Heh! Your comments made me smile. That "excellent heady guitar work" on My Wildrose was made with my brother's cheapo electric guitar plugged directly into the mic input of a TEAC 3300 with the gain up full, pinning the meter the whole time. Actually, maybe the line output of that channel even fed the other mic input and doubled the damage. I don't remember now. It's funny how some seeds scattered to the winds 42 years ago have sprouted. Where did you get your copy?. Aside from the many that went privately to friends and other people who knew me, there were 10 at Tower Records in SF, and maybe some at a couple of Banana Records stores--I think they had one of their cube stores on El Camino in Palo Alto--and then there were a few copies at radio stations whose program managers had the kindness to accept them, and I believe I sent one to someone in England who had heard me sing Forever Green for her in 1975. Unlistenable as it may be for some who grew up in a different time, Forever Green captures a deep idealism that found expression in the hills between the ocean and the bay. On one of those hot summer afternoons when the thick fog rolls over from the coast, I was riding my blue Peugeot 10-speed up on Skyline. This was before spandex. Before helmets. "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" was stuck in my head as I climbed past the long waving grass that thrived then on what is now Windy Hill. It must have been April, because the green hills seemed so alive in stark contrast to the brown world below, where people were so fervently caught up in their unnatural world. As I continued pedaling past cows staring at me from the long green grass on the hillside, Elton's musical motif was morphing and shifting in my mind like the thickening mist blowing across the road. Lyrical phrases were forming--snippets and phrases--music and words twisting in harmonic movement. The pieces kept growing all the way down the fast curves of Page Mill Road and into Los Altos Hills. As soon as I arrived at my girlfriend's house I asked her for a pen and wrote out what I had onto a large sheet of green-and-white striped computer paper, which I still have. It's pretty close to the final song. The tune can be sticky, especially if you can get past the "post hippy folk revival business". I remember stopping at the Shell station in Sharon Heights on the way out of town once, and we had Forever Green playing in the car while the gas was pumping. After the song was over, as we drove away we heard the attendant whistling the tune. It's nice to know my record didn't make it into your trash and will remain immortalized. I was actually blown away to find it online, and it was fascinating to read how it was perceived by someone who never knew anything about it. The master tape of Forever Green eventually fell victim to the "sticky shed" problem of Ampex 456 tape. When I tried to play it years later, it was some time before I realized that the surreal musical soup I was hearing was actually oxide coming off the tape and overlapping itself as it streamed past the heads. Wow. Cool. That was definitely psychadelic. I need to start recording again soon. So many songs...so much equipment...so little time.

I had pretty much tossed this thing in my rejects pile as my only recollection of itwas some unlistenable post hippy folk revival business from the 70's. A quicksearch revealed nada and thus it got redirected to the "must add to the DB" pile.Today I finally got underway with subbing the damn thing. And just to be sureI had selected the most fitting styles for it I decided to throw it back on theplatter for final assessment, and low and behold I discovered it's got a reallynice psychedelic rock jam on the B. Fluid west coast late 60's kind of soundwith excellent heady guitar work taking it where it needs to go. All in all, anice little unexpected surprise. and one which will now be hard filed in my personal collection.And remember kiddy's always check the B-side before you make thatfinal toss to the chud pile.

Heh! Your comments made me smile. That "excellent heady guitar work" on My Wildrose was made with my brother's cheapo electric guitar plugged directly into the mic input of a TEAC 3300 with the gain up full, pinning the meter the whole time. Actually, maybe the line output of that channel even fed the other mic input and doubled the damage. I don't remember now. It's funny how some seeds scattered to the winds 42 years ago have sprouted. Where did you get your copy?. Aside from the many that went privately to friends and other people who knew me, there were 10 at Tower Records in SF, and maybe some at a couple of Banana Records stores--I think they had one of their cube stores on El Camino in Palo Alto--and then there were a few copies at radio stations whose program managers had the kindness to accept them, and I believe I sent one to someone in England who had heard me sing Forever Green for her in 1975. Unlistenable as it may be for some who grew up in a different time, Forever Green captures a deep idealism that found expression in the hills between the ocean and the bay. On one of those hot summer afternoons when the thick fog rolls over from the coast, I was riding my blue Peugeot 10-speed up on Skyline. This was before spandex. Before helmets. "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" was stuck in my head as I climbed past the long waving grass that thrived then on what is now Windy Hill. It must have been April, because the green hills seemed so alive in stark contrast to the brown world below, where people were so fervently caught up in their unnatural world. As I continued pedaling past cows staring at me from the long green grass on the hillside, Elton's musical motif was morphing and shifting in my mind like the thickening mist blowing across the road. Lyrical phrases were forming--snippets and phrases--music and words twisting in harmonic movement. The pieces kept growing all the way down the fast curves of Page Mill Road and into Los Altos Hills. As soon as I arrived at my girlfriend's house I asked her for a pen and wrote out what I had onto a large sheet of green-and-white striped computer paper, which I still have. It's pretty close to the final song. The tune can be sticky, especially if you can get past the "post hippy folk revival business". I remember stopping at the Shell station in Sharon Heights on the way out of town once, and we had Forever Green playing in the car while the gas was pumping. After the song was over, as we drove away we heard the attendant whistling the tune. It's nice to know my record didn't make it into your trash and will remain immortalized. I was actually blown away to find it online, and it was fascinating to read how it was perceived by someone who never knew anything about it. The master tape of Forever Green eventually fell victim to the "sticky shed" problem of Ampex 456 tape. When I tried to play it years later, it was some time before I realized that the surreal musical soup I was hearing was actually oxide coming off the tape and overlapping itself as it streamed past the heads. Wow. Cool. That was definitely psychadelic. I need to start recording again soon. So many songs...so much equipment...so little time.