Category: Matthew’s Blog

This Earth Day will see the remix’s release, a chance to save the world.

The problem is so simple to solve, Please HELP ME  I wrote this song in 1976. The recording I made got the attention of the record company guy (me at the time), who got my message. I want the message to get out to EVERYONE.  I didn’t perform it at the time because I thought it was an obvious sentiment. I’m now too old to want promote this song live or on social media, ergo I NEED YOUR HELP.

                                       A BRIEF HISTORY:

I was walking through an exhibit of player pianos in 1975 and saw a one-man-band playing “Stars and Stripes Forever” by John Phiillip Sousa. It was so cool! I recorded it with Glen Kolotkin. I wrote a ditty incorporating a nursery rhyme about being kind to web-footed friends in my duck voice. I was helped by Jon Sargant of Purple Earthquake , who arranged the vocals and Tommy Dunbar, Rubinoos, who added electric guitar in the “Pete” tradition of working with Beserkley band members. 

The song was released in 1976 to coincide with the America’s 200th birthday, I never toured, I was not an act.. After the recording paid for itself, I stopped working the song. I felt the premise of the song was so obvious and forgot about it until…

      THE SONG GOT ERIC DIN’S (another record company guy) ATTENTION.

Says Din: “We’re excited to get this timely remix out to the streaming services on Earth Day 2022. I was surprised to learn Pete did the “duck” vocals himself, and when I read the lyrics, this suddenly became more than a novelty song for me. It’s an unexpected environmental anthem, and we’re proud to release it on Berkeley Cat Records.   

 

  I made the original video with Calvin West, drawings by Trimla Rose, and I posted it on Youtube. 

 

 

When Eric Din said I was a Berkeley Cat Recording Artist, I was elated. When I heard his remix of my song, I literally “wet my pants.”  I must admit the action on this is overdue. Why this message was missed is a scandal. I concluded we live in the Dark Ages about this. I hope I’m wrong, but the latest congressional apathy has me wondering. This message is so important I feel it needs to be understood better. I hope the concept behind Berkeley Cat Records of “music love”  should be a model of Copy Cat Records for more music.

 

 

I feel compelled to make  a collections of links to music “free to listen.” I’ve never been a music collector before. I’ve always relied on record collectors for my music. When I was younger the popular music of the day was so compelling, I owned this music, but lost all the music that didn’t make the latest hardware. So I bought LPs. and lugged my vinyl recordings around for years. I relied on collectors to hear “rare” music they collected music and had the vintage hardware to play those collected masterpiece. This all changed with the digitizing of music.  I saw the collectors digitizing 45s, 78s, cylinders, and Lps allowing me to listen to all these formats with just a cell phone to hear these gems. Without needing the hardware to hear this music, a music collection becomes a series of links.

 I was born a long time ago in a place and time where you could hear Radio from 2 cities (Baltimore and Washington D.C.) What timing! With music becoming the competition point for numerous genre-heavy radio stations and Record Hops were just beginning to be shown on TV. I decided to share this knowledge.  So I’ve spent my energies collecting links for U. 

This song written by Charles Wright  which he also performs is inspirational for all of us. I wonder how much this song affected my future? I heard this song before it was remixed for stereo. So I posted the 45rpm mono version I was familiar with, i found digitized by a music collector who is sharing this recording for the world. 

 

My whole experience in the music business has been influenced by watching the “Top Down” music business lose a masterpiece to my horror, and once I could remedy this oversight, we released this valuable LP.  As a matter of fact my whole label Beserkley Records was an example of “Bubble Up” music and the corporate interests “Top Down” attempts to take us over. The little label I founded has been approached by every corporate label for a “Top Down” takeover which we resisted (control over our destiny was paramount), afraid of the ”tin ear” (“still birth” Warner Bros. refused to release the band’s recordings) of the original Modern Lovers LP) made it easy to resist the corporate mega bucks.  After I witnessed and participated in the recording of the Modern Lovers, I was moved to release this music by mail order after Warner Bros. balked on releasing this brillant LP. Back then, record collectors and music journalists searched for music to consume. The ”Bubble Up” phenomenon seems to be lost, but the “Top Down” approach is still around. I wonder how much gr8 music has been lost to the “Top Down” corporate approach to deciding what music you hear?

An opportunity to listen to music for paid for by someone else. As a music creator, I want to make sure the creator is compensated for the music he/she created. Either as writer or performer the MUSIC ARTIST NEEDS TO BE COMPENSATED FOR THEIR WORK. 

Here’s my formula for  FREE music:

Free Music to the User = Music Knowledge

Music Knowledge = Cultural Enrichment and Music Enjoyment

 

A free to the user listener experience is at the heart of the sites I create.

I wanted to share my music knowledge and expand your music love. Knowledge is power, and with these I’ve help create, I’m repaying the language of music, that I profited from. Here’s something to listen to:

 

I’m so relieved Mayor Pete stopped his presidential run, so I can focus on my comeback as COMEBACK PETE without confusion about the Pete name. 

I started in 1973 as Son Of Pete, performing my song on stage and that year and also recorded it.

The  “Saga Of Yukon Pete” was my first recording adventure. I also in 1976 recorded “Mankind” and released the recording in 1976 to coincide with the bicentennial celebration of the United States. I’m coming back as Comeback Pete to help formulate a plan for “Nature and Mankind To Respect One and Another.” I will donate the all the proceeds from song’s income to get the message out and pay for spreading the word. 

How dumb it is not to have a Plan B for our planet?