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about
My co-writer Bryan Kessler and I had been messing around with the chord changes on this one over a period of a year or two. It wasn't one of those that like a bolt of lightning comes full blown complete upon arrival, no it wasn't like that at all. Bryan even had it kicking around before I got involved. Every few months we'd get together and work on it - trying this direction and that chord - until we finally felt like we'd whittled the music into some kind of shape that felt right. It was in a C slack key tuning so your ordinary chord shapes on the guitar fretboard were no longer of any use. You had to create new chords by experimenting with new chord shapes. If it sounded good thats your new chord. Finally we felt like we had a decent chord structure and melody, and I brought it home to Kauai and sat on it for a while waiting for an indication of what it was going to say.
It didn't take long, as yet another parting of the ways was eminent for myself and a sigificant other. In better times she would say "I'm losing altitude" when tired at the end of a long day. I took note of that phrase for some reason and tucked it away for future possibilities. In the midst of realizing our ship was sinking I wrote the lyrics to her with the intention of saying lets try and focus on the good stuff we had, rather than all the negativity that, like a whirlpool, wants to suck us down into the dark pit of who knows what.
Mixmaster and friend Mike Shipley was on Kauai when I finished the lyrics. I played him a rough version of the song on my acoustic. His response was very positive, so much so that he suggested I go back to Oahu and record a demo of the tune with Bryan at Bryan's studio.
Mike had previously mixed both Shania Twain and Faith Hill's records and thought perhaps Faith might like this song for her next CD. With that in mind I flew over to Bryan's where we had a marathon recording session for like three days. I came back to Kauai exhausted as always after a long session with BK, but charged up with the demo that was going to make me my first million! Only thing was Shipley hated the demo. He thought the drums were not right. He said the guys in Nashville liked to use drum tracks and guitar licks right off the demos, and didn't feel like this recording was happening. There went my first million! Mike did play our demo over the phone for the head honcho in Faith's camp, and sure enough the guy didn't hear it for Faith at all.
Oh well, instead of lobster and caviar, its granola and rice cakes. But it could be worse I suppose. Fast forward about six years, and never losing faith - so to speak - in the song, I decided it was time to re-record the song for this CD.
I really enjoyed recording guitarist Kirk Smart on this track, especially the impromptu tag licks where he goes from Wes Montgomery style licks, to a tip of the hat to the Beatles song Lucy In The Sky, and back to Wes again. He gets incredible tone from his custom DeTemple Tele that recorded as easy as buttah.
lyrics
REMEMBER THE BEST
words - Allan Thomas
music - Bryan Kessler & Allan Thomas
CAN’T SAY I NEVER SAW IT COMING
ALL THE SIGNS POINTING DEAD AHEAD
WOULD’VE GONE THE WHOLE NINE YARDS
BUT I’M GETTING OFF HERE INSTEAD
BEFORE WE KNEW IT CAME UNGLUED
KEPT ON LOSING ALTITUDE
WE DID THE ONLY SANE THING
REMEMBER THE BEST FORGET THE REST
PEAS IN A POD
BIRDS OF A FEATHER
FOUND OURSELVES IN HEAVY WEATHER
COULDN’T LEAVE WELL ENOUGH ALONE
NOW IT CUTS DOWN TO THE BONE
BEFORE WE KNEW IT CAME UNGLUED
KEPT ON LOSING ALTITUDE
WE DID THE ONLY SANE THING
REMEMBER THE BEST FORGET THE REST
FADE TO THE LEFT WEAVE TO THE RIGHT
SWIM OR SINK BELOW
ROUND PEG SQUARE HOLE
BEFORE WE KNEW IT CAME UNGLUED
KEPT ON LOSING ALTITUDE
WE DID THE ONLY SANE THING
IT CAME UNDONE TIME TO CUT OUR LOSSES AND RUN
WE DID THE ONLY SANE THING
REMEMBER THE BEST FORGET THE REST
from Making Up For Lost Time,
track released October 10, 2007
Allan Thomas - vocals, rhythm guitar & percussion
Kirk Smart - lead guitar & lap steel
Anjela Rose - backing vocals
Jimmy Johnson - bass
Tris Imboden - drums
Aloha and welcome to my Bandcamp Music Store home page. Here you can listen to full-length samples of all seven Allan Thomas albums and three singles. Also to be found are credits, photos, stories and lyrics for all songs. Dig in...
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