Immer just said Im playing bass on this one and held out an acoustic guitar for Millard.
Millard took the Meet On The Ledge? Ive been playing this song one way or another since the mid 80s. Fairport Conven-
guitar, walked into Immys booth and spent the rest of the day just abusing Immys poor 1963 Goya Classical
Guitar. He beat the shit out of the poor sad thing. Now it refuses to play anything but whiny ballads (which...
we have plenty of).
Young David Arthur Immerglck brought this song in from our friend Coby. I knew Coby because his brother
Matt directed the indie film Ropewalk and we recorded some songs for it a few years back. I didnt realize
Immy even knew Coby but he claims theyve played together for the past 4yrs (could be true - Immys very
mysterious that way...like if Rasputin loved sushi & playedguitar). I always dug Cobys writing but Hospital
floored me. When I heard it (and when we recorded it as well) I was in the worst part of 7 months of horrific
drug withdrawals as I weaned myself off a number of prescription psychiatric meds. Theres no drug problem;
it was just some medications prescribed me that the docs no longer wanted me to take. Nonetheless, there
were a lot of them, some were very powerful and, as it turned out, rather unpleasantly addictive. During the
worst of it, in June 2011, we were in the studio and I couldnt stop twitching & shaking. I shook so much I
pulled a muscle in my shoulder. I was insanely focused and did some of the best arrangements of my life (see
this song and Like Teenage Gravity) but you can freaking hear me physically vibrating around the room,
especially on (of all songs) this one with the line Theres some pills that I shouldnt take (cue dry hacking
laughter).
Its probably best summed up by Immy, writing to me with some comments on all the mixes: My favorite
trip on the whole batch? Your insane natural vibrato on the word TREA-EA-EA-EATMENT in Hospital --
absolutely freaky...
(sigh)
Counting Crows
Under Water Sunshine Its gonna be what I remember too (ugh) even though the whole bands trip on the song was something
to witness. Immy & Jim got fused into Millards pounding acoustic and, when I suggested an arrangement
BitTorrent Bundle Liner Notes based around this specific set of crashes by the band in & out of the rhythm threesomes groove, you could
tell Dan had been salivating over what Millard was doing to that acoustic because he tried to tear a very non-
melodic hole in his amp with his electric. Then Dave found this really pretty melody and Charlie added, of all
things, strings (?). Its the weirdest freaking song. Hopefully theres no film.
Untitled (Love Song) written by Luke MacMaster
Meet On The Ledge Written by Richard Thompson
Strange Arrow Music (ASCAP)
Recorded by The Romany Rye for the ep Highway 1, Looking Back Carefully (2009), the lp Quicksilver Sun- BMG/Chrysalis obo Warlock Music Ltd (BMI)
beam (2012), and a Daytrotter Session on April 13, 2010 Recorded by Fairport Convention for the lp What We Did On Our Holidays (1969)
Dave Mandolin Dave - Acoustic Gtr
Jim Drums Jim - Drums, percussion, BV
Adam vocals Adam - vocals, BV
Charley - Hammond B-3 Organ, Piano, BV Charley - Piano, Hammond B-3 Organ
Immer - right side Electric Lead Gtr Immer - left side Electric Gtr, BV
Millard - Bass Gtr Millard - Bass Gtr
Dan - left side Electric Gtr, BV Dan - right side Electric Gtr, BV
The 1st time I heard Untitled (Love Song) was the first time I saw The Romany Rye, in 2011 in a little club Many lists of the greatest rock & roll albums rank Richard & Linda Thompsons apocalyptic 1982 swan song
at South By Southwest. It was their last song and they were absolutely torching it. They swung a groove so Shoot Out The Lights in the top 10, including Rolling Stones 1st such list, published only a few years later.
deepthat I couldve stood there watching them pass it around until the place burned to the ground. Theres When I first heard the record, I was speechless. All I could think was Whothe f#@% are these people? I read
only one 4-chord pattern in the song. You make it work by feel. It was the end of the gig and they were just... up on them and found out he was the founder of the seminal late-60s Brit band Fairport Convention and also
LEANING into it. What can I say? It got good to me. All I could think was Ooooh man, I wanna spend 5 made a series of albums with his wife Linda, all of which were completely out-of-print and impossible to find
minutes doing this myself. in the States. Great. I put them on my list. I had a list. We all did.
Sometimes its as simple as that. Sometimes you just want to spend some time doing the thing the other guy When I was a kid, before everything got re-released on CD, there was a lot of music you just couldnt find.
was doing. Sometimes you just want to listen to it again, but sometimes...you wanna lean in and give it some Records went out of print. Not just obscure records either; historic recordings like The Beach Boys Pet
more personal attention. Sounds, The Modern Lovers, and the entire Big Star catalog were very hard to find.
We could all see each other pretty well standing around the room when we recorded this song but at the time So I had a list. We all did. You had a list and you carried it everywhere so you could check out the used bins
it felt like we didnt even need to. We each knew what everybody else was going to do before they even knew of every record store you ever passed. Every once in a while you found something but there were about 50
they wanted to do it. On this and the Dawes song All My Failures, two songs most of the guys had never records I simply couldnt find. When my family took my grandmother to England a few years later, I had my
heard before, we lead and chase each other around the tune til were dizzy from the listening. We opened the list in hand. Id never been overseas before but I was pretty sure a different island meant different record
record with this because this is what it really feels like to be in a band. stores so...I think I rifled through nearly every existing bin of black vinyl in England, Scotland, and Wales until
I found every single solitary album on my list, the last (the then very obscure Thunderclap Newman album) on
Hospital written by Coby Brown the last day in the last store I hit before heading to the airport to go home. Among those were 3 Richard &
Linda Thompson albums and 5 Fairport Convention albums, including the 2 they made in 1969, Unhalfbrick-
Round Hill Works (BMI) obo CBrown Publishing (BMI)
ing & What We Did On Our Holidays. I washooked and, as I later discovered, I wasnt alone. Although we
Recorded by Coby & Immy as a demo (early 2011) for the album they just finished (2012?)
argued over which album was best -- I favored Unhalfbricking, Immy the more traditional Liege & Lief -- we
agreed that we fairly worshipped the band. (Strangely, we have the exact opposite argument over Traffic
Dave - Electric gtr
with me favoring the more traditional John Barleycorn Must Die and Immer themore rock Low Spark of High
Jim - Drums, Tambourine
Heeled Boys -- hmmm...kids, theyll argue about anything).
Adam vocals
Charley - String Composition
Anyway, theyre really records everyone should check out. Beside having great singers (probably the best
Immer - Bass Gtr, BV
female folk singer of all time in Sandy Denny), Fairport had great songwriters in Denny & Thompson and, in
Millard - Acoustic Gtr
Thompson, one of the 3 or 4 greatest triple threat singer/songwriter/gtr players ever, really only topped by
Dan - Left side lead Electric Gtr
maybe Jimi Hendrix or someone like Prince or someone else Im forgetting right now. But dont take my word
for it. Let me turn this over to David Arthur Immerglck for his thoughts. He plays his ass off on the song. He
should get his say:
Get the full album here.
tion was a mythical band from the dim past that a lot of bands in the vibrant San Francisco underground of
the 80s viewed with awed reverence. I believe Mick Freeman (drummer for contemporary scenestersX-tal)
passed me my first copy of Fairports classic Liege And Lief, with a conspiratorial you oughta check these
guys out. I dove deep and subsequently often found myself sitting in with fellow music freak Duritz pre-
Crows band on a raucous version of Matty Groves, arrangement lifted shamelessly from the very same
album.
Bizarrely, a couple of years later, I found myself label mates with a later incarnation of Fairport Convention.
Theyd been signed to Rough Trade Records, where I was ensconced with both The Ophelias and Monks Of
Doom, and tangentially Camper Van Beethoven. One fine day the fabled Fairport came to play a rare show
at SFs Great American Music Hall. Jonathan Segel (Campers violinist) and I went on a double date with a
couple of hotties from the Rough Trade office to go meet the legends in their natural environs. We got to the
club and were quickly ushered downstairs to the backstage rooms, which by this time had been converted
to a proper bucket o blood backwoods British pub bottles flying everywhere, fiddle tunes echoing around
the stairwell, a couple of guys fighting in the hallthese guys were SERIOUSLY drinking and carousing like it
was the last night on earth.
We spotted the bass player Dave Pegg through the smoke and rushed over likefawning teenyboppers to pick
his brain about classic Fairport records, but the balding and jovial Pegg just wanted to offer us drinks and
talk about our long hair (Jonathan and I both had waist length manes at the time) -- I LOVE your hair!!! I used
to have THAT!!! I wish I still could -- and regale us with death-defying tales of touring with Led Zeppelin.
Needless to say, we werent complaining!
Finally they got on stage and played an extremely inebriated set that threatened to capsize at any moment
but was saved from disaster at the last minute by a breathtaking version of Meet On The Ledge...which has
been lodged permanently in my brain ever sinceI scurried home and dutifully relearned it, keeping it in the
oeuvre on and off for decadesI actually learned Meet On The Ledge from a bootleg tape of a solo Richard
Thompson gig, very stripped down, but the version we do now is based on the original arrangement from
Fairports What We Did On Our Holidays album, which my cohort (and fellow music freak) Mr. Duritz favors
good stuff!
Yes, Mr. Immerglck, it certainly is.
Like Teenage Gravity written by Kasey Anderson
Handsome Mylent Music (ASCAP)
Recorded by Kasey Anderson for the lp Nowhere Nights (2010)
Dave - Elec Vibrato Gtr
Jim - Drums, percussion
Adam vocals
Charley - Piano, Hammond B-3 Organ
Immer - Acoustic Gtr
Millard - Bass Gtr
Dan - Lead Elec Gtr
Ryan Spaulding raved about Kasey Anderson so I bought all the records and I really dug them. I really found
out how right Ryan was a few months later when Kasey came down to Austin last year to play Smoke &
Sand, Ryans Smashing Life (RSLblog.com) & Tyrannosaurus Records 2011 SxSW showcase. His big lonely
rock songs are addictive but he crushed at Smoke & Sand with an acoustic set. Maybe thats why I chose
Like Teenage Gravity to cover over songs like I Was A Photograph or Exit Ghost. I dont know. I love his
recording. It has a sparse almost hymn-like simplicity.
None of which made it any less of a nightmare when we tried to record it. You forget when you love someone
elses song that you might have to ditch a lot of what you love about it if you want to record it yourself, and
thats especially true with a quiet acoustic gtr/piano tune like this one. How to take such a fragile bare song
like this and re-work it for a band without losing the delicate lonely song at the core? Good question. Before
we got around to answering it, we spent some serious time one day just su-u-u-ucking. Now Im generally
pretty kind with a saintlike patience but every so often when I feel we just unreasonably suck, I get frustrated
and I might even start to slowly lose my temper. Its possible all of that happened while recording this song.
This is Jims recollection of that day: We were really NOT getting Like Teenage Gravity. I dont know what
we were doing but it wasnt working, and you were not happy, to say the least. I think that moment was the
maddest I had seen you at these sessions. The discussing reached a really loud crescendo, then suddenly
it grew eerily quiet. I tried to transfer the feeling in the room to a really quiet groove with the floor tom, nobody
said a word, but everybody started playing, and the song just fell into place. Well...thats admittedly kinda
how it happened. We were screwed til Jim started that groove. Everything is informed by that, from Dans
dissonant snaky guitar opening the song to the way he & all the electric instruments disappear after the first
verse to be replaced by Immy & Charlie on acoustic & piano to the way the band never rises out of that tom
groove while Dans electric slashes at them during his solo all against the backdrop of Daves electric guitar
vibrato.
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