Album archives: Living In The Twilight Zone

1983 was a very exciting year for recording music as you can tell.  After the success of Town's Edge Rock I set out two short months later to work on the next project, an uneven album called Living In The Twilight Zone.  During that time, I was actually using DeWayne Schminkey's Fender guitar amp with loads of reverb, the guess was that Open Highway was practicing over at my folks place and I got access to use it.

While sessions were documented during TE Rock, I don't have very many notes from the studio during the making of Twilight Zone.  This album I did experiment more with the limited vocals that I did have, but this was the beginning of the Realistic tape player playing the songs faster and the discman overdub, the speed was slower, thus each dub and playback made the songs drag slower.

Plus the songs this time out weren't as good.  Outtakes from So Much For That and even a track from Paraphernalia Tyrus, the other band was used for filler songs.  The standout songs had to be Be With Me, a song that was written for Tracy Meskimen, who was dumped by our guitar player and I thought I whip out this song in an attempt to ask her out.  She thought the song was nice but declined my offer of going out.  The other, was a instrumental called Bar B Q.  The reason why I called it Bar B Q? It was smokin! ha ha.

Cocaine Train was a throwaway track, but Russ saw something in the words to reinvent it as a slow blues cooker, rather than the 3 Stooges sound of the original take.  Sometimes reinventing a song will give it a second life, but had Russ not done it, Cocaine Train wouldn't be a second thought.

Lost In The Twilight Zone was basically a light hearted ribbing on Doug as he eventually got married to the girl he left Tracy for.  I think I did the song a few times playing live in the 80s but since then it's been retired.   Love Is Never On Time, while interesting with the AC DC intro, just haven't stood the test of time either.  Less said about While The City Sleeps, the better.

As much as I love getting that Fender reverb guitar sound, there's nothing much else I can recommend from Living In The Twilight Zone.  It would have helped more had the tape players recorded in the same speed, or have different backing vocalists than the ones I provided on this album.  In the CD reissue, this album  and So Much For That were issued as a standard 2 on 1 CD.

While chances were taken on Living In The Twilight Zone, I commend myself on a change of direction of sound but going for a Marx Brothers feel did not work (or is that The Hudson Brothers?) The next album would be a lot more darker and a return to the sound of TE Rock, but the cost of going back to that sound almost cost me my sanity in the process.  Living In The Twilight Zone was a moment having fun in the sun although this record hasn't held up over the years.


The Songs:

Living In The Twlight Zone (Smith)  5:15
Be With Me (Smith/Orbit) 4:20
Love Is Never (Smith/Orbit/Strobie) 6:33
While The City Sleeps (Smith/Orbit) 3:00
Bar B Q  (Smith) 2:42

Cocaine Train (Smith/I.M.High) 4:47
Arizona Nights (Smith/Orbit) 3:18
Walking Near The Wapsie  (Smith)  2:20
Communication Breakdown (Smith/Orbit) 3:20
Town's Edge Rock (Smith/Orbit) 2:15

You Were With Me (Cassette bonus track) (Smith/Schminkey) 4:08

Songs (C) Rodney Smith, and Townedger Music Emporium 

Produced by Rodney Smith with Jack Orbit and Mel Strobie
Recorded by Rodney Smith, assisted by Dennis Lancaster, Mel Strobie & Ken Miller
Recorded at Maier Studios, Marion IA Aug-Sept 1983

R.S. played all instruments and sang
Jack Orbit played guitar and sang
Mel Strobie played bass and sang
Ron Glarington played guitar on Walking Near The Wapsie
The Open Highway Band is featured on You Were With Me
(Mike Swearingen, Doug Bonesteel, Dennis Lancaster, DeWayne Schminkey)

Released as Living In The Twilight Zone as Maier Records MR-24224  October 1983