The Story:

 

In late 1971 a couple of friends of mine had started a business recording and pressing records. They asked if I would record a single with them as a demo to show what they could do. The results were satisfactory so it was suggested that we record enough songs for an entire album which would be pressed into vinyl, which I would then have all rights to. For the Album recording I gathered together a group of musicians. Mike Beavers was a close friend and professional sax and Flute player. He brought in Paul Giacaloni. a fabulous pianist and Emil George, who had been playing Bass with the Roy Merriweather Trio. Tootsie Roller was a percussionist who played with different groups and was up for anything! Don assumed engineering and production for the project. Since the guys had club gigs, the album was recorded between 11pm and 3am. Don set up the studio nightly in the living room that had decent acoustics.We experimented with a number of effects on the album. For example, Julie, an acoustic song, had not only overdubbed guitars, but also doubled vocals which we had no idea was being used in studio recordings. The juxtaposition of jazz sax and the dreamy simplicity of the overdubbed vocals and guitars make for a whole new sound collage.Don achieving overdubbing by using a second tape machine and “bouncing” the recordings from one machine to the other. Epic had numerous musical “one off’s”. At one point Beavers played a a sax into a device that put the sound through a bowl of water with a microphone at the surface. The result was that bubbly deep sax solo which erupted to the surface in tune. I sent a copy of the album to Pink Floyd seven months before their album “Dark Side Of The Moon” was released in 1973. I don’t know if they ever heard it, but I love the coincidence of the song titles! Two of the songs on “Inifinite Companions” do have a bit of a Pink Floyd flavor and show their influence on some of my music. What makes this album special to me is Don’s creativity and devotion to the project. Don went on to engineer for many groups including the Ramones and, also, the “NBC Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (for which he was asked to play Jaw Harp for a Tommy Tune number!) You can also hear him play on A3 /”98.6” on this record. 

     

The bonus song is from a live radio performance. It is the only recording I have of the song. I had performed it at an artists party in Connecticut which got me an invitation to play at Andy Warhol's New Years Eve party and on WBAI in New York.