The Dog Days of Winter

Okay, so long-time readers are doubtless aware that I have been spending my Golden Years in an attempt to digitize every loud noise I have ever made.

To that end, I was recently -- i.e., Wednesday night -- in a sophisticated recording studio transferring some basic instrumental tracks (sans vocals) of songs by my 70s band The Hounds.

Those were recently re-discovered 4-track tapes unheard by anybody, let alone me, for decades, and given the vagaries of time (and the crappy tape stock from those years) it's a wonder any of them survived. But to my delighted surprise, they did (some occasional drop-out notwithstanding).

And here's my favorite.

Ladies and gentlemen, please rock out to -- "Do It."

The rhythm guitar on the right channel is by the song's author (and my old college chum) Tony Forte; all the other guitars, including the solo, are by some asshole whose name rhymes with Sleeve Nimels. The drums are by another old college colleague, Robert Albiston, and the bass is by total pro and fellow Jersey boy John Faison, who was way too good for us. It's a little sloppy in parts, but I think it sounds pretty cool nonetheless.

I should add that while the instrumental track is, as you can hear, deliberately Stones-ish, the vocals on the finished version (which I won't burden you with) sounded extremely Jefferson Airplane-like. Which, I can assure you, made for an interesting stylistic synthesis, if not perhaps interesting enough to have gotten the band signed.

Have a great weekend, everybody!