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Volume 2-2012

 

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IN THIS EDITION

RARWRITER BLOGGERS

Learning from Jimmy Iovine

Interscope Records CEO Jimmy Iovine was featured in a recent piece in Rolling Stone, and it was one of those rare celebrity interviews that actually yield insight and useful information for people interested in music production and engineering. READ MORE...

On Selling Songs Through TAXI

Occasionally, as an amateur songwriter, I will open the account I have with TAXI, the Web-based Artists & Repertoire service, check out the listings, usually for those calling for Film & TV soundtrack music, and if I have something that seems like a possible match I will upload an MP3 mix and submit it for consideration. I never get anywhere with this past-time... READ MORE...

 

RARADIO

(Click here)

New Releases on RARadio: "Last Call" by Jay; "Darkness" by Leonard Cohen; "Sweetbread" by Simian Mobile Disco and "Keep You" from Actress off the Chronicle movie soundtrack; "Goodbye to Love" from October Dawn; Trouble in Mind 2011 label sampler; Black Box Revelation Live on Minnesota Public Radio; Apteka "Striking Violet"; Mikal Cronin's "Apathy" and "Get Along"; Dana deChaby's progressive rock

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MUSIC LINKS

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INTERNATIONAL LINKS

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Original Musical Compositions and Select Covers

Fiction and Non-Fiction

Special Projects

Essays

   

 

RICK ROBERTS

 

 

Rick Roberts Interview

 

Holy Grail of Airplay

Q17: Is "airplay" the Holy Grail these days, or have changes in the industry reset the target in some way?

Editor's Note: Rick Roberts' will no doubt kick himself for this memory lapse, but Van Dyke Parks became known as the genius type who in the late 1960s was working with Brian Wilson on the legendary Smile album, the master Beach Boy's "Lost Dutchman Mine" of American music. Parks, who is 66 years old, is still active today and he has gone on to an illustrious career as a composer, arranger, producer, musician, singer, and actor. His Wikipedia entry states that Parks "has worked with performers including Grace Kelly, The Beach Boys, The Byrds, Loudon Wainwright III, Silverchair, Ry Cooder, Joanna Newsom, Inara George and Ringo Starr".

Parks most recent music releases were in 2007, when he released the album "Yellow Magic Carnival" in Japan, which is a tribute to Haruomi Hosono, of the Yellow Magic Orchestra.

Van Dyke Parks also was involved in the 2007 Brian Wilson project "That Lucky Old Sun (A Narrative)".

Ruthanne Friedman hasn't exactly gone away either, though she flies a little lower on the radar than does Parks.

Soon to be 66 years of age, Ruthann Friedman  re-released her CD Constant Companion in 2006, on San Francisco's Water label. Constant Companion was first released in 1971 on Reprise Records, a year in which Friedman also contributed the soundtrack for the film Peace Killers. Friedman also recently released a compilation of rare and previously unreleased home recordings from 1965-1971.

The Bronx-born Friedman first got exposure as a 12-year old on the television talent show Rocket to Stardom. Somehow she moved to the west coast while a teen and started playing open mics at The Troubadour in West Hollywood. (Now there's a wholesome environment for a kid.) She became buds with other up-and-comers like Steve Mann and Hoyt Axton and became part of the L.A. music scene, which is no doubt how stories about her came to the attention of Rick Roberts, a contemporary.

Here's the part (from Wikipedia) that brings this story full circle: "Her first paid performance was at the Green Spider Coffee House in Denver, Colorado at the age of nineteen. Soon she was part of the "Hippy Migration," traveling the California Coast and living off earnings from her performances. While staying in San Francisco, California, Friedman befriended the members of Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe and Janis Joplin. Her friendship with Van Dyke Parks not only influenced her deep commitment to music but also introduced her to The Association, who recorded her song 'Windy' in 1967."

RICK ROBERTS FOLLOW-UP: Thanks for the updated information on Parks and Friedman. . I guess the Smile album was the vague memory I had. I was involved with The Beach Boys while I was in my first year label search, and in fact, did my first ever demo at Brian Wilson's home studio, with Steve Desper engineering, and Darryl Dragon, "The Captain", playing bass and piano. But it has been 40 tears. By the way, Darryl's brother Dennis played drums.

 

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