Album Notes

These songs were all recorded as either 4 or 8-track demos.They were performed and recorded across four decades in different studios on different equipment with different engineers having varying degrees of expertise. Since I did some of the engineering myself, I know this to be true. The newest song in the bunch is over 10 years old. Except for maybe a dozen performances, tops, in 1979 and 1980, none of this music has really ever seen the light of day. Whether it deserves to or not, we shall see. I think there’s great stuff here. I’ve returned to it periodically over the years and I come away feeling the same way each time. Some really good songs. Great singing, tasteful playing, inspired moments, some less inspired ones, emotion. No matter what, there’s risk and evolution, a developing musical vocabulary and real collaboration not to mention, of course, compromise. Doing this project has been a great chance for me and Jon to spend some time together because let’s face it, at the end of the day we’re analog and the reel on the right is looking pretty full.

George Pratt, December, 2006


Summer, 1979. I was at the end of a three-year contract as staff songwriter with United Artists in New York. They'd signed me on the strength of demos I'd recorded that exhibited a certain style and depth, but ultimately requested I turn out cookie-cutter knock-offs. I wanted out and formed The Doubles to have a working entity for my own songs and any my band mates might write. I wrote most of our material until Doubles' lead guitarist,George Pratt, and I left the band to collaborate on music that better expressed our own ideas, regardless of fashion, commerciality or music industry concessions.

With help from engineer Tony Caputo, we recorded original music with no set agenda other than having fun and experimenting. Peppered with whimsical cadences, deliberate tonal shadings, sideways nuances, and other quirky oddments that owed little to the pop nausea of the 1980s, the lyrics combined personal commentary wit oblique references to the slings and arrows of whack job humor that kept us from getting too serious, most of the time.

Although this stuff originally had its genesis in my own personal vision, George's musical vocabulary, instincts and ability expanded that vision, allowing our collaboration to evolve into something truly shared, even toweards the end when we were going off in entirely different directions.

Some of these tunes are mine, some are George's, and yet all but one were true collaborations from start to finish. In fact, this is aboutas collaborative as two musicians can get. Nothing else I've ever recorded ever sounded as realized or was as much fun to create. It's not perfect, but I always enjoy hearing it, and it doesn't embarrass me. Given how critical my ear is, that's saying plenty.

Jon McAuliffe, October, 2006