I remember you! Fall On Me - the single that never was.

"Fall On Me" was the first song recorded for Won Out and was always meant to be the first cut on the album. The drums were in the kitchen, the two guitars (a beautiful white Strat and a cute little Musicmaster bass - both would be stolen in a matter of weeks) were plugged into the board. The lead vocal and rhythm guitar were on the same track and the harmony vocal was on the empty 4th track. The backwards recording that starts things off (and closes the album ala Sgt. Pepper) was, like the Beatle song "Rain", a happy accident - while rewinding the tape with the speakers on, I liked the backwards sound and decided to use snippets of it. Kinda like the Beatle song "Rain". Did I mention the Beatles song "Rain"? I mixed it mono but it was remixed for stereo later. I ladled on a few more Beatles-inspired effects by recording the solo at a slower speed to give it more depth when sped up to match the song's tempo, then sped the entire track up just a bit to make it more poppy. I recorded it twice and ended up using the first half of take 2 and the second half of take 1 (the splice is in the second guitar solo right before the time shift crescendo). These are all, of course, recording tricks used by The Beatles on various songs. If it seems that I copy the Fabs a lot in my primitive way it's because they invented everything except what they didn't invent - and I read about their studio adventures and listened to them all the time. I couldn't help but be influenced, and influenced I was. You could even say the Beatles were the first influencers. You'd be wrong, but you could still say it. You've got my permission and as far as I'm concerned that's all you need. Besides love. Get it? Beatles.

It's probably the oldest song on the album. I wrote the chorus on my way home from school one day. I remember walking down 14th Avenue by the old Highland Hospital humming the tune. When I was writing songs  for The Bonkeenies a few years later I added the verses. The fuzzy guitar solos (I had a cheap Vox knockoff fuzz/wah pedal - a "Pax". Still cool.) are the melody to a different song called "Burning". If you sing the lyrics along with the guitar you'll see what I mean. The verses seem to be about a relationship that ended badly and I can't say what the "fall on me" chorus is referring to. I probably just liked the way it sounded. It sounds not unlike the Ritchie Valens hit "La Bamba" but it's a very common rock 'n ' roll chord sequence.

Fall on me, fall on me, fall on me 

Give something to remember you by before I leave

I remember you - you were the one who always stood by me

I remember you - you were the one who hung around

I remember you- you were the one who looked good by me

I remember you - you were the one who let me down

(repeat chorus)

(guitar solo)

I remember you - you were the one who would think of me

I remember you - you were the one who carried on

I remember you - you were the one who said you did love me

I remember you - you're the one who is gone

(repeat chorus)

(guitar solo)

(repeat chorus)

The peppy music belies the bitterness in the lyrics. I was so young when I wrote this. Years later I began to suspect that the verses were about my mother, who died when I was very young leaving me without a parent since my father was not around. I've never really written out of whole cloth - my songs are generally based on my own experience in some way. 

We planned to release Fall On Me as a single with a non-album song on the flip side (yeah, like The fookin' Beatles) but we ran out of money. It's one of my great regrets that we never did that. It was a very commercial effort and, second only to "Big Ass", the song most often selected by program directors for broadcast.

Have I mentioned The Beatles ? 

Here's the lyrics to the previously mentioned "Burning" to sing along with guitar solos. It fits when you match the first word with the first 3 notes of the solo:

Here everything's burning

And wiping the spit from your eye 

You find there's no reason to cry

At all

Now everything's turning

Into a blazing hot hell

The air is now filled with the smell of our 

Burning 

Everyone who's heard or read it says it's about sex. I think it would work as a stand-alone song. Maybe I'll try it someday. Yeah, maybe I will. Anyway, I've been performing "Fall On Me" since The Bonkeenies' very first paying gig in October of 1973. It's always one of my favorite songs. By me, I mean. Well, by anybody. Yay, Fall On Me! - the single that never was.

             Here's the Backorders performing the song in 1979 at the Won Out 25th anniversary party

             At this point the band featured 3 ex-Bonkeenies - the old front line of me, Olga and Greg

            So, Igloo to you until we meet again!

Other stuff: Remember those chewy candy bars like Abba Zabba, Big Hunk and Look? They were (or are. I don't know if they're still around) really bad for your teeth. Ambassadors of tooth decay. When I was a little kid in Oakland there was a corner grocery store on, of all places, the corner. It had a butcher! Boy, things were different back then. We used to go there an buy those dental disasters. I drove by there recently (well, rode by. I don't drive anymore for reasons that I'm sure will come up in this here blog) and the store was long gone, replaced by a recently-closed wig shop.