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This song was recorded at Audio Recording, Inc. in Seattle by legendary engineer, Kearney Barton (who recorded The Kingsmen "Jolly Green Giant" of "Louie, Louie" fame, The Sonics "Psycho", The Frantics "Werewolf", and many others.) It was an 8 track analog studio, recorded onto 1 inch reel tape.
This song features Wayde Brown (me) on drums, guitars, bass, and vocals, and Sean Crain on vocals, and lead guitar. This song had several problems and I had two versions to work with. Both copies had many flaws and I never had a chance to return and fix these problems. It was the last session I did there in 1993-94, before returning again in 2000 for a different project. I did the best I could with the Audacity program, but if you listen closely, you'll hear the cuts and edits. But it's the best I could do with what I had while still retaining the original feel for the song. It's not perfect by any means, but I believe it is now acceptable.
To finish off this particular mix, I had to convert it from a cassette format onto the Audacity program on my computer with a JVC TD-W254 Double Cassette Deck 3 motor Silent Mechanism and a Denon DRM-700.

This is the 415th song I wrote but this shorter version makes it song #543. I co-wrote it with my friend Sean Crain. This song was literally a 50/50 effort on both lyrics and music progression, which was unusual for us. We were listening to many Beatles' songs and were inspired to write a song where we'd both sing lead. Originally, we thought about doing this song acoustically, but it grew into something a little more as it progressed. I know I was watching the Mad Max movies when I wrote my part of the song, which seems to reflect the doom and gloom. Not entirely sure how and why Sean came up with the "Steel Dawn" part of the lyrics, but it seems to fit. We also had the idea of the solo near the end to be performed mostly with bass notes of the guitar and not any other register. Like before-mentioned, we were thinking about Beatle songs, and one in particular was called "Two of Us." In that song, George Harrison performed the guitar using only the lower, bass notes on the guitar, which I thought was a great idea, so we incorporated that into this song. (Added note): This is the same version from the original except the beginning has been trimmed and the song now fades out during the solo, thus making the song nearly a minute shorter.

Recorded at Audio Recording, Inc. in Seattle, WA. and MINE music Studio in Auburn, WA.

lyrics

HERE, ALONE I RIDE.
THERE'S NO ONE AT MY SIDE.
LOST AGAIN ON THAT ROAD.
WON'T SOMEONE PLEASE TAKE ME HOME?
TIME'S ARE CHANGIN' EVERYWHERE.
ONLY THE GHOSTS ARE STILL THERE.
THE CITIES LAY IN RUIN.
I WONDER WHAT WE ARE DOIN'?

STEEL DAWN, STEEL DAWN.
IT WON'T BE LONG 'TIL I'M GONE.
STEEL DAWN, STEEL DAWN.
HOW LONG MUST I GO ON?

IN THESE TIMES OF DESPAIR,
WITHOUT A HOPE OR A CARE,
I TRY TO LIVE AND COPE,
BUT THE ANSWERS HAVE NO HOPE.

STEEL DAWN, STEEL DAWN.
HOW LONG MUST I GO ON?
STEEL DAWN, STEEL DAWN.
IT WON'T BE LONG 'TIL I'M GONE.
(SOLO)

credits

from WE'RE ALL VERSIONS [Digitally Remastered], released May 21, 2015
Wayde K. Brown-Sean B. Crain

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The Santairs Auburn, Washington

I am a musician, singer, and songwriter doing this part-time but have been doing it all my life. I started singing before I could talk at the age of one, and wrote my first real song at 15 years of age. (If you count avant-garde as a song, then the age would be 7.) I currently own my own recording studio; and I write, perform, and record my own music (and other's from time to time.) I am Santairs. ... more

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