It feels like a small miracle that you are reading this right now. My brother David Mead recorded I'm On Stage back in 1976. And his story was all too familiar to so many young, talented musicians back in the day — signed by record labels with the promise of brilliant futures in the music industry, only to come up well short of the promised land.
In David's case, his label, Tiger Lily, was nothing more than a vehicle for money laundering.
Created by Morris Levy of Roulette Records, Tiger Lily was wholly unconcerned with the fate of its musicians. The label never even intended to make a profit. The trick was to acquire demo tapes from artists or studios and release them, often without the artist's consent or even their knowledge. Some were bootlegs of already-extant albums released in the early 1970s. Very few records actually signed to Tiger Lily Records have been identified, but one of them was by David. Most of these contractual albums seem to have been recorded in 1976. But they were never going to be actually distributed to consumers, and the artists like David who signed deals eventually came to realize that they were nothing more than gears in a larger machine of tax avoidance.
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David came of age during the tumultuous 1960s. The assassinations of President Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, the injustices that led to the Civil Rights Movement and of course, the growing conflict in Vietnam which divided the country — all of these events had a deep and profound affect on David. Like many of his generation, he sought solace in music, particularly in songs of protest. So David's earliest forays into music was as a folk singer/songwriter, writing anti-war songs and accompanying himself on guitar.
Our family moved from Tenafly, New Jersey, to a small country town in Ireland. In 1969, David dropped out of college and traveled to join us. Having outgrown the folk scene and wanting to study music, David applied to and was accepted by the Royal College of Music in Dublin. There he studied composition, theory, and piano, which became his great love.
Together with his friend and singing partner, Turlough McConnell, he formed McConnell-Mead. They signed with Polydor in Dublin and released a single, 'Butt Bridge' b/w 'Faces' to considerable success in 1971. David and Turlough also co-wrote a play with lyrics and music by David, based on James Stevens', A Crock of Gold, which was produced at the Dublin Theatre Festival in 1974.
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In 1970, a record producer named David Hesse utilized David's composition 'Sailor Song' for the Malachy McCourt album And The Children Toll The Passing Of The Day.
Shortly after David moved back to New York in 1974, the two reconnected, and Hesse introduced David to Tiger Lily. I sincerely believe that Hesse had no idea of what was really going on at Tiger Lily, but here is where David Mead's troubles began.
To say that David was over the moon with the possibilities, however, would be an understatement. The absolute thrill of being signed to a label in America, as a solo artist, was overwhelming, and seems to have short-circuited what little business sense David had, which wasn't much to begin with.
Still, in the days before home recording, there was no greater thrill for a singer-songwriter than to go walk into a studio with a group of musicians and record something with heart and soul. I'm On Stage was just that kind of experience for David. I suspect, he name as his favourite songs on the album 'Long Time' segueing into 'Slow Down' with its jazz undertones and complicated chord structures. If asked what the most commercially viable was he'd undoubtedly point to 'Let's Package Love'. The song 'Someone's Been Treating You Kind' was about meeting a former girlfriend. And the album's title track, 'I'm On Stage' reflects David's romantic streak. 'Exiled' was sadly prescient about his own career.
David was my brother. I am biased, but to me, he was one of the finest people I have ever known, and one of the most talented. He had integrity in spades. Because he was so honest, he assumed everyone else was as well. He went to his grave believing he had permanently lost the rights to the music on I'm On Stage. And so the album, like so many others, disappeared into oblivion, seemingly never to be heard of again.
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One day last year, I got a call from a stranger who heard two tracks from the album on YouTube, and liked what he heard. How he found the songs or me is a mystery but find us he did, and he wanted to hear more. The main difficulty we faced was finding a clean copy of the album. To my knowledge, I had the only existing copy, in very rough condition. But it turned out that the same gentleman in Finland responsible for the YouTube uploads was able to provide us with a better transfer, and here we are.
After the Tiger Lily debacle, in the late 70s, David founded the band Mead, with myself as the lead singer along with some very fine musicians (including the recently rediscovered Music From Memory recording artist Vito Ricci — ed). David wrote all of Mead's material, and although we sparked quite a bit of interest, labels couldn't pigeonhole us into any one genre. Some of the material was new wave, some had definite jazz undertones, and some was just flat out rock. As a musician, David kept growing and his tastes kept changing. He was always moving forward, never wanting to repeat himself.
The band broke up in the early 80's — the usual story, fragile egos and bills to be paid. David was fortunate to get a job with Elliot Lawrence composing incidental music for the wildly popular soap opera As The World Turns. Later on, he started his own jingle house, Mead Music Makers, writing jingles for television and radio ads — he even won a couple of Clios. He wrote and scored plays and composed all kinds of music; he never stopped writing or growing musically. His final compositions were for String Quartets. Music was his life, but the whole ugly episode with Tiger Lily forever soured his view of the music business.
It's been 22 years since David left us; it's extraordinary to think that, 46 years after it was consigned to extinction, I'm On Stage is once again seeing the light of day. Another miracle of sorts.
Andrea D'Arcy Mead, February 2022
credits
released November 4, 2022
Produced by Peter Harriman & David Mead
Engineered by Ben Rizzi
Keyboards & Vocals by David Mead
Electric Bass & Bass Viola by Tom Hebb
Drums by Eddie Hilton, Robert Triscari, and Sandy Rubin
Guitar by Michael Lorello and Chris Morris
Backing Vocals by Wayne Robertson
Thanks to Gentle Ben, Max Chrein, Allison & Alan Kennedy, Mick Fleetwood, Toulouse, B. Lincoln, Turlough McConnell, Odgen Goelet, Deirdre, Paul Mandl, and Karen (of course)
Reissue produced by Douglas Mcgowan & Tyler Craft
Transfers by Keith D'Arcy
Notes by Andrea D'Arcy Mead
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