Thoughts From The Townedger-July

It's been a fairly busy month.  However, on Tuesday I had surgery to repair a belly button hernia and by Thursday Night I made it out to jam at Wrigleyville with some of the finest jammers around town. Perhaps I should have taken it easy but then again after having my appendix removed in 1996, five days later I was recording once again.

The strange thing about the Thursday Night jam is how much singing of the bar band classics that I had to do.  It's one thing when I have a guitar in my hands, another when I'm behind the drumset and truthfully I'm not a fan of singing behind the drums.  Only at gunpoint.  However, these past four weeks of doing a jam session has kinda opened me up in a way.  I suppose if I can keep doing this I'll get a bit more comfortable behind the mic and be able to sing those classic.  Provided if I can remember the words.

Every jam session we seem to have at least four or five drummers, so my jam time is limited. Terry McDowell plays in about three or four other bands, Peter Stark likes to wear the old tie dye T shirts and with his wife they are magical together.  Herm Sarduy is super smooth, can adapt to any beat at any time and is highly regarded.  Of course they practice a lot more than myself, which I tend to get extremely lackadaisical and out of focus. I rely on instinct.  Certainly I need to practice more often and I have been.  But I'm still not up to the standards of the Tyrus/Paraphernalia years or even The Routers.  I can hold my own but in reality, I'll need a few more hours under the spotlight to be in their league.

In the meantime, I'm suppose to take it easy and not lift anything over 10 pounds while recovering from hernia surgery so I'll be picking up a guitar and piecing together the new album. Three more songs in the can and more ideals to follow.  With no Arizona trip this year (maybe never) they say no traveling for another week or two anyway.  Diggy Kat and I traded ideas for a new song, plus a couple more too.  Since Forthcoming Trains turned out to be a bigger deal than 30, I still have been promoting that and the top ten hit of We All Sleep Alone which stayed in the top ten all month.   I need to start on the subject of the Townedgers back catalog with comments and memories of each album that I did from 1983 onward.  These things don't write themselves.

Would I consider doing a Townedgers song at a jam session?  I don't think the songs would fit in the regular songs, nobody knows them.  Unless I bring a guitar up there and show the boys how its done than probably not.

The Official Albums Of The Townedgers (and related) 1983-present

In light of things, I have been very lax in posting the albums of myself and what would be The Townedgers.  I admit the discography is a mess and probably will be till the end of time.  I started out recording in 1973 (and all of them got erased over time or the cassette fell apart). My dad then purchased a Reel To Reel Sony and from 1976 to 1982  I did a variety of forgotten albums, the best moments coming on a 1982 The Best Of Rodney Smith.  For some reason I decided to keep three albums on CD preserved. 1980's Rod Smith Tonight, 1981's The Power Of Positive Thinking and 1982 Bizarre Behavior which were released last year as the Big Crash Collection series.  While the tapes of the other recordings are still on reel to reel, the best moments were preserved on CD.


Back then, I worked with how much tape I had, and most of the time these hour long tapes had plenty of filler songs to them.  That continued when I started going back to cassette recording.  Most cassettes were hour long or 90 minute long, and had plenty of filler songs as well.  The first true album So Much For That, I found a 45 minute cassette and was happy with the end result, but when I couldn't find a 45 minute tape, I ended up getting an hour long cassette and added songs from the Big Crash Years.  Town's Edge Rock, the second album, was the true beginning of a long career which I never became more than a closet cult artist at best.

The Official Releases:

So Much For That (April 1983)
Town's Edge Rock (June 1983)
Living In The Twilight Zone (September 1983) (No longer available)
Love Sucks (originally titled Hey You) (November 1983)
Rodney Smith's Infinite Loop (June 1984)
Contractual Obligations EP (later 1984)
Rock And Roll Made Me What I Am Today (May 1985)
Rodney Smith And Route 66 (July 1985)
Wapisipinicon Dreaming (September 1986)
Every Hour On The Hour (November 1986) (No longer available)
Tales Of The Red Caboose (July 1987)
Postcards From The Edge (December 1987)
Travelogue (October 1988)
State Fair (April 1989)
Moonlight Chronicles (June 1989)
Floodlands (November 1989)
Purseyors Of The Truth (September 1990)
Nice Weather We're Having (November 1990)
Diamonds In The Skies (November 1991)
Drive In Blues (June 1992)
The First And Last Reunion (April 1993)
Modern Problems In Reflected Living (July 1993)
Weather On The Nines (November 1994)
These Things Must Past (June 1995)
Light At The End Of The Tunnel (March 1996)
The Townedgers Live-The Art Of Deception (November 1998)
Land Of Abandonment (December 1999)
More Rodney Smith And The Townedgers (2000)
There's Nothing Left (April 2001)
The Road Less Traveled (March 2002)
Observations From The Forefront ( July 2002)
20 (November 2003)
A Long Time Forgotten (November 2005)
Christmas With The Townedgers (October 2006)
The Highway Home (May 2007)
Pawnshops For Olivia (June 2008)
Townedgers' Country ( March 2009)
30/No Exit (April 2013)
Forthcoming Trains (April 2014)

In the CD age, So Much For That and Living In The Twilight Zone got issued as 2 on 1, with a few tracks deleted due to time considerations.  Likewise the 1985 albums got condensed.  I was thinking of giving both of their stand alone CD but the master tapes of a couple songs have been lost in the archives and haven't been found.

I did include three compilation albums (More, Observations and Country) since I considered them to be part of the recorded history of myself and the TEs but have not included any Best Ofs.  There has been talk and thinking about putting the best songs on one cd but again I want the songs to fit a format and quality as well.   Stories Of The Road (2000) is the only official best of but with the surprise success of We All Sleep Alone, a new upgrade best of might have forthcoming.  I also did not include two cds of two 2007 live in the studio stuff, nor the 1991 We're Getting Nowhere, for KRUI which didn't get aired.  Take away the comps and the TEs only have 8 official albums in the 2000s.

Although 26 albums and an EP was issued in the 80s, those years remain a garbled mess.  With prices for CD recorders fell in price, in 1995 I tried to set the record straight and issued the 80s albums in the intended way, less filler.  Basically Town's Edge Rock was left with all songs from the cassette, warts and all.  That was the CD that gave me the confidence to continue to record original stuff.   By the 1990s I was beginning to shelve albums, Perseyors Of The Truth got put on the backburner in favor of Nice Weather We're Having.  First And Last Reunion was delayed in favor of Modern Problems.  And Mixed Blessings, the unofficial album of 2005 was canned, only Nevada Streets was good enough for inclusion on Long Time Forgotten.

The 80s and 90s were a much bloated time, with the lesser known and filler kinda ruining the tempo and feel of the albums.  In the 2000s I started redoing the lesser known songs on later albums.  If you haven't hear them before it's new to you and they were pretty good written songs.  But it's well known that I was spending more time buying records and CDs and not focusing on The Townedgers.  I got tired of writing songs about women that used to be high school sweethearts or casual flings, especially songs toward the one who turned out to be a 38 year old mind fuck.  Which is why I don't play Running In The Rain anymore.  She never gave two fucks anyway, even back then.

30 and No Exit are one and the same, 30 I took out a few songs and added one and perhaps should have kept The End as the final track but I wanted Goodbye Doesn't Mean Forever the last song.  Still there's a possibility of returning No Exit back to print, or start a new comp.

Albums don't mean much anymore in life.  People want singles or snippets and not support the local starving artist. The five year lapse between Pawnshops and 30 wasn't intentional but at that point I kinda stepped away from the drumset and guitar for a spell.  I'm still old guard and the old ways of playing albums (even my own).  And with a CD recorder, I can now record 10 to 12 songs and keep it around 40 to 45 minutes, rather than the ones that last more than an hour.  I still love the full hour albums such as Light at The End Of The Tunnel or Modern Problems. And if I can still play these albums 20 years after the fact, then I think I did my job of making a good album.  And that's all that matters.

And as I get older, I'm finally at peace with myself and the songs that have been a part of this 30 plus year journey of original garage rock.  I have started coming out to jam sessions and play and sing too. Never thought that would happen playing a jam session and shouting out to Rocky Mountain Way or Can't Get Enough.  I'm more at home with my own originals but as they say Better Late Than Never in getting together with new musicians and friends along the way.  The Cedar Rapids Jammers have been nice to me and who knows, maybe some other new band might pop up from all this jamming.

But for me, this discography is the one that I'll be best known for.  And I can live with this too.

We All Sleep Alone

I told Diggy Kat if he kept this song in the top ten, I post the lyrics and dang if it didn't top the top ten at Lucky Star Radio.  This week's edition of the top ten on Lucky Star Radio is a who's who of music plus some of the exciting new bands coming up. Pet Engine's song rocks, Rob Nichols and Songbirds too. We'll forgive them for 18 And Life.

Some notes about my biggest hit ever. Jack Orbit and I wrote some of the lyrics way back in the 1990s but sat on it till I was working out the G C chords at the beginning and as you can tell it's a very simple song about the struggles of love and keeping it together.  Men want one thing, women another and we never seem to get on the same page.  The second verse was updated with a few twists and turns about the he said she said thing.  And getting to the chorus, which basically the break up. (What do you look for when you open that door and find yourself alone, you'll compromise).  At that point gone and gone and there's nothing left to compromise.

The chorus was out of the blue, the what do you look for segment really came up on the spot, that wasn't planned when the recording was laid down, nor the sing along chorus.  Upon mixing the album, Martin kinda left the singalong further in the mix, a new single version has the vocals up further.  Once that is delivered to my A and R guy, I'm sure he'll put it to better use. By then, the song will probably be out of the top ten when that happens.  I never did plan on having this song being number 1 or anything, but since they decided upon that I guess I should learn this better for future shows.

Funny thing about this song and the album Forthcoming Trains is how I continued to promote it, over a year after its release.  Usually I'm on the next effort but I have loved most of the songs off this album and continue to tout this while driving Martin and company up the wall with the inactivity of the new album.  I promise things are getting done as we speak.   It's a special feeling to have a number 1 song anywhere, a reward for working on songs in my little tight music room upstairs.  I don't expect We All Sleep Alone being played on Corporate Rock Radio, or even NPR although the latter would be incentive for me to get off my butt and play live more often.  I may have to quiz Diggy Kat on the reason why this is still on top of the charts the past three weeks.  But as long there's proof of it being number 1 on the charts, damn right I'm going to document it. 

I guess it's the best of 2015 on Lucky Star Radio and thanks to all who listened and supported this song.


We All Sleep Alone


Well I'm surprised to see you here
Must have taken some effort to conquer your fear
Not that I'm the first to tell you so
But it seems like you're the last to know
Now if you're looking for that perfect man
Then you're simply on the wrong planet
The pieces of that puzzle are never complete
So maybe you should wake up from that dream

And we all sleep alone
A reason that is known
And we never get this right
When you sitting right by my side
So what do you look for
When you open that door
and find yourself alone you'll compromise

She says we never agree on anything
It's guys like you who make love such a pain
And if you think you got the key to my heart
You better sober up cause you're drunk
I said you may not want to admit to this
But I bet you'll dream about me tonight
She said ain't you got the other way around my friend
I may say you're wrong but you know that I'm right

And we all sleep alone
A reason that is known
And we never get this right
When you're sitting right by my side
So what do you look for
When you open that door
And find yourself alone you'll compromise

You'll compromise

(c) 2014 R.Smith/Townedger Music Emporium 

Thoughts From The Townedger-June

Not much going on, but the big news remains the first number 1 song I ever did that made it to the top this week.  I still can't believe that out of all the songs that I done over the 30 plus years that We All Sleep Alone would be that one song.  I have to post the lyrics that song and give some background to how it became.

I've been looking to get a Zickos set before I retire from the music biz.  I've seen a couple. One from Rockford's guitar center, I almost got into the car and made that 4 and half hour trip but the tom tom looked a bit beat up.  If I'm going to sink 1100 dollars into a set it has to be in better shape. A Ludwig Vistalite is closer to look at at Uncle Ike's in Dubuque, but that too is 1400 dollars and just the shell pack.  I could talk into trading the Paiste Rudes for a markdown in price but even with credit it stays over a thousand I'll pass.  Besides, the car's muffler has a hole in it and that needs to be replaced.


June was a contrast of highs and very lows, I'm still very angry and ready to buy a gun to shoot every Redwing Blackbird in sight, but with the corn growing in the fields perhaps it might be safe to go hit the trails or go to Dubuque again.  I haven't ventured out much this month and being more reclusive since I'm basically tired of dealing with Mother Nature and the 9 out of 10 red lights that come my way. In typical June fashion, it's been another wet one and like last year another cool summer.   I can't enjoy life like I once did. The new album needs to be done but I had no enthusiasm to come up with any new songs despite We All Sleep Alone making the top spot on Lucky Star Radio.   And the usual speculation, talk about doing something with Russ this summer, or jamming with a friend of his. I have things to do or got things planned but I just haven't have the drive to do anything.

While I yet to read Steven Tyler's bio, I have been reading Joe Perry's book and Joe has a way to keep me reading his book.  I think I read a 100 pages the other night.  But basically it's no different than any other band, outside of the fact that Aerosmith got rich and famous. There's always some girlfriend trying to break the band up, and Joe's first wife was that thorn in the side.  I always been partial to Joe Perry's albums, Let The Music Do The Talking is still damn good, the others uneven but had their moments.  Joe's 2005 album was pretty good.  Wish I could say the same for the Aerosmith albums of when they got back together, Done With Mirrors is fine garage rock, Honkin For Bobo their last listenable album.  But Get A Grip through their last album I didn't care much for.  They promoted Music From Another Dimension but once again the ballads and lazy song doctors kinda left it dead in the water. I will try to listen to Steven Tyler's solo album but that might take some effort and a straight face to do.

So basically the Supreme Court announced that Gay and Lesbian people can get married and I have seen it all through the news and social media.  Basically it doesn't matter what I think, the world still is the same as it was yesterday.  I do have the straight and narrow minded folk screaming bloody damnation, fire and brimstone but I have been hearing this shit ever since birth and so far I have yet to see fire coming from the skies and earthquakes swallowing the heathens.  Politics and religions have been tearing up the world.  Funny how you come into this world, there's none of that bullshit bestowed upon you till you come across these fools in the journey of life and change your opinion of things.  I think anger and happiness can change a person for the worse or better.  Or love, which has been a 40 year journey into the toilet.  I think failures play a big role, after a while it seems losing is the way of life and we don't try anymore.   Or going outside for a walk and have a fucking redwing pick you out of a crowd and try to claw his initials in the back of your head.  You get tired of it all and you just opt out and recede from life itself.   Life happens and changes you to the point that what is the point of life is all there is, is the usual traffic jams, red lights and not be able to do the things you once did because your body is aging and can't do things you once did before.

And the choices that I made that turned out to be the worst choices, picking out the wrong girl 40 years ago and since then being hurt time and time again.  And writing songs about that experience, a lot of the songs that I do write express the euphoric and utopian highs when things go right and having the depression lows of the opposite and writing them into a song. Case in point: The Road You're On, which is a love song, but when I played it for Olivia when she came to see me in 1999, she didn't care much for the song and left the room to talk to my brother about something.  I did a acoustic version of that last year which showed more of the disappointment than the the actuality and positive vibe of the 1991 version.  It really doesn't matter what Jeanette or Janice or the rest thought about me back then and there, they're all good people but with me choosing them to be a significant other, altered my perception and the reality of them today is that they were the worst girlfriends I ever had.  Or based upon that in my mind.  It didn't help that Christine or Isabella were much better.  It's written in the songs about Isabella or Still Strangers which was about Christine

On the same level, there's And You And I or Undying Love or even Be With Me as positive and wishful thinking love songs that believe things will work out best in the long run.  It may come to some that these were throwaways but that's not the case.  Being in love with somebody can bring out the romantic in me.  Secret Admirer also is a positive love song   When you get your heart ripped out, sometimes a even better revenge song is written, All Over Now is the best example.  And from what I heard, that song was played at their reception.

I think some songs outlive their usefulness, the hope of Running In The Rain has been changed to a more morbid ending the second time around (that's yet to be recorded), which high school crushes can't stand hearing my name when its brought up at reunions.   I Rather Not Cry, written at the time of seeing my GF leaving the state one last time, ready to jump into the arms into another guy closer to home and either reaping or regretting the rewards.  I'm losing you and you're not even out the door, is knowing the end of love is coming and there's not a damn thing you can do about it.   And after that you just give up, knowing that you're too old for anybody under 40 and those who are still around are grandma's or having teenage kids and don't want another one at hand.

There was a time and place for somebody at some point and it had to be done at that time.  If you blew a chance, just like I did with the Girl in my Public Relations class and seeing her at Kitty's and then watching her crying and walk away that I didn't go say hi.  And hoping I could catch her at Kirkwood on Monday and try to explain myself, well needless to say I never saw her again. When the moment is gone, it's gone forever, but a song lasts forever... Or as long as you want it to last.

So basically I don't fall in love anymore, it just don't exist as it once did in my mind.    

Number 1 Single Of The Week

My first number 1 single....Ever.

Thanks to Lucky Star Radio and to my A and R and number 1 fan Diggy Kat for the pleasure.
Thanks to everybody who requested it.
Thanks to Hugh McConnell who helped produced it
Thanks To Martin Daniels who helped recorded it
Thanks to Geoff Redding for his vocals and guitar work
Thanks to the powers that be

And most of all thanks to the fans of The Townedgers who supported me.  I'm still in shock.

The TEs love ya.

Thoughts From The Townedger-May

Two more songs done yesterday.  The new one is called May Not Be The Next Time and the other a revisit of Faygo, basically the latter done as a slower song but probably will be used for a song on Townedger Radio (3rd Wed. Night on Lucky Star Radio at Midnight).  The session did one thing, it kept me from putting another 200 miles on my car going to a town and finding all of the thrift stores being bought out.

Rod Albaugh brought a couple of his guitars up at work and I got to play his black Ovation Acoustic and fell in love with it instantly.   Something out of the blue and basically to see if I can actually sing songs with somebody new and we hit it off quite nice. I'll try to get back together with him this summer and do a few more guitar songs.  We'll see what happens but for fun, it was nice to sing Dear Lisa in front of somebody.

While Texas and Oklahoma got hit big time by major floods, we escaped this month with below average rainfall.  Sometimes I wonder if paying 8 thousand to waterproof the basement finally convinced Mother Nature to go somewhere else.  Last two years of May weather we got kicked in the teeth so I think we were due a more subdued May.  Then again I'm not a fan of rain.

I guess we have yet another cat to deal with outside, lucky us.  Bad enough to have Callie around getting into things but we have a three legged blackie which my brother calls Rocky.  While he feeds both cats, the one I care more is Callie who has been in this yard the past half year and shows no signs of moving on.  While I tend to go BOO and watch Rocky head for the hills, Callie knows me well enough to look down her nose and purrs. She loves me.  And since I don't trust the so called no kill shelters around here, I basically let her hang around.   She's really not that bad of a cat.

The Tyrus Paraphernalia reunion of this month is the highlight of the month although a couple guys weren't there, mainly Mike Swearingen and Doug Bonesteel but in theory the main offenders were there and it was great to see each other again.  I believe we were friends first before band members which is why I look at this band differently. Dennis Lancaster lives out of state so having him here was a rare delight to see.  As long as we're all alive, band talk of getting back together again will always make the news on a slow day.  No problem of jamming on a weekend or doing a new song together, but life will never enable us to quit our day jobs of starving ourselves playing a 20 dollar gig at the local Sports bar and competing with ten different sports channels at the same time.  But if we can all get together to remember the good times once in a while, I consider that to be a band reunion. 

Another good idea was to show the source of the lyrics of Townedgers songs that I written over the years and decided to show them off in various stages.  Not all are greatest hits, but rather the songs that I enjoy singing and can play them without messing up.  I could flood the blog with plenty of them but I think if I just add one or two per month, you'll begin to understand how The Townedgers sound and how I write things up. Revisions and crossing unwanted lyrics out in favor of other words that might fit the song.  I don't write as much as I used to, but there's still a backlog of lyrics that could fit into musical ideas. Which is how May Not Be A Next Time came up, the words were written a while ago, perhaps during Forthcoming Trains or No Exit. But it was recorded quite quickly.  It had, I have forgotten how the song went already.  Life is like that when you hit 54, 30 years ago, I could remember the melody a lot better.  The hope is to continue to write new songs and see if they too can stand the test of time.  But you know it's been 32 years ago that I did Town Edge Rock. I don't forsee myself around for the 30th anniversary of Forthcoming Trains. I might be haunting the old Route 66 road somewhere in Arizona.

In two weeks, it will be the 40th anniversary of me going up to Michigan and meeting up with Jeanette Ratliff, a girl that took away my heart and soul but never came much after 1976.  She is of the Jeanette 15 Years Later song, which I'm sure I'll revisit that one on the summer tour.  And I consider her to be the worst all time GF that I ever had, not because of her and who she became but rather me wasting those years of waiting for her to join up with me down here.  The misconceptions of love and when you're a teenager, you have better things to do than wait around for somebody who lived far away.  She's ancient history now, the bitterness and anger of those events and seeing her walk down the aisle with somebody else, to which All Over Now was thought up and given to them as a wedding present was the best gift I ever gave to anybody. But that song lasted longer than her marriage and still remains a fun song to do. I'm sure she's a grandma now and living better, but if I know now of the events that happened back then, Jeanette would have never been a second thought. Teenagers make bad choices when it comes to first love.  Only the very rare remain together through the years.

I'd write more but the yard needs to be mowed.  I'll be back next month.

Teri

One of my favorite songs to sing, Teri has been through a few recordings and revisions since its 1989 debut off Moonlight Chronicles.  Basically a variation on a song that Richard Thompson did from Daring Adventures (Jennie)  Teri is written about an old friend of mine Teri Cortesio who was a co worker who somehow liked the early music that I did back then.  I think she was in her mid 30s when she worked at my place of employment and she was a chain smoking babe as well.   When I came back from Arizona in 1987 after being kicked out of my aunt's house and as I returned the U Haul at a Marion store she popped in and said she was moving somewhere else and we gave each other a hug and wished best of luck.

That said Teri was never a girlfriend of mine.  She seemed to be restless woman trying to find something of value in life. To which I hoped she did find.

The 1989 version is more preferred, it's very slow and very reflecting,  plus it leaves room for a guitar solo as well.  In 2002 it was revisited as a more uptempo song.  I recorded Teri at the beginning of The Road Less Traveled but left the recording off the finished product (later reissues I put the song back in but for the most part it could be on Observations From The Forefront, an odd and sods albums of outtakes and greatest hits at that time), for a run through it was actually pretty good.  A third version was recorded in August of 2008.

It could be masquerading as a love song of wanting somebody you'll never get but in the end it's basically a song that is more about friendship saying goodbye one last time.


Teri (my love)

It's been a while since we last met
It's good to see your face again
Spent the last part of the decade
Wondering where you're been
You used to say we were the best of friends
Even though we kept separate beds
Still we fought a losing battle
To save from a bitter end

But you were set in your ways
And your image even today
As you smoke your cigarette (clearly)
Through smoked filled eyes I  see you, Teri my love

Seeing you through the looking glass
The smile has left your eyes
And while we talked about the good ole days
There's something on your mind
Made a promise that if I loved you
I'd write it in a song
But as I hold you, I wonder
Why did it take so long

But daddy's little girl
Lives in her own special world
Giving fantasy a whirl
But does the world revolve around you  Teri my love?

Well I guess I'll be leaving now
It's time for me to go to work
I like to thank you for your sweet time
Yes, you're still a friend of mine

But you were always a wayward soul
Who always goes where the wind blows
Never made a promise that you didn't kept
But deep in your heart you know better
Teri, my love

(C) 1989 R.Smith