Once
the lyrics and melodies and song structures were in place, Tom and Bruce went
to town on the catchy licks and bassline, and we all started harmonizing on the
choruses. Because I started to sing the lyrics and nobody objected, I sang lead
on the song. Wow, that was a rush! Once we were in the room, I think that
Malloy & Brannon kind of had to step aside -- or more likely, the
Washington Squares force field pushed them to the periphery, as in a
centrifuge. They started the song and handed it off, so we were fleshing it out
and finishing that sucker.
I was
considerably cheered that, after an hour or so, we had a new collaboratively
written song made in Nashville. How cool. Did it matter that five people were
in the room and that I kind of took over on a few aspects, and everybody shared
equally in the song? Didn’t matter to me, not a bit. I’d do it again -- write
with a group of writers -- and come up with some cool tunes.
I know
that I took the lyrical/melodic lead, but the song wouldn’t have been the same
without the contributions of everybody (esp. the new, faster tempo and cool
guitar and bass parts). I’m very proud of “Can’t Stop the Rain.”
We
recorded that song and “You Are Not Alone” in David Malloy’s Nashville studio
the next day. The version we completed and took back to NYC with us didn’t
impress the record company; it wasn’t very folky at all, too souped up with
synthesizers and effects that made it sound kind of new wave (like Human League
or Haircut 100), which was happening at the time but it wasn’t our style.
At any
rate, we did record “Can’t Stop the Rain” as well as “You Are Not Alone” on our
first album, the sessions we did at Electric Ladyland with Mitch Easter
producing. . .
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