Williams Stuff...

LISTENING TO THE FIRST BREATHING METHOD CD, TRACK BY TRACK
(A reacquaintance of sorts by Williams)

(1): My Generation - 0.45 (Pete Townshend)
This is an edited live studio recording. To break the monotony of rehearsals, we'd try and work out songs by some of our favorite performers and, on that particular night, Warren was in the mood for "My Generation" by The Who, so we decided to have a go at it. Our version sucked but we saved the first verse and Warren's wicked bass guitar solo for posterity. On Friday, June 28th, we were saddened to learn that John Entwistle died of a heart attack in Las Vegas. Not only was "The OX" an incredible and influential bassist (Chris Squire of Yes, among many others, counted him as a favorite) but he was also The Who's "secret weapon," playing all of the horn parts on their albums. He was also a great songwriter. In fact, I'd encourage anyone who's reading this to stop, go down to their local CD or vinyl store and pick up a copy of John Entwistle's second solo album called "Whistle Rhymes," because if you don't then you'll be missing out on something that's really good. We used to play "Apron Strings" and "I Found Out" because, simply put, they're fantastic. "Whistle Ryhmes," like John Entwistle, is timeless.

(2): Medley: If You Understand (Warren Hawk) Count The Days ( Prince) : total time- 5.13
This is a live recording from Crossroads, another defunct music club in Sylva NC. After months of playing open mic nights we finally got the chance to open gigs for Oliver's Soup and Hammerloop. In fact, we opened for Hammerloop again at KJ's Tavern (Hammerloop's home turf) in Bryson City NC. The owner enjoyed our music and invited us back to headline. Hammerloop were always really nice to us and treated us like equals and, in such a small musical community, such kindness and support was (and still is) appreciated. Jeremy Hyatt, Hammerloop's vocalist at the time, was a great singer in the rough sandpaper-y Bob Seger style. Jeremy wanted to be able to sing "Roundabout" by Yes (one of the cover tunes included on this set) and I wanted to be able to pull off "These Arms Of Mine" by Otis Redding without sounding like a white boy. If Hyatt ever decides to sing Motown Soul music then he'll be dangerous because he can pull it off very well. Anyway, "If You Understand" is Warren's song and it has another section to it that's missing on this version. This segues into a song that Prince has (so far) released only on the soundtrack for the Spike Lee movie "Girl 6," the incredible "Count The Days" which allows us the three of us to sing harmony and not get tangled up. When we covered a song in The Breathing Method, it was because we enjoyed the song and we were fans of the musicians, not because we were trying to be popular. We played Prince because we really like Prince. The same goes for Frank Zappa, The Beatles, Yes, Gentle Giant, and so on. We were Musicologists who just happened to sing, play, and write songs.

(3): FreeHand - 7.11 (Shulman, Shulman, Minnear)
Live at crossroads again, this time opening up for Oliver's Soup. I remember being in a bad mood, pissed at being dumped by one of our dysfunctional groupies. Hot Tuna was playing a rare gig in Asheville that night and I mentioned to Ted Lizee, guitarist for Oliver's Soup, that I would have preferred to be in Asheville listening to Hot Tuna than to be playing that night. Ted thought that such a remark was kinda strange and walked away. This song by Gentle Giant is hard to play and presented a challenge to the band. We also somehow managed to include a short snippet of another Giant song, "The Advent Of Panurge," from "Octopus." all of which was played incredibly fast. Did the audiences of the day like or understand what we were playing ? Naaahhh. What you hear is polite applause from people who were waiting for us to get our geriatric unfunky asses off the stage so that Oliver's Soup would come up and play them something that they were familiar with and could dance to. Unless you're extremely limber and / or have a good sense of rhythm (or you're really drunk), chances are that dancing to "FreeHand" would be something of a task (even though we encouraged people to dance to it all of the time).

(4): Colours from An Old Flashback - 2.31 (Duncan / Williams)
This version is the way the song should have sounded when we played it years ago with Delta 9. In regards to the references to Stan Polley, Pete Ham, and Tom Evans. Pete and Tom were the founding members of the 1970's group Badfinger. Stan Polley was their manager and ripped the band off for millions of dollars then fled. As a result, Pete committed suicide in 1976 and Tom followed in 1981. A sad tragedy and a huge loss in the world of music. The scream that happens (2.13 - 2.15) isn't a sample: it's Duncan for half a second followed by my infamous Sammy Hagar impersonation (more of this insanity can be found on "Relics" by The Breathing Method, available now).

(5): Abandon City - 2.47 (Rundgren / Powell)
The first song of our set when we opened for Hammerloop at Crossroads in Sylva. Jazzy, intricate, and somewhat apocalyptic... which is why we chose to play it. Plus Warren and I are HUGE Todd Rundgren fans and Todd has been a major influence in my singing style (along with Frank Zappa and Mike Patton). Great stuff.

(6): Windowman - 3.23 (Duncan / Hawk / Williams)
An original song of ours. I wrote the words after a not-so-tranquil encounter at Crossroads (where this was recorded) with a local Disc Jockey from Sylva. The first verse describes the situation while the chorus and the rest of the verses describe my feelings about performing in the Western North Carolina area and the ever-present Bullshit Factor that, unfortunately, goes along with it. But maybe it's different where you are. I hope so.

(7): I've Seen All Good People - 2.32 (Anderson / Squire)
An acoustic cover from The Warren Hawk Group (Mark and Warren on acoustic guitars with me on lead squawks and percussion). Recorded live at Kim's Cafe, a scenic coffeehouse on the outskirts of Bryson City, NC. This was a strange gig: we were expecting an audience of young hippie folk who had just gotten through spending a day kayaking, canoeing, swimming, etc. Instead we got well-dressed tourists with their kids and families. Plus the flyers for the gig made us appear like we were an Ultra-Sensitive New Age act. This was recorded after all of our visitors had left and there was no one but us, Holly (Mark's wife), Holly's friend (whose name I can't remember-- sorry !), and the poor souls who happened to be working that night.

(8): It's Not The Drugs - 3.25 (Hawk / Williams)
This song was rather easy for Warren and I to write but became something of a bastard to play. In fact, we were still working on this song when The Breathing Method decided to break up. Also note that this is NOT the full-length version of the song: there's still two more minutes left. This song was basically me saying that I was getting tired of performing in front of unenthusiastic crowds and for the soul-suckers who would tell us that they liked our music then turn around and call us "assholes." Warren Hawk hates "The Wall" by Pink Floyd (and Pink Floyd in general). Myself ? I can relate to what Roger Waters was writing about all too well. Looking back, I would have liked for us to have continued to play more shows with Hammerloop at KJ's. Too bad that Hammerloop's manager didn't like us or our music.

(9): The Dean And I - 2.25 (Godley & Creme)
Recorded live at rehearsals. Forgot that we actually performed this tune. This song is dedicated to the memory of Chip Doerner who turned me on to 10cc (the group who originally wrote and recorded this song) as well as Cat Stevens and tons of other cool stuff. Rest in Peace, my friend. As we get older we tend to surround ourselves with more and more ghosts.

(10): Roundabout - 8.00 (Anderson / Howe)
This was the song that helped get us a reputation in the local Sylva / Cullowhee musical community (or what existed of it). The attraction was that not only could we play this song but we could play it VERY VERY FAST so, in the end, every time we played a gig we got requests. It's a hard number to sing and, let's be honest about it, some nights I really didn't feel like it. This version finds me cracking my voice in twenty different directions on a couple of notes so be prepared to cringe and and shudder -- I do. Mark, Warren, and Jason play like wild animals cranked up on methamphetamine. Pretty impressive if I do say so myself. Maybe you'll agree.

(11): 20 Winds - 8.04 (Duncan / Williams)
I don't think that we ever played a version of this song that was shorter than six minutes. This is one that Duncan and I wrote at his place In Franklin NC in about half an hour. We demoed it on a four-track and played it for Warren and Jason next rehearsal. The lyrics are about how much I hate hot weather, my dislike of Franklin NC, and my then love / hate relationship with The Breathing Method. I was driving a HUGE Mercury Cougar fourty miles round trip to rehearsals at Mark's place, the car was always breaking down, and I didn't enjoy having to depend on Warren or Jason for a ride all of the time. In other words, it was becoming a hassle. Despite all of that, this song is another one that I'm proud to have taken part in. This also served as a vehicle for the rest of the guys to jam while I stepped off-stage or outside for a cigarette. Catch the celtic groove on this one.

(12): Homeward Thru The Haze - 3.15 (David Crosby)
A fast version of an old favorite recorded live in the studio. We've played this song slow and bluesy and there's also a reggae version hanging out in the vaults somewhere. Simply put: there are people who maintain that David Crosby is something of a musical genius which I guess is one of the reasons that we formed The Breathing Method so that we could play this kind of music. Great stuff. Now go out and buy "Wind On The Water."

(13): Light (Hawk) : Hey Jude (Lennon / McCartney) total time - 4.56
The majority of this song belongs to Warren but we thought that it would be fun to tag the "Na-na-na-na" section of "Hey Jude" at the end of it so that future audiences would have something to relate to. The basic track was recorded live in the studio with additional backing vocals by Mark, Warren, and myself and some over-dubbed acoustic strummery from Duncan**. A nice upbeat note to end the CD with.

As always, thanks for reading and thanks for listening.

**Mark says - "Warren was the acoustic guitar player on Light".