Our Songs, Our Story, Our Love.

Chapter 10.

Artie, of course did not disappoint. He always wrote back enthusiastically with his beautiful, wavy, carefree handwriting trying to cheer Paul up with funny little stories from his own campus and how he couldn't wait to make music with him once more.
This statement alone would cheer up Paul no end.

The letter that Artie had received from Paul this morning though, wasn't full of the usual sadness that had been making Artie feel so very guilty about enjoying himself.
This one was actually making him chuckle somewhat as Paul was saying that his father was now about to release his own record with Sid Prosen on the exact same record label as they were, Big Records!
Obviously Louis Simon had been so impressed by the recording studios, after Paul had shown him around, that he wanted a little piece of the action for himself.

Paul wrote:

"It's a crap, sounding weird shit of a tune that Dad was desperately wanting to do. I tell you Artie, you will piss yourself when you hear it. I don't know what the fuck he's trying to prove, but hell that tune is so bad. I think I'm going to have to write some stuff for him, you know show him how it should be done".

At least Paul sounded a bit more up beat about things and much more like his old self in this letter, Artie had begun to think. Perhaps his father doing this will now stop him from feeling so sad. At least his father was at last in acknowledgment about what Paul was doing now.
That had to be a positive thing hadn't it?

So when Artie was asked if he'd like to stop on at camp for an extra few weeks, after the summer had finished and help out with a little bit of teaching, he found no hesitation in agreeing to do so. After all, Paul was going to be busy writing some new material for his father as well as for themselves, so all Artie had to do now was just show up when Paul was ready and sing.
In Artie's own mind, he was just giving Paul a little bit of breathing space by allowing his friend some time to bond with his Father. After all he knew how much it meant to Paul to be able to have a closeness with his dad that he had never quite experienced before.
But sadly this was not the case.

As in all things in life, it is very often not what is said that is the most important thing, but what is not said.

Paul had failed to tell Artie that writing for his father was actually never on the agenda. It was just a flippant remark he had told him at the idiocy of his Father's lame and dreadful tune.

What Paul was, in fact doing was writing and recording songs purely, just for himself!

Whilst Artie was away at camp, Paul who had been in a deep solitude, had been writing more rockier types of songs in a bid to try and cheer himself up. He felt as if he needed to write songs that sounded more like his idol Elvis Presley would sing rather than the doo wop, shaboom sort of material that he and Artie would do together. Paul had wanted to convey what was going on inside his head without the added pressure of incorporating a second voice into them. These songs were not for harmonising as they had been written with a real rock n roll feel and Paul started to really enjoy this new experience.
He also found that he had even more ideas for these types of songs and it had become his way of coping with his dreadful life at campus and more importantly, his life without Artie. To Paul it was something to lift him out of the gloom, despondency and depression and he now felt.
Paul  actually wanted to be Elvis Presley for a while now, instead of the Everly brothers.
He saw it as no big deal.

Paul had written a lot more songs in this particular vein by the time he had come back home and had already filled up a whole exercise book of tunes whilst Artie was away.
Paul's Father, meanwhile had grown quite friendly with Sid Prosen and was very often found at the recording studios jamming with some of the other musicians that were there.
Of course, Paul would accompany his father during these visits, sometimes even joining in with the other musicians on his guitar. By now Paul had become quite an accomplished guitar player and figured he'd got nothing better to do with himself until Artie's return anyway. He also loved being in the studio, watching, listening and gaining valuable experience from all the other artists that arrived to do recording sessions. He would sit quietly at the back, so no one knew he was even there and take in everything that was going on.
On several other occasions Paul would arm himself with his filled exercise book and when the recording studio became empty, he would practice these new songs of his in private.