“So, just House Band?” Kristen asked.
“Isn’t that a bit presumptuous?” James Gripper asked. James, known as Grip, was a pretty good trumpet player in the band. “I mean, we haven’t got the gig yet!”
“I like it, Grip,” I said, nodding at James. “If we show up at Puppy Dawg’s, and tell them we’re the House Band, they’re bound to sit up and take notice.”
By general consensus, we agreed that we’d be the House Band from now on.
“Are we all going to be wearing a hat like yours?” Frank asked.
As usual, I was wearing the hat that Kristen got for my birthday, since this had something to do with music. “If you want,” I said, shrugging. “Wear what you feel comfortable wearing.”
Once we got the preliminaries out of the way, we got down to business. “Let’s do the wind/horn run through.”
“Which one?” Frank asked. “The ‘movie star’ one?”
“Um, that’s just a working title. I didn’t write any words for it, yet.”
Frank laughed. “If we’re going for plain titles, then why not call the song, ‘Working Title?’”
Everybody laughed. “OK. Let’s start with Working Title for now.” I said, trying to get us back on track.
We stopped and restarted the song a few times, mostly to get the sax/horn part with a stronger groove. Finally, I got a brilliant idea.
I left the studio and retrieved one of Ringo’s old albums. When I got back, I put the LP on the stereo and put on It Don’t Come Easy.
“Listen to the horn section on this song.”
As the song played, I pointed out the horns and how they augmented the song. After it was done, I said, “This arrangement is definitely influenced by Phil Spector, who did the Let It Be album, and some of John’s and George’s solo works.”
“You want us to sound like Ringo?” Frank asked.
“No,” I said, laughing. “I want us to sound like a well trained rhythm section. Now, let’s take Working Title from the top.”
The song went much better this time, so we went to do some standards, having either Roy, Kristen, or Stacy singing lead, where appropriate.
After a few songs, Roy asked, “Aren’t you going to sing anything? Your voice is a bit better than mine, you know.”
I laughed. “Better? I don’t think so, Roy.”
Nobody else laughed.
“Oh, come on, guys. Roy doesn’t play an instrument, he should sing lead.”
Grip shook his head. “So, you’re just gonna stand up there and direct us? We’re not a symphonic band, Oogie. You’ve got to perform.”
Kristen caught my eye, and signaled me.
“Let’s take five, people,” I said. “Lynette has some snacks upstairs in the apartment. There’s a pool table down the hall as well. There are bathrooms on all floors. Let’s all be back here in five.”
Everybody got up, and Kristen led me across the hall to he recovery room.
“Jim, what’s up? Grip is right; you’re not performing.”
“I want everybody else to have a chance to perform. I did the Working Title song, after all.”
Kristen shook her head. “This isn’t the talent show. I know you’re serious about starting a band, and if you do so, you will want to earn a living. People are going to come to see you, Jim. They’ll want to hear the band, but they want to hear you. Everybody in the band is in it because you’re a part of it.”
“What about Roy?” I asked. “He can’t just play tambourine.”
“Why not? Roy’s not long term, Jim,” Kristen said. “He’s told Merry that he likes singing, but would never consider making that his only career. He’s doing it in now just because the two of you are friends. He doesn’t have to sing every song.”
“Hmm,” I said. I didn’t know that about Roy, but it made sense. He was excited about electronics and did a lot of projects from Heathkit and Radio Shack’s “Science Fair” line of do-it-yourself kits. He liked music, but he didn’t have the passion for it that I and a few of the others had. “All right, then. The two of us will alternate, deciding which songs we like best.”
“That’s the spirit, Jim.”
I gave Kristen a quick kiss. “Let’s go upstairs before all of Lynette’s cookies are gone.”
“You’ve always been after her cookies!” Kristen said, giggling.
“They’re not as warm or as soft as yours, my sweet!” I gave an appreciative tweak of Kristen’s nipples through her blouse, and her nipples hardened immediately.
Kristen giggled. “We’ll never make it back in five minutes if you keep that up, Oogie!”
The two of us laughed as we went up the stairs.
One of the things I accomplished was getting some of the songs that we were rehearsing recorded. There were a couple that I wanted to work with, especially the song that was now called Working Title. I did three tracks for that one. The first track contained the rhythm section and drums. The second track was Kristen’s bass guitar, Amy’s piano, and Gerry’s lead guitar. The third was the “She is a movie star!” vocals on it.
That vocal track was a throw-away. The words were just a fill-in so we could get a feel for the way the song would play out. During the recorded section, I cut off the seventh and eighth lines of each verse, replacing them with a two-word “Oh yeah!” I also added the locations for a chorus, with an even different composition (I was starting to hear the words in my head as I recorded it, but didn’t want to start writing a song in front of the band while we were supposed to be rehearsing).
The song was pretty well blocked out in my head, but after hearing the recording I made, I realized I wanted to feature the rhythm section even more in it. It already contained a pretty funky arrangement, and they were starting to come together really well.
However, there was enough of the song that I could now work on the words privately in my studio this evening. I played the song a few times until I started “seeing” the words that I saw earlier that day.
After a few tries on the piano, I came up with a good first line: “She’s my Goddess, you see!”
I grinned. This was going to be a song about Kristen!
There was going to be some problem with the six-line stanza, since it wasn’t a normal poetry form, especially with the two-word follow-up. I shrugged, and figured I’d come up with something.
Now that I had a good first line, I started playing again, and as if by magic, the words came to me:
Maybe the words were trite, but they came from the heart. Inspired, I went for the next stanza. Once again, the words came out and the rhyme didn’t seem forced.
I noticed the intercom light was flashing, but I wanted to get this recorded. Kristen would be so surprised!
I wrote down the lyrics that I sang, then I cued up the recorder. Since the third track, the vocal track, was a throw-away, I simply recorded over it, and sang the first two stanzas.
Feeling proud of myself, I answered the intercom.
“Oogie here.”
“Jim, you’re getting bad.” It was Kristen. “Forty-five minutes!”
“I was recording and didn’t want to get out of the groove.”