Chasing My Shadow

“Chasing My Shadow” is an original instrumental intended to be in the style of the Shadows.

Filler Up

“Filler Up” is an original composition intended to be in the style of 1960s guitar instrumentals like surf rock or the Ventures. In particular, it is an homage to the “filler cuts” typically written by the band members to fill out an album which otherwise usually featured covers of popular tunes of the day.

March to the Shadows

“March to the Shadows” is an original instrumental intended to be in the style of the Shadows.

Riff-a-Billy

“Riff-a-Billy” is an original instrumental intended to be in the early 1960s style of the Ventures.

What Goes On

This is my instrumental cover of “What Goes On”, first released by the Beatles track on their 1965 album Rubber Soul. The song was later released as the B-side of the US single “Nowhere Man”.

The original version of the song was written by John Lennon in the very early  days and considered as a follow-up to “Please Please Me” in early 1963. A demo of this version featuring Lennon and Paul McCartney was recorded in 1963, but the song was not used until 1965 as Ringo Starr’s vocal for Rubber Soul. Ringo contributed to the lyrics, his first-ever composing credit on a Beatles song.

I have a special affection for the Beatle’s rockabilly country numbers.

 

Kimono Be Blonde

“Kimono Be Blonde” is an original instrumental intended to be in the early 1960s style of the Ventures. I set out to create a 12-bar-based rocker that would hopefully be similar to something the band members would have written themselves. The title “Kimono Be Blonde” is an anagram of “Bob Don Nokie Mel”.

Statesboro Fistful

“Statesboro Fistful” is an original instrumental in a classic-rock/southern-rock style.  When I started work on it, I mainly intended to do something traditional in this vein…however, apparently my recent work arranging some of Ennio Morrione’s material lingered in my brain, as I think the melody and chords are reminiscent of his music.

 

Rolling Shadows

“Rolling Shadows” is an original instrumental intended to be in the 1960s style of the Shadows.

Blackout

“Blackout” is an original composition intended to be in the style of 1960s guitar instrumentals like surf rock or the Ventures.

Hotel California

This is my instrumental cover of the Eagles’ hit “Hotel California”.

It is the title track from the Eagles’ album of the same name and was released as a single in February 1977. Writing credits for the song are shared by Don Felder (music), Don Henley, and Glenn Frey (lyrics). The Eagles’ original recording of the song features Henley singing the lead vocals and concludes with an extended section of electric guitar interplay between Felder and Joe Walsh.

My arrangement rocks things up a bit and was intended, at least somewhat, to imagine how the Ventures might have handled it.

The Ecstasy of Gold

This is my cover of “The Ecstasy of Gold”. Composed by Ennio Morricone, it was part of his score for the 1966 Sergio Leone film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The music is played near the end of the film while the character Tuco (played by Eli Wallach) is frantically searching a cemetery for the grave that holds $200,000 in gold coins. It is one of the most well known of Morricone’s themes.

I could find no versions by any contemporaneous instrumental rock groups. However, Metallica regularly used “The Ecstasy of Gold” as the introductory music for its concerts.

The Hungry Hodad

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Cowboy Chords

“Cowboy Chords” is an original instrumental intended to evoke the style of the Ventures early 1960’s “country” numbers.

The Bat

This is my cover of “The Bat”, which was the opening track n the Ventures 1964 album, “Ventures in Space”.  It was composed by Lou Forbes  as the title theme for the 1959 film “The Bat”, which starred Vincent Price.

Invaders from Uranus

“Invaders from Uranus” is an original instrumental intended to be similar to the style of the Ventures’ “outer-space” material. This particular sub-genre was kicked off by the Tornadoes hit “Telstar” in 1962. Quite a few copycats quickly followed.

The Ventures released “The Ventures in Space” in 1964, and was reportedly the first one which featured their use of Mosrite guitars.