Golden Moldy Oldies

Nature’s Way. 1974. 2'26.
Two guys, two cassette tape decks, a guitar, and an old slightly-out-of-tune church piano in a low-rent triplex in Watertown, New York. Thom McAnulty (who played guitar) and I, both Librans, were calling ourselves “Ayr.” Originally, this song followed our cover of David Bowie’s “Moonage Daydream,” on which I played a touch-tone phone as accompaniment (hence the odd tone at the beginning). I created the phaser effect by adding a third cassette deck and recording two copies of the song ever so slightly out of sync.

Old Tobacco & Scented Lipstick. 1976. 2'58.
One day, while listening to a rehearsal tape I’d made the day before of the band I was in at the time (Rockbottom), I could hear the B side bleeding through, so I dug out the smallest screwdriver I could find, took the tape deck apart, and began adjusting the playback head. At one point I went too far in one direction and could hear the song on the other side perfectly, albeit in reverse. My housemate at the time, Lynne, thought it sounded pretty good backward. In fact, it sounded a lot better than the original playing forward. Stoned as usual, we decided to come up with forward lyrics that would match the backward singing, and “Old Tobacco & Scented Lipstick” was born. I added new synthesizer riffs and percussion.

Wrong Side of Life. 1977. 4'55.
By this time I’d managed to save up enough money to buy a Mini-Korg synthesizer. It was an early model—no chords, one key at a time, no modulation, and few effects. Still, it was better than trying to lug around an old church piano. And I’d borrowed an electronic drum machine that had four controls: on/off, volume, speed, and beat (which gave me all of six variations). But building a fully orchestrated song was time-consuming: To make it sound like a whole chord was being played, I had to record a take with the first note of a chord, play that back and record another note, play that back and add another note, repeat for vocals, and eventually the song would fill out. My cassette tape decks got a good work-out!

Breakin’ the Law. 1978. 5'38.
I had a much better drum machine by this time, but it had an odd habit of picking up two-way radio transmissions from passing taxis, cop cars, and emergency vehicles. If you listen carefully, you can hear a cab dispatcher ever so slightly in the background of this song.

Child/Actor. 1979. 5'42.
By this time I was lead singer and keyboard player with Chicanery, a fairly popular band that played bars and high schools from Watertown to Massena. This is the only original composition of mine the band performed, recorded live at The Pines in Gouverneur.

Kritzeleien. 1984.
Between jobs (and a rock and a hard place), I channeled my frustrations and worries into a creative project: a German album dedicated to my religious beliefs at the time—Teutonic Heathenism. Four of the songs (“Kritzeleien,” “Durchgehen,” “Totenkitsch,” and “Ein bißchen wechseln”) were German translations of my earlier songs.

Fast normal. 4'16.

Kritzeleien. 6'51.

Durchgehen. 4'39.

Rechthaberei. 7'30.

Weltanschauung. 4'59.

Totenkitsch. 5'07.

Ein bißchen wechseln. 4'45.

Augenspiegel. 8'19.

Wir segeln ein Schiff. 8'52.