Peter Presstone was, and still is, a prolific songwriter. I may be biased, having spent so much time with him. Of the few board tapes I have that have been converted to digital (big thanks to Dave Anderson at Saxon Recording, and an official Press Tone himself), the song count is close to 70. And this is probably over a 3 year stretch, give or take, and not all songs are on the tapes I have. In the bands that followed, namely, Pets & Small Children which became the Chinchillas, our song list tops out over 400, and that’s from roughly 1985 until today.

Yet it’s not only his ability to pen songs that get my admiration, but the ease at which he nails both melody and hooks. That’s one of the reasons I’ve hung with him for so long (well, that and I think he still owes me money). I’ll post some of the nicer stuff in a bit, but Peter also has a dark side. Songs like “It Must Be April,”  whose chorus goes, “Where is my mother, where is my father, they took them down to the burners,” talking about the Holocaust. Another song, which you’ll see below (if I code it correctly), was called “Rape,” and it was a rough and raucous song, which features some dissonant tri-tone guitar work at the end. The lead is also Peter, since he did most of the leads when I joined up, and his style is a kind of play from the gut approach that may not be polished, but nevertheless stands out.

Also, the dedication on this one, where Scott says “this goes out to Luke and Laura,” is not about Luke the DJ. Fans of General Hospital can fill you in on that story.

[audio:http://thepresstones.com/mp3/raped.mp3]