Have you ever had something that you put off for a long, long, time until it was too late? That is what this song is all about. Working on this collection of songs, caused me to think about my musical taste and why I was so drawn to the genre’s I was drawn to. I have, as long as I can remember, been drawn to rock, blues or funk bands that had a decent brass section: Bands like Chicago, Blood Sweat and Tears, Tower of Power, and of course Lighthouse. This all came about because I wanted a cousin that I was very close to at one time, to be part of the band I was putting together.
I remember being at his house and he was playing records by Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass. In the beginning, he would work out a part and I would notate it. I was always good at music notation and writing out the arrangement. From there, I learned how to put brass arrangements together, read books, went to McEwan University’s music program for a year. But making sure my cousin had a place in my band, is where it all started.
The band broke up because we were pursuing other interests. I didn’t want to play live gigs anymore. I wanted to concentrate more on producing, writing, and studio work. My cousin got busy with getting his Commerce Degree and built a career in the telephone field, and start a family. We were so close once, and we weren’t upset with each other, we just went in different directions.
Even my own path took me in directions that I had not anticipated. I went back to my home town to work in my family business as an accountant, but even before that I took some night courses with a friend of mine on the various aspects of the printing field. I figured that these would be good skills to have; as a record producer I would be able to communicate my album art desires in the same language that they understood. I even got a job first as a sales person, selling printing services, then layout, camera work, preparing the plates, and then finally printing. The shop I started working in just received a brand new bigger press and a few weeks later the only other printer, left. Now I was the printer.
I had gone back to the family business twice with a two year break in between. That’s when I went back to the city and started a printing and promotion company. The second time in the family business I got heavily involved in computers and built some of the software that we were using. In the beginning, I was working really long days and most weekends just to keep up. With the software that I modified, I picked up a bunch of cheap computers and linked them all up using Lantastic and got the entry of the data at the point of sale (POS). Once I did that, I could get all my work done in a total of 10 days per month. I would start working five days before the end of the month and be done five days after the month. Then I would go on a three week vacation. After three months, my father informed me that they did not need me anymore. Which was fine by me because I was bored with the accounting side but really loved the programming side.
I went back to McEwan University but this time for their Micro Computer program. Three years after I graduated, I landed a job in California. This always was a dream of mine; to live here but I always thought that the music would get me here. But it was the technology. Unfortunately, this cousin and I never spoke or connected with each other again. There was no reason not to call and get together with him. It really hit me like a ton of bricks when my mother informed me that he had died. No one knew that he had cancer, and he died in hospice. There was no way to let him know how much I appreciated him. I don’t regret the road I took, but I miss him. I still love that style of music. I am sure you can hear that in many of my songs.