Songs We Like – “Me and Baby Brother”/WAR

We do funk.  Really.  While we’re not quite doing Funkadelic/Parliament covers….yet…we got a suggestion from our bassist, Marcos, to do one of WAR’s more popular tunes, “Me and Baby Brother”.  It appears on the studio version of WAR’s “Deliver The Word”, with an album cover made to feel and resemble a bible (silver ink trim and fake leather-texture).  There is also a live version of it as well on “All Day Music”.  The “Deliver The Word” also came in a QUADROPHONIC 8-track, remember those, kiddies?  (Stereo is lame, we gotta have FOUR CHANNELS!)Now what was MEMM all about?  Hard telling.  Could just be where the main character was describing a younger “brother” or friend and what they would do, and most of the song was written as to what they did in the past, culminating in a climax towards the end (bridge) with “Hang on Baby Brother…They call it ‘law and order’….come back baby brother”.  Possibly a song about the Vietnam war….or not.

As mentioned before, the song appears on “All Day Music”, a live album, but it was back in 1971.  When it got put onto a studio album, “Deliver The Word” in late 1973, it hit #15 on the pop singles charts in 1974.

Currently, there is still the band “WAR”, fronted by Lonnie Jordan, founding member, one of the lead singers, and primary keyboardist.  This current band owns the WAR band name, along with producer Jerry Goldstein.  Some of the remaining members have formed “The Lowrider Band”, named after one of WAR’s greatest hits, “Lowrider”.

Back to us, we’re having fun with the tune, Marcos, Jim, and Paul are on vocals, Marcos getting more funky on bass, Paul on congas, Mark is covering with a rough Hammond B-3 sound and harmonica on the synths.  Jim and Dave wrap it up with rhythmic reinforcements and keep it funky.

New Year’s Eve at the Adrian Eagle’s (12/31/11 – 9PM)! Dinner, band, champagne and more!

 Howdy!  It’s that time of year again.  Last year we were at the Brooklyn Moose (a great time was had by all).  This year we’re at the Adrian Eagle’s (2570 W. Beecher Road in Adrian).  However, this is where you can’t just waltz in at the last minute.  This is a full-blown party!

1) You have to get advance tickets, or that is, get tickets before New Year’s Even.  You can stop in at the Adrian Eagles during the day/evening when they’re open this week (10AM-11PM) at the above address.  They’re $25 apiece. 

2) What do you get for $25?  You get a dinner at 8PM, Paragon plays at 9PM, then champagne and hors d’oeuvres at midnight!  Also included is a party hat, possibly other party favors.

3) Doors open at 7PM.  We have new material (new songs to us, but you’ll recognize them) in the set list, and we’re ready for you all.

Thanks to Rosaletta for all the details and we hope to see you all Saturday night!

Songs We Like: Something/The Beatles (George Harrison)

If there is any song that’s been covered by EVERYONE, it’s “Something” by The Beatles.   It’s is the “second most covered Beatles song” (just behind “Yesterday”). And as a cover band, yes, we now do a cover of it as well.   It’s the most popular Beatles A-side song NOT written by Lennon and McCartney, as this was written by George Harrison.   It was rumored to have been written specifically about George’s  wife, Patti, as Patti claims, however, in a later interview, George claims he wrote it “thinking about Ray Charles”.  (Awkward!)

Typically the shy Beatle, George wrote it, but wasn’t seriously considering it to be used by himself, he was going to offer it up to another vocalist, Jackie Lomax, but later decided to work with the band to have it as part of the Abbey Road album.  But it’s now considered, by Rolling Stone magazine, to be the sixth best Beatles’ song of all time.

Now, what do WE do with it?  We keep it in the same key for one thing.   George used a variety of guitars over the course of his Beatles and solo works, including Gretch’s, Rickenbackers, and supposedly mostly Fender Stratocasters later.  Jim works his magic and gets the soulful wail of George’s solos with his Gibson Les Paul, Paul is on vocals providing his most excellent crooning.  Dave replicates the specific original drum  pattern from the Beatles recording in the “bridge” (the middle of the song), which is no easy feat.  Marcos lays the bass groundwork, Mark is on orchestral strings on the synth.

 

Stuff We Like – Make Me Smile/Chicago

Well, it’s back into the Chicago II album that we find another tune we like and that we now play.  “Make Me Smile” is a brass-rich song that we enjoy, but took us awhile to get it JUST right.  (We’re picky that way.)  This was Chicago’s first Top 10 hit (#9 in Billboard charts), but that was even just the short “AM radio version” of the tune.  We do the “FM radio version”, complete with instrumental (heavy brass) sections in the beginning, in the middle, and at the very end.  Oh yeah, there’s some verses in there, too.  Paul does a great job at handling lead vocals being that Chicago themselves had transferred the job of singing the lead from Terry Kath (died in 1978), to Bill Champlin, to Robert Lamm, to Lou Pardini.  Hey, at least with us, the lead vocal will always sound the same.  Mark re-creates the brass section sound via the Roland Juno XDi (it worked in “25 or 6 to 4″, it sounds just as cool here, too!).   Dave is kept busy with changing time-signatures, Jim shreds away in the middle section, and Marcos (bass)  does a good impression of Peter Cetera (which is funny considering he looks nothing LIKE Peter Cetera).

Where has the time gone? Been busy!

Been awhile since we last updated the blog, yeah, we know.  But we’ve been REALLY, REALLY busy and I mean it.  We’ve had a summer full of gigs, practices, and our own summer break so to speak.  Jim gets married, Paul has a medical emergency, and Mark heads out of the country to a coffeehouse in Amsterdam.  All 3 survive!

Our gigs have ranged from a “retirement” party, to a bar gig, to an RV park, a country-music contest, and city festivals.

What awaits us now?  The wonderful folks at the Adrian Eagles organization have invited us to play a few more times this year, we’re also getting a couple more festivals while the weather is good.

Anything new in the band?  Certainly!  The website will be updated soon to fill you in on our new folks, including Marcos Gonzales on bass and Elysia Norris, our new vocalist.  Terry has NOT left, repeat, NOT left the band.  We simply now work with TWO bassists which gives us more flexibility in scheduling AND gives us a bit of variety in the overall band sound.  Elysia comes to us from the annual Country Showdown competition (“Texaco Country Showdown”), coming in third place out of 10 country acts (including bands and other individual performers).   Does that mean we can now play “girl” tunes?  Yes, but she’s getting good at belting out anything we give her, even a Journey tune (giving Steve Perry a run for his money).

Val (Paul’s wife, happy 30th anniversary, y’all) is busy hawking our t-shirts and giving us all kinds of support.

We’re also happy to have Mike McLemore (The Sound Doctor) available to run our sound for various gigs when we need to supply our own sound, as well as Michael, a fine young chap at handling the mix at some of our gigs.

You’re also likely to see wives of the rest of the guys in the band, Elysia’s mom (HI MOM!), and a dedicated bunch that follows us around from gig to gig.

For now, our next gig is the Hudson Bean Creek Festival in downtown Hudson this Friday night at 9:15PM, Septmeber 9.  Come one and all!

Songs We Like: Simple Man/Lynyrd Skynyrd

Lynyrd Skynyrd usually doesn’t do “slow”, but when they do, it’s fairly dramatic.  “Simple Man” gets its start from a writing session between Ronnie Van Zant and Gary Rossington, in which both of them were experiencing the loss of their grandmothers, and discussing the advice they’ve received over the years from them.   In our band, we figure if we’re going to go with a slow song, it’s going to be very heavy and forceful.  That’s how we see it.

Songs We Like: Come To Poppa/Bob Seger

We’re not like other bands, we’ll play all KINDS of stuff, including stuff we think is cool and we thin you will too, even if it never was a Top 10 hit.  Some songs are like that.  This is one of them.  Found on the Night Moves album, it’s only one of two songs on it NOT written by Seger himself. It was written by Earl Randle and Willie Mitchell.  (No relation to our Dave.)  Willie Mitchell was an R&B, funk, pop, and rock producer and arranger based in Memphis, and he was known for a solid, kick drum sound in the recordings he produced, such as with Booker T. and the M.G.’s.  This song proves it.

Where the Night Moves album got three charted singles, this one got it’s popularity in live performances and in an episode of the TV series, Miami Vice.  How it got there, we don’t know.  We just like it.

Adrian Eagles – Saturday, February 5, 2011

We’re eager to play here, friendly folks, large dance floor, and a nice crowd every weekend night.   The start of our playing time will be approximately sometime after or well after 8PM, but just hang around, and we’ll make it worth your while. It’s the Fraternal Order of Eagles, Aerie#2371 just west of Adrian on US223 (2590 W. Beecher Road). What?  Not a member?  Well, they do allow non-Eagles to attend if you sign their sign-in sheet and give them a contribution at the door.  It’s all good.

Songs We Like: Rodeo/Garth Brooks

Mainstream country, “pop” country, it’s all good.  Mind you, we DO have Boot Scootin’ Boogie and even Achy Breaky Heart, but with this tune, “Rodeo”, we’re getting towards serious story-telling country, dealing with action, adventure, dust, dirt, and horses….  Time for Wikipedia again, Rodeo has an interesting story, the song really wasn’t supposed to be sung BY Garth:

Garth said about the song: “I went all over this town trying to get it cut. The song was called Miss Rodeo, and it was written for a woman to sing, and no one would sing it. I crawled on my knees to Trisha Yearwood, I said please you got to hear this song. And she goes, “Garth I’m sure it’s perfect, I don’t understand the song because I’m not from that part of the country.” She’s from Georgia.” Trisha convinced Garth that he was better fit to sing the song than she was, so he did.^[1]

Alas, it doesn’t quite start out like a country tune, more like a Lou Reed/bluesy tune.  In our version, Jim starts with a slowly building guitar wail, and Mark provides the Fender Rhodes riff.

Songs We Like – China Grove/The Doobie Brothers

Now is there anyone on the planet who would NOT recognize the opening riff of this rock standard heard since 1973?  ”WAH – WAH…WAH – WAH….WAH…WAH…WAH…WA-WA-WAH!”   Good song to start a party with.  Anyway, where did this ditty come from?  Yes, we go back to Wikipedia:

“China Grove” is a song from The Doobie Brothers‘ 1973 album The Captain and Me. It was written by original lead singer Tom Johnston, before he fell ill in 1975 and was replaced by Michael McDonald. The song is based on a real town in Texas with the same name. The connection is obvious given its real-life proximity to San Antonio, which is referenced in the lyrics. However, the rest of the song is largely a fictional account portraying China Grove as Texas’ version of Chinatown. Notable is the mention of samurai, who in fact are Japanese, not Chinese.

Samurai, shmamurai.  All we know is is that the tune rocks!  Paul provides “the riff” when we play it, plus handles lead vocals, we all join in on the chorus.