{UPDATE August 5, 2010: one-take live recording from early 90's has been posted!
http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/4789393 for a one-take live version
This was written about 1988 and was featured in all the shows of that time. In particular, I remember doing this at Ephpheta House the Oblate House in Rhode Island for the youth gatherings they were doing there. We had several members hail from Rhode Island like Miles Tardie and Kevin Turenne. In this one I had to strum the 12-string at hyper speed to get that 'military' sense and Greg transformed the patterns I came up with into a concert-ready delight with his own style. At the first Reunion Concert, Mike McBride had come up with a synthesizer horn sound as a call-to-arms sound going into the chorus.
But the person I want to talk about is W. Anthony Vassel, also known as "Tony" or "W". He and Greg have Albanian background to join the strong Armenian and Franco- content we have ethnically. He was featured in this song and had a great jazz-y solo at the beginning of "Let's Stay" (which I hope to get to at some point!) {UPDATE:� I got to it!! http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_4855284 }. He also has a great faith story to share by the way. He came to us at Oblates and providentially filled in when Jim Gagnon left us. (We used to kid Jimmy when all the girls would shout for the cute drummer "Jimmy! Jimmy!"). Big shoes to fill? Tony stepped right in on drums bringing a jazz interest - he always liked Spyrogyra! Without him, we wouldn't have had the musical identity we did. But, far more importantly, he became a leader and the soul or spirit of our group in many ways. He seemed to have a great sense of how to approach any situation. His off-beat sense of humor has canonized many group sayings and jokes like all the occurences at the Zoller House in New York. He came up with crazy names for us by the score. I became "Shorts" and "Jacque Lamoie". John Drahos got so many names we couldn't count them: Henry, Farragut, Quentin, etc. Stephen Pipitone, our soundboard guy, already known as "Pepi" was always "BILLY!" and we all learned to sing the "Big Bad Billy Blues". "What d'ya hear" and ""Way out there" and scores of other phrases became ours. "Putting up your flag" as warning for the imminent arrival of unpleasant odors has caused us to celebrate "Flag Day" as a group quite assiduously ever since! All you LW types, you know I could just keep on going and completely confuse those who didn't enjoy the inner circle we did. But you get the picture. Tony, we love you and your perfect foil, Denise, more than we can say. And we all were so happy when the Lord brought little Sam into your lives.We celebrate this great song we did, but far more we celebrate the Vassels and the Living Waters community.Way out there. Mark L.
http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/4789393 for a one-take live version
This was written about 1988 and was featured in all the shows of that time. In particular, I remember doing this at Ephpheta House the Oblate House in Rhode Island for the youth gatherings they were doing there. We had several members hail from Rhode Island like Miles Tardie and Kevin Turenne. In this one I had to strum the 12-string at hyper speed to get that 'military' sense and Greg transformed the patterns I came up with into a concert-ready delight with his own style. At the first Reunion Concert, Mike McBride had come up with a synthesizer horn sound as a call-to-arms sound going into the chorus.
But the person I want to talk about is W. Anthony Vassel, also known as "Tony" or "W". He and Greg have Albanian background to join the strong Armenian and Franco- content we have ethnically. He was featured in this song and had a great jazz-y solo at the beginning of "Let's Stay" (which I hope to get to at some point!) {UPDATE:� I got to it!! http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_4855284 }. He also has a great faith story to share by the way. He came to us at Oblates and providentially filled in when Jim Gagnon left us. (We used to kid Jimmy when all the girls would shout for the cute drummer "Jimmy! Jimmy!"). Big shoes to fill? Tony stepped right in on drums bringing a jazz interest - he always liked Spyrogyra! Without him, we wouldn't have had the musical identity we did. But, far more importantly, he became a leader and the soul or spirit of our group in many ways. He seemed to have a great sense of how to approach any situation. His off-beat sense of humor has canonized many group sayings and jokes like all the occurences at the Zoller House in New York. He came up with crazy names for us by the score. I became "Shorts" and "Jacque Lamoie". John Drahos got so many names we couldn't count them: Henry, Farragut, Quentin, etc. Stephen Pipitone, our soundboard guy, already known as "Pepi" was always "BILLY!" and we all learned to sing the "Big Bad Billy Blues". "What d'ya hear" and ""Way out there" and scores of other phrases became ours. "Putting up your flag" as warning for the imminent arrival of unpleasant odors has caused us to celebrate "Flag Day" as a group quite assiduously ever since! All you LW types, you know I could just keep on going and completely confuse those who didn't enjoy the inner circle we did. But you get the picture. Tony, we love you and your perfect foil, Denise, more than we can say. And we all were so happy when the Lord brought little Sam into your lives.We celebrate this great song we did, but far more we celebrate the Vassels and the Living Waters community.Way out there. Mark L.
D
July 19, 2010 at 10:05 pm
July 19, 2010 at 10:06 pm
July 19, 2010 at 10:08 pm