New American Standards

Song Notes

• 61 Hollywood Fables -  William: This was the last song written before (and even for) the NAS sessions with Dave Spivey. He came into the practice space to take notes on our set and we decided to try an impromptu song (like Bob and I did in the Rides on Trains days). The main riff was the result and I think I came up with the rest of the parts from home later that night. That's Bob on backing vocals during the chorus and Bill used a mini amp on the bridge. Also, I will send anyone $10 who can name the three artists/albums that inspired the name of the song (as well as many of the lyrics...hint, hint). Bill, you can't play. I was told by quite a few people that this was their favorite H&V song on NAS.  By the end, the riff had changed when we played it live.
• The Ballad of Peggy Sue - Bill: Unlike Wil, I'm a huge Buddy Holly fan. He has always been my father's favorite singer. I literally have every song, demo, jingle etc. that he ever recorded. While everyone knows the hit "Peggy Sue", not many know that Buddy wrote a follow up song right before he died called "Peggy Sue Got Married". (Some of you may know the terrible Nicolas Cage movie with the same title). Anyway, I wondered how Buddy would have written about Peggy Sue if they both would have lived to the present day. So I made Peggy Sue a drunk, lesbian murderer. I was a little uncomfortable explaining it to my dad.
• Stolen - Wil: There was a band in PC some friends of mine were in called Killing Darlings and I sat in with them on organ a couple of times back in 1994 or 95. I kept the set list with me for years (I think I still have it) and one day I was trying to write a song the way Neil Young would and after I came up with some chords, just took the lyrics from the song titles on that set list, hence the name "Stolen." I think this was the second or third song we ever worked out together and it's one of my favorites (especially Bill's harmonica), but I don't think we ever did it justice in a live setting. Bill: This is the first song we ever played live. My dad, who is a former drummer and a big fan of this album, once told me that he liked to listen to this song because "the tom-toms soothe me".
• Rebel - Wil: This is the sister song of "Spies Wear Black" and like that song is very influenced by the Doors' "Morrison Hotel" album. "Bang the Rebel" we got from an online band name generator and after we decided on H&V, I came up with rest of the lyrics based off that line. For as much as any of my songs make sense, it's loosely about the hollow lives of celebrities and Hollywood-types. For some reason we stopped playing it live soon after "New American Standards" came out, but I believe the last performance was at a pool party in Kentucky. I'm trying to get video of that...
• Rebecca - Wil: This is a song about brief relationships with crazy girls. Or murder. You decide. Plus, it's very loosely based on the Hitchcock film of the same name. As much as I love this take of the song, it rarely came off well live except for in an acoustic setting. Bill: When we played this acoustically at the cd release party there was an audible gasp from the audience when Wil sang the last line.  I think that pleased Wil very much.
• Let's Dance - Wil: I'm not sure if this song lived up to or beyond the expectations I had for it, which is to say it's not what I had in mind but might even be better (probably is). It was my attempt at writing a Buddy Holly song, of whom I'm not such a big fan, so there you have it. Bill's open D solo is the icing, yo. And the title is an intended Bowie reference...so put on your red shoes and dance the blues. Bill: I always pushed to play this song live but Wil usually nixed it.  I wish he would have written more songs based on other song titles from that album.  Modern Love would have rocked but I'm not sure how we would have pulled off Cat People (Putting Out Fire).
• Hey, June - Wil: My favorite song hands down on NAS. As always Bill's songs were the best of the set. The acoustic guitar run makes this recording. I think Johnny Cash died two or three days after we recorded this one. Bill, can you confirm that? Bill: I don't think Johnny Cash died within a couple days of us recording this song.  We recorded it sometime in the summer and he died in September.  I think you're thinking of us practicing "Guess Things Happen That Way" for the first time and then he died the next day.  At the next practice we wanted to try "Cheeseburger in Paradise" to try and finish off Jimmy Buffett. I wrote this long before Johnny Cash and June Carter were dead and Heroes & Villains were born. Wil: I told you I wasn't really in this band...
• Doug Yule's Ghost - Wil: Part of my "so and so's" ghost series usually taking a shot at someone still living, but the only one that made it to the H&V set. I think at the time I was really appalled by Doug Yule's decision to carry on the Velvet Underground without Lou Reed, and yet over time and with retrospect I've come to really admire the man. Most likely he's heard the song too...but that's Bill's story. This was also the last song we ever played, at our last show at Springwater, at the behest of drunken shouts for an encore. We got 3 bucks out of it.
• Come Get to This - Wil: Yet another song title lifted from another artist, in this case Marvin Gaye. This was actually on the list of potential band names in the Rides on Trains days. I really liked this song a lot but I'm not sure we ever played it live. Maybe at one of the Bongo Java acoustic shows. If we did it probably wasn't very good 'cos we rarely played it well in practice. When I wrote it (as can be heard in the demo) I didn't intend as many breaks, but Bob started adding them and I think it made it a better song. The lyrics are about trying to hook up with an aging movie star. And yes, I mean doin' it. Bill: I'm sure we played it at some point.  It was recorded with both an acoustic and electric guitar but during mixing we decided it sounded better with just the acoustic. The aging movie star was Bea Arthur.