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.
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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.