Notes on Eminent Domain

Upon completing the new Townedgers albums Logic And Lies, we had enough songs to warrant a covers album.  The original intention was to add a couple covers to that album but once Logic And Lies took on a whole new meaning and I had enough originals to make Logic And Lies a stand alone album of thoughts of what was going on in those two months.

At the tail end of last year after making Jubilee, for shits and giggles I came up with a covers album and put it under the Wapsipinicon Dreamers name.  The covers album was actually songs that I was beginning to do at acoustic jams and I was looking for some sort of songs to do that were fairly easy to do and sing. The only two originals I did were Baby Wanna Dance from Town's Edge Rock and another was a faster and definitive version of The Life We Lead.  At this point, a lot of the songs have been retired (Splendid Isolation, Can't Touch This) but the variation of styles from If I Were A Carpenter to Oh Death to Fox On The Run is noted.  A lot of songs came from jamming and familiarity, Let Your Love Flow was stumbled upon by accident and is considered to be one of the songs you would not associate The Townedgers with. I always loved the song but it does seem to be out of my vocal range when we play it live.  If anything The Wapsipinicon Dreamers starts out fine but by the end of the cd, we were getting bored with it.  Not that it really matters, but the version of Dead Flowers seems to lag when you compare it to the one that came off the Pawnshops Of Olivia sessions known as Country when that got released.

Basically Eminent Domain was not suppose to happen but during the Logic And Lies sessions, I started recording songs that I have been doing at various acoustic gigs around the areas.  Some songs I had to give up, Gold Dust Woman for one, I couldn't find the right vocal, it's better suited for a woman's voice.  A low fi version featuring Julie Gordon was recorded but it was part of a song, Belinda James recorded it and sang along on the chorus but in the end it was determined it wasn't needed.  There's hope of re recording it with Julie in the near future.  Amazingly, I came up with 14 useful songs, plus 3 more for the Hastings Edition of E.D.   Most, if not all the songs were done in 1 or 2 takes, rarely a 3rd and the most I did might have been I Don't Wanna Grow Up which might have been 5 or 6. All the songs were done by feel, especially the drums.  They're sloppy at times but I wanted to preserve the spontaneous groove of the drums I would lay the track down for a song and then move on to the next.

The big difference between E.D. and the W.D. album is that I had more time to prepare and play the songs before committing them to tape.  With exposure to playing them live, I had a general idea on how to play them.  And arrange them.  The end result is a more cohesive collection of covers but done in a style that represents the style of myself and The Townedgers.

The songs:

Ring Of Fire (written by June Carter with Merle Kilgore) 3:37
Originally done by Johnny Cash and later on by Anita Carter
Our Version taken from Social Distortion from their 1990 album

When the tape was rolling, we started out with a long introduction and eventually get into the riff.  Now the song is done in C with Johnny Cash, but I went with the easier to play A to D to E mode which is more punk rock than country.  Using the lesser known A chord I have crossed Jeff Overly up from time to time till I tell what key I'm playing it in.  This song pretty much tells the state of how the record will play out, I do believe this was done in one take and used as a guide track for arranging this song in our own style and way.  Working with Terry Bainbridge, he's one that doesn't like to work on songs if we can't nail it on the first few takes, and the more you work on songs, the more labored they become.  Thankfully we didn't have to worry too much.  If you keep it simple and not get too over the top with the drum work then it does sound better keeping it tight.  Sometimes it's better that way than go full Keith Moon or worse Mike Portenoy.

For What It's Worth (S.Stills)  3:36
Originally done by Buffalo Springfield

Protest music of today and it's still vital fifty years after the fact.  And it's a rare song that I can sing without using cheat sheets or the internet looking up for lyrics.  This song takes on many variations when I play it live, if I get guitar and bass players that can jam on it, then I can make into a jam song but if I'm playing solo, I more inclined to go by record and keep it short.  It's rare that I play drums on this when I play live so hearing this version does give it a different perspective or sound for that matter.

Cuts Like A Knife (B.Adams/J. Vallance) 3:51
Originally done by Bryan Adams

I believe when I got together with Russ Swearingen earlier in the year that he wanted to do this song, but for the most part I tend to play it much different than the hit version. I think our version has roots in the unplugged version.  In keeping with oddball tradition, this version that I do owes more to Son Volt or what would have happened had Jay Farrar covered this song?  I doubt if he ever will. This song took about 7 more takes then it should have, and the na na ad libs was basically trying to remember how it went, but I'm sure in the near future if and when I get back together with Russ that he would have it more toward Bryan Adams rather than our very own version.

I Fought The Law (S.Curtis) 2:23
Originally done by The Crickets, later by Bobby Fuller Four and The Clash
Our version combines all three bands mentioned above but not the version by Hank Williams Jr

Another spur of the moment song.  The aforementioned Hank Jr version was done on the 1998 album The Art Of Deception when we invaded the Whittier Community Center that night, but this song was done with a nod more toward Bobby Fuller with the staggered four a nod to The Clash.  Upon hearing the backing vocals, it sounds more like the Oi! punk bands of the late 70s. Gang vocals so to speak.  I had no intention of sticking this on Logic And Lies anyway but Terry Bainbridge really shaped it into something much more rocking than it should have been.  Another one take song, as you can tell by the crazy drumming at the end.  It sounds very Husker Du' ish. Or is it Bob Mould's guitar sound?  It's fun to guess

Everybody's Talking (F.Neil)  3:03
Originally done by Fred Neil
Later done by Spanky And Our Gang, Neil Diamond and Nilsson
My version done in Fred Neil Arrangements.

Fred Neil remains a mystery.  He wrote some great songs and put out a S/T album that this song on this but he was such a eccentric reclusive that his next album was one take improvised songs, I really wanted to do his arrangement of Please Send Me Someone To Love to which I made some attempt to sing that song, only to get strange looks from other people so I shelved that.  Everybody's Talking has been a 60s staple that everybody back then recorded it and it gave enough money to Fred so he could retire and spend the rest of his life helping out wildlife in Florida, namely the dolphins.  This song has become a staple in my acoustic shows and it's played the same key like Dead Flowers, only on the middle eight I go into G,D to A, instead of the D,A,G key of the main riff.  This song was considered for the Logic And Lies album as one of two covers but once we managed to complete that album with original songs, this would find new life on Eminent Domain.  Donna Jo Eisner would like me to do the high Nilsson falsetto but I rather much stick with Fred Neil's more lighter and mellower version.

Cocaine Train (R.Smith/R.Swearingen/D.Lancaster)  3:55
Originally off Living In The Twilight Zone 1983
Remade with new music on the Live At Nine Album by Paraphernalia/Tyrus) 1984

My old band rarely did originals.  They did a couple just to shut me up and the ones picked were not exactly my best songs.  This little ditty was a throwaway track on the 1983 Twilight Zone album and done as a goof.  However, my best friend Russ thought up a cool little bass riff and Dennis added some things musically too.  I still think the lyrics are a bit trite, who else would think of cocaine as a runaway train running over people who snort too much of that nose candy? But Heroin didn't rhyme, neither meth and perhaps the best one might have been bath salts.  Paraphernalia never did do a definite version, best one was a low fi recording from the Legion Hall and Mike forgot the words on the OK Lounge version and went back to the first verse.  In the end, this song was more Russ and Dennis' than mine.  In years later, this song got redone a few times, once in 1989 as a bonus track to Floodlands, another run through was at Whittier in 1998.  And then this version came to be while at the end of the first recording session for Logic And Lies and I was surprised I remembered all the words without cheat sheets and nailed it on one take. I think Russ and Dennis added a couple more riffs but I always liked my version better.  Sometimes less notes is more.

I Don't Want To Grow Up (T.Waits/K. Brennan)  2;47
Done by The Ramones, Tom Waits and Hayes Carill
Our Version: Tom Waits

Tom Waits is the master of writing great songs and then turning them inside and out. I always been a fan of Tom's Island Records period of sheer madness and weirdness.  The Ramones version is way too fast, so I went with Tom's version and adding more of a drunken drum beat.  You really have to pay attention the shifts of verses and chorus, especially the latter part of I don't want to which repeats many many time but to put emphasis on the part of How The Hell Did This Get Here So Soon?  I also knew that to nail that part, I would have blown my voice out and sure enough after nailing that part, we decided to take a couple days off to rest my vocal chords. I yet to attempt to do this song live though.

For Shame Of Doing Wrong (R.Thompson)  4:30
Originally done by Richard And Linda Thompson

The riff of Lately was stolen from the arrangement of my version of For Shame Of Doing Wrong.  While most are familiar with the slower and plodding version from Pour Down Like Silver, Linda Thompson did a more uptempo version on a 1980 recording session produced by Gerry Rafferty but only got released on a box set.  I suggested to current member of the Modern Rock And Folk AARP Band Belinda James about doing this song and gave her a copy of this version for consideration.  Given the resources that I have for female singers Belinda has the better voice if we managed to do this.  On the TE version the original intention was to fade it out after the call and response of "I wish I was a fool for you again" after a while but  Terry Bainbridge thought that having the guitars ending the song would be a better way of ending it.   One of the best lines ever written about love gone wrong, I wish I was a Fool for you again really nails the way I was feeling during the recording session and seeing that a potential love interests was falling apart in my very eyes and there was nothing I could do about it.

Lynchin Party (H.Howard)  2:45
Original version: Bobby Bare

One of the earliest albums I ever heard was 500 Miles Away From Home by Bobby Bare. My dad had a slew of RCA Living Stereo country albums and the best ones was Don Gibson's I Wrote A Song which played a big role in my music influences. And 500 Miles Away From Home.  Nothing against Jim Reeves but the albums we had were too mellow for me to care much about.  Anyway this little known song, which was the final track on side 1, told a morbid story about  social injustice and hanging the wrong guy after an angry mob stormed the jail and took matters into their own hands.  Which seems to be the way things are going anymore in this day and age.  I was toying with this song and then found the lyrics posted online and then recorded it right then and there.  A couple of run thru's and done in two takes.

She's About A Mover (D.Sahm)  2:50
Original Version: Sir Douglas Quintet

I always love Augie Meyer's vox organ playing, it sounded like a train in the night.  Our version is like the original but with a few oddities to make it sound like one of our own.  A very fun song to play live.

The First Cut Is The Deepest (C.Stevens) 3;58
Original Version: Cat Stevens
Our Version: Keith Hampshire

I know Sheryl Crow and Rod Stewart had their very own but I was drawn more to the much lesser known Keith Hampshire although hearing Cat Stevens' version it might be closer. The fallacy of love and trying to learn to love again after a breakup is very hard to do and it took me over five years to finally say yes to going out on a date. It may be another five years before I say yes to another date.  Which might explain the reason why the vocals were a little bit more darker than the actual version. The gang vocals seem to help bury the bitterness you hear from the lead singer.

Listen To Her Heart  (T.Petty) 3:14
Original Version: Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers

It seems everybody that plays in bar bands play Mary Jane's Last Dance, a song that I never gotten into anyway but my favorite TP album remains You're Gonna Get It to which this song was the second single picked but didn't chart.  Would you believe that ABC Records gave this a edit?  You wouldn't know, it never gets played on the radio. Our version was a very rough go through, not even considered to be issued on Logic And Lies and I wasn't too keen on issuing this on CD. But upon hearing the playback, it was decided it wasn't that bad after all.   It was done in one take, a reference version to which the the drum breaks on the middle four were not on the beat.  Which a frustrated high hat accent goes into the instrumental break.  Amazingly, the final ending the breaks did managed to stay on the beat, well most of them anyway.  It doesn't vary much from I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better by The Byrds.  To which in the end, that song gets the nod when I play live.

No Expectations (M.Jagger/K.Richards) 3:16
Original Version: The Rolling Stones

B side to Street Fighting Man, another song discovered by accident. Done in the usual E,A, D style, this seems to be more of a crowd favorite than say Dead Flowers.  Even though Charlie Watts never played drums to this (he might have at live events) it's just me playing with the beat before the cymbal accents to the final line of the verses. Which really works.  When I record the songs on guitar, I tend to play a more rhythm sort of strumming, as a mental note of where to place the accents and breaks at.  There is a method to this madness of recording.  Another song that only took one take to do, since this has been played live a few times.

Best Of Me (R.Smith/J.Orbit)  3:24
Original Version: The Townedgers These Things Must Pass 1995

While recording Logic And Lies, it was beginning to feel that the songs on that album were taking on a more darker and depressing role so I went back into the archives to see what song I could update and make current.  Best Of Me came from the 1995 album and while I was trying to make it sound like hard rock and roll, upon hearing that version today I found out the guitars were sadly out of tune and not in a very good way.  I also found out I could not hear part of the lyrics so basically this got a rewrite.  The song might have something to do with my first encounter of doing night things of the person I was with and for intimate moments.  As I violate her space indeed.


The Hastings Expanded Edition Version.

I'll Have To Say I Love You In A Song (J.Croce) 2:40
Original Version: Jim Croce

I really can't say what bought me into playing this song.  Perhaps it was trying to do something out of the ordinary Jim Croce was taken away from us way too soon, like Buddy Holly so to speak but Croce could write some beautiful love songs.  I yet to try this on stage but this is the reference version just in case if I want to do it once again.  If ever.

Teri: (R.Smith/G.Redding) 5:43
Original Version: Moonlight Chronicles 1989
Later version 2002 The Road Less Traveled

Jeff Overly plays alto sax on this live version taken from Gilligan's in May of 2017 and recorded by Belinda James.  I messed up the chorus line but it's nice to hear somebody else play on my original songs.  Later on, drums were added on for more "flavoring" so to speak.  I really had no use for this on the 14 song edition (time issues, we wanted to keep this under 50 minutes, and the bonus tracks made it a full hour) but again this song is basically Jeff showing off his amazing sax skills.

Drawn In The Dark (Version 1) (R. Smith/G.Redding) 4:10
Outtake from Logic And Lies

With this song, this scrapes the bottom of the barrel of outtakes from Logic And Lies and this version is a more edgier.  This is the Ibanez acoustic guitar through the amps with the tube stack turned half way up.  Logic And Lies wrote itself and there wasn't much for outtakes, this may have the most focused album I've done in years. Whatever was used for originals found itself on that album and since the only other original (Best Of Me) were left off, found their way to this album.


On the cutting room floor

Jimmy Brown The Newsboy (AP Carter) 2:44
Written by A P Carter for the Carter Family
Our arrangement: Roger Miller  1955

I liked the E to C chord on the chorus but upon hearing the playback I wasn't that impressed with the finished product so it remains on the 4 track master  This arrangement of the song would be later shaped into The Way Love Used To Be, done on the Logic N Lies album.

Solid Rock (M. Knopler)  4:24
Original version: Dire Straits 1980

An attempt to do this song, but I basically got bored with it.  It was my guitar and vocal only. Basically a guide version on how to do the song, but even the guys got bored and moved on to other things.

Like Logic And Lies, this album was recorded from April 19 to July 12, 2017 at the home base
Terry Bainbridge co produced this with myself as well as recording it, assisted by Me and Martin Daniels.  Richard Dennanbaugh helped on  For Shame Of Doing Wrong and I Fought The Law.
The usual suspects played on this.  Geoff Redding was the other guitar player,  Martin Daniels and Mel Strobie helped on bass.  Main vocals, guitar and main drums was me.  Geoff, Martin helped on backing vocals.  Even old bandmate Mark McClelland sang backing vocals on I Fought The Law. Martin D and Me mixed the songs at Hoarder House Of Hits in Fairview and sent to Maier Records to which they approved of the whole thing.  God Bless Them!  Diggy Kat, head of promotions and A and R for the past decade for The Townedgers and R.Smith.  Jeff Overly comes courtesy of himself and the band East Of Omaha.  For Gold Dust Woman, credit is given to Julie Gordon, the Goddess from The Dreams Of Arcadia Band who is the lead vocalist  and Belinda James sings backing vocals and recorded the song at Checkers in mid May of 2017.  Ryan Paul plays some sort of foot percussion, he too of Dreams Of Arcadia duo.

Special thanks are to the usual folks who continue to promote and play and support our music, the jammers at various jams in eastern Iowa, I know who they are, and they know who they are.  The venues of Checker's, Rumor's, The Long Branch Supper Club, Parlor City CR, Whittier Community Center, Just Jules, Ramsey's, The Artisan Sanctuary in Marion, Stone City General Store for keeping live music alive.  The record stores that sell museum records at second mortgage rates but also the St Vincent De Paul and Salvation Army Stores that sell records at a quarter apiece, keeping me busy looking for more 45s I don't need but still buy anyway.  What I have been doing for 50 plus years. Thanks be to the higher power that lets me continue to record music, be it God, Jesus Christ, Gaudi, Buddy Holly, Bobby Fuller or Keith Moon or Bo Diddley.  Or the great white light.

This record is dedicated to the memory of Hastings Entertainment, the last big box used entertainment store that I managed to score a lot of cheap cheap CDs on my trips out to Arizona or towns that did have a Hastings Entertainment Store.  They closed all of them up last year and now a memory.

(C) 2017 The Townedgers Music Emporium licensed to Maier Records.
MR-25593