William George - Singer/Songwriter/Composer/Voice Instructor/Graphic Designer

Lonely: Demos, Rarities & Unreleased Recordings

Lonely is an anthology of mostly-unheard recordings spanning my entire career. Mostly chronological, it begins with the newest recording from 2020 and goes all the way back to my first band in the 80s. It also includes two bonus tracks of songs written by me and recorded by other artists.

Vancouver period (recorded circa 2009-2020)

1. The Man I Knew (Demo) - I wrote this song over a period of days in August 2020 while my Father was in hospice. He had Parkinson's, which at the very end left both his mind and body nearly immobile. He fought so hard for so long. He was a remarkable man.

2. On the Air - a bit of 80's-inspired fun. Russell Wallace sent this to me to see if I could come up with a few finishing touches. It is part of an ongoing project about an indigenous 80s new-wave band who reunites 40 years later.

HORSE OPERA

A few years ago, Horse Opera made a series of homemade recordings on a Tascam recorder. I'm including some of them here.

3. In Love Apart - In Love Apart was written by our bass player Harvey McCormick. It was inspired by a movie about a soldier leaving his girl to go to war. I really like the production on this one.

4. Til Something Better Comes Along - my attempt at a Bakersfield-style song ala Dwight Yoakam. I'm on the fence about the call and response vocals, but I think the song is fun.

5. Best of Me - a dark ballad written by Jon McGrath. I like the way this sounds, and the opening guitar line was an un-reproduceable fluke. This was our first song to get radio play.

6. Queen of California (country version) - Complete with banjo, this was how we originally performed this song. The later recording on Nothing To Lose is more Cali-soul.

7. On My Own (Demo) - a beautiful ballad co-written by myself and Jon McGrath. We don't perform this anymore because we haven't figured out how to make it work with sparer instrumentation (the key and chords are beyond my guitar skill level), but it is still one of my favourite ballads we've played.

8. Open Arms (Demo) - voice and guitar demo of a Horse Opera song, which later became the unofficial theme song of St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church for its themes of acceptance.

9. You Saved Me (Demo) - I wrote the words and melody to the existing track. It has sort of a country-gospel meets The Police feel.

10. Home (Demo) - original acoustic demo of this song later performed by Horse Opera. There is something special about this demo. I've yet to figure out how to record this properly with a full band.

11. I Want This Night To Last Forever (Demo) - written for the wedding of Terri King and Horse Opera drummer Paul Leeburn. Not the best quality recording, but I am proud of the song.

L.A. period (recorded late 80s-late 90s) - I've skipped the NYC period which consists of the EP Yesterday's Gone, which can be found on the Recordings page.

THE BOVINES

Includes the full out-of-print EP recorded in the early 90s.

12. I Think of You - inspired by someone I thought I would eventually end up with, but the timing was always off.

13. Dog Days - inspired by my best friend. Some of it is true, some made up. It's a fun Rick Springfield-inspired tune. I still perform this song with Horse Opera.

14. Dancing With Angels - Inspired by an artist I met with multiple-personality disorder. He created paintings, some painted by him, some by his alter-ego Ginger. He called the Healing Paintings. The title comes from the artwork I purchased from him. I often wonder what happened to him. Later recorded by Horse Opera, but I've always felt close to this recording.

15. Chasing the Wind - one of the first songs I wrote on guitar. I was very literal on my early songs!

16. I Found Love - a "rockabilly gospel surf" tune. Lots of fun to perform live. Horse Opera still closes sets with this.

NORTHERN EXIT

Modern-Progressive Rock band which combined influences like U2 and The Call with Rush and Kansas. Secular-Christian in nature, I thought we were going to be the next big thing. Most of the musicians were classically trained, and guitarist-songwriter Lou Warde actually scored most of the songs. But we were playing modern rock in an era where Hair Metal dominated the Sunset Strip. We were just slightly ahead of our time.

17. Inside-Out - synth-driven moody rock

18. Fingers - a unique melodic structure, ending in a Bach guitar solo

19. Strength of Love - oh how I loved singing this song! Based on a motif from Albeniz' "Leyenda" guitar piece. I just regret that my vocal is mixed so far down. This recording could have been so much better.

20. Heirs of Eternity - a Kansas-style ballad, complete with violin solo.

ACOUSTIC SESSIONS - During the time I was in Northern Exit, I was just starting to write my own songs. I recorded a set of 7 songs with just acoustic guitar (plus electric on two). I'm including 4 of them here. Two I'm not including were later recorded with the Bovines and the third is not one I care for anyone to hear now!

21. Lonely - I was really into T-Bone Burnett's production during this period, especially on Leslie Phillips' album The Turning. This is clearly reflected in the sound and in Lou Warde's guitar solo. Somehow, I earned royalties from this song for a few years in Poland! I have no idea how that came about.

22. The Quest - inspired by Peter S. Beagle's novel "The Last Unicorn." Not that anyone would be able to figure that out!

23. The Sea - I've been asked if this song is metaphorical. Ha! This was probably the first song I wrote, while still in high school. As I mentioned before - my early songs were very literal. I almost didn't include this, as I'm kind of ambivalent about it. But it's pretty anyway.

24. Letting Go - again, very literal. I won't say what it's about though, as maybe not knowing will give it a bit of mystique. This one is more of a rocker than the other acoustic songs. Another one I almost didn't include, but I like the tune. My sense of melodic hooks started early. Sorry if this gets into your head...

25. Misplaced Victim Northern Exit rehearsal recording) - This is the only version of this song that exists. It is also the only Northern Exit song that I wrote myself. It was inspired by the film Full Metal Jacket. Apologies for the lo-fi sound, but I'm really proud of the lyrics of this song. It was the first time I felt like a poet.

26. One Way - OK, I will start off by saying this is NOT a good song. It is the only recording I made with my first band. Blatantly Christian Rock, I didn't last long (about 9 months). But this is the first time I really got to create a vocal arrangement in the studio. I'm very proud of the vocals I created, and I got to mix it old-school analogue by controlling the dials in placement, balance etc. Funny story about the song's origins - The songwriter/guitarist for the band, whose name I can't remember (Danny?) handed me an instrumental track and the lyrics and said "sing this." I replied there was no melody so he told me to just make something up. So this is what I came up with. He later told me it wasn't the melody he heard in his head HAHA! His guitar teacher played the shredding metal solo.

27. Mother's Day (Demo) - The opening song is about my Dad, so I thought it fitting I close with a song for my Mom. I wrote this post-Bovines but while I was still living in LA. I drove out to Joshua Tree with my guitar and sat on a rock and wrote songs all day. This is just a home recording with acoustic guitar.

BONUS TRACKS

28. I Don't Wanna Make You Love Me - in the 90's, I was writing with a lyricist name Douglas Sparks. We wrote quite a few songs together, most of which we tried to pitch to other artists. I was not writing most of these for myself to perform. We were lucky enough to get involved with singer/songwriter/producer Andrew Gold during that time. He produced this song for a singer named Serina Flagg. Unfortunately, the album didn't go anywhere but this song got some nice mentions in a few reviews.

29. She's Not For Me - another song written with Douglas Sparks. I originally wrote this with a singer like Celine Dion in mind. But Andrew Gold recorded it and turned it into a Beach Boys-style harmonic pop gem. Never released before, I'm happy for people to finally get to hear it.