This song has gone through many twists and turns to arrive at where it is today. Not sure how it will be taken, as it has an unusual 7/8 time signature. It was written 1989 and inspired by the music I heard, back then, by the great Brazilian percussionist, Airto Moirera, who was the first I ever heard play a 7 Samba.
The current product was rounded out by the addition of legendary bass player, Dave C. Johnson, who I met in Ft Myers, Florida.
Let’s go back to 1989. I was in Oklahoma City, making tracks with bass player, Mike Oak at Wildcat Studio, operated by guitarist/producer, Mark Lyon. We completed 4 songs for the demo before returning to California when, horror of horrors, the original master tapes were lost! So the first version of “I Am” was only saved on a cassette tape as rough mix.
In 1990, having returned to my job as Taxi Driver in San Francisco, I had the good fortune to meet Mike Bone, President of Chrysalis Records. There was a music industry convention being held at the Saint Francis Hotel and He was one of my passengers. I overheard His conversation in the back seat and told Him I was a song writer. He gave Me His business card and told Me to send a demo. I sent Our demo by certified mail and was actually contacted by one of His staff. “Mr. Mike Bone would like to hear more of Your Rock stuff.”
Long story short. A bunch of stuff went down all at once. Life happens. My relationship bottomed out. I Totaled My car in an auto accident. Then the dreaded call from My Brother: “Dad was in an accident. He fell off the roof. He’s dead.” This was the start of My transition in 1990 from San Francisco back to My home town in Massachusetts. Trips back and forth. Somewhere in the interim I was evicted from My apartment. Needless to say, I didn’t get around to recording My Rock n Roll songs to send to Mike Bone at Chrysalis Records.
I always wanted to record the song again. After many years in the back-burner, I started the song from scratch when I met producer/guitarist Bill Hilt in 2018 and We set up a makeshift recording space with His Protools.