Series 1, Episode 47: Laid Back and Intimate - Part 1

Think ballads and relaxed grooves. Take a break and cool out over the beauty and intimacy of some of Link’s best ballads sung by 4 or 5 top vocalists who have worked with him over for 3 or 4 decades and are all still going strong. All that's required of you are a good pair of headphones, an easy chair  and the time to do it. Get the inside stories on how and why the songs were written – the story behind the real life drama. Take a walk in the snow, an evening on the beach, a ride through the desert of the great Southwest, a night under the stars and so much more.

Theater of the imagination is presented by Watchfire Music:  watchfiremusic.com 

Transcript

Peter Link 0:08

Welcome to Scatter Shot Symphony, the music of Peter Link. That's me. Hey y'all. This week being the forty-seventh episode of this podcast, I prefer to let the music do the talking. However, if you need to know more about me, please visit Wikipedia.com or Peter Link. In the music vernacular, the concept of laid back normally refers to creating an effect by falling behind the strict rhythm, or a relaxed style of playing, in reference to the meter of a song. Again, in music terms, rushing is a sin, and playing to a strict meter and groove is much preferred. But playing laid back off the beat is considered cool. It is the opposite of forwardness. Perhaps think of it as easy going. Ballads are often laid back. More than anything, I think of it as a feel. Dance music is not laid back. It's aggressive. Laid back is definitely where this podcast is going. But don't get the impression that this selection of songs is about things casual or carefree or even blasé. That's where intimate comes in. In all art, working the opposites creates drama. And what is a song that has no drama? So this collection of laid-back songs are all full of some of the most powerful reactions and reflections on the events of my life, presented intimately, in ballad or at least laid-back form. I could go on waxing poetic for another couple of paragraphs on this. Or get right to the point and dive in. Let's do that. Our first offering is a song I wrote for Jenny Burton for an album I produced of the same name. I think on these things. To further dramatize it, I used a backwards piano sound and its foundation, where each note played had been sampled backwards, starting with the fade at the end of the note, and sounding to the beginning. And of course, strings. You ordain, when I consider a child, the steps that he's taking, his light and his joy so ingrained when I think of the way that each breath comes unnoticed, sustaining this delicate life, I have swept off my feet in breathless wonder at the mystery of life when I consider the music of all the great masters, and know it was you they all heard, and the works of Shakespeare's King David's and Keats. You gave them each every word when I contemplate the pure fabric of nature, bewildered by all we have learned, I am swept off my feet in breathless wonder at the miracle of life, and I think on these things and the wonder life brings from the greatest of things to the small and though I spend my life searching life's solemn secrets, I know I'll never know as I ponder the atom the boundless vast ether, the billions of lies on this stone. I consider the gift of God's imagination and begin to explore the unknown. But this winds are cold, it just slips through my fingers as I try home to the air, and I'm swept off my feet in breathless wonder at the miracle of life, and I think on these things. Yes, I think on these things and the wonder life. Then, about nine o'clock in the evening, the snow finally stopped, leaving a white, snow-covered world outside our window and a conglomerate of feelings inside that evening. It was already a day out of time. So looking for a more restorative vision of life, we both had the impulse to venture out into this impeccable silence. We bundled up and trudged a couple of blocks to a beautiful nearby park and path through the forest. Not another person was anywhere to be seen. We had this wintry wonderland all to ourselves for a long contemplative walk. A white half moon lit our way. At the end of the walk, at the return to home, I went to work writing. As it happened, in the same year, Jenny Burton's mom also passed. And so a duet was created. The way these two women work together vocally, I believe you will find astonishing. I am always careful not to overpraise my own work, but here I have to wax poetic about two of my favorite vocalists on the planet. Listen to the beauty of their voices intertwining. The perfection comes from the depth of feeling in each of their souls. The depth comes from the shared intimacy of a moment of deep acceptance and of letting go. Julia Wade and Jenny Burton. A walk in the snow. Like the golden winter leaves on saplings, frozen. Frozen is time in an alabaster forest. She hung on past her time. Ah yes, long past her time to let go and flutter away. And we walked in the snow. She hold on we thought because the tender between mother and child made the parting so hard to feel. And in the severance of souls, her heart could not stand the thought of that last embrace. Struggling, struggling to find some kind of meaning. We simply watched the snow falling down from the sky and let her go and send her on her way. But we had to that she lives in us still beyond our way. But each we knew the life that is hers is the same life as ours, and cannot justice. So she's gone sweat. Yet still with us on a walk in the snow On a walk in the snow how the snow in it soothing Adaj rose gently over my snow. Yes, oh how the snow in it soothing a day oh rose gently over my soul We took a walk in the snow walk in the snow and thought about my and thought about ma. An island in the Caribbean Sea. I would leave the hustle and bustle of New York City and 42nd Street as often as I could and fly to Antigua. I would only go if I could stay for at least three weeks. Even then, it was hard to fly back to New York City. There on the beach I found peace. I learned to appreciate de crickets and de tree frogs, and their rhythms at night. I learned to laugh at the lustful braying of the donkey. I lived to swim with the fish. I ended each day sitting on the beach with old Moses, our yard man, silently watching the sun slipper down over the sea's horizon. I wrote my songs to the sea birds. Yours truly with Julia Wade White Bird White Bird. He flies along to the water. He turned on the wind. Please take me on down the water. White bird. Let me fly again. Black bird. Please take me over the mountain. Black bird. Won't you let me fly again? Won't you let me fly? Won't you let me fly? Won't you let me fly? Silver bird. Sang on Young Bird. Fly at the red song. Come fly with me. Fly with me. Hope together now fly. Come on together. All together now fly with me. Rosemary and Time, among many other things, is about miracles. Lizzie Cranbottom, in the beginning. Of our story is not at all a believer in miracles. Hers is a character much more subcelestial, more earthbound. Here, in this next song, well into the second act, is her turning point. Judy McLean, the actress and creator of this role, is a bona fide Broadway star. She, over the course of ten years, played both leading lady roles in the Broadway musical long-running hit Mamma Mia, and has a bio and resume as long as your arm. Here, Judy knocks it out of the park. Judy McLean. One more miracle. One more miracle after another. Oh yeah, as we push on down the road. As we carry this precious mother load out there, to who knows where the Lord done gave us one more miracle, one more lucky old break in our favor. When am I gonna face it up? Give it on up, oh Lizzie. There's a whole lot left to learn. You know it seems like something bigger than me is up there looking out for me as I run from a life of broken dreams into a lot to who knows away. What good am I anyway? Just a backcountry hick from no place, looking for a space to retrace my steps and start all over again and never go back, no never go back to where I've been. I'm tryna find some reason around when the only good thing I got in life is time is time is time and the hope she carries down this road in one more miracle, one more miracle after another gonna be there for her down this road to one more miracle, one more miracle after another. She's the bestest friend I ever had. Gonna be there for her as we roll on down this road. I often don't like the politics. I'll leave it at that. I sometimes over the years have stayed away. And yet for decades I taught Sunday school and I loved it. Sometimes church for me is just too many things. But I have found that I dearly love an empty church. So these days I go early when no humans are there. Sitting there totally alone in God's space. As lately seemed just perfect for me. So do I go to church now? Yes, I do. And do I find what I'm looking for? Yes, I do. I invite you to come sit with me in my church. But let's not talk, okay? Just listen. Words upon the wall. Burned into my memory throughout all these years, and the tears of a grateful heart fall through my life as my joy springs forth at the miracle of this humble simple truth. Always has meant and always will meet every human need. For the love that is in my heart fills up my life, and I stand there in awe at the miracle of this humble, simple, truth. Always has met and always will meet every human need. Words of all the woman calling out to me. Setting me free from my fears. Words of harm no God is love meeting all my needs. I stand in awe of these simple truths. I once had a songwriting student named Carol J. She lived in our building in Manhattan. I don't remember how we met. Carol, who is no longer with us, was an extremely challenged person who struggled through life. She lived in an apartment that was always a scary mess. She overate. She undercleaned. She was sadly introverted and socially handicapped. And it took a while for me. But I found in her a light. She was musically gifted. But the rest of her life struggles and buried that talent so deeply in her inner being that it was a total surprise to me one day when she queasily announced to me, I wrote a song. All ears I responded, what's it called? I don't know. It has no lyrics. I asked, can you play it for me? I can't. My keyboard's worth. It's only in my head. And so I brought her into my studio and bar by bar pulled it out of her. I was her musical stenographer. It took a while, but it was totally worth it. She always said, You wrote that song, but I did not. It was her muse that spoke. I just appreciate it. I give her full credit. She needed full credit. It is her child. For days, the music of the song haunted me. I asked her if I could write the lyrics. She agreed. The music stayed in my head until one day the lyrics followed. I conjured a simple narrative. I lay on my back in the grass at night and encounter the sky, the cosmos, the universe. And I find my place and my peace in this existence. And more importantly, I have found the true Carol, Julia Wade, this quiet place. In the rush, I don't stop to watch the moon in the sky because it's all that I can do to keep on running rolling through the tangles of my mind. Yet the moon hangs in silence still as sorry. While I run and I chase the dreams, I remember the things that I have lived by and return again to the stillness of the sky. In its own time. Shining on as far as I can see why Times insignificant makes me laugh. Out to ruin our story's main objective. Exhausted from a night's intensity, Time Quinn drives and contemplates her likewise sleeping family all stuffed into their old stuttering and sputtering car on its last legs, and she comes to grips with yet another miracle. As the sun rises to meet a new day. She gratefully thanks God for their safety and reprises one of the foundational songs of the musical. Julia Wade, the originator of the title role, freezes the moment in time. Julia Wade. Just a little touch. Reprise three. So on they drove through the night, finally leaving New Mexico behind. A hodgepodge of memories that would never be forgotten. When Josiah started nodding off at the wheel, time drove while everyone slept, and Lizzie squirmed and shuddered in her dreams. The sun rose on the Arizona highway up ahead, and time, in her mind, bid good morning to her friend God and his child. And I ask that you watch over us this day. I don't ask for much. I think that most of you would agree, even considering our various political proclivities, that we are living through some very tough times in a pretty screwed-up world. Decades ago, I wrote a lot of songs and created a lot of music for the corporate world. Those were better times. And consequently, the songs that I wrote then were more positive songs. Today it tends to be more about tearing down, disagreement, distrust, polarization, and separation. It's not one man's fault. It's really all of us that needs to rethink our lives and relationships. Recently, while rummaging through my treasure chest of ancient industrial songs, written in better times, I came upon a song that clearly speaks to our world today. Of course, I had no idea back then that this song could be sung to the whole world today. It was actually written for a particular company, and perhaps for a product that they sold. But truth is truth. And I truly believe that it was written for today's worldwide consumption. It's not quite as laid back as some of the previous others, but its time has come to be considered. It certainly gets right to the intimate point. Billy Cliff, the lead male vocalist, with his deep whiskey voice, masterfully drives home the point. And Jenny Burton brings her usual flair for telling it like it is. It's a good song, and performed most honestly, even for today's world. Billy Cliff and Jenny Burton. A meeting of the minds. Locked inside a secret space. Lives a world of constant confusion and darkness. We can make a difference. Just think about that. We can build a window. We can turn the world around to face the light again. Searching for a picture Living out the hopes and the dreams of the future. We can make a difference Just think about it. We can build a promise We can tell the world to face the light again. We must just die. We must move for big we must try to see this. So there we wanna Adam Beating of Ma. Let us come. So there we wanna Adam Beating of May They can only be one. They can only be one We must be a one heart, and one soul, and one man They will make a difference Just think about If we stay together We can take the world to face the game We must we must just We must have to see everyone Take it to the beat Take it to the Take to the Father Take It to the Spanish Stay behind the door Tryna find the keys to the soft Come Take it to the hotel Take it to the Take to the Take Take it to the Take Take It Ticket Take It Two Hot Take It's So there you have it Episode Forty Seven Laid Back and Intimate Part One Stay Tune For Episode 48 Laid Back and Intimate Part Two Due Next Week On Fun Stuff Many Thanks Go to Julia Wade, Jenny Burton, Judy McLean, and Billy Cliff for lending their Terrific Voices to This Podcast. I am a most fortunate composer to be able to work with such talent. Credits all songs, music and lyrics by Peter Link, unless otherwise here noted. One more miracle, Judy McLean. Music, Peter Link, Lyrics, Peter Link and Regan Courtney. This Quiet Place, Julia Wade, Music, Carol J. Lyrics by Peter Link. Just a Little Touch, Reprise 3, Julia Wade. Music, Peter Link, Lyrics, Peter Link, and Reagan Courtney. Also, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. And to keep abreast of the latest episode, you can subscribe to Scattershot Symphony from your podcast app of choice. And thanks to Watchfire Music and the entire staff for all your work in producing and promoting this podcast. A very special thanks also to Stuart Barefoot, our associate producer, for all your invaluable knowledge and great vibes. And lastly, a posthumous thanks to Ludwig von Beethoven for your opening four bars. This podcast is presented with loving care by the staff at Watchfire Music. If you liked what you heard, we got lots more where that came from. In the meantime, you can find the songs you just heard on WatchfireMusic.com forward slash podcast. There, you can purchase the singles or albums and have access to all the lyrics. Also, there you will find all previous podcasts and future scheduling.