These are excerpted and modified from a memoir I started a few years ago about my musical adventures. It's intended audience is my children, so they have something to ponder if they are so inclined!!
Rock Yer Beans Off
The Jelly Babies Live at Twice Told Coffee House 1996
“I’m living out of a suitcase. I’m eating out of a tin.” “Living out of a suitcase” by The Records was my theme song during the summer of 1996. I was between domestic situations and had yet to land in new digs. I resided in our former and future bass player, Ted Willard’s, spare room. I remember laying on the floor in that tiny space, next to my Fender Super Six amp, trying to relax before the show that day. It was a blazing hot July day, and Iced coffee was not yet a thing! I would have preferred playing in a saloon with cold beer later that night.
In my crazed stoicism, It was business as usual. We were a band trying to build a following in the mid to late 90s. A significant label radio push was still an obtainable dream. The music they play on “Pop Rocks” on Sirius XM is evidence of that. Our band relationship dynamic was weird at this time. Everyone was in love with Letha (except me- I fell in love with someone else, and the timing was terrible). We were all pissed off at Bill for leaving us in the lurch to play a “yacht rock” covers gig the night of our major label showcase the previous autumn. This anger wasn’t misplaced, as Days of the New got signed that night. We played decently with Noel “Zima” Hawley on drums, but it wasn’t the knockout punch of the original JB lineup that recorded “12 + 1” in the spring of 1994.
We did a few gigs with Jason Cebe busking on guitar. I enjoyed hanging out with boy Jason. He was Robin to my Batman. He just wasn’t terrific on guitar. I’d hoped for Craig Gannon but got Craig Ferguson instead.
I had done some demos with Mike Feedback and my brother Stew on guitar after the Harvest Showcase. Bringing him made much sense. Like Billy Preston in the “Get Back” sessions, everyone behaved better when he was around. He would help us recreate the multiple guitar parts I played on the album.
He wasn’t the gearhead he later became. He didn’t have an amp or guitar. I believe that on this gig; he played my 335 thru a Sovtek tube amp. I was on the inappropriately loud Super Six with my green Stratocaster.
So here we were at Twice Told Coffeehouse. The owner didn’t like us but we could fill his tiny room on his “dead” nights. A scorching July night would be such a time at “Twice Sold.”
I’m not sure where we would have practiced for this show unless I had access to my former house I was still paying for at the time!! The Jellybabies started as my solo studio album and morphed into a combination of my former Bam Bam Club rhythm section and Letha “Jane Doe” on vocals, who was Team Jimmy on my 1st divorce!!! Much like The Who where Townsend was supplying material for Daltrey, I was trying to come up with songs that Letha could sing. Some of my own, but also covers that were a bit obscure.
This was the first gig where I was stepping back from co-fronting the band and trying just to be one of the “boys in the band.” I enjoy Letha’s patter between songs. She was at the beginning of her front women journey. She would later evolve into the raging extroversion of her “Jane Doe” persona. Hopefully, you can hear this on a future release.
Technical Notes:
This gig was recorded on TDK 110 metal tape. Stereo two-track cassette. Back in ancient times, metal tape allowed maximum gain before distortion. You could actually record in the red and still get a decent sound. I suspect the mics were behind the bass amp, near the drums, and not out “in the room.”
The vocals and guitars are bootleg “passable.” Despite the flaws, I’m glad Mike Feedback recorded the gig. The show was transferred to digital at the House of Honeyman and Mastered by Jimmy Honeyman for Gems Honeyman in January 2023.
Track by Track:
Wheatfield- My 1st complete song of the Bam Bam Club years. It still has “legs” since I played in my live set as recently as last year. An exciting opener. Stewart would later pepper it with rockabilly riffs, but for now, the instrumental sections are busker thrash.
Tragicomic Life- Another one that has stood the test of time with the Juniper Hills collective. In some ways, the perfect Jelly Babies track besides “Spring,” The 335 has a nice sting on this arrangement, and the rhythm section keeps the tempo where it needs to be.
Delta of Venus parts 1 and 3- Naming three songs “Delta of Venus” was a bit pretentious on my part. #1 and #2 ended up on “Jimmy Honeyman” and #3 on “Beggars Bathroom”. All started as candidates for the next Jelly Babies Album. I think “freight train” is pretty descriptive of the brisk pace on #3.
Crying Angel- a Jim and Bill collaboration. He had a riff and I did the rest. Always a good live number.
Picking Daisies- This could have made it on “12 +1,” but since I thought it could be an excellent follow-up to “Spring”, we held it back. It also made its studio appearance on “Beggars Bathroom”.
Too Much Coffee- I wrote the riff during a jam demonstrating how Nirvana ripped off Captain Sensible’s “Life goes on.” Tweaking a note here and there, it became a Police like tour de force. The chorus was my Yamaha pedal which I still love. I need to get it back from my son! Letha did a fab veil routine that inspired us live to shamanist heights.
Same Time Next Week (Early Version) This closely follows my soundtrack work original demo with Ebow and acoustic guitar. Letha lyrics that I reworked on the studio version that I sang. A direction we could have gone when the original JB rhythm section left the group the next yea.
Quit Breathing My Air- This was done better with JP in the Bam Bam Club. I still like what Letha did here. Plus it does benefit from Stew’s Ebow. The proper dissociative air!!
Yer Boyfriend- Is a song I can still sing with conviction to this day. I mean, how dare anyone move on from me!!!
He’s So Sweet- In my mind, I combined the feel of Led Zeppelin I and II with “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” Letha was Audrey Hepburn fronting Zep at the Atlantic 40th anniversary gig!!
Maudlin Me- Any easy one to write- I was trying to do a Hollies feel for the 90s.
Jennifer Jangling- Irish pub rock and my first direct and obscure lyric trying to capture the girl’s heart. It worked for a while. I was too self-conscious to sing it as I should have, but the band is good on this take.
Let Me Love You- I always enjoyed taking that 2nd solo after the last chorus.
Spring- Our signature song. Always play the one that brought you to the dance.
I hope these notes enhance your listening experience. I want to thank Letha, Bill, Kevin, and Stewart for the time they kept “real tight.”