Cover to Cover Remixed

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This was about a fictional “wild child” from France, mostly written by (drummer) Mick Rain. I added the chorus line, bridge and played the solo on the ’62 Esquire. Scott May played a synth part at breakneck speed during the solo opening. The song opens with a backward guitar and me singing “Stella Blue” using a vocoder. I think we were influenced by Elvis Costello and XTC.

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This is (bassist) Mike Gorman’s baby with some chord progressions from Tommy Gawenda (guitarist). We added a lot of high harmony vocals and actually slowed the tape down so we could hit those high falsetto notes in the chorus. The track was recorded at the rental house, but then I did the solo work on a ’65 strat at Tanglewood Studios where we did overdubs and mixing. The song was inspired by a girl Mike was dating at the time, but Mike didn’t use her real name. It references the nightclub scene in the early 70s at clubs like The Rush Up and others around Rush St. and State St. near the Gold Coast, Chicago.

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I wrote this song with some contributions by Tommy. Back in the Middle is about a girl I was involved with at the time. Our relationship became very frustrating, so that’s why I’m screaming. The vocal backups in the bridge are right out of 10CC. The oohs were overlapped and doubled so it made a seamless sound. Scott May added some very low synth parts to the end. Stylewise, I always felt that it was very Pezband.

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Written by Mike with some chord progressions by Tommy and featuring Scott May on synth. The basic track was recorded in the rental house on the 8-track with hand claps. In the late 70s, we were all aware of punk rock and it influenced us in odd little ways. During the ending of Full Power you can hear Mike cranking up the intensity in full Sex Pistols fashion.

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Written by me, Tommy, and (former band member) Cliff Johnson. Tommy and I had the basic structure. Cliff and I finished up the chorus and bridge at my apartment one evening. On the surface, it’s a bittersweet love song, but on another level, the song is about how we had tried so hard to get somewhere in the music biz and were struggling. A bit of disillusionment there. Most of this song was written on the piano and Yamaha 12 string. We used the beautiful Yamaha grand at Tanglewood Studios. It had an unreal sound. I remember that the basic tracks were done in one day and Cliff and I finished it up in the evening. I doubled the solo on the strat. The bonus track on this album is an early version of the song with a lot more piano.

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Written by Mike with some help from Tommy. I came up with the solo bridge part. Mike had read a book about Ugandan dictator Idi Amin and the horrible things he had done to his people. Mike imagined what it might be like if Pezband had been booked on a tour of Africa and what might have happened to us in Uganda. Luckily, this was pure fiction!

The foundation track is Mike, Mick, and me. I added a strat solo and harmonium, and Tommy is playing his Gibson Hummingbird. We rented a set of African log drums for the session and also added some oddball noisemakers to the track. It was a very fun song to record–despite the grim subject matter. African Night was one of the favorite tracks off the album and got some good airplay.

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Written by Mike and Tommy; I added the solo bridge and Tommy is playing the middle solo. The song is about one of Mike’s girlfriends. He liked her very much — which is why the track is so repetitive 🙂

The musical influence here is from Jeff Beck’s album Rough and Ready with Cozy Powell. You can hear it in the bridge and ending.

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The title track of the album is a Mick song with an Elvis Costello flavor and a punky delivery. It was about a rocky relationship Mick was in with a girl I happened to know very well: my sister. She and Mick were married at the time and there was more than a little drama.

That unique opening sound is actually a steel drum. We used it to double the guitar line. We repeated the effect at the end of the song as well.

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This is also a Mick song with my bridge. It’s another bittersweet song about the forgotten ones who are now only remembered between the pages of books.

Mick, Mike and I recorded the basic tracks of Hero, Hero at Tanglewood as a trio using the ’62 Esquire on all the guitar parts. Then Tommy added the opening and closing using his ’59 Les Paul. Mick and I are singing harmony.

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Mike wrote this about a new girlfriend he had or just met. In case you are following along at home, I think this is the third girlfriend he wrote about in Cover to Cover. No comment. Most of the song has Tommy’s chord changes. This number is done in Beck’s Rough and Ready style again. We were huge Jeff Back fans, obviously. The solo bridge has the guitar going through a synth box of some sort.

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Mick wrote most of this with my chorus contributions. It’s about plowing ahead and not looking back at what you have done. Ignoring the past may or may not be a good life philosophy, but it sure made for an interesting song. I played piano on the track and used a Mu-Tron octave divider on the guitar lick. The slide is the Esquire. Tommy is playing rhythm guitar on his ’59 Les Paul.