Happy Monday -
I am writing this wondering what to write about. I have the late July doldrums.
I could write about a song—oh: Two weeks ago I wrote about a charming little tune called Little Love by a singer named Pearl, and the producer/co-writer, Matt Ingram, wrote me and said the bass part was played on a Mini-Moog. I thought it was an electric bass…. There goes my credibility, shot to hell. Sigh.
I want to start a whole new section of New Monday called “That Damn Ringo” and it’s dedicated to how cool Ringo’s drum parts are on Beatles songs. After all this time, there are still people that feel the need to put Ringo down. “Ringo isn’t as good as Mitch Mitchell/John Bonham/Neil Peart/Charlie Watts/Chuck “Leadfoot” Masterangelo,” etc.
Well, there’s She Said She Said. Ringo is so good he doesn’t need to play the hihat. This was actually the song that sold me on The Beatles.
She Said She Said has been remixed by Giles Martin. He goes back to the original takes, separates the individual tracks out, and presents a different view of the song. I’m not always a fan, and I think in the case of this song, something is lost, but George is now on the right, John is on the left... and John’s rhythm part is unexpectedly interesting and cool...
I made up Chuck “Leadfoot” Masterangelo. But feel free to pretend he’s real and make your drummer friends feel inadequate.
Speaking of inadequate, many years ago, my cousin Patty married a guy named Lee who was, and still is, 6’5”. And a great guy. At their engagement party, Lee’s sister, who was hot, brought her boyfriend, who was a lawyer and… he was a dick. He had a Beau Middleton energy—Beau Middleton being the bad guy/enemy of Nicholas Cage in the movie Valley Girl.
Actor Anthony Edward aka Beau Middleton aka Goose from Top Gun
So, this lawyer boyfriend of Lee’s sister asked me what I did for a living, and at the time I was a guitarist and making records, etc., and I told him that, and he proceeded to launch into this whole THING about this band he was in, and how they had THE BEST DRUMMER and on and on about gigs in North Carolina blah blah blah like I could give a shit shaped like a carrot that your bassist fell into a pool and other adventures involving guitar cords and alcohol.
He paused for a breath and I quickly interjected, “In my 10th grade social studies class we did a mock trial when we were studying the rise of the communists in China and I got to be a lawyer.” And I proceeded to launch into a whole THING about me cross-examining some kid in my class and how we had to swear people in and how Mr Norton, the teacher, was the judge and on and on and finally he interrupted me and said, “Why are you telling me this? I’m a real lawyer.”
I patted his chest and said, “I’m a real musician.” And then I walked away. Score! 10 points for the goofy Italian kid!
Beau Middleton stayed away from me the rest of the night, and later, at Patty and Lee’s wedding, I found out Lee’s sister ditched his lawyer ass. There was much celebration.
This was a great song on the Valley Girl soundtrack:
SO… what was the point of that story?
This was the moment when I discovered that you can tell an awful lot about people by how they react when they find out information about you. Do they ask questions, or do they compete and talk about themselves?
I usually ask questions: “Oh, you’re a lawyer. What kind of law? Have you ever bribed a judge or bought off a jury? Do you sleep with your clients?” Things like that.
I always have a guitar or something behind me in a Zoom meeting. When it is a meeting for a plug-in or music biz thing, usually no one cares and that’s that. But when it is for something else, very often, some guy spots the guitar, and launches into a whole THING about his guitar and his band and the whole dick lawyer scene. And suddenly, I know all about this guy, and he knows very little about me. These guys just never ask questions.
Tell me, in a business situation, would you rather know about them, or have them know about you? Information is power.
Ask questions.
Revolver Revolver Revolver. It is all over the internet this week and last week, this month. Well, it was released 50 years ago last week. I’ve already written a bunch on it.
I was 13 in 1976, going through The Beatles section at a record store in Huntington NY. I wanted to get a Beatles album, but my parents were no help, my older sister was no help — she was constantly playing side one of the first Crosby Still and Nash album, and to this day when I hear Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, I want to kill.
I knew the songs I knew from the radio, from seeing Help! a bunch on rainy days at the Thomas School of Horsemanship (can you tell I was raised rich and white?), from hearing Yellow Submarine on the radio, and Got to Get You Into My Life, and Eleanore Rigby. I found those songs listed on the back of Revolver. The most songs I knew were on that album so I bought it.
Taxman as the opener pinned my ears back. By She Said She Said I was a die hard Beatles fan. By Tomorrow Never Knows, I flipped the album over, and saw “Produced by George Martin” printed on the back cover, and even though I had no idea what a producer did, I thought to myself, “That is what I want to do.”
Maybe I need to do that again. Produce records.
Warm regards,
Luke
Shout out to Robert Johnson: musician, photographer, videographer, fighter pilot, coffee drinker, all around good dude
New Monday is a weekly newsletter I write for Korneff Audio. It’s different every week. Sometimes technical. Sometimes historical. Sometimes hysterical. Always musical.
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