(in order of their live debuts)
Cycle – lyrics & music: Dunn
It makes sense that the first song we played live was also the first song Bryan ever wrote and since 3PO was essentially Bryan’s first band as a leader (he wrote 95% of the songs), I guess it’s all kinda cyclic. Har! This was indeed Big Bry’s first attempt at composition. We played it in Miniver Cheevy, tried it in Echo Juliet and it found its proper home here in 3 Penny Opera. The song is incredibly simple (G-C for the verses, with a big ol’ D thrown in for the choruses), but it still managed to be a pretty good song.
I guess over time I liked it less and less, mostly because it IS so simple and there were plenty of other songs that we didn’t play enough that should’ve been in the set instead of this. What happened over the course of the year is that this song became one of those songs that always got put in the same place of the set. One of the main things that I wanted to get away from in Echo Juliet was how setlists were constructed. It became annoying that certain songs would only be placed at the beginning or end of sets and other songs which may have been more deserving never got that placement. As witnessed by the placement of Cycle after I was out of the group, this was indeed one of ‘those’ songs that occupied only 1 spot in the set: the opener.
It did anger me that the rest of the group kept pushing this song as our de facto set opener. I hate (HATE) being predictable in any way and the insistence of this being song #1 annoyed me. I liked having it in the set for probably about 6 months, but after that I thought we really should have just dropped it out of the set entirely. That’s what I felt should’ve been done, but the rest of the band (that said anything about it) wanted it as the opener. Frustrating. Of course I got outvoted like always.
Regardless of all that drama, this is still a good song. And truthfully, the addition of Wiley, America and Manuel gave Cycle the energy it needed to be worthy of our opening song. I think we took it as far as it could go as a composition and we relied too much on it, but what the hell. I’m only the bassist, ya know.
College Radio – lyrics & music: Dunn
Another of the songs that went through all 3 bands. It’s pretty much a straight up rock song, and Manuel didn’t think he could add anything to it so he sat out. I believe Ed didn’t have a good part either so he also didn’t have a place in this song. Thus, we became a quartet for this number. Even though we played it a lot, Wiley STILL never had a drum part he felt comfortable with. Somewhere near the end of playing this in EJ I solidified what I was doing, but Wiley never felt it. I though he should’ve gone for a Stewart Copeland vibe in the verses, but that didn’t work for him either. All that aside, I did love playing this one and I thought we sounded pretty damn good doing it.
I’ve always liked the lyrics and the statement it was trying to make. Anyone over 30 lies…ha ha, we’re all approaching 30 aren’t we? I especially liked that Bryan wrote about something near to my heart, college radio. I guess having worked at the UT student run radio station made me appreciate what this song was saying that much more. Musically, the part of the song I couldn’t wait to get to was the middle section. For the solo section it was never clear what Wiley and I were supposed to do while Bryan wailed away, so over the years it eventually morphed into a pseudo-Cream jam. Cheevy tapped into that Cream vibe on occasion and for 3PO to do it was awesome as well. It wasn’t that we stretched this one out or anything, but when Bryan soloed what Wiley and I did was really good and a ton of fun to play. That’s what I’ll always remember this one for.
Bethlehem – lyrics & music: Dunn
When this was tried out with Miniver Cheevy we didn’t know what to do with it so it was put on the back burner. This was one of the songs that made the original group of our first material with 3PO. I don’t think America ever really liked it so once we started to get more material, this was one she pushed for us dropping. Her main objection was that she thought the chorus sounded like a cheesy Heart thing. I can see her point in that, but it never bothered me.
Musically it was one we never really got down solid and I think that was mostly my fault. While the chorus is straight up “Heart” rock, the verses were more funky…kind of a 2-chord, James Brown kinda funk. At first I totally overplayed on the funk bits and it sounded pretty awful and amateurish. I didn’t know what to play and I thought I should do something ‘cool’, but I was dead wrong. I guess after a couple of months I ditched the previous part and started over with the idea of playing it simple and trying to be funky. I’m a white dude, I can’t hide that, so any attempts at my part being authentic were laughable. I do think my second attempt at the verse bass line was better, but it never sounded that good and I think because of that the rhythm section never gelled on this. We did practice it as just a rhythm section, but it never really happened for us. I think put in the hands of some different musicians (um, me, or at least in a different mindset) this could be a cool song. As we got more material we phased it out of the set and once I was out of the group, the song was never to return.
Mr. Raleigh’s Dilemma – lyrics & music: Dunn
I LOVE this song! We tried it in EJ, but it didn’t sound good so it was put on hold until we started 3PO. It’s a fairly simple song, but the thing I love most is how it just breathes and there’s nothing in the way of enjoying America’s sultry vocals. I always think it takes some guts for a guitar player to completely sit out for large chunks of a song, so hats off to Bryan for having the balls (and being without ego) enough to not play AT ALL during the verses or choruses.
We worked it up where, in the solo section, Ed and Bry would trade solos until they eventually teamed up for the main riff. I think it took a while for this concept to fully work since it seemed Ed didn’t know exactly what Bryan was talking about. Dueling lead instruments and all that. I think after a few weeks it all clicked into place and we had one of our best songs. One of the little things that made the song so great was what Manuel and I did under the line cupid shot the arrow right through his heart. A bent harmonic from me (the arrow’s flight) and a conga hit from Manual (the impact); it’s a very subtle thing that was probably missed by the audience, but I loved it anyway. It’s really unfortunate that Bryan doesn’t play this one anymore. Granted he can’t sing like America on this, but it’s still a great song and one of my favorites of the whole 3PO repertoire.
Forgotten Days – lyrics & music: Dunn
I’m not sure if it’s still in the set or not, but I know it recently still has been played by Bryan. Last Romantic made a brief appearance, but mostly this song is the only one to go through the entire history of 3 Penny Opera and right on through Simple Thing. Understandably, it’s been re-worked many times since it first debuted. I had a habit of drastically changing up bass lines to some songs (this, Bethlehem, Imaginary Girlfriend) so this is another of those bassist-changes-his-mind type songs. It took a while for me to figure out what I needed to do for it, but when I found it I was extremely happy with the results. My first bassline boringly followed the chords on the verse and played in the same rhythm as Bry’s guitar part. Somewhere along the way inspiration hit me and I completely changed my part. Feeling the Latin-ness of the song I knew what I was doing sounded wrong, so I changed my approach and made the song a lot better. I have no earthly idea what the other 3PO’s thought of my bass line, or if they even cared, but *I* liked it dammit.
This is sticking out in my mind as one of the first ‘new’ songs we rehearsed with 3PO. It shows the hallmark of a great song by never getting old. Even in its new ‘super slinky’ version in Simple Thing, it’s still a wonderful song to hear. I really dig the new arrangement, but I honestly liked it all the way through. As usual it features well-crafted lyrics, something that always comes to mind when I think about Bry’s ability. This is a great song and I really miss playing it.
When You Comin’ Home Tonight – lyrics & music: Dunn
Yee-haw! One of only two country songs Bryan has written (the other being Hearts and Flowers, ask for it sometime). We started off playing it in G, but it was just at that uncomfortable place for America (just a smidge too low) so after maybe a month or two we raised the key to A. This is a very simple song, but it works. I think it was somewhere near the formation of the group my grandfather gave me his lap steel guitar and I thought this song was the ideal spot for it. I still can’t play it very well and I basically figured out how to play it only for this song. Since I used an open tuning, it was easy to play a solo on this with having no ability. I think I did my little lap steel solo for 3 or 4 gigs, and then it was thankfully dropped. You know why? Because it sounded like total crap! I guess the rest of the band decided to indulge me or something, but I have no idea why they ever let me play lap steel solos in front of an audience. The instrument is hard to keep in tune anyway, but when paired up with a finicky acoustic guitar and a bassist who should really stick to playing bass…guess how it sounded. Once Ed started playing his countrified solo, we heard how the song was supposed to sound and my lap steel services were never needed again.
We did have two different versions of the song. Theoretically, if the crowd was really into it that night, we’d play the ‘clap along’ version and if they were kinda sitting on their hands then we’d just go out of the middle section without much fanfare. I understood the difference between the two pretty easily, so it really used to bug me when we’d do the ‘clapping’ version to an audience who was yawning. I think it’s wrong to try to force audience participation and they’re not going to do it unless they’re moved to in the first place. When they were in the mood however, it was great stuff.
Virgin – lyrics & music: Dunn
I have some very slight beef with the way Scott (my replacement) played the bass lines for Forgotten Days and more so for Boatman’s Daughter, but I still think what he did for this song was outright wrong. Dammit, this is a truly beautiful song. The thing is, this song really needs to breathe and let America’s voice fill it out. I thought that none of the rest of us should get in the way of her on this so I kept my bassline as simple as possible to support all that vocal goodness. One or two notes held out per chord is all that was required from the bass in order to be the proper amount of support. So yeah, I though Scott overplayed and that took away from the song.
Obviously this song is about sex, and the first time one has it. I keep harping on this, but this song especially shows how great of a songwriter Bryan Dunn is. You have the nice romantic verses and choruses (in waltz time) and for the middle section Bryan wonderfully portrayed the awkwardness of The First Time by having that section be in the odd time signature of 5/8. It really contrasted with the rest of the song and was the perfect music for that part. Then, as 5 gives way back to 6 THE part of the song happens: America gives her vocal climax. When this was done right (and it was) it was SO AMAZING. Unless you’ve been there to experience it, there’s no way to describe in words how great America was at that moment. It was a big moment, that’s for sure.
The unfortunate thing is that somewhere in our first few months of playing, possibly on the night we recorded our 1st album, America stopped belting out that note and just plainly sang it before going back into the last verse. I know that when we recorded the album (recorded live at our 3rd gig) on that part in this song she really missed the note and that prevented this from being included on the album. I can see Wiley’s point in not including it on the album, but the rest of the song was so good I wanted it on there anyway. Regardless, that might’ve been the moment when that hesitation entered into America and I’m not sure if she ever attempted to sing that line ‘properly’ again. I used to talk to her and the rest of the band about it; I thought that it was an essential part of the song and all we had to do was keep practicing it until she could nail it every time. She didn’t feel the same way. I remember seeing the group for the release of the 2nd album (post-me) and when they did Virgin and that middle section came up I was so hoping she’d rise to the occasion and just belt it out. She didn’t, unfortunately. I think now America’s confidence in herself is a lot stronger and something as silly as one note wouldn’t be a problem for her. I really care about this song a lot, as should be obvious from reading this. Honestly, even when played by Scott and America laying back a bit it was still a fantastic song. I just think it was so magical when it was all done right.
Give Your Love To Me – lyrics & music: Dunn
I always think of this and Forgotten Days as the first two ‘new’ songs we did in 3PO. I do indeed like this song, and I still frequently play it while messing around on the bass. But man, I got SO sick of playing this. We played it at nearly all our gigs, I swear. Like Cycle, this was one of the songs that acquired a specific placement in the set. I assume that Wiley and Bryan thought so highly of it that it was decided this would always either be our set closer or encore song. Did the audience like this song that much that they thought it’s the last thing we should leave them with? I don’t know, maybe they did. I didn’t always feel that way though.
It’s a good song, but the thing that prevents it from ever being a great song is that there’s nothing more that can be done with it. It exists as it is, and it can’t be anything else. Also, as you can probably guess, I get awful tired of playing 3 chord simple songs all the time. If it’s 4 chords I’m OK, but if our last hurrah for an audience is a I-IV-V then I get bored of that pretty easily. It also doesn’t help things that Give Your Love to Me is a TOTAL AND COMPLETE rip off of The Beatles’ You Can’t Do That. Same feel, same key, same chord progression, and the lyrics on the middle section are almost directly plagiarized. Bryan wasn’t too happy when I pointed this out to him. Either he knew he was ripping it off, or You Can’t Do That was so ingrained in his brain that he came up with this and didn’t know it was ripped off until I pointed it out. But yeah, it’s all there for you to listen to and compare.
I really like the funkiness of this, and Bryan did write a good bassline for me to play. The other thing I really liked about this song was that we ended it on the ‘wrong’ chord. We didn’t resolve it on the G as was expected. The audience pretty quickly figured out that it wasn’t going to resolve and accepted it. I like that we trained the audience to accept and probably like us doing the ‘wrong’ thing. However, after I was out of the group they did start to resolve it, after a slight pause, and eventually just left the pause out all together and it wasn’t the least bit distinctive anymore.
Last Romantic – lyrics & music: Dunn
Awright dammit, I *still* get all emotional when hearing this song. What a beautiful song. As songwriters and as people, one of the things that really connects Bryan and myself is that we’re serious romantics. He might get a bit mushier about it than I do, but I’m right there with him. I too have a song called Last Romantic (I refer to it as ‘Part 2’ though) so I have a strong connection with this one. Again, this is a beautiful and sad song. The way America sang it was just amazing. There’s a line in the second verse I believe, when I dream I dream of you, that always puts a big smile on my face. When performing this that was the line I’d address to my wife and always sing to her. Even when she’s in the next room, every time I hear that line it makes me smile.
I think it’s probably just a smidge lower on the ‘shiver-down-the-spine’ meter than the part of Virgin, but the middle section of this was consistently an awesome vocal performance by America. I love how that bridge just starts so slow and calm and we instrumentalists didn’t do much to bring it up, but America sure did. The way she just belts out those lines, damn. No one will ever sing this song better than that. And the extremely cool thing is that she sang the hell out of this every time it was played. She just owns this. That’s totally one of those rare musical moments when everything just aligns and for that second, the world is a perfect place. That’s why I’m a musician; to be in the presence of music at those moments.
Sunshine – lyrics & music: Dunn
And they call it a monster…this was our only true ‘jamming’ song while I was in the group. A few others had parts where improvisation occurred, but this was a full-blown jamming excursion. I’ve said before in the EJ version of this song that Wiley really kicked this into gear so I don’t need to fully elaborate on that again. And that’s not a knock on the original drummer on this, because Dave can do 1000 things Wiley can’t and Wiley can do 1000 things Dave can’t. This just happens to be one of Wiley’s 1000 things he does better. This track always had a lot of energy in Echo Juliet, but we pushed it so much further in this group. Partially with America singing, partially with Wiley being even less of a ‘rock’ drummer and partially Manuel’s big influence it became how it should sound.
Bryan liked to experiment with different intros, usually vocal (one coming into mind now is Billy Joel’s The Longest Time) where he’d just sing a bit of a song and then launch in the beginning verse of Sunshine. Since we were dealing with 6 people in this group, I started to play a little bit less in my bassline to make more room for everyone else. It was especially true in this (an uptempo rocker) that there could be a lot going on. With everyone competing for the same sonic space, the lower notes I played the better it was. I ‘tried’ to not play up high, otherwise I’d be inaudible. We tended to play it the same as it was done in EJ, but after Bryan’s and my solos we’d treat the audience to a drum/percussion solo-a-thon. I always loved hearing Wiley and Manuel do their thang on this. After a couple of months we decided to extended the solos even further and let America have a go at it (I wonder why we never had an Ed solo in Sunshine?). After the percussion solo, we’d slow it down and play something that really showed off America’s voice. Some of the shows she did Dock of the Bay and some she did For What It’s Worth, with us playing nearly the whole song there in the middle of Sunshine. I loved all that stuff. It was great to hear her belt out those songs.
When we finished with all the soloing, we’d go back into the ‘breakdown’ riff and then finish off the song. I really loved playing Sunshine, not only because I got to solo (always improvised…although one time I attempted to play a solo based around Coltrane’s Mr. PC…oh, that was awful) but also because the band got to do some serious jamming. However, after maybe 6 or 7 months I did get tired of doing it every show. Not that I wanted to can it or anything, but I just didn’t want to play it as much. I don’t think this was our best song, but I do think it’s a great one and I’d love to play it anytime (just not every gig for 4 years).
Don’t Let Me Be Alone Tonight – lyrics: Dunn; music: Talbert
As you can read in the bio this was the song that really got this band going. Bryan and Wiley heard America rip this up and they knew a group had to be formed with her voice at the front. I agreed. Still do. Unless you actually heard America sing this song then I have no idea how to convey how great it was. Since Wiley, Bryan and I had been playing this for a few years in Echo Juliet, we had the music part down. So the arrangement mostly stayed the same. The only really difference was that about 6 months into the group we started to give Ed the first part of the solo, the mellow part. Then Bryan came in with his half of the solo. I think it might’ve been a little less dramatic that way (I liked Bry’s nice buildup) and what we should have done was let Ed have a mellow solo, then a mellow solo from Bry, then his full-blown Claptoning he’s so great at doing. Still, Ed always played some great stuff on this one. I do have to say that he wasn’t always 100% consistent in every song (name one of us who was. Not me.), but in this he was. The ONLY thing that ever brought this down a few notches was that semi-frequently (frequently enough for it to annoy the hell out of me) America messed up the lyrics. Not just something stupid like switching lyrics around, but totally messing up the lines and the rhyme. The line in question was: “You can stay across the room, leave on all the lights/But don’t let me be alone tonight”. It rhymes; it works. America would mistakenly alter it to: “You can stay across the room, leave all the lights ON/But don’t let me be alone tonight”. Eh, whatever. Normally, though, a fantastic song.
Adam and Eve – lyrics & music: Dunn
This was a song we did a lot in Echo Juliet and since Manuel and Ed didn’t play on it, the only difference was America’s voice instead of Christine’s. This song was better suited to America’s voice so I think this one sounded better. But basically, it’s the same song. We put this on our first album, but I don’t recall it staying in the set more than 3 or 4 months.
Without You – lyrics & music: Dunn
Great song! OK, yes, I actually got a bass solo in here and that naturally made this one of my favorite songs to play. Besides that, I still love this one. No, this isn’t the horrible Mötley Crüe song; it’s kind of a rockabilly-ish/swing kinda song. I loved my bass line to this as it had a wonderful bounce to it. Man, this was such a fun song to play! America sounded wonderful on this and her call-and-response with Ed’s violin on the bridge was excellent. I think pretty early on (in the first rehearsals) I mentioned the idea of a bass solo and they didn’t object to it so it stuck. I’d be soloing over a simple chord progression (D – A) so pretty much anything was possible as long as it had some relation to ‘A’. Like all my solos, every single one of these was improvised. Sometimes I played great ones, sometimes bad ones. That’s what’s fun and exciting about doing improvised solos. Whenever I felt like finishing (usually it wouldn’t be at an even number of repeats…sometimes on purpose, sometimes not) we’d then chill for a measure or two before the bridge. Of course after the bridge we’d do a little stop/start thing and finish the song.
Every gig but one the structure was the same. The only time that the song was altered was one evening at Common Grounds in Waco. Instead of the usual indoor gig at this coffeehouse, we played outside on the side patio. This particular evening after my solo Manuel just suggested we jam it out a little bit. I swear, I almost freaked out. I’m really big on improv and jamming and such and I always wanted us to stretch things out more and try some group improv. Not King Crimson type stuff, but like the man said, jam it out a little bit. Well, we just improvised for about 5 minutes or so and it was wonderful. I still think of that as one of my personal highlights in the group. Not because we were improvising, but because it was actually damn good. It was a huge moment for me and something I’ll always remember.
Electric – lyrics & music: Dunn
After the initial batch of material we learned for the group, this was the actual first ‘new’ song Bryan wrote while in the group. I think it was subconsciously inspired by the classic sign at the old Electric Lounge (a large, red neon ELECTRIC in cursive letters behind the band). The song itself had nothing to do with the sign or the club, but with the singer of our previous group. It’s not a hateful song in any way, but it was Bry’s musical response to the whole thing. Mine was a crazy jazz instrumental called “I Knew You?” Few people have heard mine (yet), but it was out there as well. Bryan’s Electric is a good song and very clever. The lyrics, obviously, are great, but the music was really intelligent too. The music sort of poked fun at typical songs and chord progressions we did in the old band. As you’ll know, Bryan does indeed use all that stuff in his own songwriting, so he’s not totally innocent of writing songs with basic chord progressions. Anyway, I know Bryan was proud of this song and it put a nice smile on my face as well.
It started life as more rockin’, but it quickly developed into a funky thang. I had recently acquired a pair of Funk Fingers (mini drum sticks attached to the first two fingers of the right hand…an invention by Tony Levin, he used them on Peter Gabriel’s Steam among other things) and you know how I am, whenever I get a new toy I have to find a place to use it. I think all musicians are that way. So, I thought that Electric would be the perfect place for it. You know, funk it up a bit. They create a very interesting sound and I thought it sounded good. I played the verses pretty straight, but for the chorus I’d play stuttered chords on my bass and slide them up and down (I often steal ideas from Tony Levin). I don’t know how enthusiastic the band was for my showing-off, but they let me do it anyway. Over the course of maybe 6 or 7 months, I did eventually phase out the Funk Fingers and just play it normally. I agree with them, it sounded better without them. The more we played it the funkier it got, to the point of it sounding just awesome by the time I was out of the group. Loved playing this one.
Imaginary Girlfriend – lyrics & music: Dunn
We never did this too often in EJ, so naturally when it appeared in 3PO it was a rarity. Keeping the tradition of Bryan singing on it, America sat out for this (as did Manny and Ed) so we were a Power Trio for this lone song. Occasionally Bryan would forget words (I had to remind him as we went along!), but mostly it was performed the same as it always was. One time in practice (it coulda been live, I can’t totally remember) Bryan started to play it as a ska instead of the normal ‘rock’ way he always did it. Naturally Wiley and I ran with it and I believe either once or twice we played the ska version of IG live in front of an audience. Man, that breathed so much life in this song! And for me, that really opened up so many possible things. I mean, if we can totally change the arrangement of a goofy throwaway song, why couldn’t we do it for our more ‘serious’ ones? Unfortunately it wasn’t a trendsetter. Although rare, I loved it when we just did something different.
Boatman’s Daughter – lyrics: Dunn; music: Dunn, Hines
Inspired by Bryan’s trip to England, I believe there was actually a “boatman’s daughter” and supposedly she looked like Bry’s twin or something. Did she have a beard too? I hope not. I have a special place in my heart for this song. And no, it’s not because I had a part in writing it; I loved when it was in the setlist and I loved playing it. The band was rehearsing in my apartment living room (cramped, but cozy) mostly just working up new material and this was one of the ones Bryan presented. He had the words, and he had the verses and chorus, but he needed that thing that could connect them. He offered for me to write the bridge and I happily accepted the job. My part is from the time change after the 2nd verse until we modulate back into the verse.
Obviously, given the opportunity to contribute I wanted to make the most of it & reflect as much of ‘me’ as possible while still having it be a cool part of the song. My immediate idea was to do a time change and a key change for bridge. Hey, why not, ya know? I couldn’t come up with much during the actual rehearsal other than possibly going to the relative minor (key of F#m…the rest of the song being in A major). After the band left, probably within 15-20 minutes I whipped up this slight change to 3/4 and then a violin solo in F#m over the chords F#m – D – A – C#m with the last time through hitting an E major (the obvious pivot point for the two keys) instead of the A and C#m and then, triumphantly, back into the verse in A. Obviously it’s a really easy change, not anything complex, and it’s nothing original to go to the relative minor for a bit, but it fit perfectly for the song. So after about 15-20 minutes of working on it, I had it down. I called up Bryan and played it for him over the phone and he liked it. I honestly never expected to get a partial writing credit for this song, as I just did the bridge, but Bryan thought it was an essential part of the song and put my name up there on it. Yay! (Although, I still haven’t received any royalty money from the CD…)
This is a song I had a great affinity for. Without throwing myself a parade here, I have to say that I really loved my bass line to this. I know the other guys did too. It had such wonderful bounce and space to it. I still love it. After one of our early performances of this my friend Audrey told me that she loved my bass line to this song and my part really made the song. It was something small, and from one friend to another, but that’s still one of the biggest compliments I’ve ever received. Thanks, Audrey.
She Waits By The Sea – lyrics & music: Dunn
This song makes me ache. He just writes these gorgeous songs and I know they just flow out of him. This was another “UK” song, but I think he might’ve actually written this IN Ireland. Maybe? Regardless, it’s a beautiful song and one I never thought I really did justice too. I always felt a nice fretless would compliment it perfectly. Too bad I still don’t have one.
We kept this one pretty sparse, as ballads of this type should be. I just love the whole feel of this. It’s a wonderful waltz in 3/4 and the way it’s written it really feels like you’re just calmly bouncing on the ocean. This is simply a gorgeous song and I’m very jealous of him for this. This is one that was still played by Bryan in his post-3PO group, Simple Thing.
San Francisco – lyrics: Alva; music: Koepp
This is the updated version of Echo Juliet’s Waiting in the Cold. I guess we liked this one enough so we asked America to write some lyrics to the music Wiley had written. Since Wiley, Bryan and I played this a lot in EJ, it was something we already had down. America wrote the words about her then boyfriend Blueberry (I don’t think I ever knew his real name). The lyrics are actually really sad and kinda morbid. I like this song in theory more than in reality. See, I was always wanting the group to have more diversity in the song writing credits and I loved seeing an “Alva/Koepp” credit. I wanted all 6 of us to contribute to the writing (esp. me) because 98% of our songs were written solely by Bryan. Of course I love Bryan’s songs, that’s not my point. I just felt (still do) that the band would have been even stronger with everyone contributing to the songs. As for San Francisco, I didn’t think it was that great. I got tired of playing the song in EJ, so I wasn’t terribly enthused to play it also in 3PO. I know Wiley could write better stuff, but this was all he showed us so it’s all we had. For me, I thought we kept it around a lot longer than it should have been.
Canción de Amèrica – lyrics: Alva, Gonzales; music: Dunn
This is possibly the best song 3PO had. I am still so impressed with Bryan for writing the music to this massive Latin Groove-fest. The idea originally stemmed from the idea that we wanted everyone to contribute to the music of the band and not just Bryan. Bryan determined for this one he’d write the music and have Manuel and/or America do the lyrics since the music he’d written was very Latin-Groovy. Manuel wrote most of the words and I think America helped out here and there. The vocal melody was definitely America’s. I don’t read Spanish, so I don’t get all of the words, but I can pick a few things out. I think some bits of this song concern America’s Aunt and different things she liked to drink. I have no clue how true any of it is; for all I know Manuel could’ve just pulled stuff out of the air. I think it would’ve been nice to continue with the idea of others writing lyrics for the group and not just Bryan. I think that Manuel’s further writing could’ve presented some interesting ideas since he was an English major.
Even without the lyrics, the music of this song just jams. Bryan just wrote the perfect music on this one. This was one of our more serious jam out songs, and it became an even bigger one after I was gone. We always extended Sunshine, but that was more like additional solos. Canción, however, was more of a true jamming vehicle. If you were in the audience for this one, then your ass would have been doing some SERIOUS moving. For my part I never really liked what I did. I tended to play it simple and it didn’t have as much bass groove as it needed. I’d say that this song was definitely played better once Scott took over the bass duties. He had a much better feel for it and put out a fantastic part on this. This song was always a highlight of the show, and once Scott got his hands on it Canción became an even better song. America did a fantastic job with this and I loved (still do, it’s on as I type this) hearing her sing in Spanish.
Alcohol and Nicotine – lyrics & music: Dunn
This was another great, grooving song Bryan wrote and it popped up around the same time as Canción. I was still in my ‘funk fingers’ mode so I figured I’d play them on another song, the first being Electric. I don’t know if the funk fingers truly worked on this song, but I played them anyway. I think if I were approached with this song today I wouldn’t even think of using the funk fingers. I’m sure back then it was more of a “new toy” thing and we musicians always love to see what songs we can stick our new toys in. But now, yeah, I’d just play it with my fingers. One of the things I loved about being in 3PO and playing Bryan’s songs was how he was really pushing for material with a strong groove. Except for the ballads, all of the newer songs Bryan wrote were all designed for dancing. The intent of 3 Penny Opera in the first place was to have a band that grooved and that the audience would have a great time seeing. We were all strongly influenced by Dah-veed and the energy of the Dah-veed shows. There was always a groove present at those shows and we wanted to be *that* kind of live band. Alcohol and Nicotine, still played by Bryan today, is one of those solid songs that would always get people moving. And whether or not the audience actually moved, I know that the 6 of us always did when playing this.
Diamonds – lyrics & music: Dunn
Another groove-based song here. And, like Canción, this was a serious jamming one. Bryan wrote a great bass line for the verse and the chords he played reminded me in a way of the sort of stuff the Jackson 5 would do; yeah, those kind of grooves. Like most of Bryan’s songs, the lyrics to this concerned a girl (Jenny on this one), but one thing I really liked about them is that they’re just a lot more playful and less “feel sorry for me” than some of the other girl songs. This was a fantastic song to play, with a wonderful bounce, and it became the other highlight of the live shows.
The guy who ran the rehearsal complex where we practiced is a guy named MC Truth. He was a talented local rapper, and a great guy too, and his musical involvement with us started off with him joining us in rehearsals and rapping over our version of Pachebel’s Canon in D. When Bryan wrote this he wanted to extend the middle jam part and have MC Truth come in and rap over it. It was just perfect. We practiced this a lot, but I think while I was in the group America never had the words fully memorized so the only time we played it live was a show she wasn’t at. Amy Mitchell filled in for that show in San Marcos and Bryan actually sang this on its debut. After I was gone it of course was being played at every gig and most of the time MC Truth would get up there and rap and give the crowd a show. I still love this song and it really showed the direction that not only the band was taking, but also where Bryan’s songwriting was going.
Blue Margarita – lyrics: Lewis, Beaver; music: Lewis
I’m throwing this in with the originals since it’s not truly a ‘cover’. This was played live only once, at the aforementioned San Marcos show with Amy Mitchell on 4/24/98. Blue Margarita, inspired by the fruity drinks available at Baby Acapulco’s in Austin, was written by our friend Christina Lewis with lyrical help by another big 3PO fan and friend, Erin Beaver. Christina played in an acoustic duo with Amy (called Amy & Christina, naturally; after I was out of 3PO I joined them as bassist) and this was one of the songs they did. It’s a silly song and a crowd favorite, so since we were playing with Amy that night I proposed that we do this for a laugh. I think that we didn’t even practice it; we just played it on the fly with me showing Bryan how it went right before we played it. I didn’t start playing with Amy & Christina for a few months, but I knew this just by being a fan of theirs and going to all their shows. Blue Margarita was a one-off, and the last song that was ever debuted with me in the band.
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