Chuck Gauger, ‘Best of 1977 - 2003′

Chuck Gauger recently took some time and compiled some of his favourite tracks. The collection, based on songs he had recorded from the late 70s up until 2003, was well worth the wait.

LINER NOTES

All songs written by Chuck Gauger except where noted, c. 1977-2003 All rights reserved

All songs performed by Chuck Gauger (drums, bass, keyboards, vocals, guitars, MIDI, etc.) except where noted (Pete McIntosh and Bob Gauger only other musicians).

• Come Quickly – What can I say? The most popular of any of my tunes (amongst the few who have ever heard them). Recorded in a barn in 1980, written 1977.

• Over – Also recorded 1980, ‘Barn Studios’. It was not about my wife, btw, I wrote it before I met my her; just a story. She never liked it.

• The Knack Medley – Written by Peter McIntosh – The guy who I played drums with for years, who made me learn guitar and then taught me all his songs so HE’D have someone to play with. He had three song scraps so I suggested he join them all together; he has since rewritten them but I always liked “my” version so here it is. Mid-1980’s.

• Thoughts – Written in 1978 or so, thanks to Roots (the book/tv show). The whole Alex Haley phenomenon made me think of my hometown and I was missing it at the time, so I wrote this. I sent a copy of this to Paula Zahn (CBS Morning News) who lived there for a while in her teens. She says she liked it. Recorded in the 80’s.

• Cathy – A song I wrote (circa 1976) about a girl… who rejected it, saying that it wasn’t personal enough, and that –any- name could be put in there. So I took hers out and put my eventual wife’s in. Recorded 1980, barn.

• Lovin’ Daze – This one I DID write for my wife, we were In Monterey California and I was fresh out of work with a baby and she was worried, so I wrote this ditty to cheer her up. 1984-ish or so?

• Keep Searchin’ – Written by Del Shannon – One of my faves, got to see him perform it in Monterey a year or so before he died. Recorded in the 90’s.

• Mona Lisa – Written by Jay Livingston-Ray Evans – Nat Cole, what a voice. I can’t possibly do it justice. I sang it over and over at least 20 times before giving up. Recorded 2001-02(?).

• (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville – Written by Michael Stipe-Mike Mills-Peter Buck-Bill Berry – First R.E.M. song I ever heard, love it. I gave a copy of different take of this to Mike Mills when I met him. I’m sure he was underwhelmed. There is another version of this, it will be included in Vol. 2 should there ever be one. Recorded in the 80’s.

• The Planets-Saturn (Bringer of Old Age) – Written by Ken Howard – Allan Blaikley – From Flaming Youth, ARK II, a concept album from 1969 about mankind leaving earth to go into space. Only notable due to it being Phil Collin’s first group, when he was about 18 or so, and had hair. Recorded circa 1988.

• Lodi – Written by John Fogerty – The CCR tune. This is the only recording I actually play lead guitar on, I played one line then mapped out a harmonized line note for note (memorizing my first attempt). I rather like it, but I don’t play lead so it will be pretty much the only one ever. Recorded in the 90’s. The only song without any mistakes on it. That’s pretty notable, given that every other recording here has performance or technical problems. Then again, they were always only meant for my ears so I didn’t care…and after kneeling on a cement floor in front of a recorder playing all the parts and pushing all the buttons for 8 hours or more in any given day I usually rushed the last takes just to finish, I rarely went back and redid anything.

• For You – Recorded in the late 70’s…one of my very first experiments. I had just learned to play guitar and was putting chords to my old poems and such. I had a tape recorder (mono, sound on sound) and so I wanted to see if I could play some songs and sync them like a real record. That was the start of all the rest of this. Totally improvised the lyrics (can you tell?) on the first pass, sang along with them doubled.

• 2 Da Loop – My only MIDI composition, from the mid 90’s. I briefly took a MIDI class (until the teacher dropped out) and one exercise was to create an 8-bar chunk of music. I layered all manner of things on, and then got the idea to loop the 8 bars and turn on all the instruments on one by one & then turn them off again. That’s all this is.

• Stay Awake – Written by Richard & Robert Sherman – Mary Poppins. She did it much better. 2002.

• Sweet Dreams – Written by – Don Gibson - My take on the mid-60’s Tommy McClain version. Not Patsy Cline’s. Recorded mid-80’s. I had just acquired a few keyboards and this is the most key intensive song I did, but as one can see I don’t play keyboards anymore than I play lead guitar.

• That Day Is Done – Declan McManus-Paul McCartney – From Paul McCartney’s Flowers In The dirt LP. I took a copy of the tape to the press conference of his I went to but never got it to his people. Maybe he’ll hear it now. From 1989-90.

• Two Mont Tune – I was in my mid-20’s with an 18 year old girlfriend. She was peachy. We’d been together 2 months when I wrote this for her. We weren’t together a whole lot longer. Recorded late 70’s.

• 7 Bridges Road – Written by Steve Young – Another song I admire so I butcher. It’s my way. This is version One, recorded in the 80’s/90’s (?).

• Save The Last Dance For Me – Written by Doc Pomus–Mort Shuman – I used an actual baby rattle for the maracas. Mid-90’s.

• Still – Inspired vaguely by the structure of a Grace Slick song (Ai Garismu). Just more of my cleverness I suppose. 1980.

• You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away – Written by John Lennon-Paul McCartney – I performed this at a Beatlefest. Don’t remember much of it. Mid 90’s. I used a Kermit the Frog toy tambourine for this. ‘Necessity is the mother’ and all that.

• Mountain Of Love – Written by – Harold Dorman - Me on 12 string electric and keyboard drums, my brother Bob on lead guitar and rhythm guitar. We both also sang it but the vocals detract from the sloppy and rushed (about ten minutes to do) joyous rock n roll sound of the music bed. Pardon the high pitched noise, I can’t seem to get rid of it, a harmonic from the 12 string I believe. Mid to late 90’s.

• The Party – Written was I was 18 (1970) and recorded around 1977-78. The first song lyrics I put chords to, I only knew 3 chords at the time so I used ‘em all. (E-A-G). A “message” song yet.

• Sister Morphine – Written by Mick Jagger-Keith Richards – Another gloriously sloppy amalgamation of morphine sounding noise. I on rhythm, drums and vocals, my mentor Pete McIntosh on lead guitars (electric and 12 string) and a very hesitating bass. It is so bad it works (for me anyway). 1979

• Honey Bunny – Where only Come Quickly has opened my demo tapes for decades, this has always closed it. It was a throw away, showcasing all the overdubbed voices I had been doing…there are at least a dozen, and this is the ORIGINAL stripped down version. I subsequently kept adding voices on to renew buried vocals until eventually I must have had over 20 voices on the ‘final’ version. Recorded in late 70’s, augmented many times since then.

THE END

There are other outtakes, songs, snips, some day perhaps I will compile them. I am happy to have them digitally cleaned and augmented, tho many flaws remain untouched/unfixable. That’s alright. I only wanted to see what I could do, and I did some ok stuff.

I recorded much of this on stereo tape decks, either throwing the track from right to left (sound on sound) making a mono final, or two stereo decks joined thru a stereo mixing board, or my Teac 4 channel simul sync that I had for a few decades. Only the MIDI was recorded on a Korg 1 board into a cassette deck.

Best of compiled in 2006 and copyright 2006 The Chuck Gauger Songbook. All rights reserved.