Exquisite Tenderness

Album: Red Dragon Cartel (2014)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This ballad was the first song that Red Dragon Cartel frontman Jake E. Lee ever wrote. He told Glide Magazine; "I started playing piano when I was six and I didn't start playing guitar until I was twelve. So right around when I was thirteen or fourteen, on the piano, I just came up with that. That was the first song I ever wrote and I never knew what to do with it. I mean, it wasn't an Ozzy song, it really didn't seem like any song that you would put on a rock record, and I just never really knew what to do with it, but I always had it."

    "The studio that Ron (Mancuso co-producer) and I recorded in is right next to a restaurant that has a Jazz lounge in it ," Lee continued, "and we were in there late at night and I saw a piano and I was like, I hadn't seen one of these in a long time (laughs) so I sat down and I started playing that and Ron said, 'What's that?' And I said, 'That's the first song I ever wrote, never knew what to do with it.' And Ron said, 'I know what to do with it' (laughs) and I said, 'What?' and he says, 'Let's put it on the record.' 'Really?' It just seemed really weird to me but he said, 'I think it would be a great way to end a rock record, with something like that.' And I think he was right. I'm just thankful that after forty-plus years I'd finally be able to put that song on something."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Chris Frantz - "Genius of Love"

Chris Frantz - "Genius of Love"They're Playing My Song

Chris and his wife Tina were the rhythm section for Talking Heads when they formed The Tom Tom Club. "Genius of Love" was their blockbuster, but David Byrne only mentioned it once.

Glen Phillips of Toad the Wet Sprocket

Glen Phillips of Toad the Wet SprocketSongwriter Interviews

The "All I Want" singer went through a long depression, playing some shows when he didn't want to be alive.

Graduation Songs

Graduation SongsFact or Fiction

Have you got the smarts to know which of these graduation song stories are real?

History Of Rock

History Of RockSong Writing

An interview with Dr. John Covach, music professor at the University of Rochester whose free online courses have become wildly popular.

Chris Frantz of Talking Heads

Chris Frantz of Talking HeadsSongwriter Interviews

Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz on where the term "new wave" originated, the story of "Naive Melody," and why they never recorded another cover song after "Take Me To The River."

Paul Williams

Paul WilliamsSongwriter Interviews

He's a singer and an actor, but as a songwriter Paul helped make Kermit a cultured frog, turned a bank commercial into a huge hit and made love both "exciting and new" and "soft as an easy chair."