The story behind Tyrone Schmidling's "You're Gone, I'm Left" is almost as nuts as the song is, and the song is about as nuts as they come. Back in 1958, there was a talent competition that his high school buddies told Schmidling should enter. He did, and then the next day he got a call from a DJ asking him to play guitar on a recording session for a vocal group. He agreed. He'd never been in a recording studio before in his life. During the session, he was asked what song he was going to do. He didn't know he was going to sing anything, so he said the first song that came to mind, "Honey Don't". They recorded it, in one take. Wait, it gets better. They then suggested they try recording one of his own songs. He had never written a song in his life. So they suggested that he just make something up, on the spot. It was just him and his guitar and "these black guys just banging on whatever was around". The gloriously raw, spontaneous, crazy, ramshackle result was "You're Gone, I'm Left". After you check it out, just ponder all of the things that had to come together for this perfect moment to happen. Talent contest, era, absolute naive earnestness, a producer who saw no need for perfection, rhythm players who were winging it just as much as Schmidling was, and a record label small enough and crazy enough to put it out.
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Listen:Tyrone Schmidling - You're Gone, I'm Left mp3 at Rocky 52
Tyrone Schmidling - Honey Don't (streaming) at YouTube
Read:
Tyrone Schmidling - The story in his words From a out of print Norton reissue.
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