Dave Smithey Songs

“Tost in Space”

I wrote the bassline for “Tost in Space” on an acoustic guitar in my apartment in Northridge (in Los Angeles) in about 1981. I finished my lyrics in 1983. The song was developed with the band Second Generation in Los Angeles, California, US. We often played it with me starting on bass and then switching to drums.

The tune is progressive rock in 4/4 except for some sections in 7/8. People have said that some of these sections are in a different meter, but they just sound that way because in some cases each second measure only has notes played on notes on the 2 through 7 but the One/downbeat is still there as a rest. It counts something like 1234567_234567.

I wrote a fairly serious set of “Tost in Space” lyrics about human interest in the exploration of space but Second Generation plays it with a different (more fun) set of music/scifi lyrics. I have never suggested using my lyrics because I really like the ones the band uses and I plan to do a separate version with my lyrics at some point.

I have done a few “Tost in Space” demos with me programming a drum machine and me playing bass over that. These were for songwriting purposes as well as for the benefit of practicing playing bass to a time source and learning to program drum machines.

The band Da Vinci in Anchorage, Alaska, US worked on “Tost in Space” also.

Second Generation made a studio recording of “Tost in Space” in 2001.

“Toy Bombs”

I wrote “Toy Bombs” in 1985. This song is about the early days of the 1980’s war during which the Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan. It is about the Soviets/Russians, the Afghans, the foreign fighters that were there and the fact that at the time there was very little mainstream coverage of the subject here in the United States. My perspective is based on what I was hearing about it on Ray Briem’s late night AM talk radio show on KABC in Los Angeles.

I wrote a bass part, drum part and lyrics. The song is meant to be Rap for the verses and Funky Rock on the choruses. There is a loud bridge section that is supposed to sound “warlike”. I wrote the verses to be Rap but they have never been done by anyone that is an actual rapper.

I recorded a songwriting demo with bass and drum tracks in a rehearsal room at Francisco Studios in Vernon (Los Angeles area) with me on drums and Dan Rothchild of Second Generation on bass.