Summer Rain 0:30 (sample - 480kb)
They Call Your Name 4:31 (complete track - 4.3mb)
Anita 0:30 (sample - 480kb)
I Warned Ya 0:30 (sample - 480kb)
Dream Girl 5:07 (complete track - 4.9mb)
All titles written by Andy Tanas and arranged by The Streets
All soundbytes are 128kbps mp3s
The Streets…
Jimmy Henderson - guitar
Shawn Lane - guitar
Andy Tanas - bass, vocals
Chris Craig - drums
The Story…
By early spring of 1979 Jim Dandy had decided to stop BOA at the end of the year and pursue other interests. He had even talked about becoming an evangelist but that never happened. The band's live show was getting a lot of attention mainly from having Shawn Lane in the band and the new songs. So a decision was made by the band and management to form The Streets. The name came from another song I wrote called “Blame It On The Streets” about a girlfriend who had gotten pretty deep into cocaine use. I had been writing a bunch of songs from mid 1978 but didn't seem to either work or appeal to JD. We had shopped some tapes with Jim to some labels but nothing ever came about.
So The Streets started rehearsing these songs right after Chris Craig joined that spring. These were recorded in my bedroom at the lodge in Arkansas. We recorded the tracks live on a Teac four track through a Tapco six channel board. I went back and recorded vocals separately. I had always loved the way John Lennon's voice sounded on his early solo records. He usually double tracked them and added delay but they had this upper high-end sound that I really liked. I was no where near having a great voice and struggled to find a vocal style.
The cool thing about these tapes was the energy that was captured. I liked the songs when I wrote them but they came alive after Jimmy and Shawn added their parts. Shawn was truly amazing having just turned 16 that March of 1979 but was all shred until this point. Jimmy was the first really great guitar player that he had ever worked closely with and the parts, harmonies, tones and solos are just amazing.
I didn't hear this for many years and was floored when I pulled it out and cranked it a couple of years back. There's just something about it that gets you especially when you consider where music was in 1979. The band broke up in the fall of 79 after attempts to get Shawn under contract fell apart. To be honest…considering who was involved back then it's probably for the best.
I just wanted to share this with you and hope you get a kick out of it. I do have the comfort of knowing that both Jimmy and Shawn told me years later that they wish they had stuck it out just to see what might have happened.
The Stories Behind The Songs…
Summer Rain… was about this girl in Florida that I was crazy about. I spent a night with her during one of those quick Florida thunderstorms and for months every time it rained I thought about her.
They Call Your Name…a friend here in Memphis had this younger sister who was the sweetest, most innocent person I've ever met. For some reason after she graduated from high school she became a real slut. So I wrote it with her in mind. The good news is that she turned out ok and is happily divorced.
Anita…was about this girl in Starkville, Ms. who wanted to come to Biloxi to see us play but her mother wouldn't hear of it. That was probably a smart move on her mom's part. She called me in my room one night and was hysterically sobbing about this. Nothing I said helped to calm her down. Thus came the song.
I Warned Ya…this was written loosely about my first wife and the ongoing threat of divorce we went through in 1975 when I was on the Skynyrd Tour.
Dream Girl…I started really getting into punk around late 77 and was a big Boomtown Rats fan. I was also 23 and like most dumb males, placed way too much emphasis on Playboy Magazine. So you can figure out the rest.
