A Driving Force to be Reckoned With at the Driving Club

Platinum spent a Saturday evening in the comfy confines of the Piedmont Driving Club, arguably one of the oldest private social clubs in the South.  I always wondered why it was called the Driving Club.  Members who did not wish to venture on foot during their 18 holes of golf would actually drive their horse and buggy on the course.  Hey, before golf carts, that was how we did it.  History points out that the land that used to be the golf course surrounding this club was eventually sold to the city of Atlanta to become what is now Piedmont Park.  The golf course is now located rather far away, on Camp Creek Parkway near the airport.  So, at any rate, it had been a stretch of time since I'd been there.  The load in through the kitchen area is not quite ideal.  I learned later that we could just roll out through the front.  Parking is across the street in an unlabeled lot.  The stage is deep and the room is long, which can make for some loudness issues and serious bass.  I like serious bass, but that's another story.

The main thing with this was some tunes we had to work on.  The first dance was Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You, which we've done many times before.  I know it better than I give myself credit for, but I still like to have a chart.  The bass pedals on the E throughout the intro, while the chords do some nice chromatic harmony shifting above.  It's a little unsettling for the bassist to hold that static note for so long.  Norm worked on Haven't Met You Yet, but that is a singer's singer that he's dealing with.  I thought he did well at the soundcheck.  We left it out off the list.  It was cool that he brought out the bari sax - I love that we can add things like that once in a while to make it more of a show.

The other song of note was The Platters' beach music styled classic With This Ring.  This song gets requested all of the time, it seems.  I've always been a bit uncertain about it, to be perfectly honest.  It's one of those tunes that bands never seriously learn.  If everybody is not on the same page, it doesn't work.  I listened and listened, took a stab at it, and sent it out to Derek and Glen.  Those two are armed with big ears and they got back to me with some pertinent corrections.  That's the way it should work for situations like this.  Let everybody chime in and get it right.  I did the leg work and they straightened out my issues.  I came up with a nice little chord chart that can save the day -  worked hard to fit it on one page, with the lyrics and cues.  I've looked and looked (from it being on the list with other bands) and I've never seen a good chart for this one.  Glen sang it very well in the original key of A-flat so that's how we did it.  He commented that the intro is a bit inconsistent, mainly with the piano.  His ears are golden, as I'm sure he was listening to a YouTube posting on his phone.  So here it is - check it out.

Chord chart and lyrics for With This Ring. Written by Luther Dixon, Richard Wylie, and Tony Hester.
Recorded by The Platters and issued as a single in 1967 on Musicor Records.