Daubert & Holcombe's Excellent Adventure! - 02/21/01 06:46 AM
For whoever wants to read a songwriter's duo tail, here is our involved history, "Most" of it anyway! There's some, Ok, a lot of stuff to laugh at, some maybe to learn from, (How? Buddy says?!!) One incident to maybe share in my sad moment, and other moments to just enjoy this story of a journey that Buddy and I have gone through for the past 4 decades! So relax,,,,,, get real comfortable,,,,,get a glass of something, and please offer us some patience,,,,OK, here goes:
"Some Daubert & Holcombe History"
©2001 John Daubert
Before we met:
In the late Sixties, Buddy played in France and Germany,,,,some of those same clubs that The Beatles once played. He claims his band was really tight, that they had the crowds supporting them. There's a lot of times where Buddy said that he would just sit in some caves in Germany, and pass the time thinking about everything, and wanting music to be a always a part of his life. His dad got stationed to another Army base back in the states, so that was that. Buddy played drums, horn, and sang lead, (when not blowing on the horn!!!!). He wrote all the original songs for that group.
I was in a band from age 13, and then at 15, playing just about full time in a good band. I got off from school a number of times because of our traveling. The rest of the guys were 2 and 3 years older. We won NJ local and state battle of the bands on a regular basis.
The next band, after high school, was the band I wrote about in the Country songwriting challenge. The band was named Breakwater Bay, but we were called The Breakwater Gang, for the time we got arrested for me playing guitar and a friend of the band playing harmonica late in between one of our shows in Margate, NJ. That's the place where we played backup for all kinds of artists, like Chuck Berry, The Chiffons, The Ronnets, etc. Our band then played the Spectrum in Philadelphia with the Philadelphia Orchestra, for a Rock and Roll song, sung by Jerry Blavet, a Philly DJ. It was a benefit concert with many stars. The Fonz was even there. Sorry!,,, Henry Winkler! He got really mad when I called him by his character name. All in all, played hundreds of clubs and did a few piano only gigs from '68 through '78.
1974: "Fifth Avenue Cold Truck Meeting"
Buddy Holcombe and myself met right after a winter ice and snowstorm. I was playing my group's upright piano in the band's ice cold truck, (used to be a bread truck), outside of my parents house in Barrington, NJ. (Buddy had moved from Virginia Beach, to marry one of my neighborhood friends, Eileen). After leaving my solo "jam session", he told his wife he "is" going to write with me someday. I had been playing some original honky-tonk style music, with some blues/jazz once in a while, and other Rock style songs. I was just jamming like crazy to keep my fingers from freezing!
1978: "This is Our Time"
A few years passed, with us seeing each other at parties and clubs, and at Eileen’s mother's house, across the street from my parents house. We would talk a lot about all kinds of things, but he never brought up songwriting. He later told me that it just wasn't the right time, with me being in a band, and not wanting to just "step in". His manners from being raised in the south showed, from looking back now. I took up piano tuning, and played some piano bars. Buddy took up in-ground pool servicing. Then, after my band spilt up, he asks if we could get together to write some music. One day, he came over to my apartment, and after talking for a short while, I went over to my old upright piano, and started playing something. It was as if I was trying to find a song I knew, but it was original! He immediately started to sing a melody, while also creating the lyrics. He grabbed some paper and a pen, and put them down right away. I came up with a bridge idea on the fly, and he responded to that also. In five stunning minutes, we had completely written our first song, "This Is Our Time", that is today one of our favorites. We got together some friends and entered a band contest in a top club in Philly, "Stars", and played that song with two other original songs. Not being a band, and just practicing with a few friends at a time, we got a great reaction, and came in third out of about 20 acts!
One night around midnight, I got a call from Frank Virtue, out of Philadelphia, who said if we could come up with a song to go along with the not yet released, first Superman movie, that Atlantic Records will release that song with the movie's release. We wrote the song the next day, then met with Virtue at his studio, and he said, "That's great, we'll do it"! After starting the recording session, for which I was playing piano, and a few friends were filling in as a band, Virtue got a call from California, saying that a record company already has the song lined up for release. That song was similar to ours in every way, which was "Fly Away"! I can't remember their title though. (We could have had Harold Melvin and the Blue Note's drummer, but Buddy and I lobbied for a friend to sit in on drums, which turned out to be the mistake that cost us that record, due to the fact our drummer all of a sudden couldn't keep time.)
1979: "Taking The Second Step"
Buddy wrote the lyrics down to "Jersey Drivers" when sitting in his old truck watching the cars fly by. (Mentions of circles, sitting ducks, etc.) As soon as he started singing the song he created, I had the music come through me at the same time. We wrote it in minutes!
Bud and I kept getting together, eating pizza with a couple of Lowenbrau’s, solving the worlds problems, and making music, music that was growing in character, which we had come to know and recognize as our own Daubert & Holcombe music! We knew we didn't write like everybody else, cause we didn't want to write what we already heard on the radio. Buddy has said, "If it's already being done, then they should go get "them" to give them more".
We recorded 6 songs at an 8-track studio in Berlin, NJ, (Brothers Recording Studio). We sent out those demos to record companies and publishers. Most came back unopened of course. We typed what we thought were real professional letters. We thought that with these letters, and our music,,,,,Can't miss! The smaller companies said, "Not looking for that kind of material at this time". Submit later. We got that a lot.
1980: "Ends With John Lennon's death":
We worked on songs in a basement in my rented house, with my spinet piano I had learned on. More world problems, more answers. Then, John Lennon was shot, which I think affected the way many people would look at music from then on, like when The Beatles first came out, but with such different feelings. Our music started to get more diverse, as if to say, OK, Lennon's gone, but life and music must go on! It did.
1981: "Wedding Bells"
I sung at my wedding to my wife, Cindy, with one of the songs we wrote, "Together", (We can find a way.) Buddy was co-best man, along with Chris, the guitarist who I had started "Breakwater Bay" with. I bought a house with my wife on the same street as my parents. Buddy and Eileen rented the house where she grew up in, then owned by her brother, across the street. I left a landscaping job, (Chris, the guitarist and co best man owned it), and I started up my own piano tuning and rebuilding company. Buddy continued to service in ground pools.
1982: "Trying To Move Forward"
Some hopes, some rejections,,,,normal stuff.
We started to meet different people, who claimed they had something to do with the music business. One was a record promoter for Columbia Records for the Philly radio stations, from which we got free albums. I gave him discounts on piano tunings. That was the extent of those deals. Another contact was an Indie producer. He liked our songs, and said, "$50,000 will get you played on major stations across the country for two weeks" From there, who knows?" $50,000 would have gotten him that car he had his eye on! I asked one of my friends to invest $100. so we could buy tapes, and other items, and he said, "I wouldn't invest a dollar in you guys, you know the odds of making it into the music business"?! Buddy says he can still see the look on my face when his car pulled away.
1983-1989: "Just keeping at it"
Writing and more dreaming". But we had no real business sense yet. (Still might not)!
Kept on getting together when songs would pop up, or just to hang out and do things. More talking, more solving. Trying to figure out ways to get backers for our music. (Like there's a bunch of people out there waiting to give money to unknown unproven songwriters, who only play in the studio!) We even tried getting a group of lawyers to come up with some funds. A few were interested until they asked for a return estimate. WHAT?!! We told them of the odds of seeing any returns, (count the grains of sand at Wildwood, NJ, and then put another zero after that number! We never heard from them again. Honesty didn't "pay" then!
One guy said he could have us meet Merv Griffin! What, for a game show? We gave him a tape anyway, and of course, never met Merv. He didn't really know Merv, but worked at his casino. I could have been a game show piano player, or the piano tuner for his casino, anyway,,,but nothing!
We would have songs "come to us", and when presenting it to the other, find out that we were creating the same song! Really!
We even heard a couple of songs that we just wrote on the radio! Problem was, we had written them a few months before the sound-alike song would come on the radio. Helen Ready's "I Needed You" comes to mind. We had no demos of that song out either!
1989: "Recording"
Purchased a Tascam 8-track cassette recorder/mixer, dat, one sequencer keyboard, one double cassette player, one mic from Eigth Street Music in Philly, only to pack everything up and load it all back in my van the next day, to return it when we couldn't figure out how all that stuff worked. I had played only an upright piano before that. We had guitar players and drummers, etc. before for our demos. Eight Street Music didn't want to lose a sale, so the guy spent about an hour with me on their floor models, going over the basics.
Leon Huff, of Gamble & Huff, writer of "If you don't know me by now", heard our demo, and while Buddy was servicing his pool, with me as a helper, Leon said, "Great hooks and great melodies", and "Anytime I can hear a song going over and over in my head, then that's a good song". He placed our demo in his files at his studio. Nothing came about though. Bud's still servicing his pool!
1990: "Clothes Drive"
Thinking how we could have people from Appalachia that are less fortunate hear our music, (on a little portable cassette player to maybe lift their spirits), and at the same time, provide them with clothes, and blankets for the upcoming winter months, we went around and collected all kinds of items from people who heard about what we were doing. My van became so packed with bags, that is filled every space except for where Buddy and had to sit. (Over 60 big bags) People gave new coats that were never worn, suits, shoes and boots of every style and size, women dresses, fur coats,,,,, everything you could imagine! We headed out toward West Virginia, and stayed at a little cheap motel, where across the street was an old diner, in which we went the next morning for breakfast. They were trying to fix the heater. It was freezing in there. We asked the owners, and one other cold patron, where we could take all these clothes. And they said, "to Freeze Farms"! WHAT?! They said the owner, Mr. Freeze, knows all about the folks there, and could direct us.
We met Mr. Freeze, (yes, his real name), and he had us come in his farmhouse. After asking what we had planned, he talked about how we were sent here from God, and that we are going to be doing good things for a long time to come, and that this is just a learning experience for us. He was like Yoda from Star Wars! Anyway, he told us that the people in the "hallows" were people of great pride, and that we couldn't just give these clothes and things away by asking them to take them. He then directed out to the barn area where he had two farm-help guys, and said to go ask them, and see what happens. So after trying to walk through a hundred cows, we went back to the van and drove to the barn. (I never saw a hundred cows stop in their tracks and stare at us like that)! What a site! When we got out of the van and said hello, then ask the two guys if they could use some clothes and blankets, their faces dropped, and they said, "NO, No thanks! We're fine". Then there was a cold, awkward feeling. That's when I said, "Well, we are just going to have to chuck this stuff over a mountain, ‘cause we can't go back with all this stuff, No way! Really, we'll just chuck it then!.... With that, one of the guys said, well, "I guess I could use a blanket if you're just going to chuck it", and the other said, do you have some boots in there? We said, do we have boots? What size are you? Everybody smiled and laughed, and then we started to pull the bags out of the van, that were so stuffed, that it took some pulling to get the first few out. After going through a couple of bags, they were like kids at Christmas! They would yell, "Look what's here"! Over and over. We ended up unloading every last bag and placing them in the huge barn! They kept on saying things like, "My baby needs blankets at night, the ones we have, have holes in them". They now had more thick blankets than Wal-Mart stocks! After them shaking our hands over and over and them holding back tears, we left. As we were leaving, Mr. Freeze came over to the truck, and said, well, how did you do? He couldn't believe they took everything! Oh yeah, we forgot to play any music at all to anyone there. It was enough to do what we did, I guess.
Fall of 1990: "Nashville Trip"
Have it on video. To painful to go into it now. I'll just say what I said here before. We had an appointment, and got about 2 minutes in the reception area, after driving 800 miles! The video is funny though! One of these days, I'll see if I can get it on a site.
"Love Her" opera?
One example of how we would record our songs is that I would put down some music that had been worked out by Buddy and me, and if Buddy was to sing a song, he would come over after his work, usually at night or on weekend days, and I would either stay there to hear it, or go inside the house, since the studio was then a garage like shop, (which my dad and I built with our neighbor), right next to my house. One day, I must have been telling Bud that it wasn't that good yet, to really feel that song and sing it like a ballad should be sung. Well, I left to go do a piano tuning, and when I got back, Cindy, my wife, told me that Bud had finished the vocal, and that he wanted me to check it out. I walked into the studio, put on my headphones and pushed play, to hear the slowly moving ballad style music in the intro I come to know so well, to hear Buddy sing the entire song in a deep, opera style version! I was rolling on the floor with laugher. Nothing like his Country style voice at all, and of course not the genre we were going after! But what a way for him to say, I tried it every way you wanted me to, and none of them were good, so here!!!!! How's this? ............Priceless! He never did try the (normal) final vocal again for that song, called "Love Her".
We had a Mt. Laurel studio owner and meat distributor listen to our demo, who like it, then asked us to write some power ballads for "Sick Vicki". We told him that they should write their own stuff, because our style was nothing like theirs. We can write a lot of different styles, but that was just too far away from what we do. After a couple of weeks, he then had us meet a beautiful African American lady who was former Miss Delaware, who wanted to sing Country music in Guam! She had a GREAT voice! But for Country? No way! She could have owned a ballad and sold it to the world! What a talent! But with her desire to do Country songs in Quam? As you guessed, nothing ever came of that also.
1992: "The Gulf War":
The day the war was declared, my piano business went to nothing. I drove a 24-foot box truck throughout Manhattan starting from Southern New Jersey, and also going around the entire Delaware Valley area. Bud also drove a truck, but not in NY City,"No way", he said! I loved it! For a while anyway.
After having recorded most of the songs we had written, and not having any more prospects, we sunk into a void.
Then, I had to sell my house, with my recording studio and piano rebuilding shop, (garage that my father help build with my neighbor, that has since been torn down! a few years ahead of this paragraph.) It was only about 12 years new! I heard the machinery tearing it down, and had to go for a drive.
(Back before it was torn down):
I moved to Deptford and got away from the music as far as writing, and even playing my piano. I got into playing sports again. Buddy and I would still get together back in Barrington though, across the street from where I moved from, and also across the street where my folks still lived. We watched a lot of movies. That's where we got the idea for scoring films. Funny huh? Not ha ha funny, but you know what I mean.
1996: "Goodbye Dad"
I moved back to Barrington, right next door to Buddy. My dad died ten days later. I was now there for my mom, who had just had an eye go bad from bleeding inside of it. When I moved back, I was so happy and rejuvenated, Then after my dad died, I felt so empty, and sad for my mom, and my sister. It still is a haunting reality. I was there at his bedside, thanking him over and over for all of his love and support for me and my music years, all those times he played melodies on the mandolin, so I would play the chords on the piano, all from ear, like he played. All those amps, and guitars and organs and "that piano" he bought for my mom, but that I took over. All the baseball days of him catching my fastballs with his hands all torn up from his printing job chemicals. And he never let on. My mom told me later what he went through, all for me to do what I could do, and wanted to do! I said goodbye to the best dad anyone could have had. Time stood still then. I couldn't believe what I just witnessed. The man who passed on his genes so I could live was dead. I wrote two songs about him in "Find My Eyes" and "When Will I Be With You Again?"
Sometime in ‘96, John Plumley, a singer from a past band I was in called me to see if I could join his new band that would be playing at all the NASCAR events. I had piano tuning contract at Rowan College, and told him that I didn't have any of the music equipment, since I sold everything after moving from Barrington back in 1992. When I told Buddy that, on his porch, he said that maybe I should get a small recorder, like we had in the beginning, in 1978.
After meeting a friend of Bud's from his work, Ron, and hearing his Beatles imitations, sometime later, I went out and got the same kind of gear that I just sold in 1992 instead!
The music started to come out of me right away. The death of my father hurt so, that I would bury myself in the recordings. Bud would say that he isn't really into just doing that again, that he needs to be challenged. He kept on saying that. He would work on songs with me after he would return from working all day, and with amazing sharpness, know exactly how a song should be changed, to make it better. I mean, I was working on it all day, and thought, hey this is pretty good. Then Bud would hear it, and say, "No, I don't like this part", or other things like that, and I would try the suggestions he said. And like that, the song took on a much better character! Then he would go do his other millions of things he had to do. He didn't have to spend any time on the songs. He knew right away what to change and why! Amazing!
Then Bud got the call he was waiting for, the challenge. His sister, who writes scripts for Regent University, in Virginia Beach, VA, said that her script is going to be a film there. But, later she called us to tell us that there is Russian Labor camp style film that we could do first if we want it! Bud said, first we get an African American Miss Delaware Lady who wants to sing our Country songs in Guam, now someone wants us score a Russian style score! He then said, "what you think, do you want to do it? I said, "SURE! Lets do it". He said, "OK, great, lets do it"! HOW?
We found out the film was about Alexander Solzinitzen, so we went to the library to do some research on him, to get a feel for his character. Then we got some CD's of Russian Classical music, and just listened. I never took any lessons on anything other than an accordion from ages 7 through 9. We took to it like any other music we liked.
We read the script, came up with some sample sounds and themes, and went down to Virginia, to present it to the director and the professor. They loved what we did. We went down again for the first day of shooting. We were extras, bringing our own period clothes we bought in a thrift store. That day was very long and hot. But we got a good feel for the film. And I got the feel for that Port a Spot! Ah man, whatever I ate at McDonalds, combined the heat, and my excitement, was just too much to handle! LOL
We came back and waited for the film. After we scored and recorded the film here at my home in Barrington, NJ, we went down again to present it to the director. She started to write things down right away, after we asked her to just sit back, watch and listen for the first run through. Oh well, so much for that! She didn't like what we did. (It seemed to be her need to make edits, as she said often said that "changes are always made", and that was before she heard anything). We left with the agreement that we would work on the changes that she was supposed to E-mail. When she didn't E-mail us, after two weeks, I called her. It was then that she said she was having a meeting about the situation. In other words, she went against her word, and didn't give us a chance to come up with any changes. And this is from a highly noted religious college! We thought her word would be good. (LESSON LEARNED!)
We sent the score to ASCAP to be considered for the annual Film scoring workshop in LA. We were told that we were too late for that year, but would be accepted the following year, based on our score! We couldn't go though, since we found out the workshop would be a month long, and expenses were way beyond what we could cover, never mind having No bills paid at our homes for that month. So, we missed out, but know, from ASCAP's comments, that we did a great job on that score.
We sort of knew it from a weird sign from what Buddy and I sensed from my late father at the very last note of the last scene, when we recorded it! The sign was a non-electronic sound and "Feeling" that Buddy had first that went down his legs from his head, while sitting on my father's old recliner that is in our studio. He had the headphones on. He told me to listen to this. I didn't hear anything until I stood right in front of my dad's recliner. I then felt and heard this very weird sound and sensation! Then it was gone. We tried to get that to happen again, and No matter what, we couldn't. We played the same parts, had the same settings, everything. It never happened again. (I Tune pianos too, and I know notes, and other sounds a recorder, or waves can put out, and this was nothing I could even imagine! And the way it felt, was so different from any feeling I experienced, same with Buddy, that we have only one explanation. My father had been very musical through my life, and was the most loving person you could meet. He wanted so much for me to be happy with music. This was his way of saying, "I’m happy with what you just did".
1998: "Eyes Bigger than Stomach"
We found Loggins Promotion from a book, "Songwriters Market". After dozens of E-Mails, we sent him our demo of about 35 songs. He tested them with radio programmers, and he reported the results in the form of one to four stars. We had some with four, some with three stars, a few with two. At this time we went on MP3.com to get some exposure with our songs. We had Neil Warren, a good friend, design some CD covers, and we got them printed up at a Kinkos. With the financial backing from my sister Joan, the 15 song CD, which Loggins had selected the songs for, was now being mailed to 300 radio stations, to which one song was to be released, "Where Does the Love Go" (Now called "When You Turn and Walk Away"). We needed a lot more CD's than what we could produce at out studio, so we hired Disc Makers to make them for us. They later designed new cover art for our second orders. After 22 weeks of release, "Where does the love go" had climbed up Kal Rudman's FMQB Top 200 Chart at #64, which was rare for a first release by a small Indie label, our own "D&H Records".
We released our second single of our North & South CD, "Lennon, More than a Memory". That song had reached #71 in FMQB, and in the top 10 in numerous charts on MP3.com, with a couple of number 1 placements, for whatever that is worth, probably nothing really.
We had hired Mazur Public Relations to handle press releases, and to get us publicity, but for our songs, not us, as I did all the music and vocals, except on that one Country song. We did a major newspaper interview in the South Jersey's Courier Post, and have been in several magazines.
"Beware":
We found out though, that our songs weren’t being played on the stations as reported. I called several of them, and they didn’t even find the CD’s, except for one station. They said they would play it later that night. They didn’t. So, beware of Loggins Promotions. We weren’t happy with their practice of taking on a non-band, non-performing writing team, as we found out the hard about how that shouldn’t be done in the first place by writers only.
We're looking to score other films, or to somehow get a pro band together to build around my piano playing and singing. Bud says he'll come out and play guitar and drums once in a while, and also sing, but he wants to stay on the sidelines writing more songs, and "just watch me play". I'll get "him" out there, and watch "him" play!
1999-2004: We still live next to each other, and hang out a lot on his front porch, or at my back patio. We often look up at the stars there, and ask why is it so hard for things to happen in this business. We know why of course, but at the time of looking at the stars, it gets to the point of "OK, we get it, we know what it's all about and we're trying, so please help us"! You know, those prayers that you think are going unanswered. They're not really. They're just not what we think we want at those times. But you know what is most important? Family, and the love you have for them, and them for you. Everything else really doesn't matter. It would be nice, yeah, to have a major break!!! We think so anyway. But it's not everything. Seems like it is at times though! Know what I mean? That scene you see with the writers or band members throwing their hands on the air, and yelling!
I joined "Just Plain Folks" in January, 2001. Made many friends and learned a great deal about every aspect of the music business, as well as creative sides of songwriting and recording. Vocals too. But the people are my biggest gains.
2005: “Too Little Time”
I was thinking of how at my age, 52 then, (one year ago), that there is too little time in this life, with how fast each day goes by, and the weeks, and even years. Hell, the decades are becoming like years now! I recorded a song “Too Little Time” over at a friend’s home studio, (Ron Signorelli), and put it on Bud's and my music sites, where I posted that info on the MP3 Feedback Forum at “Just Plain Folks”. I said that is was a rockabilly or country song. Brian Austin Whitney said that is wasn't Country, but rather, a McCartney version of what a country song is. He asked me to play this out at one of his showcases. From there, I did some more, (New Brunswick, N.J; Brooklyn, NY; a Boston Suburb; and Portsmouth, New Hampshire). I got interested in forming a band to play this and other songs with.
Then, Jimmy Calore, (the bass player from the earlier mentioned Breakwater Bay Band) emails me about getting together to jam with him playing his new horn. After I asked him to maybe play the bass again, and him getting one from Ron to see if he wanted to, and he did, I ran into our old drummer, who was also looking for something to do again that would be fun. So he said "I'm in, let’s do it"! This band is now called "Too Little Time"! So, as you can tell, this song is going to be a very special one for all of us for several reasons.
I starting writing a song for the band called “London’s Ferris Wheel”, to which I had only the title. Buddy and I haven’t been doing a lot of writing through the past couple of years, but he always said that if something would need his attention, he could do it without problems. I told my desire to write this song, and he told me some key things to think about. I came back home, wrote the verses and the bridge in about ten minutes, then took it back to him, where he took them into his house and a few minutes later came out with his edits, which made the song more concise. I put them on the lyric boards of "Just Plain Folks", and got good comments, along with some good ideas to make it even better, (about my lyrics, not Buddy’s).
2006:
I made those changes, and now this band is about to take those two songs above, along with 9 others out to a local club to get ready for playing a few at a radio station show in Philadelphia, PA. Also, a journalist from a Philly newspaper told us he will be doing a feature on the band. Now at 53, I feel my music life is about to take hold. Or at least the opportunity is there to play out full time in the near future. With the band members being good old friends, (“old” being relative and a touchy subject), this is one great fun ride to still be on!
2006.
The bass player left the band. So, I put an ad at Just Plain Folks, where Iggy and Tom Tracy answered quickly as something tat looks to be fun. Iggy plays keys and bass. Tom was the bass player, until he also had to leave to prepare his house to be put up for sale, and has plans to move away form Philly, to be in the country.
End of 2006/Jan of 2007:
The four remaining, Iggy, Roon, (guitarists), Marnie, (drums), and me, are in the process of recording at Substudio, NY, for a song called, "I Don't Want to be Famous".
Thanks for taking the time to read this!
------------------
John Daubert,
Daubert & Holcombe
"Too Little Time" band
"Some Daubert & Holcombe History"
©2001 John Daubert
Before we met:
In the late Sixties, Buddy played in France and Germany,,,,some of those same clubs that The Beatles once played. He claims his band was really tight, that they had the crowds supporting them. There's a lot of times where Buddy said that he would just sit in some caves in Germany, and pass the time thinking about everything, and wanting music to be a always a part of his life. His dad got stationed to another Army base back in the states, so that was that. Buddy played drums, horn, and sang lead, (when not blowing on the horn!!!!). He wrote all the original songs for that group.
I was in a band from age 13, and then at 15, playing just about full time in a good band. I got off from school a number of times because of our traveling. The rest of the guys were 2 and 3 years older. We won NJ local and state battle of the bands on a regular basis.
The next band, after high school, was the band I wrote about in the Country songwriting challenge. The band was named Breakwater Bay, but we were called The Breakwater Gang, for the time we got arrested for me playing guitar and a friend of the band playing harmonica late in between one of our shows in Margate, NJ. That's the place where we played backup for all kinds of artists, like Chuck Berry, The Chiffons, The Ronnets, etc. Our band then played the Spectrum in Philadelphia with the Philadelphia Orchestra, for a Rock and Roll song, sung by Jerry Blavet, a Philly DJ. It was a benefit concert with many stars. The Fonz was even there. Sorry!,,, Henry Winkler! He got really mad when I called him by his character name. All in all, played hundreds of clubs and did a few piano only gigs from '68 through '78.
1974: "Fifth Avenue Cold Truck Meeting"
Buddy Holcombe and myself met right after a winter ice and snowstorm. I was playing my group's upright piano in the band's ice cold truck, (used to be a bread truck), outside of my parents house in Barrington, NJ. (Buddy had moved from Virginia Beach, to marry one of my neighborhood friends, Eileen). After leaving my solo "jam session", he told his wife he "is" going to write with me someday. I had been playing some original honky-tonk style music, with some blues/jazz once in a while, and other Rock style songs. I was just jamming like crazy to keep my fingers from freezing!
1978: "This is Our Time"
A few years passed, with us seeing each other at parties and clubs, and at Eileen’s mother's house, across the street from my parents house. We would talk a lot about all kinds of things, but he never brought up songwriting. He later told me that it just wasn't the right time, with me being in a band, and not wanting to just "step in". His manners from being raised in the south showed, from looking back now. I took up piano tuning, and played some piano bars. Buddy took up in-ground pool servicing. Then, after my band spilt up, he asks if we could get together to write some music. One day, he came over to my apartment, and after talking for a short while, I went over to my old upright piano, and started playing something. It was as if I was trying to find a song I knew, but it was original! He immediately started to sing a melody, while also creating the lyrics. He grabbed some paper and a pen, and put them down right away. I came up with a bridge idea on the fly, and he responded to that also. In five stunning minutes, we had completely written our first song, "This Is Our Time", that is today one of our favorites. We got together some friends and entered a band contest in a top club in Philly, "Stars", and played that song with two other original songs. Not being a band, and just practicing with a few friends at a time, we got a great reaction, and came in third out of about 20 acts!
One night around midnight, I got a call from Frank Virtue, out of Philadelphia, who said if we could come up with a song to go along with the not yet released, first Superman movie, that Atlantic Records will release that song with the movie's release. We wrote the song the next day, then met with Virtue at his studio, and he said, "That's great, we'll do it"! After starting the recording session, for which I was playing piano, and a few friends were filling in as a band, Virtue got a call from California, saying that a record company already has the song lined up for release. That song was similar to ours in every way, which was "Fly Away"! I can't remember their title though. (We could have had Harold Melvin and the Blue Note's drummer, but Buddy and I lobbied for a friend to sit in on drums, which turned out to be the mistake that cost us that record, due to the fact our drummer all of a sudden couldn't keep time.)
1979: "Taking The Second Step"
Buddy wrote the lyrics down to "Jersey Drivers" when sitting in his old truck watching the cars fly by. (Mentions of circles, sitting ducks, etc.) As soon as he started singing the song he created, I had the music come through me at the same time. We wrote it in minutes!
Bud and I kept getting together, eating pizza with a couple of Lowenbrau’s, solving the worlds problems, and making music, music that was growing in character, which we had come to know and recognize as our own Daubert & Holcombe music! We knew we didn't write like everybody else, cause we didn't want to write what we already heard on the radio. Buddy has said, "If it's already being done, then they should go get "them" to give them more".
We recorded 6 songs at an 8-track studio in Berlin, NJ, (Brothers Recording Studio). We sent out those demos to record companies and publishers. Most came back unopened of course. We typed what we thought were real professional letters. We thought that with these letters, and our music,,,,,Can't miss! The smaller companies said, "Not looking for that kind of material at this time". Submit later. We got that a lot.
1980: "Ends With John Lennon's death":
We worked on songs in a basement in my rented house, with my spinet piano I had learned on. More world problems, more answers. Then, John Lennon was shot, which I think affected the way many people would look at music from then on, like when The Beatles first came out, but with such different feelings. Our music started to get more diverse, as if to say, OK, Lennon's gone, but life and music must go on! It did.
1981: "Wedding Bells"
I sung at my wedding to my wife, Cindy, with one of the songs we wrote, "Together", (We can find a way.) Buddy was co-best man, along with Chris, the guitarist who I had started "Breakwater Bay" with. I bought a house with my wife on the same street as my parents. Buddy and Eileen rented the house where she grew up in, then owned by her brother, across the street. I left a landscaping job, (Chris, the guitarist and co best man owned it), and I started up my own piano tuning and rebuilding company. Buddy continued to service in ground pools.
1982: "Trying To Move Forward"
Some hopes, some rejections,,,,normal stuff.
We started to meet different people, who claimed they had something to do with the music business. One was a record promoter for Columbia Records for the Philly radio stations, from which we got free albums. I gave him discounts on piano tunings. That was the extent of those deals. Another contact was an Indie producer. He liked our songs, and said, "$50,000 will get you played on major stations across the country for two weeks" From there, who knows?" $50,000 would have gotten him that car he had his eye on! I asked one of my friends to invest $100. so we could buy tapes, and other items, and he said, "I wouldn't invest a dollar in you guys, you know the odds of making it into the music business"?! Buddy says he can still see the look on my face when his car pulled away.
1983-1989: "Just keeping at it"
Writing and more dreaming". But we had no real business sense yet. (Still might not)!
Kept on getting together when songs would pop up, or just to hang out and do things. More talking, more solving. Trying to figure out ways to get backers for our music. (Like there's a bunch of people out there waiting to give money to unknown unproven songwriters, who only play in the studio!) We even tried getting a group of lawyers to come up with some funds. A few were interested until they asked for a return estimate. WHAT?!! We told them of the odds of seeing any returns, (count the grains of sand at Wildwood, NJ, and then put another zero after that number! We never heard from them again. Honesty didn't "pay" then!
One guy said he could have us meet Merv Griffin! What, for a game show? We gave him a tape anyway, and of course, never met Merv. He didn't really know Merv, but worked at his casino. I could have been a game show piano player, or the piano tuner for his casino, anyway,,,but nothing!
We would have songs "come to us", and when presenting it to the other, find out that we were creating the same song! Really!
We even heard a couple of songs that we just wrote on the radio! Problem was, we had written them a few months before the sound-alike song would come on the radio. Helen Ready's "I Needed You" comes to mind. We had no demos of that song out either!
1989: "Recording"
Purchased a Tascam 8-track cassette recorder/mixer, dat, one sequencer keyboard, one double cassette player, one mic from Eigth Street Music in Philly, only to pack everything up and load it all back in my van the next day, to return it when we couldn't figure out how all that stuff worked. I had played only an upright piano before that. We had guitar players and drummers, etc. before for our demos. Eight Street Music didn't want to lose a sale, so the guy spent about an hour with me on their floor models, going over the basics.
Leon Huff, of Gamble & Huff, writer of "If you don't know me by now", heard our demo, and while Buddy was servicing his pool, with me as a helper, Leon said, "Great hooks and great melodies", and "Anytime I can hear a song going over and over in my head, then that's a good song". He placed our demo in his files at his studio. Nothing came about though. Bud's still servicing his pool!
1990: "Clothes Drive"
Thinking how we could have people from Appalachia that are less fortunate hear our music, (on a little portable cassette player to maybe lift their spirits), and at the same time, provide them with clothes, and blankets for the upcoming winter months, we went around and collected all kinds of items from people who heard about what we were doing. My van became so packed with bags, that is filled every space except for where Buddy and had to sit. (Over 60 big bags) People gave new coats that were never worn, suits, shoes and boots of every style and size, women dresses, fur coats,,,,, everything you could imagine! We headed out toward West Virginia, and stayed at a little cheap motel, where across the street was an old diner, in which we went the next morning for breakfast. They were trying to fix the heater. It was freezing in there. We asked the owners, and one other cold patron, where we could take all these clothes. And they said, "to Freeze Farms"! WHAT?! They said the owner, Mr. Freeze, knows all about the folks there, and could direct us.
We met Mr. Freeze, (yes, his real name), and he had us come in his farmhouse. After asking what we had planned, he talked about how we were sent here from God, and that we are going to be doing good things for a long time to come, and that this is just a learning experience for us. He was like Yoda from Star Wars! Anyway, he told us that the people in the "hallows" were people of great pride, and that we couldn't just give these clothes and things away by asking them to take them. He then directed out to the barn area where he had two farm-help guys, and said to go ask them, and see what happens. So after trying to walk through a hundred cows, we went back to the van and drove to the barn. (I never saw a hundred cows stop in their tracks and stare at us like that)! What a site! When we got out of the van and said hello, then ask the two guys if they could use some clothes and blankets, their faces dropped, and they said, "NO, No thanks! We're fine". Then there was a cold, awkward feeling. That's when I said, "Well, we are just going to have to chuck this stuff over a mountain, ‘cause we can't go back with all this stuff, No way! Really, we'll just chuck it then!.... With that, one of the guys said, well, "I guess I could use a blanket if you're just going to chuck it", and the other said, do you have some boots in there? We said, do we have boots? What size are you? Everybody smiled and laughed, and then we started to pull the bags out of the van, that were so stuffed, that it took some pulling to get the first few out. After going through a couple of bags, they were like kids at Christmas! They would yell, "Look what's here"! Over and over. We ended up unloading every last bag and placing them in the huge barn! They kept on saying things like, "My baby needs blankets at night, the ones we have, have holes in them". They now had more thick blankets than Wal-Mart stocks! After them shaking our hands over and over and them holding back tears, we left. As we were leaving, Mr. Freeze came over to the truck, and said, well, how did you do? He couldn't believe they took everything! Oh yeah, we forgot to play any music at all to anyone there. It was enough to do what we did, I guess.
Fall of 1990: "Nashville Trip"
Have it on video. To painful to go into it now. I'll just say what I said here before. We had an appointment, and got about 2 minutes in the reception area, after driving 800 miles! The video is funny though! One of these days, I'll see if I can get it on a site.
"Love Her" opera?
One example of how we would record our songs is that I would put down some music that had been worked out by Buddy and me, and if Buddy was to sing a song, he would come over after his work, usually at night or on weekend days, and I would either stay there to hear it, or go inside the house, since the studio was then a garage like shop, (which my dad and I built with our neighbor), right next to my house. One day, I must have been telling Bud that it wasn't that good yet, to really feel that song and sing it like a ballad should be sung. Well, I left to go do a piano tuning, and when I got back, Cindy, my wife, told me that Bud had finished the vocal, and that he wanted me to check it out. I walked into the studio, put on my headphones and pushed play, to hear the slowly moving ballad style music in the intro I come to know so well, to hear Buddy sing the entire song in a deep, opera style version! I was rolling on the floor with laugher. Nothing like his Country style voice at all, and of course not the genre we were going after! But what a way for him to say, I tried it every way you wanted me to, and none of them were good, so here!!!!! How's this? ............Priceless! He never did try the (normal) final vocal again for that song, called "Love Her".
We had a Mt. Laurel studio owner and meat distributor listen to our demo, who like it, then asked us to write some power ballads for "Sick Vicki". We told him that they should write their own stuff, because our style was nothing like theirs. We can write a lot of different styles, but that was just too far away from what we do. After a couple of weeks, he then had us meet a beautiful African American lady who was former Miss Delaware, who wanted to sing Country music in Guam! She had a GREAT voice! But for Country? No way! She could have owned a ballad and sold it to the world! What a talent! But with her desire to do Country songs in Quam? As you guessed, nothing ever came of that also.
1992: "The Gulf War":
The day the war was declared, my piano business went to nothing. I drove a 24-foot box truck throughout Manhattan starting from Southern New Jersey, and also going around the entire Delaware Valley area. Bud also drove a truck, but not in NY City,"No way", he said! I loved it! For a while anyway.
After having recorded most of the songs we had written, and not having any more prospects, we sunk into a void.
Then, I had to sell my house, with my recording studio and piano rebuilding shop, (garage that my father help build with my neighbor, that has since been torn down! a few years ahead of this paragraph.) It was only about 12 years new! I heard the machinery tearing it down, and had to go for a drive.
(Back before it was torn down):
I moved to Deptford and got away from the music as far as writing, and even playing my piano. I got into playing sports again. Buddy and I would still get together back in Barrington though, across the street from where I moved from, and also across the street where my folks still lived. We watched a lot of movies. That's where we got the idea for scoring films. Funny huh? Not ha ha funny, but you know what I mean.
1996: "Goodbye Dad"
I moved back to Barrington, right next door to Buddy. My dad died ten days later. I was now there for my mom, who had just had an eye go bad from bleeding inside of it. When I moved back, I was so happy and rejuvenated, Then after my dad died, I felt so empty, and sad for my mom, and my sister. It still is a haunting reality. I was there at his bedside, thanking him over and over for all of his love and support for me and my music years, all those times he played melodies on the mandolin, so I would play the chords on the piano, all from ear, like he played. All those amps, and guitars and organs and "that piano" he bought for my mom, but that I took over. All the baseball days of him catching my fastballs with his hands all torn up from his printing job chemicals. And he never let on. My mom told me later what he went through, all for me to do what I could do, and wanted to do! I said goodbye to the best dad anyone could have had. Time stood still then. I couldn't believe what I just witnessed. The man who passed on his genes so I could live was dead. I wrote two songs about him in "Find My Eyes" and "When Will I Be With You Again?"
Sometime in ‘96, John Plumley, a singer from a past band I was in called me to see if I could join his new band that would be playing at all the NASCAR events. I had piano tuning contract at Rowan College, and told him that I didn't have any of the music equipment, since I sold everything after moving from Barrington back in 1992. When I told Buddy that, on his porch, he said that maybe I should get a small recorder, like we had in the beginning, in 1978.
After meeting a friend of Bud's from his work, Ron, and hearing his Beatles imitations, sometime later, I went out and got the same kind of gear that I just sold in 1992 instead!
The music started to come out of me right away. The death of my father hurt so, that I would bury myself in the recordings. Bud would say that he isn't really into just doing that again, that he needs to be challenged. He kept on saying that. He would work on songs with me after he would return from working all day, and with amazing sharpness, know exactly how a song should be changed, to make it better. I mean, I was working on it all day, and thought, hey this is pretty good. Then Bud would hear it, and say, "No, I don't like this part", or other things like that, and I would try the suggestions he said. And like that, the song took on a much better character! Then he would go do his other millions of things he had to do. He didn't have to spend any time on the songs. He knew right away what to change and why! Amazing!
Then Bud got the call he was waiting for, the challenge. His sister, who writes scripts for Regent University, in Virginia Beach, VA, said that her script is going to be a film there. But, later she called us to tell us that there is Russian Labor camp style film that we could do first if we want it! Bud said, first we get an African American Miss Delaware Lady who wants to sing our Country songs in Guam, now someone wants us score a Russian style score! He then said, "what you think, do you want to do it? I said, "SURE! Lets do it". He said, "OK, great, lets do it"! HOW?
We found out the film was about Alexander Solzinitzen, so we went to the library to do some research on him, to get a feel for his character. Then we got some CD's of Russian Classical music, and just listened. I never took any lessons on anything other than an accordion from ages 7 through 9. We took to it like any other music we liked.
We read the script, came up with some sample sounds and themes, and went down to Virginia, to present it to the director and the professor. They loved what we did. We went down again for the first day of shooting. We were extras, bringing our own period clothes we bought in a thrift store. That day was very long and hot. But we got a good feel for the film. And I got the feel for that Port a Spot! Ah man, whatever I ate at McDonalds, combined the heat, and my excitement, was just too much to handle! LOL
We came back and waited for the film. After we scored and recorded the film here at my home in Barrington, NJ, we went down again to present it to the director. She started to write things down right away, after we asked her to just sit back, watch and listen for the first run through. Oh well, so much for that! She didn't like what we did. (It seemed to be her need to make edits, as she said often said that "changes are always made", and that was before she heard anything). We left with the agreement that we would work on the changes that she was supposed to E-mail. When she didn't E-mail us, after two weeks, I called her. It was then that she said she was having a meeting about the situation. In other words, she went against her word, and didn't give us a chance to come up with any changes. And this is from a highly noted religious college! We thought her word would be good. (LESSON LEARNED!)
We sent the score to ASCAP to be considered for the annual Film scoring workshop in LA. We were told that we were too late for that year, but would be accepted the following year, based on our score! We couldn't go though, since we found out the workshop would be a month long, and expenses were way beyond what we could cover, never mind having No bills paid at our homes for that month. So, we missed out, but know, from ASCAP's comments, that we did a great job on that score.
We sort of knew it from a weird sign from what Buddy and I sensed from my late father at the very last note of the last scene, when we recorded it! The sign was a non-electronic sound and "Feeling" that Buddy had first that went down his legs from his head, while sitting on my father's old recliner that is in our studio. He had the headphones on. He told me to listen to this. I didn't hear anything until I stood right in front of my dad's recliner. I then felt and heard this very weird sound and sensation! Then it was gone. We tried to get that to happen again, and No matter what, we couldn't. We played the same parts, had the same settings, everything. It never happened again. (I Tune pianos too, and I know notes, and other sounds a recorder, or waves can put out, and this was nothing I could even imagine! And the way it felt, was so different from any feeling I experienced, same with Buddy, that we have only one explanation. My father had been very musical through my life, and was the most loving person you could meet. He wanted so much for me to be happy with music. This was his way of saying, "I’m happy with what you just did".
1998: "Eyes Bigger than Stomach"
We found Loggins Promotion from a book, "Songwriters Market". After dozens of E-Mails, we sent him our demo of about 35 songs. He tested them with radio programmers, and he reported the results in the form of one to four stars. We had some with four, some with three stars, a few with two. At this time we went on MP3.com to get some exposure with our songs. We had Neil Warren, a good friend, design some CD covers, and we got them printed up at a Kinkos. With the financial backing from my sister Joan, the 15 song CD, which Loggins had selected the songs for, was now being mailed to 300 radio stations, to which one song was to be released, "Where Does the Love Go" (Now called "When You Turn and Walk Away"). We needed a lot more CD's than what we could produce at out studio, so we hired Disc Makers to make them for us. They later designed new cover art for our second orders. After 22 weeks of release, "Where does the love go" had climbed up Kal Rudman's FMQB Top 200 Chart at #64, which was rare for a first release by a small Indie label, our own "D&H Records".
We released our second single of our North & South CD, "Lennon, More than a Memory". That song had reached #71 in FMQB, and in the top 10 in numerous charts on MP3.com, with a couple of number 1 placements, for whatever that is worth, probably nothing really.
We had hired Mazur Public Relations to handle press releases, and to get us publicity, but for our songs, not us, as I did all the music and vocals, except on that one Country song. We did a major newspaper interview in the South Jersey's Courier Post, and have been in several magazines.
"Beware":
We found out though, that our songs weren’t being played on the stations as reported. I called several of them, and they didn’t even find the CD’s, except for one station. They said they would play it later that night. They didn’t. So, beware of Loggins Promotions. We weren’t happy with their practice of taking on a non-band, non-performing writing team, as we found out the hard about how that shouldn’t be done in the first place by writers only.
We're looking to score other films, or to somehow get a pro band together to build around my piano playing and singing. Bud says he'll come out and play guitar and drums once in a while, and also sing, but he wants to stay on the sidelines writing more songs, and "just watch me play". I'll get "him" out there, and watch "him" play!
1999-2004: We still live next to each other, and hang out a lot on his front porch, or at my back patio. We often look up at the stars there, and ask why is it so hard for things to happen in this business. We know why of course, but at the time of looking at the stars, it gets to the point of "OK, we get it, we know what it's all about and we're trying, so please help us"! You know, those prayers that you think are going unanswered. They're not really. They're just not what we think we want at those times. But you know what is most important? Family, and the love you have for them, and them for you. Everything else really doesn't matter. It would be nice, yeah, to have a major break!!! We think so anyway. But it's not everything. Seems like it is at times though! Know what I mean? That scene you see with the writers or band members throwing their hands on the air, and yelling!
I joined "Just Plain Folks" in January, 2001. Made many friends and learned a great deal about every aspect of the music business, as well as creative sides of songwriting and recording. Vocals too. But the people are my biggest gains.
2005: “Too Little Time”
I was thinking of how at my age, 52 then, (one year ago), that there is too little time in this life, with how fast each day goes by, and the weeks, and even years. Hell, the decades are becoming like years now! I recorded a song “Too Little Time” over at a friend’s home studio, (Ron Signorelli), and put it on Bud's and my music sites, where I posted that info on the MP3 Feedback Forum at “Just Plain Folks”. I said that is was a rockabilly or country song. Brian Austin Whitney said that is wasn't Country, but rather, a McCartney version of what a country song is. He asked me to play this out at one of his showcases. From there, I did some more, (New Brunswick, N.J; Brooklyn, NY; a Boston Suburb; and Portsmouth, New Hampshire). I got interested in forming a band to play this and other songs with.
Then, Jimmy Calore, (the bass player from the earlier mentioned Breakwater Bay Band) emails me about getting together to jam with him playing his new horn. After I asked him to maybe play the bass again, and him getting one from Ron to see if he wanted to, and he did, I ran into our old drummer, who was also looking for something to do again that would be fun. So he said "I'm in, let’s do it"! This band is now called "Too Little Time"! So, as you can tell, this song is going to be a very special one for all of us for several reasons.
I starting writing a song for the band called “London’s Ferris Wheel”, to which I had only the title. Buddy and I haven’t been doing a lot of writing through the past couple of years, but he always said that if something would need his attention, he could do it without problems. I told my desire to write this song, and he told me some key things to think about. I came back home, wrote the verses and the bridge in about ten minutes, then took it back to him, where he took them into his house and a few minutes later came out with his edits, which made the song more concise. I put them on the lyric boards of "Just Plain Folks", and got good comments, along with some good ideas to make it even better, (about my lyrics, not Buddy’s).
2006:
I made those changes, and now this band is about to take those two songs above, along with 9 others out to a local club to get ready for playing a few at a radio station show in Philadelphia, PA. Also, a journalist from a Philly newspaper told us he will be doing a feature on the band. Now at 53, I feel my music life is about to take hold. Or at least the opportunity is there to play out full time in the near future. With the band members being good old friends, (“old” being relative and a touchy subject), this is one great fun ride to still be on!
2006.
The bass player left the band. So, I put an ad at Just Plain Folks, where Iggy and Tom Tracy answered quickly as something tat looks to be fun. Iggy plays keys and bass. Tom was the bass player, until he also had to leave to prepare his house to be put up for sale, and has plans to move away form Philly, to be in the country.
End of 2006/Jan of 2007:
The four remaining, Iggy, Roon, (guitarists), Marnie, (drums), and me, are in the process of recording at Substudio, NY, for a song called, "I Don't Want to be Famous".
Thanks for taking the time to read this!
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John Daubert,
Daubert & Holcombe
"Too Little Time" band
![[Linked Image]](http://www.justplainfolks.org/ubb/smile.gif)
John you need to write a book, this was good.