I Got Me A Rock N Roll Band Its A Freeforall
I have known since a very young age that I wanted to be in a band. Hell, I knew I wanted to be a singer. There are pictures of me trying to hard to replicate the less than iconic cover to Barry Manilow's oft-overlooked 1981 album "Barry". There are pics of me with a microphone, or roll on deodorant or a flashlight or anything that looked like a microphone. Yep, my path was clear. I was gonna be a singer. So of course, at a young age, I took up drums. And I was pretty good. But being at the back of the stage was never my goal. I wanted to be the frontman. I knew I could entertain people and have them pawing at my feet. Yes, I could be a Rock God.
It took a while but i put together my first band in high school. I had met a drummer in marching band who had similar musical interests as I did. He enjoyed Skid Row and Rush and also brought into our lives the influence of Smashing Pumpkins's drummer Jimmy Chamberlain. His name was Ron and he was a monster. Check that, he was like Animal from the Muppets. But a controlled chaos was just what I needed in a drummer. He wasn't the brightest kid, but most drummers tend not to be. But he took orders well and kept us laughing. He was a really good guy too. So I had a drummer and I would sing. But we needed more.
In biology class I started talking to a guy named Tom. He was a huge Guns N' Roses fan and a guitarist who really wanted to be Slash. He was also a Kiss fan and turned me on to the album Kiss Alive 3. This album killed and the kid said he played guitar. So I talked him into joining up. He once spent the night at my house and I learned a few of his favorite GNR tunes on drums to play with him but he had not even learned them yet. So our first jam session was aborted. We had never even played together and we had a band. But, we had no bass player…oh wait yeah we kinda did.
I had been listening to a lot of Rush around that time and had really discovered what a great instrument the bass could be. Hearing Geddy Lee play it so beautifully and melodically made me want to be a bass player as well as a singer. So I got a cheap bass starter pack. It was an Ibanez and the bass sounded great…when people who knew how to play played it. When I played it, it sounded boring. But I wanted to learn. We had a band.
We met up in Ron's basement. I left my bass at home as really I did not know how to play it. And we played. Man we ripped right into some of our all time favorite songs and they were amazing. Yep, thats what I would like to say. Actually I really don't remember how that all went down. I don;t know what we played that first day. I would imagine some Guns 'N' Roses but I sadly don't know. Was there magic in those four walls? Probably not, but we made a good racket for ourselves.
Soon, we needed a name. I would love to remember some of the band names we threw around but I am not even sure we did. We named ourselves after the 1993 Def Leppard album Retro Active. It was a good name and as we liked to think we had that 80s feel, it suited us. Yes we were gonna save rock n roll! We were gonna talk dirty to you and have nothing but a good time. We were livin' on a prayer and wild in the streets. We were breaking the chains, pouring the sugar, kickstarting hearts and running with the devil. Actually were were 3 bums with half a dream and an attitude bigger than our talents. Next up: Writing!
We decided we needed original songs. Covers were no fun and true artists write their own. I had dabbled in writing my own tunes for about a year. They were bad. Very very bad. Tom had some lyrics written but they were usually based of Guns N' Roses themes. I remember the classic song he wrote called "Appetite for Destruction." He handed me the lyrics and I came up with some neat melodies and good hooks. It was the first time I dabbled in a very basic form of arrangement. Later in life this would be my true talent in music. Hearing how things could sound was way easier than creating them. But we did do some writing. Another classic song of our was a song called "Scream". What you had in this was a song about sex written by 2 guys who had actually had very little sexual experience and a guy who had never even felt the skin of a female. So we set off to write this little ditty. The chorus was as magical as any song written in history.
SCREAM - I'm gonna make you scream
Put you up and make you scream
This will be the night of your dreams
I'm gonna make you screeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmm
Yep, amazing isn't it? I mean I can't believe I just put that out here for free. Some up and coming band will see this thing and steal it and I will have to go to court and fight for years to prove that my writings came first. Well I guess I will have to take that gamble. But there it is in all its glory. A classic song for the ages. "Scream" was our calling card. When people heard the name Retro Active, they thought of "Scream".
We entered the studio and we put down "Scream" and another song. Immortalized to tape in one of the finest studios in all of Connecticut, it was only a matter of time until we made it big. We could have had the world at our feet! Sadly that studio was really just Ron's bedroom and a guy brought over a 4-track recorder. In all fairness, this band was going nowhere and something had to change. Me.
I remember driving to my place with Tom as he played me a tape of Poison's "Something To Believe In". He made me pay particular attention to lead singer Bret Michaels's vocal prowess. While looking back this seems a bit silly, it was the truth. Tom pointed out to me that when I sang, I was very monotone. I took his advice but really had no training to cure it. Soon, through circumstances lost to time, I was out of the band. I believe they got the guy with the 4-track to be the singer for one battle of the bands thing but then Retro Active was officially dead. While singles like "Scream" could have blown up the world, they lay dormant forever. Ron and I went on to be in another band together. It was a bit better but plagued with the same issues. Add in that I was way more into my girlfriend at the time than a band that was going nowhere and the recipe for disaster spelled the end of that one as well. I last spoke with Ron a few years back and he seems to be doing well.
Tom went out to Los Angeles and oddly enough ended up back in Nashville. We have tossed around the idea of jamming together just for kicks but nothing as yet has come of it. We are cool with each other and do laugh about the old days. He still plays. He does more of an acoustic solo rock thing now. I keep meaning to go check it out but life gets in the way. Soon though.
Me? I have a band. And oddly I am the singer. I have begged them to replace me but they won't. More on that at another time. Oddly we have often pulled out a song that Ron and I wrote many years ago. He came up with the title and I wrote the rest. And it's a song I still enjoy. It just falls short of being there. It has for over ten years. Maybe someday I can complete what started in a different state, and seemingly in a different life. Retro Active in its original state never hit a stage. Perhaps one of their songs can.
It took a while but i put together my first band in high school. I had met a drummer in marching band who had similar musical interests as I did. He enjoyed Skid Row and Rush and also brought into our lives the influence of Smashing Pumpkins's drummer Jimmy Chamberlain. His name was Ron and he was a monster. Check that, he was like Animal from the Muppets. But a controlled chaos was just what I needed in a drummer. He wasn't the brightest kid, but most drummers tend not to be. But he took orders well and kept us laughing. He was a really good guy too. So I had a drummer and I would sing. But we needed more.
In biology class I started talking to a guy named Tom. He was a huge Guns N' Roses fan and a guitarist who really wanted to be Slash. He was also a Kiss fan and turned me on to the album Kiss Alive 3. This album killed and the kid said he played guitar. So I talked him into joining up. He once spent the night at my house and I learned a few of his favorite GNR tunes on drums to play with him but he had not even learned them yet. So our first jam session was aborted. We had never even played together and we had a band. But, we had no bass player…oh wait yeah we kinda did.
I had been listening to a lot of Rush around that time and had really discovered what a great instrument the bass could be. Hearing Geddy Lee play it so beautifully and melodically made me want to be a bass player as well as a singer. So I got a cheap bass starter pack. It was an Ibanez and the bass sounded great…when people who knew how to play played it. When I played it, it sounded boring. But I wanted to learn. We had a band.
We met up in Ron's basement. I left my bass at home as really I did not know how to play it. And we played. Man we ripped right into some of our all time favorite songs and they were amazing. Yep, thats what I would like to say. Actually I really don't remember how that all went down. I don;t know what we played that first day. I would imagine some Guns 'N' Roses but I sadly don't know. Was there magic in those four walls? Probably not, but we made a good racket for ourselves.
Soon, we needed a name. I would love to remember some of the band names we threw around but I am not even sure we did. We named ourselves after the 1993 Def Leppard album Retro Active. It was a good name and as we liked to think we had that 80s feel, it suited us. Yes we were gonna save rock n roll! We were gonna talk dirty to you and have nothing but a good time. We were livin' on a prayer and wild in the streets. We were breaking the chains, pouring the sugar, kickstarting hearts and running with the devil. Actually were were 3 bums with half a dream and an attitude bigger than our talents. Next up: Writing!
We decided we needed original songs. Covers were no fun and true artists write their own. I had dabbled in writing my own tunes for about a year. They were bad. Very very bad. Tom had some lyrics written but they were usually based of Guns N' Roses themes. I remember the classic song he wrote called "Appetite for Destruction." He handed me the lyrics and I came up with some neat melodies and good hooks. It was the first time I dabbled in a very basic form of arrangement. Later in life this would be my true talent in music. Hearing how things could sound was way easier than creating them. But we did do some writing. Another classic song of our was a song called "Scream". What you had in this was a song about sex written by 2 guys who had actually had very little sexual experience and a guy who had never even felt the skin of a female. So we set off to write this little ditty. The chorus was as magical as any song written in history.
SCREAM - I'm gonna make you scream
Put you up and make you scream
This will be the night of your dreams
I'm gonna make you screeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmm
Yep, amazing isn't it? I mean I can't believe I just put that out here for free. Some up and coming band will see this thing and steal it and I will have to go to court and fight for years to prove that my writings came first. Well I guess I will have to take that gamble. But there it is in all its glory. A classic song for the ages. "Scream" was our calling card. When people heard the name Retro Active, they thought of "Scream".
We entered the studio and we put down "Scream" and another song. Immortalized to tape in one of the finest studios in all of Connecticut, it was only a matter of time until we made it big. We could have had the world at our feet! Sadly that studio was really just Ron's bedroom and a guy brought over a 4-track recorder. In all fairness, this band was going nowhere and something had to change. Me.
I remember driving to my place with Tom as he played me a tape of Poison's "Something To Believe In". He made me pay particular attention to lead singer Bret Michaels's vocal prowess. While looking back this seems a bit silly, it was the truth. Tom pointed out to me that when I sang, I was very monotone. I took his advice but really had no training to cure it. Soon, through circumstances lost to time, I was out of the band. I believe they got the guy with the 4-track to be the singer for one battle of the bands thing but then Retro Active was officially dead. While singles like "Scream" could have blown up the world, they lay dormant forever. Ron and I went on to be in another band together. It was a bit better but plagued with the same issues. Add in that I was way more into my girlfriend at the time than a band that was going nowhere and the recipe for disaster spelled the end of that one as well. I last spoke with Ron a few years back and he seems to be doing well.
Tom went out to Los Angeles and oddly enough ended up back in Nashville. We have tossed around the idea of jamming together just for kicks but nothing as yet has come of it. We are cool with each other and do laugh about the old days. He still plays. He does more of an acoustic solo rock thing now. I keep meaning to go check it out but life gets in the way. Soon though.
Me? I have a band. And oddly I am the singer. I have begged them to replace me but they won't. More on that at another time. Oddly we have often pulled out a song that Ron and I wrote many years ago. He came up with the title and I wrote the rest. And it's a song I still enjoy. It just falls short of being there. It has for over ten years. Maybe someday I can complete what started in a different state, and seemingly in a different life. Retro Active in its original state never hit a stage. Perhaps one of their songs can.
posted by Jon M Hyde at
3:29 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home