An astonishing find
I was clearing out an old cupboard today and came on something quite extraordinary: a cassette tape containing demos I made in about 1979 for several of the songs that eventually made up The Golden Age Of Wireless.
I recorded them in the back room of the flat I where I was living, at 5 Petley Rd, Hammersmith, West London. At that time my equipment consisted of an upright piano; a Roland JP4; a MicroMoog; a Boss Dr Rhythm drum machine; a Tascam Portastudio 4-track cassette, and an Akai stereo cassette for mixdown. Pretty basic equipment, even for those days when the sonic gap between a professional studio and a home demo setup was huge.
For all these years I thought the tapes were lost in the mists of time. They helped me get my first record deal with Armageddon records, who released my first single ‘Urges/Leipzig’. I sent them round to publishing companies, and a copy found its way into Mutt Lange’s hands. Mutt loved the keyboard playing and hired me to fly to New York and record on Foreigner 4. I returned to London a month later with a pocket full of cash, and I used it to rent a professional recording studio and re-record those songs with a band: during that period EMI became aware of me and offered me a deal to release the album. So my original demos (mastered onto cassette!) went into a cupboard somewhere and were forgotten.
In the interim I’ve moved to America and back, endured a couple of floods and several earthquakes. My stuff is scattered around the world in old flight cases and storage units. So I was quite surprised to come upon this cassette. Whether it was the actual master, or one of the copies I made to send to publishers, is unclear. The quality is very poor and the tape hiss is deafening. Despite that, the songs sound rather good. Several of them differ only very slightly to the versions that ended up on the album. But there were a couple of nice surprises. For a start, the tape included ‘Sale Of The Century’ which was the forerunner to ‘Wreck Of The Fairchild’, but it had a full vocal and lyrics. I never liked the words very much, which is why I ended up making it almost all instrumental, oh with just some Argentinian air traffic control chatter thrown in for good measure. Only one original line survived: “Some fruit are sweet, and some are poison.” The old lyrics are all about stocks and shares and finance, so they’re hilariously topical today.
‘Flying North’ had a whole section at the end that didn’t manage to make it onto the album. During the fade, the whole sound suddenly changes and goes ‘filtered’ as if being played on a transistor radio (an effect that was only about two decades ahead of its time!) There’s a cute little ditty playing, in vaguely the same mood as the song, but almost like a poppy love song you might imagine was playing on the tannoys in the Pan Am lounge as I lay there on the floor, jetlagged and exhausted. Here are the lyrics, which loop until the new fade:
“I hold my hand in the flame
I touch your face, then it’s gone forever
Please don’t wait up too late
No nothing’s wrong……”
As you may notice, these lyrics did not go completely to waste. They ended up, in one form or another, in other songs such as ‘Airwaves’ and ‘Budapest By Blimp.’ I leave very little waste when I work, almost everything is re-used and recycled. Still, it was quite a nostalgia trip for me to hear the demos again after all this time. When I wrote these songs, barely still a teenager, fifty seemed INCREDIBLY old. Now here I am aged 50, looking back. Yet I still relate strongly to the songs, their sentiments and moods. In a way, my musical sensibilities have stayed the same over the years. I’m reminded of that as I listen with fresh ears to those demos from thirty years ago, and it’s very inspiring to think what I was able to achieve with zero budget, no musicians, and such primitive gear. So get back out there to your lifeboat Dolby, and write more and better songs than ever before!
November 27th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
‘… more and better songs than ever before!’
Hear, hear… I’ll drink to that!
Wonderful insight/account, as always.
November 27th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
Very cool ! Although I have not written much in a couple of years now , I use to churn out song lyrics by the notebook . About a year ago my parents found a box of my belongings that i hadn’t seen since ~ 1984 . Amongst the items was the first 3 ring binder of lyrics I had written as a teenager . I’m sure I thought I was “all that” back then , but boy had the songs aged . Cliche after cliche and probably a good dose of mild plagiarism as well . I still gives me a warm fuzzy feeling when I look at it from time to time .
Btw , you have a memory like a elephant . I can’t say I am as lucky . Thanks for sharing !
November 28th, 2008 at 2:09 am
Wow. It’s quite like the story of the GAOW sleeve art except you’re not being pushed around in a wheelchair by a nurse yet!
I don’t know who it was that came up with the title Retrospectacle but that was a perfect anaology for a Thomas Dolby compilation.
The music has been from the very beginning intuative, forward-thinking and ahead of it’s time but simultaneously at times introspective and thoughful about past influences and history.
The depth is what makes it enduring and timeless. So many of your peers from those times have dated terribly. Thanks again for taking the trouble.
Back to the boat!!!
November 28th, 2008 at 2:35 am
What a remarkable, and timely find! Do you think you will share these demos with your adoring fans as a historical document? Its so fascinatnig to read your insights, but to hear the original demos would be a rare treat. The evolution of your arrangements and instrumentation would be wonderful to hear.
I’d also like to echo what Jon said. Your music is truely timeless.
All the best,
Andrew
November 28th, 2008 at 4:46 am
Base a whiskey zulu, aeropuerto militar, permiso denegado!
1, Tape hiss? Isn’t that what Dolby’s for?
2. What he said. To hear that tape would be a very rare treat indeed. Please!
3. When did you get the feeling that this was what you wanted to do? Was it listening to the radio, hearing wonderful things, going out and buying a keyboard, and discovering that something equally wonderful happened when you plugged it in? Or was it a case of ‘piano lessons as a child, spent more time doing your own thing than Fur Elize’?
PH
November 28th, 2008 at 7:28 am
Great find! The mind boggles to think what else you have packed away out there! I think your songs evoke a strong sense of sentiment and mood and it must be that we (the Dolby collective!) have a heightened sensitivity to it. Thinking about your songs and wondering why they still seem so fresh I realised that apart from them being great songs, all the sounds you used, be them synth, percussion etc havent dated in all these years. In contrast I am a big Prince (the musician!) admirer however noticed that his choice of technology never seemed to advance fast enough with the times and his sounds became dated and samey. Anyway thanks for sharing and dont stay out in the boat too late…
November 28th, 2008 at 10:19 am
More great stories connected with an interesting find.
I’ve listened to some of my old tapes in from the past (I used to be in a small band) and it does take you back in time. I’m glad you thought your tapes were good even now because in my mind I thought my tapes were good but were in fact crap. Still they remind me of good times playing gigs.
I hope after discovering that old tape its triggered new vigour for getting into your new stuff.
Why were you clearing that old cupboard out? Do you think you subconsciously knew some of your past was in there and you wanted to reconnect with it? Mmm, just a thought.
How is the Lifeboat BTW?
November 28th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
It is ALWAYS interesting (sometimes wonderfully, sometimes painfully) to discover your old work years later. There’s usually some sign of the music you’d come to write years later, some glimmer of your signature voice. While you may not love everything you did and can find plenty to criticize, you also are pleased with the arch you can now witness between the old and the new. Seeing the journey in hindsight is fascinating!
In your case, having achieved such a clear personal voice so early is remarkable and enviable. The fact that, in the great diversity of music you’ve created, you’ve maintained that personal voice is rare and special.
Keep up the good work and enjoy the process!
Beech
November 29th, 2008 at 1:38 am
White City Is a hard act to follow.
What if you were to upload those cassettes?
That Would Be Ace!!
November 30th, 2008 at 6:49 am
A very pleasant post Mr. Dolby, and I’d just add my voice to the unruly mob gathering under your window, clamoring for a listen to that cassette!
November 30th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Oh how COOL. Your old tapes are maybe four years older than
Plus “additional keyboard
mine, only yours are wayyyyy cooler! I used to tape songs off the
radio, and one of them was “Waiting for a Girl Like You”…I LOVED
the keyboards on that song (fantastic), and only some 25 years
later did I find out whom that marvelous keyboard player was…
according to the credits for “Foreigner 4″, one of those talented
young fellas was named Tom Dolby.
textures” by Bob Mayo.
I used to compose bits and pieces on my old Yamaha synth,
including one titled, if I’m interpreting my printing correctly,
“Latinacalypso”…and it wasn’t half bad! Hearing that a few weeks
ago, on an old tape, inspired me to buy another keyboard
(roll-up, but good enough for a gal who hasn’t played a
keyboard since the mid-80′s!) No formal training, just played by
ear. But the synth broke when it fell backwards off my bed (it had no stand), and I never replaced it…until about a week ago.
So here’s to old tapes, new music, and new horizons!!!
Peace, Kara
December 1st, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Nice that you ran across the cassette while the technology to play it is still relatively at hand. I think of some of my older graphic projects I’ve worked on, laying in the closet on SyQuest discs, while my SyQuest player is long gone.
Hey, I’ll bet WhiteCity would offer quite a bit for that cassette to add to his Museum Of Dolby Arts.
cheers!
.
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:26 am
And, rightfully, to show how technology has moved forward, you should rip them and put them up online. Maybe not for free (although that would be my instinct), but for a nominal fee.
December 3rd, 2008 at 10:48 am
just in time for the remaster release. sounds like a sure fire winner for bonus tracks or “album only” track downloads in iTunes!
December 4th, 2008 at 12:32 am
I still have my first compositions (Roland MT-32 and Casio CZ-101 synths, Alesis HR-16 drum machine) that I mixed down on a Tascam Portastudio….circa 1985. Hard to believe 23 years have come and gone.
Spot on post, Thomas. I am really looking forward to the new work and the remasters.
December 9th, 2008 at 10:04 am
And yet another voice in the unruly mob . . . Please – we’d LOVE to hear this! I’ll occasionally pull out my old experiments for my childrens’ amusement (Roland Juno-6 and TR-707, Korg DW-6000, and Tascam Porta 01.) Good times . . .
December 11th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
Oh please, Mr. Dolby, we’ve been ever so good this year. May we please hear some of this as a Christmas present?
December 14th, 2008 at 12:26 am
Astonishing find indeed.
How about a new years eve mp3 stream play of it?
We’ll make a party of it!
I’ll bet your kids love it.
December 23rd, 2008 at 2:43 pm
“fifty seemed INCREDIBLY old”
I thought the same when I was 20, in the 80s hahahaha
It’s so nice following your thoughts and memories as I also trace back my history.
Looking forward to you new album!!
April 7th, 2009 at 4:38 am
Ah, such a great post. I’ve been wandering awhile, and smiling now that it was 2006 (!) when you played the Key Club in L.A. — walking in on “Leipzig” seeming like some weird dream…
Actually, it’s really nice to check in again, and to find — amongst other fun updates — this tale of a magical old cassette. I *still* record on a Tascam 4-track! What a gem.
A moment, then (and now) to bid you Joyeux Anniversaire (belatedly; but a milestone), congratulate you on that lovely Nutmeg, thank you for the great enjoyment of your work and notions (“More!…”), and wish you and yours a delightful Spring.
August 15th, 2009 at 5:11 am
“….Still, it was quite a nostalgia trip for me to hear the demos again after all this time. When I wrote these songs, barely still a teenager, fifty seemed INCREDIBLY old. Now here I am aged 50, looking back. Yet I still relate strongly to the songs, their sentiments and moods….”
I STILL RELATE STRONGLY TOO TO YOUR OLD SONGS, THEIR SENTIMENTS AND MOODS. YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS.
… AND I’M 50 TOO.
“… In a way, my musical sensibilities have stayed the same over the years….”
THANKS FOR THAT!!!!
“… I’m reminded of that as I listen with fresh ears to those demos from thirty years ago..”
YOU DID.
NOW IT’S OUR TURN.
WHAT ABOUT TURNING THIS TAPE INTO A CD TO BE SOLD THROUGH THIS WEB SITE ????
“…So get back out there to your lifeboat Dolby and write more and better songs than ever before!…”
CAN’T WAIT FOR THE ALBUM !!!