an insult to the beatles' legacy

 It's been a couple days since the release of "Now and Then," the Beatles' latest last song ever. Judging by what I am seeing on the intertubes, most people -- or at least most of the people who are stating their opinions -- love it. To be sure, there are some naysayers, but it appears that they are in the minority.

And I share that minority opinion.

I think the following may be helpful in case anyone wants context to help decide how seriously to take my opinion. First, I have to acknowledge the Beatles' greatness -- as among the most successful and influential bands in rock history. That said, they are not among my favorite bands, though I do love a lot of their music. I have a general familiarity with their body of work, though I don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of it.

It may also be helpful to briefly review the history of the song -- in case there's anyone who's reading this and doesn't know the history. Thirty or so years ago, when preparations were being made for the Anthology albums, the three then-surviving Beatles took rough demos that John Lennon had been working on when he died, cleaned them up, added their own touches and created two fully-produced records. The results, "Free As a Bird" and "Real Love" were released on Anthology 1 and Anthology 2. A third song, "Now and Then," wasn't completed at the time. The official reason is that the tape was in too poor condition to be usable. But now, with improved technology, they could isolate and clean up Lennon's vocals. So, in 2023, it has been revived and "completed" for inclusion on a rerelease of the old 1967-1970 compilation.

The biggest problem with "Now and Then" is that it doesn't really feel like a complete song. It's seems that John had an idea for a song and was playing around with it, but never really finished writing it. And whatever lyrics Paul added don't really flesh it out enough to make it feel finished. So, in the studio, the went and added all sorts of layered arrangements and strings onto this fragment. But there's no catchy hook or anything to grab the listener's attention. It's just a whiny little idea that never got completed. And the overdone arrangement doesn't even really sound like a Beatles song. I wasn't crazy about "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love," but they always sounded like they were legitimate Beatles songs.

And this makes me wonder why so my people love "Now and Then." I do realize that taste is an individual matter, and some people can like something that I don't. But I think there's something more at work here. There are a lot of people who are emotionally invested in the idea that the record is great -- a gift to Beatles fans who reasonably thought that there would never again be new material from the band. They want to love this. And so they do.

But I'm saddened by the whole thing. This is an insult to The Beatles' legacy.

happy tunesday! jackpot (the marc whinston project)

 

Continuing with the tracks from my album, track number eight is "Jackpot."

For reference, previous entries in this series were:

• about the album as a whole;
• about track 1;
• about track 2;
• about track 3;
• about track 4;
• about track 5;
• about track 6;
• about track 7;

In an album with lots of songs whose themes are variations of "please love me as much as I love you," this isa bit of a departure. It's pure appreciation of love without any expression of fear or doubt. I wrote it for Blair over the course of several years, more than fifteen years ago. I remember many drives between New York and Boston -- Blair's friend, Tall Judy, was still living there -- in which I passed the miles writing this in my head.

Blair didn't like the first iteration, as its message was a little off. I don't remember the lyrics anymore, but I do recall that the message could largely be summed up as "you help me to be a winner; you are my lucky charm." Her criticisms made sense -- the message was not as I had intended. I rewrote it to convey the message that "I am a winner as long as I have you; you are my prize." Neither of those paraphrases is entirely accurate, but they get at the idea. I liked the revised version better. Interestingly, that rewrite is something that likely wouldn't happen today. These days, my songs often get away from me and convey messages that I hadn't intended. But if I like the way a song sounds, I'll keep it even if it doesn;t say what I originally set out to say.

This is not the best-written of my songs, and its structure is a bit odd -- VCVCVBC. But I like it, and that's what matters.

Enjoy.

"Jackpot"
Song by: Marc Whinston
Lead vocal by Toby Wilson
All instruments and backing vocals by Toby Wilson
Arranged and Produced by Toby Wilson for Tobias Wilson Music, Ltd.

happy tunesday! changing rainbows (the marc whinston project)

  

Continuing with the tracks from my album, track number seven is "Changing Rainbows."

For reference, previous entries in this series were:

• about the album as a whole;
• about track 1;
• about track 2;
• about track 3;
• about track 4;
• about track 5;
• about track 6;

This song was actually my third attempt to use the title for a song. I don't remember the context, but I heard the phrase "changing rainbows" when I was in high school, and thought it would make a good song title.

My first try was a self-conscious attempt at a rewrite of Paul Simon's "59th Street Bridge Song" (often incorrectly referred to as "Feelin' Groovy." It was pretty awful. I won't cite the lyrics, though I do recall the entire first verse.

The second try was a bit better (low bar). Or, I should say it showed more promise since I never finished it. It was written from the perspective of a man asking a woman for a relationship. It kind of created the metaphor of relationships as rainbows. "You're always changing rainbows. / That's how it seems to be. / So try out the rainbow / That's me." It could have worked, though I am glad I never finished it. The album have plenty of songs that are based on a variation of "please love me (or care about me) as much as I love (or care about) you." It's good to have a different subject.

This, the third try, was just about relaxing with the rain. I have fond memories of rainy days at summer camp, where there wasn't much to do but hang out on the bunk's covered porch and watch the rain. As an adult, one of the things I wish my house had is a covered porch. When it's raining, I think about how nice it would be to just hang out on that porch and read.

This was the first recording that Toby Wilson made for me. I emailed him a lyric sheet with a message that we should talk. He naturally assumed that I needed a melody, and emailed back with some thoughts. So I had to clear up that I had a melody and just needed his services to record. If I had it to do again, I might have gone for a little more twangy guitar instead of the mandolin. But I still love the way it came out.

Enjoy.

"Changing Rainbows"
Song by: Marc Whinston
Lead vocal by Toby Wilson
All instruments and backing vocals by Toby Wilson
Arranged and Produced by Toby Wilson for Tobias Wilson Music, Ltd.

happy tunesday! do you think of me now and again (the marc whinston project)

 

Continuing with the tracks from my album, Track number six is "Do You Think of Me (Now and Again)"

For reference, previous entries in this series were:

• about the album as a whole;
• about track 1;
• about track 2;
• about track 3;
• about track 4;
• about track 5;

Years ago -- I'm gonna guess about fifteen years ago -- I was working late. Waiting for some information from my interlocutor at another company, I started going through piles of paper -- fighting excess paper is a never-ending struggle for me. I came across a picture of someone I had once been close to. She represented a chapter of my life that had closed. It brought back a lot of memories. Some happy. Some -- not so. Overcome with curiosity, I turned to the internet and Googled her name.

A song idea hit me. And I quickly thought of some lyrics:

Do you Google me now and again

Do your fingers hit the keyboard when

Something frees your memories

Do you Google me now and again.

Often I come up with a bit of lyrics or a song idea, I struggle to take it anywhere. In this case, I played with lyrics, coming up with a lot of lines that related a dead romance to the internet and social media. Nothing felt right. And at some point I decided to drop the internet angle in favor of the chorus that I have now:

Do you think of me now and again

Do feelings come flooding back when

Something frees your memories

Do you think of me now and again.

And still I struggled to take it anywhere. I came up with a bridge, but that was it.

At some point I started writing a story song, describing a breakup. But it was too long -- fifteen or so verses describing, in agonizing detail, an old relationship.* That was about the time that I was slowly figuring out the value of brevity in a song. Leave out some details and let the listener use his or her imagination. But I was still struggling to come up with a khop.

One morning, riding the subway to work and listening to music, I got to Billy Ray Cyrus' "Words by Heart" and realized that I was mining the same subject matter -- or similar subject matter at least. And that was when verses started coming to me. I made some progress, but still was uncertain of what we had. I approached a friend, Scott Milner to see if he would work with me on completing it. And he did advance the whole thing a bit. If I recall correctly, he came up with the passage, "Just a funny mood or a time of day / Like wanting a smoke, can't seem to put it away."

I don't remember the exact sequence of events, but I remember spending time with him in a studio in Hamilton Montana (near where he was living at the time), and we eventually had two similar demos. The lyrics were slightly different, and they were in different keys. They were slower than I liked -- Scott and I have different sensibilities. But I thought we had a good song.

A few years later, Eric Goulden (AKA Wreckless Eric) and Amy Rigby were running a kickstarter to fund their next album (which would become A Working Museum), they offered as an incentive, to record a song with a donor. I misunderstood them. That incentive was aimed at working musicians who wanted someone to produce for them. I thought they were offering to record a cover of a song -- for a fan who wanted to hear them perform, say, "House of the Rising Sun." Though they hadn't intended to offer what I thought they had, they were gracious and agreed to record one of the songs I wrote (or cowrote). For some reason I decided on this song that Scott and I had written -- probably because I wanted something faster.

When it came to recording, though, they identified a few things they didn't like about the song. They changed some of the lyrics here and there. I think that their changes were improvements -- for the most part, anyway. But the biggest change they made was the melody for the bridge. What I had written was barely different than the verses. They came up with something very different. And really good. I asked Eric if he and Amy wanted songwriting credits. He answered in the affirmative. And so, I have now co-authored a song with one of my musical idols from my high school years.** For reference, here's a lyric video I made of Eric and Amy's version.

Dig that bass...I'll admit I like their version better than the one on the album I put out. But I don't own the commercial rights to their recording.

Anyway, when it came to recording this, I don't think Toby got the vocals quite right, so I asked him to give Tim Patterson a go at it.

"Do You Think of Me (Now and Again)"
Song by: Marc Whinston, Eric Goulden, Scott C. Milner and Amy Rigby
Lead vocal by Tim Patterson
All instruments and backing vocals by Toby Wilson
Arranged and Produced by Toby Wilson for Tobias Wilson Music, Ltd.

________________________________________________________

*Not that you're asking, but it was fictionalized, with the narrative driven more by a need for rhymes than by actual memories.

**I still have vivid memories of teen youth group trips, playing Wreckless Eric songs on my boombox. His gravelly voice and strong accent elicited puzzlement from my friends, but I loved his music and didn't care that my friends didn't think it was cool. A few years earlier (and a couple thousand miles farther East) and they would have loved him.

happy tunesday! midnight has come and gone (the marc whinston project)

  

Continuing with the tracks from my album, Track number five is "Midnight Has Come and Gone."

For reference, previous entries in this series were:

• about the album as a whole;
• about track 1;
• about track 2;
• about track 3;
• about track 4;

Decades ago I spent several summers at Orthodox Jewish sleepaway camps. There, I got to hear a lot of Israeli pop songs from the era. One song that stuck with me was* "K'var Acharei Chatzot" (which means "It's Already After Midnight") a 1968 record by Ilanit. For reference, I'm including a video of Ilanit singing it.

And that was the inspiration for "Midnight Has Come and Gone." The influence is obvious. My title is close to a translation of Ilanit's. and both songs include pleas for another moment. There are certain structural similarities as well -- notably, in both songs the title is the first line of each verse. But Ilanit's song has a certain hopeful quality to it. In my song, the protagonist sounds desperate. I never really figured out the backstory, but it feels that there's some kind of forbidden affair. The line, "Tomorrow is another day and I don't want to go back to pretend," says something about what's going on. Is someone cheating on a spouse? Are two coworkers sneaking around? I honestly don't know.

"Midnight has Come and Gone"
Song by: Marc Whinston
Lead vocal by Toby Wilson
All instruments and backing vocals by Toby Wilson
Arranged and Produced by Toby Wilson for Tobias Wilson Music, Ltd.

________________________________________________________

*For ease, I will translate or trasliterate Hebrew names and titles and render them in English -- isntead of writing them in Hebrew.

happy tunesday! bleed me a river (the marc whinston project)

 

Continuing with the tracks from my album, Track number four is "Bleed Me a River."

For reference, previous entries in this series were:

• about the album as a whole;
• about track 1;
• about track 2;
• about track 3;

I don't actually remember where the idea came from. But I do remember walking around the Tucson Botanical Garden with an early version of this in my head. I was trying to write a Western song, thinking about such fare as "Run the Ridges," (by John Stewart) I wanted to wrote a song that told a story about the old West. I don't really remember a lot of those original lyrics. Which is probably just as well.

That was more than ten years ago.

Particularly helpful was the realization that a story song doesn't have to tell the whole story. It can allude to elements without spelling them out. And I think that this strikes a reasonable balance between elements that are spelled out explicitly and those that aren't.

As of a year ago, I was still struggling with some of the lyrics to this, but Keith and Christina Crocker brainstormed with me and helped me get the rest filled in.

I originally wrote this in a major key, but when I approached Toby he suggested that a minor key would work better. He was right.

Tom Patterson's vocals were, I think, perfect for this. I asked Toby if he could find someone who sounded like Kris Kristofferson or Johnny Cash. This was more like Country Dick Montana, which is even better.

Enjoy.

"Bleed Me a River"
Song by: Marc Whinston, Christina Zuber Crocker, and Keith J. Crocker
Lead vocal by Tim Patterson
All instruments and backing vocals by Toby Wilson
Arranged and Produced by Toby Wilson for Tobias Wilson Music, Ltd.

happy tunesday! write a song about me (the marc whinston project)

Continuing with the tracks from my album, Track number three is "Write a Song About Me."

For reference, previous entries in this series were:

• about the album as a whole;
• about track 1;
• about track 2;

In 2012 we were taking a family road trip to California. We stopped at GameStop in Nebraska to buy the kids some more entertainment. The place was staffed by some college kids who seemed kind of bored. As we waited in line to pay, I couldn't help but overhear some of their conversation. One of them complained that he didn't know what to write about for his English paper. "Write about me," replied the young lady who was working with him (and who seemed to be attracted to him), "I like when people write about me." And an idea was born.

The song itself has kind of an odd structure. There's no bridge, and it's V-C-V-C. And the two choruses aren't even the same. I'm not 100% sure why I wrote it that way. It was at least partly due to the fact that I wrote two different choruses, and I liked them both enough that I didn't want to discard either one.

When I wrote this, I was imagining it as being sung by a woman. I think it's the only song I ever wrote with a woman's voice in my mind. Toby, with his array of contacts, had no problem finding a suitable female vocalist. But when he sent me an mp3 with his vocal (which would serve as a guide for the hired female vocalist), I started to have second thoughts about whether it needed a female vocal. But I decided to stick with my vision and go for the female vocal. But then, when I heard Bryony's version I had another idea. I asked Toby if we could experiment and create a duet, seeing as we had a version with his vocal and one with Bryony's. All I had to do was decide which parts would be sung by the man, which by the woman, and which by both. It worked way better than I had hoped.

When I was first sequencing the album, I put this track first because it's one of my favorites and because it's probably the most upbeat song on the disc. But a Eytan Mirsky suggested I move it so as not to open with a duet. Don't use all your powder right away. That made sense, so I moved it to the third spot.

I also included the female-only and male-only versions of the song as bonus (never-before released!) tracks at the end of the album. There were many personal jokes that I was tempted to throw into the project -- fake names in the "special thanks" section...stuff like that. But I decided to treat this project seriously, and so left out all the jokes. Well, almost all the jokes. I did include the four "bonus" tracks at the end, packaging everything to look as if this was a rerelease of an earlier album. Just a small joke. I couldn't resist. Three of those tracks are alternate versions of tracks on the album.

Enjoy.

"Write a Song About Me"
Song by: Marc Whinston
Lead vocal by Toby Wilson and Bryony Ward
All instruments and backing vocals by Toby Wilson
Arranged and Produced by Toby Wilson for Tobias Wilson Music, Ltd.

happy tunesday! un-grand canyon (the marc whinston project)

 

Continuing with the tracks from my album, Track number two is "Un-Grand Canyon," written by Christina Zuber Crocker and me.

For reference, I wrote about the album as a whole here and about track 1 here.

"Un-Grand Canyon" is unique among the songs on the album in two different, but related, ways. The first is that it represents the first time that I wrote a melody for someone else's lyrics. Back when I was in high school, and starting to write songs, I was really only writing lyrics. On the few occasions that a melody got attached to my lyrics, it was because I brought them to a friend and asked for a melody. So, as a personal matter, there was pride in finding myself on the other side. The other is that it's the only song on the album which wasn't really my concept. While I, as the composer of the melody, share the songwriting credit, the fact is that this is Christina's baby. The other songs that include co-writers were my babies. I had the ideas and wrote them mostly by myself. My co-authors contributed words or music, and are therefore credited. But, again, this track is really Christina's song. My only contribution to the lyrics was as an editor. As I discuss below, Christina wrote a poem, and I did some editing to try to shoehorn her words into a song-like format. I note that this is the only track on which the credits list my co-author first -- again, because this one is really my-co-author's conception.

So how did it all come about? Early on in the process of  assembling recordings for the album, Christina asked me if I'd be interested in setting any of her poems to music. I said I'd try, but made no promises. Christina shared two lyrics with me, this being one of them. Christina's poems are very different than my songs, which in and of itself increases the variety on the album. "Un-Grand Canyon" is kind of an elegy for New York City, Christina's observations on a city which may have passed its peak. The other lyric she gave me, which I did not work with yet*, is about riding the subway. It's not quite as negative, but there's still a bit of a jaded tone to it.

Christina's lyrics are dense with clever cultural references:

Midnight Cowboy's been fired.
Tiffany's breakfast seems tired.
Woody's been shamed.
Hamilton's no Mame.

This is stuff I could not not have written -- I wish I could have, but that's just not a style that I can do. But I could edit it. Above, I mentioned that Christina gave me poems. I wanted to edit this down into a song without changing the tone -- and I think I succeeded if I do say so myself. Of course, maybe I didn't do as good a job as I think; if you write out the lyrics, you'll see that the scansion is wildly inconsistent. The fact that this worked as well as it did -- and I have heard from a few people that this is the best track on the record** -- is a testament to the skills of Toby Wilson (who arranged and played on the track) and Eytan Mirsky (who generously provided the lead vocal). FWIW, you can hear (and purchase) Eytan's music from (among other places) Bandcamp.

I was still working on this late last summer when most (all? I'm not sure) of the rest of the album had been recorded. Christina and I liked the arrangement that Toby came up with (actually, the second or third, but who's counting), but didn't think his vocal did the song justice. We wanted a singer who sounded like a New Yorker and who could capture the world-weariness necessary for this song. Eytan Mirsky*** agreed to give it a go, and the result was pure magic. As I noted above, this must have been a real challenge because of the odd scansion. I was a bit nervous about how it would come out, but I am really pleased with the results.

"Un-Grand Canyon"
Song by: Christina Zuber Crocker and Marc Whinston

Lead vocal by Eytan Mirsky

All instruments and backing vocals by Toby Wilson

Arranged and Produced by Toby Wilson for Tobias Wilson Music, Ltd.

_________________________________________________

*maybe next album?

** I don't think it is (sorry, Christina), but I'm biased.
***A little bit of background is in order. Eytan is a New York-based singer-songwriter who has achieved some measure of success writing songs for several indie films such as Happiness, American Splendor, and The Tao of Steve. I've been something of a fan since I first heard his music in the 1990's -- I just love "I Just Wanna Be Your Steve McQueen." I ran into him on the subway about 2½ years ago. My son, Ethan, was embarrassed when we were waiting for a train and I suddenly approached what looked like a random stranger and said "Excuse me sir, are you Eytan Mirsky?" I think Eytan got a kick out of being recognized. We've been friends since.

happy tunesday! music no one else can hear (the marc whinston project)

 

As threatened, I am devoting a series of Tunesday posts to the songs on my album. Today is the first track, the title track, "Music No One Else Can Hear." If you don't want to hear lots of detail about how the song came to be, feel free to listen to it anyway.

The song has its roots back when I was in high school. At the time I was writing a lot of songs.* They all pretty much sucked. Most of them are long-forgotten, though I remember some titles and some passages. I have no memory of the actual song I wrote back then -- or even if I wrote one or not. But I remember the inspiration. I was hanging out at Tony's**. Actually, I was sitting on the roof of the car parked outside of Tony's. A friend, Melinda, borrowed my walkman.*** She started listening. And then she started dancing. After maybe a minute of that, she gave it back. With a slightly self-conscious laugh she said something about how she'd better stop because she's dancing to music no one else can hear. I don't remember the exact words, but that final phrase struck me as a great song title. And that's how most of my songs began back then -- with a phrase that I thought was catchy. Come to think of it, that's still how I do it a lot of the time. As I noted above, I really don't recall whether I wrote a song to the title back then.

The first version I remember anything about dates back to my grad school days. And it happens to be a pretty direct ancestor of the current song. As my first year at the University of Michigan approached its end, I started dating someone named Anne. But I went home to New York for the summer, while she spent her summer in Detroit. And, while we were apart, I wrote her a song.

I'm not entirely sure how it came together -- whether I decided to write her a song, or whether it came to me. Sitting with my guitar, I started writing to the tune of Air Supply's "All Out of Love." Air Supply's song begins:

I'm lying alone
With my head on the phone
Thinking of you 'til it hurts.
I know you hurt too
But what else can we do,
Tormented and torn apart?

I wrote:

I'm lying in bed
With you in my head
Wondering where you are now.
Tell me, can it be?
Are you thinking of me,
Even though I'm not around?

And that was my first verse. I continued with a chorus, At this point I kind of made up a melody as I went along. If I recall correctly, this was the first time I attempted writing my own melody.

Your song is with me, wherever I am,
Even when you're not here.
And all around me there's music,
Music No One Else Can Hear.

I wrote more, but I don't remember any of it. I played the song for Anne when we saw each other again at the end of the summer. I remember sitting on my bed, with my guitar, my leg shaking with nerves because I had never before played a song I wrote -- much less for the girl I had written it for. I don't know -- I'll never know -- if Anne liked the song, but she appreciated the effort.

There have, over the years, been many iterations of the song. One of them even ended up on an album by The Milner Brothers  - a result of my playing it for Scott Milner on a camping trip. The current version is in the video above. The first verse is, almost word for word, the first verse and chorus that I sang for Anne almost 35 years ago.

And it's the title track of the album for no better reason than the fact that I think it's a great title for an album.

"Music No One Else Can Hear"
Song by: Marc Whinston
Lead vocal by Toby Wilson
All instruments and backing vocals by Toby Wilson
Arranged and Produced by Toby Wilson for Tobias Wilson Music, Ltd.

________________________________________

*More accurately, I was writing lyrics. I still didn't feel that I could set anything to music.

**Tony's Luncheonette, a small hangout spot next door to the school.

***Unimportant detail: in the walkman was a copy of the Dave Edmunds album, D.E.7th

music no one else can hear: the album

It's out. It's finally out.

Several social media friends have asked questions about my new album, Music No One Else Can Hear. Rather than answer everyone individually, I've decided to cop out and write this as a blog post.

Before I go into the background and describe what this album is, let me say what it isn't. This is not an album of me singing or performing. I am not a good guitarist, and as a singer? Well, as a singer I make a good guitarist. On 17 tracks, only one includes my performing in any way; I play guitar on one track, and that's labelled as a "bedroom demo." That's why this is not branded as a "Marc Whinston" album. Rather, it's by "The Marc Whinston Project."

So having said that, I turn back to the question of what this album is. It's a showcase of my songs -- songs that I wrote (or, in four cases, co-wrote).

Anyone who knows me well knows that I write songs. It's a hobby. I've done it for a long time.* I get kind of frustrated because I'm not a good musician or singer, but I have written a few good tunes (if I do say so myself -- and I do) which I want to put out there into the world. Not that I expect to gain fame or fortune through my songs. I'm too realistic for that. But still, I just want to share my artistic endeavors.

A few years ago I had the idea of recording an album. My original idea was to take my songs into the studio and, with hired musicians, record. Maybe I'd play some guitar on it. That didn't really work out well -- primarily because I don't sing well. The next idea was to see if I could recruit bands or musicians to record my songs for an album which I would put out. I know a few musicians. And they know other musicians. Going through the list in my head, I concluded that I could probably recruit enough of them to record for me. I loved the idea of curating an album of various musicians and bands recording versions of my songs. I fantasized about titling it "Songs in the Key of Moish**" and branding it as a tribute album to me. Somehow*** the idea morphed from a various artists type of presentation to a more coherent consistent sound.

I ended up working with Toby Wilson, a freelance musician and producer in England who seemed to have a good feel for what I was getting at. In the end, he recorded almost the whole album. For a variety of reasons, a few tracks have other vocalists -- Bryony Ward, Helen Walford and Tim Patterson (all of whom Toby found) and Eytan Mirsky (a New York based singer-songwriter I know, who graciously agreed to lend his vocals to two tracks). And an old friend from grad school, Joseph Discenza, makes a brief appearance doing a voiceover. And there's one rough track, the aforementioned "bedroom demo" that I recorded with a friend in his apartment in San Francisco over ten years ago.

It took a little more than two years from when I first contacted Toby until the album's official release yesterday -- April 1, 2023. Appropriately, I picked April Fools Day. The main reason it took so long is that I didn't want to just send Toby a lot of songs with instructions to record them. I started with one. Liking what he did with it, I sent him another. In order to make it last -- to savor the process -- I disciplined myself. One track a month. On the fifteenth I would send him a lyric sheet and a link to an unlisted Youtube video of me singing a song and playing it on guitar. 

Pacing it out like that proved to be a good thing in many ways. When I started, I had a bunch of completed songs. But I found that I was still writing. So, if I had hurried it and just sent him a bunch of songs all at once, then some of the songs that are on the album would not have come about. Without naming specifics, that includes two of my favorites.

In the coming weeks I plan to write a series of posts about the songs on the album. My plan is to post them on Tuesdays as part of my semi-regular "Tunesday" series. I will go into more detail there, but I want to thank my co-writers here: Christina Zuber Crocker, Keith J. Crocker, Eric Goulden (AKA, Wreckless Eric), Scott C. Milner and Amy Rigby.

You can listen to these recordings on Spotify, Pandora, Youtube and other streaming services. Just search for "The Marc Whinston Project." I hope you enjoy and add these songs to your playlists. 

_____________________________________________

*It's tempting to try talking about how long, but that discussion would be too long and too tangential. So, for now, I won't go into it.

**Moish being a nickname of mine. Some of my oldest friends still call me "Moish."

*** I write that as if I have no idea how it morphed. I actually know very well how and why. But that story is tangential for this post.

happy tunesday! the titanic song (chet atkins)

 I hadn't thought about this recording in a while, but it started playing while I was working today.

I am fascinated by songs that sound really cheery while covering really sad or unpleasant topics. And this is a perfect example. Listen to the happy vocals and harmonies, all in service or retelling the story of the Titanic. I particularly like the understatement of the line, "it was sad when that great ship went down."

Enjoy!

tunesday! (give me a sign)

 

Eytan Mirsky's father passed away in December.

Soon after, Eytan wrote this heartfelt tribute.

RIP, Shmiel Gross.

wilko johnson -- r.i.p.

I don't generally make a habit of eulogizing celebrities in this blog, so it can be hard to recognize when I really need to do it.

But when a celebrity mattered enough to me that I named my cat after him -- well, that's a strong indicator. My cat Wilko is blissfully unaware that her namesake, Wilko Johnson, has passed away.

I remember when Wilko (the Johnson, not the cat) was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. It was about ten years ago, and everyone thought his death was imminent. I remember talking to Wreckless Eric about it, and saying that I should write him a letter telling him how much his music meant to me. Eric thought it was a good idea, but I never followed through. I should have.

In the event, Wilko lasted an unexpected decade or so -- apparently he had a rare nonaggressive form of pancreatic his disease. So in that time he wrote a memoir, performed and recorded what was arguably the best music of his career.

But that's not really where I want to focus.

I became aware of Wilko because of  Dr. Feelgood, the band that shot him to prominence. In England, anyway. Fickle fate never really accorded Wilko much fame in the US. But I'll ignore that. Dr. Feelgood was (technically, still is) a British R&B band, and Wilko was their original guitarist. I bought Dr. Feelgood's first album, Down by the Jetty, at a used record store in Manhattan. This was at a time that I was first getting really interested in rock music, and had taken an interest in the British pub rock movement of the mid 1970s. I saw Dr. F's name mentioned in the liner notes on a Ducks Deluxe album. Back then, that was all that was necessary to get me to try a band. I loved the gritty quality. In some ways they were like Ducks Deluxe, who had become my favorite band -- my rock and roll ground zero if you will. But they were different. In some ways they were more disciplined. Crisper. I have heard them described as being like the early Rolling Stones, or the George Thorogood, or The Blues Brothers band. 

Dr. Feelgood was, at the time, organized around an axis of two charismatic frontmen -- Wilko Johnson and Lee Brilleaux. The two of them shared vocal duties. Instrumentally, Brilleaux played harmonica. He also played occasional slide guitar. But Wilko was the band's primary guitarist. He had developed an unusual playing style. It was very choppy, but he would play rhythm and lead at the same time -- in effect sounding like two guitarists.

Dr. Feelgood quickly became one of my favorite bands -- in no small part because of Wilko. He was writing the bulk of their original material.

Sadly, Wilko's role in Dr. Feelgood ended in 1977. He left the group while they were recording their fourth album (including one live effort). It has never been clear to me whether he quit or the rest of the guys kicked him out. The catalyst was a dispute over what songs to include, but of course that couldn't be the entire story. I think I saw in a documentary that the pressure of writing songs for the group was getting to Wilko. One can speculate about other causes, but the bottom line is that Wilko was out of the group.

There was a possibility of a reconciliation, but that was not to be, as Wilko explained.

At any rate, the band replaced Wilko and soldiered on. In fact, an iteration of the band is still around today, having released a new album earlier this month. But, by the end of 1982 Lee Brilleaux was the only original member left. And he died in 1994. I think Gypie Mayo, the guitarist who replaced Wilko, was technically a better musician. And the group was still great. But they lost Wilko's distinctive sound, and I think that was a huge loss.

Wilko continued with other bands -- as frontman for the Solid Senders, as a member of Ian Dury's Blockheads. And he recorded a bunch of solo albums. My favorite among them was Ice on the Motorway. I remember first coming across it in a record store. These were the days before the world wide web, and it was hard to keep track of who had albums coming out -- especially when we were talking about British acts whose albums weren't being released in the US.

I never did get to see Wilko (or Dr. Feelgood, for that matter) in concert. That's a function of my age and the fact that I live in the US, as opposed to Europe. But I have spent many hours listening to the music Wilko made -- through all the various incarnations of his career. And I am thankful that I knew his music.

headquartered to death

This post is about the Monkees' third album, Headquarters.

Decades ago, when I was first buying records, I bought a used copy of the album on vinyl.

When Arista released it on CD, I bought a copy.

When Rhino rereleased it on CD with a few bonus tracks, I bought a copy.

When Rhino released a two-disc deluxe edition, I bought a copy.

When Rhino released a three-disc collection (focusing on studio outtakes) titled The Headquarters Sessions.

When Rhino released a two-disc deluxe edition, I bought a copy.

When Rhino released a three-disc super deluxe edition, I bought a copy.

Now Rhino is releasing a four-disc super deluxe edition.

Rhino can go fuck itself.

happy tunesday! i don't want to go to toronto

Fans of Dr. Demento (yes, invoking that name definitely dates me) are likely familiar with "Bulbous Bouffant," a little verbal sketch by The Vestibules that has gotten a lot of play on his show. "BB" has also been featured on at least one Demento-branded compilation.

We were talking about it and I wondered what else The Vestibules did. And I found this little gem, "I Don't Want to Go to Toronto." And I love it, so I figured I'd share it here.

I do note that I listened to some other stuff and came across "Something's Wrong with Gilligan's Island," which is also very entertaining (but not quite as entertaining). I bring this up because I note a very thematic similarity between the two. Both feature a grungy but catchy refrain and hook which is endlessly repeated. Over the refrain, someone shouts a litany of absurdist exclamations that support the title of the song. For example, "Something's Wrong with Gilligan's Island includes (among other things) the assertion that "The boat is no longer called "The Minnow." It's now called "The Daily Special Includes Soiup and a Salad!" I love it. I love both. But I wouldn't want to listen to a whole album of it back to back to back to... Inserted, mixed in with my music collection, it would be perfect.

Enjoy.

happy tunesday! "mary ann" by dr. feelgood

 

It's been quite a while since Dr. Feelgood, one of my favorite bands, put out a new studio album of new material. And now the Facebook arguments begin.

I say that because of the band's history. At this point the group has spent more than half of its life without any of the original members who made it famous. They were formed in 1971, but by the mid 1980's, frontman Lee Brilleaux was the sole original member. At that point the band had become Brilleaux and an occasionally changing lineup backing him. That changed when Brilleaux died in 1994.

After Brilleaux died, two of the members got together with another former member, hired a new frontman (Pete Gage, who was subsequently replaced with David Kane) and soldiered on. The group has been much more stable since Brilleaux's death, but albums have been less frequent. There have been three studio albums of new recordings since then: On the Road Again (1996), Chess Masters (2000) and Repeat Prescription (2006)*.

So, on Facebook groups I often see debates about whether, post-Brilleaux, the band's claim to the name is legitimate -- and whether they are worthy of the name. I stay out of those fights -- as I try to stay out of most fights on Facebook. In the case of this fight, the band is, officially, Dr. Feelgood. And they are, from what I can gather -- though I have not seen them perform live, a damn good R&B group.

At any rate, they have a new studio album, Damn Right!, coming out next month. From what I have read, it consists of all new material. Including this gem, "Mary Ann."

_________________________________

*And it's worth noting that two of these albums were, arguably, gimmick releases. Chess Masters was a collection of songs from the old Chess Records. Repeat Prescription was a collection of new renditions of the band's old material. 

happy tunesday: "tell me i'm the only one" and "it's a sick sick world"

 I just came across this on Youtube recently.

"It's a Sick Sick World" (from the 1989 album, Le Beat Group Electrique) is among my favorite Wreckless Eric songs. And here he is, in 1989, performing it. If I'm not mistaken, the other two guys are Andre Barreau (bass) and Catfish Truton (drums) who played on the album. I absolutely love this recording.

Of course, "It's a Sick Sick World" is actually the second song in the video. Before it comes "Tell Me I'm the Only One," which is also from Le Beat Group Electrique. It's a good song, but not as good. 

happy tunesday! un-grand canyon

"Un-Grand Canyon" is another in the series of recordings of songs that I wrote or co-wrote, which will appear on the album by "The Marc Whinston Project" (or whatever "group name" I choose to brand it with).

But this is unique. Most of the songs for the project were written only by me. There are also a few songs that are primarily mine, but that have coauthors. For the most part, these involved a little wordsmithing (by others) on a song that was almost completely written by me. I still think of those as "my" songs.

But "Un-Grand Canyon" is different. This is Christina's baby. It started with a poem she wrote, and I tried to turn it into a song. There was some restructuring, and I changed a few words. But the lyrics are hers. I set it to music -- the first time I had ever done that for someone else's words. That was a new challenge, as I really wanted to capture the drear that Christina wrote about.

I think I succeeded, but Toby's arrangement and Eytan Mirsky's vocals did a lot of the heavy lifting.

I am really looking forward to putting this on the upcoming album. I never could have written her lyrics; they are in a style that's alien to me. And the finished product is very different from anything else in the album project. The closest to it is "Five Missing One," but this sounds much better. It also mines a topic that I really haven't approached at all on my own, so in that sense it contributes to variety. Plus, it was my first attempt at setting someone else's words to music. And I am really pleased with the results.

happy tunesday! you got the car (kasey chambers)

Things like this happen occasionally. I don't know how long I've had this CD in my collection. I have no idea when or how I got it.

Actually, I have one idea. Most likely I got it from freecycle with a bunch of other CDs. I then got the CDs home and went through them all, giving cursory listens to each and deciding quickly which ones were worth keeping. The Captain by Kasey Chambers was one of those that I deemed worth keeping. So I ripped it to my computer, boxed up the physical CD and forgot about it.

But when I work from home I have my computer playing music from my collection on shuffle. When "You Got the Car" came on, I was immediately struck by how much I like it. This is great pop music.

I also, for what it's worth, went to Spotify and addded the track to my "Assorted Stuff" playlist -- which is what I play from my phone when I am not by my computer. For example, when I work in the office, or when I'm driving.

Wow! That's a great track!

happy tunesday! do anything you wanna do

 

I've loved "Do Anything You Wanna Do," a 1977 single by Eddie and the Hot Rods for a long time now.  I have felt that this was a truly underappreciated record. But something hit me just recently.

The anthemic nature, the narrative of escaping from a life of unremitting grunge... This is, thematically very much like Bruce Springsteen's early works.

With that thought in mind, here's a Tunesday post...