On this page I will post songs from my rock musical Rings. First I will post a song with a
vocal. Then the same song without the vocal.
Then I encourage anyone to download the track
without the vocal (I call it a TV mix). Then that person
can sing her (in this case) version of the song against the track and send it back to me. I will regularly post my favorite versions from you right here and over a period of time we will cast the show virtually and post all the best vocals for everyone to hear and vote for as well.
SPACE ROCK MUSICAL
Last Century Sometime – Ted Lewand, the masterful lead guitarist with the Test Tube Babies, was hanging out one day and told me he thought I should write a Musical. So…
RINGS is a Space/Rock musical I wrote a few years ago that was produced at the New York International Fringe Festival. At that time, it was too long and had about 27 people in it which pretty much made it unproduceable. I an rewriting it now, as a shorter musical with less than 10 people in the cast, saving most of the musical numbers which were always the best part of the show anyway.
We are beginning with Critical Mass, which opens the show. This version is recorded by me and Albert Bouchard with our turn of the millennium version of the Underbelly featuring Adrian Romero on Guitar, David Hirchberg on Bass, Albert on Drums and myself on Vocals, produced by Albert and Adrian in New York City. We do not yet have the vocaless track for this song, so just sing along with it for now and we’ll get that TV mix track out soon.
We are also including two versions of Companion, a love song from the show, sung here by Broadway singer Colleen Sextant, (Jekyll and Hyde) and the same song without any vocal. So, girls you can begin with this one. Send your versions to RINGS@lesvegas.com, including your name, a brief bio and your email info.
RINGS is the true story of my life fifty years in the future. I am an old rocker in space. I had a few things going many years before but nothing since then. So, I am left playing the outer planets. Years ago, I had a girlfriend, Roya, who stowed away in my ship on an inner planet run and wound up traveling around the Solar System, singing with the band, until Reverand Spike a religious, political, military and business leader, came out and offered us a big deal, sign with him, do what he says, and he will send our songs to the top of the charts, make us the biggest stars on Earth. But Les said no thanks we already have everything we need out here, music, adventure and romance as we fly to colonies on the moon and Mars and anywhere else. But to his surprise Roya took the deal, left him, and in the ensuing ten years has become the biggest star on Earth. Now for the first time since then, she is coming back off-planet to play, and he will see her again on the Moon.
(Song with vocal)
These versions of Companion feature a keyboard track by the Incredible David Sancious, who in addition to playing some tracks for RINGS also has performed and recorded with such talented upstarts as Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Eric Clapton, Peter Gabriel. and Sting. Take a listen to this one even if you don’t want to audition for the Female lead in RINGS. When I began writing this show I wondered if I could ever write a song as melodically beautiful as many of Rogers and Hammerstein. I realized that even though I usually wrote the music to my songs, I’d have to bring in a very talented music collaborator to raise some of the songs to those heights. So, I brought in Jon Ossman who was the bass player with the Test Tube Babies and a thoroughly natural and magical musician who helped me write a song like Companion which is here performed by one of the greatest Keyboardists of the modern era.
Companion TV Mix
(sound without vocal)
Critical Mass with the vocal
It is backstage on the Moon. Roya and her girls Tira and Misu have just performed. The girls are pissed off. Tira says, " What are we doing on the moon? I could be in my yard looking up at the Moon, but on the moon?" and Misu says, "We could be playing the Beijing Fillmore. But the Moon? It's' got something to do with that guy Les Vegas. I heard he can't even get a decent gig on Earth. And if he's so great why'd you leave him in the first place?" To which Roya says "Girls sit down, have a drinkture, have two, and I'll tell you all about it."
(Song with vocal)
Fate Accompli TV Mix
(sound without vocal)
Les stands in a clear dome on Mimas, a moon of Saturn. Behind him in the black sky hangs Saturn like a giant moon. He sings his "establishing number, Fate Accompli where he sings about what he wants from his remaining years.