MUSIC (DEMOS)

WHEN YOU WALK BY

It was 2010, and I had finally slid my way into Peter Fagan’s world.

We worked together for a short time before he went to college, and he’d told me he’d played piano. Mostly Billy Joel stuff, and some dining room jazz like they do at Nordstrom’s or something of the like. When he was 9. Well, I never heard him play a note, but I knew he was a future musician-type. Poor guy. I did constantly ask him back then if he’d ever heard of, or was he related to Donald Fagen. His constant answer was no. I still don’t believe him. Peter came back from college and somehow knew every Steely Dan track by heart. That was around 2002, I think.

Fast forward to 2010 once more, and Peter and I began to noodle some songs in his dining room. Wood floors, a bay window, some stairs and a mock fireplace. Not traditionally conducive to great acoustics and sound quality, but the floor had a great SLAP to it. Peter loved to play barefoot, and would keep the beat with his foot. His heel would be the bass drum, and the flat part would SLAP the wood floor as the snare drum. I have recordings. I’ll post them. They’re sick.

Peter and I would learn songs together in hopes to get a Steely Dan tribute band going. I also forced him to play my original songs. We even learned BLAME IT ON THE ALCOHOL. That was after we started playing out at the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA. We found it amazing how boozed up people were getting at that bar. We never got a great reception there…quite the opposite, actually. The coked-up 20 year old women would walk up to us and ask if we could stop so they could turn on the radio. Right after we finished playing the WHOLE MEDLEY FROM SIDE 2 TO ABBEY ROAD. Whatever.

The best thing that came out of that gig was this song. Peter and I used to sit in our designated spot and play, all the while Angie was behind the bar, and the cocktail waitress would patrol the tables. There was this one woman who just took my breath away every time she made the rounds. I wrote this with her in mind, but also wanted to make it a well natured type of thing. Peter and I did the Vocals, Guitar, and Piano in his dining room and then I emailed it to my friend Frank Brockelhurst just for kicks. He was in England at the time, and the internet had just begun to make the world smaller. Frank and I played in a band or two around 1994. One was called Proon. The other called the Barking Spiders. Frank took the track I sent him and added standup bass and drums and sent it back to me. I was stoked! It’s pretty raw in some spots, and the instrumental bridge needs an enema, but I dig the vibe.