Welcome Friend.
Peering Out is a tape of influences on my guitar playing in the first twenty years of my life. This is not a tape of my favorite songs, or songs I like to be-bop to. Just songs and sounds that have influenced my playing in some way, mostly musically. If I made a tape of my favorite songs, it would be very different.
Since it's only two sides of a 45 minute tape, obviously a lot of what happened during those twenty years had to be left out. For even more fun, follow the links...
Some Background...
I was born at the end of the Forties in the far reaches of Upstate New York. I lived there for about a year, then my Dad went back on active duty in the Korean War and I went to live with my maternal grandparents in the town of Port Washington, on Long Island. A year later my Dad returned from Korea and we moved back upstate so he could continue with his schooling.
In 1952 my Dad finished school and we moved to Woodstown, located in the southern part of New Jersey, near Salem. We lived in a two family duplex. I started school there.
When I was six and in first grade we moved about twenty miles north to a housing development called Greenfields Village. I went to school there from first to third grade. Here's a typical picture of me taken at Christmas 1956 beside our home in Greenfields Village.
Then, in rapid succession, we moved from Greenfields Village, New Jersey, north and west to Duluth, Minnesota, then back east and a bit south to Denton, Maryland, then due north to Mahwah, New Jersey, located right on the northern border of New Jersey. That series of moves took less than a year and ended in late March of 1959, near the end of my fourth grade year.
By the time I was in sixth grade, 1961, I'd decided to start playing guitar. And sing. I never became a very good singer.
I lived in Mahwah until I graduated high school, and in retrospect, I had the most exciting and interesting times of my life there. I was in Scouts, I ran cross country, I got my first car, I was in a band, and most memorable, I had my first real love, Barbara Anderson. Don't we look happy together?
Then I went to school for a short time in Easton, Pennsylvania at Lafayette College. That didn't quite work out, I was asked not to return and so I entered the U.S. Navy. Here's what I looked like in the Navy around the time I was in Basic Electricity & Electronics (B.E. & E.) School.
I got out of the Navy in the summer of 1969, just in time to take in Easy Rider at the movies, watch men land on the Moon on television and go to Woodstock, the Aquarian Festival, in Bethel, New York.
All of the cuts on both sides of the tape were digitally recorded on 16 or 24 bit recorders, then sequenced together into two, approximately 45 minute long segments. Those segments were played into a cassette machine and an analog copy was made, the cassette you listened to.
.
Side One:
1. Intro. Glenn says a few words. The first of many.
2. In the Mood, Glenn Miller. This was copied from an 8 track tape.
3. In the Hall of the Mountain King, Edvard Grieg. From an old LP. My parents determined to give me a musical education and subscribed to the Children's Record Guild (CRG). Sometimes the selections were kid's songs, sometimes classical pieces. This was my favorite. The music moved me to dance around the living room with the volume up full. I'm sure my parents loved it.
4. Itsy Bitsy Spider. Young Glenn sings. Another CRG selection.
5. We'll Meet Again, Vera Lynn. In addition to a continuous exposure to Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman and the like, this is a song I remember from my early childhood.
6. Jingle, Jangle, Jingle, The Merry Macs. This came off an old 78 rpm record. You can tell, hear the scratchiness? This was one of those catchy tunes I remember bouncing around in my head as a child.
7. Narrative. More talking by Glenn.
8. Rock Around the Clock, Bill Haley & The Comets. These guys came from Chester, Pennsylvaina, not that far from where I was living, which might explain the extensive airplay this song got. Rock Around the Clock became the first Rock and Roll title to top the charts. Well, I can't say more about this one than I did on the tape. This was recorded from an 8 track tape.
9. I Walk the Line, Johnny Cash. In the fifties, there seemed to be fewer divisions between types of music. The choices were classical and popular ("pop"), and by the late Fifties, Rock 'n Roll, Country and Folk were bona fide genres. This was one of my favorite Johnny Cash songs, the other being Ring of Fire. Also from an 8 track tape.
10. Walk, Don't Run, The Ventures. This is the song that started me seriously thinking about playing guitar. Oh, I'd toyed with the idea before, but this song pushed me over the edge. I still like it. From an LP.
11. Narrative. Glenn speaks again.
12. Kennedy Inaugural Speech. John F. Kennedy. This is only a part of the speech he gave that day. This was the most moving thing I had ever heard a leader say. From an LP, edited for length.
13. Sleep Walk, The Ventures. I like the Santo & Johnny version better, but don't have it. This is one of the first songs I remember playing at school dances. I played rhythm guitar then and it was an easy C - Am - F - G sort of progression. From an LP.
14. Out of Limits, The Ventures. This was the kind of stuff I played whenever I had a few free minutes to practice. I didn't have a real amp yet. I tapped into the audio section of my Hallicrafters S-38 short-wave radio and turned it into a cheapo practice amp. The radio was never the same. From a CD.
15. Flight of Freedom 7, Alan B. Shepard. I couldn't find this clip when I made the tape and I wanted to get the tape out sooner rather than later. The next set of these tapes to go out will have this short piece at this point. From an LP.
16. Locomotion, Little Eva. Girls, dancing, girls. Oh, wow! About this time I realized that dances were not only for playing guitar but a good place to get to know girls. Whoa... what a revelation! About this time I also bought my first car, even though I was years from having a license. This cut is from an 8 track tape.
17. Cuban Missile Crisis, John F. Kennedy. In October 1962 I thought we were all going to die very soon in a global nuclear holocaust. So did a lot of other people. This is the speech that brought the whole US-USSR conflict of those times into focus.
18. Narrative. More Glenn.
19. Major Kong's Yahoo, Dr. Strangelove. This is the "yahoo" shouted out by Major Kong (Slim Pickens) as he rides The Bomb down into Enemy Territory. From a RealAudio clip, heavily processed.
20. Lords of Karma, Nearby Stars. There are four tracks here, all laid down around 1980, but never mixed until a year or so ago. This song is how the Cuban Missile Crisis and attendant heebeejeebies made me feel. This is from the 8 channel master tape direct to digital. When I have more time I plan on doing a cleaner mix. Someday. Maybe.
21. Masters of War, Bob Dylan. It was about this time that I first remember hearing of Bob Dylan. He was able to articulate in words what I felt and tried to express in Lords of Karma. From a CD.
22. Surfin' USA, The Beach Boys. In the middle of all that scariness with the Russians, here come the Beach Boys, and my other favorite surf music guys, Jan & Dean. This song made me happy and let me think of a positive future. No bombs here, just waves and women. Groovy. Of course, this came from an 8 track.
Side Two:
1. Blowin' In The Wind, Bob Dylan. A good place to pick up.
2. Narrative. Glenn gives some more commentary.
3. President Kennedy Shot. Various news sources. This is a audio collage of various bits and pieces from November 22, 1963. A news announcer, an eyewitness account, followed by the news reader again. Then former President Eisenhower, Senator Barry Goldwater and finally Senator Adlai Stevenson. Kennedy Assassination segment
4. Taps.
5. Broken Arrow, Buffalo Springfield. Though this wasn't recorded until a few years later, this short bit puts the Kennedy presidency into mythic terms, the way I experienced it. At my age, those adults, the Kennedys, were mythic figures on the world stage. From an 8 track tape.
6. Narrative. Glenn comments on the loss of the President.
7. She Was Just Seventeen, The Beatles. The President was gone and so it seemed that it fell to us to lead ourselves through these difficult times. At least that's how I saw it. That we children should just pick up and carry on. Just when we needed some strength, the Beatles came and filled some empty spots in an otherwise gray world. From a CD.
8. Don't Bother Me, The Beatles. And the Beatles kept filling those empty spots. Hit after hit. Song after song. Then they came to the U.S. They met Dylan. They grooved together. Something was happening. The adult world became less relevant. Soon after this I really started likng the Rolling Stones a lot. From a CD.
9. Mr. Tambourine Man, The Byrds. Wow! First, solid music from England, then an equally solid sound from our own West Coast in the form of the Byrds. Music was being redefined on a daily basis. From an LP.
10. Mister, You're a Better Man Than I, The Yardbirds. The second British wave brought this group. This is the first song that I started to play lead on. I loved the Fuzztone. The guitar was getting a new voice. And that voice had a lot of variations. This is a picture of me playing guitar in 1966.
11. Mr. Spaceman, Nearby Stars. The first four tracks of this song were laid down in 1979 or 1980, consisting of the first two vocal tracks, the feedback guitar and the electric rhythm guitar. I did two more vocal tracks, bass and an acoustic guitar track this year. I hate this mix, but I wanted to get this tape out. The next version of the tape will have a better mix. This one is too muddy. From the original multitrack master direct to digital. Did I mention that I don't like this particular mix? Spaceman segment
12. For What It's Worth, Buffalo Springfield. And the West Coast echoes again. Back and forth, around the world these songs wove a pattern of sound that cloaked our generation. From an 8 track.
13. Happy Together, The Turtles. During most of 1967 this was my favorite song, maybe the only song I listened to. For me, everything good about life was rolled up in that one song. Every time I heard it my heart skipped a beat. It still has that effect on me all these years later. It's such a happy song.
14. Light My Fire, The Doors. The first really long song I remember hearing on the radio. Simple guitar, no bass, a great drummer and a singer with a dark side. This song rocked. From a commercial reel-to-reel tape.
15. One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. Neil Armstrong. Men get to the Moon. In my lifetime. We close out the decade with a Moon walk and Woodstock. Rock On, Nation. I didn't have this clip when I made the tape, so it will be in the next version.
16. Soul Sacrifice, Santana. One warm Saturday afternoon in mid-August of 1969, I sat in a formerly grassy field along with about a half a million close friends and heard this. It blew my mind. I had never heard Santana before, nor had most folks on the East Coast. When I studied guitar, I had to play a lot of Spanish classical. I never enjoyed it much, I wanted to play rock 'n roll. Carlos showed me how to make that classical stuff rock. From a commercial reel-to-reel tape.
17. Thank You, James Marshall, Nearby Stars. One thing Jimi Hendrix did was open the world of the guitar up. Really open. He did it all. This is one track, played live, no overdubs, and a few edits for length. Recorded this year on a reel-to-reel with two microphones, then re-recorded digitally. Thank You, James Marshall segment
18. Happy Trails, Quicksilver Messenger Service. Well, that rounds this side out. I really liked the guitar work of John Cippolina and Gary Duncan. They could take a song like Ellis McDaniel's (Bo Diddley) Who Do You Love? and explore it for nearly half an hour without repeating themselves. Obviously, that's too long for this tape, so this short snippet will have to do.
Happy trails to you, too.
Let me know what you thought of the tape... send an email to Glenn Connell.
