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The Tale Behind The Tune ... Hold On I’m Comin’ ... Memories Of The Brass Rail Hold On I’m Comin’ was written by the songwriting team of Isaac Hayes and David Porter. The same guys who wrote most of the big hits for Sam And Dave ... including Soul Man.  The song reached #1 on the Billboard R’n B chart in 1966 and has been covered by many artists. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AREppyQf5uw&ab_channel=Inconspicuos1 One evening while they were working on songs together David Porter took a washroom break. Apparently he was gone for longer than Isaac Hayes thought he should be so he went to the washroom door and yelled at Mr. Porter to come out and get back to work to which Porter apparently responded ... Hold on, I’m comin ... and so the idea for the tune was born. However, when the song was first released the folks at the record company were concerned that the title was too “suggestive” so it was originally released as ... Hold On, I’m A Comin’. How that would have addressed their concerns about that issue is beyond me!? My late wife used to say that the song must have been written by a woman ... because it enunciated a chronic frustration women often encounter in those intimate moments with men who seem to care little whether their partner also reaches the summit of the mountain of love! Our recording of this song started as a demo for a duo ... Burrows And Young. The duo didn’t have any luck landing gigs ... but we had a lot of fun recording the demo. And there was something about the recording that reminded me of the old days ... playing bars. As the tune starts one gets the feeling that the band isn’t really sure what song they are playing. Sort of like the beginning of Fingertips by Stevie Wonder ... What key, what key? Until Graham starts into the signature line that pretty well defines the song ... oh, that one! I also love the way Graham approaches playing this tune ever since the first time we played it. And on this particular recording he does a wonderful job of singing the harmony ... Dave’s part. Every Sam needs a Dave, I certainly got one here ... he did a fine job and he doesn’t like singing! So I called in the rest of the band and we fattened out what we had done and finished the tune. We played some nice bars in the city when I was a kid ... but The Brass Rail wasn’t one of them.  The Brass Rail was located on the east side of Yonge St just south of Bloor St. Unlike some other rooms in town, like Le Coq D’Or and The Sapphire who started us at 9 PM and wanted 3 sets a night, the folks at The Brass Rail wanted us to start at 7 PM and then it was 45 min. on, 15 off all night long until 1 AM ... the time at which all bars had to close back then. And unlike today, that was six nights a week ... Mon to Sat ... with a Saturday afternoon matinee. Although a grind in many ways one thing very positive about that was the band played a lot. You really knew your stuff very well after all that playing and the band tended to get very tight. However, at The Brass Rail the nights seemed to go on forever and the management spent a lot of time telling us to turn down ... as if they had expected to have a string quartet or something ... and chewing us out for not going on on time ... which I must admit was a problem sometimes. They didn’t pay us well either but would hire us for two months at a time ... we had bills to pay. So it was a classic trade off ... less money but a constant supply of it to endure the down side. In order to endure the negative aspects of the deal some of us turned to things that would assist in making the experience more bearable ... like smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol! One of the guys used to frequent a wine store down the street and come back with 2 or 3 bottles of a red wine called Challenge ... very aptly named because it was indeed a challenge to drink it! Started with wisps of mustiness finishing off with notes of cough syrup, straight out of the bottle. You certainly couldn’t afford to pay for beer at the bar on our salary at that spot so wine it was. Unless you got lucky and some nice customer offered to buy you a beer ... just part of the job! And back then marijuana came from Mexico ... there were no grow ops around at the time. So it either came from there or some other exotic location or it didn’t come at all ... dry spells! But when we had some it was a great way to get through the night ... we shared joints back then. Often in the alleyway outside the bar ... the smell was an issue so you couldn’t smoke it indoors. And we played and we played and we played ... but we weren’t actually the stars of the show. That would have been the topless Go Go Dancers ... well almost topless but not quite. Back in Toronto The Good they wouldn’t allow dancers to show their nipples for some reason. You could look at the rest of their breasts no problem ... but not their nipples. So the girls used to have to glue pasties over the forbidden area, many of which had tassels.  It always amazed me how those women could make the tassels twirl in time to the music. Also had considerable empathy for those ladies of the night having to take them off later! Ouch. They certainly were the centre of attention at that bar as it gradually evolved into a strip club. We were playing there at the early stages of that evolution ... eventually replaced the live music. In some ways it was a lot of fun playing those nights there ... but in many other ways, it wasn’t. On this recording Burrows And Company are ... Drums ... Al Cross Bass ... Dennis Pendrith Guitar ... Graham Young Hammond B3 ... David Chester Piano ... Bob Burrows Harmony Vocals ... Graham Young Lead Vocals ... Bob Burrows The recording was made at Chalet Studio ... www.chalet.com Recording Engineers ... David Chester, Drew Chester Mixing Engineer ... Josh Bowman Promo Image ... Mike Raines Caricatures for the Promo Image ... David Flett LISTEN TO HOLD ON I'M COMIN' HERE: Thank you for taking the time to read this tale ... we hope you enjoy our music.
Bob
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 TITLE: Freedom From The NRA
DATE: February 2013 LOCATION: Wanted S & P Studio … Toronto MUSICIANS: Percussion … Al Cross Vocals … Bob Burrows SONGWRITER: Bob Burrows RECORDING PERSONNEL: Recording Engineer: Scott Campbell Mixing Engineer: Scott Campbell Producer: Bob Burrows NOTES: I wrote this song in response to the response of the American Congress to Barrack Obama’s effort to create legislation to require background checks for prospective buyers at gun shows, that was supported by 85% of Americans yet was still defeated in the Senate because of lobbying by the NRA … after the massacre of twenty 5 and 6 year olds and six of their teachers at Sandy Hook P.S. Unfortunately this horrendous event has been followed by a great many other similar massacres of all sorts of totally innocent human beings in the USA. Because the song was written so long ago the lyric is somewhat dated at this time. But the central theme of the song still has merit and validity in that the NRA still exercises enormous control over any debate or discussion of this topic in government because they fund campaigns for a great many politicians in that flawed country, who then vote as instructed on any efforts to improve the situation. It seems to me that the only way to change this circumstance would be to circumvent the control that the NRA exercises over politicians they own by holding a national referendum to ask the American people directly what they want. I believe that the results of such a plebiscite would be surprising and that the average American would support reasonable gun laws, but no one ever asks them. Contrary to the myth many have of gun loving and gun toting Yankees, Americans likely want what we all want … safer streets for their kids and their families. This recording was a duet between myself and our drummer Al Cross who did not play on a traditional drum kit but used found objects around the studio … like a cardboard box we discovered in the back … bass drum … and a toy tambourine! LISTEN TO SONG HERE  We started recording this song as a whim in 2009. Dennis and I had been working on another tune ... had some time left over at Sam Reid’s studio. So I asked him if he would mind if we did something else before he had to leave. He said sure ... what would you like to do ... I replied Walkin’ The Dog ... in what key, he asked. I said A and counted it in ... in two three four ... and we recorded the song, vocals and bass only. We left a space in the middle for a solo, I was thinking of making my debut on kazoo at the time. And that is the only time in this whole adventure that any two of us were in the studio at the same time ... when Dennis and I recorded the tune together ... everybody else came one at a time. So here it is ... the first step on our musical journey ... Listened to our initial recording at home a few times ... really enjoyed it. And found myself singing an under harmony part to my lead vocal as I listened. Next time I was at Chalet Studio I asked David Chester if I could add the under harmony. Sounds simple enough and it is ... David played back the original track while I sang my part with headphones on so you can hear the original recording and the new part you are singing too. That happens all the time in a recording studio ... it’s called overdubbing. To make it sound good you have to match the under harmony as closely as you can to the lead. And that can be a bit tricky ... nailing the timing down for the new part exactly. You are after all singing to yourself but it can still be a bit challenging getting it just right. But it came together well ... and so now here is that next step in the process ... I had been working on a project for a while called Duets And The Whole Nine Yards. That would include a duet with each member of our band and then tunes by the whole band. With regard to that concept, I had come to think that Walkin’ The Dog was my Dennis duet. I was talking to Dennis on the phone a few months later ... catching up with him. When he said to me that he had to keep practicing every day to keep his lip in shape. Asked why a bass player would need to keep his lip in shape ... he replied that he played trumpet. News to me! ... I have known Dennis since we played in a band together in the late sixties. I told him I never knew he played the trumpet at all! ... and when did he start doing that? He said that he just played trumpet as a hobby and had been doing that for many years. His brother is a professional saxophone player apparently ... so he thought he would try trumpet. When we hung up a notion occurred to me so I phoned him back and asked him if he would be willing to come out of the closet with his horn and play on a song ... he asked which one? I replied Walkin’ The Dog ... he then inquired what key it was in again ... I told him A. He said that puts me in the key of B which has sharps all over and is a difficult key for trumpet. I don’t know why, but some instruments ... like sax and trumpet ... are not made in the same key as most instruments like pianos are ... the key of C ... so you have to transpose for them. Dennis went on to say that he would love to sit in on trumpet but the key was too difficult. When I got off the phone with him I had another thought so I called David Chester. David is the keyboard player in our band and he owns the studio where we record most often. I asked Dave if he could transpose our whole recording up a semitone without having it sound like The Chipmunks ... he replied that he knew it could be done but he had never done it before. I then asked if he would like to give that a try and he said yes he would be willing to do that. So one day soon thereafter I went over to the studio, Dave got out all his manuals, went to work. And after an hour or two he had accomplished our task & had transposed the whole track to Bb. So I called Dennis back and told him what we had done ... he said that was great and that he would play trumpet on the song now, because C was a much easier key for him to play in. A little while later Dennis came to the studio with his horn and overdubbed two parts he created. And in so doing he made his courageous public debut on trumpet ... and here it is ... Recording in a studio is a very different experience than playing live ... not the same thing at all! Many people think that you just walk into a studio, plug in your gear and ... in two three four ... You then just play the song the way you would at a live gig, pack up your gear and go home. But that is not the case at all ... playing in the studio is indeed a very different kettle of fish. And it requires a different set of skills and a very different mindset than live performance. When you are playing live you feed off the audience and often it inspires you to play even better. In the studio there is no audience, so it feels somewhat like you are playing in a vacuum of sorts. Many musicians and singers experience something called red light fever ... a type of anxiety that sets in when you start to record and the red light goes on ... some folks freeze up. When you play live and you make a mistake or go out of key for a moment or something like that, most people in the audience don’t even notice ... it’s the whole show they remember. But when you record, down inside yourself you realize that listeners will be able to hear every single little thing you did and it weighs on some people in a way that live playing never does. Of course the more you work in a studio the less such things are a problem for most folks. And the evolution of digital recording has made a huge difference in that regard as well. Back in the days of analog, we recorded onto tape ... the only way to edit anything was with a razor blade ... techs in studios actually did that and some of them learned to do it amazingly well. However, with digital recording you can edit anything, like a surgeon in the operating room. You can cut an “s” off the end of a word, cut and paste phrases with ease and even tune stuff. So in that sense, modern technology has “taken the pressure off” when the red light goes on. Because if you don’t get what you want you can just do it over again and paste it in place. Once you understand and realize that, you can relax much more easily and perform better. I am very proud to say that we do very little editing when our band is recording. Often what you are hearing is sheer performance with no edits at all with these guys. That was the case completely for the whole band with our recent recording of Morning Hymn. What you hear on that recording is exactly what we played and I sang in one of the takes. In this day and age of digital editing and the manipulation of what you are hearing, that is rare! The next musician to play on Walkin’ The Dog was our drummer ... Al Cross. To be honest it is ass backwards to bring the drummer in so late in the game. The drummer of course sets the time which is critical but in this case we were fortunate. Dennis Pendrith is a consummate professional bassist who must have a metronome implanted. Because when we first recorded together his timing was spot on throughout the entire tune. Less experienced players would likely have sped up or slowed down a little as the song went on. But not Dennis ... critical ... because any variation in the time would be problematic for Al. However in any endeavour Murphy’s Law seem to come into play at some point and it did here. When you record a drummer there are over a dozen mics on the drum kit ... one for every single drum and cymbal he is playing ... there is often a mic inside the bass drum ... and room mics. The recording engineer that day was new to the studio, installed the room mics upside down! So when we were listening to the track later the drums did not sound right at all. As a result we sent the drum track down to our mixing engineer Josh Bowman in Toronto. The mixing engineer plays a critical role at the end of this process when he goes over and massages every single sound we recorded making sure it sounds as good as it possibly can. He then balances all those sounds with each other to create the mix you finally get to hear. On this occasion we asked Josh if he could “fix” the problem we were hearing and he did. It’s still Al playing every whack on the drums etc but he was able to correct the sound problem. Which was great because setting up to record the drums again is a costly proposition! In the studio there is constantly a meter running ... time is money ... literally! Al Cross is a world class master drummer ... he knows what to play and even more importantly what not to play to make a song work well ... and you can hear that in his performance here. His playing on this track is very simple and straightforward ... as it needed to be for this tune. You can listen to the master at work here ... The last member of our band that came in to the studio to join our musical adventure was our guitarist, Graham Young, who was in a rather bad frame of mind on that particular day. This was a young man who thought about and played guitar 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If he wasn’t playing guitar he was going to the music store to buy strings, or listening to records, or jamming with his friends, or going out to play gigs or going out to hear other people play gigs. Guitar was the main focus of his life ... and then along came the pandemic and it was all gone! We all identify ourselves to a great degree by what it is we do and suddenly the universe had pulled the rug out from under his feet ... as it had for all young musicians ... and that had hit hard. To understand other aspects of our session that day some other background is required as well. Graham and I have an understanding that he will play his Fender Telecaster in the studio. Unless he approaches me with some rationale as to why he wishes to play a different guitar. The reason for that understanding is that we have had circumstances in which he recorded some stuff with his Telecaster one day but when I later asked him to come back another day to do some overdubbing on that track he showed up with a different guitar ... which did not match up with his Tele at all ... so we had to throw everything he did on that session in the garbage. In the studio, time is money and his return session on that occasion was a waste of both! So, in order to keep things consistent, we have this understanding with which he fully agrees. Aside from that I must admit I am a bit of a Telecaster junkie myself anyway ... it has been an iconic guitar in country, rock, blues and r’n b for a great many years, especially in Toronto. It was the guitar played by a great many young guitarists from my era in the sixties because Robbie Robertson played a Telecaster with Levon And The Hawks back in the day, so all the young bucks in the city who idolized Robbie ... Domenic Troiano, Bobby Star etc ... all played a Tele. Graham won The Sleepwalk Guitar Festival in Toronto when he was 15 years old ... he took the prize money from that award, went out bought himself a Telecaster and has picked it ever since. While, like many other guitarists he loves to fool around with other guitars and explore them, that Telecaster is like part of his body ... he has a deep intuitive understanding of that guitar. On this particular day however, Graham pulled out his homemade guitar and started playing it in our session instead, which I decided to just ignore and let him play whatever he wanted. Frankly I was just very happy that he had come to the studio at all that day so I let that go. He played several passes at the song ... we can and do tend to keep everything we record for later ... however as Graham was playing Dave and I kept looking at each other with some dismay. We were not hearing anything in particular that we would want to keep or use on the recording. After he had played 5 or 6 takes ... and we were getting nowhere ... I finally asked Graham if he would get his Telecaster and take a run at the song with that ... to which he objected at first. He said that he hadn’t played that guitar in weeks ... but I asked him if he would do that as a personal favour to me, if for no other reason ... which he then reluctantly agreed to do. He is a real sweetheart and a great guy to work with in music anywhere! ... studio or live. So he went and got his Tele, tuned it up a little, plugged it into his amp, pulled out his slide and played exactly what you are going to hear in just a moment ... there is not one edit in it at all! It was an amazing and stunning performance that immediately blew Dave and I away ... thrilling! If you listen closely you will hear Graham’s mastery of something guitarists call intonation ... his ability to manipulate and alter the tone of his guitar while he is in the motion of playing it. This aspect of his playing is particularly evident and apparent throughout his solo and is something that he constantly does on his Telecaster that is almost instinctive in nature. There is something else that is truly wonderful that needs to be considered and understood here. Not one note of what Graham is playing here is predetermined ... he makes it all up in real time. If he were to have played the song again for us, it would have sounded entirely different. If I were to ask him, what are you going to play this time he would laugh, tell me he had no idea. Until he starts to play and then it just happens ... one of the great joys of making music with him! Whereas, by comparison, Alex Lifeson from Rush knows every single note his is going to play at a gig when he gets up in the morning, including all his solos, not one note of that is improvised. Which frankly flies in the face of what rock music and its forebears ... jazz, blues ... are all about. Graham’s guitar performance is indeed the cherry on our musical sundae ... and here it is ... The final act in this play is to send what we have done to our mixing engineer Josh Bowman. Josh goes over the whole recording with a fine tooth comb massaging and making every single aspect of the soundscape we have sent him sound as good as it possibly can, balancing out all the instruments against each other, placing them to the left or to the right side of what you hear. He is an absolute master of this part of the process and he does a wonderful job for us. Josh is originally from B. C. and worked on the Bryan Adams Team of engineers out there. So here is the end of the road in terms of this musical adventure ... the final mix by Josh. If you compare it with the previous recording shared above you will notice the difference. Thank you for taking the time to read about our musical adventure ... the tale behind this tune.
It’s Earth Day ... the most important day on my calendar. A day we set aside to celebrate our lovely little planet each year. Considering our conduct and the impact we have had on the Earth there is not much to celebrate. And that is indeed a shame because that would not be the case if we understood our place here. It came to my attention when I was writing the song Sweet Mother Earth, that the metaphor I was using at the time ... as if the Earth was our mother ... is not a metaphor at all ... it is reality. At the time I was also taking in several documentaries about the evolution of life. The Earth according to the best information we have gathered so far is approx 4.5 billion years old ... and from what we know, life bloomed on this planet approx 3.5 billion years ago. This data is not just idle speculation, it is based on factual information collected by scientists. And they have gathered an abundant amount of info about when life started ... as simple single celled organisms ... that then gradually over a very long time evolved into more complex beings. Science has over time collected all sorts of artifacts to illustrate this process ... fossils, remains. How life started and why ... if there is a why ... is and may remain a mystery. But the fact that this is what happened and how is indisputable in my less than humble opinion. That being the case it occurred to me that The Earth is indeed our mother and with some help from the Sun ... our father ... our planet is the mother of all living things upon it. If we could only think about our planet in those terms ... in the way we think about our human mothers ... it might go a long way to inspire us to behave in a much more considerate way here. While I consider myself a spiritual person, I do not adhere to a formal religion of any kind. But the one set of religious and spiritual ideas that resonates with me are those of the indigenous peoples of North America who saw the Earth as their mother and to whom they had obligations. They understood that they were part of the community of life all around them, that it was incumbent upon them to show respect for the dignity, integrity of all living & non living things. They gave thanks to all the animals they hunted for giving up their lives so they could live. They regarded things like lakes as living beings ... they had a point as any canoeist will tell you. Every lake has its own ambience, its own character and its own set of living beings within it. They understood clearly that were were only part of this system and not in dominion over it. In my view we have a lot to learn from their vision, their understanding of the nature of reality. In honour of this important day we are sharing a song with you that we have never shared before. I wrote this song ... Who Knows ... with my dearly departed brother in music Larry Leishman. Larry was a very funky blues guitarist but on this occasion his guitar never came out of the case. He had bought himself a new Apple computer, discovered the program Garage Band on it and he came across all sorts of samples taken of real instruments so he started experimenting with them. A while later he sent me a track of the outcome of his adventures which was a series of clips he had put together ... seemed he was also very funky using technology as well ... it was great. But it was a collection of phrases, kind of connected but not something you would call a song. However many of the sections of music he had created really appealed to me and I was listening to his track of phrases one night very late when I was working on other stuff on my computer. At that time a melody to certain parts of what he had done started to occur to me but there was no way I could sing them to what he had sent ... but I was wailing away anyway at 2 AM or so. Then one line of lyric fell down from the sky ... Who knows, somebody tell me, how will we look them in the eye. Who knows, next generation, what will be our alibi ... we don’t have one! So I called a former student of mine who became one of the best recording engineers in the country ... Scott Campbell ... and asked him to help me create something I could sing to. I gave him “the recipe” for the song which he then cut and pasted together seamlessly. Then I took that, went to Chalet Studio where we always record and recorded the vocals. The lyric for this song were inspired by the “final lecture” by Dr. David Suzuki ... who is still on television every week so I guess it wasn’t that final after all ... in which he stated that he felt that the message he had been trying to deliver for many years had fallen on deaf ears about which he was very disappointed and understandably somewhat disillusioned ... how could he not be! He also said that he was always searching for ways to bring his message home to people. The main theme in Who Knows is intended to get folks to understand that what we (they) are doing to this planet will have a profound impact on the world we are leaving for our kids. Surely that would be a message that would resonate with a great many parents I thought. As another line from the song goes ... We tell them that we love them, care for them in every way. While they are watching their world crumble, what are we gonna say? Who knows ... So we decided to send the song to Dr. Suzuki as a gift to be used in any way he saw fit. Eventually got a lovely e mail from him directly thanking us for taking the time to do that. This recording of Who Knows is not at the same level of professional production as the collection of our material on Spotify or iTunes but I think it says what we wanted to say. Every time I listen to it I get a big smile on my face and warmth in my heart and it brings back many fond memories Larry and all the fun we had making music together over the years. I do hope you enjoy the song and that you will give some thought to the message here. We are consuming this planet at a horrific pace, there are far too many of us on it and we are in the process of leaving our children and their children a terrible mess to deal with. We must learn to show far more respect and consideration for our Sweet Mother Earth. And darn quick! ... have a meaningful, transformational Earth Day. Let’s all pull together, turn things around and do better for Sweet Mother Earth. Bob TITLE: Risky Business DATE: June 2019 LOCATION: Chalet Studios MUSICIANS: Drums … Al Cross Bass … Dennis Pendrith Keyboards … David Chester Guitar … Graham Young Piano … Bob Burrows Vocals … Bob Burrows SONGWRITER: Bob Burrows RECORDING PERSONNEL: Recording Engineer: David Chester Mixing Engineer: Josh Bowman Producer: Bob Burrows GRAPHIC ARTIST: Mike Raines NOTES: I wrote this song when I discovered that Alex Lifeson … and for that matter, all the other guys in Rush … know every single note they are going to play at a gig when they get up that morning … every note they play all night is predetermined! Which flies in the face of this music … that is all based on improvisation. All the music from which our music has evolved features improv … jazz, blues, country, bluegrass, gospel … what Rush plays is classical music without the dots. If I were to ask our guitarist, Graham Young, what he was going to play in his next solo he would laugh at me and ask … How the hell would I know?! In fact when he plays a solo Graham makes it all up in real time as he is playing. That takes a great deal more skill and capacity than planning everything out ahead! And by the way, Graham’s guitar work throughout this song is just wonderful. But if we recorded the song again or performed it live it would probably sound somewhat different than it does here … which in some ways is the whole point!  TITLE: Heartbreak Hotel Live DATE: October 2019 LOCATION: Burdock Pub, Bloor St. W. Toronto MUSICIANS: Drums … Al Cross Bass … Dennis Pendrith Keyboards … David Chester Guitar … Graham Young Piano … Bob Burrows Vocals … Bob Burrows SONGWRITER: Tommy Durndun, Mae Axton Boren & Elvis Presley RECORDING PERSONNEL: Recording Engineer: Sound Man at Burdock and room mics Mixing Engineer: Scott Campbell, Dave Chester Producer: Bob Burrows GRAPHIC ARTIST: Mike Raines NOTES: This was our last live performance as a band just before the pandemic set in. I have always loved this song … first rock ‘n roll song I ever heard. Saw Elvis perform it live on black & white tv on The Tommy Dorsey Show. We have often used this song as a vehicle to elevate the profile of homelessness. We originally recorded this version back in 2011 with that in mind. The guitar playing here is simply wonderful … Graham loves this tune. You can hear members of the audience calling out to him at the end of his solo. We really love to play live together and we so seldom get to do that. There is something magical about live music and you can sense that here. And if you really do appreciate this performance please give something to help. The folks at Fred Victor do a wonderful job for the homeless in Toronto. Inn From The Cold … same deal … Newmarket ON And there are lots more … talk is cheap … give something … thank you.  TITLE: Morning Hymn DATE: March 2021 LOCATION: Chalet Studios MUSICIANS: Drums … Al Cross Bass … Dennis Pendrith Keyboards … David Chester Guitar … Graham Young Vocals … Bob Burrows SONGWRITER: Bruce Cockburn RECORDING PERSONNEL: Recording Engineer: Justin Meli Mixing Engineer: Josh Bowman Producer: Bob Burrows GRAPHIC ARTIST: Mike Raines NOTES: I first became aware of this wonderful songnot long after Bruce Cockburn came to Toronto from Ottawa and made off with half the band I was in at the time! When I first saw Bruce perform I quickly understood why they had left our band! Wanted to get into his band myself and almost did … Bruce was and remains a master guitarist and one of the best songwriters this country has ever produced. At one point however, he came to believe that someone else should sing his songs. I auditioned for that gig and actually got the job except that everyone around Bruce at the time, including manager Harvey Glatt, convinced him to sing his own tunes. Nevertheless I got to hang out with the band, eventually accompanied them to New York where they opened for vibes player Gary Burton at Steve Paul’s The Scene. First heard Bruce sing this song in his basement where we often congregated. Fell in love with the song immediately … one of the best songs I have ever heard. This is essentially a live recording … there are no edits on this track at all. It was just one take off the floor at the studio on one magical afternoon in March.  TITLE: All You Need Is Love DATE: April 2020 LOCATION: Chalet Studio MUSICIANS: Drums … Al Cross Bass … Dennis Pendrith Organ … David Chester Guitar … Graham Young Piano … Bob Burrows Vocals … Bob Burrows SONGWRITER: John Lennon, Paul McCartney RECORDING PERSONNEL: Recording Engineer: Justin Meli Mixing Engineer: Josh Bowman Producer: Bob Burrows GRAPHIC ARTIST: Mike Raines NOTES: The guitar playing on this track is magnificent … from one end to the other. The whole band gets into a wonderful groove in the ending. And Dennis gives a nod of respect to The Beatles on our way out. A challenge to sing but lots of lovely moments … reaching for whatever you got. Was going to go back and “fix” this or that but just decided to leave it alone. May not be perfect … but then nothing is. Bob Burrows  TITLE: Over Yonder DATE: November 2019 LOCATION: Chalet Studios MUSICIANS: Drums … Al Cross Bass … Dennis Pendrith Organ … David Chester Guitar … Graham Young Piano … Denis Keldie Vocals … Bob Burrows SONGWRITER: Bob Burrows RECORDING PERSONNEL: Recording Engineer: Justin Meli Mixing Engineer: Josh Bowman Producer: Bob Burrows GRAPHIC ARTIST: Mike Raines NOTES: Over Yonder enunciates many of the thoughts and feelings I have had over the past few years about the end of life, at my age you think about such things more often! It also addresses a lot of concepts and ideas about all that from others, especially organized religion about what death means and what happens afterwards. To me, what happens after death is rather obvious! … and a lot of things that are said about it and what transpires are little more than fanciful nonsense. When I first played the song to our musical director and bandmate Dave Chester he broke into gales of laughter at the ending … A song about a topic everyone wants to hear about Bob … he said … dying! A song to literally die for! And I wonder why I don’t have more Listeners on Spotify. Great piano playing on this track by a close friend of our band … Denis Keldie. His touch here reminds me a lot of Floyd Kramer. As I wrote this song I could hear Roebuck Pop Staples wailing away in my head.  TITLE: Where Did We Go Wrong DATE: December 2015 LOCATION: Chalet Studios MUSICIANS: Drums … Al Cross Bass … Dennis Pendrith Hammond B3 … Denis Keldie Guitar … Graham Young Piano … Bob Burrows Vocals … Bob Burrows SONGWRITER: Bob Burrows RECORDING PERSONNEL: Recording Engineers: David Chester Mixing Engineers: Ian Bodazi, Scott Campbell Producer: Bob Burrows GRAPHIC ARTIST: Mike Raines NOTES: Where Did We Go Wrong expresses many of the ideas and conclusions of The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History … our extinction … by Elizabeth Kolbert. It is a very dark and ominous song … and it is intended to be just that! When I invited Denis Keldie to sit in with us on this tune, he told me that he loved the song but thought I should write another verse to give people something to be hopeful for … to which I replied, that’s just the point Denis, there is nothing to be hopeful for with regard to our situation here given our past bevaviour and conduct. The lyrics of this tune very much mirror and reflect the rather stark and blunt comments to the U N’s Environmental Conference by Greta Thunberg in 2020. Not only are we consuming the planet we live on, we seem, like Thelma and Louise, to be in a hurry to hurtle ourselves off the cliff and our planet into oblivion. WDWGW was also the other song on our CD Project with Money … and for good reason … the two songs and the cause of the problems are inextricably connected. The guitar solo here by Graham is one of the finest I have ever heard.  |
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