“Hold Me Down”
I’m leaving for Dallas tomorrow morning and thought I’d sign off for the week with a second Zen Pirates song for your listening pleasure. Click here to listen to “I Caught a Wave.”
The Zen Pirates was the high point of my twenty-plus musical years in the D/FW metroplex.
Arriving in Plano in the summer of ’81 (my junior year of high school) I quickly discovered that bass players were in great demand. I started jamming around, covering old standards (Cream, Led Zeppelin), new standards (Rush), up-and-comers (Iron Maiden), and everything in between.
A couple lunchtime jam sessions at Travis Katz’s house (last I heard Travis was a rabbi) with Mike Landino and an audition with Jon Senderling eventually landed me a gig with Plano’s almost semi-legendary The End. I replaced their bass player, Eric Byro, who, in a marvelous twist of fate, has become one of my closest friends since—my brother from another mother.
Fast forward many years. . . . Because of my association with The End (of course, Eric eventually replaced me), I met drummer Dave Willyard (who’d also played with The End)—we were the Spinal Tap of suburban high school rock bands—who joined the Zen Pirates not long after we started rehearsing at original ZP singer Gary Maxwell’s house with John Oliphant on drums. Come to think of it, Zen Pirates had its Tap moments, too. . . .
“Hold Me Down” was recorded at Planet Dallas Studios in 1993 after we had become a power trio: Mikey Brown on guitar and lead vocals; Dave Willyard on drums and vocals; yours truly on bass.
Enjoy.
Listened to this while my daughter practiced her 5-finger patterns on the piano. It was done during the early years of my self-imposed exile, so I never heard it. Yeah, you’re like all the other musicians in my life–you don’t share your work when it’s current. Bastard. Send my regards to those you see.