The Historic 1982 Sessions

Lineup:

Mike Swearingen-Vocals
Doug Bonesteel-Guitar
DeWayne Schminkey-Guitar
Russ Swearingen-Bass
Rodney Smith-Drums

Songs:

Rock Me Baby
Take It On The Run
Lovin Touchin Squeezin
Heavy Medication (Dewayne's song)
Highway To Hell
Rocky Mountain Way (Two takes)

Recorded Jan 28, 1982 at Maier Studios Marion Iowa

Produced by the band
Recorded by Don Smith

35 years ago, the beginnings of Paraphernalia was taking shape.   It was kinda of hard to do with Russ being in the Marines and getting time off was a problem in itself.  Somehow between his furlough we did managed to get some recording here and there.  In Summer of 1981 while recording The Power Of Positive Thinking, my 1981 solo album, we managed to get together to do two songs, Come Together (the Beatles) and Rock Me Baby (Version 1) and then in the fall another get together to do another version of Rock Me Baby. Somehow we managed to sound very competent.

As time goes on, it goes to show that like any band starting out, we were trying to find our way and Come Together between missed notes and sloppy beats, was like any garage band starting out but in some ways I tend to look at the song as a nice moment in time when the band was coming together.  It's not always that you get to play in a band with your best friend and other people that you went to school with.  I could barely keep a beat when I jammed with Doug Spinler and his dad for the first time and got a nice rush of sharing music with other musicians.  Doug Spinler has always been one of the best guitar players that I have known and we were good friends.  I just didn't really get into his type of country music, nor did he with my garage rock.  Doug has managed to carve out a remarkable country career with local bands, from Airwave to Panhandle Country to part time work with 5 Of Hearts.  And maybe some day I'll get to jam with him again.  Things have changed since the 35 years of the last time we jammed together.

So Doug was traded for another Doug, in Doug Bonesteel and he became our de facto guitar player. And he knew Dewayne Schminkey so we had two guitar players at hand now.   Russ knew a cousin, Mike who played in Cruise and a few other bands. So basically we had a band but practice space was few and far between and I had to make arrangements to get the basement to do recording with said band.  I give my mom and dad credit for putting up with the damn noise.  I had the thought of doing a full album of songs, but as we all know doing the songs themselves take time and effort to practice on them.  So finding this out the hard way, we simply had to settle on the songs at hand.

In 1981 I moved out of the house for a while, the usual teenage vs parents thing and my place was about three blocks from home, walking distance to and from work. The drawback of apartment living was that I couldn't play drums at all and managed to sneak over at the house and practice a while then go back to the apartment, turn on the tv and fall asleep. This lasted about three months and I returned home to annoy my parents for another few years.  In essence the basement was renamed Maier Studios to get people thinking I recorded at a plush place.  But in reality we had a couple reel to reels, some great cheap Radio Shack microphones and plenty of ambition.

I will say there was a lot of anger issues with me and it sounds like it on the album.  Cymbals crashing everywhere while Mike tried to settle me down with Rock Me Baby.  Which he did for the first two verses before the oncoming crash bash came along.  And that's the thing that sticks out, hearing my dad complain about all those cymbal crashes and overdrumming.  Hearing upon it today I tend to agree that I blame that on youth gone wild.  But everybody has to start somewhere.

As time goes by, the songs are basically forgotten unless I bring them up by playing them and only Rock Me Baby and RMW Version 2 are the songs get played.  We blew Mikes voice out on Highway To Hell and he was barely hanging in there on RMW2.  The latter song would get remixed and put out on the 1982 Bizarre Behavior album (on reel to reel only).    But I think the legend behind these songs are more worthy than the band itself.  Without Russ, we became The Open Highway Band and practiced a lot over at Dewayne's house and we did eventually play at the Pink Elephant in early 1983, around the time that the San Diego Chargers got beaten by Miami in the rematch from a year ago. By then Randy Hartwig and Dennis Lancaster would come in to take Russ' place while Russ was serving in the Marines.   And in the meantime I kept sleepwalking my way through life.  But there were fun memories.  Memories of the guys playing guitars on the open end of the station wagon going through Marion.  Memories of scaring the bikers out of The Pink Elephant with country music. And the thrill of hearing our songs on the player.  Eventually, when Russ got out of the service that Paraphernalia would take on a new meaning and new direction that would last for a year and two months.   But this session that took place 35 winters ago would shape the sound of yours truly.

For better or worse.