This song was written by The Leeches in 1982. The Leeches were founded in 1979 by Dave Tainer (St. Patrick's High School) and Gary Cannone (Lane Technical High School) in Chicago. The Leeches were inspired by the Seventies protest music and punk rock (of both the New York and London styles), and this song combines elements of both, but yet never really part of a whole genre. This song was first played at a party in 1982, but this recording is actually from 1984, which was D. Tainer, T. Morrison and L. Relucio on, respectively, Vocals/Guitar, Bass and Drums.

The Leader (1982)

This is a Jamaican folk tune, this is NOT the Bob Marley song of the same name, though probably from the same source material. The Leeches used to do this song, with the vocals sung by Bill Richards, who was born in Jamaica and moved to Chicago, eventually joining The Leeches and gigging for about a year. Drumming and playing bass on this are Louie Relucio and Tony Morrison, respectively, with me adding a second sub bass layer, and guitar. The rhythm tracks were recorded in 1985, followed shortly thereafter with guitar and reverb effects, on a Tascam PortaStudio. These were digitized in 2021, and remixed/remastered August 29, 2021--in honor of Lee "Scratch" Perry, a major influence. This is also a different version than the one that appears as a "bonus track" in The Leeches Bandcamp "Urban Camouflage" digital-only version.

Urban Camouflage

Stand Up (For Your Rights) Dub Mix 1985 (tribute to Scratch Perry)

This song was written probably late 1985. Easy to tell it was very much inspired by the Rap of the day, namely Run DMC, Afrika Bambataa, et al. This version is the 4-track cassette demo version that I would have recorded to play for the rest of the band, so here, all the bad playing and rapping is all on me. I found this old tape, digitized both versions (with the bounces and with the original tracks) and turned it into an 8-track to mix.

Interesting recording notes: used the Yamaha version of Tom Scholz's Rockman for the guitar on this, and recorded bass direct-injection, which was the first time I didn't mic a bass amp.

Dave Tainer

Popular tracks