The official site of author, editor, and musician Lou Tambone, and the home of 2 Jokers Publishing and Entertainment.
THE STORY
This song is the fourth song of a concept album I wrote called The Code of the West. It’s basically an outlaw tale and this song is about the symbiotic relationship the main character has with his gun.
Today I have the pleasure of announcing my new album, The Code of the West. I’ll be releasing it slowly in all the usual places soon but these are your best bets for now.
There’s a SoundCloud widget where you can listen to the songs:
OR you can…Listen to The Code of the West via Dropbox
The Code of the West is a ten song concept album that takes place in the US Civil War era. It’s about a boy from St. Joseph, Missouri who lives on a farm with his parents until one day, during the Civil War, a general rides into town looking for new recruits. The boy’s father, sensing some big trouble ahead on the home front, figures his son’s chance of staying alive a soldier might even be better than his chance at home, so he allows his son to ride off to war. While away, due to some political machinations in town, his parents are killed – burned alive with their farm. The boy, now a man, comes home to find his farm burned down, parents dead, and no answers.
Seeking justice, he makes some decisions, for better or worse, and starts a journey West with plans to hit California, mine some gold, and then grow old rich in Mexico. On the way from St. Joseph to California, he changes and the lines between trying to survive and becoming a full-fledged outlaw begin to blur. After unintentionally bedding a Sheriff’s daughter, a relentless posse is dispatched. Our outlaw friend is forced to make some hasty and fatal decisions in order to realize his dream of Mexican freedom…
Once again, this is a concept album. The lyrics tell the story so try to listen to the songs in order. There are a wide range of influences here from old Elton John (Tumbleweed Connection, Madman Across the Water, etc.), Eagles (Desperado, etc.), The Band (Music from Big Pink, etc.), and there’s plenty of that Johnny Cash/Lou Reed style of spoken-word singing, if you catch my drift. My goal was to tell a story, plain and simple. It’s not a grandiose rock opera in the vein of The Who’s Tommy, but it tells a story nonetheless and I feel I’ve been successful. It’s certainly not a deep story. It’s very simple and easy to follow, but if you dig a little deeper you’ll hopefully pick up more things with repeat listens.
I took a few small liberties here and there but for the most part, I feel I’ve remained historically accurate. Whenever I needed names of towns or events or guns or even horse’s names from the Civil War era, I took to the internet and researched. I did so much research as I was writing the lyrics and the story that that’s where the title came from. There really was a “Code of the West.” I liked the phrase so much, it became its own song and ultimately the title track.
From Wikipedia (although I can’t seem to locate the link now):
A new code of behavior was becoming acceptable in the West. People no longer had a duty to retreat when threatened. This was a departure from British common law that required citizens to have their back to the wall before they could protect themselves with deadly force. In 1876 a Ohio court held if attacked a citizen was not “obligated to fly”. The Indiana Supreme Court upheld the legality of “no duty to retreat”. The Code of the West dictated that a man did not have to back away from a fight, needing to retreat no further than “the air at his back”, and could pursue an adversary even if it resulted in death.
I want to spotlight some people who helped me out on a few tracks.
Brian Csencsits played piano on the opening track, “My Father Was a Good Man.” I laid down a pretty basic piano track but it wasn’t fluid enough and didn’t really groove. The opening is really the only happy track on there, representing youth and innocence, so I wanted it to be bright and moving. Brian provided a much better track than I did and it sounds great.
Paul J. Baccash provided all the electric guitar leads on the country song “Lawless.”I had the song recorded and it was very basic. It sounded like an old Johnny Cash traditional number; tell-tale country. I needed a good lead but didn’t know what to do. I was going to put an accordion lead or something in the song later. I took to Facebook and asked if anyone felt like playing a lead on a track. I’ve played gigs with Paul before so I was really excited when he made the offer. He went above and beyond what I needed, providing me with multiple, harmonized tracks and instructions on how to pan them to sound nice. Once added, the song took on a new life. Listen to his playing and you’ll agree.
Rob Ferraro provided all the lead guitars on the track called “On the Run.” A hard rocking bluesy number, I knew it would need special attention as far as lead guitar went. I’m not fast enough to pull off what he did here. I gave him a few tracks one night in my garage and he just unloaded with some fun leads and great fills. Once again, the song totally woke up.
I know the album isn’t for everyone. It has more going against it than for it in today’s musical climate, but it was something inside me that I had to get out before I could move on. As usual, before you critique my production value, remember that nothing you hear on these tracks was recorded in a professional studio. It was all done at home, mostly in my garage in less than optimal conditions and with less than optimal tools. Everything I do has a “demo” quality about it. Until the day someone pays me a bunch of money to record in a real studio, this is it folks. If you want to see the songs shine, come see the live show.
So that’s all for now. In the coming months, I’m sure I’ll be posting more about the album and the songs/story. Making this album was a long process (well, longer than I’m accustomed to) but it was well worth it and I really like how the songs turned out. If you have questions, just let me know. If you have favorite tracks, please let me know as well.
Thanks for reading and listening and I really hope you enjoy the music and story!
The track listing is as follows:
The Story
From my late teens to my mid-twenties, I was fairly busy in a musical sense. I was in a few bands (mostly on drums) and had begun to explore songwriting. At some point, life happened and more serious issues started to arise.
I had finished college with a degree in what Rutgers (the Newark campus) called “Theater Arts and Speech” which is a fancy way of saying “Communications” – and to boot, I had a specialization in TV Production. As you may well know, this degree will get you next to nowhere. It’s almost as good as a degree in music. 🙂 Unfortunately, it was the only thing that interested me at the time, outside of my first major which was Psychology. I was a lazy student and that major was way too much reading and writing. If I could go back, I would have stuck with it but alas, the past is gone.
Things were moving quickly and I soon realized that I would not be able to support a family while working in the wonderful world of retail, which is where I ran back to at full speed after realizing my college degree was pretty useless unless I wanted to intern (aka work for free) for a year or three somewhere in the hopes that it “might” lead to some kind of paying job. I had bills and other things to worry about.
So I went to a computer school, being already quite computer savvy, and started to make some life changes. Marriage, kids, and so on. Before I knew it, about 15 years had gone by and I was completely removed from the music scene. I had done absolutely nothing. No writing, no bands, no nothing and it was slowly eating away at me.
Eventually things settled down a bit and the itch became to annoying to ignore. Music is in me. It’s a part of me. When I’m not being musical somehow, I just don’t feel right. So I started to ease my way back into the scene. A cover band here, filling in for a friend on drums there, writing some new material, and so on. It was time to get back out there. I reconnected with a lot of my musician friends, some of whom were still playing, and they inspired me. I also met and networked with a whole host of new musician friends and that inspired me even more.
I decided it was time to start writing songs again. The next thing I knew I was staring at a bunch of lyrics, melodies and ideas. The song “Tonight I Ride” was one of the first of this new batch and it basically signaled how I felt at the time. I had been away far too long and it was time to come back.
“Tonight I Ride” is a song about returning to something. You can interpret it as returning to anything you like, but for me it was strictly about returning to music. I had been away so long that there were friends and new family members who had no idea that I could make music. When they eventually saw me play they were quite shocked. It was a fun feeling.
I promised myself when I wrote that song that I’d never take that huge break from music again. It became clear to me that there’s really no reason to. There’s always room for music.
The Recording
The first thing I remember about writing this song was the chorus. I had it clearly in my mind. I had the lyric and the melody/chords all in my head. From there it was a matter of just writing the rest of the song. I’m not sure where I heard the phrase “Tonight I Ride” but it must have gotten into my head at some point. I always picture some kind of Wagner-esque Viking on an armored horse marching into battle, but I digress.
After I had the chorus mapped out in my head, the next thing I thought about was the song’s opening drum beat. I could also hear that clearly in my head. All the lyrics flowed from there and then it was time to record. As usual, because I’m alone when I record, I tracked the drums first. I used that little beat I dreamed up and then just built upon it, bringing the dynamic up or down when needed.
I played it through on guitar just to make sure I had all the chords I needed and tracked the bass. I laid down some distorted guitars and a wobbly guitar solo which I’m not very proud of. I always figured the solos would be better when played live by more capable musicians.
The vocals were my first accidental experiment with double tracking. Many bands have done this. You basically sing in unison with yourself on another track. I didn’t really mean to do this. I did a vocal pass, and then did another on a different track because I wasn’t sure if I was going to keep the first one or not. During playback, I forgot to mute one of the vocal tracks and they both played through the monitors. I was about to mute one but listened a little longer and the sound began to grow on me. They’re not perfect vocal tracks but they sort of work so I kept the two in there. So if you’re listening to the song, you’ll hear me singing along with myself and the two takes sort of stray from each other a bit here and there. It’s a little weird but I can see the attraction and how it can be effective when done right.
Lots of times, when I’m writing songs I’m actually not near any instruments. It sounds odd but sometimes they just jump out at me and I have to quickly write stuff down or else it’s usually gone forever. So when it comes to what we call in rock music the “bridge” or sometimes the “middle eight”, I will sometimes say, “I’ll come up with something later.” Sometimes I’ll have lyrics for the bridge along with a vague melody but it’s pretty fluid. I remember not having lyrics or a melody for this bridge when I sat down to record.
While tracking the drums, I just played a bunch of random fills that felt right and then brought myself back to the chorus somehow. I listened to those drums a few times and they sounded a little raucous to me. I decided to forgo the lyrics and just try some guitar stuff instead. After experimenting with a few things I settled on the bridge you hear which is basically a series of “D” shape chords moving up the neck with an open D ringing above them. It reminds me slightly of The Who, which is why I kept it.
I was still not well-versed in the art of compression or mastering/mixing. I still don’t know if I am, actually. So all of the mixes from those early songs aren’t panned well (or at all). There isn’t a lot of “space” there. One of these days I’ll go back to those old tracks and do some remixing with some of the things I’ve learned since then. I think this song can sound a lot better with some TLC.
It was a quick job but the song is fun and I’m finally getting around to playing it in my live sets. The band seems to like it and it does make me feel a little wistful in many ways.
The Lyrics
All my life I’ve been waiting
All my life I’ve been saving up
All my life I’ve been holding back
But tonight I rideAll my life I’ve been hungry
All my life I’ve been ready
All my life I’ve been so determined
But tonight I rideTonight, tonight I ride
Perpetual motion is on my side
The links are broken, the chains are dead
I’ve got to move aheadAll my life I’ve been sitting
All my life I’ve been lying down
All my life I’ve been static
But tonight I rideI look at you and you’re flying
I look at you and you’re in the air
I look at you and I’m jealous
So tonight I rideTonight, tonight I ride
Perpetual motion is on my side
The cage is open, the bird is free
I’ve got to get release
I’ve got to know release
I need to be releasedTonight, tonight I ride
Perpetual motion is on my side
Unleashed and I won’t be denied – YeahTonight, tonight I ride
Perpetual motion is on my side
I’m strong and I won’t take my time
The world is mine tonight
Yeah it’s my prize tonight
Stay out of my way tonight, tonight, yeah tonightI ride tonight
I’ve been quite busy the past year writing, recording, re-recording, compiling, plotting, scheming, planning, and you get the idea.
I think that 14 songs seems like a good enough amount for a formal release. Why 14? No idea. It just seems like a good number to me. I already have more songs in the works that will probably end up on the second release unless I decide to squeeze some more onto this one. I’m enjoying the number 14 though. Paul Westerberg’s first official solo record (if you don’t count the Replacements’ All Shook Down as a Paul record) was called 14 Songs. So why not. There must be some good karma there someplace.
Anyhow, the name of the record will be Damaged Goods. I could probably come up with some wacky story about why I’m calling it that, but that story would be totally untrue. Here’s the true story, if you’re interested.
In the past year when I started writing and recording this batch of original tunes, I had to decide if I was going to wait and not release anything until the end or release the songs a few at a time. I decided to release the songs a few at a time as “singles” and then when I felt it was time to call it a record and start playing some gigs, I’d compile them all into one package. So here I am at that point, but I needed an album cover and a name. So I started messing around in Photoshop; trying out some different background textures. I came across this one that looked like cardboard but with a glue blotch or something on it. It caught my eye and I used it. I was just going to use it for the background but then as I was playing with the color, I thought the image looked kind of interesting as it was.
At this point I didn’t have an album title. I didn’t want to have a “title track”, so to speak; use one of the song titles as the album title. I had a few funny ideas like calling the album Lou Tambone’s Greatest Hits since it was my first record under my own name. That was just me trying to be funny. The truth of the matter is while I was designing and playing with this “background” texture, the phrase “damaged goods” popped into my brain for some unknown reason. I guess I was just thinking of a box with some damage done to it and this looked like it.
So, I played with the blending modes a little, changed some colors around, added the logo text and the scripted words at the bottom, threw a faded stamp on the left (upside down) and that was about it. Instant uninspired album cover.
I’m not too deep, folks. Don’t ever go trying to read all kinds of crazy meanings into the stuff I do. 🙂
My other issue is that I’ve uploaded all these songs to various places like Nimbit, Reverbnation, iLike, Last.fm, and others so I have to go into each of these places and see if I can compile the album using the already existing tracks, or if I have to re-upload everything. I also have to write up some liner notes and all that mess. Once I get all the songs together in a running order that I’m OK with, I’ll see about calling it an official release. However, I wanted to post the album cover at least, just for fun. It’s nothing all that special but I enjoy the simplicity of it for whatever reason.
The other thing I guess I should say is that this record is going to be a work in progress of sorts, even after I call it a record. Some of the songs still need remixing. I’ll probably keep fixing things after it’s released and try to let you know. I’ll just upload and overwrite the old songs with the new ones and things should be pretty seamless and transparent to anyone on the other end of things. When I feel the songs are produced well enough, perhaps I’ll actually press copies but I’m not thinking about that really. For now, I’ll just make the art and liner notes all available via download.
So, enjoy the cover. All the songs are on the music player here on the site (or at the links I have listed) so you can hear the whole thing now. This official “release” is really just a formality. It makes me sound like an actual musician when I can say stuff like, “This is from my album Damaged Goods, which you get get at the merch table.” Yay me.
More songs and records coming soon. As for gigs, I’m putting my energy into that also because I feel the songs will “pop” live and I love playing out. It would be nice to play some places outside of my local area for a change. Small steps.
So thanks for reading and look for more news soon!
Lou's News / Music / Writing
by Lou Tambone · Published April 15, 2010 · Last modified January 13, 2015
I was thinking about music during my commute to NYC today, as I often do, and the notion of genres came to mind. When you tell someone you write music, the next question is almost always something about what genre or what kind of music you play. Music is music to me. It’s a hard question to answer. More on that in a bit.
Let me just say that I think genres are (for the most part) pretty lame. I mean, what exactly is “Americana” or “Indie” anyhow? What’s “Alternative” or “Grunge?” I’ve heard the term “Progressive” attached to anything from Todd Rundgren to Genesis to Rush to King’s X. The “Country” genre is almost anything but country these days. All you need is a little twang in your voice. It seems that as times change, new genres come and go. What was once “disco” moved on to “dance” and then eventually into things like “freestyle”, “trance” and “electronica” and what not. Before Disco, the term “dance” would have probably referred to something akin to Ballroom Dancing. Then there’s the whole “World Music” thing which I’m not sure what to make of, genre-wise.
Who can keep track of all this? The whole thing confuses the hell out of me and while I reluctantly attach a “Rock” genre to my material, you’ll definitely hear other elements in there. I guess this is the real problem I have with genre, actually. Once you’re pigeon-holed into one of those categories, the moment you stray outside of one, you might get attacked or looked at with a cocked eyebrow as if to say, “What are you trying to pull, buddy? How dare you!?”
That’s partly why, as I’m writing new songs, I’m trying to be as diverse as I possibly can. While I sit comfortably in the “Rock” genre (or some might call it “retro rock” or whatever), I stretch out into other areas as well. I don’t do this consciously, for the most part. I do it because I like many different kinds of music and they all influence me and my writing. There are times when I say, “Hmmm. I’d really like to write a reggae-influenced thing…” but this is not because I’m thinking about being pigeon-holed into a Rock genre. It’s just that old reggae-induced rock tunes by bands like The Police and early Joe Jackson influence me. It’s the kind of music I love and whatever chemicals are released into my brain that make that music attractive to me are also swimming around in my skull when I’m writing or thinking about writing something. It’s influence. It’s inspiration, and it doesn’t have to come from any given genre. It can come from anywhere, anytime.
Now anyone who knows me knows that I like to cross these so-called genres. Songs like “Tonight I Ride” and “Number Two” are a little like something the Foo Fighters might put out. I guess you’d call it “Hard Rock” or something. “Corporate Robot” has a slow funk vibe. “Hello Blue Sky” is very “Beatle-ish” for lack of a better term. “The Walking Man” and “Did You Tell Your Man” are straight up blues. Songs like “Mall Girl” and “Crackberry” are stabs at humor with a bit of Lenny Kravitz thrown in for good measure. “The Luckiest Man Alive” even has a twinge of (dare I say) country in there. If you like that 70’s classic rock thing, then “Will We All Be Friends at the End of the World?” is for you.
Future songs that I conjure will definitely keep moving against the genre grain. As I mentioned previously, the reggae-rock fusion thing has been on my mind lately. A genuine funkified Prince-like jam has been rolling around in my noggin for a few weeks now. I definitely need some more acoustic-based ditties to round out the sound. My buddy Doug and I have been talking about a larger piece that we might work on together some time. It’s a bit of a concept piece. Filling out the space in between all this are countless other songs I’ll put together when time allows. Nothing can be forced; it just has to come.
Answering that dreaded “genre” question (when people ask what kind of music you make) is sort of like when a woman asks you if she “looks fat in this outfit.” What do you say? The truth isn’t what the person wants to hear. The lie makes you feel like you’ve done a disservice, in a way. I usually default to the lesser of the two evils and say, “You know… rock stuff.” It’s sort of a non-answer and a little vague but what else can I say? “A little of everything” might work. I don’t know. I despise that word eclectic for some reason. There are too many C’s in that damn word and it just seems overused to me when referring to people’s taste in music. It’s become the standard answer these days. “I have eclectic taste.” That’s actually a good thing but I can’t stop myself from thinking that most of the time when people say this, they’re really just full of shit and listen to top 40 radio all day mistakenly thinking that it’s eclectic because it goes from the latest Rap artist with a hyphenated name to some pop chick that plays piano.
I suppose the big problem I have with the whole thing is that people feel you “have to” fall into some predefined genre to be legit at all. I don’t agree. Where does someone like Prince fall? Is he Rock? R&B? Funk? Easy Listening? Soul? One of the things that initially drew me to Prince (and this was before Purple Rain, kids) was that he was so diverse. 1999 and Controversy were my first two Prince records and they were both heavy in funk but rich enough to include many other styles of music. That was something I could wrap my head around, even as an early teen.
I suppose genres can be helpful for some people and there’s really no way to avoid them entirely. Hell, I’ve utilized them in this very article numerous times, making myself sound hypocritical in a way. I worked in record stores for years and sure, it’s nice to know all the “classical” stuff is “over there” somewhere. I don’t know how many times a day I was asked, “Where’s the _____ section?” People are used to genres. They like to browse by genre. Maybe by doing that, they’ll discover something else they like. That’s cool. I guess it’s all in the context.
Books and other media can also be applied to this line of reasoning. Stephen King is known as a “horror” writer. What is horror, though? In film, you think of Freddy and Jason ripping limbs off terrified kids and slashing their way through 2 hours, which is very fun! King does not write like this (most of the time) and he’s written well outside the “horror” genre, so to speak. I’m not a betting man and I don’t know Stephen King at all, but I’m guessing he’s not thrilled (no pun intended) about being called a “horror” guy all the time.
I will not condemn genres. They just don’t interest me anymore and I certainly don’t want to be dropped into one. But it’s unavoidable, I suppose. People like to throw labels on everything. It’s human nature. We even do it to each other. Black, white, gay, straight, asian, indian, redneck, etc. I’m just as guilty in that aspect but it’s so hard to break out of that habit when you’ve grown up with it in your face every day. I’m not talking about racism, here. I’m just talking about how people tend to put people or things into categories, which can sometimes be different. Don’t misread me. I’m simply making an analogy.
Wouldn’t it be nice to all be known as just human beings? Yes, that would be very nice! Will it happen? Probably not. But it’s nice to think about, isn’t it?
🙂
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