www.jamiethompson.net the music and personal website of guitarist Jamie Thompson

The Sedan Delivery Free mp3 Download

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Warning: This track has some foul language at the end behind the guitar solo. It isn't hugely noticeable and it's not what the song or the performance is about. This is a live track and I think our singer got a bit carried away in the passion of the moment. It wasn't planned or intended. This website is designed for a general audience so I struggled with the issue of whether or not to post this track. Personally, I'm not afraid of words but I do not wish to offend anyone or teach anyone's kids new curse words. In spite of the explicatives, which I have always thought regrettable, this is one of my favorite tracks from my early career. It's a fine group performance and it has a rippin' guitar solo that I've always been proud of so I think it's good qualities outweigh a few moments of someone else's indiscretion. 

If you don't want a track that has some curse words in it, please don't download this track.

Jamie Thompson

This is Red Rose Cotillion's version of Sedan Delivery. It was recorded at the Phyrst in State College, PA September 1980 while the vibe in the band was, as yet, less than totally calamitous!  :)

Background: In the spring and summer of 1980 Neil Young's "Rust Never Sleeps" album was on endless repeat at the RRC band house. We had seen the movie of the same name and Neil's "Journey Through the Past" movie at the Kern Building on the PSU campus. We were all charmed by Neil's cheeky satirical perspective on the world in general, and punk rock in particular.

Who did what: Jerry Getz: vocals, David Young: guitar, Roger Schultz: bass, Ron Karp: drums, Jim Greene: sound, me on guitar.

I think that Jerry Getz did an exceptional job on the vocals. I can vividly remember him singing this song. He injected himself totally into the character, tapped into his deep well of passion, and gave it all he had. It was, in my opinion, authentic. The rest of us just filled in for vocal hits like "...BLOOD!!...,"  "...ROOTS...," and, "...HARD TO FIND!!..."

I played the good ol' 1967 SG Standard through Dave Marion's spitfire 1960 Fender Deluxe Amp with a JBL K-120 in the speaker hole. 18 watts of blistering volume and intensity that little critter was. Thanks Dave!! This was one of my favorite tacks to jam out on in those days. I had it cranked for this one. What a blast!

During the "...the lasers are in the lab..." verse Jim Greene had my old Boss Phase Shifter foot pedal connected in Jerry's vocal channel effect insert circuit. During the words, "lab, clothes, mad, and knows," Jim cranked up the speed of the effect which made Jerry sound like he was singing inside some kind of strange, high-speed alien energy blender. The rocket sound effects were made by David. He was playing his 1968 Gibson SG Standard through Jack Carlson's amazing home-made fuzz box and an Electro Harmonix Electric Mistress flanger.

The original recording: I was always disappointed with the results of "board tapes." That's a cassette recording of the usually mono main audio output of a mixing board when a show is happening. Board tapes are usually heavy on everything that goes directly into a microphone and light on the things that are loud on stage, like the drums, bass, and lead guitar. Never one to settle for a recording that was unsatisfactory if I could help it, I came up with the idea of making a cassette recording the output of the board on one track and an ambient microphone placed strategically on the stage on the other track. This would result in a stereo effect, number one, and make a more balanced product. So, I went down to see Bryan Rusenko at the High Fidelity House store and picked up an inexpensive Toshiba cassette deck that could simultaneously record a line-in on one track and a mic-in on the other. By the time RRC's days were done, I had a box of tapes that sound a lot like this recording. Not at all bad.

The creation of the mp3: I captured this track into my PC from the original cassette with an Edirol UA5 USB 24 bit audio capture device. I used Nero's wave editor to normalize volume, sample and reduce noise, and tweak the EQ.

Enjoy!

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