I was sitting in my work room in New Orleans around 1998 and wondering what to write. I just played in Austin and moved recently from there back to New Orleans for some much needed regrouping. I was really in need of somekind of funk dance anthem at the time and was indeed onto an idea when suddenly I remembered a rather difficult exsperience I had with a sound man at one of my dates in New Orleans at the time. This sound guy for some reason had it out for Steel drums, steel drummers and just about anything or anybody that produced sound. I played and played during a sound check and could not hear anything in my monitor. I asked the guy who's name will be kept silent to protect the innocent "Is the Pan in MIX!!???" and he kept saying....NO!!! So I was like wait a minute everything is plugged in and I don't understand what the .....is going on. The unruly sound man who later became a good freind told me he wasn't hearing a thing and chatted to some friends without even as so much noticing what I was doing on stage. Sometimes being on stage in a position like that can do one of two things to a person; make one go peaceful and try to be a bit psyschoanylitical to a person or walk up and get real ghetto on a cat instead after rectifying the situation, I decided to go home and write this song to say basically that it is hard to do things differently many people seem to not want that to happen only because many do not want new things to happen on their "watch" at least that is what I felt at the time but you just have to wipe to the dust from your shoes and keep on truckin' as my father used to tell me as a child.
Sound wise the song was inspired by some of the greats of music that i heard constantly through my my life. James Brown, Little Richard to name several. I was most moved at the time to be able to actually exspress myself finally on my instrument and play the songs that I have always loved in another voice. That voice is of course is my own. I am so glad that I have no words for all of this. There are so many times in my life that make me realize that I was born to do this. I think part of it was being born in a time where music was king and the makers of music where like super men and woman. For example in my neighbohood in Milwaukee as a child the guys who were supermen were Quincy Jones, Muhammad Ali and Kareem Abdul Jabbar and of course Michael Jackson. These were the people that shaped not only musical sounds and the sounds of my life but also, a certain "never give up" kind of attitude. This is a hard business and even though I have had some absolutely brilliant times and great chances and chance encounters, one can say that I have not made the "big time". I keep striving and inviting my friends in on this love and asking for thier support in this endeavor and am lucky because many of my new freinds and fans must see something in my continued strivance because the support does continue. Feel free to download this song and comment it is one of my favorites due to the emergency of need with respect to writing it and what went into doing it. The instrumentation is just four instrumets which was my band at the time. It consists of Drums, Bass, Steel Drums/Vocals and Percussion. Keep buying it, keep in touch and keep the love warm and strong!
Peace
Greg
