|
Ray
Davies Day - For anyone who doesn’t know, Ray Davies is the lead
singer songwriter for The Kinks. Ray is one of the all time great
English songwriters. In my opinion, he is the best of his
generation , which is saying a lot considering you have
Lennon&McCartney and Jagger/Richards in that mix. Ray is probably
the songwriter I pattern myself after the most, it’s close between
him and Dylan. One is the quintessential English songwriter the
other is a true American songwriter. Well, I could write forever
about how great Ray is, his humor, pathos, and insight into the
human condition along with a great little melody make him the best
on the planet. So this is my tribute to him and what pop songs can
mean to a person. I have put six Kink’s song titles in this song see
if you can find them all! Nice Rickenbacker 12 string part by Steve.
And I think Kenny played bass on this one.
You
Don’t Know Me - This one I wrote after listening to Teenage Fan
Club’s Songs From North Britain for the longest time. It’s such a
great album, it’s just like the Byrds and Buffalo Springfield made a
album in the 60’s and turned it out in the 90’s. Funny thing about
this one is David Bianco produced and mixed that album, so when we
were mixing this album with David I told him to mix it like the guy
did on that Teenage Fan Club record! And you know what he did!
Dudes
– Well, I’ll tell you how I wrote this song in the song! I was
watching a DVD of a bunch of 70’s rock bands one night and I just
noticed that 95% of the audience were dudes. I thought it was kinda
funny and weird and immediately started dividing bands into dude
band /chick band categories, I was surprised how many dude bands I
like ,but then again I am a Dude! Howard plays the solo and guitar
fills on this and rocks it all night! Kenny on dude-like background
vocals.
Money
Goes - This is one of those true Danny Sorentino songs, on every
album there are always a few songs that I don’t think anybody else
could write. Not that they’re hard to write, it’s just I don’t think
most songwriters are interested in the topic for a song. This one is
really about my life right now trying to pay all the bills, and
hating my day job etc. I was really thinking about how people get
themselves in debt buying things that we really don’t need but are
conditioned to buy by our mass consumer driven culture. In the Zen
way of thought it’s attachment to material things that leads to
trouble, and I think this is true. I am trying to be better but
having been raised in America post World War two it’s hasn’t been
easy and like I say at the end of this album “I love guitars”. Kenny
plays bass again I think. It’s hard to remember sometimes it took so
long to make this record!
No
Other Love - This is also a true Danny song in that this is a
Chord structure that I have used a lot over the years. ‘No Other
Love’ is my song about choosing music for a living and then not
making a living from it. No other love can be any thing that you do
because you just can’t help yourself, it kinda choses you, you don’t
chose it. And I know Chuck Prophet has a very good song and an Album
by this title but I had this song around for a while and that was
what the song was called. So I just stuck with it. I could have
called it “I was gonna do it anyway”, but it didn’t quite feel
right. Oh this is the first time we every had cellos on a song, so
that was fun. I used Ben Sudduth on this. Ben is a high school
friend of my daughter Lily they are both in the school orchestra and
the funny thing is Ben is the son of my friend Alan who worked on my
first recordings way back in the early 80’s before we both had kids!
Life is funny. Rob plays a good bass part.
Stop
Being You - This song started off as a really slow moody little
number that I had demoed up with a ton of reverb on it and no drums.
I thought of this song one day picking up after one of my kids
thinking you have to love them for what they are, then thinking no
you don’t they should be someone else and pick up their own crap. So
anyway, it got a little faster tempo and I made it kinda a love
song. I like the bridge in this one. Good George Harrison-y slide
guitar by Steve. Sounds like a Traveling Wilburys out take to me.
You’re
Going Too - I wrote this song right after we got back from our
tour of Scotland last year or was it the year before? Anyway we
played in a pub on the Isle of Bute and the band playing with us was
the Mick Kemp Band, Mick was a real raconteur, a man among men and
great showman. He did this song “Straight to Hell” which is a Drivin’
and Cryin’ song and just did a sterling version of it. So my song
was kind of a take off on that. I wrote a song for Mick called
“there and back again” that almost ended up on this record. Anyway I
hope Mick does it one day in a pub and I get a chance to see it! It
has a nice sing-a-long chorus in it which Mick is great at. Howard
plays and came up with a nice solo/guitar hook in this one.
Seventeen
- This is a obvious Lou Reed tribute song that I came up with
towards the end of the writing for this record. This is part of the
set of death/getting old songs that I put at the end of this record.
I am fascinated with getting old and how people handle it in this
youth is god culture of ours. Nobody wants to get or, even more than
that, look old these days. Everyone has a nip and tuck and plastic
this and fake that, who knows what is real these days? But I
remember my Grandma Parker saying once “I know I am seventy five but
I still feel like I am seventeen on the inside”. So that’s that.
Rob plays a nice bass part on this one and Steve does the solo bits
and fills.
Die
Young- This is oldest song on this record, we had a few versions
of this done in different studios and ended up with a little bit
from each version. I started with the guitar lick on this one and
kind of built the song around that,which I rarely ever do, I mostly
get songs in big sections sitting in my room with my trusty J-45 and
finish them in one or two sittings. As is the case, by the time we
got to this song it was old to me, so I almost didn’t put it on the
record, but my wife Margaret really liked it and used to hippie
dance to it at her desk while she was working, so I had to keep it
on the record. Good bass part by Rob and solo by the How.
Running
Out of Time - This song I wrote after listening to The
Greenhornes for the longest time. I really dig these guys, they are
young kids (in their 20’s), but they sound like all the garage rock
songs I grew up with in the 60’s and a lot of early Stones. I played
the lead on this with my Gretsch through my 65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue
and I also played bass on this one. Not sure why really. I think
it was from the demo version that I did and it just seemed to work.
It has my Duane Eddy Hawaii 5-0 lick in it which is really spooky!
I Love
Guitars – Well, what can I say about this song! It’s just a
simple garage ditty that I came up with to say how sick I am about
guitars and Amps. I just love them all! I played the solo and I
wanted to keep it dead simple, so I was the right man for the job!
When Dave mixed it he had just purchased the reverb tank from the
old A&M records which did all the Herb Alpert records so he put the
“Taste of Honey” reverb on it, and man, is it sweet! Rob and Kenny
on background vocals
Gone
- This was the last song I wrote for this record. On our last
album”Way Out”, I wrote a song called “Somebody” which had two
chords. So I said I need to write one that has one chord and this is
it. Kind of a rockabilly vibe with some biblical overtones and I
sang this through my little Kay amp with a crappy mike and a old
tube screamer fuzz box. This song was made to close the record like
“Ray Davies “ was meant to open it. I always like to get one song
that I play harmonica on and this was it! In the people’s key of E!
Steve did the crunchy guitar bits, good voodoo drums by Kenny and
fuzz bass by Rob.
Well
that’s it, we may have a few more records left in us but for now
this will have to do!
Dig you
later ,
Danny
Sorentino
|
