Without anything truly important to do today, I decided to buy a whole bunch of music on iTunes to make a “Passion” album. This is something that I have wanted to do for years, but had never gotten around to it. “Passion,” by the way, was the name of my very successful band back in the early 80’s. We were a top tier cover band in the greater Bay Area with a rather large following, yet our goal was never to get rich or leave our day jobs – we all played because we had a passion to play, hence the name. Most in the band were engineers. I was studying to be an engineer at the time, so in between sets, it wasn’t unusual for my bandmates to help me out with my Calculus homework. Yes, that was the sort of thing we did in the green room between sets. Most of our band did not do drugs, and those who did, kept it to themselves, and not while playing. The result was that we had quite the work ethic with the singular goal of copying our music note-for-note. This allowed me to get really good at listening and breaking-apart songs, a skill I would use later on when I co-owned a studio and did some sound engineering/studio mixing. The band was together from late 1982 – 1989. I left the band in 1987 because my grades were dropping and my future wife said that it was either her or the band because I was playing so often that I never saw her. I chose wisely, of course, but I still hung out with the band when I could. The break-up of the band occurred (as it does with most bands), when an outside love interest got involved with the band. Our drummer liked our female lead singer, but our lead singer found a new beau, and he started running lights for the band. The drummer and the lighting guy hated each other so eventually, the lead singer and lighting guy left to form their own band (later on, they both became Christians and started playing Coffee Houses in Gilroy) or the drummer quit – I don’t recall which happened first. The rest of the band split and started doing other projects. One of the lead guitarists joined me on a project I was doing in the studio around 1989-90 when we recorded an album for a star from the Philippines (Johnny Night). In 1991, I left my music & studio life to join a rock & roll church band. Switching to a daytime gig was much healthier for me. I did that for a little over a year, and then joined the church band that I currently play in. And so goes my musical career (I counted the other day, and I have been in 17 different bands, though Passion and my current church band are the two I have been in the longest, and I’m on 3 rather mediocre albums that have never gone anywhere. The most successful project I was involved in was a single that sold 40K copies).
So, getting back to the Passion Album, it took the better part of a day (last night and much of today) to compile the 75 most played songs that we did as a band, or the core of what we did for five years. In my five year tenure, we kept a rolling “current” list of around 100 songs out of the approximately 250 songs that we had learned over that five year period (yes, on average, we learned one new song a week AND we either practiced or played for 20 hours a week… not including travel, setup or tear-down). Our average set was 12 songs, and four sets a night (48 songs a night), so if we played four nights a week, and we often did, our goal was to repeat only half the songs, hence the 100 active songs. In practice though, it was rare that we played at the same place for all four nights, so we tended to stick with these 75 songs that were most often on our current list:
Scandal – Goodbye to you
Scandal – Love’s God a Line on You
Scandal – Beat of a Heart
Motels – Only the Lonely
Motels – Mission of Mercy
‘Til Tuesday – Voices Carry
Police – Message in a Bottle
Police – Wrapped Around Your Finger
Rush – Subdivisions
Rush – Tom Sawyer
Babys – Headfirst
Babys – Midnight Rendezvous
Babys – Too Far Gone
Bon Jovi – Runaway
Bon Jovi – Livin’ on a Prayer
Bon Jovi – Get Ready
Heart – Barracuda
Heart – How can I Refuse
Heart – If Looks Could Kill
(Medly) John Cougar – ROCK in the USA
(Medly) Romantics – What I like About You
(Medly) Neil Diamond – Cherry, Cherry
The Call – I Still Believe
Genesis – Abacab
Toto – Hold the Line
Toto – Won’t Hold You Back Now
Bryan Adams – It’s Only Love
Bryan Adams – Run To You
Bryan Adams – This Time
Bryan Adams – One Night Love Affair
Pat Benetar – You Better Run
Pat Benetar – Heartbreaker
Pat Benetar – Promises In The Dark
Pretenders – Middle of the Road
Pretenders – Precious
Don Henley – Boys of Summer
Don Henley – Drivin’ With Your Eyes Closed
Timbuck 3 – Future’s So Bright
Gamma – Voyager
Night Ranger – Don’t Tell Me You Love Me
Night Ranger – Sing Me Away
Night Ranger – Passion Play
Ratt – Round and Round
Van Halen – Panama
Van Halen – Jump
Van Halen – Dance the Night Away
Van Halen – You Really Got Me
Journey – Keep on Runnin’
Journey – Lights
Boston – Smokin’
Stevie Nicks & Tom Petty – Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around
Robert Plant – Addicted To Love
Robert Plant – Little by Little
38 Special – If I’d Been The One
38 Special – Hold on Loosely
38 Special – Caught Up In You
Dokken – You Just Got Lucky
The Bangals – Walk Like an Egyptian
Survivor – Popular Girl
Survivor – High On You
Tubes – Talk To Ya Later
Tubes – She’s a Beauty
The Georgia Satellites – Keep You Hands To Yourself
Huey Lewis – Finally Found a Home
Huey Lewis – Power of Love
Huey Lewis – Walkin’ on a Thin Line
Scorpions – Rock You Like a Hurricane
Scorpions – Big City Nights
U2 – Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
U2 – Pride (In the Name of Love)
Zz top – Sharp Dressed Man
Zz top – Stages
Aldo Nova – Fantasy
Eddie Money – No Control
Eddie Money – Think I’m in Love
The Kinks – Destroyer
Cars – Let’s Go