My first remix: Drive Inn

I love it... cheesy drum fills every bar, and all... Your very pleasant singing voice is just perfect for this song... The song style is reminiscent of  so many of the popular love songs of the early 60s...
Drive-in, bed in the back of the van, runnin' outa' gas... I can relate... Outstanding Mike... 

Thanks for the memories Mike.
 
I wonder how many know about those "edge tracks" anymore. 
 
I got a lot of mileage out of my Tascam 80-8.
Finally ebay-ed it last year for like $100. Shipping was $250......... 
 
Nice job on the tune. Sounds pretty clean.

That's you singin' Mike?!?! I LOOOVED the singing!! How can I put this? It was genuine!! Had a lovely Spandau Ballet quality!! Great job bro!!

 
Hi Frank, Ed, Tim, Mark, Tony, and John.
 
 Thank you so much for taking time and listening and saying such kind things. It made my day. I'm usually an anonymous technician so receiving compliments is a special event. :-)  Thanks.
 
 I'm sure many of you are familiar with the self consciousness or feeling of doubt that occurs when you listen to yourself and only hear the stuff that could be better. I feel lucky that this particular song seemed to work ok from the moment we wrote it. I still enjoy singing along when I hear it. :-)
 
 
 all the best,
mike

Hi Geoff,
 
 Thanks for listening. The guitarist was a school friend named John Lopilotto, the younger brother of one of my life long best friends. I was strumming the backing rhythm... but I'm not kidding... I didn't play or have lessons as a kid... if it wasn't for the punk rock anyone can do it idea that was already sort of done by the early 80's I wouldn't have been in a band.
 The bass player, Russel was a fine player. John met him in a class and we got together on that basis. At some point I cajoled him into buying a fretless 1967 Jazz Bass from one of the guys who I was doing live sound for and the bass tone is pretty much pure Fender straight down the line. I have no idea what Dave did on the mixing board at the inputs... and I don't have any strong thoughts about what I did on the remix. Just the routine stuff. The project is archived but I could go look at it early next week if the explanation above doesn't seem helpful enough.
 I remember that the bass had some drum bleed in it so there wasn't a lot of fixing that could be done to the few issues I still hear.
 
 Dave worked for a guy named Butch Trucks and he tracked guys like Shawn Lane and a bunch of Memphis guys that came down to town... so we always knew he was doing us a great favor when he worked at home for his buddies.
  
 John, the guitarist had a flair for bringing in hooky melodies and we usually wrote our songs in a few minutes.
 
 This lyrics for this one were literally written on a brown paper bag as the band worked out the form.
 
 The other songs we played were aggressive punk style but I wrote stories about pastoralism and sunny idealism. That was our idea of being punker than the other punks. We were all from beach towns so it wasn't as much about tear down society punk rock  as much as it was just about being *rad*. Skateboards, surfboards, old fast cars... stuff like that.
 
 I still like to dance. :-)
 
 all the best,
mike
 
 
 
 

I didn't expect such a clean sound after your explanation of what the tape had been through.  I've been away from here for a few months and I don't remember you as a vocalist.  I do now!  I think you did a really good job, Mike!  I get an early 60s vibe from the song.  I'm glad you fired away.

Hi Mike, 
 
Thank you much for sharing this!  What great history.  Your vocal sounds good.  I have not heard much of you at all in the years on this forum.  I hope you will share more!  I was expecting alot of hiss but the SN level is very good.  I also remember the edge track issues.  When syncing to SMPTE, we had to put it on track 23 instead 24 to keep it from dropping out.  I also remember we would not bounce tracks to adjacent ones due to cross bleed.  Those were the days.  
 
Jimmy
 

Mike this is really a pretty cool tune - took me back to the early sixties. Love your voice.

I got thrown again by the misnomer of what the British version of 'Punk' (mis)represents a little when you mentioned the word punk.
 
I love the naivety and innocence on display, you can almost actually hear the collective count-ins being thought through before those stop sections...
 
A straight delivery direct from the garage makes it all the more appealing and I guess that 'punk' term just means the kids doing their own thing rather than the angry counter-political movement raised by the disaffected late '70's British youth that I've been mislead into believing it means.

Mike,
 
You can be happy and proud to have recovered and rescued these tapes! Absolutely worth it. Materiel things can be lost and replaced, but these are moments in life nobody can ever take away from you.
One could think of many ways to reproduce this tune. Maybe a la Weezer, Killers, Ramones...you name it.
But than again why? This version sounds clear as a bell and has all the charm. Love it!
 
All the best,
Daniel

 
Cool stuff Mike.

Holy Smokes Mike , you sing like an Angel ...WOW , I had no idea .
 
I saw the picture of the van and said to myself Yeah , I dig vans , the one in the pic is it a Chevy late 60's ? 
I got a 74 Ford Econoline that has been w me since 96 ...it needs some tlc in the body work , it runs and I love it .
i have no problem admitting that I watch Kojak reruns just to see my model van and some of the old cars   
 
the song sounded very good . the equipment that you guys used was very good gear for back then.... 
 
Wow impressive effort and work  Mike 
 
 
Kenny

Hi Kenny,
 Wow. Thanks. I worked some long hours on the road this weekend and couldn't post a thanks earlier. Your message buoyed me through the long hours, the crazy heat and the stifling humidity.
 
Hi Lynn,
 Thanks so much for the kind words. It is true... I'm still uncomfortable with sitting in a room while other people listen to recordings of stuff I have sung or played. I think my *off-the-chain* personality has encouraged people to respond by saying cruel things about my art work. Being nothing more than a simple human, I can't really shake it. I only explain this because I want to emphasize that I'm not playing with false modesty. I'm just off the chain and have to deal with what I have sown. :-)
 
 Thank you both.
 
 best regards,
mike

this remix inspired me to go thru my old tapes and see if I can - with the digital stuff I have - find some gold there and make it shine! I will keep you posted!

Hi Rikkie, Tom, and Daryl
 
 Thank you for taking the time to listen and leaving comments.
 
 
best regards,
mike