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Peter Cross is the singer, the arranger, and the producer.

Commentary:

This is my version of Bo Diddley's classic blues rock song, and I wrote new verses for it about my high school sweetheart who became my ex-wife. The legendary Bo Diddley (down on both knees in the prayer position) invented the "Bo Diddley" beat, the weird shaped guitars, and as far as I know is the only songwriter ever to write a hit song with his own name as the title. "Mona" was the first song I ever sung in a band in front of a live audience. I performed Bo's song countless times in many different bands but I had no plan to record it. This particular recording occurred as an afterthought when I was in the recording studio finishing The Belchmeister and I had run out of money to pay for any more studio musicians. While working on The Belchmeister, new verses to Bo's song just popped into my head. I felt like I had something really hot, but what could I do to record this thing that would cost no money?

And then I remembered that I did own The Rolling Stones Now album which had their version of Mona on it. I "sampled" the one measure at the front of the song where Mick hasn't begun to sing yet and tape looped it for about 5 minutes. Next, I laid down one track of maracas which I do a lot because I've always loved the way Mick uses maracas - they just seem to establish a dance groove so well. I knocked off my entire lead vocal on the first take, and then I had my guitarist fill all the holes by playing slide guitar the way I really like sexy slide to sound. From tape looping to final mixdown took a total of 7 hours. This is not only an all time speed record for me in the recording studio, but it marks the only time I ever wrote new verses for a song that was written by anybody else. Now I was fully aware that The Stones had not been asked if they wanted to back me up, but remember I just said I had run out of money, and besides, I couldn't think of a single way to contact Mick for his permission.

My Mona (named Margaret by her parents) renamed herself Mona at age 16 because she fell in love with the young rock and roller who was up there singing Bo's song to her. The 4th of July escapade actually happened on her parents yacht in the Larchmont Yacht Club harbor and there really were fireworks on both fronts! The Frisco boys are my two sons, Jason and Alex, who were born in Walnut Creek which is an east bay suburb of San Francisco. May 5th, 1994 was that heart shattering day when Mona kidnapped the boys. The line "Catch you later, little satyr, after we die" is a belated hope for another chance through reincarnation. It's a pretty interesting viewpoint and rhyme, don't you think?

Peter is the singer standing up at the mic on the left

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Music, lyrics, text, and web page design copyright 1996 © Peter Cross