight in the Desert (Green Was My Aftershave)
This tape returns us to the era I'd most wanted to re-investigate, and the rewards are for real.
It doesn't really get going until side two, but once there, we discover the epic "Story of Some Dead Guy," composed around the time of my enrollment in the songwriting course that I shamefully dominated while attending Temple U. This song alone is worth the entire tape.
The indefatigable "Norman's New Pain" first appears here, too, to be picked up in a later tape, and which refuses to accept its initial designation as O'boy offal. I'm still not convinced it warrants a new version, but it makes an enthusiastic case for itself.
It doesn't really get going until side two, but once there, we discover the epic "Story of Some Dead Guy," composed around the time of my enrollment in the songwriting course that I shamefully dominated while attending Temple U. This song alone is worth the entire tape.
The indefatigable "Norman's New Pain" first appears here, too, to be picked up in a later tape, and which refuses to accept its initial designation as O'boy offal. I'm still not convinced it warrants a new version, but it makes an enthusiastic case for itself.
Reclamation Tape #5: Dragoneering (Painless Surgery)
If ever this project was going to go completely off the rails, it would've been here. Dragoneering offers only "Out of the Loop" for further review, while numbing my ears with waves of electric buzz caused by some technical glitch somewhere in the ether.
Hard to listen to, but it does introduce an element of surprise (the pun here will be obvious to serious O'boy/Chuck Zak devotees) by complicating my songwriting timeline: some songs I had guessed were from earlier in my career actually seem to bump up against others that I had tagged mentally as coming from one of my many, later phoenix-like resurgences into artistic viability.
At any rate, this tape seems to come from an earlier, largely infertile period, a supposition confirmed by its dearth of good tunes.
Hard to listen to, but it does introduce an element of surprise (the pun here will be obvious to serious O'boy/Chuck Zak devotees) by complicating my songwriting timeline: some songs I had guessed were from earlier in my career actually seem to bump up against others that I had tagged mentally as coming from one of my many, later phoenix-like resurgences into artistic viability.
At any rate, this tape seems to come from an earlier, largely infertile period, a supposition confirmed by its dearth of good tunes.
Reclamation Tape #4: Hapless Bid (Stag Motor)
The project threatens to enter a deep rut here, with another tape that offers no gems worth further versioning.
My Iraq War triptych is here, though, so it's not as if Hapless Bid is of no interest historically. There is a large amount of blank tape on side two, however, which complicates the idea that this is a complete tape. While the lawyers work out the details of where this tape belongs in the library (possibly destined for a bottom drawer marked "lacunae"), we can safely move on to the next candidate.
My Iraq War triptych is here, though, so it's not as if Hapless Bid is of no interest historically. There is a large amount of blank tape on side two, however, which complicates the idea that this is a complete tape. While the lawyers work out the details of where this tape belongs in the library (possibly destined for a bottom drawer marked "lacunae"), we can safely move on to the next candidate.
Reclamation Tape #3: Escarole! (Impersonal Correspondence)
This tape represents the more challenging aspects of this project, as its yield of quality unrecorded tunes was far lower than the previous tape.
Judy's lyrics dominate the worthiest bits here, many of which still await a proper demoing, but which are already accounted for in my list of "to do" songs. There are a couple of ideas here which did make it to the big leagues, poem-based songs from the likes of Lord Byron and at least one stone classic of O'Boy neo-Merseybeat genius ("Before & After"). Sadly, no takeaways for this project, though.
Judy's lyrics dominate the worthiest bits here, many of which still await a proper demoing, but which are already accounted for in my list of "to do" songs. There are a couple of ideas here which did make it to the big leagues, poem-based songs from the likes of Lord Byron and at least one stone classic of O'Boy neo-Merseybeat genius ("Before & After"). Sadly, no takeaways for this project, though.
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