FEELIN' BETTER CD LINER NOTES

     01. Cold, Cold Morning was a dark jazzy blues titled Bad Week when Travis wrote it in 1967. He never liked his lyrics, which he found mean-spirited and depressing. Oddly enough, his new lyrics are more country-western, which makes this new artful hybrid compelling. The recording, performed in parts on three separate occassions, nevertheless conveys an exciting jam-session vibe. (Incidentally, Travis bought his Taylor guitar in 1974 and still has it.).
     02. Things Aren't Always What They Seem was titled "Watch Out Woman" in his father's 1966 feature length, widescreen, color, theatrical release, Feelin' Good. This is one of the two songs Travis performed with the Brattle Street East on the Chrles River Esplanade. When Travis inherited what was left of the film (submerged in a flooded vault in Rhode Island), he brought the remaining three reels to Deluxe Labs in Burbank, had the film cleaned up and restored as much as it could be, and discovered six acceptable performances in all, including five of the ten he'd composed for that movie. When Travis posted the six salvaged songs on Youtube, UK-based State Records requested a license to release this one and the other song performed on the Esplanade, "The Way That I Need You." Travis sent them a mmaster taken directly from the optical movie soundtrack, and that State Records single went on to be listed #3 in Shindig! magazine's "Best of 2017" December issue.
     03. Don't Hurt Me Again is another of Travis' original songs from Feelin' Good, not salvaged from the movie, but released on the Pike Productions label in 1966, on the flipside of the Montclairs recoording of "Feelin' Good," some rare copies of which, are still being sold online.
     04. Trophy Woman was "Wicked Woman" when Travis sang it in the movie, apparently on reel one or two of the film, and never recovered. For this recording, Travis updated the title, but otherwise left the lyrics unchanged when he and his brother Adam recorded it.
     05. Foolin' Around was one of the songs Travis performed on screen at a welcome home party, probably in the never recoverd first reel, but included here re-recorded by the brothers.
     06. The Way That I Need You. The original optical soundtrack recording is on the State Records single. The one on this album is a new recording of that same Elvis-style song performed by Travis and Adam.
     07. It Can't Be Right is definitely one of the songs from the party scene on one of the two lost reels. This version, with saxophone, is arranged more for the Five Beats, Travis German-Italian Showband, than for the Brattle Street East.
     08. I Beg Your Pardon was beautifully staged on a Swan Boat in Boston's Public Gardens, and the original Feelin' Good film clip is posted on Youtube. For this CD version, Travis added a new verse.
     09. Feelin' Better is the new title song composed especially for this CD. The Feelin' Good title song, performed and recorded by the Montclairs, is the exciting original. Rather than re-record it, which while the same song, would not be the original movie title song, Travis knocked out this new title song specifically for this CD album. But you may see and hear the Montclairs original performance on Youtube.
     10. Rock N Roll was written in 1965 for The Five Beats, the International Showband Travis performed with in Germany, as The Teddy, die Twistsensation aus USA. American-style rock 'n' roll was popular there, and the Five Beats had an excellent saxophone player. This song was not in the movie and was never heard or performed by the Five Beats, making it a vintage mid-sixties song, never before performed or recorded.
     11. End Of Summer (2014). This song, written for his German fans, was another that was never heard or played there. Travis was invited by his friend Raoul to attend a Christmas party for the Hollywood Press, hosted by a German couple who lived at the top of Nichols Canyon in Hollywood. He was told to bring his guitar, and sure enough, asked to play some appropriate songs for that gathering. The way he remembers it, Travis thinks he only played three. One was Belefonte's "Mary's Boy Child," another was Elvis Presley's "Blue, Blue Christmas," and finally, while not a Christmas song, his original "End of Summer," in honor of his German host and hostess. His brief showcase was well-received by one and all, but after that song, Gerard Alcan introduced himself and told Travis that "End of Summer" was the perfect Zeitgeist theme he sought for his new feature-length documentary about the investigation of the Los Angeles assassination of Bobby Kennedy. At first, Travis resisted. His father, Jim Pike, had shot much of the film in the John Fitzgerald Kennedy documentary, A Time for Greatness, and it felt uncomfortably like trying to profit on that famuily's tragedies. Gerard persevered. It wasn't anything like capitalizing on the Kennedy assassinations, but honoring the subject with a song that truly captured the spirit of the era. Finally, Travis relented, but only licensed the music, not the lyrics and without any accompanying vocal, because he wanted the song to have an opportunity to be appreciated for itself, and not linked to the Kennedy tragedies. The film went on to be nominated for a 1974 Golden Globe by the Hollywood Foreign Press, and Travis and Adam recorded and released a version sung by Travis in his 2013 CD album Odd Tales and Wonders Stories in Song, herein arranged and re-released with a subtle complimentary string section.