Hoot '12: "Don't Cry No Tears" b/w "Still Holding On to You"
This raucous posting from the 2012 Harpswell Hoot is brought to you by The 2-Guitars,-Bass-and-Drums Corporation of America. For that is rock. I'd hoped to have some more pics posted, but missed that boat while in Harpswell over the weekend, so perhaps next time... As it turns out, these were last year's bookends:
The "A" side is courtesy of peak-era Neil Young and Crazy Horse ("Zuma", 1975). It's the kind of song that's perfect for getting sessions rolling (or for anytime at all, really), and it kicked us off at the '12 Hoot. Goes to show how deep Neil's catalog is, or maybe how shallow FM radio is and often was, that a tune this catchy is relegated to being a "deep album cut". Instrument-wise, Paul B played the part of Neil, I got to Gretsch it up as the Poncho Sampedro/ Danny Whitten figure, Dillo thumped it up as Billy Talbot and Roadkill got his Ralph Molina on. He'll deny it, but it's something he does, that Roadkill.
The "B" side comes from L.A.'s Dream Syndicate, from their red-hot "Medicine Show" record (1984). This was a quintessential 80's underground guitar band centered on songwriter and guitar-strangler Steve Wynn (fortunately still carrying the flag with his band The Miracle 3). They leaned heavily on Crazy Horse and the Velvet
Underground, spun pretty dark tales and never made a mainstream ripple
The tale of the tape is that their recorded legacy of live stuff packs
much more of punch than their studio records. Much as I'd like to,
maybe can't blame the listening public. Sadly this was a band that even I, particularly when flipping through the LP bins, would now and again mix up with the cruddy Dream Academy (you kept going past Thomas Dolby and Dramarama, and if you got to Dreams So Real, you'd gone too far). On our version, Roady kept the drum throne, the Pauls Bonanos and Cardillo played the guitars and I took up the bass. This was the last song we planned to cut, and we almost gave up on it-- We were losing patience trying to get on the same page as far as the verse-chorus structure and breakdown in the middle, and were ready to send it to the trash heap but, lo and behold, upon listening to the tapes afterwards we realized that it was a pretty damn solid version after all. Happens all the time.
Don't Cry No Tears: https://www.box.com/s/ytlj37c9j8cs6w6gl6nd
Still Holding On to You: https://www.box.com/s/teg0rm2ly4vxj3id1hhg
