The opening theme of Return Of The King was my first keyboard composition. I
wrote it on my first synthesizer, a primitive yet effective Crumar Performer. We were
playing in Sebring FL at the Rendezvous Lounge in the Nan-Ces-O-Wee, a decrepit
but once-cool downtown hotel. I was sitting in my room one afternoon looking out the
window at a huge avocado tree and a beautiful Florida sky. In my initial song notes, I
called the jam 'Clouds' because it sounded like the puffy clouds I was looking at as I
played. At one of our next rehearsals, I showed it to John and he played it on his B3
while I came up with a complementary guitar part on my beautiful and versatile gold-
top Gibson Les Paul Signature guitar (unfortunately "the one that got away"). Pretty
soon John, Michael and Jimmy each contributed seminal musical ideas for the
various sections of the composition. John suggested some appropriate lyrics, and in
an afternoon...maybe two...'Clouds' became 'Return Of The King'. As we composed
and completed it, I was stoked that my simple chord progression had inspired such a
full band collaboration in the style of the Prog Rock bands we were all enamored
with. This version was recorded live by Pluto Jones one afternoon in June 1980 at
the Brass Monkey Lounge in Marathon in the Florida Keys. I hung two Shure SM-57
microphones from the ceiling and pressed 'record' on an $80 Sanyo cassette deck.
Somehow, I kept track of that old cassette, and I still have it today. There's also a
newer version, recorded in 2008 during the session celebrating Michael's 50th
birthday and Pluto Jones' 30th anniversary.
Return Of The King © 2024 - Pluto Jones