New Vague Music

For other than personal use, contact tdis@newvague.com

The Door Into Summer is...I don't know what it is, but it certainly isn't easily categorized. Let's be a little realistic here, shall we? I started out as a rock'n'roll bass player, for Pete's sake.  Or, if you want to get really technical, I started out as a school band clarinet player who learned guitar by watching Laura Weber on channel 13 and switched to bass because there weren't many bass players in my area.

From then on, it’s a mish-mash.  The Monkees and the Michael Nesmith solos albums, Chicago, Mandrill, King Crimson, Brand X, Led Zeppelin, Parliament, Eno, Roxy Music, Phil Manzanera, Andy Mackay, Brian Ferry, The Runaways, Patsy Cline, Doug Kershaw, Lou Reed, David Bowie, John Cale, John Cage, Townes Van Zandt, Bach (J.S. and P.D.Q.), Allan Sherman, Homer & Jethro, Glen Campbell, Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt, The Alan Parsons Project, Klaus Schulze, Frank Zappa, Jefferson Airplane (and various projects by Grace, Paul, etc.), The Grateful Dead, Shel Silverstein, Mountain, Kinky Friedman, and a zillion others.

Pointless to list them all—there’s no discernible pattern.  Is there?  I don’t see one.  Certainly nothing to point to with an Aha!  That’s why this stuff sounds the way it does! 

Maybe that’s not how it works, anyway. Music is probably more personal, coming from somewhere inside, not necessarily shaped by externals.

The Door Into Summer is soundtrack music. That's the best description I have. Soundtracks for films that haven't been made, for books that haven't been read, background music for you and your cuddlebuns. Something to listen to when you don't want to pay attention to anything. Sleepmusic. Musical doodles. Just me, having fun.

Because if it's not fun, I'm not going to do it.

So what was I listening to all that time?  My “formative” years?  My “influences”?

Setting aside all the preteen stuff like How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?, a bunch of Royal Guardsmen Snoopy 45s, Tommy Roe, and so forth, getting to the “real” stuff once I hit Junior High…

The first album I bought was Steppenwolf’s Monster, recommended by Michael Scipione. Then probably Paranoid by Black Sabbath.

The Door Into Summer

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