The fourth and final album of 1983 was originally called Hey You, but in the end it was renamed Love Sucks simply of the fact that Love does suck. Anyway, I was on a roll, and after Living In The Twilight Zone, I ended up using Dennis Lancaster's amp on the next sessions. The Paraphernalia band was practicing over at my folks house and although in a limited form. Things were happening, Russ Swearingen returned from his stint in the Marines and was ready to get the band going. By then he reunited with his girlfriend Chris Shaffer and that seemed to put a kink in our songwriting and get togethers. As for myself, I ended up falling for a girl named Teresa who was passing out her phone numbers during our Squaw Creek performance when Doug got married to his first wife. I turned out to be the dumb one who actually called her.
It didn't last but three weeks to which it was obvious that she was younger than me and was still enjoying her high school years and not to be burdened by me, which I didn't have a job and was playing rock star. When we broke up, it was a rainy night in October after we stopped at the old WMT studios in my attempt to be a radio disc jockey. I have never been much in terms of ladies man, most of the relationships I had were sparse and not much interaction. The usual feelings of having to check in every waking hour didn't help either. The feelings of infatuation will drive any mortal man to become what he isn't, being possessive, controlling. The R. Smith of that time was your confused man child, trying to fit in with the modern world, maybe settle down get married have kids, the kinds of stuff you'd see on Jerry Springer. Even if it was infatuation, breaking up with Teresa did hurt, and it showed on the making of Love Sucks.
Sessions begun on November 27 and ended on December 20 of 1983 in my makeshift recording studio in the basement and also in the living room. Produced by Jack Orbit, the record is a more darker sounding, and I used my dad's reel to reel on the basic tracks. This does sound more of a band album, Jack played guitar as well and bass was done by Nick Alford, a local college acquaintance (and later drop out) who played in the punk band The Weeds. Larry Maier (RIP) then took up the bass for The Day After. While the last album had me using a Fender Amp, this time out the Pevey Amp of Dennis' had a much more bottom sound which made the record sound a bit murky.
The songs themselves were much better written than Living In The Twilight Zone and some of them I still perform today. It's So Hard is my theme song, a song about longing to live in Arizona and surviving the elements and life itself. And Well All Right, has been known to make a appearance from time to time. But the songs themselves, most were written after the breakup of me and Teresa, Dead Of Night, and particularly Goin Home which is basically the rise and fall of our time together. By the final sessions, Dennis's folks let us use their home as practicing place and Dennis got his amp back. What Is Love, was a thought up on the spot song with me on my 10 dollar K Mart Amp and 30 dollar guitar, and best known for Mom running the dryer in the background.
In the end Love Sucks is a nice followup to Town's Edge Rock although I don't consider it to be as classic. The master cassette copy has technical issue, oxide issues like tape age and a few plays and the sound has varied greatly over the years. This record is also where I developed a strange whiney type of vocals, kinda goth trance, kinda timid so to speak. But I think this is where I started to track the backing vocals to fit the song rather than going for the Hi Lo's of the previous albums. The urgent bass vocal to Moonlight Madness was fun to do. And I got to play with the effects pedal on The Day After, which was written after seeing that movie on TV. An attempt to write a protest song. Overall the songs were best written of all four albums released in 1983, but in the end, TE Rock remains the best definite album of that time. After this, I would focus my efforts on Paraphernalia/Tyrus and wonder why I even tried in the first place.
Songs:
The Giant Cosmic Oatmeal Cookie (Smith/Glarington) 3:00
Hey You (Smith/Orbit) 3:20
The End Of It All (Smith) 2:00
It's So Hard (Smith/Orbit) 2:45
One Little Girl (Smith/Orbit) 2:35
Well All Right (Smith/Orbit) 2:50
Ain't Life A Bitch (Especially When You're Married To One) (Smith) 3:05
Dead Of Night (Smith/Orbit) 4:17
Around And Around (Smith/Orbit) 3:03
Moonlight Madness (Smith/Strobie) 3:50
What I Need (Smith) 3:22
Goin Home (Smith/Alford) 5:00
What Is Love (Smith) 2:58
The Day After (Smith/Maier) 3:47
Songs (C) R.Smith aka Townedger Music Emporium 1983
Recorded November 27-December 20, 1983 Maier Studios Marion IA
Recorded By Don D Smith, Rodney Smith and Ken Miller
A Jack Orbit Production
Rodney Smith-Vocals, guitar and drums
Jack Orbit-Guitar and vocals
Nick Alford-Bass guitar
Larry Maier-Bass on The Day After
Ron Glarington-Guitar on Oatmeal Cookie
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