Looking Good - Desperation Squad (1984)

Mr. P's vision of Desperation Squad was to be initially sort of a Nixons Revenge cover band, with his songs, like "That Thing", "Hispanics On TV", and "Food", along with a handful of "favorites" written by others, in particular "The Club", "Reenie's A Tease" and "Volleyball Distractions" being covered.

But he also knew that eventually he would have to incorporate new songs into the mix. There were numerous lying around - to that point Mr. P already had a surplus of songs that Nixons Revenge had never gotten around to, but none of them were noteworthy enough to start a band around.

One night, while living at the Gorilla's legendary Pomona apartment "G5", Mr. P received a phone call from Keith Misumi, inviting him to come hang out have drinks with his wife and friends. Mr. P, who had just been sitting around in his underwear with no plans and somewhat depressed (not unusual for him), got immediately fired up, and his mood changed 180 degrees. Where moments before he was feeling like a complete loser, now he was suddenly "looking good"!

Mr. P kept this thought with him while taking a shower and suddenly, taken hold by this sudden and pleasing turn of events, a new song started poring out of him, naturally titled "Looking Good". It was all he could do to keep the words in his head long enough to towel off and find a piece of paper to write the new lyrics on. When arriving for drinks, he excitedly told all about his great new song.

As it happened, Alan Waddington had some connection to a recording studio, and buoyed by the success months before of "That Thing", the two of them, along with Jeff Nixon, worked out an arrangement of the new song and quickly recorded it, with Alan on drums and Jeff playing bass and guitar.

Though this lineup was all well and good, Mr. P, envisioning an eventual avant-garde and quirky live band, decided the recording neeeded a little bit more edge, Jeff's youthful guitar presence notwithstanding. Mr. P had originally wanted Nixons Revenge and Silver Chalice guitar player Terry Churchman to play, but when he declined, he turned to another of the old "Mt. Sac" crowd and called former Blue Mysterioso member Bob Jones to come and lay down a track. Jones, already an artist of some note, describes the call like this, "I was laying on my couch, taking a nap. It came out of nowhere."

Jones agreed and, having absolutely no idea how the song was played or what he was to do (Mr. P told him to just "play like you play"), recorded a track so obscenely phenomenal, it had everyone else in the room shaking their heads in disbelief. Nixon, who studied music and counted bands like Yes and Steely Dan among his favorites, was the most fazed by Jones, little realizing that this was just the beginning of the most unlikely pairing of guitarists perhaps ever.

Though the recording was not billed as an audition, Jones passed with flying colors and Desperation Squad not only had a new demo, but a new guitarist as well!

I walk into the room and there's a kind of a hush
You all are oh so envious
You want to be me if you could
Cuz I'm looking good!