The Rockouts

Here's a blast from the past---a rare picture of my band, The Rockouts (March 1983- October 1985). Basically started as a solo project after the breakup of the infamous E.V., the band had several different incarnations lineup wise. Eventually I brought in Mike Gassmann to take over lead vocals and Steve Knecht became the bassist over the final 16 months of the band. During the early days of The Rockouts, we often shared the bill with Mike's band the Bopalots (he was the drummer with them), and the last half of our career we often shared the bill with Joe Camel and the Caucasians, and The Primitives. The Primitives later evolved into Uncle Tupelo, which later split into Wilco and Son Volt.

This picture was taken at a party in an apartment following a show we played in Normal, Illinois on 16 November, 1984. I think the show was played at a club called the Gallery.
L to R--Steve Knecht (bass), me (guitar), Bill Stoner (drums), Mike Gassmann (vocals)

Lyric Series: Alone

This series will be appearing on my myspace music site at www.myspace.com/fredclarkmusic. I am putting the first installment here to encourage you to visit that site and become my friend there. In the future, the lyric series will only appear on that site.

My new series will be individual blogs of lyrics from the first two albums with a little bit of background info. I will alternate albums and otherwise keep the order random.
First up: "Alone" from Just Another Day.

Background: I had played some bass with EV (1981-83), and with the impending breakup of that group, I bought a guitar and amp in March of '83. I basically learned to play barre chords and put together quick paced 3 and 4 chord songs with distortion. The few covers that I learned were basically '50's tunes which I sped up and used distortion on also. At the end of June, I debuted the Rockouts, one week after the last EV show. In July, I came up with the music for "Alone", which had a radically different, almost countryesque, no distortion sound. I basically had the lyrics for the chorus, and that was about it. I kept the tune under wraps, so to speak, because it didn't really fit with the other material. In '84, after Mike Gassmann joined the group, I approached him about helping with the lyrics, told him my ideas and he came up with just what I was looking for on the verses. I tweaked it a bit and we debuted it in the summer of '84. At that point we felt comfortable in moving the band in a different direction and it paid off, as it become a crowd favorite. It stood out from the other songs in our set.

Fast forward 10 years later when I started my solo career---"Alone" was the one song I carried over from the Rockouts era because it fit with the direction I was heading, although I almost didn't put it on the album because I basically wanted new material for it. In the end, I relented, and am glad I did, as it is still one of my favorites. If I had one thing to do over with this song production wise, I would have loved to put some strings---violin or cello, and possibly a haunting organ to it. I would love to hear somebody cover it in that manner. Anyway, here are the lyrics:

"Alone"

I wish that I could leave this town
where the sun don't shine and the rain keeps falling down on me
Ever since you left I don't know what at all or who I'm really supposed to be

and don't take your love away
baby I wish you'd stay

Now I just don't know what to do
I'm hoping that somebody new will take your place
and I've been looking all around but I can't seem to rid myself of your smiling face

and don't take your love away
baby I wish you'd stay

and don't take your love away
baby I wish you'd stay

I'm so alone so alone

Copyright 1984/1996 Fred W Clark, Michael E Gassmann, Surfmonk Music/Rockout Records (ASCAP)

Yes, I am very proud of this song--it's simple but strong.
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