Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine the hermit: 80s rock star

In response to threads in a couple of different posts, particularly to the worst song ever thread that kind of turned into a discussion of Kurt Cobain for a while, I'm putting up a link to a demo from my own band, the Mumphries.

Bad Dream was written in 1988 and recorded in Albuquerque, NM in 1989, which means it predates the rise of Nirvana and the whole grunge thing by a couple of years. Once you hear it you'll understand why I felt an eerie kinship with Kurt Cobain the first time I saw Nirvana on Saturday Night Live.

The song itself was written in about 15 minutes after I woke up from one of those creepy paranoid nightmares that tend to stick with you until you get up and do something about it, in this case writing a song inspired by the nightmare. Yeah, that's me on vocals and guitar, along with John Henry on drums, Suzan Hagler on keyboards and the late Quincy Adams on bass.

Now if I can just get this link to work...

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/8978326/Bad%20Dream-original%20analog%20mix.mp3

Until a few days ago I didn't know you were a former musician as well...

Tried accessing your file but dropbox is blocked here at work

I should have internet at home with the next day or two though, I'll check it out then

Nice song and recording, Hermit. I don't hear Nirvana, though. It sounds like a cross between late '60s psychedelia and early '80s punk to me. (That's a compliment. )

I'll certainly take it as one. Late 60s psych is my "roots" music. I've always felt there was a link between the garage bands of the 60s and the punk bands of the late 70s/early 80s, in attitude if nothing else.

By the late 80s, though, punk had given way to something called "hard core" that just wasn't doing it for me. My main problem wasn't with the instrumental parts. Rather it was the deliberate attempt to abandon melody in favor of yelling and screaming that turned me off. At the same time I felt that mainstream rock (Fleetwood Mac, Journey, etc.) had lost the raw energy that was the essence of true rock music.

My idea was to try to make music that had strong melodic elements without sacrificing raw energy. I soon found out that, at least in the local Albuquerque music scene, there was no room for such a hybrid. The skins wanted their nihilistic punk to thrash to in the mosh pits, the coke heads wanted their mellow stuff to get stoned by and the metal heads wanted technically superior musicianship to play air guitar to; all three groups loved their own music and hated everything else with an equal passion.

I finally said the hell with it all, but at least we got some stuff recorded first.

It puts me in mind of some old Alice Cooper, a bit. That's also a compliment.