Marlboro Man On Acid

Marlboro Man On Acid

I woke up early on a winter day, which was a bit unusual for me. You see, I’m not usually an early riser. I typically sleep in and subscribe to what’s called the "rise and relax" method of starting my day. It suits me just fine. I headed to the kitchen and made a pot of coffee, and once the brew was hot and complete, I made a fairly large cup and headed up to the third floor of my home.

That's where my studio, "Level 3 Mania," was located. While I hadn’t invested a lot in recording equipment at the time, I did have a Fostex 4-track cassette recorder and used it profusely. I loved to layer tracks on top of each other and bounce them around to create more. If it was good enough for Sir George Martin and The Beatles, it would certainly be good enough for me.

After a short while, my cup was empty, and I headed back to the kitchen. I was just about ready to pour my second cup when the doorbell rang. It was my friend Carlos, and he had a guitar case with him. We had planned to get together later in the day, but guess what? He was early.

I had a bass guitar sample on one of the tracks that I had recorded a few days prior, and it was cued up. I listened to that track several times over the past few days, but I was getting nowhere.

You could hear it in the kitchen. After listening for a while, the track was lengthy, and it looped over and over. I could tell it had caught his attention.

I poured a couple of cups, and we sat down at the kitchen table and were chatting. He asked what was going on upstairs. After explaining to him the situation and that I wasn’t making any progress with the track, he said, "Let’s see about that," and we headed up.

We got to noodling on the guitar and keyboard. After a few minutes, we decided to see if we could add a trippy flavor to it, and we set out to do just that. After a few false starts, we got in the flow and started jamming, and there you have it.

That cold, winter day, "Marlboro Man On Acid" was created, and it was indeed trippy. It’s raw, like the winter weather. We noted that the bass line is repetitive. But so what? There were several mistakes, but we didn’t care. We had captured a special moment. How often does that happen? It was real, and it was indeed special, at least to us. No way were we going to add anything to it or take anything out. It was what it was, and it was to become "Marlboro Man On Acid."

The finished tune sat around for several days when I decided to make a graphic presentation of the feel and title of the song and offer it to a few friends. What you see and hear on this post is exactly that.

I hope you will enjoy it for what it is: A moment in time captured on a winter day by a couple of dudes ramped up on caffeine.

Have fun with it. We did.

Peace

Rail

☮