Like

Like’s five tracks all were years in the making between, like, 1983 and 2024. Details about each song follow.

The EP is available via
HearNow and Bandcamp

The Songs

“Like”

Last year, Bachelor Rob Berg came up with the idea of “Like”: poking fun at the popular “filler word” that now is ubiquitous. Rob laid down music tracks with a vocal mockup in his Men’s Dept. home studio in Los Angeles. Bachelor David Hughes was enthusiastic but had writer’s block. He began by trying to adapt a set of lyrics he’s composed for the Bachelors’ 2022’s “Laissez-Faire,” to no avail.

So Rob passed the project by a friend, Lou Stone Borenstein, who had written jocular songs for his web series Is This Thing On? Lou quickly drafted the lyrics. After Lou and David did a slight edit, David recorded the spoken-word bits in his Men’s Dept. home studio in Denver, where he also created AI text-to-speech snippets. In late summer the Bachelors recorded the vocals with Jeff Peters at South Pasadena’s Studio F and mixed the song with Scott Fraser at Architecture in Pasadena.

Along the way, the L-word kept cropping up. In May, David’s niece Billie Hughes, who is known to like “like,” sent this insightful take on its use by teenagers, from linguist Adam Aleksic.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Adam Aleksic (@etymologynerd)

A day later, David watched an NHK World Japan documentary about a “drifting mailbox,” designed to receive letters addressed to lost loved ones after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. As David wrote to Rob and Lou, “Just about fell off my chair.” See the English subtitle below.

A week later, Rob sent a thoughtful New York Times essay by linguist John McWhorter, who had received some recordings of casual conversations made in the 1960s. “They are ordinary, seemingly educated, white Northeasterners ranging from their late 20s to late middle age speaking casually,” he writes. “And what stands out today, 60 years later, is how often they pause briefly when they talk. Their speech sounds almost herky-jerky to the modern ear.” From there McWhorter examines the fact that “English is […] oddly explicit about, of all things, restraint.” The herky-jerky hesitations of the ’60s, today are amply occupied—with the very useful “like.” In order not to come off too pompous or strident, we speak of simulacra.

“Heads in the Clouds”

Rob wrote this song while he was a monk at the Vedanta Society of Southern California. Coincidentally, the monastery is located almost directly across the 101 freeway from the Capitol Records building in Hollywood—the source of all the Beatles and Beach Boys records that had inspired him in the first place.

Though his reason for joining the monastery was to “renounce the world” and to achieve “God realization,” he found he simply could not renounce pop music. In his spare time, he created “multitrack” recordings using a crude combination of cassette and reel-to-reel decks. One of these songs was “Heads in the Clouds”—which was only ever shared with David once Rob had left the monastery. He doesn’t remember the inspiration for the lyrics but it probably was reflective of how a monk could be both in the world but not of it. 

Last year, when reviewing old cassettes for possible “new” material, Rob rediscovered “Heads in the Clouds” and was inspired to reinvent it and share the demo with David. David remembered it from the first cassette Rob had given him when they first met in 1984. In fact, it was the only song from Rob’s cassette that the Bachelors didn’t record in the ’80s, the other titles being “Grand Illusion,” “Zigfreed,” “Mr. Wenceslas,” “God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen,” and “The Price of Love.”

“J.P.P. McStep B. Blues”

Years ago Bachelors Rob and David came across a song they never recorded, yet it appeared in a list of B.A. song titles. The list surfaced just before the launch of the B.A. website in October 2020, when Rob and David became reacquainted with John Lacques, their final live drummer, who asked for the titles in order to rekindle memories. The song in question is “J.P.P. McStep B. Blues,” recorded in 1966 by Jefferson Airplane and written by their second drummer, Alexander Lee “Skip” Spence Jr. The song first was released on the Airplane’s Early Flight, a 1974 LP of rarities; David had it on the band’s 1987 two-CD compilation, 2400 Fulton Street. The Bachelors never located the story behind Spence’s title, the only conceivable correspondence being MCSTEP, an acronym that stands for multiconfigurational spin tensor electron propagator, a method used in molecular analysis.

Skip Spence (1946–1999) moved with his family from Ontario, Canada, to San Jose in the 1950s.¹ After playing rhythm guitar in a Fremont surf band called the Topsiders (which morphed into The Other Side), “legend has it,” according to writer Ben Fong-Torres, that Marty Balin found Spence “at an audition for the band that would become Quicksilver Messenger Service.” Balin recruited Spence “to be the Airplane’s drummer because, he told Skip, ‘You look like you should be a drummer.’ Skip didn’t argue […].”² Author Jeff Tamarkin’s account of the “audition” differs, however, writing that Spence showed up at Balin’s club The Matrix for a rehearsal of three friends who later would cofound Quicksilver. Having jammed with Spence that day in a Sausalito park, they’d simply invited him to sit in. Tamarkin claims that Spence did argue with Balin—weakly perhaps—because “when Skip told Marty that he was not a drummer, that was not entirely true: He had played the snare drum in his high school marching band and did a bit of drumming in junior high school rock and roll bands.”³

Balin recognized in Spence “a boundless energy that he wanted to see behind the drum kit,” writes Tamarkin. “Spence was an avid rock and roll fan who had once phoned Little Richard personally to protest the rock and roll pioneer’s exit from show business to join the ministry.”⁴ And for a 19-year-old, he’d been around the block. “By the time Marty found him,” writes Tamarkin, “Spence was married with the first of four kids on the way, had already been in and out of the navy, had performed as a folk singer, taught guitar and played with […] the Topsiders.”⁵

With Balin, Spence wrote the early single B-side, “Blues From an Airplane,” which appeared on Jefferson Airplane Takes Off in 1966. “J.P.P.” wasn’t recorded during the Takes Off sessions, but rather in those for Surrealistic Pillow—after Spence had been fired (see below)—although he’s credited with playing drums on the song. But Grace Slick biographer Barbara Rowen writes that, when the band began a four-day stint in the studio to finish Surrealistic Pillow, “The first night went abnormally well with Jerry Garcia and Skip Spence both sitting in on guitars. It started with the chords of ‘J-P.P. [sic] McStep B. Blues’; the song was written by Spence and went down in a lightning two takes but eventually got dropped from the album.”⁶

And so later editions of Surrealistic Pillow include Spence’s dropped song as a bonus track. We learned from Jeff Peters, with whom we recorded our cover, that he’d known Spence. While we were in Jeff’s studio he removed the shrink wrap from a new 180-gram vinyl remaster of the album. It includes Spence’s “My Best Friend,” the album’s first single, but on which Spence didn’t play.

After being fired by the band for going AWOL in Mexico, Spence formed Moby Grape with the aid of Airplane manager Matthew Katz, who also had been let go. Bachelor David knew of Moby Grape but not their music until “Omaha,” from the band’s eponymous debut, was covered in 1985 by The Golden Palominos, drummer Anton Fier’s amalgam that featured a Who’s Who of musicians, including Michael Stipe, who contributed vocals.

Spence guested with Moby Grape for the last time on August 9, 1996, at Palookaville in Santa Cruz. It ain’t pretty, but he sang a solo version of “J.P.P. McStep B. Blues” with tender backing by the band.

After Moby Grape’s disappointing second album, 1968’s two-LP Wow/Grape Jam, Spence was diagnosed with schizophrenia. For the next thirty years he dabbled in music—including his solo album Oar in 1969—and was supported by friends and former band members, without success. Jeff Tamarkin:

Spence spent most of the rest of his life institutionalized or homeless and, due in good part to contractual machinations beyond his comprehension, destitute. He rarely played music in public again but his legend continued to grow. In 1999, a tribute album, More Oar, featuring artists such as Robert Plant and Beck interpreting the songs from Oar, was released. But Skip didn’t live long enough to see its release: He died April 16 of that year in Santa Cruz, California, age 52, a victim of numerous ailments and a system that could not turn him around or give him justice.⁷

One of those contractual machinations is worth noting. Moby Grape appeared at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival but was not included in the D.A. Pennebaker film because the band’s manager, Matt Katz, demanded $1 million dollars’ compensation. As Jeff Tamarkin wrote in 2003, “Matthew has continued to serve as either plaintiff or defendant in a number of lawsuits stemming from his management of San Francisco bands in the ’60s, particularly Moby Grape and It’s a Beautiful Day.”⁸

Two years after Monterey, Marty Balin, whose tenor graces the Airplaine’s “J.P.P.,” would face his own challenges. At the Altamont Free Concert in December ’69, while playing “The Other Side of This Life,” Balin jumped off the stage to insert himself in a situation involving members of the Hell’s Angels, who it’s said had been hired as show security. He was knocked out, as Paul Kantner described from the stage.⁹ Balin left the band a year later, citing as reasons: Janis Joplin’s fatal overdose in October and the fact that he couldn’t communicate with his drug-addled bandmates. “I was into yoga at the time,” he told Jeff Tamarkin.

In 1994, a Sight and Sound review of the director’s cut of Michael Wadleigh’s classic Woodstock, claimed that the film featured the Airplane’s “McStep Blues.”¹⁰ The song often had been included in the band’s live sets, but not at Woodstock. Sight and Sound is published by the British Film Institute, but fact-checking the movie’s lineup evidently was beyond even that venerable institution’s capacity. The song actually was the traditional “Uncle Sam Blues,” sung by Jorma Kaukonen, who was adorned with a right-facing swastika pendant, which actually was apt, as it’s an ancient Hindu sun symbol—Grace Slick famously having opened the Airplane’s Woodstock set with, “Alright friends, you have seen the heavy groups; now you will see morning maniac music. […] It’s the new dawn,” as they launched into “The Other Side of This Life.”

“Salt Doll Gita”

Date: 27 May 2024
From: Los Angeles International Music and Arts Academy
To: Rob Berg
CC: Reewa Rathod

Hello Rob and David, 

I am connecting you to Reewa Rathod. She is an amazing vocalist based out of Los Angeles. She will be perfect for this. Here is her video: 

Best,

Rajib K. 

---

Date: 28 Jul 2024
From: Rob Berg
To: Reewa Rathod

Dear Reewa,

Words cannot express how I felt when I listened to your vocals on “Salt Doll.” Wow! You took it to the next level.

THANK YOU for the voice of an angel.

Loved how you ended your phrases and your perfect harmonies. Yes!

Well over a year ago, I had the vision of using this instrumental to deliver the message of the Astavakra Samhita. I worked hard to choose the right slokas and come up with the right melody to support them. Now that vision has come true and it’s beyond my wildest expectations. 🙏🏻❤️🙏🏻

All the best,

Rob

---

As vocalist Reewa Rathod writes in her publicity bio:

In India stars are not made, they are born. Music is not a business, it’s a way of life. The respect for music as one of  the highest art forms reflects in the training that musicians put into their musical studies. 

Reewa may have been born into an illustrious Bollywood family but her star is rising under her own light.

Reewa is an award-winning singer-songwriter, having worked and appeared with the likes of Bryan Adams, the late Zakir Hussain, and Kenny G, among many others. As we learned, she is accomplished in Western, Carnatic, and Hindustani vocal styles as well as piano. And when we mentioned that the lyrics to “Salt Doll Gita” were in the original Sanskrit, she told us she’d be recording them in Mumbai, where her mother happens to be a scholar of that ancient tongue. 

Bachelors Anonymous listeners will recognize the instrumental version of this song as “Salt Doll,” from the 2021 album In the Land of Nod…

“Exercise in Eternity”

…and those same listeners will recall “Exercise in Eternity” as the instrumental version of “Exercise in Revolution,” from the 2022 album The Big Picture.

The Recordings

As alluded to immediately above, “Salt Doll” and “Exercise” were featured in a stage play performed at UCLA in 1987. “Exercise” was adapted to the club stage that May as “Exercise in Revolution.” Last year, Rob embellished “Salt Doll” with citations from the Ashtavakra Gita, a masterpiece of non-dualist thought, selecting specifically those passages of an aqueous nature. Vocalist Reewa Rathod brought those passages to life and light at a studio in Mumbai. The backing tracks are the 1987 originals, recorded in the Bachelors’ Pasadena home studio, The Men’s Dept, on a ¼” analog 4-track.

The backing tracks for the brand new songs “Like,” “Heads in the Clouds,” and “J.P.P. McStep B. Blues” were laid down last year via GarageBand at The Men’s Dept by Rob in Hollywood and (to a much lesser extent, including the “Like” spoken bits) by David in Denver. Drums were performed by John Lacques and recorded by Jeff Peters at Studio F in South Pasadena, where the Bachelors also recorded their vocals. As mentioned above, Lou Stone Borenstein wrote the lyrics to “Like.” The songs were mixed by Scott Fraser at Architecture in Pasadena and mastered by Scott Jennings of Listen2 Studio in Pasadena.

The Cover

For the Like cover art, Rob suggested using a thumbs-up happy smiley emoji or sticker (like this one). In fleshing out the idea, he and David considered adapting the image of Jagannath, a Hindu deity associated with Krishna. As described in Wikipedia: “The idol of Jagannath is a carved and decorated wooden stump with large round eyes and a symmetric face, and the idol has a conspicuous absence of hands or legs.” In other words, the medieval-era icon’s absence of “beginning and end” (anadi and ananta) confers an outward appearance quite similar to many latter-day emojis. 

Rob knew the perfect artist to realize a blend of the old and new: his friend Anson Jew, who is an animator and storyboard artist. Anson quickly and deftly created the Jagannath image. To accompany the jovial avatar, Rob initially proposed the classic thumbs-up emoji—that is until he realized the Asian namaste gesture would be more apt. And Anson obliged when Rob asked if Jagannath’s traditional ebony tone could be softened to that of Krishna.

Completed, the cover reflects not only the playfulness of the Bachelors’ new song “Like” but also offers a nod to the origin and style of the newly minted “Salt Doll Gita.”

Track List

1. Like
2. Heads in the Clouds
3. J.P.P. McStep B. Blues
4. Salt Doll Gita (feat. Reewa Rathod)
5. Exercise in Eternity

Credits

Vocals by Rob Berg & David Hughes
except:
“Salt Doll Gita” vocals by Reewa Rathod

All songs arranged by
Rob Berg & David Hughes

• “Like” music by Bachelors Anonymous, lyrics by Lou Borenstein
• “J.P.P. McStep B. Blues” written by Alexander Lee “Skip” Spence
• “Salt Doll Gita” written by Rob Berg and David Hughes, Ashtavakra Gita slokas curated by Rob Berg
• “Exercise in Eternity” written by Rob Berg and David Hughes

Produced by
Bachelors Anonymous

All instruments except drums by Bachelors Anonymous, recorded at:
The Men’s Dept (¼” 4-track), Pasadena, 1987 (“Salt Doll Gita,” “Exercise in Eternity”)
The Men’s Dept (GarageBand), Los Angeles and Denver, 2024 (“Like,” “Heads in the Clouds,” “J.P.P. McStep B. Blues”)
Drums on “Like,” “Heads in the Clouds,” and “J.P.P. McStep B. Blues” by John Lacques, Drumtime,
recorded at Studio F, South Pasadena, Jeff Peters, 2024

Vocals recorded at:
The Men’s Dept, Denver and Los Angeles, 2024 (“Like”)
Studio F, South Pasadena, Jeff Peters, 2024 (“Like,” “Heads in the Clouds,” “J.P.P. McStep B. Blues”)
Reewa Rathod, Mumbai, 2024 (“Salt Doll Gita”)

Digital transfers by
Tal Miller
Next Generation Audio, 2020

Mixed by
Bachelors Anonymous
The Men’s Dept, Pasadena, 1987
(“Salt Doll Gita,” “Exercise in Eternity”)
Scott Fraser
Architecture, 2024
(all tracks except “Exercise in Eternity”)

Mastered by
Scott A. Jennings
Listen2 Studio, Pasadena, 2025

Thanks to
Jeff Rolka for vocal exercises

Album cover
Jagannath by Anson Jew
Design by Rob Berg
Layout by David Hughes

© ℗ 2025 Berg & Hughes, Celibataire Music (ASCAP)
except:
• “Like” © Rob Berg and Lou Stone Borenstein, Celibataire Music (ASCAP)
• “J.P.P. McStep B. Blues” © Alexander Lee “Skip” Spence, Maryann Sarah Shelley Music (GEMA) and Alexander Lee Spence Music (BMI)

Lyrics

Like

Spoken intro
Like…like…like…like…like!

Like – could you stop using that like word?
Like – that word does not go like unheard
Like – that not unheard word’s like absurd
Like – what’s inferred from that heard word?

Spoken
Like, OMG, I was, like, literally dying. I mean, like, really. 
It was, like, seriously, just, kinda sorta like awesome!

Like – that word like kinda hurts my ear
Like – so could you try like harder dear 
Like – to sound like closer to Shakespeare
Like – and make that word like disappear?

Chorus
Like like like like – it’s like all the time  
Like like – It’s no victimless like crime
Like like like like – it makes my ears like bleed
Like you could like just say like indeed

Spoken
We’ve been indeed seeing each other for indeed a month and 
So are we indeed together? 
Or can I indeed start seeing someone else? 
I indeed think the answer is Indeed!
That last indeed was not in place of the word like
Sung
It was actually the word indeed

Like – when you like a stud like me
Like – or like a post like on IG
Like – when you’re like really so like psyched
Like – cause you like being like like liked

Spoken 
I mean, like, what does like, like even, like, mean?
Do you mean like it was similar to?
Do you mean like it’s not entirely true?
Do you mean like it’s what somebody said?
Do you mean like it could be instead?
Do you mean like you were feeling that way?
Do you mean like you didn’t actually say?
Do you mean like you need a second to stall?
Or do you just mean like NOTHING AT ALL?!

Chorus

Spoken
So, I was indeed at the mall and It was indeed the worst.
It was indeed so dead. It was, I don’t know, indeed cursed.
I was like EH
And he was like HUH?
And you were like MEH
And she was like UGH
So they were like HMM
And we were like PSH
Then it was like YEAH
And everyone was like UHHHH…No

Lyrics Reprinted by Permission

Heads in the Clouds

Have you noticed how when you’re in a crowd
there are people on their knees?
Are they bowing down to a golden cow?
Are they looking for their keys?

Who am I to judge if it’s good or bad
that they’ve stuck their heads in the sand?
But I’d like to watch when they get dug out.
I’d even lend them a hand.

Chorus 1
Lift me up to the sky, so I can
kiss the sun on the lips.
Strap me into a spaceship and let me
feel how gravity slips

Groveling in the gutter is so vile.
It’s not my style.
Chasing after carrots on a stick
is so ridiculous—it’s sick!
So believe me when I say:
I’ll keep my head in the clouds.

When I’m on the road with no radio
I can travel in my mind.
Lose the stereo and the cruise control.
I just leave them all behind.

Through the traffic jams on the interchange,
from the highway down to the strip,
I manipulate and I navigate,
but I don’t remember the trip.

Chorus 2
Go forward / Step upward / Reach higher / Get closer
Heads in the clouds / Never look down / Keeping both feet on the ground

Chorus 1

Chorus 2

Lyrics Reprinted by Permission

J.P.P. McStep B. Blues

Lyrics available here

Salt Doll Gita

Slokas from the Ashtavakra Gita

Chapter 2 – Verse 4

यथा न तोयतो भिन्नास्-
तरंगाः फेन बुदबुदाः।
आत्मनो न तथा भिन्नं विश्वमात्मविनिर्गतम् 

yathā na to-ya-to bhin-nā-ha
ta-rang-gāḥ pay-na-bud-bu-dā-ḥa
āt-ma-no na ta-thā bhin-nah 
viśh-va-māt-ma-vi-nir-ga-tam

Just as waves, foam and bubbles are not different from water, 
so all this which has emanated from oneself, is no other than oneself.

Chapter 2 – Verse 10

मत्तो विनिर्गतं विश्वं
मय्येव लयमेष्यति।
मृदि कुम्भो जले वीचिः
कनके कटकं यथा

mat-to vi-nir-ga-tam vish-wam
my-ye-va la-yam-esh-ya-tee
mṛi-di kuṁ-bho ja-lay vee-chi-hi
ka-na-kay ka-ṭa-kam ya-thā

All this, which has originated out of me, is resolved back into me too, 
like a jug back into clay, a wave into water, and a bracelet into gold.

Chapter 2 – Verse 23

अहो भुवनकल्लोलै-
र्विचित्रैर्द्राक् समुत्थितं।
मय्यनंतमहांभोधौ
चित्तवाते समुद्यते

a-ho bhu-va-na kal-lo-lie-hee 
vi-chit-rair-drāk sa-mut-thi-tam
may-ya-nam-ta-ma-hāṁ-bho-dhau 
chit-ta-vā-tay sa-mu-dya-tay

Truly it is in the limitless ocean of myself, that, stimulated by the colorful waves of the worlds,
everything suddenly arises in the wind of consciousness.

Chapter 6 – Verse 2

महोदधिरिवाहं स
प्रपंचो वीचिसऽन्निभः।
इति ज्ञानं तथैतस्य
न त्यागो न ग्रहो लयः

ma-ho-da-dhir-i-vā-ham sa 
pra-pan-cho vee-chi-sa’n-ni-bha-ḥa
i-tig ñyā-nam ta-thai-tas-ya 
na tyā-go na gra-ho la-ya-ha

I am like the ocean, and the multiplicity of objects is comparable to a wave. 
To know this is knowledge, and then there is neither renunciation, acceptance or cessation of it.

Chapter 7 – Verse 3

मय्यनंतमहांभोधौ
विश्वं नाम विकल्पना।
अतिशांतो निराकार
एतदेवाहमास्थितः

my-ya-nam-tam a-hām-bho-dhau 
viśh-vam nā-ma vi-kal-pa-nā
a-ti-śhān-to ni-rā-kā-ra 
e-tad e-vā-ham-ā-sthi-ta-ḥa

It is in the infinite ocean of myself that the mind-creation called the world takes place. 
I am supremely peaceful and formless, and I remain as such.

Chapter 15 – Verse 7

विश्वं स्फुरति यत्रेदं
तरंगा इव सागरे।
तत्त्वमेव न सन्देह-
श्चिन्मूर्ते विज्वरो भव

viśh-vam sphur-a-ti yat-tre-dam  
ta-ran-gāa i-va sā-ga-re
tat-tvam-e-va na san-de-haha          
chin-mūr-te vij-wa-ro Bha-va

Your nature is the consciousness, in which the whole world wells up, like waves in the sea.
That is what you are, without any doubt, so be free of disturbance.

Chapter 15 – Verse 11

त्वय्यनंतमहांभोधौ
विश्ववीचिः स्वभावतः।
उदेतु वास्तमायातु न ते
वृद्धिर्न वा क्षतिः

tway-ya-nam-tam-a-hām-bho-dhau 
viśh-va-vī-chiḥ sva-bhā-va-ta-ḥa
u-de-tu vās-tam-ā-yā-tu 
Na te vṛid-dhir na vāk ṣha-ti-ḥee      

Let the world wave rise or subside according to its own nature in you, the great ocean.
It is no gain or loss to you.

Chapter 5 – Verse 2

उदेति भवतो विश्वं
वारिधेरिव बुद्बुदः।
इति ज्ञात्वैकमात्मानं
एवमेव लयं व्रज

u-de-ti bha-va-to vish-wam 
vā-ri-dher-i-va bud-bu-da-ha
I-ti gyā-twai-kam āt-mā-nam
e-vam e-va la-yam vra-ja

All this arises out of you, like a bubble out of the sea. 
Knowing yourself like this to be but one, you can go to your rest. 

Public domain translation by 
John Henry Richards (1934–2017), 
first edition; see also second edition

Notes

1. Unattributed details are taken from the Wikipedia entries for Spence, Jefferson Airplane, and Moby Grape, as well as Spence’s Discogs entry.
2. Ben Fong-Torres, liner notes booklet to 2400 Fulton Street: The CD Collection, RCA 5724-2-R, Feb 1987.
3. Jeff Tamarkin, Got a Revolution!: The Turbulent Flight of Jefferson Airplane, New York: Atria Books, 2003, 42.
4. Tamarkin, 43.
5. Tamarkin, 42.
6. Barbara Rowen, Grace Slick: The Biography, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1980, 77.
7. Tamarkin, 371.
8. Tamarkin, 367.
9. See the film Gimme Shelter (1970).
10. See credits listed alongside Mark Sinker’s review of the new version of Woodstock in Sight and Sound, Sep 1994, 55.