Category: Music

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This is a song by the Pousette-Dart Band from 1977. They were a Cambridge, MA based band. @mojoespage plays the electric rhythm and the slide guitar on this one.

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I recently re-read a book called the Joy of X. One of the chapters dealt with Möbius strips. There was information about somebody who put together a strip where they punched in a song, like they do with those music boxes. When the strip came around and flipped (as Möbius strips do), the holes were inverted leading to another melody where the lower notes were now higher and the higher notes lower. This of course intrigued me, and I found a site online where you could invert midi.

A recent song I wrote, ‘A Minuet to Three’ seemed a prime candidate. I took several inverted sections and used them as a prelude to the song. The first 58 seconds of this song are the verses of the original song inverted. I put some bass guitar and violin/cello over the top and voila (pun totally not intended) – this is how it came out.

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Performed, recorded and produced by Steve Keith at Baselines Designs Studio in Boston, MA.

This song was a coming of age song for me – I remember waking up on sunny summer days and hearing it play on the top 40 radio station in my area. Rock music changed my young life!

“Summer in the City” is a song by the American pop band the Lovin’ Spoonful, written by John Sebastian, Mark Sebastian and Steve Boone. It was released as a single in July 1966 and was included on the album Hums of the Lovin’ Spoonful later that year. The single was the Lovin’ Spoonful’s fifth to break the top ten in the US and their only to reach No.?1. A departure from the band’s lighter sound, the recording features a harder rock style. The lyrics differ from most songs about the summer by lamenting the heat, contrasting the unpleasant warmth and noise of the daytime with the relief offered by the cool night, which allows for the nightlife to begin.

John Sebastian reworked the lyrics and melody of “Summer in the City” from a song written by his teenage brother, Mark. Boone contributed the song’s bridge while in the studio. The Lovin’ Spoonful recorded “Summer in the City” in two sessions at Columbia Studios in New York in March 1966. Erik Jacobsen produced the sessions with assistance from engineer Roy Halee, while Artie Schroeck performed as a session musician on a Wurlitzer electric piano. The recording is an early instance in pop music of added sound effects, made up of car horns and a pneumatic drill to replicate the sounds of the city.

“Summer in the City” has since received praise from several music critics and musicologists for its changing major-minor keys and its inventive use of sound effects. The song has been covered by several artists, including Quincy Jones, whose 1973 version won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement and has since been sampled by numerous hip hop artists.

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This is my cover of a single released in 1974 by Steely Dan and the opening track of their third album Pretzel Logic. It was the most successful single of the group’s career, peaking at number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1974.

The guitar solo on the original is by Jeff “Skunk” Baxter who would soon go on to join The Doobie Brothers.

Donald Fagen revealed that the “Rikki” in question was simply a woman he’d had a crush on in college [writer Rikki Ducornet].

This version performed, recorded and produced at Baselines Designs Studio by Steve Keith.

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A song from 1979. Elvis Costello, from his 3rd album ‘Armed Forces’. Inspired by the rise of the National Front and the Quisling Clinic in Wisconsin. Elvis recorded his vocal after a “night of carousing”. Original Produced by Nick Lowe. This version performed and produced by Steve Keith at Baselines Designs Studio.

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An album of my versions of some great cover songs. I had help from several people on this. Most notably, Chrysalynn Calder, Doug Cross, Dave Overland, Darren Garrett and Elizabeth Darcel.

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This song, ‘Shine, Shine’ was written back a few years ago and refined several times. I played all the instruments and programmed the ones I don’t know how to play (horns). I always was proud of the way this song came out. This will be the first cut on my new instrumental album.

Here’s a video that goes with this song.

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I worked on the song, completely revising it with new guitars and bass. It was a blast looking at this old video of our dog Rudy through the years. He’s now 10 and still acts like a pup, albeit a little slower and one tooth less.

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My son helped me set up his video server at home and connect it to use my phone as a camera.

In my back yard, a robin built a nest under my picnic table. I set up the phone to capture the videos that you can see below.

I included my version of Blackbird as the music accompaniment. It wasn’t long enough, so I added in a reversed section in the middle to space it out.

You can see close to the end that one of the robins was none too happy with the phone capturing his actions. He gives it the evil eye and then flies into it.

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This is my version of the song Because from the Beatles Abbey Road album. It is accompanied by some pictures from the Abbey Road sessions. I play the instruments and do some vocal work on this. @kiwichrys helps out on vocals.

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This is from the Private Lightning album released in the early 80s. I play bass on this. The picture is three band members on top of the volcano on the island of Montserrat where we recorded.

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Another Private Lightning song – I’m on bass guitar. The picture is the drum setup in the studio that was used on this song and the rest of the album. Recorded at AIR studios in Montserrat (before it was destroyed by a hurricane).

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Another track from the Private Lightning album. Thriller is cut three. I finally got tired of listening to all of the problems caused in the production of this album. Here is a much better version.

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This is a song that developed from a keyboard pounding session at 3 in the morning when I was in my 20s and fairly inebriated. Fortunately I pressed record on the old cassette player. I found it years later and have been developing it further ever since.

I wanted to make it about a serial killer, how he developed into such. This was based on a book I read back then called By Reason of Insanity. The main character, Thomas Bishop, thought that Caryl Chessman was his real dad because his mom got raped up on lover’s lane.

Anyway, I never got around to writing the lyrics. I tried, but they just wouldn’t come. Maybe I will try again at some time.

But for now, here it is.