The Generics, live at the Fairhaven Bowl in Mundelein, Illinois, summer of 1986. Raw suburban Chicago mid-80s power, undetectable Farfisa organ and all.
And the message is as timely as ever. That message being: “Enjoy the bass stylings of Pat Gamet.”
The Generics at the time of this recording were: R yan Jerving, guitar; Craig Witsoe, guitar; Nadine Engel (now Schneller), drums; John Papageorge, keyboards; Pat Gamet, bass; and Dean Samara, saxophone (though I think playing tambourine on this track). There’s a part near the beginning of the song on the original recording where the right channel dropped out for about 30 seconds, which I’ve only had partial success in covering by patching the left channel on top of it. You’ll hear the difference when the right comes back in at 0:53 . Try not to let it spoil your peace, your love, or your understanding.
Here’s a newly digitized live recording of the Viper and His Famous Orchestra performing the “Love Song of Kalua” at the Red Herring Channing-Murray Foundation in Urbana, Illinois, in July 2000, shortly before I moved to Turkey.
This is a much-recorded Hawaiian “standard” written by Ken Darby in 1954. Our version is based on the Marty Robbins version. Listen for my lapse into the Dick Van Dyke Show theme during my whistling solo.
The recording was made by our friend Brad Allen on a tiny little portable tape recorder, the kind you use to record lectures. Not bad quality, considering.
What the title of this post says: a dig back into the archives for this recording of The Viper and His Famous Orchestra from the Highdive in Champaign, IL in the year 2000.
The song is by Queen and I’m pretty certain that May, Mercury et. al. must have had the Viper in mind when they were writing it for their Night at the Opera album. A Night at the Opera is actually a pretty Viper-friendly album all around, with Brian May even playing a ukulele for the George-Formby-styled “Good Company.” I remember “Seaside Rendezvous” being me and my sister’s favorite song on the record as kids, and dancing around and playing it over and over (along with “Bohemian Rhapsody,” of course) when one of our babysitters would bring it over.
The Viper and His Famous Orchestra recording above is from the same show at which the bulk of our Song for All Seasons material was recorded. “Seaside Rendezvous” didn’t make the cut, and I remember it sounding a lot rougher when we were choosing what songs we wanted to include on that EP. But if you can overlook the lack of mastering the mix, I think the performance has worn pretty well with age. There’s a LOT of arranging going on here, with a LOT for a bar band near the end of an evening to remember.
But remember it we do, and that’s a jollification, as a matter of fact.
I’m finally getting around to chopping and screwing some material I recorded on December 12, 2008 in the cabana behind Mike Paul’s house in preparation for a show The Viper with playing with the Paint Branch Ramblers at the Home Grown Coffee House in Accokeek, Maryland later that evening. I also recorded the show. But in a misguided bit of engineering, I pointed the microphone directly at the ceiling and, so, captured a lot of crowd murmuring and vocal reverb and not much else.
In any case, here’s a rehearsal track of my opening song from that set, “The Viper’s Blue Yodel no. 6.02 x 10 to the 23rd” or “A Mole of the Blues”:
This is recorded live straight into Audacity using a single microphone for both the vocals and the baritone ukulele.
I’ve been doing versions of this since as early as 1997 or 1998. But in its finished form, I performed first at this same Home Grown Coffee House venue in February of 2007. At that point, my talk of leaving Maryland for Wisconsin and the danger of adjustable rate mortgages was purely speculative. But before all things must pass, all things must also come to pass. And that was the case by December 2008 when this song served as an actual goodbye to living south of the Mason-Dixon line.
Last month, I relocated to Milwaukee from the Washington, D.C. area. Surprisingly, given the rare gift of unemployment I’ve been enjoying, this is my first post-move post.
Or not so surprising, since I’m not yet making music with anyone here. That’s not untypical for me. It took me two years in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois to first play out as the Viper act. And four years in Maryland to luck into the Paint Branch Ramblers. I never really got anything together during my two years in Turkey, apart from one two-song set at the Faculty Club Christmas talent show (I played “The Lawson Family Murder,” and “Daddy’s Drinking Up Our Christmas”).
In any case, it’s always a good opportunity to let the barrel fill itself back up. So to celebrate my refound love of self, here’s a solo recording of the Viper playing “Pennies from Heaven,” taken from the Everything for Everyone CD.
As far as I can remember, this was recorded in a single take using just the room mic we’d set up to get “coverage” sound of the whole band. Jay Bennett is doing the engineering/producing.
That stuff you don’t recognize at the beginning is the verse of this 1936 Johnny Burke and Arthur Johnston standard. You don’t hear the verse much. But Vernel Bagneris lip synchs to the 1937 Arthur Tracy recording of it in the great 1981 film of Pennies from Heaven. And Steve Martin actually sings it at the end of the movie, just before he’s hung. It’s a nice little piece, and here’s the lyrics if you want to sing along:
A long time ago, a million years B.C.
The best things in life were absolutely free
But no one appreciated a sky that was always blue
And no one congratulated a moon that was always new
So it was planned that they would vanish now and then
And you must pay before you get them back again
That’s what storms were made for
And you shouldn’t be afraid, for…
Every time it rains, it rains pennies from heaven
Don’t you know each cloud contains pennies from heaven
You’ll find your fortune falling all over town
Be sure that your umbrella is upside down
Trade them for a package of sunshine and flowers
If you want the things you love, you must have showers
So when you hear it raining, don’t run under a tree
There’ll be pennies from heaven for you…
Pennies from heaven for me…
Pennies from heaven for you and me
