Rock Legend : the APPENDIX section of the entry (songs & stuff)

 The only way to add music is to set the songs to video.. These are not official videos by any imagination..  It is just a way to get the music to be heard.. So here are the entire demo tape.. To start ..  Don't Be Afraid :

Don't Be Afraid..  The final track on the demo...A video put together with the type the title of the song into Google images search and see what you get..
A bout the song "Don't Be Afraid", most nights we played this song it was a nice song to play.. It was usually a "end is in sight" type of number for me.. As in the show is about over, a breather song in that it was a mid tempo song, and extremely easy, strait forward formula song in the verse chorus, verse, chorus guitar break verse, chorus ending.. Not like the others weren't this way, but it was just a nice flowing song.. But there were nights the song got pushed, or axed from the lineup.. Joe was the lead vocalist on this one I think..

Where Did I Go Wrong:  If there was a hit to be had this seemed destine to be it.. I thought it had the "hook"  that might have made it work big for us.. The song was written in fairly quick order one evening at the practice session..

If there was a "hit" by Destiny this was it. BREAKDOWN..  This one was written fairly early, in fact I would willing to bet it was written when the band was still Rizzen..  Not sure when it was written exactly but the rhythm is definitely the selling point on this.. The off beat sound or up beat was what I liked about this song.. It doesn't take a genius to play it, as with most songs that get you going.. The simple (ness) is what makes most rock songs jive.. This was a little more involved but still fairly easy once you get that uptake sound.. This was always a highlight of the night no matter if it got played once twice or on request more often.. 

 

THINKING OF YOU: Fairly strait forward song.. They evolved over time very little.. In other words the song you hear here was pretty much the same from the day it was written, musically.. Lyrically the song might change, but as I said in the entry, I rarely could hear the vocals so it didn't matter.. I wasn't listening to the vocals anyway.. 

 

TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT: My feeling on the start of this song is that there is a  bit of a Steve Negus feeling to the drumming.. Steve Negus was the original drummer in Saga, and their Worlds Apart album was big just before we got together.. We did the song On The Loose and that has that sixteenth note sound on the high hat..  This has about the same starting there.. 

 

STOPPIN' US NOW:  For me there was no obscure gem in the entire song catalogue written by any of the members.. There isn't a song that we had on this demo that I dreaded playing at all they were all involved songs.. They all had parts for every member of the band.. This was another one, although I can't recall when the song was written, there was very rare time when more than one song was written on a practice session..

IT'S OVER NOW: This was the second track recorded in the studio..  I think it was January.. Maybe.. I can't remember, but it is a keyboard heavy track as most of the songs would evolve towards keyboard.. It was the 80's and that was the direction pop music was going in.. And with us in the very early days it was guitar heavy tracks..  Gradually as we evolved away from the heavy sound we would gravitate towards a keyboard heavy sound, and when Darren bought his first polyphonic keyboard Ernie would start learning how to play the keyboard as well.. Was there friction from this move??  Hard to say..

 

I'M READY: Another keyboard heavy track.. again another song written early on.. The drumming on some of the tracks seem so easy.. There was a reason for that.. I didn't want to get too involved with any hard playing passages mostly for my benefit that anyone else.. I didn't want to have to remember "now I put that one off beat nub bit fill here" because I learned a few things from the early gigs and that was I was a nervous wreck before the gigs and that would carry through until the third set.. In the early day we played three and sometime four sets.. Towards the end we would play two sets, with an "encore" five or six song third set, a token third set by comparison to the first two sets.. I always wondered if Ernie did that because he was unsure of what to do between sets.. I personally would have rather played the show start to finish without taking a break.. I was quite shy off the stage and really hated going off.. I would do a "check list" if you will, I would "fix" things that weren't hanging together.. Truth is I hated the idea of a drum stand falling dating back to my high school days that I tightened everything just a little beyond tight.. 

 

HARD TO HOLD: Another heavy keyboard track.. We practiced very regularly.. Actually obsessively.. The amount we practiced was immense, and it was to get to be "perfect".. Perfect in practice doesn't equal the same live.. I wish it did.. There were practices where we would practice the same five songs over and over.. There was substance ... um.. use, maybe abuse but not really horrible.. But if there was any at all it meant the songs were going in one ear and out the other.. Joe would make mistakes at gig and Ernie would let him know about it.. The thinking might be well he was stoned when he learned it so get stoned and he would recall the song.. It doesn't work that way, and never does, the only time it works that way is in the movies.. I drank those wine coolers at the one gig I wish I never did, the home gig.. I swore I would never do that again.. I felt like I had to stay sober.. The acoustics  at different sights could make hearing anything difficult, add it that you have a buzz on anything and ...  Not fun at all.. And I had never been laughed off the stage and didn't want that to ever happen because of my playing.. 

YOU GOT MY LOVE: A straight forward rhythm song, driving it home and playing hard.. Another song where I think it was a keep it simple type of idea with me.. For no other reason than there was no reason to fancy it up.. I feared forgetting what came next..  

There really isn't a horrible song from that demo.. Truth is I really liked every damn song on that demo.  a song that wasn't included was Darrens song Nobody's Business which was a staple of the early Rizzen songs.. Rock and Roll Party was also  a fun song, written as a final introduction to each member ...  and a short solo thing where you had a eight count to do a fill three times.. I hated doing a solo but loved the fill riff solo thing..  Every one of our songs were pristine when done live, there was nary a mistake.. Unlike the cover songs that we did make mistakes on, ours were the closest to perfection.. We were in our element when we played originals.. 

Badge Henry