Retrograde Pop

In my teens, I wrote songs like a madman. In one year, when I was 16, I produced 11 albums worth of material. During the 6 year period between my 16th and 21st year, I produced approximately 700 songs. I have a hard time believing that figure myself, but at one point in my early twenties I counted them up and it came out to something slightly in excess of that figure. Since I've long since lost all the recordings and most of the written documentation, I can't go back and check the figures any longer. Now, admittedly, much of the material was truly, utterly terrible! It had to be; I started writing with a guitar in hand before I knew how to play chords! In fact, the first four albums were all noise, some of it very interesting noise -- at least we thought so. I say WE because I wasn't working alone; my best friend Steve MacKay was my partner in musical mayhem. Our band was called Garbage and that pretty much says it all. In fact, we knew we were horrible and reveled in the fact. Our attitude towards our music was interesting. We thought we were geniuses, but we also were scornful. The attitude was similar to how we felt about movies. We loved cheese. Japanese horror movies, Charlie Chan flicks -- anything horrible, we loved. As to our recordings, I knew every nuance of sound on those early tapes intimately well, because I listened to them endlessly. The first track we recorded was called Toilet Symphony. It had three principal parts. The first involved these soaring electronic sound effects we had recorded at The Ontario Science Centre; the second part involved sounds and music speeded up four or five times, so that it sounded like the flickering tinkling of a wind chime. The final portion was a native choral group chanting. You can see why that track -and indeed most of those tracks - are not now in existence.

Ha! It's called growing old! Instead, a further note about the songs on this page. In some cases the lyrics and music are exactly the same as the originals, except much better produced. (Working on a reel to reel tape recorder, meant that each overdub compromised the quality of the previous track. Only the last two tracks -- left and right -- where pristine. I don't understand those who long to return to analogue, that is like longing to walk across Canada.) What I really wanted to say is that some of these songs are based on the songs from my teens and not exact. This is because much of the lyrical content is now forgotten, and other lyrical content was so embarrassing that I decided to make alterations. However, the best tracks on here are pretty much exact, for example 'Down Empty Streets' and 'Musical Friend' are verbatim. On the other hand, 'Race Driver' and 'Dinner at the Ritz' are derivative because I recall only a few lines from each. The tunes, however, are as I remember them, or the best approximation I can now create. Finally, I want to note here that some of my very best songs on my main page were either inspired by the songs of my teens, or are derived from those songs. I will list them here: Heaven Breaks Tomorrow (Weekday Blues) Ticket to a Miracle (The Long Long Road to Nowhere) In Your Modern World The Fallen Idol Bees Knees Baby Romeo and Juliet Angel Song Saviour of Mankind (Lady of the Wall) Read the Rain Albert Ball Musical Friend Down Empty Streets The Street Where I Lived Day after Day Amy's Mist (Yesterday was her Birthday) This Time Around Winds of Change It's Getting Hard to Breathe Every Day You Know that it's Easy The Home of the Lord Whirling Wheels

A few times, yes. It's no joy for me to do so, because the only time I'm nervous in front of others is when I'm playing. I do recall playing in a mall one time, and that it was broadcast on local TV. Two of my songs have been played on the radio. I played a coffee house one time as one of three performers. So, it's very scant.

Dylan, Lennon, McCartney, and Cohen. But I think I could list dozens of others, whom I admire and who inspired me.

I've always used Cakewalk in various forms and guises: SONAR and now Cakewalk by Bandlab. I'm all about saving money when it comes to pursuing my hobby.

While the songs of my adult yeas have frequently been about my Lord, Jesus Christ, these songs were written when I was either questing or running away. I think both of those are accurate descriptions.