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So far Bandini55 has created 47 blog entries.

February 2024

ABBA, and why they matter

By |2024-05-11T06:30:21+00:00February 10th, 2024|Uncategorized|

Here’s a thing about ABBA.  I loved them when all the others my age were laughing.  In 1979, London, the NME and Melody Maker were setting the trend on what was in or out.  ABBA would have only been mentioned in either of these rags to be ridiculed.

Which brings me to one of the many things I admire so much about them.  They simply weren’t reading it!  Björn and Benny would go off to a remote cabin in Sweden and just write songs.  They were so oblivious, or mature you might say, to what was ‘hip’ that they just couldn’t be bothered.  They were trying to write hit songs.  Their legend has far surpassed that of The Jam, The Sex Pistols, U2 or anyone else those hipster magazines were frothing on about.  I knew it then and it remains true today-  very few of those trendy bands had any songs.

Another thing I admire about this band is how real they are when describing what they did and how they did it.  There’s no hyperbole.  No polished stories that hint a re-telling for the thousandth time.  Watch some of the documentaries out there about them.  You’ll be so pleasantly surprised.

To this day Agnetha has one of the most lovable, kind faces.  She has never tried to act younger than her age.  She’s grown older gracefully, and with nothing but class.

Yes, there’s a lot to be learned from ABBA.  They matter on all dynamics.  The music, the writing and production, the engineering of Michael B. Tretow.  The unwillingness to buy into the emperor’s new clothes of ‘lifestyle’ over plain old good songs.  Their elegance and aging with class.  Their pragmatism and lack of public drama.  Their undying success.

So, to ABBA.  They are in my top 5 of all time… and i’d say high in that top 5.

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Pop Gurlz & Boy Bands

By |2024-02-10T23:23:24+00:00February 1st, 2024|Uncategorized|

In the early 2000’s i wrote some songs that were a little out of my wheelhouse, but i’ve always been a huge pop lover.

The first, I Got A Woman is a song I wrote and produced for The Backstreet Boys.  They performed it at Henson Studios in Hollywood

but never included it on their record.  I have no idea why, except they were very sensitive about my instinctive leanings toward AJ as lead vocalist,

as he was so clearly the best singer in the band.

The 2nd track, My Time was written by me and Jason Wade, produced by me and mixed by Chris Lord Alge.  Performed by The Clique Gurlz, same story… the mothers got a little upset that I was pushing the lead vocals to Paris, the youngest girl and most obvious real singer in the group.

Bands are sensitive, and producing is a therapy job.  Being a musician who had to face a lot of news I didn’t necessarily love, I may have lacked the skills to sell them in the best way.  Ah well… all in a day’s work.  The songs are now vintage but still hold up pretty well!

Links below

Cheers,
Jude


 

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January 2024

Life Of Luxury

By |2024-01-18T23:14:45+00:00January 18th, 2024|Uncategorized|

Written in ’85 in my little apartment right below Runyan Canyon.  Struggling times.  Working as bartender from 4pm until 2am.  Getting home around 4am..this was my only real time to write…  So i’d go in the bathroom where the acoustics were pretty good with less chance of disturbing neighbors, then write and sing until I couldn’t hold me head up anymore.  Eventually, around 6am I would sleep… until 2pm, then start the day over again.

There was hope then.  And I hope people in their young 20’s feel that same hope I did.  I don’t think it’s as simple now, but I wish it for them.

Life Of Luxury

written: 1985

released 1987

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Pan Out – Pan Wide

By |2024-01-13T19:31:46+00:00January 11th, 2024|Uncategorized|

I don’t think we give our world rulers enough respect for being a formidable foe.  Not politicians. They’re worthless, bought and paid for shills… but the real rulers.

Clearly they excel in things we don’t.  Organizational skills, mathematics, physics, DNA, a work ethic and an ability to carry out an agenda generation after generation… in fact all ‘devil in the details’ elements of life, from lengthy contracts to the ingredients in a covid vaccine.  Most of us go about our lives and say things like ‘you know what they’re doing now?’.

We have a hard time accepting conspiracies, but no problem referring to them as “they”.

And, just as obvious as their computer-minded skills are their shortcomings.  For one, they lack empathy… which means they are foreign to the concept of true love.  They understand what it looks like, how gullible it can be, and even how to imitate it somewhat.  But they don’t feel it.  To their children they share a sense of responsibility to pass the torch.  To keep the flame of this magnificent chosen gene alive so that it may live to wreak havoc on the rest of us.

Why else would they lock us down for a ‘pandemic’ that was no greater than a common cold, banning churches, gyms, beaches, private business etc., whilst keeping liquor stores, Walmart & other big box enterprises (that they own) open?  If they were doing this to protect our health, what about processed food, artificial ingredients, lack of exercise, low-tone TV/movie programming, and keeping the porn sites up and running 24/7.  Is this someone who cares about you?

So we can agree that our enemy is dangerous, has a lot of smarts, and a lot of power. But there’s also the weakness of kryptonite too.

In the same way, we have power over many things.  For instance, we kill rats and mice with no consequence.  And why not, they’re a nuisance to our way of life!  But what if they could talk.  Do you think they’d consider us ‘evil’?

We put actual food in neck-snapping traps.  These little guys are always starving for a meal.  We know they can’t resist a quick & easy drive-thru.  So we put a little cheese or peanut butter in a trap to lure them in… then late, late at night when all is quiet… CRACK!

We set poison traps that taste like food so they can go back to their nests and contaminate the entire tribe.  Sound familiar?

And what about the chicken?  How many die a day so we can fry them up, slap a secret sauce on, stick ’em in between a sesame seed bun and eat it like a candy bar that just dropped down from a lifeless, sterile vending machine.

Cows… how many a day die for our need to have an In & Out Double-Double with cheese or a Big Mac with supersized everything?

Pigs, fish, ducks, hens, lamb, you name it… the list goes on and on.

How are we any different than our cultish leaders?

Ok, so we’re talking about humans.  So that’s different, right?  But how?
I mean, how do we determine that a guinea pig is a pet while a rat is a pest?  Because one is cuter?

I’m not a vegetarian.  I love meat.  But here’s what I’ve decided.

From now on I will say a prayer before each meal.  You can direct the prayer in any way you choose,  but it goes like this:

“I thank this fish (chicken, cow) for unknowingly and unwillingly sacrificing it’s life so that I may live another day.”

That’s it.  But it means we’re not mindless of sacrifice.  It means we have gratitude.  It separates us from those we resist.

Just this acknowledgment can go a long way in preparing us for what’s to come and preventing us from becoming one of them.

Secondly, acknowledge that Amazon, Google, Youtube, Spotify and the rest are their traps (man traps) filled with treats we like.  We cannot resist, but it will be the blueprint of our demise.

it’s the glass jar we jumped in.

So I’ll try to support local business, local farmers and such wherever and whenever I can.

 

Some of you will know what i’m talking about.  Some may roll your eyes or not have a clue.  Both are ok.  We are where we’re supposed to be until we’re somewhere else.

Peace,
Jude

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December 2023

50’s Holiday Revisited

By |2024-01-01T00:49:33+00:00December 29th, 2023|Uncategorized|

Another year, another holiday.  Bukowski pretty much summed it up.  It’s not that you’re depressed, it’s just… as a man who’s seen this revolving door 63 times now, you tend to get a little ho-hum about it.  What are we even celebrating, Santa?  Freedom?

Regardless, the music is both a blessing and a curse.  Every year I have these moments of inspiration from hearing Christmas music, and also a little dread.  This year I made a playlist for doo wop, and that was just the right fix.  It has the universality of the holidays, but it’s soulful.  If you listen closely to the actual background voices and realize they are often facilitating instruments that, from the street-corners of their inception were beyond a financial or social grasp to these young groups… it’s really quite something.  This music inspired The Beatles and so much more.

In 1978, on one of the first tours with Moon Martin to New York City, we were being driven from the airport to our hotel by a driver with a strong Brooklyn accent.  There was an old 50’s song on the radio, then another and another until I finally asked “what is this station?”.  He replied, “This?  Yeah man it’s a doo wop station!  The greatest, right?”

For me it was more than the greatest.  It was an out of body experience.  The music of The Dells, The Capris, The Flamingos… one after another playing with the skyline of Manhattan coming into view.  It was turning dusk, and the boys in the band wanted to go venture around… see a few things, maybe get a bite.

However, I opted to stay in my room overlooking old time fire escapes with the bedside radio on, playing doo wop.  I was frozen in time.  Not the present, but a time I felt I had been here before.  It’s one of the only feelings of this I’ve ever had, but a strong one.

And to this day, at certain times… like this year, it’s medicine.  I devoted an entire record to this era and genre called Coolerator which is on Spotify, Apple Music and the rest.  I tried my level best to use equipment from that time, perform and mix the record with the same sensibility.  It’s more of an homage than anything I really felt like promoting… but I have to say of all my records, it’s my most frequent listen.

This and my Spotify doo-wop playlist links below.  Merry Merry. Happy Happy 🙂

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Juliet Ivy – we’re all eating each other

By |2024-01-01T00:48:47+00:00December 11th, 2023|Uncategorized|

If you’re a songwriter, you’re probably like me, i.e., when you hear a song so good, so fresh and nonconforming, you get this surge of energy/envy like you wish you were a part of it or had thought of it or whatever.

Not since Tame Impala’s “The Less I Know The Better” have I felt this kind of wow.  It makes me want to write.  At least that’s the last I can remember… in truth there are probably a few more.  In Tame Impala’s case it was really about a sound and production more than a lyric.

There’s something about this younger generation that speaks different, thinks different.  In some cases it’s appalling, but there are certain minds and voices out there who bring something new and creative to the table.  Juliet Ivy seems to be one.

This song says something I’ve thought in a hundred different ways, only she succinctly puts it into a couple of verses and a chorus.  We’re all here.  We all have different beliefs.  But in truth, none of us actually KNOW why or how or where.  Faith is a really good thing… but sometimes being realistic about what is before our eyes and ears is too.  It keeps us from the delusion that we’re somehow chosen above billions of others.

Cheers to a new young artist.  May she have loads of success without ever being owned.

Jude

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November 2023

Goodbye, Hello

By |2023-11-12T21:33:07+00:00November 12th, 2023|Uncategorized|

 

My posting on social media’s days are numbered.  I had to deactivate my FB page since being hacked … yet again … this time thanking all for being ‘fans’ … which sounds so like me!  What’s next, me proclaiming ‘I’m from the government and i’m here to help’?

This is my internet space, and I will post songs, photos and what’s on my mind here.  If no one reads it in this lifetime, perhaps one day someone will see there was a guy who received no Grammy, no AMA, no awards whatsoever save a few BMI airplay achievement medallions and certificates, but was an artist true to his form, no matter the audience.

So many proclamations I read about what it takes to be a ‘real artist’.  John Mellencamp said you have to do it, you have to tour, because it’s in your blood if you’re a real artist.  This may be true, but I see little correlation between being an artist and touring.  In fact, to me they’re almost polar opposites.

Writing, rewriting, demoing, recording, producing, mixing… these are an art form of their own.  It starts from nothing.  Eventually you end up with something that is your signature sound,  lyrics that reflect your life experience.  Well, if you’re not just hacking the latest radio or Spotify trend that is.

Many say it’s a gift from the universe that if you don’t snatch up, someone else will.  I always liked that description because for me, that’s the closest to how it feels.

Touring, in my opinion is in large part a carny act.  You have a lobby call, early.  You head to an interview or two, then it’s time to eat.  After lunch you have sound check.  Then you have an hour to go to your hotel room or bus and relax, hang out, shower and prepare for the show.  Once the show starts, typically speaking you do the exact same thing you did the night before.  Then it’s back to the room or bus and onto the next city.  It’s groundhog day.

This is not to say it doesn’t take some creativity to invent an entertaining live show.  I’ll tell you this, it certainly takes an athlete.  But once it’s created you do it night after night, week after week, month after month.  zzzzz 

Ok mr. devil’s advocate, I know there are a few performers who are free-form and wing it.  Jazz musicians have to play live to keep up their skill, their spontaneity, and I get that.  But with popular music that’s not the norm.  The norm is “HELLO CLEVELAND, I LOVE THIS CITY!” … followed by the next night’s “HELLO PITTSBURGH, I FUCKING LOVE THIS CITY!”

To me it’s brutal.  Living with, again typically speaking, 4 or 5 guys in a bus is not an intuitive way for a man to be. We’re not designed this way after the age of 25.  This is why so many bands stay together but don’t like or even speak to each other anymore.  In the case of The Who, for example… Roger and Pete exit the stage from different sides, get in their limos and see each other at the next show, onstage, never uttering a word to one another.  It’s been that way for many years.  Just not in our DNA to live in tight quarters with other men.  Women same.  Men/Women, yikes…

Lennon/McCartney knew it after a few short tours, and  in 1966, 2 years after going to the toppermost, they stopped.  They were like, wait, we could be writing new songs and instead we’re out here taking bows for the songs we already wrote… not what we want to do!  So they stopped.  And the world thanks them.

For li’l ol’ me… I did many other things to keep from touring.  I managed for 22 years,  produced some records, ran a small label for awhile, developed many new artists… and now I get to enjoy what I love most, songwriting and record making.  I hope you enjoy my new home and the songs, photos and videos I offer.  They are mine, based on a life lived and devoted to what I love… music.

-Jude

 

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