Tears of Rage

TITLE: Tears Of Rage

DATE: February 2017

LOCATION: Chalet Studios

MUSICIANS:

Drums … Al Cross

Bass … Dennis Pendrith

Hammond B3 … David Chester

Guitar … Graham Young

Piano … Bob Burrows

Vocals … Bob Burrows

SONGWRITER: Bob Dylan, Richard Manuel

RECORDING PERSONNEL:

Recording Engineer: David Chester, Scott Campbell

Mixing Engineer: Josh Bowman

Producer: Bob Burrows

GRAPHIC ARTIST: Mike Raines

NOTES:

Bob Dylan wrote the lyrics for this song and then handed them to Richard Manuel (piano player and vocalist with The Band) and asked him … do you have any ideas for this? … and so Richard wrote the music to accompany those lyrics.

Richard admitted later that he had no idea what the song was about, but as he said, when you are working with a master like Bob Dylan you don’t ask him that!

In an interview thereafter Dylan said that he wrote the song from the perspective of his parents and their generation’s view and impressions about his generation.

Regardless, the song was released as the first track on The Band’s Music From Big Pink, which took some doing because the record company did not want that at all.

Apparently it is against “the rules’ to start an album with a slow song!

I particularly love the song because it reminds me so much of watching Richard sing all those great gritty blues songs with Levon And The Hawks at The Concord.

Always love the way he growled out those songs while playing that piano.

Richard’s tragic and premature loss seared a hole in all our hearts … forever.

Morning Hymn

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.

Risky Business

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!