Segarini: The BobChart – Week 12
This week’s BobChart is kind of a special edition.
Many of you have sent some wonderful emails and messaged me on Facebook wanting to hear some of the music I have been fortunate enough to write and record over the years. Wanting to share some with you, I began to go through the available YouTube videos (WordPress asks for money if you want to use Mp3’s, but allows video links) and realized I had published many of them previously, so I set about to create some that NO ONE has seen. Most of the new ones in this column are just a snapshot or two so I could post the songs, but 1 or 2 are a little more filled out. Regardless, it’s just about the music anyway, so I hope you enjoy them.
Some you may have seen or heard before, but the vast majority will hopefully be new to you. Good speakers or headphones are suggested (as always) and keep in mind some of these songs have only existed as ancient acetates or cassettes until now.
Someday I hope to be able to afford to clean them all up and re-record a lot of the demos here and make them available to own to those of you who would like them in your collections.
In the meantime, please enjoy the first (and probably only) BobChart to contain nothing but 100% Bob.
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Bobby Segarini and the Eddie Lucchesi Trio
We go all the way back to 1959 for this one.
I was 13 going on 14. The first song I ever wrote, I’m a Juvenile, was never recorded, but this one, the second, was recorded at a little “Make a Record! Only 25 Dollars!” place on Wilson Way in Stockton, California. The Eddie Lucchesi Trio played all the school dances, and I had met them when my ‘friends shoved me up on stage during a dance at my Junior high school. They were nice enough to learn 2 of my songs and back me up. One mic, one take, and my first crush (on an older, beautiful, neighbor) and my love of the then wildly popular Doo-Wop music, was committed to history. The Dion and the Belmonts influence is all over this….
Susan
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The Us
The first band I was ever in, The Jades, never recorded. Neither did the second band I joined, The Ratz…but the 3rd, The Us, managed to get an audition with Autumn Records (The Beau Brummels, We 5, Mojo Men) and were put in Coast Recorders in San Francisco to cut two sides. Produced by Sylvester (Sly Stone) Stewart and engineered by John Haeny, the single was never released because I refused to let the label add strings. I’m still 9 kinds of an idiot….
Just Me
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The Family Tree
Mike Durr, the guitarist from The Family Tree, recently sent me some digitized tracks from recordings we did in Los Angelos at Gold Star and RCA in 1966-67. These are two of the dozen or so songs he sent me. The first is a demo that has been partially restored by broadcaster, engineer, musician, Dave Bingham, who did a fantastic job on this almost 50 year old acetate, and the second is an unfinished recording of a song that would have been on our first RCA LP had I not written the Miss Butters album.
Find a Little Something
(It’s Not a) Good Day
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Roxy
I have posted this one before, but considering the world today, I thought it still carries weight. Recorded as a one-off single for Elektra Records and only released to college radio, it captures the feel and sound of ‘60s L.A perfectly for me.
We Gotta Stop the War
This one is the demo for a song that ended up on the Vanishing Point soundtrack. The finished version was recorded live at Paramount studios with some of Elvis Presley’s Vegas band and produced by Rockabilly legend Jimmy Bowen. This demo was recorded in a storage closet on a 4 track tape machine at Sunset Sound. Me, Rand Bishop, Jim DeCoq, and Little Richard’s touring drummer, Travis Fullerton. Trav had to reach over his hi-hat to hit the record button on the tape recorder….
Over Me
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The Wackers
This song has been recorded by 3 of my bands and April Wine. THIS is the first and best recording of it. Done at Andre Perry’s downtown studio in Montreal in the wee hours of the morning during the recording of the Hot Wacks LP. Live off the floor with the vocals doubled during the mixdown. It was supposed to be included on the Wack and Roll album, but the album was never released. We did press up 200 copies of the full album on CD for the Wacker’s reunion in 2011.
Teenage Love
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The Wackers 2.0
The Wackers kept going after Randy and Ernie left, with Kootch and I soldiering on with drummer Wayne Cullen, bassist Norm Vosko, and keyboard player Leon Holt. We did one single (for Polydor) and lots of gigs and some live radio concerts. These are two demos recorded toward a new album, but were shelved to make way for my next project, All the Young Dudes.
Oh How We Used to Dance
Wacker Drive
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All the Young Dudes
Only available as a bonus track on the “Gotta Have Pop” reissue on Bullseye Records, and the out of print “All the Young Dudes…All the Old Demos CD on Pacemaker. This song tells the true story of an affair that turned into a life-long friendship. The second track is from a series of sessions with Criteria Studios (in Florida and home of the Bee Gees for years as well as dozens of hit albums by other artists) stalwarts, the Albert Brothers. Done at Le Studio in Morin Heights, this song was recorded live off the floor with Brain’s guitar being augmented by some tape machine wizardry performed by the incredible Nick Blagona. The sessions were in preparation for our second CBS album. CBS took a pass.
Laurel Ann
Sweet Love
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Segarini
The end of AtYD found me commuting to Toronto to record what I hoped would be the start of a solo career with A&M records. The band, put together on the fly, had Gabor Hegedus on guitar and vocals (who changed his name to BB Gabor and had a fine, but tragically short career of his own), Kier Brownstone on bass (who later joined the Parachute Club), and long-time Segarini Band drummer, Mark Bronson. Joining us on Starlight was David Bendeth (now a very successful producer) on second guitar, and David Stone, keyboard player for Richie Blackmore’s Rainbow among other hired-gun gigs he did.
The songs were recorded on 8 track andwere basically tributes to the kind of songwriting the Beatles inspired me to pursue. The first, an homage to early Lennon/McCartney, the second, a melodic nod to Harrison, and the third, my idea of a Lennon song from the Beatles Revolver era.
I’m Not Your Fool
I Want You to Stay
Starlight
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Cats and Dogs
Written about my Mother’s funeral. You can find this on the Cats and Dogs This Life CD, which sported an absolutely fantastic cover by Paul Leask.
The Sound of Breaking Hearts
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The Segarini Band
Recorded 25 years after we broke up, for a charity Springsteen CD that was never released. Our little cover of a classic tune from The Boss recorded by the original band, Mike St. Denis, Peter Kashur, Phil Anger, Drew Winters, and Mark Bronson, with a couple of additional players, Laurie Ingles and Todd Miller and the Segarettes…Jade Dunlop, Annette Shaffer, and Yvonne Way on backup vocals.
10th Avenue Freeze Out
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A Few Oddities
A Different version of ‘Sweet Love’ called ‘All I Can Do’
As much as I love this songs Country Blues original version, I always heard it in my head as an R&B song. Steve Sherman (guitars, bass, and drums, and Paul Zurin (piano), and I decided to cut a version. With Suze Burmester, Karen Bell, and Drew Winters on background vocals. My vocal is just the work vocal and this is just a quick reference mix that Steve did after the session.
The Rick Gunn All Stars featuring David Henman
David Henman organized a fantastic band for a fundraiser for our much loved friend, Rick Gunn, and this is one of the songs they learned and asked me to sing. A lot of people contributed to this wonderful night of tribute to our ill friend, and we all prayed and wished for his continued success at beating his illness. Alas, it was not to be. Fondly remembered and very much missed, Rick shares the stage with us one last time.
Teenage Love
Just Me and a Guy Whose Name I Can’t Remember
Dave Bailey hooked me up with the folks at this little production studio on Mercer Street in Toronto back when I was looking to start recording again. I know the owner’s name was Jim, and everyone there were terrific to me and as people in general. One day the guy who played all the instruments and programmed the drums and I did this rough sketch of a new song. Try to imagine good 3 part country harmony in this, and try and ignore my faulty, flat, work vocal. I have always thought this would be a KILLER beer commercial….
‘Till the Angel Chooses
Some of the Segarini Band
Taking this BobChart full circle, my love of Doo-Wop has never waned. Back in 1980 during the recording of the Vox Populi album, the band was late to a session, so I sang all of these parts and when they got there, Drew added Piano, Phil, bass, and Mark, drums. This was the result.
Get it Back
…and finally…
The Lyrics to the Latest Song I’ve Written but Haven’t Recorded
Not just the latest, but one of the oldest, too. I wrote the opening verse and chorus back in 1971 at Wally Heider’s SF Studio when Randy, Kootch, and I, started working on what became The Wackers’ Shredder album. I didn’t come up with the rest of these lyrics and the music until just last year.
One more song I hope to record in the near future….
Like I have always said…there really isn’t a formula to writing songs…just a formula to write product.
Time Slip Away
One day you’re young
Next day you’re old
It just sort of sneaks up on ya
Like a low down common cold
Time slip away
Right through your fingers
A little faster every day
Time just slip away
Up in the morning
Laid down at night
Days blur together
All the darkness and the light
Time slip away
Right through your fingers
A little quicker every day
Time just melt away
Like a dream
Like a beautiful dream
A short lived promenade
Like a dream
Like a soon forgotten dream
A bittersweet parade
A full blown symphony
With a penny whistle lead
For you
For me
Time slip away
One day you’re young
Next day you’re old
It just kinda creeps up on ya
Like a low down common cold
Time slip away
Right through our fingers
Faster every day
Time
Just
Slip
A
Way….
bob segarini ©2013
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Doug Elliott’s The Rock 94.9 Pick of the Week returns next week.
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Segarini’s regular column appears here every Friday whenever he can finish one in time. Contact us at dbawis@rogers.com
Bob “The Iceman” Segarini was in the bands The Family Tree, Roxy, The Wackers, The Dudes, and The Segarini Band and nominated for a Juno for production in 1978. He also hosted “Late Great Movies” on CITY TV, was a producer of Much Music, and an on-air personality on CHUM FM, Q107, SIRIUS Sat/Rad’s Iceberg 95, (now 85), and now publishes, edits, and writes for DBAWIS, and continues to write music, make music, and record.
Segarini: Don't Believe a Word I Say 
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