Clearing The Air

To Settle Some Controversy

Ken Friesen (Gord’s recording engineer) called me at home one fateful Monday afternoon in November of 1980 and said “Gord needs some piano. Can you get down to Eastern Sound in half an hour?”
When I arrived at the studio, Gord and his band were working on a song called “My Love For You.” I learned that it was to be the theme song for a movie Gord had just finished shooting with Bruce Dern called “Harry Tracy Desperado” (not a bad flick, really worth checking out).
I was given a chart with the chords and melody, not a piano part. It was up to me to find something that would work with the other instruments whose parts were already rehearsed and well-established. So I studied the chart for a few minutes, mentally deciding what to play. Gord counted it in, and we recorded a take.
When we finished, he asked the engineer to play it back and listened with what I construed to be a look of consternation. Then, surprisingly, with evident elation, he yelled, “That’s good!” I was to find out later that he was highly stingy with compliments. In fact, I waited about ten years for the next one. I’m not knocking the guy, it was just his way. With many band leaders, you assume that if they say nothing, you’re doing fine.
That version of “My Love For You” was never used for anything. It probably doesn’t even exist anymore. I’m guessing the movie people wanted a more intimate version and went for it.
But it got me an audition and an offer to join the band. I wish I had a copy of it.