John Weber, ‘Greatest Hits’

John’s ‘Greatest Hits’ was posthumously released in late December 2005. The compilation was the result of almost a year’s worth of research. A big thanks to John’s many friends across the globe for sending me masses of material. John would often, on a whim, mail out a freshly burned CD of his latest recordings to friends on his favourite usenet forum. Sometimes, he’d just post a download link (usually pointing to one of his irregularly used yahoo groups). It was quite a task finding out initially what tracks to look for, and then trying to physically locate them. Numerous albums were retrieved. This compilation covers the very best of John’s efforts. And in the spirit of the Beatles Anthology series, when the surviving Beatles used archival quotes for Lennon’s input, I searched JWeb’s many many old usenet posts, in order to use his own words to construct the liner notes for this collection of songs. I hope you enjoy the album.

John Weber talks about his music

When I work on music, I do it as an outlet. Music is good therapy, it keeps me off the streets and out of trouble. Creating music is very much for my own pleasure, probably no different than artists or people that build things as a hobby. The reward is a sense of accomplishment, and having something tangible after many hours of hard work. Getting other people to like what i’ve done is indeed another aspect of it. It’s not totally important that *everyone* likes what I’ve done, but if there is one person who *genuinely* likes my music it is indeed a thrill.

• TWO SIDES TO EVERY STORY
  (Recorded: December 1999 to June 2000) You can hear a drum machine on ‘Two Sides To Every Story’, and that’s only because I lost all the individual tracks for the song due to a computer crash. But I had burnt a CD earlier that had a sample rhythm track with the guitar, and decided to keep it as it was, because the guitar part I thought was worth keeping. So I decided to make a reference to the obvious drum machine in the lyrics:

“I guess you think you’re really mean,
taking everything I own,
except my drum machine.
You tell all your friends
that you think you’ve won.
But I count my blessings every day that you’re gone.”

• YOU’RE NO MORE I am *extremely* proud of ‘You’re No More’. My friends have told me it is the best song that I have ever recorded, and they should know. In the initial version, the harmonies were a little out of tune in one part after the first verse, but I have since changed it. I submitted the song to the music review website garageband.com and it was selected by a couple of people as “coolest chill-out track”. Nearly all the reviews were somewhat positive. It’s probably the catchiest tune I have or ever will write. Hopefully one day, it will get some airplay. RECORDED - December of 1999 to June 2000

• GOING TO CALIFORNIA (Recorded - the days leading up to March 12, 2002)
  It’s a cover of a Led Zep tune! ‘Going to California’ is proof that playing your heart out brings results. I suck at guitar and vocals, but my keyboard playing is ok. I decided to combine them all, and the results were pretty good. There’s more acoustic guitar overdubs on this track than there are beers in my belly - and *that’s* quite an accomplishment!

• BECAUSE (Recorded: October - December 2001)
  The ‘Drunken Failures’ is a band that I was in. We set out to do a faithful re-make of the entire Beatles ‘Abbey Road’ album. Our first offering was ‘Because’. When you hear the harmonies come in, I swear you’ll freak. Beatles fan or not, this is one awesome tune. John C. (Camatelfoo) and Ehtue are on vocals; Steve Hawk plays guitar and bass; Ian (paramucho) is on ’moog’ keyboard; and I’m on the harpsichord. The first track laid down was the harpsichord. I should point out that I didn’t use a real harpsichord. It was fun to be a part of a group effort and not just myself wanking at the keyboards all day. I’ve never even met these guys. We just emailed each other our parts. The earlier version of ‘Because’, was a little rougher than what I had expected. This is a different mix than what I’d heard before. In the earlier version, the beginning didn’t fade in, and the earlier ending normally had instrumental backing and not just vocals. Call it ‘experimental’. ‘Because’ was the Drunken Failures musical high point I believe.

• BRANDY YOU’RE A FINE GIRL (Recorded: Spring 2000)
  ‘Brandy’ by Looking Glass is actually one of my all time favorite songs. I always loved this song. “Brandy, you’re a fine girl, what a good wife you would be” I have it on the “Have A Nice Day” CD series. I paid $13.00 in 1998 to specifically get this song. The 70’s simply rawked, although at the time they sucked. I’ve been collecting 70’s compilations for several years now. I highly recommend the “Have A Nice Day” Box set on Rhino Records. I covered ‘Brandy’ in 2000 especially for TDM2 (’The Disgusting Manners’ second disk - a Pink Floyd newsgroup project). All those newsgroup threads about cheesy 70’s tunes gave me strange ideas. I remember being knee-deep in recording the tune, and then thinking “is this gonna suck?” A friend (Nichole) in the newsgroup reassured me saying “no it won’t suck” which was all I needed to hear. It *does* suck, though. But that’s the whole point, anyway. I later joked with Nichole that since she owned one of the only three released copies of the track, that she should hang on to it. Some day when I’m rich, dead, and famous, she can sell it on ebay. I am really, really proud of all of the ampfer’s that participated in the making of TDM2. The whole experience and the finished product is an extremely *positive* thing. We all pitched in, and made yet another audio document that can be enjoyed even years from now. Musically, there are *a lot* of high points. Everyone simply got better - and TDM2 is proof. Proof! Proof! Proof!

• THE BIN LADEN SONG (Recorded: December 31st, 2001)
  I wrote and recorded this one on new year’s eve, 2001. It had to be done! Play it at your New Year’s party! It’s a perfect parting gift, and making fun of Bin Laden promotes good family values. The ‘Bin Laden Song’ hung around in the national mp3.com website’s ‘Political Humor’ charts in early 2002. The highest it got to was number 13 in January and then it sorta dropped off. 673 people downloaded the tune in the two months after it’s release (on mp3.com) on January 11th. When you log in on mp3.com, you can choose categories like “stats” and “earnings”. When you click on “stats”, you will see a chart of total downloads of all your songs. There is a drop-down menu towards the top where you can choose individual songs and see how many downloads that particular song has. Amazing that none of the songs I am really proud of get little attention, but my drunken New Year’s Eve/Day ‘Bin Laden Song’ is the one that seems to go over the best. Seems like comedy is the only way to really make it in the biz- as serious music gets left unlistened to many times. Yuk. I hate the song, myself. I should have spent more time on it but I rushed it so it could be played at a couple of New Year’s parties.

• COLD HOPE, EARLY THAW (Recorded: December of 1999 to June 2000)
  The song was originally intended as an instrumental break (ala ‘Let’s Go Away For A While’ from the Beach Boys’s ‘Pet Sounds’). It was meant to be short and sweet. Upon the suggestion of a few friends, I added vocals. The instrumental was ok, I think, but the new vocalized update I feel is *much* better. I am my own worst critic, but the song makes me cry….every time I hear it. “Outside the snow is falling. It’s about ten below. I feel so melancholy. More than you’ll ever know”

• LOVING LIFE (Recording completed on December 25, 2001)
  To George Harrison - Words can’t express how much I thank George Harrison for being on this
  earth the time he was here. He touched my life, and millions of others. In the wild and wacky life that was The Beatles, you managed to keep it all in perspective. How could a mere mortal pull that off? You could have let success go to your head, but instead you decided to be yourself, and I will always respect and love you for it. The world will always be a better place - thanks to you, George. God bless you.

  ‘Loving Life’ is a song I wrote in tribute to George, who passed away on November 30, 2001. I finished recording it on Xmas day 2001. It is far from perfection - in fact it is amateurish, but I needed to finish this song as soon as I could, because I need to get over this awful ‘year-2001 depression’. My vocals have never been my strength, but I guess you could say that the passion was there, anyway. The tune was rather depressing and it may jerk some tears from your eyeballs. I recorded one vocal track and panned it slightly to the left. Then I sang the vocal track again (making sure it matched up) and panned it slowly to the right. This gave the vocals something a little more fuller-sounding than simply using a chorus pedal on a single vocal track. I love the sound of the wurlitzer electric piano. A lot of school systems here in Wisconsin bought Wurlitzers as part of their music education program, but now with technology the way it is, they are considered relics. A local school had a few gathering dust in their closets. I was lucky to get one dirt cheap. One man’s garbage is another man’s treasure! It sounds like a dream. It’s made me very happy. It has a unique sound that has never quite been duplicated by any digital technology today. This is the first song I ever recorded using it. You’ll hear the distinctive sound of the wurly, that no synthesizer can emulate properly.

Note from Will - In an extensive search of the archives, I couldn’t find the master track. I was only able to find two takes of this song (which John had simply called ‘George’), both incomplete. One was an instrumental backing track, the other an incomplete vocal take (with lyrics missing). It is far too nice a track to leave unissued. Thus using the wonders of modern technology, the vocal (what there was of it, on the vocal take) was isolated, tweaked, and relaid on top of the rejigged (and remixed) instrumental take. I took the liberty of naming the un-named track, as ‘Loving Life’.

BTW If anyone should have any other takes of this track on their computer, or saved on a CD, please drop me a line.

• LOVE (Recorded - April 2001)
  RMB brought together an online musical collaboration between myself and the ‘Lost Lennon Tapes’ expert and respected RMB’er, Ehtue. John Camatelfoo also joined in with some great additions, and we recorded two great John Lennon tunes - ‘Memories’ and ‘Love’. If it wasn’t for RMB, I never would have recorded anything like this, and I never would have met such wonderful people and talented musicians. RMB rules!

Ehtue writes: “Here’s another one that John added to. Cam (i.e. John Camatelfoo) and I did a version of Lennon’s ‘Love’ (the main guitar and vocal are mine). Cam did the backing vocals, rhythm guitar (which is pretty much burried in this mix) and the bass). Webby heard it and added the ‘accordian’, which kind of gives it a ‘French along the Seine’ sound, imo. It’s a nice little touch.”

• LET IT RMB (Recorded: July-August 2000)
  ‘RMB’ stands for the newsgroup rec.music.beatles. At a time of great negativity in the newsgroup, I rewrote the lyrics of the old Beatles classic, ‘Let it Be’. Whatever is troubling you or consumes you that is negative or makes you feel down. Let ‘it’ Be, and move on. That’s the way I’ve always interpreted the original song anyway. I initially started out with the piano part, then added drums and organ. Nick is on the lead vocal and does the guitar solo. Ian (paramucho) added brass and strings. John (Camatelfoo) added harmonies and mixed it. Rmb has done so much for me in terms of interaction and information about the Beatles, and I feel I owe rmb something in return. Some day I’ll pay rmb back - with interest.

• SPOOKY (Recorded - June 9, 2002)
  I did ‘Spooky’ by the Classics VI. It’s me ‘unplugged’. It’s raw, bare-bones, and I did it on a whim one afternoon. I was curious to find out if my efforts were any good and released it to friends that same day. “

“In the cool of the evening when everything is gettin’ kind of groovy,
I call you up and ask you if you want to go and meet and see a movie,
First you say no, you’ve got some plans for the night,
And then you stop, and say, “All right.”
Love is kinda crazy with a spooky little girl like you”

• THERE’S A HEARTACHE FOLLOWING ME (Recorded: November 2002)
  My very latest recording. I figured ‘There’s A Heartache Following Me’ is a good song to do a cover version of, since I’ve had nothing but bad luck without a break for almost a year now. It’s stripped down with no effects or really fancy overdubs. Just me, my voice, and my pianos (and one of my cats watching me). So all you folks who are down on your luck, swig down a stiff drink (I prefer Mountain Dew) and listen to my new song Mommy, mommy! There’s a heartache following me!

• FALL (Recorded: December of 1999 to June 2000)
  40 minutes duration (for an album) to me is enough, and attention spans will drift after that in my opinion. But just how do I make a 40 minute CD (which was the problem I faced when making my album ‘Cold Hope, Early Thaw’) when I am about 6 minutes short? Hmm… So one Friday, I decided to force my creativity and just *write a frickin’ song* and make sure that it exceeds 6 minutes to meet my goal of a 40-minute-plus album. Forced creativity. That’s lame. But…this “forced creativity” somehow created what I feel is the most powerful, beautiful song that I have ever recorded so far. The song is called ‘Fall’. Here I was, trying to put some “filler” on my CD, and I ended up putting the icing on the cake with a song that makes it truly my favorite song. You’ll know what I mean when you hear it. The main lyric is something I wrote about an ex-girlfriend…heh! “

“You cut me down to inches, when I was ten feet tall.
It’s the end of summertime. And now we’re going to fall”

• TALKING OLD SOLDIERS (Recorded: August 5, 2001)
  My other one-man band, ‘Jay Web’s Recycle Bin’ did a cover version of an old Elton John number called “Talking Old Soldiers” one afternoon. It’s just me and my piano, and the song is about a war veteran sitting in a bar explaining the horrors of war - one of lyricist Bernie Taupin’s finest moments. ‘Talking Old Soldiers’ was a classic non-hit, and Johnny (i.e. me) tries to make Elton proud.

“Well it’s time I moved off
But it’s been great just listening to you
And I might even see you next time I’m passing through
You’re right there’s so much going on
No one seems to want to know
So keep well, keep well old friend
And have another drink on me
Just ignore all the others you got your memories
You got your memories”

• MY PIANO’S BEEN DRINKING (Recorded: September 2001)
  Tom Wait’s voice is an acquired taste, and I do remember liking “Waltzing Matilda”… but to hear an entire CD of his, I couldn’t fathom. Okay, so I liked ‘Waltzing Matilda’, but there are days when I hear Tom Waits’ voice and get annoyed, frustrated, and mentally disturbed. Something had to be done about this. I remember when I heard Bob Dylan and Neil Young at first, and really wasn’t impressed. a) I didn’t pay attention to the lyrics, and b) I didn’t like their vocal style. Of course, now, I think they are incredibly talented and influential musicians. Perhaps Tom Waits will fall into that category for me some day. Anyway, a while back, my rmb and ampf pal Len Richards (or was it Ian? I don’t remember) emailed me an MP3 of Tom Waits doing a song called ‘My Piano’s Been Drinking’. I was so inspired by it that I recorded a parody of it a day later. This is my one-minute Tom Waits tribute. Warning - It contains lots of swearing, and if the “f” word and a drunken piano offend you, please don’t download. It was all (done) just for a laugh.