What I remember specifically about the El Goodo session at Main Street West: it was the second or third session for Ardent. We'd just finished Bullett. It was the dead of winter in South Philadelphia. Matt ran his space heater, which worked intermittently. For some of the winter sessions, I kept my coat on the whole time. We were baked: who cared? What I brought to the El Goodo session was a loose outline of another instrumental. I imagined it sounding like early Fleetwood Mac: "Albatross" or "Before the Beginning." What happened surprised me: the song demanded rougher, grainier treatment. I applied fuzz pedal and began doing overdubs. The labyrinth led me back, as it often has, to Big Star. So that, once I had nailed down roughly what I wanted to do, Matt rolled tape and I did it. In, if I recall correctly, precisely three takes. The eagle-eared may note: I sometimes use scales outside the standard rock vernacular. The Dorian and Phrygian mode show up here. Thank you, Gene Pasquerelli, who taught me such things at Pro Drum Works in Glenside when I was a kid. The "outside" tonal vernacular and the Midtown Memphis overtones, I hope, make a unique composite.
