The Embryo Files: 1978 - 1979

Some time, at around age 11, my aunt Karen (father's side of the family), gives me a Vee-Jay single - Please, Please Me on side A, From Me to You on the flip, by The Beatles, and that changed everything, from then on it became my mission to make music.

I'm between 13 to 15 when I get my first guitar, a Washburn, this too comes from Karen, with a little nudging from her mother, Delores (I believe it was to be sold at a yard sale). And at age 16 I write my first song.

In High School, I join my brother's band, and full of zeal I just took over, and give the band a name.

Embryo

I even design unique lettering and create a logo for T-shirts and drum. The line-up was me on vocals and rhythm guitar, Troy D on lead and backing vox, Mike F on Bass, and Bob J on drums. The first time we played to an audience, was at a Junior High School graduation concert in '79. I was 18

So that was my journey, and here are the first songs I wrote, that survived. They're not amazing, and the recordings are weak, but they're where it all began



And if I Should Be Alone

Written in 1978

The first song I wrote was a simplistic Beatlesque little ditty that is catchy and naïve. It would be nice to have a time machine, to go back and see the process, I have no memory of what finally gave me the push to go from doing covers to creating originals, but I do remember my parents humming the tune around the house, and the surprise when they discovered their son had penned the thing.

Lyrics

And if I should be alone, all I have to do is pick up the phone

Cause I know, you'll be there

Who am I without you, I can't make it until we are two

Cause you know, I need you

Our love is right

I need you every night

Do you need me

Or is this too good to let it be



Kelly's Song

Written in 1978

I believe this was my second attempt at a song, and despite the simplicity musically, and lyrically, an improvement. It took me a while to finish it, the last verse was written a year later. I'm tapping into my real life, writing about a real person rather than an abstraction... though it's a fictionalized reality, written by a dumb, naive kid with an infatuation (I didn't really even know her. Looking at a school yearbook, I see she was involved with sports, I wasn't aware of that back then. Heck, I didn't even spell her name correctly, it was Kellie). But the thing I liked about her was that she was kind, she'd talk to you like you were a human being. I was a nerd, a sensitive artist type, and not one of the cool kids, but unlike others, she didn't treat me like I was gum on the bottom of her shoe, she talked to me like I had value, and that's what made her beautiful, that's why I wrote a song dedicated to her.

This was played during that graduation show, the first original to be heard by a large audience.

Lyrics

I watch you from a distance, with love in my heart

And knowing someone else has you, it's tearing me apart

But acting like a fool won't bring you closer me

Guess I'll always be too blind to see

Too shy to say hello, and I'm too shy to speak of love

So I guess I'll always be, the fool, falling flat on my back

Is it love that I feel, is it love that is real

When I see you again, I know that I'm sure

That I want you now like I wanted you then

And you know, that my feeling are quite pure

And I dream of you, from time to time

And I write you songs that strain to rhyme

And though my love is strong and true

It's never been revealed to you



If We Try

Written in 1979

Another I found it buried in an old cassette, I still have the original paper, handwritten lyrics with tabs, the title was "Song of a Steril Vision", lord my pretensions. This one I have a vague recollection of, and it's another with pleasant hooks, standard chord arrangements, and cornball lyrics, but I can see I'm trying to push myself there (though I became a better wordsmith, I never shed the melodrama).

Lyrics

No, I haven't seen it all, and I don't claim control

Over things that I don't know

But I can see your passion, in every fashion

And I believe in me and you

So don't deny it, and don't crucify it.

Cause you can believe my feelings are real

Don't say it can't work, don't turn on the red alert

All you need do is give it a chance

Now I don't deny, I'm not the perfect guy

But love can grow if we try

So don't leave me in the cold, don't let this love fold

What you need is someone dear to hold



All I know

Written in 1979

A love song that touches on my naivety, and that I was a quiet person, who kept to himself (though sometimes I make it sound like I'm from outer space... "Feelings hard to understand"? but maybe that is how teenagers feel. There's also the comedic melodrama -the line about leaving the womb). 

This, and the first two tracks I recorded simply, as acoustic numbers in late June, and early July 2022, I'm in my 60s and my voice is weakening, but I tried to get it in shape enough for these, my first recordings in over 6 years. 

Lyrics

I used to stay away, closed up in my room

Found it hard enough, separating from the womb

I tried to find meaning in songs, their stories held so true

But I never really understood until I opened my life to you

I used to be alone, and I thought I liked my style

But I realized I was wrong when I saw your smile

It's funny but I never found love before

The insecurities always left me a bit unsure

Now all I know is loving you

All I believe in is a love that is true

All I need is your tender touch

And the memories that I cherish so much

These feelings are strange to me and hard to understand

You helped me to cope, you let me hold your hand

At times I find it hard to express when words get in my way

So I'll leave it for you to comprehend when I say

Chorus



Babylon

Written 1979, final version done in 1999

Should I include this among the songs written in this time frame? I worked on this for years but never could get it where I wanted it. I had the chorus rolling around in my head, but didn't know what to do with it, until I met a really chatty girl, who could just talk and talk forever, so that became this comedy, played for laughs... and it did receive those when I'd play it, so I guess it did the job. Is it mean? Maybe but the intention was playful. Recorded at a studio in Yakima on October 26, 2000

Lyrics

Wouldn't you know it, yeah I should have been aware

But her eyes caught me off guard

Oh, and then there was the color of her hair

As for conversation, more like a freight train

A one-sided monologue, her voice was the hammer

And the anvil, my brain

She babbled on and on and on and on

And I can't get a word in...

On and on and on and on

And I can't get a word in edgewise.

Can you hear it, like a band saw

Or the crunch, crunch, crunch of a locust horde

Didn't see it coming, no I was knocked comatose

By the flash of her smile

But soon I was cast adrift, a man overboard

Chorus

Don't get me wrong, I like a woman with a mind

No, I don't mind a little light chatter

But her tongue is like a sword and it's my head on the platter

Chorus

Don't get me wrong...

Surviving Songs from 1978 to 1985
1978: And If I Should Be Alone, Kelly's Song 
1979: If We Try, All I Know, Babylon 

1980: Rain, Dear Joan, Lifeblood, The Night This Town Died, The Mutant Force, Carbon Copy Life, And You (on Grace), Sonja (on Wednesday's Child), One Dark Night (On Wednesday Again), Atomic Man, and Bullet Sweet (not recorded)

1981: Modern Girl, My Heart Goes Out, Julie 

1982: Wendy (on Wednesday's Child), Our Love 
1983: The Window (On Wednesday Again), Whisper Goodbye (crap)

1984: Angel 

1985: The Marry Me Song, I Only Want to Be with You