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The Gift

from Deep Water by Allan Thomas

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about

'The Gift' - backstory:

In October of 1982 I stepped off the porch of my tiny cottage in Malibu, jumped into my '76 2002 Beemer and drove straight on up to northern Idaho. Thought I'd catch the colors of fall. But I wound up falling for Rhonda instead, and caught way more than I'd bargained for. Little did I know my life was about to make a full 180 degree turn. At times like this you gotta write a song.

Much of the chords, melody, title, and a handful of lyrics were already in the bag when I approached my friend and co-writer Randy Handley, to see if he would be interested in helping me finish the tune. Mr Handley added his priceless two-cents in a songwriting session or two, and 'The Gift You Are' was born. I recorded the song with Stephen Barncard producing, right after it was written, with my Santa Monica Bay Band cohorts providing the backing, including Bryan Kessler. ≈

Cause I couldn't leave well enough alone, six years later, in 1988, I rewrote the song, changing some lyrics, and adding a breakdown section with a few new chords. It was the first time I'd ever gone back and rewrote a song years after it's creation. Unbeknownst to me this rewrite wouldn't even be it's last. I was now living on Kauai and had no home studio at that time, so to get the newest version on tape I flew to Oahu and recorded a crackin' demo of it with Bryan Kessler producing and engineering. BK also played lead and second rhythm electric guitar, midi keyboards, sang backup vocals, and managed to come up with the drum groove as well. This recording of the song became 'The Gift' version 2, and was the blueprint for the final 'Deep Water' CD version.

Original songs are similar to some girlfriends I've known in a sense, in that they are there sprucing up you're life for a while, and at some point they are just gone, with nothing but the lingering scent of their perfume fixed in your memory. I had stopped performing 'The Gift' at least 18 years ago, choosing instead to perform newly written songs. But I always maintained a deep regard for the tune and it's earnest message, thinking that not only did it express my wildly exuberant and budding love for Rhonda, but maybe could also be a tune that dudes would wanna play for their girlfriends on Valentines day. While scouring the back walls of the AT song archives in 2009, I reacquainted myself with this half-forgotten gem and decided it would be fun to record it yet a third and final time.

≈ Barncard and I resurrected that first 1982 recording of 'The Gift You Are' as the opening track on the 2009 Allan Thomas CD 'Brooklyn Boy In Paradise' - best of unreleased songs from 1980-1994.


Recording 'The Gift' version 3:

We now find ourselves in the middle of 2010 - twenty eight years after the songs inception. And here I am attempting to bring 'The Gift' to life yet a third time: a first for me without a doubt. I had no idea what the track would end up sounding like in it's final form, and was only following some crazy notion that I just had to do it. So be it, I could always abort if the experiment turned ugly. Following pretty closely to the 1988 version of the tune, I tracked my parts in the usual way, creating drum loops first, then recording my Sadowsky Tele Standard electric guitar parts through the Carr Rambler amp. The amp was mic'd with the medium sized diaphragm Sanken CU-44X, and I used the larger diaphragm Neumann U87 as a room mic, five or so feet back from the amp. Post guitar I recorded my lead vocals and some other fun octave parts and doubles for seasoning later.

Next in line had to be mi amigo and electric guitar groove-meister Bryan Kessler, who had played some tasty licks on the second incarnation of the song in '88, and goes back down the music trail with me to 1972! At the recording session here at BB Studios we basically used the same guitar and amp set up as I used for my rhythm guitar parts but reached for a totally different sound with the pickup and tone settings we chose for both guitar and amp. We went at it in our usual fashion, rolling the tape all the way through with Bryan recording as many takes as he and I felt necessary, only this time when it came to the solo I asked Bryan for a special favor: to PLEASE duplicate that 1988 demo solo, that I could not live without it on this track. He did hem and haw, and took a shot at some new solo's just for insurance, but faithfully reproduced that solo for me almost note for note. Normally I would never would have asked any musician to copy a previously recorded version of a solo, but this had to be the one exception. I had lived with this combination of notes and changes already for over twenty years and was not ready to abandon them now. The next day, before BK left for his flight home we recorded some backing vocals on the tag, singing the same parts we had created 20 years earlier. As always I had a blast editing Bryan's guitar and vocal parts into comp tracks, and after a few days of this, the song sounded ready for our recording counterpart for three of my four previous albums: keyboardist Michael Ruff.

I'll make it brief, there is only one Michael Ruff, and I'm glad he lives close by. It helps that he digs my music too. His soulful keyboard contributions to my songs have always been huge, taking a major role in the shaping of the arrangement, and bringing out nuances and subtleties in the fabric of the tune that were only hinted at before. When tracking with Mike, these bursts of brilliance arrive with such spontaneous exploratory exuberance that one has to stand back and just watch it happen, oh yeah, and make sure you've pressed record. This session was no different. Mike chose to play piano and organ, and it didn't hurt that we had performed this tune at our duo and trio gigs back when this song was still wet behind the ears. Later, back at Black Bamboo Studios, I sat there reviewing his magic tracks and marveling at all the cool parts he had left me with. It was my job - if you can call plucking the best Michael Ruff licks out of a recorded performance a job - was to boil his tracks down to one final piano, and one final organ comp, and I went at it with glee. As I emerged from the editing bay a day or two later 'The Gift' was sounding like my gamble at yet another version had paid off, and beginning to look more like the present is was.

It just works out in my wacky world of recording that bass comes next, after Mike, Bryan and I have set the course for the direction of the tune. Others may find this abhorrent, and have to have that bass track first or at least second, but whatever works. And what worked in this case was for me to fly to Maui to assist in recording storied bassist, James "Hutch" Hutchinson. A legend in the world of pop, rock and what-have-you music, Hutch has played bass on countless great records for a dizzying array of seminal artists including Randy Newman, BB King, Brian Wilson, Elton John, CSNY, Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis just to name a few! In other words 'The Gift' would be in good hands. But what the heck was Hutch doing recording with a scrub like me?? Well it turns out we had become friends on my Maui "tour" in 2008. He'd said if I ever needed his services not to hesitate to give him a call. I had just given him that call and as the outsized good luck of this record had it he was on a break from his Bonnie Raitt Band gig, and was spending time with his sweetie nestled in the upcountry environs of Maui's north shore. We recorded his parts down at Dave Russell's Paia Town Studios not far from one of the world's most consistent windsurfing spots. Now I was back in the fun zone letting Dave do his engineering thing while I worked on the tune and changes with Hutch. He was a natural for this song, and went at it with a great attitude and heaps of enthusiasm. After a few and a half takes we were ready to move on and record his bass on 'Fall In Love Too Easy' and 'Everything Happens For A Reason'.

Now the tune seemed to be approaching that Van Morrison R&B zone where maybe a horn section was required, and I knew just who to call. The gifted San Francisco sax man Sylvain Carton had already left his indelible tenor sax on 'It All Comes Down To Love', and being that he was Steve Barncard's roommate at the House Of Cubes home recording studio, made it that much easier to give him the call. Once again using Barncards custom program Mixstream, I was able to listen to Steve and Sylvain record there in San Francisco, whilst I sat at home taking it all in right in front of my own studio monitors. After a take I'd make comments and suggestions about the parts via iChat or cell phone, and after an hour or so we had sweetened the track and now 'The Gift' was ready for the bow.

Rick Shlosser had done a phenomenal job playing drums on my 1989 record 'The Island', and had already laid down some smoking tracks on this record's 'The Downturn'. When I called him for more work on the 'Deep Water' record he had just gotten off the road with Van Morrison, was living in Mexico, but had access to a recording studio down there, or in LA. He too has played and recorded with numerous great artists including Rod Stewart, James Taylor, Dusty Springfield, Little Feat and the list goes on, and on… We made arrangements for Rick to record his tracks in LA, and Rick turned in a sweet solid performance that absolutely fits this track like a glove, and makes it readily apparent why so many discerning artists would turn to the man for the backbone of their records.


Co-writer Randy Handley, is a dynamic pianist, bad-ass singer, and successful songwriter. He currently resides in Nashville, and has had his songs covered by Diana Ross, John Denver, Garth Brooks and John Mellencamp to name but a few.

lyrics

The Gift v3

words & music
Allan Thomas & Randy Handley

Traveled the round world sailed the sea
Looking for who knows what
Lived like a king been knocked to my knees
Watched the doors open and shut
Played the game like a natural fool
But I won when I found you

Darlin' darlin' I love you
Like a blue-hearted melody
You're love is a revelation continually
What a gift you are Sometimes I really see
What a gift you are What a gift you are to me

Everyone's talkin' 'bout the end of the world
But my world's just begun
Started when you stormed into my life
About as subtle as a smoking gun
Must have looked too long in your voodoo eyes
Fell under your spell willingly

Darlin' darlin' I love you
Like a blue-hearted melody
This love is a celebration in every part of me
What a gift you are I had to find you eventually
What a gift you are What a gift you are to me

You're loving makes me humble
Sometimes I lose my nerve
I've got so much to tell you
In only three words only three words

Dendrin darling you haunt me with midnight reveries
You're love is relentless an all-time remedy
What a gift you are sometimes I really see
Just what a gift you are
I just keep discovering

Compelling imaginative shameless and free
You keep it up you gonna spoil me
Someone to hold to talk to baby
To kid and tease and kiss and squeeze all night
I know feel see it truly believe it this time
What a gift you are What a gift you are baby
What a gift you are to me


©2011 Black Bamboo Music - BMI
Randy Handley Music - BMI

credits

from Deep Water, track released October 18, 2011
The Gift - 5:29

Allan Thomas - vocals, electric rhythm guitar, percussion
Bryan Kessler - lead & rhythm electric guitar, backing vocals
Sylvain Carton - tenor sax
Michael Ruff - piano, organ
James "Hutch" Hutchinson - bass
Rick Shlosser - drums

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Allan Thomas Hanalei, Hawaii

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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