It started with one simple premise
I started taking lesson on
guitar, because my parents were not willing to fork
out the investment for a bass and amp unless I was
actually going to put effort into it. So I took guitar
for a year, then switched to bass. There was a girl,
Mimi, who was my first crush, who had her lesson right
before mine. Her and I did a few shows later where she
did songs she knew and I backed her up on bass. I
remember distinctly playing some retirement home and
thinking "We shouldn't be playing songs like 'Lyin'
Eyes' (about spousal cheating) or 'The
Gambler' (where the best you can hope for is to
die in your sleep) at a place like this..."
But I digress. Anyhoo, the
store regularly had student concerts, and Mimi had
done this medley of 50's songs I thought was pretty
neat at the time. And then I'd realized: they were all
basically the same song. I-VI-IV-V progression. I was
taking bass lessons by then, and my instructor and I
talked about it one day. I said "great, so really it's
all the same. I could take pretty much anything and
put it in that format." To demonstrate, we proceeded
to play The Police's "Roxanne"
to the same chords as the Everly Brothers' "All
I Have to Do Is Dream". A few more Police songs,
and we decided "let's record it". At 15, my fate as a
musical artist was, essentially, sealed...
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The Gestapo I (Ode to Mimi)
We proceeded to get together and came up with this
little ditty. Here it is, folks, my first recording. I
play bass, do the introduction and sing the "basso
non-profondo" backup lyrics. We added so many
"samples" in this one (consider this was actually pre-sampling),
but you can hear things ranging from the local bank's
phone time service, a toilet flushing, "Ditty Diego"
by The Monkees from the movie "Head",
The Beatles' "Yellow
Submarine", and The Monkees Theme in Italian all
the way to a backwards-masked message I'll leave for
you enterprising types to find...
Police songs featured: "Roxanne", "Message in a
Bottle", "Canary in a Coalmine", "Man in a Suitcase",
"Driven to Tears", "When the World is Running Down,
You Make the Best of What's Still Around", "Invisible
Sun", "Bombs Away", "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da",
"Spirits in the Material World"
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The Gestapo I <--Click
here to listen
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The Gestapo II
(Like a Freight Train)
We finished the main tune and decided we could do
another one. I think I suggested a polka we did in The Tim Tew Three
at the time called "Freight
Train". Remember, we were a lounge act, we
played mostly Moose
and Elks
Clubs...short, but sweet...
Police songs featured: "Don't Stand So Close to Me",
"Next to You"
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The Gestapo II <--Click
here to listen
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