For All The Love of Rosie

So, here is an interesting story to go along with the song I am going to share.
I met Kim Doolittle completely by accident. I was really into the blues,  live blues, and had been watching Stormy Monday on Cable TV and going down on Monday nights to see the live jam also. It was around 1992. I remember that much. I stumbled onto Dawn Duval and Lorraine Ingle from that, and I loved their vibe and original songs. So, I began to go to some of their gigs, of which they played many in those days as Blue Willow. From them, I met many other original blues artists on the scene.
There was a big blues event produced by the Blues Society in town, and I decided to go down to that and see a few performers. Kim was not one of them. I didn't know her and had never heard of her or her songs.
But there she was, on the stage just as I arrived, playing her songs in only the way she could,  with her stories to go with them. I definitely made sure I looked her up and was going to see her perform her own gig as soon as I could.
A few weeks later I noticed she was playing a gig on Church Street, near Wellesley. Or maybe it was Jarvis Street. Not sure. It was one of those. For sure I remember one thing. It was definitely the gay area of town, and nobody didn't know that. Of course, I didn't care or think of that. I just wanted to see her play her songs and find out more about her. 
It wasn't much of a gig. Smaller place, not many people and just her. A Sunday night. Acoustic. No band and just a simple guitar. None of that mattered. She could, and still can, carry a gig by herself by just playing her songs and telling her stories.
I didn't know her, and she certainly didn't know me. But one thing was obvious. Even she could see that the gay guys were all over me. I guess I was so into the music, that I wasn't paying attention to that. I do that with women also. If I am there to listen to the music,  a really hot woman could hit on me, and I wouldn't even notice or care. I am there for the music. 
But, a guy bought me a drink. I didn't know it was from a guy, so even though I don't drink alcohol and tried to refuse it, the bartender said it was paid for and he was going to give it to me anyway. I said fine and he put it on the counter at the bar, where I was sitting. 
I should have figured it out. Other than Kim, I don't think there was another woman in the whole place. That is highly unusual when you go to see a girl singer. They have lots of female friends that come to their gigs. Not at this one though.
Then the guy who sent me the drink started talking to me. And of course, he was hitting on me. He thought if I was in that bar, I must be gay. And he was very forward. After her first set, Kim, noticing this, came over, started to talk to me, and tried to get me out of this situation. It didn't really work. After she went up for set number 2, he started again. Even telling him that I am very "not gay" and completely not interested in his advances, he wouldn't let up. I almost left. He was ruining my night. But I didn't. I liked Kim's songs too much, so, I just sort of ignored him and eventually he left. 
After set 2, Kim and I talked a bit at the bar, and she invited me to a jam she did every Tuesday at Quinn's with Kelly Kavanaugh. I guess she thought I might not come. But I said I would, and I did.
It was a great jam. I pretty much went every week when I could, and Kim noticed that I would write in between sets to pass the time.  I am not really the type who socializes much at bars, unless I am out with friends or engaged directly by someone. She saw my writing, looked some of it over, and said we should write together some time. We ended up doing that, once, and it went well, but we never did it again, and it never amounted to anything. But, in the course of that, she noted that I had a nice voice and if I ever wanted to get up on stage and sing a song or two, she would be happy to let me do that.
I certainly am no singer, and I resisted that idea of getting up for months. But finally, I learned a song and decided to try it. I did okay, and I got up a few times and did better each time. But, I really came to the jams just to listen to Kim and her friends. So that is what I did and stopped the singing, for which, to be honest, I really suck at. I am a very good writer, and a poor at best singer. 
Kim, on the other hand, is a fantastic writer, singer, songwriter and performer.
The first time I heard the song I am going to post along with this blog was at that jam. It was mind blowing how good it was, and of course, it still holds up today. 
For All The love of Rosie. It's a great song. And a true story, as she told us many times at that jam. Once you hear it and listen to it and the words, you will never forget it. 
Just as I have never forgotten that night. The true stories make the best stories and songs. Maybe one day I will write a song about that night. For sure though,  I wont ever be singing it. I will leave that to the talent like Kim.

How my mind works. Sometimes.

How my mind works.
Many mention this to me so I thought I would blog about it. I don't think that it is any big deal, but others seem to think it is unique and special. I have always done it and it comes naturally and easy to me.
I make connections. Strange connections. Sometimes logical connections. Other times convoluted connections.
Since I write, I know that a lot of other writers do this as well. But I do it with songs quite a bit, and not many people do that.
So, since people ask me about it, from time to time I will go about telling you how I got the 5 pack that I post on my page on Facebook.

Here is today's, with the connections.

All thoughts begin with a starting point or impetus that gets the motor going. Think of it like pulling the cord to kickstart a lawnmower. 
In this case, I picked Road to Shambala by Three Dog Night. I did that because I had to drive my wife to a Chinese restaurant called Shangri-La. Why a song with Shangri-La didn't come into my head I don't know. I don't know why the impetus leads to a certain thought or connection and not another. I don't usually go that deep to figure it out. It is about connections, not why they connect so much. Although, after the first one, I always know how I got to the second one. Something about the first song connects to the second one. In some way. 
Sometimes, it can be a line in the song. Or the title. Or the singer. Or an event the first song reminds me of. Sometimes, I hear the first song and think of all the great songs of that singer. There are so many ways the first song can take me in any direction. I just go with it.

"On a tour of one night stands, my suitcase and guitar in hand."

"And each town looks the same to me, the movies and the factories." 

The second song is not a connection that anyone else would make or figure out without knowing an experience I had. Three months ago I went to see what would be called an "oldies" concert with some 60's bands former lead singers. They included Gary Puckett (The Union Gap) Mark Lindsay (Paul Revere and The Raiders) Flo And Eddie (The Turtles) Gary Lewis (The Playboys) and Chuck Negron. 
Chuck Negron was the main lead singer of Three Dog Night. The first song I picked. The most memorable thing I can recall from that night (other than most of the singers can't sing anymore and are very overweight) is Chuck Negron on stage. Of all the singers, he was the one who still had it. But, he also brought that bad temper he is known for. He didn't like the way the sound was arranged (in his opinion the instruments and back up singers got too much volume and were drowning him out....him being the star) so he took to berating and chastising the sound guy until he fixed it. To say he threw a full out tantrum on stage would be an understatement.
Negron struck me as a guy who really didn't want to be there. Like he was doing it strictly for the money, while the other guys were there to get the praise and glory that they couldn't have anymore now that their talent and star have faded deep into the rear view mirror. They wanted to be there. He didn't.
And that is how I got to the Simon And Garfunkel song, Homeward Bound. The lyric I posted above. Going town to town, on a tour of one night stands. Negron looked like a guy who just wanted to get his money and go back home. 

That led me to the 3rd song, She Believes in Me by Kenny Rogers. A line in that song always struck me. 
If you have ever listened to the song, you will know it is about a struggling musician/writer who arrives home late each late and is barely keeping his dream alive, probably playing dives. 

While she lays sleeping

I stay out late at night and play my songs. 

And sometimes all the nights can be so long

And its good when I finally make it home, all alone

And she believes in me

I'll never know just what she sees in me

I told her someday if she was my girl

I could change the world

With my little songs

I was wrong. 

But she has faith in me

And so I go on trying faithfully

And who knows maybe, on some special night

If my song is right

I will find a way

Find a way

So, while the theme is similar to Negron, a guy out there trying to earn a living so he can live, and at some point doing what he loves (or used to love) to do, in this case the singer still believes in himself, mostly because he has someone who believes in him. 
I sort of lost my train of thought after the third song, as the first 3 came really fast. But I wanted to do something about believe. More specifically about make believe. To me, being a writer and living the life of a professional singer is really about the same thing: Make Believe. It never seems real that you could do that and make money at it.

The first song that came to my head was the Conway Twitty song It's Only Make Believe. I love Conway Twitty. Many don't. He is pure country. So, I know when I post a song like that--for many--I break the chain. But the connection in my mind goes where it goes. So, I go with it. Of all the songs, one guy who rarely comes to my page anymore liked that particular song. That is just how it goes sometimes.

Then I just really picked the next song that came into my head. Sometimes I try to make it a relevant song to tie them all together. This time, the first song that came to me was just that. And only that. So, I finished with You Make My Dreams Come True by Hall and Oates.
I could tell you that it meant something like a relation to the Kenny Rogers song about someone else helping you realize your dreams because they have faith and believe in you, or support you through the hard times, like you experience on the road in a song like Homeward Bound. I could tell you that.
But it wouldn't be true. It was just the next song that came to my head. Nothing more profound than that.
So, there you go. A glimpse into how my mind works. Sometimes. Sort of.
I will do this type of blog every so often. 

Richard Fairbrass Turns 60 today. Who?

Richard Peter John Fairbrass. 
Who?
Richard Fairbrass. 
He was born September 22, 1953 in Surrey, England. That means he turns 60 today. More about him later. You probably don't know his name, but you know something he did.
 
Bernard Cribbins.
Who?
Bernard Cribbins. 
He was born December 20, 1928 in Lancashire, England.
Most of you have never heard of him. I certainly hadn't. But if you are my age or about my age, you know something that he did back in the 60s was something many of us enjoyed watching in the late 70s and early 80s. As well, something else he did in the 60s inspired someone else who did one thing about 25 years ago. Because of that, Bernard Cribbons will be relevant for a very long time, even if he is never remembered for inspiring it.
Bernard Cribbins did a lot of things in show business. He likely won't be remembered by many for any of them. Richard Fairbrass did a lot of things for a long time but won't be remembered by most for all but one. One hundred years from now, they likely both will only be remembered for the one thing they have in common. At the end of this blog (no skipping ahead, read the freaking blog) you will find out what that is.

This is Bernard Cribbins. You probably don't recognize him.

Cribbins made his theatre debut in 1956 and did a number of theater productions until the early 1960s, when he recorded several successful novelty records.  

He was also known for his appearance in the British Carry On films, which many of us loved watching as kids on late night TV. There was always a chance you could see some naked girls and the movies were funny enough while you waited for that to happen. The British are good at that sort of thing. Cribbins appeared in Carry On Jack (1963), Carry On Spying (1964) and Carry On Columbus (1992). I think over the years I have probably seen all the Carry On films, although I really can't remember much about any of them. I remember the camping one well, but if I were to watch one now, it would seem fresh. I might just do that this week to see how funny (or not funny) they actually are. The naked girl thing, well, I have the internet, so that ship has sailed.

Cribbins was the narrator of The Wombles, a BBC children's television program that ran between 1973 and 1975. Many know Cribbins's most from his role as Wilfred Mott in Doctor Who.

He was the celebrity storyteller in more episodes of Jackanory than any other personality, appearing more than 100 times from 1966 to 1991. I have never even heard of that show, nor the Wombles.

  
He did many things on television and one of the most memorable was an episode of Fawlty Towers in 1975. In it, he played a spoon salesman who is mistaken by Basil Fawlty for a hotel inspector. It is memorable to those who watched Fawlty Towers. I wasn't one of those. Until I posted that clip, I had never seen the show once.
He has had a long and successful--if not famous--career and still performs up to this day.

Back to Richard Peter John Fairbrass. For a short while he was a fairly popular singer. In terms of the grand scheme of things, he was very much a one hit wonder. He did do many other things, but very few know or care about them. Below are just a few.

Fairbrass is openly bisexual and once co-hosted, with Rhona Cameron, a TV series aimed at a lesbian and gay audience called Gaytime TV on  the BBC. That lasted 4 years. He isn't famous for that. Outside of Britian, nobody has ever seen it.

In 1984, he appeared in Jazzin' for Blue Jean, a David Bowie video, as the bass player. Most everyone has seen that video but nobody knows Fairbrass was in it and he certainly isn't famous for it. Bowie is.
No, while Richard Fairbrass has done a wide assortment of interesting things in show business, he will be forever known for one very catchy song he sung in a group with a weird name. 

Richard Fairbrass. Maybe he looks familiar. Here's a hint. He used to be way too sexy. For his shirt. Not this shirt though.

At this point, you are probably asking yourself what do Richard Fairbrass and Bernard Cribbins have in common? One thing they did, among the many things they have both done in long careers. For both of them, it is possibly the most popular thing they did.

You see, Fairbrass is the lead vocalist of the band Right Said Fred which he formed with his brother Fred Fairbrass. Cribbins put out two successful albums back in the early sixties, one of which was called , Right Said Fred. 
Fairbrass named the group after the song and the album. 
Fairbrass turns 60 today, and Cribbins is still going at 84. 

And now, the song you all want to look up. I saved you the trouble. Here it is.

 
Right then, carry on with your day.

My week with Jackson Browne Songs

Many of you probably stay up late and watch shows like Jay Leno or Letterman. The Late Show. Or Craig Ferguson, or whatever else in on the air. I used to do that. Not anymore.
My nights, my late nights, are spent watching videos, listening to music, and if the mood strikes me properly, doing some good writing.
This past week, for a variety of reasons, that involved music by Jackson Browne. My own kind of "Late Show."

It all started on Monday morning. I had grand visions of putting the finishing touches on a song I started writing a few weeks ago. Most of the song and its structure came to me fast. They usually do. I am a pretty good writer of song lyrics and the story that goes with them. That is the easy part for me. I know a bit about structure and how to build a song around a hook. I am good at that part too. I am not a musician, but I can compose a bit on a piano. Enough to make something worth working with. I have very good pitch and a decent sense of melody. 
However, none of that really matters. There is a missing ingredient that all the very good songwriters have that I don't. They have a sense of a song. They hear the music, and how those lyrics mesh with the melody in their head. Many of them are also very good singers (which I am not) and they can use their voice and performing skills to work out the nuts and bolts of the phrasing in the song. The phrasing is what ultimately bring out the emotion and feeling in the song. That part I can rarely do on my own. 
In addition, I have been listening to albums, complete albums from You Tube, late at night in the dark, partly to calm and relax me after I have been writing furiously for a while. I tried listening to early Bob Dylan, because I thought that was the vibe I wanted for this particular song I am working on, but as I did that, I found that wasn't what I wanted. It was close, and it had the right type of vibe, but not what I was going for. I somehow stumbled onto Jackson Browne and saw the link for his 1974 album, "Late For The Sky" so I settled in and listened to it. I heard many songs that might work for the melody I wanted, but nothing on the first pass stood out. I suppose my mind was drifting as I did that. So, next day, I went back and listened to it again. I was doing other things as I did that. When I got to the song "The Late Show" it clicked in. That was the song that could help me with my new song. I could sing the lyrics I already had, and I came up with more great ones as I did that. And certain parts of that song I could pluck out for different musical parts. Of course, once all that is done, I have to go back and make the new song mine, and I will do that. If and when you ever hear that new song, it most likely will be called Rainy River. 
What they call today sampling, I do that. Sort of. I think we all do, whether we realize it or not. For me, I do it intentionally with music. Because I have to. I just wont come up naturally with melodies and phrasing for songs like I can with stories, plots and characters. Words come very easily for me, melodies don't. I work with the skill set I have been given.

"The Late Show" also points me towards what I already know. The use by Jackson Browne of the sound we came to know well as the harmony sound of the mid 70s Eagles sound, mostly before Hotel California, but also after it as well. If you listen to The Late Show, you can hear that. That is another thing I might want to incorporate into my new song. Many are not aware of this, but Take It Easy, the big hit by The Eagles, was written by Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey of the Eagles, and Browne has recorded it. The harmonies are similar to much of the other stuff he does, as well as the Eagles. The tempo and vibe is different in the Eagles version, and that is why that was a radio hit and Jackson's version wasn't. But for a songwriter, the harmonies they both use are very songwriting friendly. There is a great story behind that song, and I will tell that another day.
While I am not great at putting a song together musically from scratch, I likely would be a very good producer. When I hear elements that will work, I am able to slot them in where they need to be and form a complete song. It will still be my creation, just a bit of creative borrowing from those who are more talented and have special talents that I don't.

Back when I was just learning to be a better writer, I wrote a lot of pretty good stuff that I now realize can be better. So, periodically I go back to those pieces and try to make something better out of them. One of those was a piece I wrote about 2 years ago in about 20 minutes. It was called "The Rush". I got the idea for it by watching a concert video of Garth Brooks singing. But I always felt that I didn't do enough with it, and wanted to expand the scope of it.

I tried to think of what other artists who have lived the experience I was describing in the story have done with that idea, so that I could possibly incorporate that. I watched a bit of Bruce Springsteen and Pete Townshend live on Letterman, because both of them perform in a way I consider to express that rush I was talking about in the story I wrote 2 years ago.

But it wasn't enough. Only Jackson Browne's "The Load Out..Stay" is a song that does that. So, I watched and listened to that over and over this week, as I continued to grind away at the updated story, which for now is titled "The Two Hour Rush". While watching that video, I noticed a live performance on The BBC, and I wondered who the backup singers were who sang the very high falsetto parts in the song. I had heard that a thousand times before, but never took the time to find out. So, being the inquisitive type that I am, I began to try and find out. Being that we live in the internet age, that was very easy and I tracked down the two artists who sang on that iconic song, and I will post a bit about them here.

Rosemary Butler was the one who sang the high woman's part of Stay. She was mostly a backup singer who hung around for many years, singing with many great artists like Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, Warren Zevon, Neil Young, Bonnie Raitt, Rosanne Cash and of course with Browne on Stay and some of his other songs. She never made it on her own, but continues to perform in bars and night clubs. Her performance on "Stay" will likely be her enduring legacy and one shining moment in the big time.

As impressive as Rosemary Butler was on that song, David Lindley has an even more impressive range. He sang the very high falsetto, also the low parts and played steel guitar. He is also known as a musician who can play multiple instruments very well. Like Butler, even though he is very talented, he never really made a splash on his own. He talent appears to be a contributor rather than creator.

Caught between the longing for love
And the struggle for the legal tender
Where the sirens sing and the church bells ring
And the junk man pounds his fender
Where the veterans dream of the fight
Fast asleep at the traffic light
And the children solemnly wait
For the ice cream vendor
Out into the cool of the evening
Strolls the Pretender
He knows that all his hopes and dreams
Begin and end there 

I'm going to be a happy idiot
And struggle for the legal tender
Where the ads take aim and lay their claim
To the heart and the soul of the spender
And believe in whatever may lie
In those things that money can buy
Though true love could have been a contender
Are you there?
Say a prayer for the Pretender
Who started out so young and strong
Only to surrender

Over the years, Jackson Browne has found a lot of success, and I'm sure money. But his songs still reflect the worth of all that, in a relative way. "The Pretender" touches on that, and really makes you think about things like that. I just enjoy the way he can provoke your thoughts.
For those of us raised the way we were, when we were, the longing for money (legal tender) is just something that is very tough for us to shake. We know that money makes the world go round. But so does love, so therein lies the conflict. Are we all pretenders? Only to surrender. Good question. I am not sure I, or you, or anyone will ever have the answer to that question. Nor should we. But it is interesting to ponder it.
  

 
Somehow, on Wednesday, the topic got on to the 1982 movie Fast Times At Ridgemount High, a movie I have loved since day 1. Which is funny, because some of my friends love this movie and others just "don't get it". 
This is especially true with my female friends. And I think I know why. The women I know who sort of "get" men really relate to this movie. You can even remember these girls in high school. They haven't changed much. The types of gags and cultural references in Fast Times resonated with them then and do now. Especially the Spicoli and Mr. Hand characters, and the overall high school "cool kids vs. nerds" thing that we all remember from high school. I think most of us can remember a Jeff Spicoli in high school, or many as in my case, and a few teachers like Mr. Hand. For me, the whole movie rings true with references like that.

One of the great things about that movie for me was Jennifer Jason Leigh. Sure, most guys also jerked off to the naked image of Phoebe Cates, as the character in the movie did, but for me, the Jennifer Jason Leigh character was the one that did it for me. The regular nice girl, pretty, normal and the type we all dated or could date. Jackson Browne created the song "Somebody's Baby" for that character and whenever I hear it, now more than 30 years later, I think of her and some girls I knew like her in high school. 

One of my friends who always gets these references is Kirstin Craine. And so, on Friday when she posted a status about it, I was on top of it. I think almost every scene in the movie I can remember from memory. It was just one of those movies for me. The scenes about hanging out at the mall is something I think most of us from that generation, the one before smart phones, call relate to.

Running on Empty, to my knowledge, is the first song I remember hearing or liking of Jackson Browne's. I actually had moved to Burlington, Ontario just a few months earlier in 1978. There was a huge mall across the street from the townhouse we lived in and it had a Zellers, which was a huge department store chain at the time. I had decided I was going to buy the album, but when I got over to the mall, I decided to buy a different one, Aja by Steely Dan, which was my first album purchased with my own money. I only had enough money for one album, although I wanted to buy many. 

Back to the song though. Sometimes I still feel like that. Like I am just trying to maintain, but running on empty. I think most of us feel like that at one time or another. That sort of feeling comes and goes. Again, since I liked this song and "Stay" and since they are both from his very successful 1978 album, I listened to the whole thing a few times. That is something I never got to do back then, because I bought the Steely Dan album instead. There was no You Tube back in those days to give you 24/7 access to just about any song or album in the world. Times have certainly changed. One thing that hasn't changed: We all get tired and run down at times, and we all find our inspiration where we can to get us back on track. Jackson Browne and his songs were my destination this week. I do feel recharged in some ways. 

And then there are the JB songs that remind me of what it takes to be a great writer and the level those of us who do it want to attain. There aren't many writers who can craft a stanza that has both great meaning and poetry like JB can.
Doctor My Eyes is just one of those. It is the JB song I go back to most often. And the one I will leave you with at the end of this blog. Very profound words, one of his first popular songs back in the early 70s.

Doctor, my eyes have seen the years
And the slow parade of fears without crying
Now I want to understand

I have done all that I could
To see the evil and the good without hiding
You must help me if you can

Doctor, my eyes
Tell me what is wrong
Was I unwise to leave them open for so long

'Cause I have wandered through this world
And as each moment has unfurled
I've been waiting to awaken from these dreams
People go just where they will
I never noticed them until I got this feeling
That it's later than it seems

Doctor, my eyes
Tell me what you see
I hear their cries
Just say if it's too late for me

Doctor, my eyes
Cannot see the sky
Is this the PRICE for having learned how not to cry

For me, it is the song where he puts it all together. Lyrics, melody, phrasing, and harmonies. And it makes you think, every time you hear it. Or at least every time I hear it.

Whatever Happened To?,Katrina Leskanich.

She was born on April 10, 1960 in Topeka, Kansas, which makes her 53 today.
Katrina Leskanich is a name you probably would not know or recognize. But for the one thing she and her group did back in the early 80's she is someone you would have never heard of. She had a brief moment in the sun, or more to the point, in the sunshine.
For a year or two she was on top of the music world for the one super hit that her group Katrina and the Waves had. It is still a song you hear all the time on the radio. Today I ask the question: Whatever happened to Katrina and the Waves?

"It's the one constant in my life. It cheers me up. I love to see that it cheers up the audience."

Katrina's father was a Colonel in the United States Air Force, and Katrina and her four sisters and one brother moved frequently as children. After she was born, they moved from Kansas to New Mexico, and then California, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Stuttgart Germany and the Netherlands before arriving in Norfolk, England, in 1976. Katrina has lived in the England since 1976, moving to London in 1998 where she currently lives.

In 1978, Leskanich and her then-boyfriend, Vince de la Cruz, formed the cover band "Mama's Cooking". In 1981, after some lineup changes, the band titled themselves "The Waves" and began playing original music. In 1982, after more lineup changes, the band changed their name to Katrina and the Waves, with Leskanich as the lead singer. By then they were based in the city of Cambridge, England.

In addition to "Walking on Sunshine" the band had a few minor hits. "Sun Street" was one of those. The hits continued with "Do You Want Crying", "Que te Quiero", "Rock and Roll Girl" and "That's The Way". But none of those ever came close to Walkin On Sunshine, and they are long forgotten. Until I wrote this blog, I had never heard any of them, not even once. You likely haven't either.

 As the years went on and the band didn't reproduce anything close to Walkin On Sunshine they faded away. There were attempts to resurface and in 1997 the band won the Eurovision Song Contest for the United Kingdom with "Love Shine a Light". 

"hey, all you need is another Walkin on Sunshine. Yeah, what a great idea. Why didn't we do that?"

Katrina and the Waves then broke up in 1999. Leskanich then launched a solo career, first as a DJ for BBC Radio 2 and then in 2001 she played the lead role in the musical Leader of the Pack. She released her first solo CD, Katrina Leskanich, through Universal Records in Britain in 2005.
In November 2010, Katrina was a guest coach on the Austrian TV show Helden von Morgen on ORF1. All her contestants went through to the next round including Lukas Plochl who sang a rap of Love Shine A Light.
In May of 2011, she released an EP 'Spiritualize' 

"In 1999 I wrote, collected and compiled some songs I thought would come together for an uplifting and spiritual type of album. I thought I'd try to make this a bit more personal," said Leskanich.

To do this blog, I listened to Katrina and The Waves whole catalog. When you do that, you realize why they faded off. They had one great song and 100 others that would only be good enough to be a bar band. She had her moment in the sun because that was all she deserved. She didn't blow it on drugs, or the rock and roll lifestyle. She hit with one great song and she got the most out of it.
For a brief time, Katrina Leskanich was walking on sunshine, and I am sure it felt very good. But like the rest of us, she had to come back down to earth and get on with life, as she has done. She will always have that hit song, which will be played for the rest of time.
She faded out of the spotlight because that light was only meant to shine for a short time. Some hang on to that and keep trying to relive it. It seems that Katrina Leskanich has avoided that pitfall and has seen it for what it was. A bright light for a brief time. You can't rekindle a fading flame. It flames out when it does because that is all it is meant to be. Good for her for making the most of it and getting the most she can out of the rest of her life.

"I'm a working girl and I love my work."


 

Clare Torry: Her greatest gig. The one she almost skipped.

Clare Torry. Is that a name you know? Likely not. I didn't. But you do know of her in a roundabout way. Like most people, she pretty much operated under the radar and lived a normal, average life. But also like most, she had one shot at fame. Some miss that chance, while others take it. In Clare Torry's case, she almost missed it, due to her own decision, and then when she did take the chance, by accident, she thought she had blown it. She was only to find out later that fate had stepped in. Or was it simply a chance to show of her talent. To this day she is still not sure which it is.
Torry has done various singing related things over the course of her more than 40 year career. Like most session and day singers, she has done backing vocals and commercials that have supported her over those years. And like most of them, she would be someone you have never heard of, if not for one very lucky break and "happy accident."
If not for that one thing nobody would ever remember her. But lets start at the beginning and get to that later.

Clare Torry was born in London, England in 1947 to an upper class family. Although she was born into privilege
she was always a bit different. As a child she attended Battle Abbey School in East Sussex where she found it hard to thrive with the school's conservative and strict code. Although she had strong singing and songwriting skills she could not grow and flourish within the rigid school system.
After working as a studio singer covering popular songs for cheap compilation albums, in the early 1970's, Torry worked for EMI then Valley Music as a songwriter.

 I got taken on pretty much as soon as I left school, which was great..... At the end of the 60s, I’d started doing a lot of cover versions, for this series of Top Of The Pops albums. I used to go to Mayfair studios on South Molton Street and do all these covers....I learned a lot. I just wrote pop songs...."I then went to work for a company called Valley Music. And basically, by the middle of 1972, I was a bit short of money, and I’d met a few arrangers and producers as a songwriter, and I rang up a few, and said, ‘Can you get me any work, doing oohs and aahs and things, because I really need the money.’ And a couple of them came up trumps, bless them. I was very green. But by word of mouth, I started getting a bit more work.”


Torry was a struggling singer/songwriter shortly before she got the gig of her life. By then, songwriting was not paying the bills and she also had a very unique and talented voice to draw on that was not getting her anywhere. Then fate stepped in. 
When she was doing the studio work in the late 60s, Alan Parsons heard and remembered her for her unique sound and range. Parsons was charged with producing the new Pink Floyd album that was to make or break their career in 1973. 
For one particular track, Floyd needed a female singer to do something different and Parsons recommended Torry, who was not at all enthusiastic about that gig. In the weeks leading up to the day in question she had been getting steady work and was a bit choosier than she normally might be.
At first, Torry was not that interested in coming in to sing with Pink Floyd. She knew Alan Parsons and he was producing their album,  but she really didn't care that much for their work.

 They weren’t my favourite band. If it had been The Kinks, I’d have been over the moon.”

 He asked me to come to the session: ‘Can you do it, like, now?’ I said, ‘No’, and he said, ‘Well, what about tomorrow?’ I couldn’t do that, either. I said, ‘The only possible time is next week.’ He said, ‘Oh, no - they’re busy mixing.’ They were right at the end of the record. I said, ‘Well, the only time I can possibly do it is 7 till 10 on Sunday night.’”

Forty years ago today, Pink Floyd released Dark Side of The Moon. I could do a blog on that album, but many others are doing that. So, I chose to focus on the one element that few know little about yet have heard many times over the years. Today's blog is about the chance grouping of Pink Floyd and Clare Torry for one of the most memorable songs in rock history.

Pink Floyd was one of the first, if not the first successful band to do a "concept album." With that, they certainly tried things that others hadn't before. One of those was vocals with no words for a whole song. It was so unique that even they knew they wanted to do it but didn't know quite how they were going to do it.

"lots of things happenned on Dark Side. It was kind of magical. Without us intentionally making them happen.It just happened."

-Richard Wright 

Pink Floyd keyboard player Rick Wright wrote "The Great Gig In The Sky" completely on the piano as an instrumental that was to be built on by the other group members for the album. Wright, who came from a Jazz background, composed it on the standard chords of Jazz in the style of Myles Davis, which you can see within the Making of Documentary posted below. The song, which is about life, gradually descending into death needed an added touch that nobody in the group could bring to it. Enter Clare Torry.


“They didn’t say very much. The only person that really said anything was David Gilmour. That’s my abiding memory. I don’t remember really speaking to any of the others. I went in and they just said, ‘Well, we’re making this album, and there’s this track - and we don’t really know what to do with it.’

At first, Torry was at a loss. She couldn't really understand what they were looking for. So, drawing on her experience, she did what most singers did when they were hired for a studio session.

  I went in, put the headphones on, and started going ‘Ooh-aah, baby, baby - yeah, yeah, yeah.’ They said, ‘No, no – we don’t want that. If we wanted that we’d have got Doris Troy.’ They said, ‘Try some longer notes’, so I started doing that a bit. ...and I remember thinking to myself, ‘I really, really do not know what to do. And perhaps it would be better if I said “Thank you very much” and gave up.’ It wasn’t getting anywhere: it was just nothing.

After listening to it a few times and gleaning vaguely what they were looking for she had one of those moments in life when the right thing to do just appears in front of you and you go with it.

 “That was when I thought, ‘Maybe I should just pretend I’m an instrument.’ ... When I closed my eyes – which I always did - it was just all-enveloping; a lovely vocal sound, which for a singer, is always inspirational.”

However, after it was done she didn't feel like it had worked. In fact she thought is was all wrong and after a few more takes she left,  thinking that was the last she would hear of it.

“I think Rick Wright has subsequently said I was embarrassed. And I was! I thought, ‘Oh dear.’ But I said, ‘Thank you very much, and off I went.’ By ten o’clock, I was having dinner with my boyfriend in the Chelsea Kitchen on the King’s Road.”

 A few months later, while she was walking on the street she saw the album in the window of a bookstore and decided to buy it when she looked and saw her name on the liner notes.


 "I said, ‘I hope that’s alright.’ And they said, ‘Yeah, lovely - thank you.’ And I left. And as I said, I just thought it was screechy-screechy. I honestly thought it would never see the light of day. And I didn’t bother to find out about it. Later on, on the King’s Road, I was walking past a record shop, and in the window was this huge poster of the prism and spectrum of light, and I saw the words ‘Pink Floyd’ and thought, ‘I wonder if that’s the album I did that singing on.’ So I walked in and looked at the album, and there was ‘Vocals on The Great Gig In The Sky: Clare Torry’.

Just as before, Torry went on with her life and career. That included lots more backup session and commercial voice over work.
 In addition she also sang the Dolly Parton song "Love Is Like a Butterfly" as the theme music to the 1970s sitcom Butterflies, sang the lead female vocal part on the 1975 Guys 'n' Dolls' hit "There's a Whole Lotta Loving",sang "Love to Love You Baby" (the big Donna Summer hit) during the opening scene of the cult BBC Play for Today production of Abigail's Party in 1977 and did numerous backup vocals in a fashion similar to that of "The Great Gig in the Sky" for various artists including "The War Song" for the Culture Club's  in 1984, as well as on the track "Yellowstone Park" on the Tangerine Dream album Le Parc the following year.

“Lots of things. Hundreds and hundreds of television commercials. ... I made several albums with Olivia Newton-John, when she was at her height, at Abbey Road. And in the eighties, I did things with Tangerine Dream, Culture Club, Meat Loaf...”

 David Gilmour stated in Mojo, March 1998: "We’d been thinking Madeleine Bell or Doris Troy and we couldn’t believe it when this housewifely white woman walked in. But when she opened her mouth, well, she wasn’t too quick at finessing what we wanted, but out came that orgasmic sound we know and love."
After a few years Torry thought she was not getting the artistic and financial credit she deserved for her contribution to the song. When asked why she waited until 2004 (more than 30 years later) to make her claims, she stated:

 “Over the years, people said to me on numerous occasions, ‘What are you going to do?’ I did look into it, and at first, the costs were prohibitively expensive. I had to swallow it, really. And also, if I’d started something when I was well into my career, I’d have been thought of as a troublemaker. So once I’d retired, I thought about it again. It went on from there.”

 In 2005, Torry and Pink Floyd settled out of court and as of today the writing credit for the song goes equally to Richard Wright and Clare Torry.
Torry remains bewildered and philosophical about the song that will give her eternal fame for which she was very reluctant to participate in.


"How did it happen? Umm..who knows? I've often wondered. Because it's given me some grief over the years. I've often wondered if it was the devil grinning up at me or god smiling down at me. And I still haven't figured out which one had the final say. It was one of those...things happen. I think Roger (Waters) once said it was a happy accident what happened in the studio that day."

So now you know about that woman with the insane voice who cuts deep into your soul every time you hear it. The one who almost never showed up to the great gig of her life.
--------------------------------------------------------------

Most of the quotes from Clare Torry come directly from the interview listed below.

http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/other-related-interviews/clare-torry-october-2005-brain-damage-excl-2.html