David Lowery's 300 songs Blog

#60 I’m So Glad She Ain’t Never Coming Back- How an unfinished jam became a song. Other unfinished unreleased outtakes. 

The Cracker Demi Song Vault.

So continuing where I left off with post 59.

I had a few more thoughts on the demi-songs that populated the early CVB records. I said after we went to virgin most of these went away. Part of this was a function of being on a major label instead of on our own imprint. But not in the way you imagine. Typical major label contracts pay you songwriting royalties on only 10 songs no matter how many you put on the record. (it gets pro-rated). So we were much less inclined to put a…

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#59 Stairway to Heavan (sic)- In Praise of Half Baked Ideas and Unfinished things. The importance of not being earnest. 

“C amper Van Beethoven” II and III. I think the C fell off the paste up board and was incorrectly lined up again. Camper Van Beethoven placed the Star of David on the album for no other reason than to confuse people. The symbol has such heavy meaning while this record was purposely devoid of any coherent meaning, messages or interpretation. On Subsequent pressings the star was removed after we were hammered by Rough Trade about the symbol. They were worried that the obliqueness of our songs and the

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#58 big dirty yellow outtakes. Richmond Oregon Hill addendum. 

A final addendum on the Cracker Big Dirty Yellow period in Oregon Hill. nov 1989 – feb 1993.

We named our house and the demo tape of 20 songs we delivered to virgin Big Dirty Yellow.

There were a few good out takes from that period that never made it onto later records. Yes some were on the fan club CD “Bob’s Car” but that was a limited edition CD. Here they are:

02 China (Demo)

Mary my girlfriend and then wife, originally lived near the corner of china and pine street. That’s the “china” i’m singing…

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#57 Can I Take My Gun Up To Heaven. Hollywood Cemetery. Richmond And Oregon Hill Part 3 


Church Hill is on the opposite side of downtown from The Fan and Oregon Hill. But firmly on the East West Axis. Indeed this is the original city center. The city shifted first west than stretched north and south. Leaving the old city center Church Hill isolated from the main life of the City.


08 Can I Take My Gun To Heaven_

Although Oregon Hill is now considered a neighborhood of Richmond it wasn’t always that way. It had a distinct identity separate from the city. When established during the…

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#56 Kerosene Hat-Cracker. Richmond and Oregon Hill Continued. 

 

In #47 part 2 I mentioned the move Johnny Hickman and I made from California to Richmond Va. The 64 plymouth threw a rod in Arkansas stranding us in the middle of rice paddies in the middle of the night. That’s where i’m gonna pick up.

We were being eaten alive by mosquitos in the rice paddies while we were waiting for a tow. Johnny started smashing the mosquitos with a magazine on the headboard of the car. Finally aftter 2 hours a tow trucke arrived and took us to a local Uhaul facility. We had to…

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#55 James River- Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven. Richmond Virginia. 

 

The James River in Downtown Richmond.

The James River is the major waterway through the center part of the state of Virginia. The river is quite deep until it hits the “fall line” at Richmond. Indeed this is why Richmond was built at this spot. It is the farthest you navigate up the James in an ocean going vessel. After that there are a series of falls and rapids. In the early 1800′s the James River and Kanawha Canal was built to bypass these rapids and bring trade from the mountains of Western…

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# 52 Yalla Yalla Yall. Gallows Humor Addendum. Cracker Live in Iraq. 


Frank Funaro (drummer Cracker and CVB) reminded me of some of the excellent Gallows Humour while we were in Iraq. Here is Frank’s comment:

Oh, and lest we forget… When we were riding around in Iraq in armored vehicles, we all had headsets and microphones on so we could hear each other above the ungodly din these vehicles produce. The 82nd Airborne guys that were in the vehicle that David, Greg and myself were in would pepper us with questions about the band and touring, and music, etc, constantly

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#48 Friends – 3 Guys Walk Into A Bar In Canoga Park. Why being backstage at a low grade music festival is like being in Iraq. 

Patterson Hood, Johnny Hickman and I Perform Friends.

alternate link

In february of 1998 Cracker was mixing our Gentleman’s Blues album. Don Smith our producer engineer had just acquired a mini estate in Agoura Hills CA. It had a smallish mansion and enough land that it cost a small fortune to water and landscape. It also had some kind of combo 6 car garage guest house at the bottom of the driveway. Don had set up a studio in the garage/guest house so he didn’t have to drive all the way to hollywood to…

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#41 Sidi Ifni -Cracker. Paul Bowles, Moroccan Space Rock and Old English Queens. 

Hotel Suerte Loca in Sidi Ifni

08 Sidi Ifni



So the last i left off the band had broken up in Sweden and we had made our way back to the UK to fly home.

I however had always planned to stay behind in England. My girlfriend Mary (later my first wife) had planned to meet up with me in the UK and then we were gonna spend a little time time traveling around europe. But i had two weeks to kill till she got there. the first thing i did was go and visit my cousin John in london. We methodically explored quite a…

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