Original Songs
Given my checkered background in music and theatre, I ended up developing the capacity to write songs, both words and music. As circumstances presented themselves, I took every opportunity to do so. In the 1980s I had a full-blown, good quality 8-track home studio stocked with synths and samplers, as well as a couple of killer microphones for vocals (see list of gear HERE). My specialty was making recordings that could pass for live bands, if you didn't listen too closely... I did a ton of projects, including song demos, video sound tracks, radio ads and backing tracks for stage acts. I did one for the Hartford Ballet, and another for a Charles Schulz ice show up in Santa Rosa. Anyway, on this page you will find a few highlights, both of my original songs and of the circumstances that inspired them.
Michael Smuin
Michael had a near-death experience on a movie shoot. His heart stopped, and only because a crew member administered CPR did he survive long enough to get to the emergency room. Afterward he narrated the whole experience to me, and of course I turned it into a song, called Hungry Hypochondriac.
Michael had a pet project, a small movie he envisioned about (as I recall) a circus elephant that was adopted by a young girl. I was privy to his creative sessions on the project, and I wrote a song that I thought could be used in the film. It turned out a bit too artsy, with elements of surrealism, but the lyrics were all based on my research in circus lingo and I thought it was pretty good. I never recorded it (sorry) but here's the sheet music.
Linda Ronstadt
Ms Ronstadt was quite close to MIchael and (especially) to Michael's wife Paula Tracy. She dropped by the rehearsal studio one day, and Michael described the movie project and mentioned that I had written a song for it. I asked if I could sing it for her, and she very nicely said yes. So she came and sat close to me on the piano bench while I warbled out "First of May". She first asked if I really had written it, which I confirmed. She then commented that it was very theatrical, which I took as a compliment.
Ms Ronstadt then mentioned that she was planning to record an album with Emmy Lou Harris and Dolly Parton. I of course asked if I might write a few tunes on spec and send them to her to listen to. She agreed (perhaps more out of politeness than interest, who knows) and I made it a priority project. Over the next couple of weeks I wrote six songs that I thought that star-studded trio would be great on, recorded them in my home studio and sent them to Ms Ronstadt. Here are two of those six (the singer, guitar and harmonica were the real thing; all other instruments were synthesizers or samplers). P.S. - Somehow, that stellar trio managed to record a full album without using any of my songs. Well, that's show biz...
Anna Becky Redlich
Anna Becky was a client of mine. She was originally from Memphis, Tennessee - the daughter of an opera star - and was a terrific blues singer. She also wrote original songs, and hired me to co-write songs with her. She was super fun to work with and I think the songs we wrote together were excellent. Here are a couple of them (again, only her voice is real in these demo recordings).
Maureen McVery
Maureen was an actress active in San Francisco who starred in Curse of the Werewolf, a stage play with music that Michael Smuin directed and that I was Music Supervisor for. She had a distinct ingenue look, with a sort of hardboiled layer underneath. I had the idea of writing a cabaret show for her, and got as far as one good song...
An Oddball Fugue
Just for the heck of it - or maybe on a bet, I don't remember - I wrote a fugue using "I left My Heart in San Francisco" as the subject. It worked pretty well...