Without anything truly important to do today, I decided to buy a whole bunch of music on iTunes to make a \u201cPassion\u201d album.\u00a0 This is something that I have wanted to do for years, but had never gotten around to it.\u00a0 \u201cPassion,\u201d by the way, was the name of my very successful band back in the early 80\u2019s.\u00a0 We were a top tier cover band in the greater Bay Area with a rather large following, yet our goal was never to get rich or leave our day jobs \u2013 we all played because we had a passion to play, hence the name.\u00a0 Most in the band were engineers.\u00a0 I was studying to be an engineer at the time, so in between sets, it wasn\u2019t unusual for my bandmates to help me out with my Calculus homework.\u00a0 Yes, that was the sort of thing we did in the green room between sets.\u00a0 Most of our band did not do drugs, and those who did, kept it to themselves, and not while playing.\u00a0 The result was that we had quite the work ethic with the singular goal of copying our music note-for-note.\u00a0 This allowed me to get really good at listening and breaking-apart songs, a skill I would use later on when I co-owned a studio and did some sound engineering\/studio mixing.\u00a0 The band was together from late 1982 \u2013 1989.\u00a0 I left the band in 1987 because my grades were dropping and my future wife said that it was either her or the band because I was playing so often that I never saw her.\u00a0 I chose wisely, of course, but I still hung out with the band when I could.\u00a0 The break-up of the band occurred (as it does with most bands), when an outside love interest got involved with the band.\u00a0 Our drummer liked our female lead singer, but our lead singer found a new beau, and he started running lights for the band.\u00a0 The drummer and the lighting guy hated each other so eventually, the lead singer and lighting guy left to form their own band (later on, they both became Christians and started playing Coffee Houses in Gilroy) or the drummer quit – I don’t recall which happened first.\u00a0 The rest of the band split and started doing other projects.\u00a0 One of the lead guitarists joined me on a project I was doing in the studio around 1989-90 when we recorded an album for a star from the Philippines (Johnny Night).\u00a0 In 1991, I left my music & studio life to join a rock & roll church band.\u00a0 Switching to a daytime gig was much healthier for me.\u00a0 I did that for a little over a year, and then joined the church band that I currently play in.\u00a0 And so goes my musical career (I counted the other day, and I have been in 17 different bands, though Passion and my current church band are the two I have been in the longest, and I\u2019m on 3 rather mediocre albums that have never gone anywhere.\u00a0 The most successful project I was involved in was a single that sold 40K copies).<\/p>\n
So, getting back to the Passion Album, it took the better part of a day (last night and much of today) to compile the 75 most played songs that we did as a band, or the core of what we did for five years.\u00a0 In my five year tenure, we kept a rolling \u201ccurrent\u201d list of around 100 songs out of the approximately 250 songs that we had learned over that five year period (yes, on average, we learned one new song a week AND we either practiced or played for 20 hours a week\u2026 not including travel, setup or tear-down).\u00a0 Our average set was 12 songs, and four sets a night (48 songs a night), so if we played four nights a week, and we often did, our goal was to repeat only half the songs, hence the 100 active songs.\u00a0 In practice though, it was rare that we played at the same place for all four nights, so we tended to stick with these 75 songs that were most often on our current list:<\/p>\n
Scandal \u2013 Goodbye to you
\nScandal \u2013 Love\u2019s God a Line on You
\nScandal \u2013 Beat of a Heart
\nMotels \u2013 Only the Lonely
\nMotels \u2013 Mission of Mercy
\n\u2018Til Tuesday \u2013 Voices Carry
\nPolice \u2013 Message in a Bottle
\nPolice \u2013 Wrapped Around Your Finger
\nRush \u2013 Subdivisions
\nRush \u2013 Tom Sawyer
\nBabys \u2013 Headfirst
\nBabys \u2013 Midnight Rendezvous
\nBabys \u2013 Too Far Gone
\nBon Jovi \u2013 Runaway
\nBon Jovi \u2013 Livin’ on a Prayer
\nBon Jovi \u2013 Get Ready
\nHeart \u2013 Barracuda
\nHeart \u2013 How can I Refuse
\nHeart \u2013 If Looks Could Kill
\n(Medly) John Cougar \u2013 ROCK in the USA
\n(Medly) Romantics \u2013 What I like About You
\n(Medly) Neil Diamond \u2013 Cherry, Cherry
\nThe Call \u2013 I Still Believe
\nGenesis \u2013 Abacab
\nToto \u2013 Hold the Line
\nToto \u2013 Won\u2019t Hold You Back Now
\nBryan Adams \u2013 It\u2019s Only Love
\nBryan Adams \u2013 Run To You
\nBryan Adams \u2013 This Time
\nBryan Adams \u2013 One Night Love Affair
\nPat Benetar \u2013 You Better Run
\nPat Benetar – Heartbreaker
\nPat Benetar \u2013 Promises In The Dark
\nPretenders \u2013 Middle of the Road
\nPretenders – Precious
\nDon Henley \u2013 Boys of Summer
\nDon Henley \u2013 Drivin\u2019 With Your Eyes Closed
\nTimbuck 3 \u2013 Future\u2019s So Bright
\nGamma \u2013 Voyager
\nNight Ranger \u2013 Don\u2019t Tell Me You Love Me
\nNight Ranger \u2013 Sing Me Away
\nNight Ranger \u2013 Passion Play
\nRatt \u2013 Round and Round
\nVan Halen \u2013 Panama
\nVan Halen \u2013 Jump
\nVan Halen \u2013 Dance the Night Away
\nVan Halen \u2013 You Really Got Me
\nJourney \u2013 Keep on Runnin\u2019
\nJourney \u2013 Lights
\nBoston \u2013 Smokin\u2019
\nStevie Nicks & Tom Petty \u2013 Stop Draggin\u2019 My Heart Around
\nRobert Plant \u2013 Addicted To Love
\nRobert Plant \u2013 Little by Little
\n38 Special \u2013 If I\u2019d Been The One
\n38 Special \u2013 Hold on Loosely
\n38 Special \u2013 Caught Up In You
\nDokken – You Just Got Lucky
\nThe Bangals \u2013 Walk Like an Egyptian
\nSurvivor \u2013 Popular Girl
\nSurvivor \u2013 High On You
\nTubes \u2013 Talk To Ya Later
\nTubes \u2013 She\u2019s a Beauty
\nThe Georgia Satellites \u00a0\u2013 Keep You Hands To Yourself
\nHuey Lewis \u2013 Finally Found a Home
\nHuey Lewis \u2013 Power of Love
\nHuey Lewis \u2013 Walkin’ on a Thin Line
\nScorpions \u2013 Rock You Like a Hurricane
\nScorpions \u2013 Big City Nights
\nU2 \u2013 Still Haven\u2019t Found What I\u2019m Looking For
\nU2 \u2013 Pride (In the Name of Love)
\nZz top \u2013 Sharp Dressed Man
\nZz top \u2013 Stages
\nAldo Nova \u2013 Fantasy
\nEddie Money \u2013 No Control
\nEddie Money \u2013 Think I\u2019m in Love
\nThe Kinks \u2013 Destroyer
\nCars \u2013 Let\u2019s Go<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Without anything truly important to do today, I decided to buy a whole bunch of music on iTunes to make a \u201cPassion\u201d album.\u00a0 This is something that I have wanted to do for years, but had never gotten around to … Continue reading