Backup Memory #5

I’ve been thinking a lot about music lately. Why is that even while playing in two different bands, I still feel like I’m not getting anything out of my efforts? Musically, I feel kind of like someone who’s lived on energy bars and Gatorade for years. I desperately want a meal that I can sink my teeth into. But I’m not getting it out of either of the bands I play with. This isn’t a reflection upon them. We just have different priorities. Personally, I don’t think I was put on this Earth to regurgitate other people’s music. Sure, I realize that you have to play covers if you want to get into local clubs, but it’s bizarre to me that some folks are fine with never getting any more out of it than that.
Mostly, the only reason I’m writing is that I’ve decided to go my own way. This doesn’t mean that I’m quitting either band. It just means that I’ll be returning to my regularly scheduled program. I’ve always made my music alone, because I never found a true collaborator. Maybe it was foolish to expect that one, or even both, of the bands I’m in would be partners in crime in a potentially great rock band. We’re all older (I’m the youngin’ in both bands, at 44), so the priorities are necessarily different from some band of 20 year olds. But still… geez. Did any of us really get into music expecting to play “Born To Be Wild” for the next 25 years?
I’ve been fishing about for a project. Work on the Crewe related album never really stops, but I feel like I need to do something else first to get my toes wet. It finally occurred to me what that might be.
It’s called “Backup Memory #5”.
In 1994 I took my equipment down to a girlfriend’s house to record some tracks. Until I moved to Saint Petersburg in 2007, that was the last time I recorded anything. As was custom back then, whenever I would finish a song, I would mix it down onto a cassette tape. Those master tapes were labeled with “Backup Memory” because they initially began simple as tapes I’d record ideas upon. The last one was Backup Memory #5. It had some pretty good songs on it.
What I’m thinking of doing is re-recording those old songs on Backup Memory #5, but incorporating some of the original tracks. That makes sense to me, since doing so would provide a bridge between the past and the present. Needless to say, I couldn’t use all of the original performances. But it’d be fine just to preserve a few of the guitar parts. It’d be nice just to use those old tracks as a starting point, and see what I could make them into; all with the full intention of winding up with album quality recordings that I can begin selling on iTunes and Amazon.com. Of course, I’d probably drop a few songs. But for the most part, I’d use the original track listing. I might drop songs, but I wouldn’t add anything.
I suppose the point here is that I’ve decided that I can’t wait on these other musicians any longer. All they seem to want out of music is the satisfaction of playing on a stage once in a while. That’s not enough for me. The stage, if it exists solely as a place to play cover tunes, is mostly a distraction. If I’m ever going to get anything rolling where my original music is concerned, I’m going to have to start concentrating on it. I can still do this other stuff with the two bands, but neither can be my foremost priority anymore.
It’s also occurred to me that it might be interested to work backward from Backup Memory #5, working back to Backup Memory #1. That would be just confusing enough to people to appeal to me.