Love Rules

October 11th, 2008 Posted in Music

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I love the band Steely Dan. Growing up in the 80’s I listened to a lot of FM Radio and these guys were the Kings of Great Radio songs.

The songs were jazzy and hip and always had the best arrangements and absolutely the best musicians around on every album.

My good friend Clint Strong showed me this George Benson tune “Sunny” that had this great chord progression that was so smooth.

It reminded me of Steely Dan and just stuck in my head for days. It was so bad I had to finally sit down at my piano and work out a melody.

I played through the chords a couple of times and the chorus just came to me out of nowhere “Whatever they say to you, the opposite is true”

That phrase I have to attribute to another great friend and mentor the always brilliant Dr. Blase Harris M.D. Blase pointed out to me once “did you ever notice that whatever someone says to you, often the opposite is true?” I thought about it and the more i thought about it, it just sunk in and the more I noticed it was true.

For example you go on a date with someone and they say. “Well you know, I am not really the jealous type”? or “I don’t really drink that much”

You better watch out!

Or look at politicians; Donald Rumsfeld, “This war is not about oil”

George Bush Sr, “Read my lips no new taxes”

Bill Clinton, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman”

And the list goes on and on.

Once I had the chorus it was just a matter of laying it down and filling in the cracks “the verses” I wanted to push myself vocally on this track as well.

Another good friend of mine Chris Sacco from the band Dune TX had given me a copy of the Beach Boys “Pet Sounds” I had been listening to it in my car constantly.

All of the back ground vocals on this track where influenced by the amazing vocal arrangements on that album and I was proud of what I came up with and how 3 of my closest friends, whether they knew it or not were collaborators on this track. Inspiration is the best spark for me when it comes to writing and I love hanging around inspiring people.

I am excited about a recent development that happened with “Love Rules”. My drummer John Carruth brought this real cool cat named “Damascus” to rehearsal a few days ago.

He is a poet and and MC from Dallas and he has an amazing way with words that wakes people up and makes them think. He wrote some verse to accompany this track and I am going to release it as a “remix” very shortly so stay tuned.

Of all the emotions in the world, i believe “Love Rules” so the message of this song is quite clear and straight to the point.

Love Rules,
Eric