Subject: RE: Bill Staines sings Brucie
From:
Peace
Date: 31 Aug 04 - 08:09 PM
Hello, Don. A 'catter made me aware of this thread, so I thought I'd add my two cents worth. Specifically to you, because you mentioned a year ago that you played the song, and it made this ol' boy feel pretty good at the time.
I wrote it when I had just turned 17 in NYC. Gil Turner is responsible for the reference to San Marcos. I was working at Gerdes Folk City as the MC--a job I got because Mike Porko (the owner) felt sorry for me I think. It was winter and I had no jacket. He gave me a suede jacket that I held onto for three years until my sister cut it up to make me a tobacco pouch for my birthday. Anyway, I was stuck for a three-syllable town somewhere in the other end of the US, and he popped that one to me. I had destroyed about 398 of 400 songs I'd written to that point in my life. Songwriters will understand that every song is good when new, but often, just days later, ya realize that the song has one good line or nothing but a phrase to hang the rest on and therefore it's really a piece of junk. Someone suggested that alliteration could be a good thing in songs and RRD was an exercise in that. I was playing a Favilla nylon-string guitar then, and using a thumb and forefinger "Travis" picking. I had yet to learn any other, and that was self-taught while learning Dylan's "Don't Think Twice" when I was about 14 in Montreal.
I got a recording deal with Elektra, thanks to Jacob R Solman and Jac Holzman. The publishing was with Nina Music at Elektra also. I don't really recall much about writing the song other than I had hung around freight yards in Montreal as a kid and jumped the odd flatcar in the CN yards. I recall being awed by NYC and I remember how bloody cold it was. That was near the Christmas Day I wound up homeless and feeling very sorry for myself. I had a face full of acne and the contract with Elektra resulted in my having to write four songs within a week to audition and subsequently record.
IMO, although I'm very flattered that you have sung the song, it's such early work for me that I can't recall the words--telling you the truth on that. I have never been to San Marcos, and truthfully I had never heard of it until Gil told me the name. I will mention that I think Gil Turner was a dynamite performer and guitar player, and he taught me lots about how to 'be' on stage and how to warm up a 'house' for the acts that followed. Delicate balance between getting the audience settled down and not ever trying to outdo the main act. (I never could have outdone Gil--although in those days I think I called him Mr Turner; I know I thought of him that way. He told me to call him Gil, and I said, "I sure will, Mr Turner.")
I am honoured that Bill Staines has done the song. He is an exceptional interpreter of songs and a wonderful writer/performer. I have sat in more than a few audiences and listened to him. Wow! Even his 'bad' sets are good. I learned lots from him too.
Thanks to AMZ for atarting this thread. I feel quite humbled. And if anyone listens to the song and decides to call me to account for the writing, please know that it was done 40 years ago, and there IS a statute of limitations on many crimes that are worse than that one.
Bruce Murdoch
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