The Lost Tapes

Freedom Alley made a ton of cassette tapes, just ask Walt. There was no epiphany of insight, no brainstorm, no ingenious plan to preserve the songs and get famous. None of that. For starters, no one could follow Walt’s guitar playing. He didn’t write down chords so much as played what was blowing through his head and slipping through his fingers. Man, but he played that Yamaha unrestrained, like a melodic rhapsody with a cosmic touch. Given all of that, it was difficult for Mark to follow what Walt played. So, we went with tapes.

Digging through the bottom of the box, re-listening to old tapes, there were enough new songs to resurrect, re-mix with care and now revisit Freedom Alley with a new batch of songs.

We showed up at one of the early practices to find that Walt had outfitted our practice space with a crude, but functional setup of cassette recorders and cheap microphones. Everything was held together with cable ties and duct tape. The idea was to tape ourselves working on a song, learn it at home, and the following week uncover a masterpiece. Well, sort of.

As our recording equipment was rather primitive, we weren’t so much worried about quality. After a quick check of the volume levels, we hit the record button and played. Mics weren’t wisely positioned and there wasn’t anything studio-professional about these recordings, except the sheer originality, harmony and musicianship on the tapes. We sure had fun making the songs and listening back did help us learn songs.

Our philosophy was always to play the song as though it was the last time we were playing it. We put as much as we could into the instruments, the vocals, the lyrics. A simple run-through often became an extended reverie of riffs, lines and licks. There were times we were either lazy or distracted, and we would forget to hit record. Like the wind through the willow, those were usually the good nights.

The cassettes became mine when I dug through a handful of them, performed freshman edits, and came up with a cassette tape full of complete songs. After editing, I sequenced tracks to blend in with the next one. We were all pleased with the results and were hungry for better recordings and more Freedom Alley music.

At one point, Walt asked to borrow the cassettes. He wanted to listen to them, perhaps duplicate a few. Months went by and eventually I asked for the tapes back to do some more work on them. Walt produced a giant box with close to a hundred cassette tapes, some of them Freedom Alley music, some duplicates, some of them Ornette Coleman music, some blank. One thing they all had in common was there was no accuracy with the labelling. If there were markings of any kind on the outside, they were not what was on the cassettes. Through the years, I’ve had my work cut out for me. The Freedom Alley music on this website are all culled from these tapes.

Volume III – The Lost Tapes comprises the cuts that didn’t make it on the official discs. Resuscitated, reforged, remixed from the left-right channel cassette tapes, what you’ll hear is the sound of a nascent group of players with an insanely magical blending of voices, instruments, and performance to create a sound both intimate and universal…and just bound to turn your head.

A few of the songs on Volume III, as well as any of the other Volumes, were one and done, such as Wondering What Coat To Wear. Many others were performed ad infinitum throughout the time we were together. Performing the same song over and over was sometimes weary, but it surely wasn’t in the cards for Walt. As a release, we found a way to put Folsom Prison Blues to bed towards the end.

Band practice was always inspiring, though. It was always get it on first take and don’t give a damn if you make a mistake. We would spur each other on with short, crisp riffs or a muted sound and then, bam, someone found the muse and the rest latched on for the ride.

That’s how it was with Freedom Alley. We were serious about what we were doing and knew we were doing something rather special. Forty-odd years later, listening to these songs, I’m transported back to the time and place we recorded any one of them. Overall, isn’t a professional studio recording effort and we sure wish we would have had the insight to make that happen, but listen to the songs for yourself and see if the experience doesn’t transport you to someplace magical.