"Same Old Goes"

“Same Old Goes” - written by Jay Hepburn -  © 2002 Jay Hepburn

In the mid-90s, my brother and I were playing music with a very erratic person. I was playing drums at the time, as well as acting as manager. I had gotten us a booking at T.T. the Bear’s in Cambridge, kind of a big deal for us. Mr. Erratic decided to quit the band abruptly, very clearly assuming he was leaving us in a lurch and then being shocked to find out we were keeping the gig. Will and I had tons of originals we could do as guitar and bass with harmony vocals. At the gig, one of the other bands had heard (possibly from the slightly annoyed soundman…) that we were short a drummer and their drummer/singer–Dave Hepburn, twin of guitarist/singer Jay–very kindly offered to sit in with us. We said thanks anyway but were deeply moved by this gesture, as the Cool Boston Bands generally treated us like Very Less Than. Their band was–and is–Sand Machine, and from that night we enjoyed many shared gigs with them over the years. Great band. Great songs. Great records. Great people.

“Same Old Goes” is my all-time favorite Sand Machine song (and, really, there are so many great Sand Machine songs!). The original is very dynamic, with a slow building arrangement, beautiful three part harmonies, and a mile-wide groove. For a while there, I was going to take a sort of Roy Orbison approach but that just seemed too… no. The lyric about Sandra who played the oboe led me to challenge myself to integrate Mozart’s Oboe Concerto in C major, K. 314/271k into the arrangement, so orchestral colors would definitely be in play. Sand Machine has a retro-ish vibe and I wanted to honor that and still rock. Finally, the wistful melancholy of remembrance captured by the lyrics and melody had my random brain suggest a music box, and I was off.