In memoriam Walid Itayim: That Train

Walid Itayim, Palestinian/Lebanese guitar legend in the Lebanese blues and rock scene, passed away in 2020. He was a dear friend, and the news truly came as a big shock to me.

A few years before he died, we had been working on my song “That Train”, in which I wanted to put a spotlight on his inspired soloing on the electric guitar. He provided some earth-shattering bluesy rock solos to the track, most prominently featured in the wild and funky instrumental break halfway through the song.

I had been very excited about releasing the song. Unfortunately, circumstances led to the song being shelved. I never gave up on releasing it, but I didn’t get around to doing it. Now, finally, the moment has arrived!

Walid Itayim

During the Lebanese civil war, and in spite of the horrors of the situation, Walid had a rock band in Beirut. They released several ground-breaking songs, mostly produced by his close friend the prominent Lebanese musician Munir Khauli. There wasn’t much rock music in the Middle East at the time, and to have rock songs sung with Arabic lyrics was a true novelty. I can only imagine how Walid and Munir’s activities provided a unique and wonderful escape for young people traumatized by the civil war. For more on this, I suggest you read this lovely article.

Myspace

Back in the days of Myspace, when it was my platform of choice for releasing my songs, I met both Walid and Munir there. They showed great respect and appreciation for my music, as did I for theirs. A friendship blossomed, and we started to talk online about working on music together. However, in those days it wasn’t as self-explanatory as it is nowadays to do online collaborations. Bandwidth was at an entirely different level, and it wasn’t easy to exchange big files over the internet.

Walid not only had an incredible music collection, he was like a walking musical encyclopedia. He knew so much about so many artists and their songs, that it was quite mind-blowing. While his main passion was clearly vested in rock and blues, his musical interests went much wider than that, covering almost any thinkable musical genre. In our online and offline conversations (which were mostly about music and politics) he often managed to impress me by his deep insights into musical composition. Walid became an indelible part of my musical journey, and it was truly an honor and a pleasure to have him as a friend.

Have look at this Whatsapp conversation, many years later, in 2016, between myself and Walid. I thought it would be fun to give you an idea what our conversations would sometimes be like. There’s me, being my over-the-top-optimistic self when I have a new song, and Walid typically keeping me grounded. There had been a problem with his microphone, which apparently had now been fixed.

Beirut

This conversation took place in 2016 when I finally got a chance to meet Walid and Munir in real life. I had travelled to Beirut, with the intention of making music with Walid, and possibly recording some things with him. I also performed with him at the Quadrangle, where he was part of the house band, with a blues-oriented set together with Alain Ajouri, Toni Rizkallah, and Adib Khatib.

Playing music with Walid was a dream come true. Unforgettable times!

We recorded some tracks at Walid’s place for my song ‘Glass Ceiling‘, a track that also puts a lot of emphasis on Walid’s blues solo work. I highly recommend you check out the song on Youtube! That song was also the first time that my eldest son Faisal, who had become a talented bassist, played the bass guitar on one of my tracks.

That Train

Walid had expressed a few times that he really liked my song “That Train”, a song which I had written and released around 2006, when my studio equipment and mixing experience weren’t at the level that they are today. After Glass Ceiling, I floated the idea of recording a new version of it. I told him that I wanted to add an instrumental break in the middle, and that I wanted it to put a spotlight on his soloing. He loved the idea, and when I sent him the tracks I had prepared, it wasn’t long before he provided his solos.

I am pretty proficient on the bass guitar, but it was clear that between the two of us, Faisal was definitely more skilled. Encouraged by the previous collab on Glass Ceiling, we set out to record That Train, but I wanted to bring in a few more musicians. Hans Sligter, an amazing vocalist, guitarist, and musical powerhouse from the Netherlands, lent me some wonderful backing vocals. R. Bemelmans, who is a Dutch musicologist and multi-instrumentalist living in the United Kingdom, provided some inspired slide guitar licks for the hook of the song. Having these great ingredients made me more ambitious, which put me in waiting mode for some other contributions from others, which eventually never arrived.

Finalizing the song

Recently, I came across the project again on the computer in my studio. I decided to work with what I already had, and make the best of it. I recorded the lead vocal and the backing vocals, blending them in with what Hans had provided. It turned out that the song didn’t actually need anything more!

Now that the song was finished, I wanted to dedicate it to the memory of Walid Itayim. My youngest son Hisham helped me by providing Red Dead Redemption 2 footage for the video. I did my best to integrate the green screen footage of myself singing and playing the guitar into it, and the result has been published today!

Working on this track has made me think of Walid a lot. His phrasing on the electric guitar, in his solos, is so typical of his sound, that listening to it vividly recalls us sitting and talking together, laughing together, and recording together. It actually was a deep and emotional experience that helped me to finally process losing him as a friend and fellow musician.

Check out the song in the video embedded below! Make sure that you at least listen to the instrumental break, where Walid plays a fiery solo over Faisal’s thumping funky bass lines. Hope you enjoy it, and that you think of Walid when you do!

You should really listen to more music by Walid Itayim, as he is also an accomplished songwriter and singer who has released many amazing songs over the years. Some great resources are the Facebook page in his memory, his album Where I Wanna Be, and his page on Reverbnation.

Rest in Peace, my dear friend.

Doc Jazz