SPIRIT of 1974 Notes

SPIRIT of 1974 POST-PRODUCTION NOTES by Bill Tuli

Both Richard and I primarily used Fender guitars and amps on this album. Richard’s two main axes for this recording session were his American Deluxe HSS Stratocaster and a new American Series Telecaster. Both have rosewood necks. He played through a Fender Concert Reverb Amp. I used my ’77 Telecaster (rosewood neck), a vintage ’52 Telecaster, a vintage-reissue ’57 Stratocaster and an ’82 Gibson Les Paul. I used both my ’67 “blackface” Super Reverb and my re-issue ’65 Twin Reverb. As far as effects Richard used his amp built in overdrive, a MXR Phase 90, Voodoo Lab-Micro-Vibe and Vox Cry-Baby Wah. I used a Tonebone Classic overdrive, Fulltone Clyde Delux Wah and Fulltone Choralflanger.

Dave used a Fender Jazz bass (recorded directly to the mixer) and Tracy used her well-worn Gretsch maple Drums. Both Tracy and Dave laid down their tracks together, ensuring that they were locked in a tight groove for the whole session. Richard and I replaced our scratch tracks individually over the next few months. The sessions began on May 12, 2007 and were finally completed on July 18, 2007. The mix was finalized in September. Overall, the drums and bass tracks took more than 20 hrs to complete; Richard’s rhythm guitar tracks took about 25 hrs; my guitar solos took about 20 hrs; and final vocals took about 10 hrs. We spent almost twice as much time recording this album compared to our first one.

Will Ferraro engineered and mixed the session, using over 20 years of experience to make this record as powerful as it could be. All tracks were recorded and mixed at his Eastside Mansion Studio. In many ways Will was the fifth member of the band. He seemed to know exactly what we were going for and made sure we got it right. I cannot recommend him high enough!

Since this was our second album we considered ourselves seasoned musicians. We couldn’t wait to get back into the studio. By the summer of 2007 we had over two and a half years of live shows under our belt and had perfected and refined our chops considerably. Richard’s song writing had matured and I was finally starting to sound like a confident singer. It was now time to blow everyone’s mind with our blues/rock/guitar-dominated album. It was basically the type of album we would love to stumble upon ourselves. So I guess you could say we made it for ourselves and hope others enjoy it as well.

This album is our tribute to our guitar heroes from long ago. Hopefully, somewhere, Richard and I can inspire some young musician to pick up a guitar and learn to play the way those that inspired us did for our generation.

A song-by-song overview (not necessarily in order of appearance on the record).

Nothing Can Be Found

How this song came about: This song was written by Richard the day he plugged in and began messing around with a new Univibe pedal. Because this song had such a dark and gloomy feel to it I felt the lyrics had to paint a somber and forlorn picture. The lyrics are actually derived from a poem I wrote many years ago. I have few things memorized and that poem just happened to be one of them.

In the Studio: The final version of this song has had more ‘nipping and tucking’ than Joan Rivers. The final version sounds very different from how it started. A video of this song was shot about a month before we went into the studio and that closely resembles how the original version was recorded back in May. Let me see if I can remember the history of the song as it developed during the next three months:

1) May 12: Drums and bass recorded.

2) May 17: Richard records the rhythm tracks.

3) May 19: I record my solos and fills using my ’57 strat and wah wah pedal

4) June 6: I redo my solos using a Les Paul.

5) June 12: I double track the vocals.

6) June 30: We remove song intro and add drum fill to the bridge.

7) July 5: I remove all previous solos and fills (except Les Paul riffs coming out of the bridge) and re track everything with my ’52 telecaster.

8) July 18: Richard adds some additional guitar “effects” to bridge.

9) August 20: About a minute of the bridge was removed (parts where drum fills were added).

10) September 8: Final mix done with some more editing to guitar part leading into bridge.

This song was an anomaly; most of the other songs on the album retained their original shape and form and the solos were done in only one or two takes. Our biggest problem with this song was that we were given a copy of it each time we changed it and so we were driven to tinker with it even more. Had every song on the album been given this treatment we would never have finished the album.

Final thoughts about the song: I love Richard’s double tracked rhythm guitar parts. This was Will Ferraro’s idea. Before we even started recording we met with Will and explained that we wanted a very “Bridge of Sighs ” 1974-era sound. Rather than using multiple microphones to record at different distances from the amps Will had Richard record two separate rhythm tracks with different guitars. These tracks were then mixed together and panned hard left and right. Richard and Will used this technique on several other songs as well.

Normally, live, I solo all over this song but when I heard Richard’s ‘huge’ wall of pulsating guitar sound I knew less soloing would work better. In fact, I was almost tempted not to play any solos at all during the song, especially when the final vocals were complete.

I’m not sure why I re-did my solos as many times as I did. Every time I heard a version of the song I thought, “That doesn’t sound quite right.” To be honest I could have saved time and trouble if I had just used one of my telecasters the first time I tried to record the solos; however, because I had used a telecaster almost exclusively on the first album I wanted to use other guitars on this project. I thought this song would sound best with a stratocaster. As you read above the strat solo was replaced with a Les Paul solo; which was then replaced with a telecaster solo. These three solos were completely different.

Dream within a Dream

How this song came about: This song materialized when Richard began experimenting with something while we were performing during the 2007 P.F. Chang’s Rock n’ Roll Marathon. We were tasked with supplying multiple hours of music that day so we gladly sidetracked into jams when we could. I remember thinking as Richard played those verse chords, “Wow! This song is awesome and could be a winner!” At our next rehearsal I hoped and prayed that Richard remembered what he played that day and he did. This song was then quickly developed and made a part of our live show.

Lyrics had been written for the song that is now called The Spirit of ’74 and so I sang those on this new song. Tracy thought the lyrics worked better with this song so it became “Dream within a Dream” and The Spirit of ’74 lost its original title.

I wrote this song for my 8-year-old daughter and only she will understand what the lyrics mean. Basically every night when I tuck her into bed I tell her to dream about somewhere we both know and love and I’ll try to dream about the same place and maybe we’ll meet there.

This is probably my favorite song on this album. It is without a doubt the best song (technically and musically). It captures my lazy sloppy style of soloing better than any of the others. We weren’t sure if we were going to open the album with this song or Nothing Can Be Found. This song finally won out.

In the Studio: This was one of the few songs that we recorded easily with no problems. Richard again double tracked the rhythm tracks and I decided rather than waste time trying different things I’d just use my ’77 telecaster. I had just breezed through recording my solos for Do It All Again so I figured I wouldn’t mess with a tried and true thing. I did my solo and fill track in one take. As usual my old faithful telecaster took me where it wanted to go. I didn’t even stop to think about what I was going to do.

I also had no problem with the vocals. I did them in one take too. Like I said this song came off without a hitch.

Final thoughts about the song: I mentioned above that I had written lyrics for a song that was to be called Dream within a Dream. I cannot remember how the original lyrics went because I kept changing them. They were inspired by the Edgar Allen Poe’s poem of the same name. On the Youtube video shot at Tracks right before we went into the studio (that show was actually used as a dress-rehearsal for the studio) you can see that I am trying to read the lyrics (which are in a notebook by my feet). I cannot see them so I wind up (after skipping several verses) just making something up. After reviewing the video I liked how the made up lyrics sounded and so I threw out the original ones. Now the words “Dream within a Dream” don’t even appear in the song.

Rock the Rhythm Room

How this song came about: Richard arranged this song last year. We referred to it as our ‘Robert Cray’ style song. We often played it live and I would sing “Tired of Being a Fool” or other made up lyrics over it. Then we came up with a novel idea: why not use this great blues rocker to sell ourselves to the Rhythm Room? Ever since the band has been performing in the Phoenix area we have dreamed about being asked to play at the world famous Rhythm Room. Every city has a place where blues legends come to perform and in Phoenix this is it. We know we have what it takes to play there and would be delighted to open for one of our revered idols. However, our psychedelic reputation (and name) does ruffle a few feathers out there (this is what we were told anyway). Who knows, maybe after this song hits the streets we’ll be asked to play there.

In the Studio: This song was the first song we recorded on May 12, 2007. It was hoped that since it was so familiar to us (we had played it for almost a year) it would be the logical choice to kick things off for the recording session. That proved to be a false assumption. We did, re-did and re-did it again and again. Finally on the fourth or fifth attempt Dave and Tracy nailed their parts. Richard also had problems with this ‘easy song’ during his sessions and had to re-do and touch up his rhythm and fill parts many times. I, too, labored through this one. I must have tried six or seven different solos with many different guitars. Finally I grabbed my ’52 telecaster and played that harmonic two-note thing for the first solo. It didn’t sound right with Richard’s riff in the background so Richard re-recorded the section using a T-Bone Walker shuffle. This actually gave the song a very Chicago/Mike Bloomfield feel and I loved how it turned out. The second solo was a bit gritty but I liked how it sounded so we kept it.

The vocals were double tracked (maybe even triple tracked) in places. All I know is it took me almost five hours and several times through to nail the vocal parts. This song pushes me to the edge of my vocal limit.

Final thoughts about the song: This song turned out to be a great tribute to the finest guitar ever invented: the Telecaster. Richard and I both use one. The rhythm is played with a new one and the solos are played with an old one. That’s over 55 years of Telecaster coming at you! As is customary I usually pay tribute to one of my influences with my solos. On this song I am channeling Michael Bloomfield.

Blue Mooj

How this song came about: This song was actually recorded last year. It was created more or less as a ‘psychedelic outro’ to Buddy Blue’s Lonesome Hound, which we recorded for the Buddy Blue Tribute album.

In the Studio: We wanted to add something ‘Mooj-like’ to the end of Lonesome Hound so as we finished the song I started messing around with that Emin7 to Eb minor7 thing; it then evolved into that ‘Harlem Nocturne’ style hook. This was such a simple thing, yet it sounded very powerful. We were glad it was captured on tape (normally those kind of improvised jams are lost forever).

I think I used my Vox Tone Lab on this so there are lots of effects being used (delay, phasers, flangers, etc.). Richard goes crazy with his wah wah and 9^th chords and Dave and Tracy are locked into a solid groove. This song turned out to be very bluesy and psychedelic at the same time. (Hey! That makes it the perfect Psychedelic Mooj song!)

We actually had Will remix this song for this album. On the Buddy Blue Tribute album the lead guitar parts are brought up a bit. For this version everything was mixed to sound very smooth, such that one couldn't really distinguish between the multiple guitar parts.

Final thoughts about the song: As of today (or of this writing) the Buddy Blue Tribute Album hasn’t been released. We knew we couldn’t use our version of Lonesome Hound on this album but we decided at least use the Blue Mooj outro section just in case our version of Lonesome Hound is never heard. It is a perfect sampling of the weird and random places we go during our live shows.

Spirit of ’74

How this song came about: This song was composed by the band especially for the show we did with Robin Trower on September 24 2006. It was performed as a tribute to Robin while we were opening for him at the Marquee Theater. This song is now pretty much a staple in any Psychedelic Mooj show and it has never disappointed the crowd. I love playing it live.

This song originally had lyrics that were later to be used on Dream within a Dream. I convinced the others that this song was so powerful that vocals might subtract rather than add to the song. The truth is since I get so into the zone playing this song live that if I had to pull myself into a vocalist mindset during the verses I’d lose some of my intensity. Sometimes I’d rather let my guitar do the singing for me.

In the Studio: Again Richard double tracked the rhythm tracks. He used his Voodoo Lounge Micro-Vibe and it just pulses at you. This was a song that could only be played by a stratocaster so I used my ’57 re-issue through the Fulltone choralflanger to do all the octave runs. I originally did my solos with my Les Paul but replaced them with softer stratocaster tones during my last guitar recording session on July 5. It’s too bad we couldn’t have had two versions of the song as the Les Paul riffs were mind-blowing. But they weren’t right for the song. Some editing was done at the last minute and Richard’s intro was removed and the song was faded before we do the last ‘run.’ (Compare this to older posted live versions of the song.) This shaved off almost two minutes and made the song symmetric.

Final thoughts about the song: This song became the ‘title track’ of our album. It kind of summed up what we were trying to get at on the whole record. When I hear this song I am totally taken back in time to my boyhood and my vast collection of vinyl LPs that I listened to over and over again. Robin Trower and David Gilmore were huge influences on me (but you probably already guessed that by now).

Do It All Again

How this song came about: This song was serendipitously composed by Richard while he was trying to figure out the chords to The Beat Farmer’s Lonesome Hound (while we were preparing to record it for The Buddy Blue Tribute Album). No one is sure how Richard got this from that (because the songs don’t sound anything alike) but he did. This song was thoroughly ‘audience tested’ before being recorded and is definitely a song we love to play live.

This song was originally intended to be a tongue and cheek look at the oddities of playing live music in Tempe, Arizona. However, when we learned that Tracy was moving to Texas we decided to change the lyrics and celebrate the fun we had as the original P-Mooj. If your band or bar came into contact with us during our early days then it might be mentioned in the song.

In the Studio: Again Richard double tracked the rhythm guitar parts using his Strat and Telecaster. I played the fills and solos using my faithful ’77 telecaster (neck p/u) through the Tonebone and a Choralflanger. Because I used my telecaster I did it all in one take with no thinking. I just let my telecaster take me where it wanted to go. I love my last solo. I went into Albert King territory on that one. I’m basically playing the “Oh Pretty Woman” lick. If you’re an Eric Clapton fan then that lick is also known as the “Strange Brew” lick.

Richard purposely wrote the bridge section for Tracy to ‘go crazy’ on the drums. If you can believe it, Tracy nailed her drum parts in only one take. This was actually one of the few songs that we recorded without having to re-do anything.

Final thoughts about the song: I like how my vocals came out on this song. The song is in the key of A and I thought it might give me some trouble but it didn’t. I stayed in tune the whole way through. Will used a generous helping of echo and chorus effects on the vocal track.

Olongapo City Limits

How this song came about: This song was recorded ‘virtually live’ in the studio on May 13 right before Tracy broke down her drums and said goodbye. I wanted to ‘capture’ something of the original P-Mooj in a ‘nutshell’ so we ‘rolled a little tape’ doing a jam. Nothing was composed or thought about in advance. I told Tracy to just go anywhere she wanted and we would follow along while the tape rolled. Whatever happened, happened. Thus, this song is a bit raw and has a few ‘thumbs’ sticking out here and there. But who cares? This is about as close as you’re ever going to get to a live P-Mooj recording until we actually do a live album. The song was faded out after about three minutes because it basically fell apart by then. Three minutes is all this song really needed anyway.

In the Studio: I finally used my Les Paul (and kept it)! Richard basically hangs loose playing some hellatious Wahs on his strat. No frills and lots of thrills.

Final thoughts about the song: Why the name? We had a few names for this song as the weeks went by but I finally decided on this one because when I hear it, it reminds me of Olongapo City. I spent countless hours there as a young sailor watching rock bands play songs like this in the many clubs up and down the main drag. I learned many of my earliest chops from those talented Filipino musicians and this song is a tribute to them.

I Know

How this song came about: Without a doubt one of my favorite blues songs of all time is a song that is hated by Blues purists everywhere. I’m, of course, referring to Humble Pie’s I Wonder. I always wanted to do a song like that live. My dream came true one night at the Loft (in Tempe). We were performing and sensed that the crowd wasn’t really into the show. People were coming and going and no one seemed to care what was going on while we labored through our set. There was only one cure for a restless audience like that: hard core acid drenched psychedelic blues! I turned to Dave, Tracy and Richard and told them to play something really slow in “D” and I’ll just make something up. This was the song we created on the spot. We knew right away by the way the crowd stopped talking and turned to watch the stage that we had a winner on our hands. This song has been played at every show since.

Depending on the mood of the crowd sometimes this song becomes humorous and other times it stays very solemn. On the record the band keeps it slow and serious.

In the Studio: When we do this song live it is usually a 10-12 minute rambler. We figured we might as well record it that way too. Richard uses his strat and some heavy duty wah wah action at times. I used my strat too. When we do this song live I use the neck p/u so I did that on the album too. As stratocaster aficionados know, NOTHING sounds as good as the neck p/u on an old 50s maple neck strat. At times I moved the switch slightly out of phase between the middle and neck p/us.

This song was basically a once tracked wonder. I knew I could kill myself redoing it over and over again until I got it perfect but that wouldn’t be a honest interpretation of how this song is played live (which was what we were after). Thus, in one take and only one take I soloed and did my fills. There are a few ‘squeaks and squawks’ here and they and they are left as is. On the final mixing day we decided to eliminate Richard’s intro. Like Spirit of ’74 we decided the quicker the song got into the main sequence the better.

Final thoughts about the song: I was very happy with how this song turned out. I know some people may balk at its length and say it could have easily been done in three or four minutes but I figure those folks can just fast forward to the next song if they want. If you’re a true fan of The P-Mooj then your going to love how we just beat the hell out of this song both dynamically and emotionally.

I also love how my vocals turned out. It might even appear to someone that I actually know how to sing on this one.

If you really listen you might sense that this song’s riffs and solos feel an awful lot like those in Spirit of ’74. That was because at one time these two songs were basically the same song. Many of the turnarounds on ’74 were first used on this song. I’ve even accidentally sung I Know I’m Losing You when the band is playing Spirit of ’74. The solos, as most of you have probably guessed, were totally influenced by Otis Rush.

Union Avenue Blues

How this song came about: Not once did we rehearse this song. We needed a ‘short’ simple blues tune that would be morphed into “Blue Mooj,” which was the second part of a previously recorded song we had recorded for the Buddy Blue Tribute Album. I figured I’d just do something simple and make up some lyrics that sort of rhymed and told a story about some guy walking around in the spirit of Lonesome Hound.

In the Studio: This song was originally meant to have a very Chicago blues feel to it. However, when the bass and drum tracks were recorded and I played and sang my scratch tracks I sounded like some guy auditioning for Sam Philips in 1955. Rather than re-do it we decided to keep it. It had such a Sun Records feel to it that I realized we could never duplicate something like this no matter how hard we tried (if we had set out to do such a thing). It was so ‘out of the box’ that it was a perfect P-Mooj mind bender.

Everything on the song was left ‘as is’ because the drums and bass were recorded in only one take and we never had time to go back and fix anything. I tracked a rhythm guitar part that was simple and over dubbed a lead/rhythm track immediately afterwards with everything set exactly the same. I had hoped it would sound like only one guitar with a bit of fancy finger picking and some Echoplex thrown in.

I decided to keep it clean and simple and put lots of echo on the vocals. I must admit I actually tried to channel Elvis and Johnny Cash on this one.

Final thoughts about the song: This song features one of the oldest telecasters (#5297) known to mankind. I had originally intended to use my ‘priceless relic’ only on this song but it saw duty on a few others too (Rock the Rhythm Room and Nothing Can be Found). I actually tuned down a whole step so that I could sing the song in D. Thus, this song (as intended) could not be married to Blue Mooj (which is in E). Blue Mooj was then added to the album as a separate song.

I tell people we recorded this song like this on purpose (skipped beats, wrong chords, late starts on vocals, and those slightly sloppy notes here and there). If this song was without blemishes it wouldn’t sound like a real Sun Records 1955 recording. I also omitted the ‘rockabilly solo from hell’ that I had intended to do in the first non-vocal verse. It just wouldn’t have sounded right. The honest simplicity of this song is one of its strongest features.

Sea of Sterling Roses

How this song came about: What would a Psychedelic Mooj record be without a Dave Hull original mind-bender? Dave actually had more of a dub thing in mind when he wrote the bass lines. I’m still not sure whether the final result was anything near what he wanted.

In the Studio: Dave plays his bass through my Fulltone choralflanger and was given complete freedom to go anywhere and do anything he wanted. This song was originally recorded on May 13 with only Dave and Tracy. I sat in the control room and indicated how much time had passed through a scratch track that went along for the ride. Before we even started the song we decided to make this song ‘long.’ It went nine and a half minutes. This was intended to be our gift to our most loyal fans.

On May 19 Richard and I then set up our amps side by side and Will insulated them from each other. I used my ’77 tele through the Tonebone Classic overdrive and Richard used his strat, wah wah and phaser. Richard and I then grooved together over Dave’s bass line.

I returned to the studio on June 6 to work on some of my solos and listened to this song to see what it sounded like with fresh ears. I realized my over-driven telecaster was too much (certainly for the whole 9:30 minutes) so I had Will yank out the first two and a half minutes of it so that the bass line could breathe. We faded in my guitar at the 2:34 mark. Now the beginning sounded too empty so I re-tracked some fills with my strat. Will and I goofed around with different tones and that ‘out of phase’ neck and middle p/u setting worked best. There was just a hint of overdrive used as well. I was only going to play over the beginning parts but wound up rolling through the whole song adding clean fills throughout. Some editing was done later, which included mostly removing some of my earlier guitar parts.

Final thoughts about the song: We thought long and hard about shortening this song after it was completed. We also thought about dividing it into a Part I and Part II. In the end it was felt that we had 70 minutes of room on the CD so we were going to use as much of it as we could. We figured those that braved it out would love the surprises that pop up here and there in the song.

Will spent quite a few nights messing with the final mix. He used headphone mixes frontward and backwards with lots of echoplex moments. Needless to say this song is a band favorite.

Singles (not included on the record)

Yeah (Oh Yeah)

How this song came about: Richard got hold of some Rory Gallagher videos and was immediately inspired to write a song in the spirit of Rory. He wrote the main riff and played it for it the band during one of our jam sessions. It soon became a band favorite.

The lyrics are my personal tribute to an old friend of mine named Steve Hamil. We met in the navy many years ago (I have no idea where Steve is these days). One night Steve and I had a wee bit too much near beer at the Helms Club (at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center) and somehow came the realization that he was a blues singer and I was a blues guitarist. We ended our night’s festivities by returning to our barracks where I retrieved my guitar and amp and went up to his room. It was nearly 2:00AM and my plugging in and playing while he sang his tearful Sleepy John Estes/Robert Johnson/Mississippi John Hurt concoction didn’t go over that well with his roommates (or anyone else in the barracks for that matter). Steve couldn’t remember the words to any song in particular and so they were all mixed together with a bunch of “Yeah Yeahs.” That’s basically what I did on this song. I had a Deja-vu moment when Richard was playing that groove and I basically sang a Steve Hamil made-up mixed-up medley. Anyway, Steve, if you’re out there somewhere, I hope you liked it.

In the Studio: This song sounds pretty much like it did when we first started playing it live many months before; however, to keep it under three minutes, some verses were removed and there are no non-vocal verses to solo over. The ‘slowdown’ part was also shortened.

We recorded the drum and bass tracks with Tracy; however, Richard wasn’t happy with the tempo after listening to the tracks a few weeks later. He felt the song was too fast. Since Tracy was gone he asked Mike Kechula (Our new drummer at the time) to re-track the drums. Dave redid his bass lines and then Richard tracked the guitar rhythm and fills. This was the last song I sang during my vocal session so I sang the hell out of it. I messed up the lyrics in the first verse but since no one knows what the lyrics are supposed to be anyway I figured no one would know the difference. It should have been: “Old Smokestack lightning shining just like Gold.”

Final thoughts about the song: Richard plays all the guitar parts on this song. This song was his ‘baby’ and he wanted to do all the guitar parts. Richard’s American Deluxe HSS Stratocaster has a humbucker bridge pickup and it just roars on this song. It has such a great ‘Texas crunch’ sound to it.

Because this song featured another drummer besides Tracy we decided not to include it on ‘our’ last original member P-Mooj album. It was released as a ‘single.’

Bot-Bot-Bot

How this song came about: This song was written by Richard. It is about search engines.

In the Studio: This song was recorded the same day we recorded Lonesome Hound in the fall of 2006. Because I had to leave early that day Richard played all the guitar parts. He also did the vocals.

Final thoughts about the song: Believe it or not, because the song is directed at the search engine industry, it has been our most downloaded song. We have plans to re-visit the tune and make it more "Mooj-like." Listen for it during our live shows next summer.