The last three songs were from an interesting period of time for me. I was in university studying jazz and classical music. I was in a full-time band called The Day He Quit and we were trying to make it to the top. During that time I was transitioning my education path to pure music composition. My music antenna was looking at everything and I came across those songs by chance.
The main reason I am writing these articles is to honor my past. Sharing music is the only way to thank and appreciate those people I worked with.
I am getting sentimental for a reason because the next song I want to share is not a song from the 2000s and 2010s. No, it is from 1995. The good ol’ ’90s. The decade of my youth. I was 10 when I heard this song.
Amanda Marshall – Last Exit To Eden
Amanda Marshall. Lets get sentimental about it! When I was 10 I was in no mood for music. I was into video games and magic cards. I was kind of a geek. But four years later I would be playing electric bass, how about that? I have no idea if this music contributed to that choice, but when I heard Last Exit to Eden it did something.
My mother bought this album and listened to it incessantly. She played Dark Horse, Let it Rain, and Fall From Grace all the time. It drove me nuts! When she had her friends over she would play this album on repeat.
After enough hearing it enough times I went and got the album. I looked at the liner notes and started to read the lyrics to learn more about the music. I saw a song called Last Exit to Eden. I hadn’t heard that one yet.
I took the cd player into my room and put on track 7, Last Exit to Eden. I was in a wash of colour and emotion. Acoustic guitar and a shaker bring in the vocals. It was unlike any of the other songs. It was dark and melancholic. “Did I just miss the last exit to eden? Is this the only love I know.” What a great lyric. It was like a snake bite. Happened so fast I didn’t realize what I had listened to. I took the song to Mum and asked her why she didn’t play this one. She told me that she didn’t like that song so she skipped past it each time. She said she didn’t like country tunes.
The Colour of Eden
I thought Last Exit to Eden was the best song on the album. You could call this a deep cut because it is buried deep in the album under the singles. When I learned music theory I had realized that the song has a capo on the second fret putting the song in F# minor. That was the sound I heard the first time: IV V I in F# minor. A great key signature and chord progression.
It has an openness that is unlike any other key signature. I am not sure how else to describe it. The sound had an odd colour to me, it sounded beige. Not quite yellow, not quite brown or cream-colored.
Beige Flashback
I found the cd in a box many years later when I was moving to Vancouver. I had a flashback to that last exit and I took the cd with me. Right before I left Vancouver I had my best friend over to help me pack, and I played this song. He studied in the same school and he agreed that it was a solid IV V I tune. He looked at the liner notes and he said: did you know that Leland Sklar plays on this album? I looked at him, and I said: you mean THE Lee Sklar?
For those who don’t know Leland Sklar you may recognize him when he plays with Phil Collins or endorses the high-end electric bass brand Dingwall.
If you go to the Wikipedia page it takes a little while to scroll through his album credits. Sklar is a great bass player. You can learn more about him here in an interview.
So there I was with my best friend reveling in the fact that Lee Sklar did the bass on this album. One of my bass heroes hiding in plain sight this whole time. Yah, the bass is good on this album.
Certifications Don’t Matter
Amanda Marshall is also a sad tale of how the music industry can fail its talent. Shortly after the millennium she got tangled up in legal battles with her record label and vanished from the mainstream.
Her first album went Diamond in Canada with her follow up albums both going Platinum. For those unfamiliar with Canadian certifications Diamond means you sold a million albums. Now the certification is 800,000 albums sold for Diamond certification. This meant that a million Canadians went to a record store and shelled out close to $20 for this album. It’s a staggering thought, she played the game on hard mode.
I have never told anyone that I dig her music until now. It was a guilty pleasure. But not anymore! I hope that Amanda Marshall makes a come back and does more music in the future.
Thanks to my mum who played the living hell out of this album and exposed me to good Canadian songwriting.
You can get the album through this associates link here:
Wanna see what’s in the shoebox next? Keep going!
There is bot named Wilbert that likes to eat my website, so I cannot have a email sign up form anymore. If you want access to new content all you gotta do is email me! Newduereview@gmail.com
If you do that, I can enter you into a email list and send you goodies before they come out.