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From: rush@syrinx.umd.edu
To: rush-list-all
Subject: RUSH Fans Digest of 09/21/90 (#55)
RUSH Fans Digest, Number 55
Friday, 21 September 1990
Today's Topics:
State of the Digest address
Anagram
Re: RUSH Fans Digest of 09/20/90 (#54)
SOH video censoring?
Regarding the interview posted yesterday...
Peart's Black Sabbath Bashing
bitmap images
TOPIC:for Mongo
Anagram
(none)
FAQL
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From: RUSH Digest Manager <rush-mgr@syrinx.umd.edu>
Subject: State of the Digest address
Well, it's me again, with more tidbits of information for you all.
First of all, I tried another fix to take care of duplicates. If this
seems to work, I'll send out mail later asking for mail if you do get
a duplicate. Don't send them yet, I don't know if it'll work.
Secondly, I shall be on vacation next week (yayyy). Unfortunately, I
don't know if I'll be able to get somebody to run the Digest for me
while I'm gone, so next week may be a 'drought week'. At best, you can
expect spotty delivery, as the person will probably have more than enough
other stuff to do.
Lastly, I'm including another posting of (hopfully) interest, part of a
continuing series at the end of the Digest.
See you all in a week!
rush-mgr
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From: robin_m@apollo.com
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 90 12:21:52 EDT
Subject: Anagram
>From: supriya (Supriya Goyal)
>What does (for Mongo) after "Anagram" on the PRESTO album mean?
It's a joke from the movie Blazing Saddles. I don't remember the scene since
I didn't see it, but the line was "TELEgram for Mongo"
OK, here's a question I asked a while ago but everyone seems to ignore: Does
anyone know if Digital Man is based on a movie or book? Lines like "He's got
a force field and a flexible plan/He's got a date with fate in a black sedan"
seem to be too specific to be imagery... Any clue where it came from or any
interpretations on it? Thanx...
[ As far as I know, it's a reference to the fellow who did the digital
processing work on _Moving Pictures_. I know the line "He won't need
a bed, he's a Digital Man" does refer to this guy, as they didn't use
him when they did Signals, and therefore didn't need to find a place
for him to sleep. If there's any deeper reference to him is beyond me.
Anyone else? :rush-mgr ]
OBRQ "But the balance can sometimes fail/Strong emotions can tip the scale"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Work: |And you'll recognize by the reflection in our eyes
robin_m@apollo.com |That deep down inside we're all one and the same
School: |We're clutching at straws, still drowning....
cygnus@wpi.wpi.edu | -Marillion
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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From: lhummel@urbana.mcd.mot.com (Lionel Hummel)
Subject: Re: RUSH Fans Digest of 09/20/90 (#54)
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 90 12:08:28 CDT
> From: Elisabeth Perrin <livia@blake.u.washington.edu>
>
> _Presto_ Interview 3/3/90 on 102.1 FM San Diego:
>
> [ ... ]
>
> Geddy Lee: We'd done this record on our own label, called Moon
> Records, and it was very low-budget record we did in the evenings
> after we got out - in the mornings actually after we got out of the
> bars, we'd move the equipment down to studio and record, you know,
> typical struggling kind of stuff. And the album was done and it was
> okay; Canada was pretty much ignoring it and a friend of ours who
> worked for a record company, to help us out, sent a few records to
> some American radio stations that he knew some people. And I started
> getting phenomenal response, you know, they started all these
> requests and pretty soon we're getting requests for gigs to come
> down there. And all of a sudden record companies were sniffing it
> out going "I smell some money here," a Bachman into overdrive. It
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
It is supposed to be "Bachman Turner Overdrive". I recall this being
transcribed incorrectly the LAST time this interview was posted. FIX IT!
The point Geddy was making is that after BTO began hitting it big in the
States, all of the record labels started looking to cash in on this surge of
interest in Canadian hard rock. Rush just happened to fit the right mold at
the right time.
--
< Lionel
-----------
Lionel D. Hummel, Software Engineer [H] (217) 344-8713
Motorola Microcomputer Division, Urbana Design Center [W] (217) 384-8511
lhummel@urbana.mcd.mot.com uiucuxc!udc!lhummel uiucdcs!large!lionel
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Subject: SOH video censoring?
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 90 12:25:42 CDT
From: Keith E. Ford <infonode!fordke@uunet.UU.NET>
I had the opportunity to watch the "Show Of Hands" concert video
recently. Somewhere near 2112, Alex steps up to the microphone
and says something. This something was censored by the editors
and a message box was displayed saying subject matter was sensitive.
The video was unrated. I'm curious what was said. Geddy (based
on his facial expression) appeared to not approve of what was
said.
[ This was basically Alex fooling around during the filming for the
video. If I recall, his mic wasn't even turned on at the time.
They stuck in the 'censored' and 'radioactive' stuff as a joke.
:rush-mgr ]
--
| ...!uunet!ingr!fordke OR fordke@ingr.com
| "and the Trees are all kept equal by hatchet, axe, and saw." -Rush
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From: yackob@eeserv.ee.umanitoba.ca
Date: 20 Sep 90 13:35 -0500
Subject: Regarding the interview posted yesterday...
>X-Mailer: Mail User's Shell (7.0.4 1/31/90)
In the interview included in yesterday's digest there were a
few transcription errors that should be corrected before it is distributed
further.
1. "Bachman into overdrive" should be "Bachman-Turner-Overdrive".
2. "CFMY" should be "CFNY".
3. "Marita K" should be "Murray the K".
4. "pre-teen world" should be "Pre-Teen World". This is a
subtle allusion to a bit on the old SCTV show that featured...well,
pre-teen kids. The humour is lost if you haven't seen the show.
5. "STD" should be "SDT". SDT is an acronym for "Show, Don't Tell",
while STD usually means "sexually transmitted disease".
I don't mean to be picky - I appreciate the effort that went into
getting the interview typed in, but I just wanted it to be as correct as
possible.
Kerry
--
Kerry Yackoboski <yackob@eeserv.ee.umanitoba.ca>
The Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Laboratory in the Cellar
U of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada
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From: rlr%software@rti.rti.org (rader)
Subject: Peart's Black Sabbath Bashing
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 90 16:10:10 EDT
Que tal, all. Reading the transcripted interview (thanks,
Elizabeth), I came upon this little gem from Peart -
Neil:
>What happened in the late 60's, all of a sudden that all degenerated;
>all those bands came out with a second generation of copies like
>Grand Funk Railroad and Black Sabbath and all these bands, so
>consequently all the integrety built up in the late 60's was lost,
>and all of a sudden hard rock was once again a 'dirty thing.' So I
>think we wanted to bridge that gap again and try to capture what was
>beautiful about the late 60's music, in the freedom and the spirit
>like the music of The Who and the music of Jimi Hendrix and so on,
>and try to get away from its darker side, what it had become.
Hmmm. It seems that Neil is slamming Black Sabbath, and the other
early heavy metal bands (wonder what he thinks about Steppenwolf?).
Grand Funk always struck me as kind of silly, but given the fact that
Black Sabbath is a very important personal favorite of mine, I feel
that Neil is conveniently losing sight of the main strengths of early
Black Sabbath.
Simply put, Black Sabbath was an extremely dark and depressing band
(maybe proto-Gothic?). They did not cause the depression, they were a
reflection of the times. The youth culture fell off of it's 60s "all
you need is love to change the world" pedestal. As the Vietnam war
progressed, the lines between "us and them" became more and more ap-
parent, strife and confrontation became more and more pronounced. Kent
State, the Weathermen, the Manson family, the increased violence; all
this is representative of the times that Black Sabbath were engendered
in.
IMO, Black Sabbath was just about the first band to integrate sheer
darkness and pain, and express them eloquently and skillfully through
their music. No, they aren't devil worshippers. Neil Peart is doing
Black Sabbath a big disservice here.
The "darker side" of music is a reflection of the "darker side" of
humanity. Much strife is caused by people trying to ignore and squelch
this side of themselves, rather than integrate it into the total
individual personality.
I'm wondering what all you other Rush fans think of this. I've never
considered Rush a heavy metal band, although they are pretty heavy and
even metallic at times. Different flavors of music and all. So what
do you all say?
--
ron rader, jr rlr%bbt@rti.rti.org = Opinions are my own and do not
| | i gotta six- rlr%bbt$rti.rti.org@CUNYVM = necessarily reflect those of
| | pack, & nothin' to do ...!mcnc!rti!bbt!rlr = BroadBand Tech. (SO THERE!)
*** Punk ain't no religious cult, punk means thinking for yourself - DKs ***
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From: telxon!teleng!dank@uunet.UU.NET (Dan Kelley)
Subject: bitmap images
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 90 16:07:43 EDT
I also am interested in the Rush bitmap images for SUN. If anyone has any
info, please pass it on.
Thanks,
Dan...
--
Dan Kelley <-> ...!uunet!telxon!dank <-> telxon!dank@uunet.uu.net
Telxon Corporation <->
Akron, OH 44313 <-> "...sadder still to watch it die than
(216) 867-3700 x3123 <-> never to have known it..." - N. Peart
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Date: Thu, 20 Sep 90 20:04:57 -0500
From: Patrick.Quairoli@cyber.widener.edu
Subject: TOPIC:for Mongo
The first thing to consider in the title ANAGRAM (for Mongo), is a
dedication. But that's too simple for Rush. The definition of Anagram is:
a transposition of the letters of a word or a phrase to form a new word or
phrase. So the most simple explaination that I can come up with is that the
song is just an anagram for mongo..... What/who ever Mongo may be.
analog_kid
patrick.quairoli@cyber.widener.edu
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Date: Thu, 20 Sep 90 23:31 CST
From: ORANGE AND LEMONS <BAWOLTERS%UALR.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: Anagram
Watch the movie "Blazing Saddles" by Mel Brooks, and you will here a
quote in the movie where "Anagram" for Mongo came from...
It is Alex Karis saying "Candygram for Mongo!"
[ Umm, wasn't it Clevon Little? Alex K. played Mongo. His response was
"Mongo like candy!" *BOOM* : rush-mgr ]
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Date: Fri, 21 Sep 90 01:42:42 -0500
From: franks@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Richard M Franks)
I don't know if this subject has been thrown out before or not, so here goes:
Besides Rush and The Northern Pikes, Hugh Syme also did the album cover for
the album _Whitesnake_ (it had "Still of the Night"). Has he done work for
any other artists? What about other forms of art work by Mr. Syme?
Back in high school, I did a paper on Neil for my junior Literature class.
I used an interview from one of the guitar mags (odd, I thought) that Neil
did on songwriting. If any fellow pickers would happen to have a copy
of the magazine, I'd gladly send a self-addressed, stamped envelope for a
copy of the interview. The cover had two dudes from Metallica on it, and
I believe the Rush song transcribed was "Closer to the Heart". It seems
my parents have shipped off alot of my old mags and school work off to be
recycled (probably at my kid sisters request), and both the article and
paper went with it. I'd be most grateful for any help.
Rich Franks
Purdue University
Engineering Computer Network
Hardware Maintenance
P.S.: I got an "A" on the paper!
----------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 21 Sep 90 07:41:27 -0700
From: ddelany@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (Dan Delany)
Subject: FAQL
It's going pretty well, but I'd still like more stuff!
And please, to avoid misunderstandings, please send the answers to your
"burning questions", not just the questions!
----------------------------------------------------------
From: Elisabeth Perrin <livia@blake.u.washington.edu>
Taken without permission (but I won't tell if you don't)
Alex Lifeson of Rush
by John Stix
From: Guitar Magazine August 1988
Starting as Zeppelin-influenced blues rockers who also shared a love
for the diverse of art/rock sounds of Yes, over timer the Canadian band Rush
has evolved into players who emulate their records in performance as precisely
(some might say mechanically) as symphonic musicians play Beethoven. Each
member of Rush is a virtuoso on his instrument, who prefers the finesse of
nuance (which is the essence of blues) to the bludgeon of velocity. Eschewing
an overly improvisational format they nevertheless bring to their music an air
as Cream (a group that relied more on the former to attain the latter).
As the chief colorist and harmonic base for Rush, guitarist Alex
Lifeson
is the musical glue that holds the elements of improvisation and exacting form
together, bringing Geddy Lee's voice and thundering bass and Neil Peart's
involved lyrics and rhythmic gymnastics to life, both as the blues component
who rocks in solos, and as the strong believer in the classical virtue of
repeating a performances exactly as recorded. It is this basic dicotomy as
exemplified so well in Lifeson's style that somehow explains both the passion
of Rush's fans and the ferocity of their critics. What continues to stand
above the controversy, however, is his guitar playing. It was toward this area
of Alex Lifeson's expertise and innovations that we directed our conversation.
JS: After all this time, does the guitar still mean as much to you?
AL: Yes. I find the older I get the more I enjoy playing. I've never fallen
out of love with the guitar. There have been periods where I haven't played
for
a long time but I've never lost interest and have always felt guilty when I
haven't played. To be away from the instrument for a while can be negative and
positive. Sometimes it's good to take a break. You come back refreshed and
often you'll pick up new directions. Other times your fingers get a little
slower and you lose chops. In that sense I feel compelled to play. But the
guilt I feel is mostly out of the fact that I enjoy playing the instrument and
sometimes your priorities get a little muddled up and it becomes less of a
priority. Often when we come off the road after working on a record I tend not
to play for a while because I've played every day for about eight hours. then
again, I've come to notice that I love playing so much that I'll often play for
my own benefit. I have a 24-track studio set up at home and I spend a lot of
time down there. Sometimes I sit on the couch playing and watching the TV with
the sound turned off and it's the same sort of buzz I had back when I started.
I guess then it was more challenging because I didn't know how to play guitar.
It took longer to figure things out. It was maybe more satisfying to move to
the next level after hours and hours of practicing where it seemed to go
nowhere for so long. Then suddenly you'd go up one tiny little notch and do
something you couldn't do before. That was pretty exciting.
JS: Do you still get in ruts?
AL: Yeah. The rut is getting into the same old routine and not seeming to go
anywhere with it. I don't play a great deal in my hotel room. I practice at
the gig after soundcheck for about an hour each day. To get out of the rut
I'll bring racks to the hotel room, maybe a small GK preamp and an echo unit
and put some headphones on and play other things. I find if I have a nice
setup of sounds it gets me going and I attempt to do more interesting things
other than playing the same old stuff.
JS: As a soundsmith you must be in hog heaven with all this MIDI and digital
equipment.
AL: I don't know if it's heaven. It's hell right now. It's unbelievable. I
spent three weeks just trying to sort out all my gear for this tour. I got a
lot of new stuff and it's like pulling teeth. You have an idea in your head,
the way you want something to function and sound. You think you're going to
get
that from a particular unit but it doesn't quite happen. It takes a bit of
experimenting. It's just a matter of getting everything to work in harmony.
JS: Is what you use on a record very different from what you use to duplicate
that sound live?
AL: Not really. It's starting to get closer to the recorded sound, which is
in stereo and usually has most of the effects added on afterwards. In the
early days I used to do the opposite.
JS: Do you feel there's some sort of rebelliousness missing from your shows
because it's the same every night?
AL: I always went to a concert expecting a band to sound like it did on
record. If I liked the record I felt cheated if it wasn't played exactly like
that. I remember thinking at times, you can't play it the way you did on the
record? I don't think everyone is like that. But is was important to me that
we play live as we recorded. For a long time that was the only way we
recorded. We never put a rhythm guitar in where it wasn't going to be live.
We stuck to that rule. Now, even though we're throwing a lot of other stuff in
on our music, it's still important to capture what's on the record live. It's
difficult. But the payoff is it's very complex and people hear it that way on
record. They come and see it live and it has that same complexity. Your
audience only sees you once. They don't see you every night. I think it makes
more of an impression and is more satisfying. I don't think anyone expects us
to do long drawn out jams in the middle of "Manhattan Project." We've never
been that kind of a band.
JS: Where is the biggest thrill for you in the recording/writing process?
AL: The mixdown period of all the guitars is really exciting. We were in
Monserrat when we were doing that over the digital master and Jimbo was doing
all the bouncing and I would go in at the end of each song and listen to it and
I think I got the biggest buzz at that point after hearing back those weeks of
hard work.
JS: Yet I didn't feel there were any songs where the guitar was the dominant
instrumental melody. I felt you were playing pastel washes, playing chords and
letting them ring or putting in intricate solo lines weaving in and out more
like an acoustic guitar.
AL: That makes sense. I've tried to work towards that for a long time. I
think I'm more comfortable in that sort of a role. It's more a part of the
band as a whole than the guitar way up front. I don't think it lacks anywhere
for guitar but your description of being a pastel coloring or shading in the
sound is pretty accurate.
JS: Did you ever write a vocal melody?
AL: I don't think so. Our typical setup for this last record was working with
a Teac 388 portable 8-track recorder. We had the keyboards plugged in, a drum
machine, guitar, bass and a vocal mike. We would work on things with a guitar
and bass or guitar and keyboard and work out vocal melodies once we had a basic
structure for a song. We worked up a basic rhythm pattern and whether Neil
pulled anything out of it was up to him later on. Then we tried a few
different vocal things.
JS: As I understand it you record all the guitar lines last?
AL: Yes, just before the vocals.
JS: You never record with the band. You always play with a tape?
AL: I put down a guide track at the beginning and then Neil does his drum
tracks and Ged does his bass. Then it's keyboards and guitar, lead guitar and
vocals.
JS: Do you miss anything or is the interaction all done in preproduction.
AL: We spend two months on preproduction where we're playing together all the
time. I don't think we're missing anything. We're all pretty well set and
know what we're doing and what we're after. On a typical day we'd be up around
11:00, have breakfast, talk about what's happening during the day. Geddy and I
would go off on our own. For this album we were working in a rural studio on a
farm, about an hour outside of Toronto. We worked in our own little area with
the 388. Neil would stay in the house and write. We'd meet around five or six
and he'd show us what he'd done; we'd play for him what we'd done, discuss
arrangements, lyrics, make any changes and things like that. We'd break for
dinner around seven and get back into it around 8:30 as a band. At that point
we start playing and everybody would be working on their bits with each pass
that we did of the song. Once we got fairly comfortable if someone had a
suggestion about someone's part that's usually where it would come out. We
would continue working like that for weeks.
JS: You write intros and endings to songs that don't seem to have anything to
do with the song itself, like on "Force Ten." The ending is like opening up
the door on another studio and hearing another band.
AL: That's great. I had to laugh, because I can see us putting together these
things that have nothing to do with the song at all. For some of the things
Andy Richards, a keyboard player who does some session work and helps with
programming and playing, will come up with these ridiculous like with "Force
Ten" as an example. He had a sample of a jack hammer and it was really
effective for the song. It's fun to intro things a little differently, a
little bent.
JS: What is your attitude about solos? Do yours have anything to do with
lyric or the melody?
AL: It's more the musicality of the song than the lyrical content. For the
solo I think it's the mood that's created by the music. I suppose in a way
that makes it attached to the lyrics. But it's more the music that provides
the
trigger for what the solo does. If it's a dark, melancholy sound to that
particular song, then the solo will reflect that. An example is "Open
Secrets." It has that lonely mood to it from a musical point of view. I think
the solo in that song reflects that wailing loneliness. Something like "Turn
the Page" is much more manic and crazy.
JS: Did you also take the track home and work on the solo?
AL: I didn't used to. This time around I did. It's a good thing for me. I
really enjoy doing solos. I would put down eight or ten tracks and we'd make
up a composite. It was fairly painless. There were some songs that were
tough. With this record I prepared myself well in advance. We had the time
and it was something to do and I thought it would be different. so we went in
and when we were knocking solos off two a night it was much much easier.
Because we put all these different keyboards on Power Windows, when it came
down to do the guitars, a lot of guitar parts had to be reworked. They weren't
valid anymore because the songs had changed so much. The keyboards had taken
up so much space the guitar had to be a little more economical in certain
places. It had to be different melodically in another spot. It took a lot of
last minute work. It was very tough. With this record I wanted to avoid that
at all costs. I didn't want to be stuck again, so I took rough mixes of the
tracks after the keyboards were put on and worked on guitars in my bedroom for
the month we were doing that. consequently I was much better prepared. I had
all my parts down, so I was allowed freedom when it came time to do guitars, to
experiment with other things.
JS: So the solos are actually compositions?
AL: Yeah, except for "Turn the Page." I had a rough idea for that, the
direction and the eccentricity of the sound of the solo. It wasn't until I got
in the studio that it came together.
JS: You travel all over the world to record. It's not something I hear a lot
about with any other band.
AL: We would typically spend three or four months at a studio and it was just
too long. You'd go nuts. We thought if we went to a few different studios we'
have the benefit of a different environment and it would keep everybody up and
really enjoying themselves. With Power Windows we did that and it was great.
We enjoyed it a lot. It made the working environment much better. With Hold
Your Fire we went to even more studios and again it was a great experience.
I'ts really for our own benefit, it's not that one studio is particularly
better than another.
JS: In the past you've played Gibson 335s and their Howard Roberts Fusion and
Strat-like guitar with Bill Lawrence pickups. That's changed again.
AL: I've gone to new guitars made by the Signature guitar company, a Canadian
firm. They are a Strat style guitar with single coil active electronics.
Ebony neck and a Floyd Rose. They have more distinction than the Bill Lawrence
Strats that I had. They were very meaty and thick. This is leaner, with less
of that chunkiness on it. I used one on this last record for about 90% of the
recording and when used with the Gallien Krueger setup on a clean channel it
sounds very clean and has a wiry transparency to it. It's a very steely sort
of sound, almost acoustic at times. I like the combination of having that with
a very dirty sound. It was very good for that too. I've had a 250ML for a
long time as a tuning room amp and I used it on a couple of our albums for
different things. In the studio I found I was leaning primarily to a couple of
old Marshalls with twin 12s and the GK. When we started to prepare for the
tour I ran through everything and found the GKs sounded the best for this setup
for this tour. These are the 2000 model, just preamps into a Briston 3B. They
also have a 2100 coming out shortly which is a stereo amplifier built right
into it. I'm using the GK cabinet. It's a tight two 12 cabinet with Celestion
speakers.
JS: Will they be production guitars?
AL: They are planning on it. They are constantly changing things around and
improving the guitar. They don't release the guitars until they feel
absolutely confident that they are the best they can be. The guitar is very
well made. There's a fairly consistent quality to the sound. They are not
radically different from one body to the next. They are lighter than the old
Strats. A heavy weight and a medium weight sound difference is not as great as
it would be on a Strat or a Les Paul. The finish on the back of the neck is
very light. I like to feel the wood. On my guitars in the past I had no
finish and for cleaning it I'd use 400 or 600 sandpaper up and down a couple
of times. I had this one kicking around during rehearsals. I thought it
wounded neat but I wasn't crazy about it. When we went into the studio and got
serious about the amp setup and designating different characteristics to
different amps, I found the Signature sounded beautiful.
JS: Are you a t.c. electronics fan?
AL: I'm a big t.c. electronics fan. I've got the t.c. 2290, their sampling
delay line, and the t.c. 1210 Chorus Spacial Expander. I have two of each.
They are great. Have you seen the manual that comes with the 2290? Forget it.
It's in a big binder. There's so many functions it's incredible. It's quiet
and it sounds beautiful. You're looking at AMS quality without the price. Not
that they are cheap units. We used AMS on the record. t.c. electronics were
more reasonable, so that's what I went with on the road.
JS: So you designate certain amps for certain sounds?
AL: Jimmy Johnson, who is my tech, has a company on the side where they
develop and build accessories and PAs. They put together a splitter box with
one input and seven outputs and they all had their little individual odd bands
and the signal was never loaded down at any point so you could split out to
seven different units whether they are an effects unit or an amplifier or
whatever and also get the same signal that you were sending from the guitar to
it. It made life so much easier. We took individual lines out to amps. We
kept the amplifier head in the control room and left the speakers out in the
studio and ran tie lines up to the speaker cabinets.
JS: You could go through seven different things simultaneously as if it were
direct?
AL: Exactly. You weren't loading them down or running them in series and
getting any loading so that you were losing sound quality, getting hums and
buzzes. It was a great way to set up. We had two lines going out to the
Marshalls, two going out to the Dean Markley, one line direct and two lines
going to two different Gallien Krueger amps. You could get all of them if you
wanted at the same time or any combination. They were very different setups
from each other. The sound quality of the different amplifiers is different.
They were different from each other. Once we had our basic setup happening, we
turned some on and some off and that's what gave us our sound.
JS: When you hear something on the radio do you hear it differently
than you did several years ago.
AL: I think so. When you hear your own material in the earlier days it's
really a thrill. Not that we're the kind of band that gets humongous airplay.
But is was more of a kick back then.
JS: Was there a time when you just used to listen for the guitar part?
AL: I tend to listen a lot more specifically now than I used to. You do that
because you spend so much time in the studio you are very critical of
everything. You tend to get right inside things, you don't just listen to it
to hear it. I listen to something and I'm enjoying and I'm enjoying it and
then I start to listen to hear if the tempo is steady. I get drawn into that
way of thinking. I'm still thrilled by some guitarists. Anytime I listen to
Steve Morse I want to pick up the guitar and practice a lot harder than I do.
When I hear a country singer like Patsy Cline, something I never listened to
that suddenly appeals to me, it opens up other doors. You realize that there
are lots of other people that fall into that same basic category that you"re
missing out on. Most people fall into a particular style of music that they
like to feel is their own. They seldom venture out. Unfortunately it takes
maturity or interest at some point to expand those horizons. I never liked
country music and lately I have to admit I'm starting to enjoy some of it.
Patsy Cline had a beautiful voice, a luscious voice. Her style of singing was
great. It moved something in me. It might not be anything akin to rock 'n'
roll, but it touches something inside you because of the sheer musicality of
her singing, it's the same with Peggy Lee's or Frank Sinatra.
JS: Do you have a favorite track on the record for vision versus execution.
AL: Probably "Mission" and "Open Secrets." "Mission" came out a lot better
than I thought it would. It had gone through quite a few changes since its
inception and it ended up being a much better song than it started out.
JS: When you play, are you on the edge of your ability?
AL: I don't think I've really peaked yet. With each record I feel better and
my confident about my playing. But I still have a ways to go.
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