RICK: GREEN
BILL: YELLOW

His Last Words:
A poem I wrote about the death of my dad that my sons. my brother Mike and I spoke over some weird piano and FX.
I played the piano totally separately from the rest of the track and when I laid it in, it fit perfectly, even ended at the end of the sound FX. Really synchronistic.

It's Always Something:
About a moment in my life that taught me how life is a balance, Yin Yang type thing. Just as Jessie's Girl finally started to catch fire in 1981, my dad died.
We put a lot of time into the loops and live drums, getting them just right, and it shows real well in the different sections of this song.

Religion Of The Heart:
A song about personal spiritual discipline, not about finding Christianity.
Used a sub bass part in choruses that makes the track sound extra healthy in that area.

Beautiful Prize:
A song about incest I wrote after a meeting with a victim. It's my take on it, with input from what I was hearing from the woman I spoke with.
Another wonderful lyric, great guitar work. I think after the song dies out, on the multi-track reels you'd be able to hear R.S. playing surf music. (possibly Outer Limits)

Karma:
My take on what the word means to me personally.
I like the whole record, but this is my favorite. Heavy drum compression (sometimes cymbal crashes sound like hi-hat splashes). First bar of bridge has real tape phasing. (We usually do real tape phasing somewhere on each record). The bass part was played by Lance, and glues the whole feel together for me.

Shock to My System:
One of the few straight love songs on the album.
Chorus loops really push these sections, especially the last chorus where it benefits from extra loops for even more lift. Backwards keyboard at the outro almost sounds the same if played forwards.

Free:
The next single (in Oct). A spiritual message from a boy (4 years old) in my neighborhood who drowned on a family trip in Tahoe. It's one of the 2 songs I've written that I felt actually came 'through' me from someplace else directly. The other being 'My Fathers Chair'. My favorite song on the album.
When I finished the song I new I had to get Richard Page to sing the "I'm Free" line. I've always loved his voice. It has a great spiritual quality to it.
It was great getting Richard Page to sing on it. Stan Bush's vocals are also cool coming in at bar 9 of the outro. Incredible lyric.

Prayer:
Clean up your own back yard. It was originally a 'save the world' type thing but I rewrote the words at the last minute. It's one of my favorite choruses on the album.
R.S. and I have worked on this song in various versions for quite a while, and have never gotten tired of it. Rick's bass player Lance played a great bass part on it.

White Room:
This one I re-wrote pretty drastically as it's the oldest song on the album. I wrote it with Jim Vallance in '93 I think.
Older song, but feels great! Jack White played some great ambient drums in the bridges and outro. (just 2 microphones, heavily compressed)

IN veRonicA's HEAD:
About a friend of mine who went thru a particularly hurtful divorce and who survived. The capital letters in the title spell out her real name (RIA)
We've also worked on this song in different versions for some time. It has great energy, and my daughter Alana plays it over and over.

Ordinary Girl: About my wife.
Great feel with all programmed drums and loops. Also used sub bass in choruses.

Act of Faith:
Bobby Brookes a friend of mine died on the helicopter that killed Stevie Ray Vaughn and this is a song to his widow Barbara that I sent her when it was written (about 4 years ago)
This is the second version of this song also. It has lots of great samples, and a great lyric.

Jessie's Girl:
The Japanese company wanted something for their version so I did this in the studio. It's live except for the overdubbed Dobro.



Tech Specs:
7 songs were done on 72 track analog (3 24trk machines locked to code) 4 songs were done on 48 track analog and Last Words was done on ADATs.
The record was recorded using mostly vintage Neve and SSL gear.
We mixed it on an 80 input SSL 8000. We mixed to half inch analog at 30 i.p.s. and DAT as a back up.