The Second Fifteen
ALBUM RELEASED: 2007
Five years after "The Second Ten", I decided to update all of my early songs. Many were overhauled quite a bit due to the addition of several instruments and better recording quality.
RICK'S NOTES:
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1994
Wanting to get back to the basics of the song, I kept the percussion fairly mellow and purposely left any kind of real structure out of it.
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Bad Times
This had been a favorite of mine from The Second Ten. The acoustic guitar rhythm was changed a bit, but other than that, the only major difference from the original is a fuller sound.
Dancin’ on the Moon
Since J.R. Comics never had any proper electric recordings from the past, I decided to go all out with this update and make it worthy of its potential.
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EasyBeat
Both a 12 and 6-string were used and the second verse picks up a bit.
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Express
This one deserved to be a bit faster since the idea was that the character was very stressed. It's more of a rocker than most and is fun to play.
Foreign Girl with a Flower
A nice song about a pretty girl, this is updated from the version on "The Second Ten".
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Level 18
Knowing there was a really good song hidden inside the original, I turned it into a flat-out rock tune, keeping it short and sweet. It's definitely more memorable.
Mononucleosis
The song had always been divided into three equal, but progressively interesting parts. I decided to take it as far as I could go without destroying it. From a full minute of simple acoustic guitar to the end, with banging drums and electric-ness in the air, you get to hear a full evolution within a 3-minute song.
Surprise
"Surprise" was the first song redone for this album, and the new life given to it was an inspiration to me the rest of the way. With a better understanding of how a couple of dozen separate tracks could be merged into one great listening experience, I was ready to conquer the rest of them.
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Zesty
With a stronger beat, this one is easy to dance to. I should know. As one of my other's absolute favorites, we danced to it at my wedding. If a song makes your mom happy, it's got to be good, right?