MORE CHRISTMAS SONGS

There are so many good Christmas songs that would make good podcasts that I thought I'd write about a few more.  One that I think would be interesting is White Christmas. I know I mentioned it briefly last week but what I didn't know until a few days ago is that Irving Berlin, who wrote the song, was beset with tragedies. For one, his first wife contracted pneumonia during their honeymoon and died as a result. Another horrible tragedy is that his infant son, Irving Berlin Jr, from his second wife, died on Christmas day. That was something that affected him the rest of his life.

Another song could come from the album A Christmas Gift For You from Phil Spector. It is now considered a classic Christmas album. Sleigh Ride by The Ronettes is probably the most popular of the songs. When the album first came out it was a flop. It had the misfortune of being released on November 22, 1963, which is the day John F Kennedy was shot. I doubt Phil Spector would do the interview, although you never know. 

One last song that I think would make a particularly good podcast is I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause written by Jimmy Boyd. I had never heard of Jimmy Boyd, but apparently he was some kind of a child prodigy. He also has a great story. He wrote the song when he was a month shy of thirteen years old. It became an instant hit that sold two and a half million records in its first week. That was a big deal in the early fifties.  The most interesting part of the story is that the Catholic Church in Boston banned the record because it mixed sex with Christmas. According to news stories, Jimmy Boyd went to the Archdiocese in Boston and explained what the song was all about. The Catholic Church lifted the ban the very next year. I guess it took them that long to figure it out.

Like I said last week, I could go on. I was hoping to say that I have to do some Christmas wrapping. No such luck. Still need to do some shopping. I think i'm going to start using the Ringo hello and goodbye. Peace and love.

CHRISTMAS SONGS

Christmas music is a cottage industry. Almost everyone who is anyone has at least a Christmas song out, or even a whole album. And even a lot of people who no one ever heard of, have Christmas songs that have become huge hits. The good thing about Christmas songs is that they can have a long shelf life. I am certain that many of these songs would make good podcasts. For instance, Elmo and Patsy recorded Grandma got run over by a Reindeer in 1979 for forty thousand dollars. It is still popular during the holidays and has made Elmo a multi millionaire. It would be nice to interview him but he might be tough to get, especially during the holidays. He does over a hundred radio interviews and countless TV programs as well.

According to CNN, the biggest selling Christmas album of all time is the Elvis Presley Christmas Album, with over nine million albums sold. One of the songs on the album is the Irving Berlin classic White Christmas, which happens to be the number one Christmas song of all time. Upon hearing the Elvis Presley version of his song, Irving Berlin called radio stations to have the song and the whole album banned from the radio. Fortunately, almost everyone ignored Irving. Blue Christmas is the most popular song on the album and is the number two Christmas song of all time. Elvis supposedly did not want to record “Blue Christmas.” He was forced to record it by the producer, so he tried to do a version that was so bad that nobody would like it. Boy, was he wrong. Someone at work, who shall remain nameless, had the song on for almost the whole day one year. I was sick of it that day. It is, however, a terrific Christmas song.

Another song that might make a good podcast is Little Drummer Boy, which has been around since 1941. I didn't even know what the song was about until I read the lyrics. I guess I must've kept my focus on the pa rum pum pum pum. It is about a little boy who goes to see Jesus in his manger. He is very poor and does not have any gifts to bring to the newborn King. So he asks the Virgin Mary if he can play the drums for Jesus. She said yes, so the little boy played the drums and Jesus smiled at him. One of the lyrics to the song is “The ox and the lamb kept time.” What was going on on that manger? And how were they keeping time? With their feet? It is, however, a terrific song and one of my favorite versions is the unlikely pairing of Bing Crosby and David Bowie. It was recorded on September 11, 1977. David supposedly did it because his mother liked Bing. David starts out the scene on the TV program "Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas" asking Bing as he opens the door. “Hello...are you the new butler?” Bing laughs and replies, “Well, it's been a long time since I've been the new anything.” Bing was right. He died a month after that. Bowie hated the song and did not want to play it, so Ian Frazier, Larry Grossman and Buzz Kohan wrote the Peace On Earth part for David to sing.

Anyway, I could go on and on about the stories of Christmas songs but I gotta do some shopping. I will leave you with some lyrics to the Peace On Earth part of the song.

“Peace on earth, can it be
Years from now, perhaps we'll see.”

Let's just hope it's sooner than that.

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE AND "CRY ME A RIVER"

After doing a podcast on Justin Timberlake's Cry Me a River, I will admit something about him. And it's rather embarrassing, if you will. I'm starting to like the guy. His music blows, but he's a good guy. Just kidding, his music is fine. And granted, I didn't really hate him before. I knew of him and sort of dismissed him and all his boy band friends. I'm basically a Rock 'n' Roller.

Having said that, I still don't consider myself a "fan". The only songs I've bought from him are Cry Me a River and Bye Bye Bye from NSYNC cause I had to for the podcast. Even having to check out the book Justin: The Unauthorized Biography from the library to do research was embarrassing. I almost felt compelled to tell the librarian that it was for my son who was with me. But he's only four. And much more into Zack and Cody. It actually turned out to be a decent book and I learned a few things.

For one, he lost on Star Search when he was a kid and that actually turned out to be a good thing. Figure that one out. If anything, that's an excellent life lesson to learn. Losing just might turn out to be one of the best things that ever happens to you. In Justin Timberlake's case, losing gave him the opportunity to go on the Mickey Mouse Club, where he met Christina Aguilera and JC, which he later recruited for NSYNC. He also met Britney Spears, who turned out to be his future girlfriend and the inspiration for his song "Cry Me A River." So in essence, losing a competition turned out to be a great career move.

Matt did the podcast and we interviewed Jessica, the self described greatest Justin fan. Her website is called World of Justin and is the number one Justin website. The good thing about the website is that, as far as I can tell, she updates almost every day. When I checked out the site to do this blog entry sometime ago, Jessica had written about Justin being snubbed again on People magazine's Sexiest Man issue. The entry was actually pretty funny and she wrote in her own voice, which is not an easy thing to do. I got to know her voice because I edited the podcast and had to hear the interview way to many times.

The thing that hooked me about doing a podcast for Cry Me a River was that before Justin could appear on the Grammy Awards, where he was nominated, he had to apologize for exposing Janet Jackson's breast during the Super Bowl half-time show. So he apologized while accepting his Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Cry Me a River." That was pretty amazing to me. Apologizing while receiving an award is something you don't see very often. That's gotta be a first.

One other thing that made me do the podcast is that the song is about Britney. As Jessica put it when Matt asked her what the song was about. I wasn't paying too much attention when Justin and Britney were an item, but they must've been a cute couple. It's too bad Britney hooked up with Kevin Federline sometime later because things started to deteriorate at that point.

Cry me a River is a pretty good song which is well produced by the renown record producer Timbaland. I wouldn't be surprised if Justin Timberlake has a long and successful recording career.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

We at Story of Songs wish everyone a safe and Happy Thanksgiving.

ARLO GUTHRIE, ALICE'S RESTAURANT AND THANKSGIVING DAY

There aren't too many Thanksgiving Day songs. In fact, I can't think of any. I'm sure there are some out there, just no hits, I suppose. When I googled Thanksgiving Day songs, I found some sites. There is actually a Thanksgiving Day song by Adam Sandler which I had forgotten about and is, well, Adam Sandler. The site, Love to Learn Place had My Country Tis of Thee as one of their songs. It's a good song and I guess it could be considered a Thanksgiving Day song, if we knew what My Country Tis of Thee meant.

There is one song, however, that has become a Thanksgiving Day song by chance, and that is Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant Massacree. Supposedly, some radio stations play the whole thing on Thanksgiving Day. It's eighteen minutes long, so don't look for it on a Pop Contemporary Hit radio station. Maybe try the local public radio station.

It started out as a song opposed to the Vietnam War. It's basically a song about a guy who gets drafted into the Army but is found unfit to serve military duty because he got arrested for dumping trash on Thanksgiving Day when the dump was closed.

The song goes on to describe how our hero was sent to the Group W bench which is where the Army placed all the undesirables. When the undesirables found out that he was in Group W for littering, they all moved away from him. When he added "and creating a nuisance," they all moved back toward him. It's actually a pretty amusing song based on real events.

There really was an Alice who had a restaurant and there really was an Obie who arrested Arlo for littering. And Arlo really did not go to the Army because he was convicted of littering. The song also became the inspiration for a movie called by the same name and starred Arlo Guthrie as himself.

Arlo Guthrie is a singer-songwriter who played in the 60's Woodstock festival. He is also the son of another singer-songwriter. That would be the legendary folk artist Woody Guthrie, who is known for This Land is Your Land. Woody supposedly wrote it because he didn't like the song God Bless America. A movie was made about his life called Bound for Glory, which won two Oscars. That's actually pretty impressive that both the father and son had a movie made about their life.

Woody is also known as an inspiration to Bob Dylan. The story goes that Bob Dylan was in awe of Woody Guthrie and went to see him on his death bed in 1961. Pretty good story except that Woody didn't die till 1967. It's sort of amusing until you find out that Woody spent a lot of his later years in a State hospital in Brooklyn where he was being treated for Huntington's disease.

NPR's All Things Considered did a story on Alice's Restaurant which I highly recommend. Better yet, check out the whole story on the link right here(try the second clip). It's well worth your time. Just put it on and go about your chores while you listen. Oh yeah, and the song is pretty good too.

STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN BY LED ZEPPELIN

Stairway To Heaven is a genuine masterpiece. It starts out with one of the most famous intros ever. It can even be argued that it's even more famous than Beethoven's Fifth. Although it is tough to beat a four note intro. After the intro the song builds slowly, then the bridge comes along. I think. I don't know what a bridge is, but I want to sound like I know something. Sometimes, though, even Led Zeppelin can't find that confounded bridge. The guitar solo eventually comes on, which brings on the crescendo. The song finally comes to a finish as slowly as it began.

I rarely listen to it when it comes on the radio. For one, you have to be in the mood for it. And two, you have to have the time for it as well. I don't think I will ever enjoy the song as much as when I first listened to it when I was young. Back then I actually had time to listen to it. I sat in front of the speakers and read along with the lyrics to the song. Who has time for that now. While doing the research for the podcast I found out it's eight minutes two seconds long. Eight minutes two seconds is a lot different now than it was back then. Time truly is relative.

I checked out the Led Zeppelin websites and came upon an interesting one. It is called enzepplopedia.com and Frank Reddon is the owner. He has been writing three Led Zeppelin books. He's been at it for over twelve years. Along with that, he plays a number of instruments and runs marathons. That's pretty amazing if you ask me. He was excited about being interviewed and thought that our idea for the website and podcast was a very good one. Frank was gracious enough to send me his book Sonic Boom: The Impact of Led Zeppelin Vol 1, which I appreciate immensely.

The podcast came out really well. It was my first international phone call. I wasn't even sure that Skype went to Canada without an international fee. Fortunately, it doesn't. Skype is great. It was tough editing the podcast, though, because Frank loves Led Zeppelin and he has a lot to say. The clips on the podcast are interesting as well. One of them is the infamous song played backwards that supposedly sings about the Devil. We capitalize Devil, right? I don't want to hurt his feelings. The other clip is about the guitar intro from the band Spirit that sounds a lot like the guitar intro to Stairway to Heaven. They supposedly toured together as well.

Another interesting fact I found is that people actually do covers of Stairway To Heaven. That makes no sense to me. Some songs don't need covers and Stairway to Heaven is one of them. The best thing you can say is that at least they are not on the list of worse cover songs ever. That honor goes to Bob Dylan playing the Van Morrison song And It Stoned Me. In actuality, Dolly Parton's version of Stairway To Heaven was named by people in the comments section of the list. So you be the judge.

Stairway To Heaven will be around for a long time. Just recall the excitement the band caused when they reunited for one concert in 2007 in London. ABC News reported that an amazing twenty million people got on the Internet lottery for 18,000 concert tickets. I suppose like Frank said in the interview, Led Zeppelin has achieved one of its goals, which is to create a lasting piece of work.

BORN IN THE USA AND CHARLES R CROSS

Once I felt that Dave Marsh might not do the interview, I tried to find someone else to do Born To Run. I had already written the questions, so I figured I might as well do it. Born to Run is the last interview I'll do where I write the questions before the interview has been booked. Won't be doing that again.

I found a Bruce Springsteen fan magazine called Backstreets. It's been around since 1980 and was started by a fan from Seattle who printed 10,000 four page leaflets and handed them out free at a Springsteen concert. Unfortunately, most of them winded up on the floor. Nowadays, that first issue is worth over a hundred dollars. From those meager beginnings, Charles R Cross and his staff, developed a fanzine widely regarded as one of the best fanzines around.

I emailed Charles from Backstreets about doing the interview and told him how I admired the work that had been done to elevate the magazine to what it is today. That is what I aspire to do on my project. I also said that I would like to interview him for the Bruce song Born in the USA. I backed out at the very last moment about asking him for Born to Run.

He emailed me back for more information, which I sent and then replied that Born in the USA does not have as interesting a story as other Bruce songs. I agreed and told him that I had already penciled in Dave Marsh for Born to Run. And that I was holding out for Dave to do the interview. Charles then replied that it might not be such a good idea to have another Springsteen podcast when I have so few podcasts to begin with. I felt that way but had emailed Charles anyway about the other Bruce song. I guess I was drawn to the Backstreets story. It turned out to be a good idea anyway because Charles has also written books on Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain. They both have a connection to Seattle.

He told me about writing those books so I mentioned that a Jimi Hendrix song could make a good podcast and that I liked either Purple Haze or All Along the Watchtower. But that Watchtower seemed more interesting because of the Bob Dylan connection and the amazing transformation the song did at the hands of Jimi Hendrix.

Charles went on to say that there are some good stories in his book, Room Full of Mirrors about Jimi's obsession with Dylan. It made me feel good about the decision of which song to pick for podcasts and that I kind of know what I'm doing.

So all in all it was a good correspondence I had with Charles even though I never emailed him back. We left off with him letting me know that he was working on a new book and that we should resume our connection in April. I agreed and told him that hopefully our website would be up and running by then. It is not so I did not approach him again. I'm embarrassed because the website's not up yet.

Hopefully, I have not tarnished the interest Charles had for being interviewed by us. I will contact him again one of these days. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

BABY I WAS BORN TO RUN WITH DAVE MARSH

The next podcast I thought of doing was an amazing song called Born To Run by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. It's not often I quote songs in conversation, but I occasionally do use the Strap your hands across my engine, line on my wife. Unfortunately, it doesn't usually work. I'm no Bruce.

Obviously Bruce was out of the question as an interviewee, so I decided to try a writer. I checked on Amazon and found quite a few. Dave Marsh, in fact, had several. I knew Dave from the Louie Louie book. I won't go into its name since it has one of the longest titles ever. It's twice as long as Borat's movie, which is called "Borat: Cultural Learnings America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan." It's just the Louie Louie book to me. I also knew Dave from his book, The Heart of Rock and Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles. A must have for someone like me.

When I contacted Dave about doing the interview, I mentioned that we had already done a podcast on Louie Louie and that we had interviewed Dick Peterson of The Kingsmen. Dave responded yes to my request and mentioned the fact that Dick was not there when The Kingsmen recorded "Louie Louie." I wrote back saying we were thrilled he was interested in doing the podcast and that we had asked Dick if he was there during the recording of Louie Louie and he admitted he wasn't. He did, however, know quite a bit about the song and the story of The Kingsmen since he's been their drummer since 1963.

Dick Peterson actually had some words to say about Dave Marsh's Louie Louie book. Namely that Dave just read articles for the book and might've even made stuff up. I'm actually staying out of this one because I like them both. Dick has a tremendous story that would make a terrific and funny movie. And Dave has written some excellent books, including BTR. On one of his emails, Dave wrote BTR/BS podcast. I had no idea what it meant. I thought it might be a texting lingo. Or even worse, it might even mean BS podcast. And I don't have to spell that out for you. So I asked Dave what it meant. He said it stood for Born To Run Bruce Springsteen. To be funny I replied that I was going to read his BS book. I didn't hear back from him. He had responded rather quickly to all my emails, but this time he didn't respond, so I thought he might've been offended. But it turned out it wasn't the case. He did respond eventually.

Dave actually postponed the interview on account of illness. We also postponed it as a result of illness and then Dave became quite busy with work doing something for Sirius radio. One of the things I like about podcasting is that you can listen any time you want. I wanted to hear some of Dave's work on Sirius, including an interview he did with Bruce Springsteen, but didn't catch. It would've been great if it was a podcast.

Dave now is on my list of interviewees who I will resume contacting once the website is up and running. He was a Rolling Stone writer and one of the founding members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. So I think it would be a good interview. Not as good as the Bob Costas interview with Dave for Later with Bob Costas. But then again we're no Bob Costas. Another reason I'd like Dave to do our show is that he is a friend of The Boss. And maybe he could put in a good word for us and get an interview with Bruce about one of his songs. That would be awesome. Maybe I'll email Dave this blog entry and see what happens. I'll keep you posted.

CHRISTOPHER CROSS AND ARTHUR'S THEME

Christopher Cross was on the Howard Stern show. It was a good interview and for some reason, I got the idea of contacting him to do the show. For those of you who don't know, Christopher Cross had a debut album that won four Grammy Awards in 1981. Now that's a debut album. And to top it all off, he won an Academy Award for Arthur's Theme the very same year. Now that's an amazing year.

I contacted him thru his website and told him how much I enjoyed his interview with Howard and asked him if he would be interested in being interviewed for our podcast. I also promised him that, unlike Howard, we would not ask him anything about his sex life. We would only ask about his song. I mentioned that we were thinking of interviewing him about either Sailing or Arthur's theme. But probably it would be Arthur's theme.

I got a response that Christopher was interested in doing our show. He felt better doing the interview on Sailing rather than Arthur's Theme because Sailing was his song while Arthur's theme was a collaborative effort with Burt Bacharach and Carol Bayer Sager and Peter Allen. This was it. I was excited.

I replied that we were thrilled. We meaning me cause no one else knew except for my wife. I also said that we would much rather do the interview about Arthur's Theme because it is a much better story. We could ask him what it was like working with Burt Bacharach and about them winning the Academy Award. We could also ask him about the movie.

Well let me just say, I didn't hear from them again. I was bummed. Bummed because, well you know, we were in. It wasn't set in stone, but we got a yes. And then we were out. Just like that. I was bummed because doing an interview with Christopher Cross would be like having a date with a high school cheerleader. Once the word gets out that you went out with a cheerleader, forget about it. So once people found out we interviewed Christopher Cross, a Grammy Award AND Academy Award winner, once again, forget about it. Not many people can say they've won both. Perhaps the thing that might be even more prestigious than winning those awards nowadays, is being a guest on American Idol. Unfortunately, I think that's how it works now.

I'm not bummed that we didn't do the interview anymore. In fact I'm glad we didn't . We were just not ready for the likes of Christopher Cross. As I found out on the Jeremy interview. We were actually going to do Christopher's podcast before the Jeremy podcast. But as things turned out, we did Jeremy right away.

What happened on Jeremy is that I did not hit the record button when they started doing the interview. I realized this halfway into the interview and asked them once they were done if they wouldn't mind redoing the first half of the interview.

Fortunately they were good sports about it. I'm just glad this didn't happen with Christopher Cross. Imagine having to ask him to do the interview again? I would've asked him but it wouldve been a real drag. For all of us.

I think we will be ready for anyone, and that includes Christopher, in about five more podcasts. We're still learning as we go along and I truly am looking forward to it.

The thing that I am also looking forward to is that once girls know you've been with a cheerleader, they're going to be into you. And so once we do interviews with the caliber of a Christopher Cross, people are going to come out of the woodwork and want to be interviewed by us. This would make my job a lot easier. I can see Kanye West texting me and bugging me that he wants to do an interview with us. Just like that Charles Barkley commercial where Charles keeps calling Dwyane Wade. It'll happen. Just watch.

JEREMY BY PEARL JAM

Jeremy is a fantastic song, is what Steele Shephard said during the interview we did for the Pearl Jam song. And I couldn't agree more. That was our next podcast and we interviewed a guy who has a website devoted to the song "Jeremy." He has two million hits on his site, which is pretty impressive if you ask me. One of the things that really struck me about the interview was that the song changed his life.

A lot of people probably don't know that the song is about a real person who shot himself in his classroom. His name was Jeremy Wade and he was only 15 years old. Eddie Vedder, from Pearl Jam, read about it in a newspaper and inspired him to write a song about it.

Steele found out that Jeremy attended the same high school he attended, which is Richardson High School in Texas and that inspired him to do his website. It's amazing to me what inspires people to do things.

This was Matt Grossbart's first interview. Matt was one of the ones I picked from the people who answered the Craigs List ad. He did rather well for a first timer. He said in his email that he worked for MTV and had experience interviewing people. So that caught my attention right away. He was also well spoken and had a decent voice. So he was in.

I suppose you gotta have a certain amount of faith in people once the interview has been scheduled. Neither Steele nor Matt knew me and as I've said earlier, I didn't even have a website. So it could've been very easy to blow me off. I've gotten to know Matt somewhat during this time that we started doing this and would not hesitate to have him interview a Grammy Award winning musician. And believe it or not, we've had two of them interested in doing the podcast. I'll blog about this eventually. This also leads me to believe we're on the right track with this venture.

If it goes as planned, we might even have the ultimate interview. Or at least one of the ultimate interviews. That would be interviewing Paul McCartney about Hey Jude from The Beatles. I'm sure that's a ways off but I know we can get him. Eventually. I'm sure we can already get Ringo. Just kidding. A little bit. I went to Ringo's concert a few months back with my brother in law, which was, by the way, pretty good. And I could see us back stage interviewing him, while having drinks...in my dreams.

Paul Newman Music Video

Paul Newman died on September 26, 2008. You're probably wondering why I'm blogging about Paul Newman, this being a music blog. I was going to put just Paul. But putting just Paul doesn't seem right. He's Paul Newman. Anyway, the reason is
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. And if that still doesn't mean anything to you musically, you should watch it again or for the very first time. Check out the part where Paul Newman rides a bike while the song Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head plays on. It's a very good scene with a terrific pay off.

Paul does riding tricks on the bike. Stunts like riding while standing on the bike seat and riding while facing backwards. Supposedly, the director, George Roy Hill, wanted a stunt man to do the tricks but they couldn't find one to do them as good as Paul. So he did the stunts on the bike himself. Except for maybe one. The one where he falls down. You don't want that happening to him.


Katherine Ross, who looks terrific, joins Paul as they ride the bike together while the song plays on. It's actually like a music video and maybe even better than a lot of real music videos. The scene is as romantic as a hayride. Suddenly Robert Redford shows up at the front door. Checks out the scene. Katherine is his girl. Paul and Katherine look nervous. Robert plays Sundance Kid in the movie, the fastest gun in the West. Or something like that. Redford could take them both out in the blink of an eye. Robert takes one more look at them waves his hand and says "Take her." Paul Newman comes back with, "Romantic bastard, aren't you."

It's such a great movie and was one of my favorite movies for a very long time. It is one of the best buddy movies ever. Check out Amazon's list of Best Buddy Movies ever. And actually, whoever made the list ought to have his head examined. It's number eleven and should be higher. The song is great too and BJ Thomas does a terrific job. I wonder if he's still known as BJ Thomas. It might not work too well for him right now. Or maybe never.


Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head would make an excellent podcast. I Just have to figure out who to interview. BJ Thomas would be good, as well as Burt Bacharach, who is the guy who wrote it. Burt has so many good songs to pick from. I will look into doing one.

A lot was said about Paul Newman when he died. We talked about how great he was while camping in Yosemite. I'm sure he would've liked that. May he rest in peace.

NORMAN GREENBAUM AND SPIRIT IN THE SKY

Another song from the sixties caught my attention. This time because it was in a commercial. The song was Spirit in the Sky by Norman Greenbaum. One of the things that caught my eye was that Norman has a website with an email address where he can be reached. Personally. I mean, how could I pass that up.

I'm sure there's only one Rock N Roller with the name Norman. It's such an unlikely name for a rocker. The song, however, is tremendous. It starts out with a great, distorted guitar intro. And the lyric "When I die I'm gonna go to the place that's the best." And of course the "I have a friend in Jesus."
That last part is interesting because it turns out he's Jewish. I wonder if he got any flack for the song. He could've sang Moses. That fits lyrically. "I have a friend in Moses." But somehow it just doesn't sound as good as Jesus. The same with " I have a friend in Buddha." It doesn't have the same ring. Mohammed doesn't fit at all. Besides, I don't think you can use his name in songs. In fact, I might be in trouble just for typing his name in this blog.

Actually the song Jesus Christ Superstar mentions Mohammed, so maybe in the seventies you could. I don't know. The Muslims were probably not as strict as they are now.

So I emailed Norman and forgot all about it because I truly don't expect a reply. But sure enough, about a week later, I got a reply from Norman himself. Dick Peterson was a big deal because he is a Kingsman. But I had never heard of him personally. I hadn't heard of any of the Kingsman by their names. But Norman Greenbaum I had heard of. I must admit, I was kind of excited.

He wanted to know more about the podcasts so I sent him some more info. After about a week and I hadn't heard from him I emailed him again telling him that I found a video on YouTube and would like to interview him about it. Is that a real video? Is that really him on the video? And so forth. I haven't heard from him. I want to email him again but I read in Nigel Dick's website that it is okay to contact someone three times. After three times it's just plain rude. So I'll go by that rule, which shall henceforth be called Nigel's Rule. I'm sure he probably got it from somewhere else, but he's where I got it from. Nigel Dick, by the way, is mostly known as a music video director and is someone I would like for us to interview. He's done over 280 videos with big name stars like Britney Spears and Guns N Roses.

So, anyway, I think I will wait until the website is up and running to contact Norman again. I hope he does it because there really is no one who could really do the interview better than he could. Some songs could have a number of people interviewed and it would still be good. But other songs, and this is one of them, the interview is only good if the major player is involved.

One of these days I'll contact him again. I keep getting reminded every time I hear his song in commercials.

Norman Whitfield Songs I Like

Norman Whitfield died on September 16, 2008. He was 68 and someone I would've liked for us to have interviewed. He actually wrote the famed rock critic Dave Marsh's number one song of all time. That would be Marvin Gaye's I Heard It Through the Grapevine.

I hadn't really paid that much attention to the song, mostly I heard the Creedence Clearwater Revival version which I like a lot. Once I read how highly rated the song is, I heard it with different ears. I wanted to know if I was missing something. And I guess I was because it really is a wonderful song. In the LA Times obituary it says that Norman wrote some songs on a key so high, which gave Marvin Gaye so much trouble to sing, that they would practically come to blows.

As much as I now like Grapevine and turn it up every time it comes on the radio, I still like another Norman song even more. That would be Just My Imagination by the Temptations. Not just because of the song which is one of the most romantic songs I know but also because there's a girl involved. And as everyone knows, whenever there's a girl involved, things seem to change.

She was one one of my friend's sister. And it's not even something amazing. Not even close. It's just a pleasant reminder of my past. We were in my friend's garage at night. There were about five of us. Three guys and two girls. The radio was on. We were just horsing around with the girls, when my friend tried to give his sister a hickey. I thought that was pretty odd because I have a younger sister and I've never even remotely thought of giving her a hickey. And I've been told she's attractive. Anyway, so the girl screamed and got away from my friend's grasp and ran right into me. I held her briefly just so she wouldn't fall. She felt and smelled fantastic. Then she ran away from me too. I didn't know what to think. I mean, of all the people there, why would she run into me? Guys quickly start getting ideas. But you try not to think about your friend's sisters so nothing much could've happened anyway. I did think at the time, though, that if anyone should be giving her a hickey, it should be me.

Another great song from Norman Whitfield is Papa Was A Rolling Stone by The Temptations. It's a terrific song with a great bass line and violins. The song reminds me of my father. I love my father very much but he was, as they say, a rolling stone. He would leave the family behind to look for work elsewhere. My father was different from the song though, which says that "And Mama, some bad talk going around town saying that Papa had three outside children and another wife. And that ain't right." He just had the one wife. My mother. Unfortunately. You try spending time with my parents.

One time I remember vividly. It was Christmas time and my friends and I went to downtown El Paso, Texas, which is my hometown. We went to see the lights and the Christmas tree in the plaza. So we're walking down the plaza all bad ass, my friends and I, carrying a boombox that for some reason, was colored bright red. I'm certain that the redness must've diluted our badassness. But what are you going to do. Then Papa was a Rolling Stone came on and a raised the volume, just in case the people across the street couldn't hear it because of the drone of the Christmas songs. My friends and I walked in step to the song. We were bad.

There's not a lot I can say about Norman other than a sincere thank you. Your songs will live on for a very long time.

Getting a Back Door Virus

So I've been battling a computer virus. Nasty business if you ask me. I've had the free AVG anti-virus software for close to ten years. I've had viruses but AVG took care of them. This one was a tough one. Maybe it was me not keeping AVG up to date or maybe it was them. I don't know. All I know is that the virus couldn't be deleted. The computer would freeze and I'd have to do a restart. At one point I closed all the applications and all of a sudden a woman's voice came on. It was too soft to hear what she said. So I turned up the volume and rap music started blaring from my speakers. I have rap songs on my music catalog, but nothing like this. I hate to admit it, but I got the chills. Someone had taken over my computer.

I quickly turned it off, disconnected the online cable and restarted it. It froze. I restarted it again. It let me in so I did a scan with Spybot Search and Destroy and another with Lavasoft Adware. They all found and removed infected items.

So I went back online. Seemed ok. I tried to go to Microsoft updates and it froze. This went on every time I went on Microsoft. I must've restarted the computer about fifty times. At one point whenever I clicked on Microsoft updates it would redirect me to other sites . Finally the computer wouldn't let me do anything so I did a PC recovery. It was a good thing I had all my stuff backed up on Carbonite. I've lost files before so I've learned the hard way to do back ups.

Once I did the recovery, I could get into Microsoft. So I did all the updates. I also figured it was time to not be cheap and buy a good anti-virus. I went to sites that reviewed the software and found
Bit Defender. It was highly rated at a good price. So I bought it. I tried to download it but it told me it couldn't download because I had a virus. It suggested I do an online scan, which I did. Two hours later it found a back door virus it couldn't remove. That was odd. What was I supposed to do now?

My brother in law Joe told me to do an online scan using Kaspersky, which was another highly rated software. Two hours later it found the same virus and it could not remove it. So I copied the name of the virus and googled it. I found another website called Adware Alert, which found a ton of viruses. I started entering my personal data but on a hunch I did a review of the website. Turns out some reviews claim it gives out false positives on viruses. Who knows if this is true or not, I don't want to take any chances so I didn't buy it.

I finally found another site called Cyber Defender. It scanned and found viruses in five minutes. Cost fifty bucks though. But that's for 5 computers. We only have four but that's ok. The bad part is that now I'm concerned about identity theft. How much personal information, if any, did the intruders find from the computer? Should I cancel my credit cards? What about my bank account? I called my bank and they told me to send a fraud alert to the credit monitoring services and check my bank account regularly. It seemed too much work so I gave the work to
Lifelock. This is the one who gives out the CEO's social security number and dares people to use it. A couple of days later they sent me several emails notifying me that they've put out a fraud alert to the three services. They've opted me out of getting credit card applications through the mail and also not getting any more junk mail. Not bad for ten bucks. That's monthly, so I don't know how long I'll do it for. A few months maybe. It would've taken me a long time to do all that. I'm slow.

So what have I learned from this aside from the obvious don't be cheap. All I can think is, well, nothing. I already know everything I need to know about not getting viruses. Just whatever it is I did to get it, Don't Do It. It's the opposite of
Nike. I KNOW what I did to get it. I'm just not saying.

Jerry Lewis Telethon and Gary Lewis and the Playboys

So it's the Labor Day Weekend and I'm off on Monday. Hurrah. I'll still do the blog though. I was going to take it off but actually, it being Labor Day, it reminded me of the
Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethon. We used to watch it growing up cause it was kind of interesting. They had good guests and for some reason it was interesting to watch. Nowadays it's interesting for totally different reasons. Including how big is Jerry's head going to be. I think it is okay now, but one year it was gigantic. Literally. As big as a watermelon.

Love him or hate him, Jerry Lewis is still an American icon. He's been in show business since the 40s. And at one point, along with Dean Martin, was the biggest act in Hollywood. Not very many people can say that. I know the telethon is sometimes hard to watch, but it is occasionally good to switch on from time to time. Over the years, they have raised more than a billion dollars.

My father used to work at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas and the telethon used to be on at the hotel. He used to get tickets and I went one time. The funny thing is that I don't think I saw Jerry Lewis. I would remember seeing him. I do remember seeing Ed Mcmahon. And I remember seeing Rick Springfield sing Jessie's Girl. I remember him practicing because he couldn't get the guitar riff right. My mother was feeling sorry for him, but I thought it was funny. One thing I remember without a doubt is watching the Solid Gold Dancers perform. That I remember. They were awesome. Solid Gold was a TV program that was around in the 80s that featured the dancers and a countdown of the weeks top ten, along with guest performers.

I keep getting sidetracked because the main reason for this blog is to discuss Gary Lewis and the Playboys. He was on a few years ago. One of his biggest hits is This Diamond Ring. That is one of the songs I would like to do a podcast on. I did email the bands management, Rick Saphire, but did not get a response. It's an interesting story in it's own right, but a big reason is that Gary is one of Jerry's kids. A real one. With Jerrys DNA. It would be awesome to interview both at the same time. Jerry actually helped Gary at the beginning of his career. Including getting the band on the Ed Sullivan Show. Several talented people helped record the single, including Leon Russell, who also co-wrote it. And Hal Blaine on drums. Hal has been in more Rock and Roll hits than just about any other drummer.

I just think it would be interesting to hear the story of how the band got hot from the perspective of both Jerry and Gary. It's also interesting that in 1965 Gary Lewis was Cash Box Magazine's "Male Vocalist of the Year," and two years later, he was drafted into the U.S Army. Imagine that happening now. Young celebrities, men and women, getting drafted into service. That would be awesome actually. One can only dream.

Messing up the Podcast for "Oh Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison

One of the songs I wanted to do a podcast for was Pretty Woman by Roy Orbison. I knew a few facts about the song before I started doing the research. And basically it was what most people know. Namely that it was a hit for Roy Orbison in the 60's. Van Halen covered it in the 80's. And that there's a movie by that name with Julia Roberts, Richard Gere and a Jason Alexander with way too much hair. So I figured there was a lot of territory to explore. Little did I know there was enough story there for a whole book. Well, for someone who is capable of writing books. I was certain I could write enough questions for a ten to fifteen minute podcast.One of the things I do is go to Amazon to check out the books on the subject. I found a few and finally picked one called Dark Star The Story of Roy Orbison by Ellis Amburn. I checked it out from the library because for some reason it is too expensive to buy online. It costs $48. It was an interesting book about the life of Roy Orbison. You kind of felt bad for the guy because he saw himself as an unattractive guy . And he had those thick bottleglass eyeglasses. He had this crush on a girl who hooked up with one of the guys in his band when he was a teenager. Which must've been rough. Roy finally got the nerve to ask her out once his band mate and her split up. But only after their first single came out. Anyway, they finally married and she became the inspiration for Pretty Woman and they lived happily ever after. Or did they?

Anyway, it's an interesting story. Eventually, I would imagine, he felt more satisfaction when he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and realized how much fans as well as artists like Bruce Springsteen adored him. And of course being in The Traveling Wilburys with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne.I emailed Ellis Amburn and didn't hear from him, so I found another book that seemed interesting and contacted the author. The book was Roy Orbison: Invention Of An Alternative Rock Masculinity by Peter Lehman. He was interested. I was on a roll. Two out of three ain't bad. I wish I had those kinds of odds when I was dating. Well, if I had dated. I was actually worse than Roy Orbison. Asking girls out was something I was not very good at.
So a date was set for the interview. I had the host and the back up ready. The host was going to be the woman who liked Nic Harcourt and I was looking forward to listening to her because she had a nice voice. The questions were written. But I had a feeling something wasn't right. I had written the questions from the perspective of Dark Star. I hadn't read the Peter Lehman book and he struck me as a person who would not discuss some of the questions we were going to ask him because he seemed like a huge fan. A few of the questions didn't put Roy in such a good light. He was going to have a symposium about Roy Orbison at Arizona State University where he taught. So on a lark I sent him the questions. Sure enough he emailed me back and told me he was withdrawing from the interview. Some of the questions were too biographical, he told me. And he was not a biographer. I thought of asking someone else but I changed my mind once I saw a website that has Wesley Orbison, son of Roy, writing briefly about his father. So I'm holding out for him. Once we get the website going I would like to approach him for an interview about Roy and his mother, the inspiration for the song Pretty Woman

Picking Hosts

One of the things I learned the hard way, after doing our first interview, was that I needed more hosts. I hadn't realized that I would need a back up for the back up. So I looked at my options. Not having any friends and family that are qualified or would even want to interview people, I chose to place an ad. I checked out Variety first, because, well, it's THE show biz magazine, but they were too expensive. They start out at $225 and go as high as $2250. It was a bit too pricey and not only that, but anyone looking at ads there would probably want to get paid. A lot. On a hunch, I checked out craigslist. $25 sounded perfect to me.

So I placed the ad and got a response very quickly. And not just a response, I got more than I thought I would. It was by no means overwhelming. It was just a good response. There were around thirty or so people who left me messages . The most interesting one was a real live morning deejay from Northern California. We played phone tag for a while and finally connected briefly. But we were having a party at the house so it was hard to hear. She still seemed interested when I suggested we speak again under better circumstances, but I never heard from her again. I called a few times and emailed her but it was just as well. We weren't ready for someone like her.

After all the contacts, I eventually picked three people. Matt, a guy who said he worked for MTV. Jackie, a girl who said she was a fan of Nic Harcourt. He is an influential music director from KCRW, the public radio station in Santa Monica. The third person was a lady who was shot out of a cannon.

She told me I would not regret my decision to pick her. The lady was interesting in a weird kind of way. She sent me her My Space page where she had video clips of her saying that she was at a famous person's house but we never saw the famous person or anything remotely suggesting that this famous person lived there. It was actually pretty funny. She wanted to start right away, but I told her it took time to find the right song and person to interview. Then I suggested that if she was interested, she could pick a song and write some questions about it. I was surprised when she sent me the song and questions in a few days.

I replied to her that it was a good effort and I appreciated her enthusiasm. However, although George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess is an American classic, it was a bit too old for what I had in mind for Story of Songs. Even though Janis Joplin did a version of Gershwin's Summertime, it was a rather obscure song from Janis. One of the questions she wrote was a multiple choice question. Now that would've been funny asking a guest a multiple choice question. Unfortunately, I never heard from her again. It would've been a more interesting blog if she had stayed on board.

Louie Louie Part II

Reading "Louie Louie Me Gotta Go Now" actually did help in writing the questions for the interview. I had enough questions to ask just by researching online. Reading the book, however, made the questions more personal. Some of the stuff we discussed in the interview is not found anywhere. Well, except for the book.

So I wrote all the questions, about fifty of them. Then I informed Dick that we were ready and to let us know when he was available. He replied and sent me his phone number. Bam, right there. I got his phone number. I must've been dumb because it hadn't really occurred to me that I was going to have to ask people for their phone numbers. As it turned out, Dick was gracious enough to send it to me without asking. I would imagine he has several phone numbers and one is strictly for business.

Anyway, so we got that out of the way and now it was the computer's turn to get ready. I got a Skype account so we can call out and do conference calls. I got a way to record the calls. I didn't know Skype has a recorder available, so I bought one called Freecorder. They have a free version, but you can only record fifteen minutes. So I needed to upgrade. Once that was done, I set up the computer in the garage. Just in case something happened to the Freecording recording, I also set up the camcorder to record. It actually turned out that the recording from the camcorder sounds better than the one on Freecorder.

So we were set. We had the date set. Everyone was ready. I sent the host the questions. We did a little re-editing to fit his style. I got a back up host ready just in case the first host couldn't make it. The day before the interview is to be done, the first host lets me know he won't be able to make it. Ok, things happen. So I notify the back up. He is ready. Then a few hours before the interview, he informs me he won't be able to make it at seven o'clock. He might be available at 7:30. So I'm stuck. I don't want to postpone it. This is our first interview. For all I know, Dick has cancelled other things from his busy life to do the interview. Postponing it at this late a time will just let him know that we're amateurs, which we are. But we want to act like professionals. Besides it's not like we're Rolling Stone magazine and it's worth his time to re-schedule. Not only that, Dick is giving us credibility by doing our podcast. From now on, we can let other possible guests know that we've already done an interview with a musician from a legendary band. And The Kingsmen truly are a legendary band. Not just because they have one of the most famous songs in rock history, but because of their history. They actually do have an amazing story.

There was no way I was going to do the interview, because as I've said before, I hate my voice and I stutter. So I did the only thing I could think of. I asked my wife. She said ok and said I owed her. Big time. Turns out she did really well for someone who was totally unprepared. And Dick seemed to like her. He was laughing and kidding with her. We called at the set time. He answered the phone. I spoke to him briefly. Very briefly. And the interview was off. At the end of the interview, which lasted less than thirty minutes. I thanked Dick and I'm thanking him now. Now that I'm in a thanking mood. I'd like to thank my wife Yolanda too. She came through for me and for that I'm grateful. (Besides, she might read this someday) Dick was very giving and I will always be thankful that he went out of his way to help us. Especially since we are a podcast that doesn't even exist. Yet. I spoke to him again briefly after the interview and it was awkward. I mumbled something. Then quickly told him that I would email him, which I did. I told him that I put his book on Wikipedia. He thanked me for that.

I will post a clip or two of the interview as a teaser for the real podcast on my next post. I hope you enjoy them and that it makes you want to listen to the whole thing. The whole thing will be available as soon as I get together five podcasts. Then we will get the website going as well. It will be more exciting once we get the website going. At least that is my hope.

The Kingsmen

(left to right) Mike Mitchell, Barry Curtis, Dick Peterson, Lynn Easton, and Norm Sundholm

"Louie Louie" with Dick

So this is what happened. I was anxious to start podcasting. A little too anxious I would imagine, because we were totally unprepared to start. I was listening to K Earth 101, the greatest hits on Earth, which is what they call themselves. Anyway, they play oldies. So on the morning show they had the deejay interview Dick Peterson of The Kingsmen. He was the drummer of the band from 1963 to the present. Dick was promoting his own book' which is called, "Louie Louie Me Gotta Go Now." The interview was good except they were just getting started when the next thing you know, it was over. Dick was on for less than five minutes. I said out loud, to myself, in my car, "that's it!" I never thought I'd be saying this, but I needed more Dick.

Say what you will about Howard Stern, and a lot of people do. He does great interviews. Sometimes, if the guest is good, he will have them on over an hour. With no commercials. That's what I'm used to. So being interviewed for less than five minutes was just not enough. I mustered up the courage to email Dick. I found it thru his publisher. Actually it didn't take any courage at all because I wasn't expecting a reply. So when I got a reply, I was like "Oh man!" I know I've already used an exclamation point twice and I'm not that kind of guy. So you can well imagine what I was going through.

I thought nothing of sending an email because why would they contact me? And I even explained to them on the email. We don't have a website yet. We don't have any podcasts. We don't even have a blog. In essence, we have nothing but an idea in my head. When I sent the email, I was very respectful. I called him Mr. Peterson. Next thing I know I'm corresponding with Mr. Dick Peterson of The Kingsmen. That's when it hit me. This was unreal. I sent an email to the host of the show telling him the good news. This is what I said.

"Holy smokes, this guy might want to do the podcast. He wrote a book about Louie Louie. Let me know quickly when you are available for interviewing? If we do it over the phone, can you record to your computer? Man, we're so unprepared. I just did it on a lark to see what would happen. I didn't think he'd respond so quickly. Anyway, I"ll call you too. And think of questions to ask him."

The host said he wanted more time to prepare so I emailed Dick telling him that we wanted to buy his book and do more research. This gave us more time, which was good. The funny thing is that Dick and I kept corresponding and we were actually joking around. We were emailing each other like we were the best of pals. Or so it seemed like that in my head. He was a funny guy, as I found out after reading his book.

One of the funnier parts of the book is that when the band went on tour, Dick's mother put a letter in his suitcase and on the letter she called him "Lil' Dickie." Naturally, his band mates found the letter and that became his nickname. I suppose only because, at seventeen, he was the youngest guy in the band.

It would be nice if I could say that the interview went without a glitch. It didn't. The good thing about it, as you will read on Part Two of the Louie story, is that we did it and we learned from our mistakes. At least I hope we did.

Cub Koda

Picking a Song

One of the great things about doing a podcast about songs is that there are literally thousands of songs to pick from. If we did a song a day, which is crazy for our current operation, it would take nine years to do over three thousand songs. And in those ensuing years, there would be thousands of songs and more stories to tell. Essentially, we got a lot of work to do if we're going to do this right.

That being said, it's not easy picking songs. First off, where do you start? There are just too many songs. Just like cleaning an overflowing garage. There's just too much stuff. Too much junk. Where do you begin? Another thing is that some stories are better than others. We can't just pick any song and tell the story about it. Well, actually we can, but how good would that be? We'd rather pick songs that have interesting stories with interesting characters. So I read a lot of books and went on http://wikipedia.com/ and http://songfacts.com/ I created a spreadsheet with songs and who plays it, who I'd like to interview. Realistically, that is. Ideally, I'd like for us to interview Paul McCartney about "Hey Jude." Realistically, right now we'd probably get a Beatle fan or a book writer and interview that person. Eventually, we will get top notch people to tell the story of the song. In fact, as you will learn on the next post, we did incredibly well for our first podcast guest. I'll even give you a hint about the first song we did. It was investigated by the FBI. You can't say that about a lot of songs. I'm sure there might be a few, but not that many.

One of the problems for picking songs and having an ideal person to interview, is that some of them are dead. Sure there are the basic deaths everyone knows about like Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon and Kirk Cobain. But what about people we don't know about? Someone like Cub Koda. One of the songs included on the spreadsheet I created was "Smokin' in the Boys Room." Terrific song done by Motley Crue, but first played by Brownsville Station. I found out that Cub Koda and Mike Letz wrote it. I was excited about Cub Koda because he was an interesting character. Not only was he a song writer, he was a record collector and music scholar as well. So I figured it would be a great interview. I even had a few questions bubbling up in my head. I was excited. I went into his official site, http://www.cubkoda.com/. He wrote liner notes for some Rhino records. He wrote a column for "Goldmine," which is a music magazine. Then I found out he was dead. Died in 2000. I was bummed out. I really was. It felt as if he had just died. I know we could still get a terrific person to tell the story of Smokin' in the Boys Room. But I still feel sad about it. I'm sure we're going to encounter similar situations in the future, so I guess I'm going to have to get used to it.

TV Seminar Part Two

The second and last TV pitching seminar I attended was more laid back. There were only about ten people there, unlike the first one which was close to sixty people in attendance. The best part about this seminar was that it was about two hundred yards, or two football fields, away from the Santa Monica beach.

The instructor was also more laid back. His name is Greg Spring and he is an executive producer. Gone was the perfectly pressed shirt and the perfectly unruly hair. This guy had the writer look, if there is still such a look. His seminar was actually more up my alley since it was for reality type TV programs. Although Story of Songs is more a documentary or informational type program, most of the instructions he gave out applied. There was some good stuff I learned, like registering the program in the Writers Guild, which I have done. So if there's anyone out there trying to steal my idea, I can sic my team of lawyers on you. Once I get my team of lawyers together.

The instructor gave us the opportunity to pitch a show during the class. I took advantage of it. Unfortunately, it went horribly wrong. What was on my mind was not what came out of my mouth. The instructor tried to help out but I ignored him. I couldn't think straight. I was tongue tied and stuttered to boot. Which is how I talk in the first place.

Greg was actually more accessible and I did speak to him after the class. I felt good about that and we even emailed one another a few times. He was actually helpful and I would also recommend anyone with a reality type TV program idea they would like to pitch to attend his seminar. The thing that I remember about the class is that the best way to pitch a program is to attach a name to it.

This meant that I had to come up with names for hosts. I figured it would be like 60 minutes and have several hosts and each profiles a song. I came up with a few names. Danny Bonaduce was one of them. He's even said he'll do anything as long as he gets paid. Leeza Gibbons was someone else I thought might be good at it. Ralph Garman from KROQ. The only person I actually did contact was Peter Tilden, a deejay slash talk radio host. I've been a fan of his since he was on KFI AM 640 a while back. I found out a little bit about him, including that he had just been fired from KZLA, a country radio station in LA. So I figured here was my chance. I emailed him and mentioned the fact that he had been fired anyway, so what did he have to lose by hosting Story of Songs. I never heard from him. Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned him getting fired. I did compliment him and told him I was a fan and that I wish I played the guitar as good as he does. He plays guitar, not very well though. But he plays much better than I do.

Anyway, it didn't go well with picking hosts for the TV show.
.

TV Seminar

Going to my first TV pitching seminar was like going to a pep rally. Everyone was so excited. It was actually an uplifting experience. And I mean that. The speaker was a real TV and movie executive. The thing about him that struck me right away was that he looked the part. He even said that if you want to succeed you have to look like you already are successful. I know it's one of those The Secret type deals. But I guess it must be true. For him anyways.

He was an older gentleman with a nice suit and a well pressed white shirt. Especially for 8 o'clock at night. Most shirts are wrinkled by that time. Most of my shirts are semi-wrinkled as soon as I put them on. The thing I remember most about him is his hair. He had the salt and pepper look and was very well groomed in an unruly kind of way. Not as crazy as Albert Einstein's, just neatly unruly. I've tried that look on weekends but I just look like I haven't taken a shower. As my wife will attest.

The only thing I can remember about the seminar without looking at my notes, which are somewhere in a huge pile of papers that need to be filed, is that I didn't come up to speak to him. I had my chance, two chances, actually. During intermission and after the seminar. There was a point where there were only about two people in line waiting to speak to him and he was nearby. I even had a question to ask him. He even taught us how to approach someone. You never just start out talking business. You need to start with small talk. It doesn't matter what. As long as it's not business. I should've gone to greet him. I messed up on that one. I did, however, ask a question in class. Which is a big deal for me. I wish I could remember his name so I could recommend him. I guess I'll have to look at my notes which are in my huge pile of papers that need to be filed.

Beginnings

I guess it started a long, long time ago. I've always enjoyed the stories deejays told about the songs they played. Stories of how "Louie Louie" by The Kingsmen was just a demo and not meant for release. Or how "Jeremy" by Pearl Jam is about a kid who shot himself in front of his classmates. That kind of stuff makes the songs that much more meaningful. I also remember going to the library and checking out albums and tapes on Classical music. The back cover with the most interesting story was the one I checked out. Who knew that Beethoven wrote the Ninth Symphony while he was almost deaf. Well, I'm sure a bunch of people know that one, but it's still interesting. And it makes the symphony that much more incredible.

Knowing this, I figured a TV program about the story behind the songs would be a great idea. So I bought a rather expensive book called The Hollywood Creative Directory, went through it and figured out who would be a good producer for my program. Once this was done, I pitched it. And pitched it. And pitched it. I had no luck. So I went on a TV pitching seminar on the Learning Annex, which is what I should've done in the first place. I'll write about this on my next post. Let's just say that basically, I'm not much of a talker. This is why I stopped pitching the program. I had a partner at the beginning, but he bailed on me. It happens. My strength was the concept and writing of the show and so forth. His strength was the selling and networking. He's still helping me out with other stuff, which is good. I don't have any partners though.
Anyway, this is the beginning of the story. This blog will be about the goings on behind the scenes of the Story of Songs podcast. I know the blog is still a bit raw. For instance, I don't know how to capitalize Story of Songs. I haven't figured it out yet. But I'm anxious to start. Hopefully there will be some good stories that happen. And even more hopefully, readers and listeners will stick around.