Who the F*ck is George Karak????????

Here's a 2014 interview where Karack where he says he and Jon wrote Runaway:
But here's a screenshot from another version of Intruder's Runaway from YouTube containing the names of the performers:


Now it just so happens that I recognized the name of one of those performers, cyber-tracked him down, sent him the link to the YouTube, and asked if he could remember when the song had been recorded. His exact words:
My followup inquiry: "Well, was that because Jon's version had been recorded previously -- was it already making the rounds on the WAPP compilation?" Stay tuned...

Just an assumption on my part, like my whole post. There's a video of Falcon performing it on a acoustci guitar I remember, albiet after the release.

To be fair he's done the same for a good chunk of the songs he's co-written (including Just Older, a song without a doubt involved Jon). I just didn't get the "more than likely didn't involve Jon" part and thought I missed Billy saying something. I wish he didn't take down the demos he had on his soundcloud for awhile, they were fun to analyze.

Ahh ok, I don't follow Billy on any socials so I only saw Teardrops, and I missed those demos, they would have been very interesting to hear....

As much as I believe that Jon has had his name added to songs he had very little to do with in terms of actually writing or crafting them, I can't see Runaway having been pretty much a finished song that was just given to him. At that point, Jon was an unknown janitor, he couldn't have paid anyone off to remain silent about this song. And it's not like George Karak and his band were so well known and famous that they just could have given it away for nothing.

What I do believe is that the lyrical idea and the bulk of that stemmed from Jon's bus rides and his observations, but were refined in co-work with Karak. The hammering keyboard intro was, according the German biography, lifted from an older tape with some session musicians, so it's hard to track down who had originally come up with this. The musical structure of the song comes mainly from Karak in my opinion. Simply because it differs too much from all the other stuff Powerstation Demo material and is much less Tom-Petty-wannabe-like.

His soundcloud used to have a bunch of "Demos" but the board couldn't figure out if they were pre or post Jon's involvement. Love's the Only Rule had a completely different second part of the chorus but the arrangement was more or less the same but after the first verse it all kind of repeats with no lyrics/vocals leading me to believe it was an early days demo. But Superman Tonight is pretty much exactly how it was. I always thought the "just my old tattoo" is in reference to Jon's Superman tattoo so he would have to have been involved in the lyrics of that song I think?

Yes, I always thought that was the reference too. I guess it's possible that he wrote it with Jon in mind, knowing he would definitely be the one singing it? More likely Jon had some imput prior to the recording though.

Interesting info, thanks!

Jon did a fanclub Q/A a month ago and he explains a lot of what you're asking... I'm surprised no one posted it or mentioned it... After I watched it, I was sure as shit it would have raised some discussion here...

Someone should search and find it.

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I'd love to see it, anyone have a link?

Around the 15 minute mark... The entire interview is great... Funny and informative... Some more clarity on Richie stuff too... but go to the 15 minute mark the question is about the writing with Shanks and Falcon.

https://youtu.be/7lIsfy112r0

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