“Call My Name” Written by Curt Almsted & Sprague Hollander
Curt Almsted: Lead vocals, acoustic guitars, Fender Stratocaster, bass
Sprague Hollander: Fender Telecaster
Dale Strength: “Playin’ what I wanted, when I wanted it”
John Haga: Drums
Gregg Inhofer: Piany when ya hear it
Recorded, produced and mastered by Dale Strength, February 2014
The original title to this rock and roll opus was ‘Silent Friction.’ Bob wasn’t Slim yet, but he was quite thin. The rock cliché of “musical differences” had slapped us around, so we parted creative ways. I was partying with Sam & Dave in a western-facing apartment on 24th and Hennepin South. Slim and his band The Sentimentals were coaxed into a drag race which ended with Johnny Hazlett’s car inside the building kitty corner. I ran down to see if everyone was okay and because of our previous argument, he looked at me and exclaimed, “Too bad we’re not dead,” perhaps thinking that’s what I was thinking. So I went home and wrote this. (When performed live, I would insert the Elvis chestnut ‘Mystery Train’ – yeah, I know – it’s Junior Parker. But since I don’t want to pay royalties, I changed it up enough so as not to get sued and used some lyrics I’d written the day after I moved to Milwaukee in 1973. The Mystery Sister phrase comes from Mystery Train and Little Sister. I thought it sounded cool. But it’s no secret that she was Colleen Foley.) The aforementioned bridge is rife with rock and roll name dropping, so as to emphasize our (Slim and I) musical inspirations. You can only fit so many in. As it is, it lasts four minutes and 20 seconds…..ha ha. This will probably be the only selection written by somebody who was angry with him, but even then, I was more hurt than angry cuz I loved him so, and still do.
Get well soon,
Your Best Pal Curt
P.S. Thanks so much to the fellows who gave their time and played with such inspiration. I especially enjoyed Sprague’s other half to my rhythm.
