1. |
Stay With Me
05:44
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Richard: Okay. Is it going now? Okay, gentleman, gentlemen, hey! 'Kay, we're gonna go ahead and record that, all right?
Jeff: Record what?
Richard: What we just played.
Jeff: You should put that [the dictaphone recorder] really close to the piano, like even IN the piano.
Richard: How 'bout here?
Jeff: That didn't pick it up.
Someone: Yeah.
Richard: Okay. This might be good.
Leslie: Um...you know, during this part?...keep something going...even if it's just...just...you guys keep on uh...keep on playin'...
Arthur: Hey! Jeff! [protesting the drums are too loud for him to ask a question] What kinda...what notes should I hit for bass. I wasn't playin' bass...
Everyone: Just keep doin' what you're doin', guy. What you're doin' sounds good!
Jeff: Anything with your left hand.
Arthur [laughing]: Okay.
[They begin playing...]
Richard: Ready?
[After intro & instrumental verse Leslie sings lyric. Because the original vocal was half-buried in the louder band sound, in 1981 another vocal was dubbed over top, giving it the current choral effect.]
This is the heartache of my heart.
Here is the wound, and here the smarting.
This is as well my . . . my well of joy.
Here is my luckiness employing me.
Though in the sunlight I’ve often played,
This has been well-used too, this row of shade trees.
Where is your cradle and your last bed?
Here with these same notes my mother led me through.
Does sidewalk parquetry make you play?
Yes, and I’m dancing from grey to grey,
Because when I move the tune chooses to stay with me.
Though in the sunlight I’ve often played,
This has been well-used too, this row of shade trees.
Where is your cradle and your last bed?
Here with these same notes my mother led me through.
Does sidewalk parquetry make you play?
Yes, and I’m dancing from grey to grey,
Because when I move the tune chooses to stay with me.
STAY WITH ME
(Medford)
Leslie Medford: (Richard's) 12-string Rickenbacker guitar, vocals
Arthur Boubelik: piano
Richard Boubelik: claves
Jeff Tarrant: drums
John Malde: interpretive dance
Written October 1978 (music) March 1979 (words) [LM song number 1] 5970 Harbord Drive, Montclair, Oakland, CA.
Recorded on cassette (dictaphone) 27 December 1980, Boubelik residence, Alexandria Place, Stockton, CA.
First appeared on Work-in-Progress cassette album, February 1982.
Remastered by Carl Salbacka & Leslie Medford
Publishing: Browbeat (BMI)
Carl Salbacka worked with the original dictaphone cassette mix and the later cassette mixdown with the overdubbed vocal, to create the version here released. The 42-year-old master cassette with the overdubbed vocal is in particularly bad shape due to overuse, with drop-outs and other anomalies. The dictaphone original has the cleaner overall signal and was played far fewer times over the years. Carl has created a mix of the two to get the overdubbed vocal, but keeping as much of the original version as possible.
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2. |
The Welcome Song
07:11
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THE WELCOME SONG
(Medford)
Leslie Medford: all sounds and tape controls
Written 17 March 1979. [LM song number 5] 5970 Harbord Drive, Montclair, Oakland, CA.
Recorded 10 September 1981 on 4-track reel-to-reel, 1212 Mountain Blvd, Montclair, Oakland, CA.
Remastered by Carl Salbacka & Leslie Medford
Publishing: Browbeat (BMI)
The song lyrics relate to my first real love, Melissa, with whom I was entwined 1976-79, and this photograph is one of her, taken by me. The bathos of the lyric is the track's primary flaw and the main reason why it wasn't included on the "Work-in-Progress" cassette album of 1982. This disturbs me less now since my pretentiousness and romantic immaturity is so openly displayed not just here - though I'd argue this is the most egregious case - but elsewhere on the Voyage. (Still, to underline my lack of endorsement, I'll not display this lyric.) But Melissa figured largely in my early songwriting, and the setting has appeal, I hope.
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3. |
Living Under
03:21
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LIVING UNDER
The radio you clutch is drowned by the sirens wailing.
This is it! This is it, and the family is helter skelter.
Running down the steps that lead to your private shelter,
But it won’t do you any good.
The radio announced that the nuclear dawn has arrived.
The radio announced that you’ve twenty-three minutes alive.
The radio announced that only undergrounders survive.
This is it! This is it, and the family is helter skelter.
Your running down the steps that lead to the private shelter.
The radio you clutch is drowned by the sirens wailing
And it won’t do you any good.
The radio announced that the nuclear dawn has arrived.
The radio announced that you’ve twenty-three minutes alive.
The radio announced that only undergrounders survive.
Running down the steps that lead to the private shelter.
This is it! This is it, and the family is helter skelter.
The radio you clutch is drowned by the sirens wailing
And it won’t do you any good.
The radio announced that you’ve only seconds alive.
The radio announced that the nuclear dawn has arrived.
The radio announced that only undergrounders survive.
The radio you clutch is drowned by the sirens wailing.
This is it! This is it, and the family is helter skelter.
Your running down the steps that lead to the private shelter,
But it won’t do you any good.
LIVING UNDER
(Medford)
Written: 4,5,7 August 1981 [LM song number 18] 1212 Mountain Blvd, Montclair, Oakland, CA.
Recorded on 4-track reel-to-reel, 7 August 1981, 1212 Mountain Blvd, Montclair, Oakland, CA.
First appeared on Work-in-Progress cassette album, February 1982.
Remastered by Carl Salbacka & Leslie Medford
Publishing: Browbeat (BMI)
The register says this is my 18th song, and among the first handful attempted on my new reel-to-reel 4-track; written and recorded on 4,5,7 August 1981 in my mostly dirt-floored bedsit in Montclair, where many extraordinary adventures took place, musical and otherwise. Obviously, I knew nothing about recording, but soared by the seat of my pants somehow. The 'drumset' was a combination of knees, cans, maracas and stuff; it’s my new-to-me ’63 Gibson SG, and my love of the earliest Killing Joke (and Lennon) is writ large. What ferocious fun I had. Play Loud!
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4. |
Two Gardens
04:21
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TWO GARDENS (Medford)
No more tick-tock talons closing on my day.
Wish for weekends and I'll wish my life away.
No more tip-top talker wasting every day.
Strength to put my thought in action straightaway.
Here are the pictures. All these were me since I was born.
My mind and fingers playing in keys and locks I've shorn.
Close your eyes gently to all my aging that you dread,
Think of the garden that is still weeds inside my head.
I have a garden where there are only printed leaves
Where I have laughed and cried at the beauty of the trees.
I let them banquet deep in the soil of my soul.
Is it surprizing I have an arborescent goal?
TWO GARDENS
(Medford)
Leslie Medford: all sounds and tape controls.
Written November 1978 (music) 3 March 1979 (words) [LM song number 2] 5970 Harbord Drive, Montclair, Oakland, CA.
Recorded on 4-track reel-to-reel, July 1981, 1818 Mountain Blvd, Montclair, Oakland, CA.
Driver's License photograph taken October 1978.
First appeared on Work-in-Progress cassette album, February 1982.
Remastered by Carl Salbacka & Leslie Medford
Publishing: Browbeat (BMI)
"Two Gardens" is my second song, written at about the 9-month point in my guitar-playing experience.
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5. |
In America the Other Day
03:33
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IN AMERICA THE OTHER DAY
I walked into a room the other day
Off a main street in the U.S.A.
It was full of Vietnamese
In America the other day.
Some were standing, some were sitting.
Only one spoke English, and he was asleep.
I walked into a room in America the other day.
In America the other day
Nobody moved or snored
Stood and stared in America the other day
I couldn’t speak the language
In America the other day
In a room on a back street in a city on the coast.
I talked to a white racist
The other night on a bus
In America the other day
I talked to a white racist
Faces of races turned
The white man went on
In America the other day.
In America the other day
The bus was driving through the night
White racist lost
Missed his stop (didn’t know it)
In America the other day
Went too far down the road
In America the other day
Could have been anywhere the other day
Should have been a long time ago.
In America the other day
Could have been anywhere the other day
In America the other day
On a bus on a boulevard in a city on the coast
Should have been a long time ago
In America the other day
On a bus on a boulevard in a city on the coast
Could have been anywhere
In America the other day.
In America the other day
In America the other day
In America the other day.
IN AMERICA THE OTHER DAY
(Medford/Ross-Marrs)
Leslie Medford: electric guitars, drums, chorus vocals, tape controls
Iain Ross-Marrs: lead vocals, harmonica
Lyric: Iain Ross-Marrs
Music: Leslie Medford
Written: 18 August and 4 September 1981, 1212 Mountain Blvd, Montclair, Oakland, CA.
Recorded on 4-track reel-to-reel, 4 September 1981, 1212 Mountain Blvd, Montclair, Oakland, CA.
First appeared on Work-in-Progress cassette album, February 1982.
Remastered by Carl Salbacka & Leslie Medford
Publishing: Browbeat (BMI)
From the booklet of "Work-in-Progress" [February 1982 cassette album]:
"Iain and I 'jammed' for the first time on 18 August 1981 in my Montclair apartment. What that means is Iain recited/chanted/sang/screamed a poem of his, while I played anything that came to mind/went along with what he was doing. I let the tape run and the result was rather bizarre/amazing. It was 21 minutes 47 seconds long and you should hear it! When we got together a second time I suggested that we pick one of the (truly) numerous good ideas from the previous session and make it into a tight song. 'In America the Other Day' is the result."
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6. |
One Must Lie Low
02:10
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ONE MUST LIE LOW
One must lie low,
No matter how much it went against the grain,
And try to understand
That this great organization
Remained, so to speak,
In a state of delicate balance,
And that if someone
Took it upon himself
To alter
The disposition of
Things around him,
He ran the risk of losing
His footing and falling
To destruction,
While the organization
Would simply
Right itself
By some compensating reaction
In another part of its machinery –
Since everything interlocked –
And remained unchanged,
Unless,
Indeed,
Which was
Very probable,
It became still more rigid,
More vigilant,
Severer,
And more ruthless.
ONE MUST LIE LOW
(Medford/Kafka)
The lyric is taken from "The Trial" (1915) by Franz Kafka.
Leslie Medford: all sounds and tape controls.
Recorded on 4-track reel-to-reel, August 1981, 1212 Mountain Blvd, Montclair, Oakland, CA.
Remastered by Carl Salbacka & Leslie Medford
Publishing: Browbeat (BMI)
I concur my accent is Liverpudlian slumming of the Worcester sort!
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7. |
Dream Obituary
02:45
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DREAM OBITUARY
(Medford)
[Instrumental; Extempore.]
Leslie Medford: all sounds and tape controls
Written and recorded August 1981 [4-track reel-to-reel] 1212 Mountain Blvd, Montclair, Oakland, CA
Remastered by Carl Salbacka & Leslie Medford
Publishing: Browbeat (BMI)
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8. |
Warsong
02:32
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WARSONG (Onceuponatimeonesuppertime)
[Note: This version does not have the complete lyric, and here the first verse is repeated twice. In several extant live performance recordings the complete lyric is present. It is displayed here the way it *should* be sung. Second: paragraph indents aren't allowed here on bandcamp so dislaying the overlapping lines is problematic. Therefore, parentheses are used for the 2nd (overlapping) vocal part.]
Even if the war is sore against your will,
(I ate the poster ploy: . . .)
Tax – Fed coinage – make the 'copters kill.
( . . . they’d teach me a skill.)
With bribes to lure our youth, i.e. the G.I. Bill,
(I give four years and, boy, . . .)
Boys fed coinage man the 'copters still.
( . . . I ate my fill.)
[The missing lyrics:]
Have gun will travel, boy, and ain’t travel a thrill?
But I hope you never have to kill or be killed.
Because, even if the war is sore against your will,
Tax – Fed coinage – makes the 'copters kill.
With bribes to lure our youth, i.e. the G.I. Bill,
Boys fed coinage man the 'copters still.
WARSONG
(Medford)
Leslie Medford: all sounds and tape controls
Written July 1981 [LM song number 16] 1212 Mountain Blvd, Montclair, Oakland, CA.
Recorded July 1981 on 4-track reel-to-reel, 1212 Mountain Blvd, Montclair, Oakland, CA.
Remastered by Carl Salbacka & Leslie Medford
Publishing: Browbeat (BMI)
Photograph: April 1981, by Barbara Brumm.
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9. |
Voyage→medley
07:27
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VOYAGE→MEDLEY
NEW SOCIETY [1st verse]
New Society - New Society - New Society
I am looking into a new society.
I am trying to think of a new society.
I don't know what it will have, but it won't have this...
THE BEACH [1st verse]
The first time I stumbled on the beach in your eyes,
My bucket was empty, love, but I had arrived.
And right then I was ready to build castles to the skies,
Because I knew it was a lucky man
Who gets to play on that golden sand, love.
LIVING FOR SUMMER'S END (FOR MELISSA) [1st verse]
Like blinkered horses
But more like people paralleled by pride
We spent a long time walking side by side.
And yet it seems I simply live to see you face to face
And reel under the magic wreck of your embrace.
STAY WITH ME [1st & 2nd verses]
This is the heartache of my heart,
Here is the wound and here the smarting.
This is as well my well of joy,
Here is my luckiness employing me.
Though in the sunlight I've often played
This has been well-used too, this row of shade trees.
Where is your cradle and your last bed?
Here with these same notes my mother led me through.
Does sidewalk parquetry make you play?
Yes, and I'm dancing from grey to grey
Because when I move the tune chooses to stay with me.
26 MONTHS BEHIND [2nd verse]
She was a girl not of my world, but steeped in intuition.
She'd feel her way if night followed day -
Logic seemed burdened and puerile.
VOYAGE→medley
(Medford)
Leslie Medford: All songs and sounds.
Among my earliest compositions, in medley-order they are the 17th, 12th, 6th, 1st, and 3rd songs in my canon.
Written and recorded: various, between 26 April 1980 and 21 July 1981.
Edited and remastered by Carl Salbacka & Leslie Medford
Publishing: Browbeat (BMI)
Except for the last (which wasn't), these are snippets from songs which were included whole on the 'Work-In-Progress' cassette album, released February 1982. These are the best parts! There were many mistakes made in the performances, but also many technical problems occurred in the recording of each, making the full versions more tedious than they might have been. Approximately 21 minutes of total time has been reduced to just over 7. I feel able to condense them here on Voyage because better full versions appear (or will appear) scattered elsewhere throughout my releases. Bring on the outrage (!) but I am happy with this medley and would refer you to the better-realized versions if you happen to like the snippet included here.
Three of these songs were inspired by the young lady in the passport photo. The same three - The Beach, Living for Summer's End, and 26 Months Behind - are from my very first 'recording session' on 26 April 1980 with Tim Clark (a Stanford friend) running a borrowed 2-track reel-to-reel in Palo Alto. The previously-used reel of tape, the machine, and the inexperienced engineer, all contributed to extremely flawed recordings, the reason I feel a snippet is better than the whole.
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10. |
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RIDDLING TRIPLETS IN OLDE TIME
Rain, sun, and rain. There's a rainbow in the sky.
A young man will, will be wiser by and by;
An old man, his wit may wander ere he die.
Sun, rain, and sun! There's a rainbow on the lea!
And truth is this to me, this to me and that to thee;
And truth clothed or naked let it be.
Rain, rain, and sun, and the free blossom blows;
Sun, rain, and sun! and where is he who knows?
From the great deep to the great deep he goes.
RIDDLING TRIPLETS IN OLDE TIME
(Medford/Tennyson)
Leslie Medford : all sounds and tape controls
Words: Alfred, Lord Tennyson, from "Idylls of the King - The Coming of Arthur" (c.1859)]
Music: Leslie Medford
Written May 1979 [LM song number 8] 5970 Harbord Drive, Montclair, Oakland, CA
Recorded on 4-track reel-to-reel, 20 August 1981, 1212 Mountain Blvd, Montclair, Oakland, CA
First appeared on Work-in-Progress cassette album, February 1982.
Remastered by Carl Salbacka & Leslie Medford
Publishing: Browbeat (BMI)
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11. |
Save it for Another Guy
04:46
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SAVE IT FOR ANOTHER GUY
She - she told me that she'd never lie,
But I should have thought of the things that I already knew!
I - I wanted to give her my love,
But better a fool than to look the truth in the eye!
Save if for another guy!
Baby, I'm not quite your style.
Save it for another guy!
Baby, you can give him your smile.
I don't mind to be the only one.
Truth - if ever it could be well known,
Then cast it my way. I'll be there when you get home.
Lies - I know that they will tear you apart.
That's why I've built a wall around me again.
Save if for another guy!
Well, I'm not quite your style.
Save it for another guy!
Baby, you can give him your smile.
But I don't mind to be the lonely one.
She - she told me that she'd never lie.
But I should have thought of the things that I already knew!
I - I wanted to give her my love,
But better a fool than to look the truth in the eye.
Save if for another guy!
Baby, I'm not quite your style.
Save it for another guy!
Baby, you can give him you're smile.
Cuz I don't mind to be the lonely one.
I don't mind. I'll be the only one.
SAVE IT FOR ANOTHER GUY
Richard Boubelik
There are three run-throughs involved in this mash-up. The third verse was recorded in the afternoon, when Richard taught the song to Leslie so that he could sing it, and, with Arthur on drums, the three of them rehearsed it a couple of times, then Medford produced his father's dictaphone, but the only cassette they had to hand wasn't blank. The threesome recorded only one verse at the tail end of the cassette, the tape ran out, and they made plans to record again later in the evening.
The first and second verses, and the very end, come from the evening session which involved two more friends, drummer Jeff Tarrant, and clarinetist John Malde. Arthur Boubelik switched from drums to piano. A blank cassette was employed, and two wonderfully chaotic run-throughs, neither "complete", were recorded. (Medford's "Stay With Me" was also recorded.) Much hilarity and exhilaration attended the first cassette listenings in Leslie's car, and the tape was played over and over for days thereafter! Jolly good times!
(Sadly, it should be noted that two of the fivesome do not survive into the present, but Richard, John, and Leslie still pal around whenever possible. And old recordings never die!)
Photograph: the brothers Boubelik, Richard and Arthur, circa 1970.
Written and recorded on 27 December 1980, Boubelik residence, Alexandria Place, Stockton, CA.
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LESLIE MEDFORD Oakland, California
Leslie Medford is a dude from a world that no longer exists!The two bands he led 1984-1991 have their own bandcamp pages under The Ophelias and HighHorse. Medford was a busy fellow during his pro period (1982-1992) and this site covers solo things & side projects from as early as 1975 and as recent as 2004.There is tremendous variety here, of a high standard of idea, if not always execution.Enjoy! ... more
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