The Mick Rhodes Band Evolution

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Mick Rhodes Band Evolution

Open Wire

The particular open wire lead that I was on at the time had four "full house" arms and went over one hundred miles from Hawthorne to Tonopah, Nev. along highway 95.
"Routining" the wire was somewhat tedious, and could get boring if you didn't find something to fix along the way. You might drive for miles, and see nothing broken or untied. In some spots, you couldn't drive at all due to the terrain, you would have to walk sections of the pole lead to check it.
An interesting thing about the copper wire was that when originally placed, it was strung at a fairly high tension, and was adjusted to be "in tune" — so to speak. As years would go by, the entire lead would be detuned by weather, wear, damage, and so on.
When the wind would pass over the wire, it would start to hum, in an other-worldly sort of way. Some times at the end of the day, I would climb to the topmost arm on the pole, and just listen to the wire "singing" to me.
The opening bars of "Open Wire" came to me while walking this lead toward Tonopah, they stayed with me for a couple of years, till I finally wrote them down. The music was well established before my dad died, and when that happened, the lyrics became about him and taking things (and friends) for granted.
The sound at the beginning of "Open Wire" is Rich simulating the singing of the wire on a detuned guitar, and using an E-bow to enhance the effect. It ain't the real thing, but it's pretty darn close.

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