Album Archives: Wapsipinicon Dreaming

I disappeared from playing any music for about a year, as I started working in the real world and not playing anywhere, nor doing much.  Since I was having a steady income I could actually upgrade my choice of guitars and cymbals.  I started getting the new Zildjian Impulse Cymbals, which were a knockoff of the Paiste Rudes but much more cheaper.  And any size of Impulse could give a nice ride sound as well.  I then purchased an acoustic guitar, and then bought Dennis Lancaster's Lotus guitar and used that for the next couple years before I destroyed it in a rage when the fretboard neck broke off.  It also couldn't be kept in tune either.  I also picked up a Gorilla amp for about 130 dollars new.  Not exactly a top of the line, some dude actually sold them out of the parking lot but I think I got mine from West Music.

Wapsipinicon Dreaming came into place around the summertime months of 1986, recorded around the time I went to second shift.  Working the graveyard shift played havoc with me, and half the time I couldn't sleep when I was supposed to.  However, while processing Pell Grants in the middle of the night I'd would write bits and pieces of songs as well.  Going through the archives, I came across an narrative about Wapsi Dreaming to be a concept album about a guy trying to make a living, had all the luxury things one could want and a Homecoming Queen for a wife.  But then the bills piled up and the woman left him behind and so one day, he ventured out onto a gravel road which lead to the river and a change of heart.  His place was at a that log cabin next to the river.  However, while reading the narrative of what the album was supposed to be, I never did carried out to be a concept album although the songs on side 1 do indicate the original intention of Wapsipinicon Dreaming.

The album sessions began on May 10th, over a period of 20 sessions which ended on August 27, 1986.  The acoustic numbers were done first, except for You're Telling Me! which showed the tube amp sound of the Gorilla.  The first week, I was battling a 102 degree fever and was sick but I did the songs right off the bat.  I do think the majority of songs did come together during August although the studio notes about the recording sessions are not documented very well. 

Notes on some of the songs, Secret Admirer was written for Sue Sorensen, she was a QC person in the Pell Department and I took a liken to her.  Another of those famed I would like a date with you songs that didn't go nowhere,  nevertheless she was seeing somebody else was about 2 months pregnant at the time.  Yet another bad choice of woman for me.  You're Telling Me, was another song about some girl that I met at the bar, who was tough as nails but loved her cigarettes more than anything else.  But I have no idea who she was.  Running In The Rain was finding about that my nemesis and pain in the ass, the one girl who chased me all over high school was getting married to some guy she met, who was from Iceland, but at that time he did looked a lot like me.  Every five they renewed their wedding vows but this song was me trying to bullshit me into thinking she was the one that got away.  Far from it.

Just Another Someday was a rewrite of Just Another Sunday from The Blasters and perhaps we should have just covered their version instead.   Never Trust A Sleeping Train, is presented here in metallic glory, but when I do the song nowadays it's acoustic.  It should have been acoustic back then. The late Herbie Laidmont provided backing vocals.   While the acoustic numbers are the best songs off Wapsi Dreaming, I'm also proud of the fact that the electric guitar numbers came out just as good.  The way that I played the four four beat and accessing the hell out of thing on She Don't Care About Time.  The recording tandem of Brian Mullahan and Terry Bainbridge, even though it was low fi, that the cymbals came out quite nice and bright.  The instrumental Cook With Pepper was a fun number dedicated to our then little puppy named Pepper who would hang around for another 14 years.

Wapsi Dreaming featured me playing one of those snare drums you see at college games, and I think the one I used came from the old Iowa Hawkeyes Marching Band and it sounded great on The Searcher but on the next song Don't Let It Get You Down, the bottom drumhead deflated and had a big split, so I had to change the head and never did the sound quite right for the rest of the album.

The album was issued on September 1, 1986, and is different from the CD version.  On side 1 She Don't Care About Time is before While My Heart Is Still Beating and Daughter Of The Highway ends side 1.  Side 2 has I Guess You Made It before Cook With Pepper.  On the CD front, I Guess You Made It swaps places with the full named She Don't Care About You This Time and is before Sunny Day Woman which didn't make the cassette version.  Basically, the CD version finally adds the long lost version of I Can't Take It No More and the finale Goodbye, and Daughter Of The Highway got dropped.

After all the false starts and filler songs that kinda make the 1985 albums a chore to sit through, Wapsipinicon Dreaming turned out the be the album that defined the sound that I was looking for.  A blend of acoustic country rock to go with the metallic garage rock, it should have not worked as well as it did and for the most part, this record still holds up quite well, despite perhaps I should have left Sunny Day Woman off it.   Believe it or not, I still perform half of the songs off this album when I play live although I have retired Running In The Rain.  It's basically pointless to sing about that girl that got away and moved to Texas to marry the dude from Iceland, and I think they have a big family, something that I didn't want from her in the time  she was in my life.    But while most of my band mates in the other bands becoming more into hair metal and pop metal I was more comfortable playing this type of acoustic rock.  I suppose Wapsi Dreaming ruined me that I wasn't for the hair metal that was playing around town.   But I know this album did prove to the world that Town's Edge Rock wasn't a fluke.  But it would be a while before I would put out something this good.  New things were on the horizon, and I wanted to follow those hopes and dreams as they took me to Arizona during the winter of 1986-87.  But the road that took me down there would lead me back to where I started from, another setback but also more original material to follow.  I consider Wapsipinicon Dreaming my best album of the 1980s.


Songs: (CD Version)

The Searcher (Smith/Orbit) 2:47
Don't Let It Get You Down (Smith) 3:41
Secret Admirer (Smith/Orbit) 2:40
You're Telling Me! (Smith/Miller/Davidson) 2:50
Country Life (Smith/Orbit)  3:55
I Guess You Made It (Smith/Orbit) 3:35
While My Heart Is Still Beating (Smith/McKay) 3:30
Daughter Of The Highway (Smith)  :42  (Cassette only)

Never Trust A Sleeping Train (Smith/Orbit/Miller/Laidmont) 4:00
Running In The Rain (Smith) 4:18
Just Another Someday (Smith/Orbit/Miller)  5:07
New Adventures (Smith/Miller) 2:55
She Don't Care About You This Time (Smith/Miller) 3:05
Sunny Day Woman (Smith/Edmunds) 2:50
Cook With Pepper (Smith/Orbit/Miller/Mullahan) 2:46
I Can't Take It No More (Smith/Orbit/Miller/Mullahan) 3:20
Goodbye (Smith) 1:25

Produced By Brian Mullahan With Rodney Smith For Fiesta Kid Productions
Engineered By Terry Bainbridge, with Ken Miller And Rodney Smith
Recorded At Gravel Road Studios, Paris IA, and Maier Studios Marion IA (May 16-August 27, 1986)

Lyrics written by Rodney Smith (C) R.Smith/Townedger Music Emporium, Music as indicated.

Rodney Smith-Acoustic Guitar, Lotus Guitar, Gorilla Amp, Zickos Drums, Zildjian Cymbals.
Jack Orbit-Rhythm guitar, harmonica and vocals
Ken Miller-Bass guitar and backing vocals
Herb Laidmont-Backing vocals on Never Trust A Sleeping Train
Brian Mullahan-Percussion and guitar tuner.

Originally released as QMR-24286 Wapsipinicon Dreaming  Sept. 1986