Birds of America Don't Care-Oh
words and music by Lloyd Miller (c)(p) 2011
arrangement by Ari Dolegowski, Chris Johnson, Ely Levin and Lloyd Miller
appears on Strange Dees, Indeed by the Deedle Deedle Dees (release date: October 31, 2011)
Birds of America don't care-oh
How they look in pictures
Well maybe sparrows
the coot is vain
so's the black cap titmouse
Creeping warblers complain
but not like the screech owl
If they'd been alive to see themselves drawn
what would they have to say about John James Audubon?
Other creatures would be flattered
to see themselves in handsome books,
postcards and calendars
But birds are fickle, fancy fellows
a canary'll take you to court over a shade of yellow
If they'd been allowed to critique his work
Would his name still be synonymous with birds?
Would the Grey-Crowned Purple Finch take offense?
Or the Least Peewee Flycatcher be incensed?
Can't you see Bonaparte's gull now, hand to his breast?
And we've all seen bob-o-links and vireos bothered by less
Never a man to hunt birds for sport
Audubon still ate some Birds of America
after he finished up their portraits
Written after I read the book Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. At one point in this historical novel, Thomas Cromwell and others critique their portraits by Hans Holbein. These paintings of course are part of every art history slide show for the period, definitive works that are studied by most aspiring art scholars or artists. I really liked imagining these works when they were brand-new and people were looking at them saying things we might say: "Do I really look like that?"
So, my mind working the way that it does, this caused me to wonder: What if Audbuon's birds saw themselves as depicted by the name who, in many ways, is "synonymous with birds?" What would they have to say about paintings, which, in the world of bird and animal art, are just as definitive as Holbein's portraits.
Um, yeah. That's the nutty story of how this nutty song came about.
Who does what on "Birds of America Don't Care-Oh"
Booker Dee (Chris Johnson): piano
Moby Dee (Ari Dolegowski): electric guitar, crow, pigeon and other bird calls
Otto von Dee (Ely Levin): drums
Ulysses S. Dee (Lloyd Miller): upright bass, vocals
Dean Jones: recording, mixing, trombone, bird orchestration
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Cool Papa Bell
Cool Papa Bell
words and music by Lloyd Miller (c)(p) 2011
arrangement by Ari Dolegowski, Chris Johnson, Ely Levin, and Lloyd Miller
appears on Strange Dees, Indeed by the Deedle Deedle Dees (release date: October 31, 2011)
Cool Papa
Cool cool Papa
Cool Papa
Cool Papa Bell
Swing, Papa
Swing swing, Papa
Swing, Papa
Swing, Papa Bell
Ring, Papa
Ring ring, Papa
Ring, Papa
Ring ring the bell
Cool Papa
Cool cool Papa
Cool Papa
Cool Papa Bell
Cheetah cheetah
When your feetah
Go round and round
Go round and round
Cheetah cheetah
When your feetah
Go round and round
Go round and round
RAP:
Scored from first on a sac bunt
Hit by his own hit slidin into second
So many stories, some of 'em true
Like the day he said to Satchel,
"I'll bet you
I can turn off the light
and get in my bed
before that bulb goes dark overhead.
Satch didn't know there was a short in the lightswitch
Found out later...
He was like "aw..."
I wrote this song with my son when he was 2. I originally planned to add more words that described, in my typical information overload form, all about the Negro Leagues and Cool Papa's career. When my son responded to the simple chorus and began to sing it with me, though, I decided just to leave the song as a simple sing-song tune that even our youngest fans could join us in singing. I added the rap later because I love that story about Satchel Paige and James Thomas "Cool Papa" Bell.
Who does what on "Cool Papa Bell"
Booker Dee (Chris Johnson): keyboards, electric bass, vocals
Moby Dee (Ari Dolegowski): electric guitar, vocals
Otto von Dee (Ely Levin): drums, vocals
Ulysses S. Dee (Lloyd Miller): lead vocals
Dean Jones: recording, mixing, synth, vocals
s
words and music by Lloyd Miller (c)(p) 2011
arrangement by Ari Dolegowski, Chris Johnson, Ely Levin, and Lloyd Miller
appears on Strange Dees, Indeed by the Deedle Deedle Dees (release date: October 31, 2011)
Cool Papa
Cool cool Papa
Cool Papa
Cool Papa Bell
Swing, Papa
Swing swing, Papa
Swing, Papa
Swing, Papa Bell
Ring, Papa
Ring ring, Papa
Ring, Papa
Ring ring the bell
Cool Papa
Cool cool Papa
Cool Papa
Cool Papa Bell
Cheetah cheetah
When your feetah
Go round and round
Go round and round
Cheetah cheetah
When your feetah
Go round and round
Go round and round
RAP:
Scored from first on a sac bunt
Hit by his own hit slidin into second
So many stories, some of 'em true
Like the day he said to Satchel,
"I'll bet you
I can turn off the light
and get in my bed
before that bulb goes dark overhead.
Satch didn't know there was a short in the lightswitch
Found out later...
He was like "aw..."
I wrote this song with my son when he was 2. I originally planned to add more words that described, in my typical information overload form, all about the Negro Leagues and Cool Papa's career. When my son responded to the simple chorus and began to sing it with me, though, I decided just to leave the song as a simple sing-song tune that even our youngest fans could join us in singing. I added the rap later because I love that story about Satchel Paige and James Thomas "Cool Papa" Bell.
Who does what on "Cool Papa Bell"
Booker Dee (Chris Johnson): keyboards, electric bass, vocals
Moby Dee (Ari Dolegowski): electric guitar, vocals
Otto von Dee (Ely Levin): drums, vocals
Ulysses S. Dee (Lloyd Miller): lead vocals
Dean Jones: recording, mixing, synth, vocals
s
Ah Ahimsa
Ah Ahimsa
words and music by Lloyd Miller (c) (p) 2011
arrangement by Ari Dolegowski, Chris Johnson, Ely Levin, and Lloyd Miller
CHORUS
Ah... ahimsa
Shake out your limbsa
Drift to the ground, yeah
Make a lotus flower, yeah
Mahatma Gandhi
He's the one who told me
He fought the British Army
Without a gun
ULYSSES
I say "ahimsa" and I mean "do no harm"
BOOKER
"himsa" - harm in Sanskrit
"a" - "no" or "non"
ULYSSES
I read about nonviolence and I'm like yeah that's my philosophy
But as soon as I leave the house I feel differently
Why can't people be nice to me?
BOOKER
Have you wanted to punch somebody... But then walked away? That's ahimsa... Sort of.
Gandhi's idea of ahimsa was that you didn't even think about punching the person in the first place...
ULYSSES
Ahimsa, it's easy, man
When you read what the Swamis said
But not so easy when someone hits you on the head
I'm all about ahimsa when I'm standing on my head...
But not so much when I see a kid push my kid
I'm like, yo, is anyone else practicing ahimsa around here?
How did you do it, I'd like to know
When the cops came out with the riot hose?
How did you do it, I'd like to know
When they whipped out the clubs and started whacking you?
Ahimsa... I know what you're going through
Ahimsa... It's hard to do
Ahimsa
I wrote a first draft of this song while working at a wild school in the South Bronx. I was working with four fourth grades, each studying a different country. The class studying India had an especially difficult time practicing nonviolence. Kids punched, pinned, choked, and generally battered each other just as a matter of course, the classroom teacher unable to stop them and I, armed with my guitar and my jokes, only able to distract them from their brawls. One day, in an attempt to rein in this one kid who was always throwing himself on the floor to do push-ups or roll around, I suggested that we do some yoga. The kids loved it and it became immediately the only thing they ever wanted to do. I decided to work it into our songwriting activities and in the performance of our song itself.
"Ah Ahimsa," in its original form ("Do the Ahimsa") began with a sun salutation and then each line was accompanied by a different yoga move (or pseudo yoga move). Honestly, it was the only way I could get the class through the whole song without someone being injured.
I always liked the idea of the song but the music not so much. It was a standard 12-bar blues that I wrote on the spot as I stood in front of a chaotic classroom searching for something that would quickly get them singing along. When I began to consider reviving the tune for this new album I rewrote the melody over some more interesting -- and Bollywoodish -- chords, added a B section, and changed the point of view of the song to my own. The spirit of the kids is still there, though. Nonviolence is a great idea but a hard thing to put into practice, especially when no one around you is practicing ahimsa.
Who does what on "Ah-Ahimsa"
Booker Dee (Chris Johnson): keyboards, vocals
Moby Dee (Ari Dolegowski): electric guitar, vocals
Otto von Dee (Ely Levin): drums, professional Bollywood drum machine, vocals
Ulysses S. Dee (Lloyd Miller): electric bass, lead vocals
Dean Jones: recording, mixing, vocals
words and music by Lloyd Miller (c) (p) 2011
arrangement by Ari Dolegowski, Chris Johnson, Ely Levin, and Lloyd Miller
CHORUS
Ah... ahimsa
Shake out your limbsa
Drift to the ground, yeah
Make a lotus flower, yeah
Mahatma Gandhi
He's the one who told me
He fought the British Army
Without a gun
ULYSSES
I say "ahimsa" and I mean "do no harm"
BOOKER
"himsa" - harm in Sanskrit
"a" - "no" or "non"
ULYSSES
I read about nonviolence and I'm like yeah that's my philosophy
But as soon as I leave the house I feel differently
Why can't people be nice to me?
BOOKER
Have you wanted to punch somebody... But then walked away? That's ahimsa... Sort of.
Gandhi's idea of ahimsa was that you didn't even think about punching the person in the first place...
ULYSSES
Ahimsa, it's easy, man
When you read what the Swamis said
But not so easy when someone hits you on the head
I'm all about ahimsa when I'm standing on my head...
But not so much when I see a kid push my kid
I'm like, yo, is anyone else practicing ahimsa around here?
How did you do it, I'd like to know
When the cops came out with the riot hose?
How did you do it, I'd like to know
When they whipped out the clubs and started whacking you?
Ahimsa... I know what you're going through
Ahimsa... It's hard to do
Ahimsa
I wrote a first draft of this song while working at a wild school in the South Bronx. I was working with four fourth grades, each studying a different country. The class studying India had an especially difficult time practicing nonviolence. Kids punched, pinned, choked, and generally battered each other just as a matter of course, the classroom teacher unable to stop them and I, armed with my guitar and my jokes, only able to distract them from their brawls. One day, in an attempt to rein in this one kid who was always throwing himself on the floor to do push-ups or roll around, I suggested that we do some yoga. The kids loved it and it became immediately the only thing they ever wanted to do. I decided to work it into our songwriting activities and in the performance of our song itself.
"Ah Ahimsa," in its original form ("Do the Ahimsa") began with a sun salutation and then each line was accompanied by a different yoga move (or pseudo yoga move). Honestly, it was the only way I could get the class through the whole song without someone being injured.
I always liked the idea of the song but the music not so much. It was a standard 12-bar blues that I wrote on the spot as I stood in front of a chaotic classroom searching for something that would quickly get them singing along. When I began to consider reviving the tune for this new album I rewrote the melody over some more interesting -- and Bollywoodish -- chords, added a B section, and changed the point of view of the song to my own. The spirit of the kids is still there, though. Nonviolence is a great idea but a hard thing to put into practice, especially when no one around you is practicing ahimsa.
Who does what on "Ah-Ahimsa"
Booker Dee (Chris Johnson): keyboards, vocals
Moby Dee (Ari Dolegowski): electric guitar, vocals
Otto von Dee (Ely Levin): drums, professional Bollywood drum machine, vocals
Ulysses S. Dee (Lloyd Miller): electric bass, lead vocals
Dean Jones: recording, mixing, vocals
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Track listing for the new record
These titles aren't all final. We're just posting them to help you if you're participating in our Facebook poll to name the record.
Sacagawea (Sock It to 'Em)
we reach for Queen levels of rock pomposity on this tune sung from the POV of William Clark
River of Blood
a song about the circulatory system
Marie Curie
featuring Moby Dee's first singing on record -- in French!
Sojourner Truth
written for a show about the history of the Northampton area
Dead Horse Bay
written for our "Underwater Halloween" show, a collaboration with Underwater New York. http://underwaternewyork.com/category/body-of-water/dead-horse-bay-body-of-water/
Bluebird > Redbird, Redbird > Reef
a ballad for the subway cars that originally took passengers to the World's Fair then were painted graffiti-proof red, then were eventually sunk to become reefs
Cool Papa Bell
about the Negro League star
A Song for Abigail Adams
a love song sung by an idealized John Adams
Skating in Old Bryant Park
What if the statue of William Cullen Bryant behind the New York Public Library got up and started ice skating?
Birds of America Don't Care-Oh
Audubon's birds talk back. They don't like those paintings as much as everyone else does.
Whaleship Essex
The tale that inspired Moby Dick retold with a fake PBS narrator, rapping, singing sailor ghosts and other weirdness.
Camperdown Elm
an ode to my favorite Brooklyn tree
Ah-Ahimsa
Ahimsa, the philosophy of non-violence practice by Gandhi, is harder to put into practice than you think. I wrote an original draft of this Bollywood send-up while working with a wild class in the South Bronx studying India.
Henry (Hudson), How Ya Gonna Find a Way?
original draft written for a school show in Westchester. They were doing a Hudson 400 curriculum.
Penny Farthing
about those dangerous cousins to bicycles with one giant wheel and one tiny one.
Bo Obama
a story song about allergies, hypo-allergenic dogs, and one dog's rise to the White House
Phineas Gage
A hip hop account of the famous neurological case
The Day I Ran into Mayor LaGuardia's Belly
Esther, grandma of Moby Dee (Ari Dolegowski) tells one of her famous stories over a swinging tune written by Chris (Booker Dee)
The Golem
A marching / dancing tune about the mythical creature / superhero made of mud.
Sacagawea (Sock It to 'Em)
we reach for Queen levels of rock pomposity on this tune sung from the POV of William Clark
River of Blood
a song about the circulatory system
Marie Curie
featuring Moby Dee's first singing on record -- in French!
Sojourner Truth
written for a show about the history of the Northampton area
Dead Horse Bay
written for our "Underwater Halloween" show, a collaboration with Underwater New York. http://underwaternewyork.com/category/body-of-water/dead-horse-bay-body-of-water/
Bluebird > Redbird, Redbird > Reef
a ballad for the subway cars that originally took passengers to the World's Fair then were painted graffiti-proof red, then were eventually sunk to become reefs
Cool Papa Bell
about the Negro League star
A Song for Abigail Adams
a love song sung by an idealized John Adams
Skating in Old Bryant Park
What if the statue of William Cullen Bryant behind the New York Public Library got up and started ice skating?
Birds of America Don't Care-Oh
Audubon's birds talk back. They don't like those paintings as much as everyone else does.
Whaleship Essex
The tale that inspired Moby Dick retold with a fake PBS narrator, rapping, singing sailor ghosts and other weirdness.
Camperdown Elm
an ode to my favorite Brooklyn tree
Ah-Ahimsa
Ahimsa, the philosophy of non-violence practice by Gandhi, is harder to put into practice than you think. I wrote an original draft of this Bollywood send-up while working with a wild class in the South Bronx studying India.
Henry (Hudson), How Ya Gonna Find a Way?
original draft written for a school show in Westchester. They were doing a Hudson 400 curriculum.
Penny Farthing
about those dangerous cousins to bicycles with one giant wheel and one tiny one.
Bo Obama
a story song about allergies, hypo-allergenic dogs, and one dog's rise to the White House
Phineas Gage
A hip hop account of the famous neurological case
The Day I Ran into Mayor LaGuardia's Belly
Esther, grandma of Moby Dee (Ari Dolegowski) tells one of her famous stories over a swinging tune written by Chris (Booker Dee)
The Golem
A marching / dancing tune about the mythical creature / superhero made of mud.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Family project: Little House
When I was in fourth or fifth grade, we had to read one of the Little House books for school. I can't remember which one. I dutifully plowed through it but considered it a horrible waste of my time. I had biographies of baseball and football legends, eyewitness accounts of WWII battles and other important boy books to read and was greatly annoyed that I was required to use valuable reading time on a book about girls. The only part of the book I can even vaguely remember was an account of a Indian encounter that hinted at being violent but disappointingly ended with little or no bloodshed.
Now, father of a 5-year-old-year daughter, I find myself re-visiting the world of Laura Ingalls Wilder. My wife started reading Little House in the Big Woods on a long family car ride last week and suddenly, after nearly falling asleep as she read the shockingly bad first volume of the Ivy + Bean series(chosen by my daughter at the bookstore), I found myself listening intently to descriptions of pig butchering, maple candy making, and rifle cleaning. How did I miss all this wonderful minutiae when I was a kid? I've now joined the reading tag team as we -- at my daughter's request -- set out to read the entire series. At night Little House by flashlight is the one thing that will entice my kids away from the still-light outdoors to their beds...
Want to join our Little House project? In addition to reading all the books we're also -- dork that I am -- studying up on the clothes they wore, the tools they used, and, most importantly for me, the music they loved. My 3-year-old son is now obsessed with "Arkansas Traveler," one of the tunes Laura's father plays on his fiddle. This morning we watched three different versions on YouTube. Please feel free to post on the Deedle Deedle Dees Facebook wall any suggestions you have for enriching a family reading project like this. Or just let us know you're reading too!
L
Now, father of a 5-year-old-year daughter, I find myself re-visiting the world of Laura Ingalls Wilder. My wife started reading Little House in the Big Woods on a long family car ride last week and suddenly, after nearly falling asleep as she read the shockingly bad first volume of the Ivy + Bean series(chosen by my daughter at the bookstore), I found myself listening intently to descriptions of pig butchering, maple candy making, and rifle cleaning. How did I miss all this wonderful minutiae when I was a kid? I've now joined the reading tag team as we -- at my daughter's request -- set out to read the entire series. At night Little House by flashlight is the one thing that will entice my kids away from the still-light outdoors to their beds...
Want to join our Little House project? In addition to reading all the books we're also -- dork that I am -- studying up on the clothes they wore, the tools they used, and, most importantly for me, the music they loved. My 3-year-old son is now obsessed with "Arkansas Traveler," one of the tunes Laura's father plays on his fiddle. This morning we watched three different versions on YouTube. Please feel free to post on the Deedle Deedle Dees Facebook wall any suggestions you have for enriching a family reading project like this. Or just let us know you're reading too!
L
Monday, June 20, 2011
Set list for International Festival of Arts & Ideas, New Haven CT 6/19/11
Below is our set list from the International Festival of Arts & Ideas in New Haven, CT, yesterday.
Special thanks to:
- The great festival staff and sound crew. Not just friendly, these folks went out of their way constantly to make sure we had a good show and a comfortable festival experience. Bravo!
- Tim H. Thanks for lending us your beautiful guitar!
- The Ebony Hillbillies -- We got to open up for this wonderful string band. The grown-up version of the Dees used to play swing and klezmer at the same venue as the Hillbillies: Stan's, a New Orleans-style restaurant in Brooklyn that sadly closed down. We never got to see the EHs there (our shows were always on different nights) but it was awesome to finally hear them last night. They killed it! http://www.ebonyhillbillies.com/
As always, if you have questions about any of these songs, write me at thedeedledeedledees AT yahoo DOT com.
1. Sojourner Truth
2. Little Red Airplane
3. Nellie Bly
4. The Golem
5. Dead Horse Bay
6. Baldy
7. A Song for Abigail Adams
8. Henry, How Ya Gonna Find a Way? (a tune about Henry Hudson)
9. Henry Box Brown
10. Skating in Old Bryant Park
11. Cool Papa Bell
12. ¡Sí Se Puede!
13. Tub-Tub-Ma-Ma-Ga-Ga
Read more about the festival here: http://www.artidea.org/event.php?id=402
L
Special thanks to:
- The great festival staff and sound crew. Not just friendly, these folks went out of their way constantly to make sure we had a good show and a comfortable festival experience. Bravo!
- Tim H. Thanks for lending us your beautiful guitar!
- The Ebony Hillbillies -- We got to open up for this wonderful string band. The grown-up version of the Dees used to play swing and klezmer at the same venue as the Hillbillies: Stan's, a New Orleans-style restaurant in Brooklyn that sadly closed down. We never got to see the EHs there (our shows were always on different nights) but it was awesome to finally hear them last night. They killed it! http://www.ebonyhillbillies.com/
As always, if you have questions about any of these songs, write me at thedeedledeedledees AT yahoo DOT com.
1. Sojourner Truth
2. Little Red Airplane
3. Nellie Bly
4. The Golem
5. Dead Horse Bay
6. Baldy
7. A Song for Abigail Adams
8. Henry, How Ya Gonna Find a Way? (a tune about Henry Hudson)
9. Henry Box Brown
10. Skating in Old Bryant Park
11. Cool Papa Bell
12. ¡Sí Se Puede!
13. Tub-Tub-Ma-Ma-Ga-Ga
Read more about the festival here: http://www.artidea.org/event.php?id=402
L
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
The Melancholy Dane or Why I Finally Made a Nice-Sounding Album of Classroom Songs
Hamlet: The Album is now for sale on my Bandcamp page: lloydmiller.bandcamp.com. The album collects all the original songs I wrote with my wife's second-grade class for a musical version of Hamlet. The kids learned and performed the actual Shakespearean dialogue -- my wife edited the script down to about 30 pages so that the show would run under a hour and tell the basic story but also give her students an opportunity to wrestle with those wonderful original words. I worked with her and the kids to figure out which moments best lent themselves to song and then wrote brand-new tunes with lyrics that are a mixture of what the kids wrote for homework, my additions and polishes, and Shakespeare's own words.
It's the first real cast album I've made with a school class even though I've been writing musicals like this one for years. Every year my wife and I create a brand-new show, usually based on a work of children's or classic literature. I've also gone into public schools in NYC, Connecticut, New Jersey, Long Island, Massachusetts, and Arkansas to write songs based on what kids are studying. All in all I've written over 200 songs with kids in schools.
Every time I do a new show, parents, teachers, kids -- and other people I've told about the project -- ask me "When is the album coming out?" I usually dodge this question by saying that we might make an album, we might not, it will depend on how much time the teachers can devote in class, etc etc BS BS...
No matter how many times I deliver this lengthy evasion I still believe it on some level-- I still think I might get around to making a real album.
But of course I never have. I have made some home recordings featuring me performing the songs as well as some GarageBand-quality "albums" with the kids singing and me playing some simple accompaniment. But why haven't I ever tried to make something people would actually enjoy playing again and again? (When I say "people" I mean people who are not parents of children in the class and therefore willing to put up with low quality recordings simply because their child is on them).
It's not because I haven't believed in the songs. Although there are certainly songs that were written for a very specific narrative purpose and wouldn't make sense to someone not watching a live performance of a particular play, most of the tunes I've written for these shows are poppy (poppier than the Dees), easy to sing along with (more so than much of the Dees catalog), super catchy, and often tied into movements. They're very much tunes that someone could enjoy whether or not they were familiar with the story that inspired them.
But as someone without a home studio or the skills to make my own recordings that sound professional (I'm a songwriter and performer but definitely not an engineer, mixer, or producer) I have hesitated to spend money on recordings that are unlikely to make that money back. I've written a lot of good songs over the years but people will only buy so much music -- and if I tried to sell an album, for example, called The Silk That Got Away (the title of last year's absolutely wonderful Silk Road musical) many people would be baffled and ask me things like "Is this for children?" "The Silk Road? Why?" "Does this have that honk-honk song on it?" (They ask these things about every Dees record also)
So I've let these songs disappear and exist mainly in my mind and the minds of the kids who wrote and performed these shows (I still have high schoolers coming up to me wanting to tell me that they were just recently singing some song I wrote with them years ago).
It's pained me. I used to go to a therapist (hasn't everyone in New York?) and I used to tell him about this -- how I felt like I nearly killed myself a few times a year writing and leading these shows only to have them mostly forgotten. He said that I was frustrated because I was "spinning my wheels" (his expression) with these shows, putting in a lot of time and creative energy but not seeing any concrete professional or financial rewards as a result. I protested that these shows have offered many rewards of a more difficult-to-measure variety: the satisfaction of seeing kids who struggle in the classroom come to life as they work on a musical project, the thrill of writing and performing a complete story-in-song for an attentive audience... but my therapist, pragmatist that he was, acknowledged these rewards as valid but immediately resumed pushing me to figure out a way to make my schoolwork pay off. He couldn't be dissuaded from the idea that my school musicals and the process of making them could both be commodities that I could sell for a good profit. I agreed, half-heartedly, to investigate the possibility.
Hamlet: The Album is an attempt to make good on what I told my therapist. The songs we wrote for this show are terrific, but there have been many terrific tunes in the many shows I've co-composed. All that's really different with Hamlet is that I'm trying -- for the first time -- to present one of my school shows to the public in a truly palatable way. We recorded these songs quickly -- all the basic rhythm tracks in one day, nearly all the kid vocals one afternoon, all the overdubbing another day -- but we did most of the work in a real studio, the studio where we're recording the new Dees record. Dean Jones, who's producing that album, recorded us, added a bunch of new, bad-ass guitar parts, and mixed the tracks. We didn't have the album really mastered -- Dean just EQ'd the tracks then put them through a nice limiter -- but I do feel like we've presented these songs the best way we possibly could. Obviously I'm super biased but I think the album sounds really great -- and I really want everyone to hear it. I especially want parents, teachers, and other people connected with schools to hear it so they understand what can happen when I go into a school and am given enough time and resources -- so please pass it on to as many of these folks as you can. Despite the involvement of my bandmates and Dean it's still very much a kid album and we tried to leave enough of their quirks and jerks and weird notes and cryptic lyrics in there so that it would sound like it, like something that was created by actual kids in an actual school.Teachers and parents: your real kids in your real school can do make something just as impressive.
So I don't feel too bad about finally using one of my school projects to promote myself publicly -- and so no kids sue me for stealing their ideas -- I'm giving all the proceeds after expenses to earthquake relief in Japan. I do want to help Japan but I also feel like these songs don't belong to me. They're very much the product of our collaboration and even the ones that I played the biggest role in writing wouldn't have been written outside the unique creative environment that a classroom provides. I also don't want this album to be a vanity project in any way -- for me or the kids. I want all our hard creative work to fuel good works elsewhere.
So download the Hamlet album! We've got to pay this thing off. And once we do, we can start making some money for Japan. That would be cool, wouldn't it?
Still spinning my wheels but now hopefully in the right direction...
L
It's the first real cast album I've made with a school class even though I've been writing musicals like this one for years. Every year my wife and I create a brand-new show, usually based on a work of children's or classic literature. I've also gone into public schools in NYC, Connecticut, New Jersey, Long Island, Massachusetts, and Arkansas to write songs based on what kids are studying. All in all I've written over 200 songs with kids in schools.
Every time I do a new show, parents, teachers, kids -- and other people I've told about the project -- ask me "When is the album coming out?" I usually dodge this question by saying that we might make an album, we might not, it will depend on how much time the teachers can devote in class, etc etc BS BS...
No matter how many times I deliver this lengthy evasion I still believe it on some level-- I still think I might get around to making a real album.
But of course I never have. I have made some home recordings featuring me performing the songs as well as some GarageBand-quality "albums" with the kids singing and me playing some simple accompaniment. But why haven't I ever tried to make something people would actually enjoy playing again and again? (When I say "people" I mean people who are not parents of children in the class and therefore willing to put up with low quality recordings simply because their child is on them).
It's not because I haven't believed in the songs. Although there are certainly songs that were written for a very specific narrative purpose and wouldn't make sense to someone not watching a live performance of a particular play, most of the tunes I've written for these shows are poppy (poppier than the Dees), easy to sing along with (more so than much of the Dees catalog), super catchy, and often tied into movements. They're very much tunes that someone could enjoy whether or not they were familiar with the story that inspired them.
But as someone without a home studio or the skills to make my own recordings that sound professional (I'm a songwriter and performer but definitely not an engineer, mixer, or producer) I have hesitated to spend money on recordings that are unlikely to make that money back. I've written a lot of good songs over the years but people will only buy so much music -- and if I tried to sell an album, for example, called The Silk That Got Away (the title of last year's absolutely wonderful Silk Road musical) many people would be baffled and ask me things like "Is this for children?" "The Silk Road? Why?" "Does this have that honk-honk song on it?" (They ask these things about every Dees record also)
So I've let these songs disappear and exist mainly in my mind and the minds of the kids who wrote and performed these shows (I still have high schoolers coming up to me wanting to tell me that they were just recently singing some song I wrote with them years ago).
It's pained me. I used to go to a therapist (hasn't everyone in New York?) and I used to tell him about this -- how I felt like I nearly killed myself a few times a year writing and leading these shows only to have them mostly forgotten. He said that I was frustrated because I was "spinning my wheels" (his expression) with these shows, putting in a lot of time and creative energy but not seeing any concrete professional or financial rewards as a result. I protested that these shows have offered many rewards of a more difficult-to-measure variety: the satisfaction of seeing kids who struggle in the classroom come to life as they work on a musical project, the thrill of writing and performing a complete story-in-song for an attentive audience... but my therapist, pragmatist that he was, acknowledged these rewards as valid but immediately resumed pushing me to figure out a way to make my schoolwork pay off. He couldn't be dissuaded from the idea that my school musicals and the process of making them could both be commodities that I could sell for a good profit. I agreed, half-heartedly, to investigate the possibility.
Hamlet: The Album is an attempt to make good on what I told my therapist. The songs we wrote for this show are terrific, but there have been many terrific tunes in the many shows I've co-composed. All that's really different with Hamlet is that I'm trying -- for the first time -- to present one of my school shows to the public in a truly palatable way. We recorded these songs quickly -- all the basic rhythm tracks in one day, nearly all the kid vocals one afternoon, all the overdubbing another day -- but we did most of the work in a real studio, the studio where we're recording the new Dees record. Dean Jones, who's producing that album, recorded us, added a bunch of new, bad-ass guitar parts, and mixed the tracks. We didn't have the album really mastered -- Dean just EQ'd the tracks then put them through a nice limiter -- but I do feel like we've presented these songs the best way we possibly could. Obviously I'm super biased but I think the album sounds really great -- and I really want everyone to hear it. I especially want parents, teachers, and other people connected with schools to hear it so they understand what can happen when I go into a school and am given enough time and resources -- so please pass it on to as many of these folks as you can. Despite the involvement of my bandmates and Dean it's still very much a kid album and we tried to leave enough of their quirks and jerks and weird notes and cryptic lyrics in there so that it would sound like it, like something that was created by actual kids in an actual school.Teachers and parents: your real kids in your real school can do make something just as impressive.
So I don't feel too bad about finally using one of my school projects to promote myself publicly -- and so no kids sue me for stealing their ideas -- I'm giving all the proceeds after expenses to earthquake relief in Japan. I do want to help Japan but I also feel like these songs don't belong to me. They're very much the product of our collaboration and even the ones that I played the biggest role in writing wouldn't have been written outside the unique creative environment that a classroom provides. I also don't want this album to be a vanity project in any way -- for me or the kids. I want all our hard creative work to fuel good works elsewhere.
So download the Hamlet album! We've got to pay this thing off. And once we do, we can start making some money for Japan. That would be cool, wouldn't it?
Still spinning my wheels but now hopefully in the right direction...
L
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