"Rarest Kind" was pretty much finished before I met Andy. How is this accomplished? Very carefully. Actually, his girlfriend was in my Spanish group and she asked Andy to play some Spanish guitar melodies for our project. I noticed that Beatles were also recorded onto the tape so I borrowed it. But on the other side were a series of guitar chords. Among these were the chords for "Rarest Kind".
THE CRIME:
Being the sick child that I was, I copied the guitar chords onto a tape before returning the Beatles tape. I listened to the chords on a regular basis...and eventually (I am not proud of this) sat down one day and jotted down words. It took me only one take to get the words, although the chords did not last long enough to create a complete song. So I used an editing trick to extend the song to create the "Rarest Kind'' you hear today (although slightly altered when Andy got his hands on it 5 months later).
THE REDEMPTION:
When Andy and I started to get to know each other, the guilt gnawed at my insides. So I confessed to snagging the chords for my own evil purposes. First, he had to figure out exactly what those chords were that I snagged, and fortunately they turned out to be practice chords. Second, since Andy really wasn't in a band at the time, he decided to give me a shot. We set a date to meet and exchange tapes. My tape contained "Rarest Kind" and songs I'd written a capella (among them were "Nothing Is Everything" and "No Road"), while his contained Beatles and a few guitar parts he wanted me to tinker with.
THE RESULT:
He appeared relatively impressed with his tape, and I was overjoyed to have something to spin my creative wheels on. From the tape he gave me, "Unearthly Quiet", "Giving Up", and "When I'm Not Me (I'm You)" were born. After these songs had been written we got together for A Thousand Young's first practice. Since then we've been turning out songs in the hopes that you people might find something you like to hear.
