Stevie Ray Vaughan once said in an interview that all he wanted in life was to play someplace where “they didn’t have to move the salad bar so the band could set up.” I was once vexed similarly, which is what this song is about. For him it was salad bars, for me it was 18 flatscreen t.v.’s in a pub. It’s hard to perform original music. It’s even harder when the people for whom you are performing are surrounded by flickering televisions. I’d have rather had them boo or throw tomatoes – at least they would acknowledge that a living person is trying to communicate. I wrote the song to remind me that the process of writing songs and performing them, the mixing in the kitchen, the big idea, is sometimes the only reward I’ve got coming. Such is life.
Say Something Good – When this one came about, I had just had a 1 1/2 year relationship fall apart. I was driving in my neighborhood and saw my recent ex liplocked with another man. Ouch! So soon? Or maybe it had BEEN going on? Either way, immediately after that I went on a two week tour of Canada with a Chicago blues band called Mississippi Heat. I was to record an album with them and Pierre Lacoque (the band leader) offered me the opportunity to write a song for it. I wrote Say Something Good in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and liked it enough that it’s on our album as well (though a slightly different version). It speaks to what everyone has to do to recover from a broken heart. You have to get back on the horse. And to do that, you better say something good to somebody 😉
On My Way – We have never played this song live. In fact, we’ve performed it exactly twice – rehearsal and recording. I don’t know why we put it on the album, nobody in the band has any interest in the song, including me. Weird.
Mexico City Blues – Wow. We’ve never performed this either. I wrote and put a bunch of acoustic songs on Soul Solution that we never do because they don’t really mesh well with our stage show at the moment. Anyway, I have nothing more to say about that track that isn’t already in the song, other than that it is a true story. Plaza by the fountain – I only wish I could remember the name of the place.
Love Bomb – Writing this for “track x track” is revealing something to me – I wrote a lot of stuff for this album while I was supposed to be concentrating on other things. I was playing a gig at Christmas time at O’hare airport (why? gotta pay the man, baby). I came up with the riff and the lyrics in between airport background music numbers. The people walking by my hunched and humiliated form on the way to baggage claim may not have known it, but the rock’n’roll was very much still alive inside me!
Suffering Fools – Another one I that was born during my stint when as a reluctant guitar teacher! I was teaching a student about triads and came up with this progression to illustrate the different inversions. And so, Suffering Fools was born.
Depression Suite – Well, I was depressed. And wrote about it, mostly because it was something else to do other than being depressed. I wanted to put it on the album, I guess, as a commemoration of something I overcame. It’s a beautiful song, and Marty Sammon plays the perfect solo for this track on Rhodes. In terms of the writing process, I know there was a lot of scotch involved.
Soul Solution – This is a song that I think some people misinterpret. It’s a song about lust, true. But it’s a song about lust for your significant other, spouse, whatever – monogamous lust. It sounds made up, but it does exist. Soul solution for your sex revolution…
Rain Keep Falling – When I came up with the riff, I I knew it would be a live staple and it has certainly been one. Again, killer horn lines from Johnny and straight up power from Rick and Joewaun. I think it works because it’s kinda a blues song, but not a blues/rock song. And it just motors onstage.
Another Patch of Ground – This song came out of our set at Wakarusa, way back in 2006. We played at 4:20 am, did our set and then had to get up and move on to another patch of ground. The only people still awake when we were pulling out of the site at dawn were the people who had made it through the party and were looking for more – and we were all feeling pretty empty. But I got the feeling that whatever they were searching for, they’d never find it. I, at the time, I wasn’t sure I would either. Not a fun place to be, but got a song out of it.
Waiting For A Change – I like this one. We don’t do it live at the moment because it doesn’t really work without a keyboard player, which we lack at the moment. But keep an eye out for it!
Walls – I’ve spent hours trying to sculpt songs, melodies, lyrics – only to toss them away. This song is one of the best I think I’ve ever done, and I wrote it in the shower (without even a guitar in my hands) in minutes. Go figure. There’s not much to it, but there doesn’t need to be.
You can purchase Soul Solution through the band’s online store or via Amazon.com. Lubriphonic returns to the stage tomorrow night for the WAKA Winter Classic at the Kinetic Playground in Chicago.
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