Sundays, Holidays, and Other Days

Jim Robertson (as Lone Squirrel)

Num	Title	Length
WINTER SIDE:
1.	Boomerang	7:57
2.	Warranty	4:55
3.	Periscope	6:25
4.	340 (Not 'Tricia)	3:13
5.	Glove Around the World	6:56
SUMMER SIDE:
6.	Underwear Sunday Morning (Hopeful A.M.)	1:52
7.	Third Summer	6:58
8.	Geneva Gown	3:01
9.	Bite the Wax Tadpole	5:02
10.	Linda Hibson (Where Are You?)	1:45
11.	Pearl / Tokyo Salsa (Parts I, II, and III)	11:48

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Album notes

All music and lyrics written, performed, recorded, and mixed by Jim Robertson in his living room, bedroom, spare room, and bathroom in the fall, winter, and summer of 1990-91 with Ibanez guitars, Travis Bean basses, Casio keyboards, Yamaha drum machines, Peavy and Gorilla amps, Realistic microphones, and Yamaha 4-tracks.

Thanks to Todd and Christina for help in arranging Warranty.

Discussion

Post-college Jim moved with Lisa to Philly for a year (August 1989 to August 1990) and then to Tallahassee for two years (August 1990 to August 1992). During that time, he started playing guitar again and writing new songs.

In fall 1990 Jim bought a 4-track cassette recorder -- a Yamaha MT-100. These songs were Jim's first primitive four track recordings -- written in "exile" while in Philly and (mostly) Tallahassee, and recorded and mixed in Tallahassee. Jim sent them a as cassette "album" back north to the boys.

Boomerang's chords were written when Jim was reading Eric Tamm's book Brian Eno: his music and the vertical color of sound (1989). The book commented on a song in the pattern of I, V7, vi, IV -- which Jim hadn't explored before.

Warrany was based on chords I sort of made up and was inspired by the words on an actual warranty card for something I bought.

Periscope may have been the first fictional song I ever wrote -- rather than a song about myself or "political" commentary. Instead, I put myself in the head of a child who constructs a periscope so he can peer over the fence at a neighboring girl. Rosko once said it reminded him of a Shel Silverstein story. The signature guitar line in this song would be quoted in a future song: during the fade-out of Vincristine (Oncovin) from the Songs and Shovels album.

340 was a "goodbye" song. I wrote it about the weekend before I moved from Philadelphia (and the northeast) to Tallahassee. It was closing a chapter and opening another. I think my last day of work at CHOP was on Friday. At 3:40, I got in my car to drive to Boston to visit my college friend Chris Rusin. I would be back on Sunday night, and Lisa and I would move to Tallahassee on Monday.

Glove Around the World is one of my first songs that I actually thought had some sophistication. Lyrically, it was about space debris -- in particular, the story about astronaut Ed White's glove that floated out of his Gemini capule in 1965.

Third Summer was another "goodbye" song. It was about my third summer with Lisa (1988, 1989, and 1990) and making the committment to move with her to Tallahassee for grad school. It's certainly a "dancier" song than most of mine from this era. The numbers in the chorus reference the street addresses we had lived at during the preceeding few years. Lars Marchese once told me this was one of his favorite songs of mine from this era -- and that he had a wonderful memory of driving up Park Ave with the Pan Am building in front of him whilst listening to this song.

Geneva Gown is another song of lyrical content that questions religion. Geneva Gowns are religious vestments, and Geneva was a town very near Ithaca, NY, where I went to college. There was also the Seneca Army Depot nearby, in front of which I participated in an anti-nuke/anti-war protest in 1988 or 1989. The production was fairly stripped down: electronic high-hat and unplugged close-mic'd electric guitar masqeuarading as an acoustic guitar.

Bite the Wax Tadpole was, of course, born from the story of Coca Cola in the Chinese market. I suppose I took that as a jumping-off point for the rest of the lyrics. I wrote the chords (some of them made-up by me) -- and recorded the song! - with the intent to write words for the "bridge" and "chorus" parts, but they remained without words with only the electric guitar line.

Linda Hibson is a bit tough to listend to -- decades later. It was inspired by the 1991 "reunion" commercial of original actors/singers from the Coke "Hilltop" 1971 commercial. I read an article that said that adverts were placed throughout Europoe seeking the original "faces" of the 1971 commercial -- Linda Hibson: Where Are You? Of course, I was also responding to the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989.

Pearl / Tokyo Salsa is an epic song -- the first of my "wagada" songs. The signature guitar riff was inspired by The Cure's The Blood -- and I wrote the songs in the bedroom of 2358 Hartsfield Way in Tallahassee, FL. The parking lot and moutain top was above Lake George, NY. The handclaps in Part II are on the 7th beat -- and timed to an the swaying robe of an imaginary gospel singer.

Mostly this collection of songs was about me learning how to use my 4-track recorder. Of them, Bite the Wax Tadpole saw some time in The Fords rehearsals, and Pearl saw lots of play from alt.sex.dentist. This is not an album I go back to listen to much, but here it is for posterity.

Jim Robertson

Assets

Sundays, Holidays, and Other Days

Jim Robertson (as Lone Squirrel)

Album notes

Discussion