Biography of Don Falcone

A Biography of Don Falcone

This is an evolving biography. Every few months, I'll update the news and add some additional information.

Overview

News

I am currently working on the next Spirits Burning & Michael Moorcock album, "The End Of All Songs - Part 2," a fourth Spirits Burning
& Bridget Wishart album, and a Spirits Burning & David Jackson album. I also contributed to some songs by other artists, which I hope to
see out and about in the near future. These include songs for Chumley Warner Brothers, G.C. Neri, and a project with Don Xaliman. Cheers!

"One of the Spirits Burning, A Musical Memoir" by Don Falcone

Details soon...

Part 3: “The original Melting Euphoria”

When the original Spirits Burning and its offshoots ended, I felt like I was orphaned in the local music scene. I was no longer playing with musicians or working with engineers that I had known off and on for years, and I was no longer the main songwriter for a band. I turned to the local music zines like BAM and papers like the Bay Guardian and checked out the classifieds for bands in search of a keyboardist.

The first successful connection was Red Gypsy Rain. It was a good fit in that it stretched me to play new sounds and phrases in odd and ever-changing tempos. It was a truly progressive space rock meets psychedelic setting. I could hear Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd, and Hawkwind in our influences, so it was quite special at times, especially during the long instrumental sections. Our studio was located in the heart of the San Francisco Tenderloin — it always felt unsafe getting into and out of the studio… It painted the memories of previous years of practicing in the Hunter’s Point warehouse area of town as safe and quaint, as least in comparison.

Over time, I was able to bring in some of my songs. Plus, I was singing some lead vocals again. We did a demo that included a combination of two of my older songs under the name “One Spirits Burning.” This track and another demo song (“Dreaming Synapses”) were included years later as bonus tracks on the Melting Euphoria release “From The Madness We Began.”

[Melting Euphoria “From The Madness We Began.”]

After Red Gypsy Rain lost its drummer, and we briefly played with another, the band ended. The bassist (Anthony) and I eventually hooked up with the remnants of a band called Myrth: drummer Mychael Merrill and guitarist Dan Miller. (A Myrth song is also a bonus track on “From The Madness We Began.”)

We called ourselves By Design, named after an instrumental song of mine from my Kameleon days that we were now performing. This band was not as chaotic as Red Gypsy Rain, or even as spacey and tribal as what eventually became Melting Euphoria. At least that is my memory. Dan brought a mellower, almost folky element to the space prog that we were doing.

By Design ended after a couple of gigs, some time passed, and then Melting Euphoria rose from its ashes: “Formed in San Francisco by keyboardist Don Falcone, Anthony “Who” Budziszewski (bass) and Mychael Merrill (drums) they started with the album Through The Strands Of Time.”

Creating and playing the music of Melting Euphoria was always exciting. Anything was possible, and we could freely experiment with the music we loved, and attempt to make something new of it. It was a formula that I would never forget or take for granted.

On the other hand, doing a virtual cross between a space rock version of Keith Emerson and Hawkwind’s Robert Calvert at the same time might have been a bit too much for me to maintain, especially when we played live. Change was on the horizon, one way or another.

As the album was being manufactured, I had a major falling out with Anthony. It was an odd confluence of things, which included our agreed upon holiday break, me planning to go see my college poetry mentor John Taggart, and then Anthony scheduling a gig the same night as the reading. Plus, I was starting to consider other music possibilities, as I had already started working with Thessalonians and Silent Records owner Kim Cascone. In fact, the Melting Euphoria album included one song that Kim mixed for us.

After I quit the band, I was replaced by three musicians (a synth player, a vocalist, and Dan, the guitarist from By Design). The new version of the band got signed by Cleopatra Records, and opened for Hawkwind in San Francisco. At that gig, I remember Luis Davila, the new synth player, giving out copies of the CD that I was on. I told him that I already had a copy, and he did mention that he liked what I had done. Little did we know at the time — we would someday create music together, including a future band called Fireclan.

One odd footnote. As Melting Euphoria moved on, the band used different names in their credits. Dan went by DeFM. Over the years, a number of people thought that DeFM was me and that I was on the early Cleopatra releases. That was never the case. I was on the first album, which we self-released, and then its re-release, which included three bonus tracks. The dangers of acronyms!

Part 2: “Spirits Burning was one of his first San Francisco bands, for which Falcone played bass and keyboards.”

One late night, while visiting my hometown in Pennsylvania, I wrote these words:

“Sitting way back on your father's chair
Watching the TV breathing
Feeling the love your mother gave
You know she's upstairs sleeping.
And when you go to sleep, the world is turning
The fire in your dream, it starts to flicker
And when you go to sleep, the world is turning
You are just one spirit burning.”

Kameleon, Hudson Street studio

Music was written, and the words morphed to “You are just one of the spirits … burning.” The first demo of the song was a duet with Joe Diehl on guitar. This was during the last days of San Francisco band Kameleon.

Soon after, original Kameleon guitarist Jerry Jeter replaced Joe, and the band name morphed into… “Spirits Burning.”

There would be different line-ups and flavors. Trio, quartet, quintet. Rock/new wave with moments of jam, to more song-oriented alternative rock. Two male vocalists… two female vocalists and one male singer… one female vocalist only. My instrumental role… from bass guitarist and keyboardist, to keyboardist only while doing keyboard bass parts, and finally, to keyboardist only — with a dedicated bassist.

This really was a great time for me as a songwriter.
I wrote a lot of lyrics and music that would deserve rebirths years later in the Spirits Burning collective. It was also a time where I began to understand the choices made with words and keyboard sounds could make a piece more special, more memorable.

Spirits Burning, Live at The Chi Chi Club, San Francisco

The times with me doing keyboard bass, and even me singing lead, felt like experiments that had to end as the bands approached a more mainstream, commercial look and feel. It seemed to make sense at the time. However, the loss of instrumental passages and the growing consistency in sound and approach left a hole in my commitment to a band that was essentially playing my music. It was a strange place to be.

The final versions of Spirits Burning came to their respective ends.

Part 1: I’ve seen it written… “Originally a poet-performer in Pennsylvania…”

In terms of my music beginnings, there was a year or so of piano lessons during grade school, and at some point experimenting with sticking paper between piano strings, and attaching clothes pins to the strings.

In my freshman year of high school, the band had one trombone player, and he was the football team’s middle linebacker. So, they started a program to fast-track lessons for a new group of trombone players. This led to me being in the marching band and orchestra for three years of high school, and then four more years in college.

Darlene, who played tuba and bass guitar in the high school band, once told me “bass guitar is cool.” Soon, she started me on a path to my first electric instrument, and jamming with friends. The summer between high school and college included my first live performance, with a band called Lotus. After I quit, the band changed their musical direction and name and became The New Disco Band. In college, I played bass in various musicals (including Pippen and You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown).

I had poetry and prose published in The Reflector, my college art magazine, in three annual issues. In my senior year, I was the editor and wrote an in-depth piece on U.K. rock band Hawkwind.

By the time I moved to San Francisco, I started giving poetry readings, sometimes mixing in performance pieces with percussives or bass guitar. I gave readings at places like Lyle Tuttle's "Tattoo Rose" in North Beach and The Clarion Cafe in The Mission.

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