Thoughts of The Townedgers June Edition

Very interesting month to say the very least.  The question of the day was what ever happened to Janice, who was part of my high school years.  She basically disowned everything up here and moved to Sunnyville Texas sometime after Town's Edge Rock and outside of coming up for a 1990 reunion disappeared.  She's has hard to pronounce and even harder to spell last name Tryggvason.  Have never met her hubby but Jack Orbit has and claims he looks like my long lost twin brother.  Can't be Jack, I've never been that far down in TX nor in Iceland either. 

I still have issues with the reissue of Nice Weather We're Having, the new mix is way too tinny and lacking bass, I may return back to the original tape mix for a third try on CD but needless to say the damn 4 track made a mess out of Jeanette 15 Years Later and So Far Away.

My favorite TE record?  I like some, and I love most of them but if I had to choose one that best describes me, that would be 2002's The Road Less Traveled.  I've also listened to Moonlight Chronicles and although it's too bit bright, the last reissue strips all the echo that was originally on the first generation Tape/CD copy.  Should have been a 1 LP and not a double album.

If I was a casual fan, I'd buy the TE catalog.  There's some classic stuff there.

If Janice and I was together back then there wouldn't be any TE records.  I don't think there'll be anything after 1979 come to think of it.  I think that's why we never got together more than passing phase.  She was always thinking about the future, I was one day at a time and what's new in music.  I remember one time I was at the Marion Sidewalk sale and showed her the two albums I got, Sly and the Family Stone Stand and best of The Hollies.  She had a funny look on her face.  But I do know one time she called me up and she had either The Ramones or Sex Pistols playing in the background or maybe one of her friends did.  Looking back maybe I should have given up on Jeanette in Michigan and at least go out on a date with her.

One big memory was that Me, her and Sue Rowe Boyd went on one of those Tilt A Whirl when Marion had those downtown fair days.  Hell, they even paid for it, one example that they did really care about me.

The One That Knows Me Best wasn't about Janice but it was based around her telling me that She was the only social life that I ever had; That song had more about Clarice.  She did like some of the Townedger's Music.

Once I get back from Arizona, the TEs will do some shows and I'm really thinking of bringing out the Zildjian lineup that I did for TE rock or Road Less Traveled.  An old Zildjian 18 inch median thin crash always has a beefy sounding crash to it.  I also plan to bring out the old Reuter snare drum that I used on Town's Edge Rock.  I don't think it's the original snare from the Zickos set but I think it was the replacement.  Got that at West Music in Coralville around 82.

The guys that own Villa's Patio and a couple more Mexican places have opened up The Cancun that used to be Happy Chef.  Looks like they got Janeen back to wait on tables.  Russ and Deb love her but I think she's a ditz myself, never says anything to me unless Russ and deb is there and it's oh you're Dudesky.

I still like Paiste cymbals. Still have em.  I really don't do endorsements anymore since I'm too old to get endorsements but on each recording I try to point out what I used for make the recordings.  But I think I'm planning to sell some of the cymbals that I have no use for anymore.  Rudes might be the first to go.

Yep still have the Impulse Cymbals that Zildjian used to make.  They were a copy cat answer to Rudes and didn't sell very well but I love the 16th inch crash, somebody actually thought I was playing Rudes on Wapsi Dreaming.

The rock bar scene of the 80s is long gone, it's not coming back but there's a few choice places to play at, but given the music of the TEs only Gabe's or CSPS is where I any chance of playing original stuff. 

I actually like the way Jet Airliner came out on Soul Biscuits.  It sounded ragged out and pissed off but it fit the mood of the song. Don't expect The FOX to play it or KUNI.  They too have gone down hill.

I was telling Diggy Kat the other day how underrated Drive In Blues was in the trilogy of the classic 90s albums that I did.  I played it twice in a row at work this week.  Diamonds In the Skies gets all the credit and kudos but Drive In Blues really showed us coming of age.

I really don't like mixing cymbal brands but I could make an exception for the Paiste Twenty 18 China. The Novo China also stands out big time, a bit too much at times but that Twenty China has the perfect cut off crash. 

I ended up getting the Zildjian Z power crash in 1986 after I started working full time again.  Not a fan of power crashes it sticks out like a sore thumb but when you want to end a song with a crash, it's second to none.

The biggest regret was not able to play drums during the high school years and waiting five years to learn to play and sing.  Would have been great to play All Over Now at the variety show when I was a senior in 78.
It would have been closer to punk rock than Led Zeppelin I tell you what.

Russ back then was mincing to a KISS song I do believe.  But it took guts to get on stage and do that and later had his sister play piano when he was signing Mandy  (the Barry Manilow song) but I was too scary cat to get on stage.  Only thing I had back then was coffee cans.  That would have made the Cherry Sisters look like Three Dog Night talentwise in Marion!  But the 78 Quill show had Lon Washburn and his band playing some rock music and his playing inspired me to make more of myself and actually get a real drum set and learn to play.  Only Took me five years after the fact but I think we have come a long way from those days.

We still can't find the tapes for 20 and so you'll have to be satisfied with the version that is out there.  I have done a shitty job trying to keep things together when it comes to archives.

God bless you all.