Mr. RobinsonThe Autumn War was a four-piece band I sang leads for back in college. Jon Reich on bass, John Blum on drums, Mike Pilato on guitar, self on vocals and occasional rhythm guitar (though, I used it more as a prop to hide behind). We played the bar scene in Chicago for a couple years of late nights and acres of second-hand smoke. If my memory serves me correct, the best venue we ever played was the Double Door. Lots of fun, lots of work, lots of fighting like cats and dogs.
We did a couple recording projects during those years. This tune, Mr. Robinson, was from the very first project we did. It’s a play off Simon & Garfunkel’s Mrs. Robinson (a vastly more popular song). Matt Gruett did the engineering in Studio B at Wheaton College.
This was always one of my favorite songs that we did.
On the other hand, this was the one recording we did that I was most embarrassed by (due to my own tracking mistakes). As a result, my joy was tainted when this track got some airplay on Wheaton College radio. And surely now I will require therapy since you’ve unearthed and exposed my errors on the interwebs. I’ll send you the bill.
Mr. Robinson was from your pre-PRS guitar days. Wait, did you play a PRS? I can’t remember. It was shiny, whatever it was.
Heh.. no PRS. That’s back when Mike was still playing the acoustic through the distortion pedal. 🙂
Ah, so my memory isn’t that bad. He DID get a PRS later on.
Actually this wasn’t the first recording project. The first one took place in my bedroom at 1039 College Birkenau, Ozymandius, and Recognize straight to cassette. This was the first CD though. Despite the primitive recording tools and young playing, there are actually some very unique colors and tones on this recording.
Do you have a recording of Birkenau?? I’d love to get my hands on that.