Did you ever get the news that someone you’ve known for a long time had passed away and you got the feeling inside that that friend had just waited too long? Maybe it was that they just waited too long to use their special talent waiting for somebody to pay them big bucks for trying. Or maybe they had put off enjoying life, acting the martyr and living their lives like it was just one long suffering. Over the years I have played in a lot of different bands. A flamenco trio, a quartet we called The Silvertones that played Polish and Italian Weddings, my own short lived BeBop Band…another where I played drums with a fantastic piano man when I had just returned from the army and Korea. I had fun in all of those groups. There is something in singing called “ensemble” and it means where the whole band gets involved in singing and sometimes the group might sing a phrase back at the lead. If you listen to the attached song you will get the idea.This blues chant is titled “Don’t Wait Too Long”. With all those groups we could never get the other guys to do that the way I heard it in my head. The beauty of working with my friend Greg in his studio was that although he made this sound like Greg is a group, in reality this is Greg singing alone. First on one track; he backed up the tape and recorded a second voice on a second track and backed it up and did it on a third track and he could do that on up to 40 different tracks. In fact he could bring in the entire Tabernacle Choir to sing along with just the flip of a couple of switches. We never did that but Greg threatened me with it a few times.
I hope you folks will listen to the attached song and join in on singing the response lines. In my mind that would sort of answer my wish to have a big band of responders doing a song just like I used to hear it in my head. Failure is not fatal but failure to change might be per John Wooden.
Be the first to comment