Welcome To The Boomtown
Jay moved to L.A. to play in a band.
Twenty five years ago you didn’t sit at home and create a YouTube video, hoping to draw attention to yourself, you ventured to either coast, made buds, formed bands and tried to make it.
Jay had a modicum of success, but it didn’t pay the bills. So, he sat down with a book and turned himself into a film accountant. Much harder than it sounds, but Jay was a math major at Penn, he knew not only how to read, but understand.
I met Jay when he was monitoring cash flow on one of our films. We connected over music. We bonded when what I’d been telling him for weeks came true, that the company was going to run out of money during principal photography, as it had on every film previous. Then Jay invited me over to his house for pizza. I followed him home in his orange Audi with the Sun Valley license plate frame. Turned out Jay was not a skier, he’d bought the car when he arrived in L.A., and declined to remove the frame, he thought it was cool, a conversation-starter.
The movie finished, after the boss found someone to sell some rights to, insuring that if it was ever profitable, he’d receive mere cents on the dollar. I moved on to Sanctuary. And Jay and I would hang out at his house, watching the golf tournaments.
And then one day I got a call.
Yes, this was in an era before e-mail, texting. Jay had these friends, from when he used to play in bands, they had a new act, they needed a manager, would I check them out?
If it hadn’t been Jay, I would have said no. That’s what you learn in L.A., it’s an endless goose chase. You go up blind alleys to find…nothing. And I ended up driving up a blind alley in a bad neighborhood in Hollywood, but to say I found nothing would be totally incorrect.
Tucked in between the freeway and the Hollywood Bowl I found two guys named David. One exuberant, one quiet. I got a bit of history, as we sat in this high-ceilinged abode, large enough for the latter David, David Ricketts, to fashion a makeshift recording studio.
Then they played me the tape.
Just for tonight
I’ll watch from above
Actually, I was sitting on the top step, high above the living room as this song poured out of the speakers. My body tingled. As opposed to every demo in memory other than one, this song was fantastic, I realized, THESE GUYS WERE GOING TO MAKE IT!
Do you know how rare that is? When you stumble upon something fully realized?
I remember Jackson Browne opening for Laura Nyro at the Fillmore East. I’d never heard of him, he took the stage alone, with an acoustic guitar. He quieted the audience, we paid attention, I bought his first album when it finally came out over a year later.
It took about two years for the David & David album to be released. I ended up not being the manager. The three of us went to Paul Drew’s house, who was a friend of David Baerwald’s mother or father, and he nixed my participation. But the very first A&R guy they played the demo for, Aaron Jacoves at A&M, signed them. And when the ultimate album was released, "Welcome To The Boomtown", it went gold.
I tell you this story to illustrate that just because you are trying, just because you are putting in the hours, that does not mean you’re GOOD!
I know you’re frustrated. I know you hate the major labels, the system. But there are very few great acts, and chances are, you are not one of them. Your mom might like your music, your girlfriend too, but when a disinterested party hears it, will he begin to TESTIFY?
You play live. You put up posters, both real and virtual. You’ve got a mailing list…
But David & David had NEVER played live. And they didn’t employ a carpet bomb approach, just a small network of friends. A friend got a cassette to A&M and a deal was made!
You can listen to "Swimming In The Ocean" here
It’s almost identical to the demo I heard that night back in ’84. Because in addition to being a musician, David Ricketts was a full-blown producer, albeit without credits at the time.
That page loads slowly, so if you’re impatient, go here:
The most famous track is "Welcome To The Boomtown", the title cut. But they’re all good.
The record does not sound quite like anything else. You’ve got Baerwald’s throaty voice and cutting lyrics, and Ricketts’ textures. They didn’t follow a path, they blazed one!
The band did not sustain. The two Davids were great together musically, but when the music stopped, life was difficult. So, all we’ve got is this one collaboration. But it still sounds fresh, it still works today.
