In 1984, my music production partner Edward “Woody” Allen wrote lyrics about exploitation in the media inspired by the Vanessa Williams Miss America debacle. We laid down a simple synth pop track for a demo, but the question was: who to sing it? We came up with the idea to ask Bill Blue, an amazing Rockin’ Blues singer and slide player who had recently moved to Key West. Although he was a bit put off by the sparse electronic vibe of the song he took it on. It’s a great blending of genres, particularly when he cuts loose on the second verse! The final touch was versatile vocalist Mike McCloud on the chorus.

It was my first experience with Bill in the studio. We went on to become good friends and played music around the Keys for decades in a band called Bill Blue and the Nervous Guys.

I had lost all copies of the song… Woody had a mono cassette version that he dug up and digitized for me.

Here’s an equipment list:

Recorder: Otari MX5050 1/2” 8 track reel to reel with meter bridge, outboard DBX NR, Ampex tape
Mixer: Allen Heath CMC 24
Mixdown: Revox PR99 2 track, Ampex tape
Mic: AKG 414
EFX: Orban 111B spring reverb (sproing drums!), Boss DE-200 digital delay used for camera samples and reverb pre-delay
Synth: Roland JX-3P
Drum Machine: Emu Drumulator and live cymbal crash