Musical Blog of Rob Birdwell
Thursday, June 17, 2004
Just a State of Mind
Over the last 8 days or so I chipped away at a two minute musical production for a proposed sit-com called "The Good Life." The lyrics were supplied by Jesse Mata (whom I've only met once)- he's young and eager to get this thing to market, so I decided to give it a go. The music I wrote was only supposed to be a simple demo (a concept), but as I whittled away at it, making it fit with the lyrics he wrote, one thing led to another and the track took form and sounds...well, not too bad for a demo! It should be interesting to see how the process of pitching this thing goes. That will not be my bag, baby.
Honestly, I feel a bit funky with the idea of writing sit-com music (don't get me wrong, I would enjoy the paycheck if it came) - but I don't even watch TV much at all so my frame of reference for what I would consider "good" theme music for this genre is fixed in time with shows like "Sandford & Son" (Quincy Jones), "Love Boat", "Mork & Mindy" - you get the picture. These were the shows I watched as a kid - so there's a bit of each of those in my musical treatment of "Just a State of Mind."
Who knows - maybe retro will be in soon...again.
¶ 6:07 PM 0 comments links to this post
Honestly, I feel a bit funky with the idea of writing sit-com music (don't get me wrong, I would enjoy the paycheck if it came) - but I don't even watch TV much at all so my frame of reference for what I would consider "good" theme music for this genre is fixed in time with shows like "Sandford & Son" (Quincy Jones), "Love Boat", "Mork & Mindy" - you get the picture. These were the shows I watched as a kid - so there's a bit of each of those in my musical treatment of "Just a State of Mind."
Who knows - maybe retro will be in soon...again.
¶ 6:07 PM 0 comments links to this post
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Glenn Tilbrook's New Releases
The latest Glenn Tilbrook solo releases, "Transatlantic Ping Pong" and "The Incomplete Glenn Tilbrook" are both outstanding! The music, lyrics and production for both are equal to any Squeeze recordings I know of (I have most of them!), so you can imagine the quality here! Glenn clearly puts so much craft into every single line and phrase, while making it all sound so effortless.
Glenn's writing evokes sonic echoes from the best of the Squeeze catalog, with a nod to some of his own influences (Hendrix, T-Rex, and Willie Nelson), but with an ear firmly living in the present.
I'm not sure if you'll find these CDs at your local Fred Meyer (or the "Global Super-Store" nearest you) so you may want to navigate to Glenn's site and order your own copies of these excellent CDs there - you know the routine! I received mine very quickly and I'm glad I didn't put it off a day longer!
Regardless of the music your into give a listen or two to Glenn and I think you'll agree that Glenn Tilbrook rates among the best working songwriters today - and naturally we should toast Chris Difford's (his Squeeze co-collaborator) past contributions and current work too. Chris's lyric on the song "Where I Can Be Your Friend" (Transatlantic Ping Pong) is a reminder that their collaboration can indeed span outside of Squeeze.
I'm always intrigued and inspired by what Glenn invents and particularly admire his ability to craft catchy tunes with sophisticated harmonies - every track (and I do mean every single track) on his solo CDs are pleasing to the mind, heart and ear; each one challenges to be my favorite.
One footnote - I was curious about the origins of the song "Interviewing Randy Newman." I'd read much about the story of how the song came about but hadn't heard the actual BBC radio interview (the one with lots of Steve's edits!). I enjoy Randy Newman's work (love Faust!) so it was interesting to hear the interview. Like David Byrne, I'm not convinced Glenn's forte is interviewing, but he gave it a good shot and Randy was gracious - if nothing else, a good song came from it (I wonder what Randy thought of it?) and one in which Glenn wrote all the lyrics too, somewhat of a new role for him as of late.
As of this writing, here's the link to the page with the various links to the Glenn Tilbrook interview with Randy Newman ¶ 5:07 PM 0 comments links to this post
Glenn's writing evokes sonic echoes from the best of the Squeeze catalog, with a nod to some of his own influences (Hendrix, T-Rex, and Willie Nelson), but with an ear firmly living in the present.
I'm not sure if you'll find these CDs at your local Fred Meyer (or the "Global Super-Store" nearest you) so you may want to navigate to Glenn's site and order your own copies of these excellent CDs there - you know the routine! I received mine very quickly and I'm glad I didn't put it off a day longer!
Regardless of the music your into give a listen or two to Glenn and I think you'll agree that Glenn Tilbrook rates among the best working songwriters today - and naturally we should toast Chris Difford's (his Squeeze co-collaborator) past contributions and current work too. Chris's lyric on the song "Where I Can Be Your Friend" (Transatlantic Ping Pong) is a reminder that their collaboration can indeed span outside of Squeeze.
I'm always intrigued and inspired by what Glenn invents and particularly admire his ability to craft catchy tunes with sophisticated harmonies - every track (and I do mean every single track) on his solo CDs are pleasing to the mind, heart and ear; each one challenges to be my favorite.
One footnote - I was curious about the origins of the song "Interviewing Randy Newman." I'd read much about the story of how the song came about but hadn't heard the actual BBC radio interview (the one with lots of Steve's edits!). I enjoy Randy Newman's work (love Faust!) so it was interesting to hear the interview. Like David Byrne, I'm not convinced Glenn's forte is interviewing, but he gave it a good shot and Randy was gracious - if nothing else, a good song came from it (I wonder what Randy thought of it?) and one in which Glenn wrote all the lyrics too, somewhat of a new role for him as of late.
As of this writing, here's the link to the page with the various links to the Glenn Tilbrook interview with Randy Newman ¶ 5:07 PM 0 comments links to this post
Sunday, June 06, 2004
CBS - 58th Annual Tony Awards
CBS - 58th Annual Tony Awards - looking forward to seeing this! (I'm going to tape it) So many slick looking/sounding shows. Will be especially interested in the best musical revival award. Fiddler on the Roof is up for a revival of a musical award so it's a sentimental favorite, but it will be great to see and hear excerpts and stories from all the shows, the making of, the writing, the getting it to the stage despite all odds...! Especially looking forward to the combined number(s) with all the nominiated casts.
¶ 10:20 AM 0
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