The King of Rock and Roll

(reposted from Life in the Land of the Rising Sun)

Dave already played trumpet and a bit of piano when I first met him. Almost from the start, when we combined our interest in sci-fi and cartooning and started creating our own, joint story/art universe, we toyed around with the idea of making our own background music. We came up with themes, mainly on the piano, for different races and characters. At one point, we even experimented with recording ourselves playing trumpet and clarinet together with a taped piano accompaniment. However, the biggest leap forward came with Dave's announcement in the 8th grade that he had started to learn bass guitar.

Talented as he was, Dave took to the bass very quickly. It also wasn't long before he became dissatisfied with his first instrument, a rather cheap, used model, and rebuilt it. He also made his own amplifiers. I already played guitar, so it was only natural that we wanted to try playing together, but the only instrument I had available at the time was my dad's classical guitar. Dave was never one to let such things stop him, however, and he made a sort of pickup for me to attach to the guitar so I could amp it. Thus began our first jam sessions (so to speak).

At first our repertoire consisted mainly of Kiss and Judas Priest plus a few various songs we plucked off the radio, but I didn't waste any time before I started making my own tunes. Most of those old songs (thankfully) disappeared along with my first song notebook years ago, but the whole idea of being able to write songs appealed to Dave, and it wasn't long before he started coming up with his own.

His first offering was a song called "King of Rock and Roll". Actually, it wasn't a "song" so much as a tune with the possibility of adding lyrics later. I have to admit I wasn't all that impressed at first. For one thing, I thought the title sounded like something a band on a Saturday morning kids' show would play. It was also a very simple, repetitive number with no musical development. Still, I really liked its main hook, and there were lots of possibilities. While we played around with it, I started coming up with various ideas for expanding the arrangement, and Dave answered with some adjustments of his own. In the end, it wound up becoming a song that was probably two-thirds his and one-third mine with lyrics that were wholly his. I finally got my first electric guitar and amp (a Drifter Les Paul copy and a tiny but potent Guyatone practice amp) the following year, and "King of Rock and Roll" became a staple of our jam sessions. As much as we liked the tune, however, we never got the chance to perform it for an audience.

Before we finished high school, musical and ideological differences together with frustration with our "band's" lack of progress led me to end my partnership with Dave and join a different group. That led to some complications, since we had a few songs we'd written jointly that we still wanted to use. In the end, we wound up accepting joint ownership of almost the entire pot. However, "King of Rock and Roll" was the only song that Dave insisted I not use unless we could do it together. I figured I could give him that much, especially since we were still friends, and we still got together to jam once in a while.

Dave actually got into the field of studio recording before I did, first taking a studio engineering class in college and then getting a multitrack recording setup of his own. At his urging, I started making my own home studio soon after coming to Japan. But again, once I started churning out my own, homegrown albums, he asked me not to touch "King of Rock and Roll" until we got a chance to work on it together. I honored that request. In fact, tempted though I was to do something with the song, I left it on the "pending" list for twenty years. I was even about to suggest we try e-mailing tracks back and forth as a sort of internet studio recording.

But then Dave passed away suddenly in his sleep in September of 2010. Any chance of fulfilling his hope of recording "King of Rock and Roll" together died with him. However, I was determined to make some kind of musical tribute to my friend, something to acknowledge his tremendous influence on my own musical endeavors. "King of Rock and Roll" seemed like the only logical choice. We could never work on it together, at least not in body, but perhaps his spirit could help me as I did the project.

It was definitely a labor of love, one which combined "how it was", "how it might have been", and "how it would be". There were a couple of small but troubling problems with the equipment that popped up; I was able to work around them, but it made production perhaps it bit rougher than it could have been. On the other hand, though my voice was stubbornly hoarse and hard to keep on pitch (mainly thanks to the season), my guitar chops were in far better shape than I'd expected. I also got the opportunity to break in a few newly-purchased pedals. But anyway, from the garage experiments of a couple of naive but eager 14-year-olds to the home studio project of a moody minstrel, with a salute to Dave, I bring you:

The King of Rock and Roll

Listen, and help me keep the memory of Dave alive.

PS: I should probably point out that no written copy of Dave's original lyrics to this song remains, or at least has yet to be found. I was fortunate to remember most of the second verse plus the last, slow part, but I had no recollection of the first verse at all. Therefore, I made my own based on the original theme as best I could recall.

Goooooon?

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Goon yet. I mean, this cartoon character was definitely one of Dave's favorites pastimes when I knew him, and for me was an extension of his personality, both happy and fun.

Who was Goon? I don't have any pictures (maybe Kevin or Don do?), and I certainly don't have enough skill to draw him (yeah, I suck that bad), but he was this green cucumber shaped alien with yellow lips, who was always the source of some bizarre antics in comic strips coming from Kevin or Dave. Goon had a song ("doopy-doopy-doopy doo, doopy-doopy-doopy doo!" - got a link for that one?) and even hosted a web site for a short time.

Thanks for Goon, Dave!


Update by Kevin:

Here's a (old and therefore really bad) recording of Goon's theme song, written by Dave and myself: Goon's Circus

Dave and His Station Wagon

Dave and his trusty station wagon represent one of my best memories from growing up. He was the first one of a group of friends that was old enough to drive and even had a station wagon that could fit everyone. They just don’t make station wagons like they used to. I suppose the monster SUV’s of today have replace them. Regardless, like many of us growing up, we didn’t have much money, but that didn’t matter, one or two dollars thrown into the gas tank got you an evening of fun and adventure with Dave and the rest of the gang every weekend. The times we spent hanging out, cruising around that stretch of the Willamette river between Oregon City and Milwaukie is one of the best times of my life. Another great memory was the trip a bunch of us made to Southern Oregon to find gold. Dave had a great gold sluice he built and we tried our best to strike it rich and found a tiny bit of gold. That was really the first big trip I made with friends and, of course, Dave and his station wagon made it happen. When I left for college and then the Air Force, Dave and I never really kept in touch. I heard about him through other friends, like Dave Stegemeyer, but that was the extent of it. I was truly shocked and saddened to hear about Dave’s passing. His friendship early in my life will remain a great influence and a warm memory .

More Pics

This is the way Dave looked during his "mountain man" phase in 2008.



Dave's faithful companion (Lord) Byron, who was at his side when he died.

A House on the Hill

I'll say that I was one of the younger members of the "Clackamette Gang". Dave Robison always seemed so much older: he had a car, a cool bass guitar, and at one point he even had a house. I remember joining Kevin, Dave, and a bunch of other people over at his house for a game of Fed-War. I was a new-comer (the group had been playing a long campaign), and I picked up some NPC or maybe something I rolled up really quick (I don't remember the details). Anyway, something happened that caused everyone in the party to blow up in a fiery explosion, and the game suddenly ended. I remember Dave laughing it off, and that was that.

That's just how Dave was. He always seemed to have something funny to add to the conversation, and definitely had a big heart. The time I spent with him, though few and far between, are all good memories.

I was surprised many years later when I got an e-mail from Dave Robison. He was interested in what was going on with me, and it was cool to hear about what had been happening in his life. He set up a blog and a website, and had lots of very interesting tidbits of information that always kept me smiling. I appreciated his interest in the mysterious side of science (anybody watch Fringe?), and was completely impressed that he actually built and tested an anti-gravity machine based on a theory that he read. Cool stuff!

I'm not sure what happened after that, but I heard less from him, except for an occasional comment on one of the other blogs. When I heard that he had passed, I was honestly stunned (still am), and now I wonder how this could be.

Dave, I will miss you, and I am truly saddened to hear that you are gone from this world.

Robin

The One Who Got It All Started

One day back when we were in junior high school, Dave made a surprise announcement. He'd been playing trumpet in his school concert band, but his director had asked him to switch to tuba. Dave wasn't keen on the idea, so he had responded with a counter-proposal: bass guitar. The director had agreed, and thus began a major turning point in both of our musical endeavors.

We started jamming together, him on his bass and me on my father's classical guitar. We were both interested in playing rock, but there wasn't much chance of my getting an electric guitar anytime soon. Instead, gadget hound that he was, he constructed a sort of clip-on pickup for me to attach to the classical guitar. He also built both of the amps we used at the time. It seems totally ridiculous now, but it was a significant first step for both of us. We started out playing mostly Judas Priest and Kiss songs, but it wasn't long before we both started writing songs. I'd been composing tunes since I was about four years old, but it was the first time I'd actually started putting real effort into songs that were meant to be played the same way more than once, possibly even for an audience. Dave also added his own contributions, and we even co-wrote a few tunes.

By the time we got into high school, Dave and I finally had a bit more legitimate gear. I had a Drifter Les Paul copy and a 20-watt Guyatone practice amp. He had a Fender bass that he had rebuilt plus one or two homemade ones and reasonable amp setup. We tried to form a genuine band based on our duo, but we didn't have much success. For one thing, we couldn't settle on a name. (First it was "Hyperspace", then "Kinetic Oscillation", and finally "Corona". There were some other ones that didn't last more than a few days, so I won't bother listing them here.) We also had trouble putting together a lineup that stayed together for any length of time; although Don was a more or less regular member in the vocalist and/or keyboardist slot, we had a couple of different guitarists come and go and had some rather doubtful hangers-on. We also went through four different drummers in quick succession, only one of which stayed with us for more than one rehearsal. That last one, James, was a steady and loyal member for a while, but cracks quickly began to form in the whole operation.

The fact was that Dave and I had started going in very different directions in terms of musical taste. He was a dedicated metal head (who was tending toward Christian metal), but I was becoming more interested in progressive rock and even new wave. Even so, despite James' constant efforts to get me to break away and form a new band with him, I remained solidly loyal to Dave despite my doubts. James finally gave up and left to form a different group (together with a lead guitarist Dave had just brought in). That was kind of the last straw as far as I was concerned, so I finally did break with Dave.

After that I sort of drifted around. I played in a hard rock band called Vital Connexion for the better part of my last year of high school, had my first real pub-gig experiences with a new age/funk outfit called IncogNation in my first year of college, kept getting hired and fired by a band whose members wanted me in but whose manager didn't (because I wanted to play originals), auditioned with a couple of different groups (who said my playing style was "too heavy"), and did a number of guest stints here and there. However, every once in a while I'd get together with Dave for some kind of musical endeavor, such as a simple jam session or even a party gig. Most important of all, however, was his introducing me to studio recording.

Dave actually took a course in studio engineering at Clackamas Community College, and he used me as his demonstration project. We put together one of my compositions with the help of IncogNation's bassist and a drummer I knew there at the college. It wasn't a sophisticated job; it was recorded using a 4-track reel-to-reel recorder and some very basic equipment. (My vocals were pretty bad, too...) However, that experience was what first made me aware of studio recording and got me started thinking about it. Dave took those thoughts up to an even higher notch a number of years later when, during one of my breaks from the university, he showed up with a 4-track cassette recorder of his own and used it to record a demo tape of several of my tunes. I knew I was hooked from then on, and buying a multitrack recorder of my own was my first priority when I graduated from the university and came to work in Japan.

The rest is history. My treasured Yamaha 4-track cassette recorder eventually gave way to an 8-track MD recorder and then a DAWS (Digital Audio Work Station) setup. Dave followed pretty much the same path, but though he always seemed to be one up on me in terms of gear (and generally VERY critical of my musical work), I far outpaced him in terms of productivity. (Shameless plug here.) In fact, from at least the early to mid 90's he hardly seemed to produce anything. He'd often talk about work on new material, but then nothing would surface. That stagnation continued right up till the end. I always thought it a shame, and now that my music is starting to get some small degree of attention, I'll still never forgot that everything I ever did in my home studio...or ANY studio...or even any rock band...was all thanks to Dave's influence. Without him, it's quite possible that none of it would have happened.