Classic pop-rock jangle.

10 MP3 Songs
POP: Folky Pop, ROCK: 60's Rock



Details:
A little about "Opera Alley."

"Opera Alley" is my third home-studio album. As before, I wrote all the songs, played all the parts, and recorded it in my living room on an analog eight-track recorder. Musically it's pretty much a guitar based pop/rock album with some piano and keyboards thrown in. A variety of acoustic and electric guitars were used, along with a couple of cheap keyboards and assorted mics and amps. I listened to a lot of late-sixties Kinks, Beach Boys, and Beatles while making the album, which I think shows up in the arrangements more than on past records. I think suggestions of R.E.M. and Neil Young show up as well, as I would certainly cite them as influences.

Here's a little about the songs:

The title track was started while watching Ray Davies on "Storytellers." I was consciously trying to write a Kinks-like song. I love it when songs are named after or describe places. "Penny Lane" and "Waterloo Sunset" are obvious examples. "Opera Alley" is pretty literal - it's a solitary walk through a neighborhood filled with quaint shops and people from the past.

"Somebody To Adore" is part of a trilogy of songs about isolation, the desire to get out, and the fear of trying. You get older and more set in your ways and it's harder to change your life. You know it needs changing, but you'll get to it tomorrow. You see people younger and prettier making the mistakes you wish you could still make. You want that person. You want to be that person. You don't want to be "you" anymore.

"Hollywood's Dreams" was directly inspired by a former television star's death, and indirectly inspired by many different things: People leaving your life, desires for some sort of stardom and external validation, and the entertainment business machine that chews up the easy marks and spits them into the gutter. The drums were intended to sound artificial, like Hollywood.

"Star Route Nine" is the second song in the isolation trilogy. It was the last song written for Opera Alley and just sort of came out one day.

"Janie Sims" is exactly what it sounds like - a song written by a shy person. Should our hero approach this girl? What's she really like? How can he get up the courage to talk to her? What will he say if he does manage to talk to her? She probably has a boyfriend...

In "Solo" he finally gets the girl but he's not sure he wants her anymore. A three-chord little pop ditty with a classic clichéd key change. Written in an English front room about an American Girl.

Things get a bit more serious in "Promise Me" and "Where Red Roses Fall." While "Promise Me" was the last song to be recorded for the album, it was actually written around the time I did Smile Slightly (1994). The time seemed to be right to record it. It fit. "Promise me that you'll laugh at every joke I tell."

"Where Red Roses Fall" was started after a first date didn't happen. I know I blew it way out of proportion in the lyric, but I was really looking forward to going out with this girl. The song developed as the relationship didn't. "Red Roses" was in danger of sounding like several of my other songs until Michael Karo, playing with my drum machine, came up with the beat that I later used for the song. Sometimes it's good to throw a wrench into the works.

"Sunny Day" is part of a set of songs ("Erica's Eyes," "The Love That She Makes," and "Sorry Again" are the others) written in the early nineties about someone who had the ability to turn me inside out.

"Someday Soon" is the third song in the isolation trilogy. But it's a song about beating the isolation and the feelings and fears that cause it. It's a song where our hero knows the future is going to get better, with a little effort. "You've got to move, you've got to keep on trying." Because "Someday soon we'll have the time of our lives." I think "Someday Soon" marks a step forward for me, both in the bounce of the tune and the optimism of the lyric. It's getting better all the time...