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Game Preserve

by Bart Davenport

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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Includes unlimited streaming of Game Preserve via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 10 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      €24 EUR or more 

     

1.
A thousand people cheering in a stadium For men who kick the balls and score the goals But that is not for me The only game I want to see is love I know it is the sweetest game I know, I know love is the sweetest game I’m not the kind to be seen at the roulette wheel But when it comes to loving you can bet I’m for real So when your chips are down Your luck may always turn around for love I know it is the sweetest game I know, I know love is the sweetest game A thousand people waiting for the matador And some of them are rooting for the bull But when blood starts to pour The only thing worth dying for is love I know it is the sweetest game I know, I know love is the sweetest game
2.
The Saviors 02:35
Some might say I’m a sucker And some might say I’m a hack I stand proud to be your lover Even when you don’t love back I’m not embarrassed of your beauty So why should you be? Let me save you from the saviors And their hidden jealousy Just outside your window I can strain to hear their laughter Cooking breakfast for you on Obligatory mornings after And your designated driver Wouldn’t be caught dead with me I will save you from the saviors And their hidden jealousy They may say that I’m as useful to you As a dull knife But they always concentrate so hard On messing up your life As if they can just pluck you Like some pear from a tree I’m amazed at how you Tolerate them constantly Be my only friend and save me From my hidden jealousy
3.
Spirits in the basement speak to soccer moms With an ancient, good witches code There’s a general store Hey, don’t bust the screen door What’s your hurry for? You’re only ten years old City boy on a train ride through the country Where the rivers are as wide as his eyes Side by side, the chapel with the forbidden apple And the weeping willow only sighs Paint the yellows and the reds of autumn Convey the stillness of bar-code trees Or that Bonnie & Clyde car Rusting in the shade Where they swerved off the road So long ago There’s a green blanket that rolls over the hills And valleys of this heartbreaking land She left metropolis To make a home here But one day She’ll paint the desert sands City boy on a train ride through the country Where the rivers are as wide as his eyes Side by side, the chapel with the forbidden apple And the weeping willow only sighs Don’t let it bug you that you’re not behind the wheel New England hugs you like a real grandfather And you know you’ll never stay here - It’s way too nice Try and find a place where you belong So all aboard the choo-choo You know it behooves you They say love is on the loose Broke out of the caboose All the way through New Haven With the yankee doodle dandies Commuters headed further Than the Amtrak goes There are no tracks there I bet you can relax there Neath the swaying palms With the boom boxes on
4.
Euphoria is all you know Wild, wild seeds you had to sew All of the good and the bad times You ride like a see-saw While love’s prisoners all played charades You wore a belt of their accolades But if you get caught with your pants down You really shouldn’t care ‘Cause everyone on earth is so beautiful, even you Oh no, no he did not say that Yes, its true You say I need a dose of reality Make no claims of neutrality But I’d rather make friends than enemies And I want all my allies to come and dance with me All through the valleys and the mountains too Swim through rivers and oceans blue Even the crusties out on the avenue Spare a little change for me one time ‘Cause everyone on earth is so beautiful, even you Pity that you can’t get to know them all I know it sounds like just another cliche, but it’s true Everyone on earth is so beautiful So take your thinking caps off right now and get down I know you wanna get a little bit crazy right now Heavenly bodies keep on moving, keep on moving Heavenly bodies keep a moving on Heavenly bodies keep on moving, keep on moving Heavenly bodies keep a moving on, Keep moving on Heavenly bodies keep on moving, keep on moving Heavenly bodies keep a moving on, Keep moving on Everyone on earth is so beautiful, even you Everyone on earth is so beautiful And we all have to die someday (And we all have to walk in the rain) Everyone on earth is so beautiful
5.
I barely know her But when I touch her shoulder There’s a warmth there that lingers Like the summer in her hair, it lingers With the winter in mine Gentle as the breezes that carry me home Heavy as my heart that sinks like a stone I know it ain’t wrong I know it ain’t wrong Afterparty at the station We struck up a conversation I was telling her all about England On my mind, it’s always there in England Lost in Leicester Square I’ll be going back to London With a fist full of sunlight Hand it out for free up in Willesden Hand it out for 50p in Hampstead Spread it all across the heath Gentle as the breezes that carry me home Heavy as my heart that sinks like a stone I know it ain’t wrong I know it ain’t wrong Tomorrow's lips will say They want to be kissed today So in my passenger seat she may linger Like a song, you can’t forget the singer Singing things I dare not say
6.
Sideways and upside down Find ways to be a clown And when the circus leaves I’ll stay I wanna be important To you and your whole crew And when they’re laughing at me I become a part of you and it’s Sideways and upside down Find ways to be a clown And when the circus leaves I’ll stay You see my work ain’t over I got a job to do I wanna be your rover Don’t you wanna be mine too? Sideways and upside down Find ways to be a clown And when the circus leaves I’ll stay There ain’t enough time in the day To show you all my thoughts I have to jump through so many hoops To get from A to Z, tame the lions in me Loving you is sweeter than cotton candy
7.
When you’re sad it all seems mute Pretty girls ain’t even cute When you’re sad When you’re up it all falls down Your smile turns into a frown Soon you’re down again But I know the Happy Day Brigade And they charge into my life like a gay parade And I know the risk you take By making changes in your life that ain’t so safe When you’re in you get kicked out No holding on to the clout When you’re out Those who are hip, so full of conceit Are soon to be obsolete And uncool again But I know the day will come when we see more Than what you wore last night at a show And our love so precarious Will be there to protect us when we’re low When you’re down, I’m down with you You’ll find a heart that’s true When you’re down Don’t give up, you just have to give in So we can begin To begin again
8.
I was devilishly happy I had not a cent A lover too poor to buy a ring But I did get mine Further down the line Strung out and too tired for loving So when they fired the cannons I knew it was my turn But they only put a hole in the wall If you ask me for the time I’d say I don’t know This is nowhere and there’s no where left to go Oh nowhere and nowhere left to go I was brutally dishonest I was mercilessly fair I was always trying to make things work out You can’t find a place to settle By moving to and fro This is nowhere and there’s nowhere left to go Oh nowhere and nowhere left to go There were brief times I could almost see you spending your life with me Now they put us in pods Made of flesh and bone And they make us write our own eulogies So I write about euphoria That I once did know This is nowhere and there’s nowhere left to go And they lead you down the aisle And they march you through the snow This is nowhere and there’s nowhere left to go Oh nowhere and nowhere left to go
9.
10.
11.
Tee 02:26
She painted a rainbow around the moon The train whistle blew in tune I told her I’d be back soon But that was so long ago Idle hands grow wild in summer She’s a mess without her lover Speaks to me in tongues of truth Speaks of love without the proof From the shelter of a phone booth But I hear it in her voice Waits for me like grains of sand As if I held the hour glass in my hand I never forget everything that she did for me Wanna be there and I will when I get what I came for She will be understood like she wants to be For she is a miracle and I call her Tee If you should find yourself in my shoes Take it easy, don’t defy love Get an endless supply of Red telephones and roses Happy endings in the setting sun If you’re lucky enough to find someone I never forget everything that she did for me Wanna be there and I will when I get what I came for She will be understood like she wants to be For she is a miracle and I call her Tee
12.
Intertwine 02:58
You call it an odyssey I’m on a train to old Lime Street Where you would be the golden boy Sans the sawdust on your feet I could never be you No matter how many Snickers bars I eat When you leave you take away A little magic from the land Pour it into a Ryder Truck Drive strait into quicksand Maybe you’re gonna find yourself by Changing the scenery And its funny how you become Just what they say you are You can be the albatross Or you can be the star They can tell you your life story And they will tell you mine Your life story and mine Intertwine People moving, always leaving It fills me with such grief That sometimes when I think of you In my mind I picture a chess piece Makes me hate the American way I have never felt so free And its funny how you become Just what they say you are You can be the albatross Or you can be the star They can tell you your life story And they will tell you mine Your life story and mine May they always intertwine

about

The last couple of years have seen a renaissance for West Coast singer-songwriters. LA-based youngsters such as Drugdealer and Sylvie have attracted considerable attention releasing warm and mellow records tonally reminiscent of the early 70s. Most fans of this new/old sound are unaware of Bart Davenport’s early explorations in the same sonic territory. His now 20-year-old “Game Preserve” album should gain an appreciative new audience with its first ever vinyl release.

In the year 2000, Bay Area troubadour Bart Davenport and several other musicians were recruited by a major tech corporation in Seattle to work on an algorithm-based music matching/search engine. It was what looked like the beginning of a promising career. After a year, however, the project was shelved. Bart and his colleagues were laid off with a healthy severance package... on the 12th of September, 2001. Not only had the musician’s life changed, so had the world. Rather than blow the money on a holiday or new car, Bart knew he had to make a record. A proper album that meant something.

Back in Oakland, he entered Wally Sound Studios with former Kinetics bandmate Jon Erickson at the controls, and a swathe of talented local musicians. “With Game Preserve,” Bart explains, “Jon and I really wanted to knock it out of the park. I wanted to utilize people from my old bands like Loved Ones drummer John Kent. I also invited my newer indie-pop friends from Call & Response, and a young Nedelle Torrisi. Harmony singing by The Moore Brothers was an essential ingredient on Game Preserve as well.”

Both Erickson and Davenport fondly recall growing up in households where the music of The Carpenters, Joni Mitchell and The Eagles soundtracked their young lives. By the early 00s they were ready to reconnect with what is often referred to as the “Laurel Canyon” sound. “I’d buy used tapes at garage sales and play them in the car. “Ladies Of The Canyon” by Joni and Jackson Browne’s first album were both in heavy rotation. Jon Erickson was getting deeper into the Steely-Mac-Doobie yacht-rock sound in earnest. A certain amount of childhood nostalgia led a lot of us back to that part of the 70s. I’d flirted with classic soft-rock on my first album, but that record was pretty scattered esthetically. I wanted my next one to be more focused. Jon and I made some ground rules: no electric guitars (except on ‘Bar-Code Trees’). No synths. Most importantly, all the songs have an air-tight, super dead, close mic’d drum sound. Putting these sorts of limitations on the sessions will give your record a specific quality. In the case of “Game Preserve” it’s mostly about tight drums, acoustic instruments and analog production. We used a 24-track, two-inch tape machine for tracking, then ran the mixes through an analog board straight to a 1/4 inch master tape.”

While the album’s sonic palette may be firmly planted in 1970, Davenport’s songwriting covers a sizable landscape of moods and reflections. From the quasi-flamenco intro of ‘Sweetest Game’ to the somber Wurlitzer of ‘Nowhere Left To Go’, to the 12-string shimmer of ‘Intertwine’, “Game Preserve” tells a story of young love, lost innocence and redemption, crossing borders and oceans along the way.

Released in 2003 on family-run Oakland label Antenna Farm, the ultra-analog sounding “Game Preserve” was only made available on digital formats, including CD. Copies were later pressed by labels in Germany and Spain; the latter being one country the album actually did well in, establishing Bart Davenport with a small but loyal fanbase he still enjoys today. Two European tours as support for Kings of Convenience also helped gain a foothold on the continent. Back in the US, however, Davenport and his sophomore album remained quite obscure.

Limited promotion meant it did little, but for the music lovers that heard it, the album undoubtedly remains a classic of the era, deserving far more. Twenty years on, it now finally receives its vinyl debut. “I personally think it holds up well,” says Bart of the album two decades later. “The idea was to make something that could be an homage to late ’60s/early ’70s West Coast pop but hopefully timeless as well. Years on, I hear it as just that. It was a colorful and brief period of my life that felt at times like it could last forever. I discovered the joy of working in a proper studio with a perfect cast of characters. I’m still very close with all these people and still play music with many of them.”

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En los dos últimos años se ha producido un renacimiento de los cantautores de la Costa Oeste. Jóvenes de Los Ángeles como Drugdealer y Sylvie han llamado mucho la atención con discos cálidos y suaves que recuerdan tonalmente a los primeros años setenta. La mayoría de los aficionados a este nuevo/viejo sonido desconocen las primeras incursiones de Bart Davenport en el mismo territorio sonoro. Su álbum “Game Preserve”, que cumple ahora 20 años, debería ganarse un público nuevo con su primera edición en vinilo.

En el año 2000, Bart Davenport, trovador de la Bay Area, y varios músicos más fueron contratados por una importante empresa tecnológica de Seattle para trabajar en un motor de búsqueda musical basado en algoritmos. Parecía el comienzo de una carrera prometedora. Sin embargo, al cabo de un año, el proyecto se archivó. Bart y sus compañeros fueron despedidos con una buena indemnización... el 12 de septiembre de 2001. No sólo había cambiado la vida del músico, sino también el mundo. En lugar de gastar el dinero en unas vacaciones o un coche nuevo, Bart sabía que tenía que hacer un disco. Un álbum de verdad que significara algo.

De vuelta en Oakland, entró en los estudios Wally Sound con su antiguo compañero de banda Jon Erickson a los mandos y un grupo de músicos locales de gran talento. “Con Game Preserve”, explica Bart, “Jon y yo queríamos hacer algo grande. Quería contar con gente de mis antiguos grupos, como John Kent, batería de Loved Ones. También invité a mis nuevos amigos de Call & Response y a una joven Nedelle Torrisi. Las armonías vocales de The Moore Brothers también fueron un ingrediente esencial en Game Preserve”.

Tanto Erickson como Davenport recuerdan con cariño haber crecido en hogares donde la música de The Carpenters, Joni Mitchell y The Eagles era la banda sonora de sus jóvenes vidas. A principios de los dos mil, estaban preparados para reconectar con lo que a menudo se conoce como el sonido “Laurel Canyon”. “Compraba cintas usadas en mercadillos y las ponía en el coche. “Ladies Of The Canyon”, de Joni, y el primer álbum de Jackson Browne estaban muy presentes. Jon Erickson se adentraba cada vez más en el sonido yacht-rock de Steely-Mac-Doobie. Una cierta nostalgia de la infancia nos llevó a muchos de nosotros a esa parte de los años setenta. Yo había coqueteado con el soft-rock clásico en mi primer álbum, pero ese disco era bastante disperso estéticamente. Quería que el siguiente estuviera más centrado. Jon y yo establecimos algunas reglas básicas: nada de guitarras eléctricas (excepto en ‘Bar-Code Trees’). Nada de sintetizadores. Y lo que es más importante, todas las canciones tienen un sonido de batería hermético y grabado con micrófonos muy cercanos. Poner este tipo de limitaciones en las sesiones le da a tu disco una calidad específica. En el caso de “Game Preserve”, se trata sobre todo de una batería compacta, instrumentos acústicos y producción analógica. Utilizamos una grabadora de cinta de dos pulgadas con 24 pistas y luego pasamos las mezclas por una mesa analógica directamente a una cinta maestra de un cuarto de pulgada”.

Aunque la paleta sonora del álbum esté firmemente anclada en 1970, la composición de Davenport abarca un amplio paisaje de estados de ánimo y reflexiones. Desde la introducción casi flamenca de ‘Sweetest Game’ hasta el sombrío Wurlitzer de ‘Nowhere Left To Go’, pasando por el brillo de las 12 cuerdas de ‘Intertwine’, “Game Preserve” cuenta una historia de amor juvenil, inocencia perdida y redención, cruzando fronteras y océanos por el camino.

Publicado en 2003 por el sello Antenna Farm, de Oakland, el sonido ultra analógico de “Game Preserve” sólo estuvo disponible en formatos digitales, incluido el CD. Más tarde, sellos de Alemania y España publicaron copias; este último fue uno de los países en los que el álbum funcionó bien, y Bart Davenport se hizo con una pequeña pero leal base de seguidores de la que sigue disfrutando hoy en día. Dos giras europeas como telonero de Kings of Convenience también le ayudaron a afianzarse en el continente. En Estados Unidos, sin embargo, Davenport y su segundo álbum permanecieron en la oscuridad.

La escasa promoción que se le dio no sirvió de mucho, pero para los amantes de la música que lo escucharon el álbum sigue siendo un clásico de la época, que merecía mucho más. Veinte años después, por fin debuta en vinilo. “Personalmente, creo que se mantiene bien”, dice Bart en la actualidad. “La idea era hacer algo que pudiera ser un homenaje al pop de la costa oeste de finales de los 60 y principios de los 70, pero que también fuera atemporal. Años después, lo considero precisamente eso. Fue un breve y colorido periodo de mi vida que a veces parecía como si fuera a durar para siempre. Descubrí el placer de trabajar en un estudio adecuado con un elenco perfecto de personas. Sigo muy unido a toda esa gente y sigo tocando música con muchos de ellos”.

credits

released May 26, 2023

Produced by Jon Erickson

All songs written by Bart Davenport (Vic Silva Songs/BMI)
Except ‘My Brother Woody’ (Chris Dedrick/Almitra Inc/Record Songs Inc/ASCAP)

Recorded, Engineered & Mixed by Wally at The Wally Sound, Oakland CA, Autumn 2002

This album was tracked entirely on two-inch tape, then mixed down through an analog console to quarter-inch tape.

Remastered for vinyl by JJ Golden at Golden Mastering, Ventura CA, Autumn 2021

Mastered by Paul Stubblebine, San Francisco, CA

Artwork by Jeffrey Charles

Photo of Bart & Friends by Terri Loewenthal

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Bart Davenport Los Angeles, California

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