Background

Greg Pichler, who at the time was a member with the Tau Epsilon Phi fraternity group, The Shrooms, produced the album, The Solitude of Wintery Nights, over the course of the Winter of 1980 as a demo tape to introduce a number of his original compositions to the Fraternity-based group.

Pichler composed one new instrumental track for the demo tape entitled, In And Around The Valley.

Pichler also composed a number of new poetic, instrumental tracks for the demo tape, including the track, Alone, Sitting By A Window, and The Simple Reason.

Pichler also composed a number of new tracks, having melodic vocals, including Don't Lose The One You Love, Marianne, Candy, Can't You See, Hey Lis', I Love How You Love Me, Afghanistan, and The Lady's My Girl.

Pichler also produced a number of new renditions of songs he had previously composed including, Ashes Can't Be Burned, which after restating the lyrics, he retitled, Twenty-one Years, and I Watch The Sun Rise.

Pichler intentionly composed the song, I Love How You Love Me, and the song, Afghanistan, as a medley. In the song, I Love How You Love Me, Dietrick, an accordinist, his wife Trudy, a bass violinist, and a fellow musician, Stanley, a guitarist perform a short number at the Welsh pub, The Roy, located in Cardiff, Wales. The husband and wife ensemble regularly perform at The Roy every Wednesday evening. As the the husband and wife ensemble conclude the song to a smattering of applause from an overly animated audience, Dietrick's life is interrupted and he has an out-of-body experience, emerging as a combatant in the Mujahadin. Dietrick finds himself engaged in combat in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, fighting against the Soviet forces shortly after the 1979 Soviet invasion of the country. As ordinance, that is dropped from high altitude Soviet bombers, explodes in a field in front of him, Dietrick hurridely scampers to take cover in a fox hole. As the dust and debris clear, Dietrick witnesses high altitude, Soviet bombers streaking across a sullen sky. Dietrick also witnesses mangled bodies, rubble from small buildings scattered in every direction and debris of what is suddenly a combat zone.

The sole purpose of the track, I Love How You Love Me is to relax the listener so as to increase the shock of the loud, violent and combative style of the track, Afghanistan. The track, I Love How You Love Me, could have been in any style that lulls the listener into a state non-preparedness state of mind.

Pichler invited Ed Rosenthal from the Headlights to perform guitar on the track, Twenty-one Years ‡. Rosenthal was at the time on break from pursing a political science program at Unviersity of Pennsylvania.

Pichler invited Raymund Cuevo from the Headlights to perform the piano part on the track, Song Bird †. Cuevo was at the time on break from pursuing a biology, chemistry undergraduate degree program at Yale University.

The collection entitled, The Solitude of Wintery Nights, was initially recorded at the Highboro Drive studio on a TEAC 2-track, reel-to-reel, tape deck, using seven-and-a-half inch reel-to-reel tapes over the course of a number of sit-down rehearsals between January, 1980 through April 5, 1980 or thereabouts. The case holding the reel-to-reel tape is entitled, The Solitude of Wintery Nights.

List of Tracks

The list of tracks from the collection, The Solitude of Wintery Nights, includes:

1. 00:00:00 (Track 1) The Valley of Strings (GE Pichler)
2. 00:03:37 (Track 2) Don't Lose The One You Love (Mrs. Crozzoli Song) (GE Pichler)
3. 00:05:36 (Track 3) Marianne (GE Pichler)
4. 00:07:59 (Track 4) Alone (GE Pichler)
5. 00:09:47 (Track 5) Song Bird (C McVay) †
6. 00:12:44 (Track 6) I Watch The Sun Rise (GE Pichler)
7. 00:18:40 (Track 7) Candy (GE Pichler)
8. 00:22:28 (Track 8) Sitting By A Window (GE Pichler)
9. 00:24:38 (Track 9) Can't You See (GE Pichler)
10. 00:27:36 (Track 10) The Simple Reason (GE Pichler)
11. 00:30:35 (Track 11) Hey Lis' (GE Pichler) ‡
12. 00:34:12 (Track 12) I Love How You Love Me (GE Pichler)
13. 00:37:26 (Track 13) Afghanistan (GE Pichler)
14. 00:41:09 (Track 14) Twenty-One Years (GE Pichler) ‡
15. 00:44:20 (Track 15) The Lady's My Girl (GE Pichler)

Music Contributions

The members of the high school group, The Headlights, and their musical contributions are as follows:

• Raymund Cuevo: Keyboard, Percussion †
• Greg Pichler: Gibson Les Paul guitar, Rickenbacher 4001 bass guitar, percussion, vocals
• Ed Rosenthal: Gibson ES335 guitar, vocals where indicated by the symbol, ‡

Credits

The archive photos were taken over the course of Pichler's senior year attending Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland in 1977.

more information

The Headlights' version of the Song, Ashes Can't Be Burned, recorded in July, 1978