Motorhead350
11-22-2010, 12:23 PM
This may seem like a blog, but it's for those who keep asking me what's going on. Sometimes just though PM so they don't get judged for putting up with me. :)
The Rock N' Roll Fantasy Camp was here in Chicago and what a crazy weekend. My drummer and I were doing our usual thing of working hard and me doing the networking... plus we got paid... do I hear the Marauders tick going away? Naa it's just the radio up louder. I couldn't get anyone to let me borrow their car and I wasn't going to drive in my GFs Neon because I had to get a lot of the artists. So running on eight cylinders or seven, the show must go on.
I got the Marauder cleaned for the first time in two months and everyone loved it. I took Mitch Ryder for a spin and soon as I started it up he said "Man listen to that engine. I know those mufflers aren't stock." "Yes they are, but they are 171K miles old. Plus the headers and highflow cats." We talked about cars here and there and Doo Wop music. Turns out his first band was a Doo Wop band called The Peps. They had one 45 and that was it, now I have something to hunt for. Mark Farner from Grand Funk Railroad loved the car too. He asked about the engine and said his Mark 8 had the same engine. I explained the slight difference stock for stock the best I could, but he grinned when I mentioned the DOHC. ;) Rudy Sarzo from Quiet Riot and Ozzy was telling everyone they were riding in the Bluesmobile. :cool: Kip Winger thought it was a blast too.
Every night was non-stop jamming as usual. Rudy had the best jam act especially when they were doing Black Sabbath/Ozzy songs. Rudy was actually telling campers to challenge me to Rock N' Roll trivia. I was going after some of the coordinators on trivia and they couldn't get anything. It was pretty funny. One drummer was big into Rock N' Roll, so I told him what I wrote on Abby Road's wall. He found it very funny and sadly true. We were on the same page that The Beatles killed Rock n' Roll, even if they had some cool tunes.
The biggest task was being the guitar tech for Dickey Betts. I also had to pick him up. He's a really nice guy, but he was constantly drunk. He would just jam with anyone and be more than happy to sign anything and take photos. He didn't say anything about the Marauder, but he thanked me for the rides and remembered my name... even after not seeing him for hours. Not even the customers do that. Even if he was drunk, soon as he started playing he seemed like he drifted off into his own world and played so well, that you would never think he was intoxicated. He was pretty funny too. We did share something sad in common. On the way back he kept quoting Robert Johnson. This isn't a bad thing, but I realized he too was born too late for own time. All his influences were dead by the time he could pick up a guitar... or at least those he mentioned. I mentioned how I am too late for my time and said who I was fond of. He gave me a look like I was one of the few people who understood him. It was an angry look, but nothing, but kind words came out. It was very strange.
One girl I saved from screwing herself over. She wanted to play a song live that she created. I asked he if she copyrighted it and she said no. I told her to or the camp will own it. Well she ended up not playing the song because she said the papers were too hard to fill out. :rolleyes: She did thank me the next day because she read over the contract of the camp and said I was exactly right. The song would be the camps, and I saved it for her.
One other thing that was kinda sad was hearing Joey from Badfinger life story. He is the only member of Badfinger alive. I did not know two of the members committed suicide, one died recently and his wife died sleeping next to him last year. Now everytime I hear the song "No Matter What" I will forever be reminded of the events that tragically happened in his life. By the lyric content I'll be thinking about how he lost a wife of 30+ years. It's now a real sad song to me.
Last night was nuts. Some of the Rock Stars left items at the hotel 30 minutes before showtime. I had to get back and forth from the House Of Blues to 625 S. Ashland in 30 minutes flat. Let's just say the Marauder hadn't been pushed like that since the dragstrip, it was just like Die Hard 3, I was really moving fast and driving like a madman. It was a good thing I didn't get anyones Marauder because I did have to drive in reverse at 30mph for two and a half blocks to get myself out of traffic. I know it wasn't my fault that these people forgot items they needed for performance, but the music just matters too much to me. One the way back I got there in seven minutes, it was nuts. Wondering if the engine was finally going to blow up for good, but it held up and the ticking hasn't gotten any worse, even driving like a Wheelman.
The reason I went out worked out and I was also at the biggest crossroad of my life. The producer I wanted to impress, was impressed with my bands recent originals. We listened to the demo in the Marauder on the way to the studio on the first day. He smiled and said to me "Dom, you did it right this time. I'm impressed brother." "Really?" "Yes. For your lust of Rock N' Roll in it's purest form and the way you play it... you can take Rock N' Roll, completely ****** it up and take over an entire generation of people that don't know what the ****** you are doing. You can make a huge impact and make music fun again!" "Really?" "Yes, you have something here. We can work with this. You know so much about this music that you know where to borrow stuff from. Make more songs like those two originals you showed me" I also told him I changed the name from Stang Stomper to Sha-Boom! In reference to one of my favorite Doo Wop songs. It's by The Chords from 1954... you might know it from the movie Cars, yes I knew of it before the movie. So he wanted to talk to me about the demo when we had more time.
Here is the crossroad. I finally got a steady job for the first time in over a year and orientation was friday. I couldn't make it due to the camp so they changed it to monday for me. The only time the producer had was on the car ride to the airport on monday, so that was during when I was supposed to be training for work. I already put off work once and I was afraid if I did it again, I would lose it before it even started. So what do I do? Risk the job for a meeting with a producer? No question. You bet I did. Let's just say found a way where I did it all. 3 hours of sleep, meeting and got the training put off until wed so I can sleep all day tomorrow.
On the ride to the airport we talked about my band further. We talked about recoding techniques and equipment. He also asked how many songs we recorded and how many are worth passing off. I mentioned we had 2 covers, one of N.W.A.'s Automobile in a Punk style and It's Still ROck N' ROll To Me in our style. At first he said covers are a waste of time and no one would sign me for it, but he wanted to hear our Billie Joel song. He went though my CD booklet and saw everything I liked. From Chuck Berry to Social Distortion. "Wow Dom, you have good taste." He said... even if that is subjective. I had the CD he was looking for in the car and he was shocked. He said "Wow. We can make something of this. You take a song that everyone knows and make it into a Rock N' Roll song. I would even put this on the same record with your originals. S**t I wish I was in town another day, if I was I would cut this with you guys!" I was thinking it's just a cover, but it is our style. If the public liked this, they would like what we wrote.
He told me to give him a call after this week. He's going to listen to the demo and let me know what has to be changed before we pass it off. Sounds like we got the ball, now we need to get it rolling.
It was worth risking blowing up the car, worth staying broke, worth losing a job, worth the lack of sleep... it was all worth it.
Sorry it's so long.... that's what he said.
The Rock N' Roll Fantasy Camp was here in Chicago and what a crazy weekend. My drummer and I were doing our usual thing of working hard and me doing the networking... plus we got paid... do I hear the Marauders tick going away? Naa it's just the radio up louder. I couldn't get anyone to let me borrow their car and I wasn't going to drive in my GFs Neon because I had to get a lot of the artists. So running on eight cylinders or seven, the show must go on.
I got the Marauder cleaned for the first time in two months and everyone loved it. I took Mitch Ryder for a spin and soon as I started it up he said "Man listen to that engine. I know those mufflers aren't stock." "Yes they are, but they are 171K miles old. Plus the headers and highflow cats." We talked about cars here and there and Doo Wop music. Turns out his first band was a Doo Wop band called The Peps. They had one 45 and that was it, now I have something to hunt for. Mark Farner from Grand Funk Railroad loved the car too. He asked about the engine and said his Mark 8 had the same engine. I explained the slight difference stock for stock the best I could, but he grinned when I mentioned the DOHC. ;) Rudy Sarzo from Quiet Riot and Ozzy was telling everyone they were riding in the Bluesmobile. :cool: Kip Winger thought it was a blast too.
Every night was non-stop jamming as usual. Rudy had the best jam act especially when they were doing Black Sabbath/Ozzy songs. Rudy was actually telling campers to challenge me to Rock N' Roll trivia. I was going after some of the coordinators on trivia and they couldn't get anything. It was pretty funny. One drummer was big into Rock N' Roll, so I told him what I wrote on Abby Road's wall. He found it very funny and sadly true. We were on the same page that The Beatles killed Rock n' Roll, even if they had some cool tunes.
The biggest task was being the guitar tech for Dickey Betts. I also had to pick him up. He's a really nice guy, but he was constantly drunk. He would just jam with anyone and be more than happy to sign anything and take photos. He didn't say anything about the Marauder, but he thanked me for the rides and remembered my name... even after not seeing him for hours. Not even the customers do that. Even if he was drunk, soon as he started playing he seemed like he drifted off into his own world and played so well, that you would never think he was intoxicated. He was pretty funny too. We did share something sad in common. On the way back he kept quoting Robert Johnson. This isn't a bad thing, but I realized he too was born too late for own time. All his influences were dead by the time he could pick up a guitar... or at least those he mentioned. I mentioned how I am too late for my time and said who I was fond of. He gave me a look like I was one of the few people who understood him. It was an angry look, but nothing, but kind words came out. It was very strange.
One girl I saved from screwing herself over. She wanted to play a song live that she created. I asked he if she copyrighted it and she said no. I told her to or the camp will own it. Well she ended up not playing the song because she said the papers were too hard to fill out. :rolleyes: She did thank me the next day because she read over the contract of the camp and said I was exactly right. The song would be the camps, and I saved it for her.
One other thing that was kinda sad was hearing Joey from Badfinger life story. He is the only member of Badfinger alive. I did not know two of the members committed suicide, one died recently and his wife died sleeping next to him last year. Now everytime I hear the song "No Matter What" I will forever be reminded of the events that tragically happened in his life. By the lyric content I'll be thinking about how he lost a wife of 30+ years. It's now a real sad song to me.
Last night was nuts. Some of the Rock Stars left items at the hotel 30 minutes before showtime. I had to get back and forth from the House Of Blues to 625 S. Ashland in 30 minutes flat. Let's just say the Marauder hadn't been pushed like that since the dragstrip, it was just like Die Hard 3, I was really moving fast and driving like a madman. It was a good thing I didn't get anyones Marauder because I did have to drive in reverse at 30mph for two and a half blocks to get myself out of traffic. I know it wasn't my fault that these people forgot items they needed for performance, but the music just matters too much to me. One the way back I got there in seven minutes, it was nuts. Wondering if the engine was finally going to blow up for good, but it held up and the ticking hasn't gotten any worse, even driving like a Wheelman.
The reason I went out worked out and I was also at the biggest crossroad of my life. The producer I wanted to impress, was impressed with my bands recent originals. We listened to the demo in the Marauder on the way to the studio on the first day. He smiled and said to me "Dom, you did it right this time. I'm impressed brother." "Really?" "Yes. For your lust of Rock N' Roll in it's purest form and the way you play it... you can take Rock N' Roll, completely ****** it up and take over an entire generation of people that don't know what the ****** you are doing. You can make a huge impact and make music fun again!" "Really?" "Yes, you have something here. We can work with this. You know so much about this music that you know where to borrow stuff from. Make more songs like those two originals you showed me" I also told him I changed the name from Stang Stomper to Sha-Boom! In reference to one of my favorite Doo Wop songs. It's by The Chords from 1954... you might know it from the movie Cars, yes I knew of it before the movie. So he wanted to talk to me about the demo when we had more time.
Here is the crossroad. I finally got a steady job for the first time in over a year and orientation was friday. I couldn't make it due to the camp so they changed it to monday for me. The only time the producer had was on the car ride to the airport on monday, so that was during when I was supposed to be training for work. I already put off work once and I was afraid if I did it again, I would lose it before it even started. So what do I do? Risk the job for a meeting with a producer? No question. You bet I did. Let's just say found a way where I did it all. 3 hours of sleep, meeting and got the training put off until wed so I can sleep all day tomorrow.
On the ride to the airport we talked about my band further. We talked about recoding techniques and equipment. He also asked how many songs we recorded and how many are worth passing off. I mentioned we had 2 covers, one of N.W.A.'s Automobile in a Punk style and It's Still ROck N' ROll To Me in our style. At first he said covers are a waste of time and no one would sign me for it, but he wanted to hear our Billie Joel song. He went though my CD booklet and saw everything I liked. From Chuck Berry to Social Distortion. "Wow Dom, you have good taste." He said... even if that is subjective. I had the CD he was looking for in the car and he was shocked. He said "Wow. We can make something of this. You take a song that everyone knows and make it into a Rock N' Roll song. I would even put this on the same record with your originals. S**t I wish I was in town another day, if I was I would cut this with you guys!" I was thinking it's just a cover, but it is our style. If the public liked this, they would like what we wrote.
He told me to give him a call after this week. He's going to listen to the demo and let me know what has to be changed before we pass it off. Sounds like we got the ball, now we need to get it rolling.
It was worth risking blowing up the car, worth staying broke, worth losing a job, worth the lack of sleep... it was all worth it.
Sorry it's so long.... that's what he said.