The Song Remains the Same
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The Song Remains the Same
Circa 2000, before we took this trip to Portofino that Summer, we had just moved back to CdM because we (Candice, Cory, Tyler, Kendall, Alexis) were having too much fun in Aliso Viejo. I had been practicing Family Law in Newport Beach. My hobbies, of course, included playing guitar since I was 11 years old. I used to go in to Guitar Center, first in Santa Ana, then Fountain Valley and haggle for deals. I knew the markup in this store was pretty significant so I used to fib a bit. I told them I used to work at Fender Guitars in Corona and that I knew what the wholesale price was on each and every item they sold to retailers. Thus, when their new American Strats were $1400, I would negotiate them down $500 telling them that they probably got them for less than $100. I would end up paying $600 with a Fender guitar case. Anyhow, my buddy Jim across the street would come over and play drums on my electronic set and he asked me if I could help him get a deal on an electronic set for his jamroom.
We went off to Guitar Center where he was willing to pay up to $15,000. I told the salesman, who knew me, that at the end of the day, I wanted one of those Gibson SG’s up on the wall for $400. Well, we were there for several hours giving me a claim for hazardous duty pay… I was so tired the salesman had to actually remind me about the SG. So, I walked over to that section of the store and stared up at a wall of about 50 SG’s. JUST THEN, this guy walks up to me… he had long brown hair, a beard and was wearing a white robe with Berkenstocks. He asked me if I was looking for an SG and he said, “This one here is by far the best one on the wall.” I didn’t question it, I thanked him and purchased the guitar without any inspection. It was a classic wood grain red SG like Page or Angus would play.
At this time, I had my musical equipment set up in my master bedroom. I would often bring band mates back from the Quiet Woman for a late night practice session at 2:00 am. My wife didn’t get much sleep. Anyhow, I was playing out of a small solid state Marshall at the time and when I played the SG through that the sound was eerily similar if not exactly the sound of Jimmy Page! Whereas I had recently purchased a 16 track portastudio and Cory (13 on Bass) and Tyler (11 on drums) had been practicing some Zeppelin of late. We set up to record The Song Remains the Same. This was the first song we recorded with the portastudio and this was the very first take,,, so, we finalized and mastered. Thereafter, we never recorded another song and I ended up giving the recorder to Cory who had become quite the ripping lead guitar player. He used it to record many of the songs he later displayed on social media. Thus, it was put to great use.
Finally, I used this picture because I know this picture was taken at or about the time we recorded that song. The funny thing was, we had just got off the boat from Santa Margarita into Portofino. I had one of those throw away cameras and asked a rather stern looking German lady if she would take a picture of my family at the end of the dock. She said “NINE!” This could have been the meanest German lady I had ever come across, but I pleaded with her… “Come on it will just take a second.” So she took the camera swept her arm across the sky without stopping and snapped the picture. I was surprised that it turned out as well as it did.
By the way, as much as I could tell from our brief encounter, I am now the spitting image of that mystery guy who handed me the SG guitar 25 years ago. Trippy to say the least.
Been a Long Day
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In or about 2002, I purchased Pro-Tools and truly only one original song made it all the way to a final edit that was mastered, Been a Long Day. I wasn’t too excited about it, but my son Cory liked it. Although I had taught Cory how to write songs, I was still struggling with confidence in my lyrics. I could make great legal or political arguments but it seemed writing sincere deep or esoteric meaningful song lyrics was still adrift and somewhat out of reach. Cory later recounted my efforts in helping write songs when he was being interviewed on KLOS, a popular FM radio station at the time. He was playing with his band THE LIX with his friends Zach Davenport on Bass, some other kid on rhythm guitar… and my son Tyler on drums. Basically, I just gave them each a yellow pad and a pen and sent them off somewhere in the house to write at least 4 to 8 lines of lyrics- they had 5 minutes. That is how Cory wrote the songs for his first album, RUN AND GUN. Cory’s writing took off like a rocket ship…. (see CoryCase.com). Mine a bit more arduous. The picture is of me jamming at my 30th High School reunion with some old high school bandmates.
Lonely Enterprise
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While Cory was recording 1000s of songs on his Portastudio (see above), I thought I would try and collaborate with him on my computer and get him to start using Pro-Tools. Again, the only song that made it start to finish was this one, Lonely Enterprise. The Back Story and the name of this website. Like many families, mine had been financially supported by my Father’s and Grandfather’s real estate business. Unfortunately, I beat him in Tennis so often, he didn’t want me to be a big part of that. Thus, I went off to Law School. As my four children, 2 boys, 2 girls, were growing up we often referred to ourselves as the C Team as we were not as financially well off as seemingly everyone else, lol. This song was about how family businesses can divide families. Cory and I wrote the melody and the lyrics together, Cory sang the lead, I sang backup vocals. Cory played rhythm and I played lead guitar… and I believe my son Tyler helped us out on some of the drum tracks. It might come off a little harsh but truth is truth.
As the years passed by Cory’s story became much more difficult (see CoryCase.com). Cory had gone from Rock, Heavy Metal to Folk Music Acoustic and back again. This picture is of Cory and I singing at the Port Restaurant in Corona del Mar during Christmas. The C Teem Cory, Tyler and I also played many of the CdM walk parties at Christmas time. Thankfully, Cory had invited me to play with him for a few years around that time and we have a few recordings which will show up in the music video section below. It was Cory’s show, I sang backups and played backup guitar for him every Tuesday and Thursday from 7 to 11. Cory was a true musical artist, musician and song writer… and because I never took any pay, I still considered myself an amateur. Still do.
Along with some Karaoke type music videos below, my hope is to eventually place my first Album on this page which I will dedicate to Cory. I have since grown my hair out long, Cory would have loved that, and moved on to Logic Pro for recording purposes. Stay tuned, when the 10 song Album is complete, with ABSOLUTELY no help from AI, I promised my wife I would cut my hair. Niente Scusi- No Excuses.