Written in 1986 or 1987 / Recorded in 1986 or 1987 and 1989
The audio track of this video consists
of a summary of demo recordings I made in the late 1986 or early 1987 that had
enough amount for filling both sides of a 46-minute-cassette-tape. If my memory
serves well, the original tape contained five or six tracks on its Side One and
other three tracks on the Side Two. It was my second attempt to make a collection of
my original stuff to be recorded in a primitive way – by using a
double-cassette – but while its predecessor, done in 1985, was rather more
about a heap of random original works, this second attempt was more focused on
exploring various musical styles or genres and how I would/could function as a
guitar/bass/keyboard player in each case. For making this video, I picked up
following five pieces to represent the whole:
(1)
Blues
Rock (0:00 – 1:19)… Obviously inspired by a cover version of You Don’t Love
Me, featured in Al Kooper’s Super Session album. I changed the main
riff, chord progression for closing the verse section, and added a couple of original bits; tricky intro
and Jazzy bridging section. In other words, this tune was a transitional work
of my young self from his core element, Blues Rock, to a certain kind of
sophistication.
(2)
Oldies
(1:19 – 1:48)… Again, this was also another attempt to furnish core elements of
my musical taste with newly acquired knowledge over sophisticated chord
progressions, in this case the basis came from Oldies style, which I had been
keen before I came across with Blues Rock. Originally, both of these tunes had
similar themed lyrics to go with and both were brought into studio to be tried
out by my band called Flowers, briefly in the early 1988. Later, this Oldies
thing was picked up to be properly demo-recorded but the Blues
Rock thing above was never revisited.
(3)
Country
Style (1:48 – 3:08)… This was done not for creative purpose but genuinely for
exploring another style. Along with Oldies stuff from the 1950s, Country music
was one of genres I fell in love with in my relatively early years as a music
fan. I do not think this attempt was a successful one, but at least it shows
one of my basic roots as a guitar player and in that sense, I reckon it was a
meaningful recording.
(4)
Psychedelic
Jam (3:08 – 4:29)… The running time of the original demo of this tune exceeds over fifteen
minutes, which features written theme for one guitar and a couple of bass
guitars in its beginning and its ending. For this video, I just picked up a
tiny bit from its long jam section that could represent the entire atmosphere
of the tune.
(5)
Blues
(4:29 – the end)… This is not a composition but just another 12-bar blues
played in a basic jazz manner. This simply reminds me of a harmonica I occasionally played
in those days was tuned to the key of A and that was the reason why this blues
was played in the key of E. This demo also features me briefly singing La La,
quoting from a song by Fats Domino.
In addition, the
rhythm sections played by the manually operated rhythm machine did not belong
to the original demos but were later added, sometime in 1989.
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