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Photography: Axel Döhler Art Direction: Keith Chambers / Third Stone Design Company SOMETHING WITH A PULSE Liner notes;
by Doane Perry While on the road, I received a call from our
mutual friend Larry Wilkins, who, seeing how difficult life had become
for Mark, wanted to organize a live benefit concert to help him.
Considering this, we felt it appropriate to create something more
long-lasting to represent some of the friends and artists Mark has
worked with, who were not able to appear at the benefit. And so, it has
been a surprising, revealing experience, and an interesting insight into
the basic goodness of people to have been involved with the making of
Mark's CD. To say that it has shown as much about the compassion
and class of all the various artists themselves as it shows about the
high regard in which they hold Mark would be an understatement.
Observing the instantaneous, selfless response, from each of them
in their desire to support and contribute to not only this CD, but more
importantly, to Mark's well-being has been remarkable and a personal joy
to witness. Jethro Tull, Gino Vannelli, Jean-Luc Ponty, Eric Burdon,
Tower of Power, Jeff Beck, the late Tommy Bolin, Dweezil Zappa, Caldera,
The Mark-Almond Band, The Hughes-Thrall Band, Back to Back, and PhD,
among others, have all called upon Mark's talents over the years to
contribute to their records and tours. Knowing Mark, it comes as no surprise to learn
how much he has meant to these people, with whom some, the
personal and professional relationships go back twenty years or
more. As a result, we have produced a completely unique CD, which
represents a range of artists that would normally not appear together
under the same musical umbrella. Mark, of course, is the musical
and personal thread that weaves all of these musicians together,
and it is a wonderful and fitting testimonial to his musical talents,
diversity and friendships formed over many years. I think it should be noted that the music on
the CD represents a wide spectrum of recorded performances. Some of them
feature Mark, some are tributes, but all of them have been freely given
by the artists. Some of them come in the form of board-cassette tapes
and DAT's from live gigs over the years, and studio pieces recorded
specifically for this project. As a consequence of these various
sonic environments and recording formats, you will notice a wide range
of fidelity which is to be expected, given the diverse sources of these
recordings. Do not adjust your dial. We have done our utmost to even out
these recorded inequalities, so that you, dear listener, will be the
happy beneficiary of the latest in audio technological advancement! So, a very heartfelt thanks must go to all the
musical artists for their tremendous cooperation, Keith Chambers and
Axel Dohler for the cover art, graphic design and layout, John Lowry for
his expert engineering. Bill Forth for his organizational skills,
Robert Gasper, for looking out for all things legal, Carlos Vega and
Joey Kristin, Diane Vannelli, David Rees and A New Day Records for the
European connection, and all the many business people connected with
each of the artists, who helped smooth the way, The Woodland Hills Drum
Club on general principle, all of Mark's immediate and extended family
for the cooperation and assistance in bringing this together, and of
course, to my dear friend Mark, for being. Oh, and a very special thanks
to Ian Anderson, whose idea this CD was in the first place. Doane
Perry, April 1997.
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