NEW YORK SONG

Roger Gemelle

Excerpt New York Song:

Wendy's Gift

Wendy is sitting at the coffee table with Ellen Neuman her best friend. Ellen is a bright and beautiful person all around and we all like her. The girls were reaching that age where women glow with possibilites.

And so was I, (I mean ... You know what I mean!) but I did not have their sensitive taste for a wider range of music and in this they proved invaluable. As I joined them I noticed a faint fragrance of perfume, a rather subtle scent, and noticed how lovely their long, perfectly brushed hair looked.

Wendy said to me, “I want you to listen to this, it's Laura Nyro.”

“Who?”

She got up and put the album she was holding on the living-room stereo and sat down. Laura Nyro I had never even heard of. Wendy sat down as Eli's Coming started with a haunting refrain.

I was not used to this kind of piano-based sound and the sophisticated arrangements and choral backgrounds were evocative. Wendy handed me the album covered and I studied a beautful photo of her.

Her sensitive, vocal had a power and luminosity that was instantly irresistable, Her passion was so rich you could cut it with a knife, and her lyrics deep. What a monster and her originals … Jesus.

This was the kind of rich education my sisters complex, very special nature would bring to me. A gift I didn't even know I was being given at the time.

I always felt Carol King, my all-time favorite writer, had opened Pandora's box, and led the way for Laura Nyro and Carly Simon and Fiona Apple, who would all enrich us. Deep in headphones I would dream and be transported by these brilliant artists.

Wendy would continue to bring fresh music that I would have missed in my English-Invasion mania. One of the most important for me was when she played Al Coopers band Blood Sweat and Tears. The debut album was The Child Is Father To The Man. I was blown away!

The rhythmic structures and chordal intricacies with the soulfulness of Al's voice slayed me. And there was some kind of a horn section too wasn't there??? Uh yeah, that.

When Al did Somethings Going On, I got itchy. And when he sang More Than You'll Ever Know. I swooned.

After he left the band I never cared for them again. So there!

But for me it was always going to be The Beatles first, and I was a little surprised with how many of my friends were saying they were mostly done and wouldn't be around much longer. That seemed a bit fickle and I did not share that feeling at all. I still had faith and thought: Give em a little time.

Then Wendy brought me a gem! But this one was by one of my top favorites and that was a surprise. She put on Pet Sounds by Brian and the boys. The Beach Boys.

Wow!

The variety and depth I won't attempt to describe, you already figured that album out for yourself I feel sure. Funny thing is .. Brian said his influece was Rubber Soul.

Funnier still, Paul and John (of those guys who were mostky washed up) asked a rep in England for a pre-release listen, And they listened to the entire alum. Then they asked to hear it again.

And one year later they released a little thing named Sargent Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, I hear it did okay.

Funniest of all for me however, was when Brian was told his writing had influenced Sargent Peppers. The always humble Brian responded with, “Oh I don't see how that could be.” And yet I have seen videos and read articles where Paul said just that! Round and round the circle goes.

I said it before, and I'll say it again ... Ya gotta stay open.

The next day the phone rang and a friend told me he had just heard my record on the radio. We put on 1010 WINS and listened and in time they played First Spring Rain, it was the strangest thing listening to yourself like that.

Wendy and my mom were excited and it was pretty cool, but I'm pretty sure I knew even then it was not the kind of writing my sister was playing for me. Growing is a tough road, and I was just beginning to appreciate that old line: Be careful what you wish for.

I would never reach that lofty, rare place, but I wouldn't be alone, a lot of very famous and successful artists would share that feeling.

With a record out we started to come in contact through agents and publishers with some strange opportunuties. We were asked if we would be interested in being extras in a shoot for Glamour Magazine.

We were open for new experiences. So...

Let me get this straight … you want to know if we'd be interested in being driven to a farm and stand in the glorious sunshine with beautiful girls as you take pictures? Would you repeat that please?

And we get paid for this?

It took about an hour to reach this perfect setting, a small farmhouse that the production team had arranged for the all-day shoot. We had coffee at the kitchen table with four stunning beauties while the photographer and his assistant walked the farm for locations.

The makeup guy was setting up in the livng-room, as they wheeled in wardrobe racks of dresses, sweaters and accessories that would magically appear on the models during the shoot, It was clear this was a well prepared and experienced crew, this was not their first rodeo!

It was not a difficult, or demanding task, standing next to theses girls, smiling in the sunshine and playing our guitars, which now I suppose would become props for the eye. And no set-up or breakdown!

I talked with the girl I was sitting in a rock fence with as the photographer changed lenses and the others on their team switched out accessories she was holding. Bags and cleverly tooled leather belts, jackets of dyed kid and calf-skin, and scarves, were quickly swapped, all to be carefully noted below the pics because, of course, the point of all this was to sell all this stuff that to teenage girls. They'd better get it all if they wanted to be the center of attention, to be serenaded by a bunch of boys with guitars.

When Glamour Magazine published that issue later in the month, there we were. And I got a pretty good close up with the model I'd been singing to.

Well, Um okay ... ya gotta stay open.

Finch Finishing School is a sort of college where they apparently finish girls. I was unaware this was neccesary or even desirable. But apparently there is a small, elite circle of folks who like to hold their tea-cup … just so!

These goals seemed ludicrous as well as mysterious to me, I did not truck with such creatures, nor, and more precisely, do they, with me and the boys. But a gig is a gig!

We had gotten a gig playing the Finch graduaton event. I did have some trepidation that we might not be finished enough for this, but it turned out well.

When we got into the Manhatten campus it was teeming with finished girls, and their familys and boy friends, everywhere. We got our amps and PA stuff setup and tested the sound and then took a break. They had set serving tables with coffee and sweets and there were clod cuts and salad, so we helped ourselves.

There was no stage or lights, but we had a nice wooden floored area, that was generous (not always the case for the band) and it was well lit. Sometimes these places could ring with overtones if made of plaster, or if a lot of glass was used, but this large area was paneled in a soft blond wood which made for a nice acoustic sound.

In actuality the girls were very nice if a bit straight for my tastes. We did not find that the finishing process had dampened their ardor or interest to any appreciable degree.

When we played we sounded really good, one of our better nights, and the girls and their boyfriends and families danced and had a pretty good time.