See the video this song was composed for at:  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjJierbawRI

When Ghosts Collide

Side A features a rare, never released Todd Kushnir original composition “Lonesome Long Distance Lover.”  Recorded in 1974, and originally to be issued as part of a retrospective, the pining ballad was thought to be lost when Record Plant Studio C was destroyed in an electrical fire on January 10, 1978.  The master tapes were found years later in the trunk of Kushnir’s dilapidated car that sat on cinder blocks rusting in the yard.  “I wrote recorded the song late in the sessions for the label's retrospective,” recalls Kushnir. “I remember leaving the studio late that night. I parked the car in the yard and when I woke up I heard the devastating news about the fire. What I didn’t know was the intern had put the master recordings in my trunk thinking that’s what I wanted. The shifty intern was the last one to leave that night, and he was never heard from again.”  Kushnir said he couldn’t make it to the studio the next day to see what happened to the recordings because the car died suddenly and he never drove it again. While prepping the beater for sale after many years of neglect, he opened up the trunk and beneath three boxes of unsold tour merchandise were the long lost tapes.  Miraculously the tapes survived though in order to be played, they had to be baked. Kushnir and Columbia Records are finally releasing these songs after a decades long, protracted legal battle for the rights to the recordings, which over the years were sold to the Jackson camp, followed by the McCartney Camp, followed by the Fleetwood Mac Camp, and then finally back to Kushnir.  No one in the Kushnir inner circle knew this was coming. Secrecy was imposed as Kushnir felt like album releases had lost meaning as a significant, exciting event in the face of hype created around singles and he wanted the album to be released unexpectedly. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Computers, approached Kushnir, a Cupertino native, in the lead up to the iPhone 6 release asking the elusive artist to partner with the trendy electronics company. “He wanted to force this music into everyone’s iTunes account free as some publicity stunt for his new phone. I told Cook to take a hike,” laughed Kushnir, adding “I think different.” 

Side B is a cover of Donovan’s ‘The Mandolin Man and His Secret.’ “I first heard this as a 
camp song at @The Mountain Camp, where we would sing it around the campfire,” says Kushnir. “ @Brian Eric Stuckey learned it from @Joel Hawley and I learned it from one of them. Now I’m passing it along so that others can sing it as well.  It’s a really pretty song with a nice message of tolerance and peace.” It was originally released on Kushnir 1975 Double LP Mandelbrot (Columbia).  Mandelbrot was to be groundbreaking for using the first ever Mobius Strip shaped LP, essentially unplayable at the time on any record player but said to have the highest fidelity of any system to date, and would allow the record to repeat seamlessly.  Kushnir regrets that the concept album didn't reach a wider audience. "It was inaccessible because nobody promoted me," he feels. "I wasn't given any opportunity to sell. There was no promotion, there was no tours, there was nothing. I didn't get to get out and play. Total mismanagement; no agent, no gigs, no nothing. Just my music. I gave it all. But I was not given in return what my music deserved.  And I don't play songs that I don't like to play. But sometimes audiences come to sort of re-live that soundtrack of your life experience. Not always, but sometimes. If that's what's going on, then I'm more than happy to lay part of that soundtrack on them so that they will maybe take a little time and listen to one of my new songs."   Recorded over the course of a few days during the change of seasons, The Mandolin Man captures Kushnir in an especially reverent mood.

Credits:
Lonesome Long Distance Lover
Words/Music: Todd Kushnir
Drums, Guitars, Bass, Vocals: Todd Kushnir
Recorded, Mixed, Produced: Todd Kushnir
Production Advice: @Chad Johnson

The Mandolin Man and His Secret 
Words/Music: Donovan, arr: T.Kushnir
Drums, Guitars, Bass, Keys, Vocals: Todd Kushnir
Recorded, Mixed, Produced: Todd Kushnir

TK would like to thank: @Carole Kushnir, @Alan Kushnir,  @Brian Kushnir, @Gideon Marken, @Eric Rosenberg, @Matty Sol, @Brandon O’Connor, @Prince, @Asher Fulero, @Brett McConnell, @Matthew Ryan, @Michael Wilson, @David Hughes, @Paul Benoit, @Matt Butler, @Chris Haugen, @Shelley Doty, @Mike Sugar, @TheWOWHall, @Steve Baran, @Annette Willsey Liebhardt, @Burning Spear, @Donovan @Brian Eric Stuckey, @Joel Hawley, @The Mountain Camp, @Bill Bottrell, @Simon Babbs, @Angelo Bundini, @Chris Heumann, @Daniel Trumm, @Brett Shuler : The Truck, always keeping it real, tasty….and of course, my wonderful Wife and kids who are not on Facebook, for putting up with all this.

#music #acoustic #bluegrass #country #folk #recording #TheMountainCamp #Cupertino #Apple #iPhone6 #RollingStones #Donovan #camp #songs #CampSongs #x32 #studio 

I'm like a rock

D. Honeyman Woods

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