What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits (1974)

Bass, backing vocals, co-wrote “Road Angel”, wrote “Flying Cloud” and plays bass, guitar and synthesizer.

I didn't really like the title of this album because, honestly, it was true. We all had our vices for being on the road. We created habits that fed our creativity or became our demise. Later on, in ‘75 after recording Stampede I wrote a song about how our addictions affect not only what we do but who we are as people. I wasn't much for doing hard drugs on the road. I mean, I had my vices for sure, but I tried to keep clear when performing.

The song Flying Cloud was an instrumental I wrote about George Walker's three masted schooner ‘The Flying Cloud.’ George Walker was on the bus with Neal Cassady and Jack Kerouac. A Merry Prankster, who soon after the bus, bought a schooner named The Flying Cloud. He hosted many bands on the ship when they performed in Hawaii. The Grateful Dead, the Stones and CSN. I got to sail on that ship in Hawaii when we performed there in 1973. You can hear the ocean in this song. I really wanted it to sound like you were on a ship sailing on the sea. There’s a sound I created on the guitar that sounds like seagulls. I had the engineer put a delay on the guitar and with a ring on my finger I slid up on the strings, just enough to mimic the cry of a gull. On the album it starts with Daughters of the Sea, which is Pat’s song, and at the end of the song it morphs into my instrumental. Some of the band members accused me of being drugged out and that the song was some sort of science fiction story. The song is about George’s sailboat and my experience sailing on it.

“Well, we had The Flying Cloud in Hawaii. I knew people that knew producers and the like and so whenever rock bands came to Hawaii, we would usually end up taking some of them sailing for a day or two. And the longest trip like that that we ever did was with The Doobie Brothers. They were there for a week, camped out at The Hilton Rainbow Hotel on Waikiki. I generally didn't keep the boat in harbor. We lived offshore, anchored and rode a motor to shore wherever we were. But we took it into the harbor and found a place where you could keep it in the harbor. We ended up sailing over to Kauai with The Doobies and we camped out on the beach. A couple of the guys said, “Oh, this ain't our deal.” They went back to shore. Four or five of them stayed and camped out with us. Tiran was one of them. We went on hikes and up into the mountains and did all kinds of stuff, we lived on the boat, rowing to shore and camping out. It was a really amazing time.” - George Walker, owner and captain of The Flying Cloud