The Lucky One – Freedy Johnston
This song is from Can You Fly. I’m proud of the drum tracks on this record and consider them some of the best I’ve done. (Ironically, Freedy and I never worked together again after the completion of this album). We recorded this album in two groups of sessions separated by 13 months. The first round of sessions were produced by Graham Maby, with me and Jared Nickerson as the rhythm section. I remember playing drums on Responsible first. Over a few days I played drums on the other songs. About a year later came songs like In The New Sunshine and this tune, The Lucky One. These last sessions were produced by Knut Bohn, with me and bassist Graham Maby as the rhythm section. For this tune, Knut asked me to play straight through with no fills. We went back to overdub cymbal crashes which he then ran through some effects.
This is still my favorite Freedy album. It was an exciting time to be playing music in Hoboken, NJ. These sessions were some of the last to be recorded at the old Water Music studio when it was a dump that smelled like diesel fumes. No wonder I sometimes have trouble with my memory.
I’m working on a detailed, comprehensive account about the Can You Fly sessions which I’ll post here soon.
