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Commentary |
It Was A Good Day Tom wrote the lyrics to Charles' nostalgic little ditty which has it's roots and musical feel in the big band era of the 40s. The horns are in particular evocative of the kind of music our parents listened to on their Atwater Kent radios. This song, like Captain Jack, is a paean to simpler times when falling in love was idealic. Charles was probably the most technically trained musician among us. He and John Hall had been in a group before Vietnam called the Arkels, which was formed during high school. They regularly played on weekends in the area's many folk coffee houses, and filled out the bill at many a Hootenanny. Tom also worked on weekends at a couple of these coffee houses running the sound and lights. All three got to know the guys in The Association (Cherish, Along Comes Mary, Never My Love, etc). The background vocals in the bridge of It Was A Good Day reflects this influence, with a bit of Mitch Miller thrown in. We got downright silly in the vocal vamp at end. The high falsetto is John Hall hamming it up on an overdub that inspired us to take it even further by adding an impromptu glee club that included the studio owner and his wife. We even got Tom to sing on this one, prying him away from the Control Board long enough to join in the party on the other side of the glass. The horn solo was played by the leader of the horn section. I recall his name was Greg. They were a bunch of young guys from Santa Barbara that played Tijuana Brass charts at private parties, calling themselves the Ensanada Brass. They had their own rhythm section but none of them played on the Prufrock sessions. Tom did a deal with Greg to produce and engineer a record for them to sell at gigs in return for playing on the Prufrock sessions. Our hope was to make this a bit of a fluff piece to add some balance and leavening to the heavier undercurrents that ripple through many of the other songs on the album. |