| liner notes by Dan Marcus: |
This is the debut album that never was.
From 1978 to 1980, before the dawn of the digital age, Ben Vaughn recorded these songs in Blackwood, New Jersey, in the second floor apartment of friend and fellow musician Steve Iannetti.
The home studio set-up consisted of a four track reel-to-reel, a full drum kit (which dominated the small living room), and an assortment of instruments and effects gear that varied from week to week due to Steve's penchant for trading equipment (which helps to account for the extraordinary variety of these recordings).
During this period, Ben was working at various jobs (landscaper, delivery driver, paste-up artist) and trying to save his failing marriage.
He was also pursuing his rock and roll dream. The night I met him he was auditioning for a gig in a small bar in Philadelphia, performing a set of Rolling Stones covers for an audience of four people, including the bartender and me. (I was also there to audition - haven't heard back yet.)
Ben was anxious to take his music career to the next level. That's where these recordings come in - the idea was to accumulate an album's worth of material and get a record deal.
A typical session would start with Ben showing Steve the chord changes. Then, with Ben on drums and Steve playing bass, they'd record
live to a single track - in effect mixing as they cut. (Remember, they only had four tracks to work with.)
After that, all hell would break loose, fueled by adrenaline and various other substances (Steve was famous for his pretenatural
metabolism - he was known to go for a week at a time without sleep). The limitations of the equipment inspired creativity. The guys had no way of knowing it all the time, but they were the last gunfighters - the era of sonic experimentation that began in the sixties was soon to give way to the brave new world of sampling and other digitally synthesized sounds.
Sometimes
additional musical friends got involved: Ed Brady chipped in on background vocals, drums, and clarinet (for some cosmic reason, Ben and Ed both owned clarinets at the time). John Duffy occasionally played bass and Lonesome Bob tended to drift in and out of the sessions, though oddly, never on drums (he later became legendary as the drummer for the Ben Vaughn Combo).
Whoever was playing, the sessions were spirited and the takes were loose. There wasn't much looking back - it was always on to the next idea.
So how did the music industry respond to these recordings back in 1980? We'll never know - the tape never got played for any industry people. But the musicians and fans who heard it knew there was something special going on. And listening to these songs now, after all these years, it's amazing how vital and fresh they sound. They could have
been recorded yesterday (or even tomorrow).
In 1983, three years after these sessions, Ben started the Ben Vaughn Combo. In 1985, he succeeded in getting fired from his day job. The rest, as they say, is history.
(Dan Marcus) |