mr dave

TALES... FROM... The Jam Room...

So, after about 3 years of posting, disappearing, re-posting, going on hiatus, and then coming back again I've decided to start one of these journal things. I've participated on music forums for a good decade at this point and this is the only one still kicking with solid traffic and a place specifically for this type of thing. Unlike the album review journals that seem rather popular in this subforum this one is going to be a bit more personal, though not as personal as Above's Live Transmission (wow courage). No, mine is far more egocentric and whiny, rife with daddy issues, first world problems and the kind of manic depression I only wish I could caress, and kiss, and kiss...

The bulk of this journal is going to be about my experiences as an artistic musician. I feel the need to make a distinction between an artistic musician and a commercial one not necessarily for pretentious reasons (but still super pretentious) but also because I feel a strong difference between Song and Music. Simply put an artistic musician is more concerned with the immediate expression of the self through sound thereby being more focused on Music, whereas a commercial musician ends up more focused on the Song side of the spectrum due to their need to make a living with their craft. It IS possible to balance both aspects but generally speaking most people tend to lean a bit more on the Song side of the fence - whether or not they want to own up to the commercial angle I see it as is a whole other can of worms.

First some background, I'm yet another one of those people who'll claim they've been a musician forever and that's its an intrinsic part of their being. Fact is, I AM and it IS. My father peaked (for lack of a better term) as a one hit wonder in 1970 - I've been rocking out since I was monocellular! (As flippant and lighthearted as that might sounds it's still quite unnerving to admit).



He's holding me to the keys, not because I can't reach, but because I don't know how to stand yet. I was ready for the clubs not long after that.




So that's where it started. I saw my path, started laying down my building blocks of personal development and started growing into a big boy. Then the awesomeness of the so-called Rock and Roll lifestyle that got celebrated so much by so many (so long as it's not happening to them) reared its head. My initial collection of blocks got crushed by an issue so large and so lame no one wanted to address it directly. I become a very sullen and introverted boy. Another 10 years later I finally hear the Red Hot Chili Peppers for the first time and a lightning bolt was shot through my teenaged skull and the desire to rock out returned. A year later I scored my first guitar. A few years after that I took off for college, and met my first real musical peers and the ones who'd further refine my perspective on what being a musician was and my first 'real' jam room. After college there were the basement jams and the summer of gigs; the move to the warehouse; the first big hiatus; the return to the warehouse; and finally, the flood. And now as of this past week, I'm entering into a new phase, a change in my living arrangement is requiring a change in my employment arrangement which will require a change to pretty much everything.

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I'll be expanding most of those statements into full entries eventually (though not necessarily chronologically). If anyone wants to read about something specific sooner than later just ask. The other thing I wanted to add in my journal was personal deconstructions of various pieces of music that I feel are either pertinent to the journal entry or something I think should be more widely recognized.

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As if I'm not going to spotlight my old man's single for this first one.



Mashmakhan - As The Years Go By.


First a bit about the band. Allmusic and Wikipedia both claim the name of the band is derived from illicit drugs or hashish. I don't doubt that my old man experimented back in the day. I've heard people call hash - cheese, wax, bull, black, brown but never mash, or mashmakhan - I don't buy it. For whatever reason drug use is an issue my father and I have never bridged, I'm positive he's tried in the past, he's seen my pipe, but we've both taken the cowards way out Personally I think the band name is a play on words of a Quebecois' expression relating to hash smoking - Mash My Can (and turn it into a hash pipe).

My father cut his teeth playing saxophone for various soul / r&b bands around the Montreal area starting in the late 50s. The only name I know from those earliest days is Sammy Ambrose and stories of a small tour in New York state - $2 steaks in restaurants, a hotel that was 'closed' for the season but let them stay and subsequently flood, and being the only white face in the Apollo theater to see the one and only Ray Charles. By the end of the 60s my old man was still in Montreal and gigging with old friends and backing up soul singer Trevor Payne (who went on to found a pair of well recognized gospel choirs). Apparently producer Bob Hahn discovered the backing band and convinced the backing band to move to Toronto, sign with a major label, and become one of the first Canadian bands actively pushed towards having commercial success State-side.

Now for the song, it was actually the B-Side to their lead single and album opener Days When We Are Free. There's a 30 second organ solo tacked onto the start of the single that isn't featured on the album to fill it out a bit more or something. I've seen writeups describe their debut album as one of the more accessible prog / fusion albums due to the pop sensibilities throughout. As The Years Go By was actually just a filler track, they never expected it to amount to anything and my father claims that the bulk of the lyrics came to him awhile taking a bath and most of the song was written within the next 15 minutes.

It's a novel little song too. It's easy to write it off as a stupid hippie fluff tune if you only listen to the "And as the years go by... True love will never die" chorus. A little attention to the verses show that the song is in fact exploring the idea that love is an ambiguous feeling that means very different things to everyone throughout the various stages of their lives and within the various relationships they keep. There's at least 1 line within the song that absolutely everyone out there can directly relate to right now, and I think that's why it was a hit despite beginning as a novelty song, despite being a B-side, it rang true to listeners far and wide.

Musically it's rather interesting as well, being a rock tune with a raggae feel at a time when most people were implementing folky / country elements to their rock music. The choice of having the organ take lead while the guitar sits back and either adds subtle embellishments to the lead melody or sticks with dry staccato rhythm to keep the reggae feel also helped the song stand out from the crowd. There's also a pretty groovy bridge that seems like a great launching pad for solos / live jam action but neither of the 2 live versions I've ever heard went that direction (though other live tracks from their show in Japan did).

Thanks to anyone who's read to this point, I'm hoping to update once a month or so. Happy New Year to everyone

*edited for typos

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i am the universe