Basic information
Released: December 23 2004
Label: Shotgun Com. Ltd., under license to EMI Records
Length: 74:11
Track listing
1. Maria (3:42)
2. Jan Košťálek (1:00)
3. Thank you (2:07)
4. It takes me whole world (3:11)
5. Thirty seven tears (3:03)
6. I miss you so! (2:35)
7. My poor girl (3:35)
8. If you can (3:50)
9. Uškrd is olibzor (1:04)
10. It's not you (3:27)
11. Mary Sue (2:39)
12. Psychedelic dream (4:13)
13. May I can? (4:05)
14. The Impact (3:21)
15. The true story of John & Judith (3:54)
16. Jennifer (3:31)
17. I can't get thru (3:21)
18. Adri (3:41)
19. Chocolate! (3:24)
20. Ameryckej šyt (3:32)
21. Judith (5:48)
22. Jan Steininger (0:59)
23. It would take some time (3:32)
24. Loves (0:29)
The historical background
I was twelve years old when I got me first guitar from me father. It took me about four months until I’ve written my firts song, Maria. Until then, I’ve composed many poems so far, but only few of them had some music attached. When I had my first five songs finished, I decided to found a band that would play them.
Fortunately, I wasn’t the only in me class who was completely mad about rock, so was John Berger and Peter Rateer – the ones I played with for another three years under several names until The Blaue Erdbeere? was established.
Between March and December of that year, 2004, I composed maybe more then a hundred songs, but they all were kind of repetitive and I was stealing (not only) from meself and so I’ve chosen twenty of them, those I considered the best. Now I know I should have chosen the best of the best and do not record some of them.
It was Mary, my classmate, who made me write all these songs. Well, she didn’t actually make me, I was writing them voluntarily, but still she was the one I was writing for. The influence is obvious, as my good friend Evan said, just look at all these titles: Maria, Mary Sue, the unreleased Miss Maryjuana and Jennifer (nicknamed after Jennifer Aniston, whom she reminded me of) as well. The only song which was NOT about Mary, is Adri, you can get more info on this issue in my book, Good day.
About composing
In my lyrics, I was deeply influenced by the Beatles, and in my music as well. The songs I was writing were like From me to you, She loves you, and all these others. Sometimes I tried to compose something deeper but I think it never worked much, because I was too young. However, there are a few cases when I managed to write a real good song.
Except Maria, that I composed within an hour, choosing random chords, one of these is Psychedelic Dream, inspired by a certain artwork I saw in Monaco or wherever and my actual dream. The other ones are May I can? and The Impact (they are so similar, I sometimes call them twin songs) sinking deeper in my soul, exceptionally not about romantic feelings.
And before I finish, let me say a word or two about „the Berger songs“, The true story of John & Judith (also known as Mr. Ferret) and Judith. The first one was composed entirely by me, although Evan rather forced me to write it, because he wanted me to write about things that happen outside meself. The latter one was composed by Berger, I just wrote the lyrics, which is quite annoying because the lyrics are really good but I don’t think it would be fair if I played this song live.
About recording
If you listen to Second Age, you get to hear nothing but youth. All of these song are actually just demo tapes that were never driven to the end. The are all recorded live which means there was no space for editing and so all the mistakes in chord progressions and errors in my singing were left there. Sometimes you can even hear noises like turning the paper with notes, someone walking around or so.
The only highlights among otherwise quite boring arrangement are Psychedelic Dream where pre-delay (actualy pre-echo) was used and It would take some time which is (even though live) recorded twice and consequently overdubbed. You know, everytime I make big changes, I at least reserve them to the following album.
