Written during the "Rockabilly" era of pop / country music on the East coast, sometime in the mid 80's. This song was one that caught the attention of some small time producers. They thought that the "hook" was really strong but they kept telling me to change the verse structure or lyrics or something. I don't think they knew what they were talking about. I believe that I ended up sticking with my original structure and that was the right thing to do, not that it made any difference anyway.
At any rate, these producers had an "artist" that they were trying to get something going for. They wanted a band to take this bozo's crappy song and do an arrangement for it and then record it. In return, we would get enough free studio time to record "Right Down Town" as well. So we took this guy's lousy song and improved it considerably, it wasn't all that bad when we were done. When we played it for them, they wanted it to be put back the crappy way it was so that's what we did. I believe I have both versions on a basement rehearsal tape somewhere.
But this page isn't about that song, it's supposed to be about "Right Down Town".
So the song isn't really about anything, it's just an attempt to write a tune that's fun to sing and fun to play and (of course) I would have liked it to make me rich and famous. At least I always thought that was what I wanted, now I wonder if I ever really wanted that at all.
Recording Notes:
As stated above, this is a studio recording but I don't remember anything about the studio except that they had a hole in the floor with a trap door covering it. Into this hole, you put your amplifier and then shut the door. The purpose was to isolate the track as much as possible and save space in the room. A nice idea but I would have preferred to be able to hear the amp "live" in the room as I was playing the guitar. All in all though, I think this was the nicest studio sound that we ever achieved as a band.