Story behind the song
As stated, this started as Skip and myself trying to see if we could write for someone
else. Joey was our friend, and had a funk/soul cover band, but he had mentioned to
Skip, that he needed a "signature song" to help him stand out from the crowd (not that
Joey would ever get lost in the crowd, he was just "ON" all of the time). Skip, told
me what Joey had said, and suddenly we had the craziest thought we probably ever had,
"Let's write a song for Joey!".
We knew we would need something "Funky", which Skip is very good at, plus "Pop" enough
to work anywhere they played (Skip had started playing Bass with Joey's band
"Knightwalker", since "Lost Reality" had broken up.) So he pretty much knew what could
work.
That Bass line started the whole ball rolling, it was just "spot on" for what we
needed to accomplish. The song was built around the Bass line, and it was time to
start recording it. I actually played the drums to just the Bass track, before
everything else was added. I'm a rocker through and through, I just did not have the feel,
for the Guitar work that this song was going to need. Skip layed down two Rythmn
tracks on the guitar, so we'd have it in stereo. then the Lead guitar, and lead fills.
We were thinking of adding a bunch more to it, bongos? Keys? Shakers? etc. But
what happened was, is that Joey was so knocked out we were doing this for him, that
Skip couldn't hold him off any longer, on coming to hear it. As soon as it started up,
Joey was dancing all over the room, doing James Brown yelps and inflections with it,
mind you , he had not even seen the lyrics yet that we had written. He was READY!!
and nothing was going to stop it, he had to sing it NOW! He was reading the Lyric
sheet as he was singing, and it only took five takes to get the Master Vocal track.
With Just a couple of "punch ins". If you listen close you can hear Skip, myself and
Michele, just speaking words on the choruses, I liked it as it added a "Beatle-like"
touch to it.
long story short, it got added to the set, and Skip told me they got the best responce
from the crowd, every night, when they played this song. There was some "label"
interest, but there were some characters in the deck that I'm not comfortable with
discussing here. The result of was a complete re-recording of the song with only Skip,
and Joey being involved from the orginal recording. It had a bunch of horns added to
it, and the arrangement was changed (basically, because no guitar player they tried
could play Skip's brilliant distinctive part, and Skip refused to lay it on for them,
bass only for him this go around, I think as a favor to me, because I was against the
whole thing to begin with, and my brother respected that)
Sadly Joey passed, a little over a year and a half after the original recording, but
at least he got to "Jame's Brown" his ass off to his own song on stage during that
time.
R.I.P. Joey D. you were a "brother" and a friend. Always Missed.
