Series 1, Episode 49: Forgotten

Just because something is forgotten does not necessarily mean that it’s not any good. As the Earth turns on its axis, times change. What was up is now down. What was fast is now slow. Great leaders are forgotten. Hitlers are remembered. Good times are forgotten. Struggles are remembered. 

This podcast, Forgotten, is about forgotten songs. Whenever I write a song that I end up not liking very much, I always throw it away. I never leave it around somewhere to be forgotten. But I do have forgotten songs that I liked at the time that I wrote then but find that years later they might be best forgotten. Early works tend to be forgotten. As the years have gone by gratefully, I’ve gotten better at what I do and so my standards are higher. Still it’s always great to find all these oldies but goodies. Each of the forgotten has its own story. Here are 10.

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

Transcript

Peter Link 0:08

Welcome to Scattershot Symphony, the music of Peter Link. That's me.

Speaker 3 0:18

Hey y'all, this week being the 49th 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 at Peter Link. This episode is entitled Forgotten. Songs that are forgotten are like children who leave home. The reasons why are various. Sometimes it's just time to move on. And sometimes you just want to go in a different direction. Rarely is a song forgotten because it's bad. It's just that the times change, and the song just doesn't apply for some reason. The fun of it is that weeks or months or years later, you get to discover them again. And the prodigal son returns. When I came up with this idea, I didn't foresee what great fun this would be. So the joy of visiting old friends was unexpected. And and yes, I'll have to admit, some of those old friends were better off forgotten. Call it an ego-balancing experience. But then again, when I found an old gem, it made it all worthwhile. I shall spare you any examples of the disappointing old friends, and introduce you only to those chestnuts that I'm proud of. For about fifteen years of my life, to support a new family, a wife and child, I worked for corporation sales meetings and wrote theme songs and songs that inspired their sales forces to get out there and sell, sell, sell. These events were called industrials. And I built my New York recording studio called Westrax on the Prophets. In those 15 years, I wrote and produced over 400 songs for companies like General Motors, Johnson Johnson, Weight Waters, and Apple. The money was great, and I learned a lot about what made people listen and how to inspire people to succeed. The problem with most industrial songs is that they were usually created for just one event. Once the event was over, the song just went into the trunk. I refused to write lyrics that had the name of the company or the product they were selling in them. Because those kinds of songs always sounded like commercials, and I knew the Salesforce audiences just wouldn't buy that kind of inspiration. Besides, I could then reuse any of the songs for other companies as well. Many of those songs were found in the forgotten file. Here's an example of an inspirational corporate song that was forgotten and whose message could be taken several different ways. Jenny Burton. I wrote 'em. She sang them. My constant voice and song presenter in those years, as usual, nails it. Jenny Burton, you knocked me off my feet.

Speaker 11 4:31

You make my life complete. You always take your best shots. You knock me off my feet. You took me underway. You loved and nurtured me. You let my spirit say. You knocked me off my feet. In the way you bear me up, in the way you care for me, in the way you feel my car, you're always there, you're always there for me. You clap me on the back, you rub my shoulders free, you fire my brain, you knock me off my feet, you knock me off my feet, proud to take you with me anywhere. Oh yeah, you knocked me off my feet, even in the toughest of times, you're there, lifting me back up with the way you care for me, and the way you help me be all I can be. You're always coming through, you're all I dreamed it'd be. I feel hallelujah. Rise up inside of me, in the way you let me fly, in the way you set me free, you throw me to the sky, but you're always there, you're always there for me, you give it all you got, you make my life complete.

Speaker 6 7:37

You always take your best shot, you knock me off my feet, you knock me off my feet, you set my spirit free, and I'm proud to take you with me anywhere. Oh yeah, you knocked me off my feet Even at the toughest of time to be back up with the way you care for me Winnah, but you can you make my life You give me all that the way you treat the knock out You give it all And I feel Hallelujah Yes, I feel Hallelujah, I forgot because it's just an audible story from my album Going Home on Heaven and Beyond.

Speaker 3 9:43

It's a parade that starts halfway to heaven, high up in the sky, with a news flash. Our on-the-scene reporter, Julia Wade, wins a Pulitzer Prize for reporting, and then passes it on to John James and Jenny Burton to take it on home. Julia, John, and Jenny. Saints.

Speaker 2 10:22

This is a WHVN News Flash. News Flash. Just in, several reports from commercial airline pilots of sightings of a strange appearance in the sky high above Jerusalem. None of this has been substantiated as yet, but there was one report of some kind of parade going on at a high-altitude coordinate that one of the pilots identified as Heaven's Highway. Well, we'll get back to you on this one when we have more concrete info from eyewitnesses on the scene. In the meantime, NASA reports there to be no relation between service.

Speaker 10 12:54

And you shake Mahamba Tony Shanghai Bada Mahantaman Singh and the bust and safe All the Saints of all mankind Walking instead with the Hindu singers.

Speaker 3 13:25

And I was singers and so free singers With this to do the song strong and trumpet Leading the Way We're walking in steps with the Hindu singers And I was singers Heads to free singers With this to do the sun strong before that Lowin' at home And none get happy They are traveling in the footsteps I'm those who've gone before They will all be reunited Coming through and sunlight shore There is one that goes before that And it's banners still the sky footsteps Going on I want to be in that number Win up Win up Yeah Win up Here they come Winnu Oh when the space go marching in Oh when the space gold marching Oh Lord I want to be in the number When the States gold watching And when the sun begins to shine When the sun begins to shine Oh Lord I want to be in that number When the States go watching Oh and the state And window they should come in the shall we come to the beds I'm coming I wrote the music for a musical with two other terrific writers, Joe Bravaco and Larry Rossler, called Sundown, the famous tale of the gunfight at the OK Corral. The reason one forgets songs from musicals is that the songs only last as long as the musical runs. Sundown, the musical, was performed in theaters all over the country, but stylistically, it just wasn't Broadway fair. So the song got lost, buried in the musical. But when I came across it in my search, I immediately wrote it down as quote, should be remembered. Judy McLean, a Broadway star in her own right, as Cattle Kate, recollecting her nefarious life, just tears it up. Judy McLean Bridges.

Speaker 4 20:15

And I'd be rich today. I could have seen Atlantic City and Sarah took a springs, and in time I'd have five babies tugging at my apron streets. With a handsome Kansas farmer that I knew. I coulda got tight and been bright, but I only said I do. I could've rustled up his breakfast, fixed supper for his kids, maybe plant some wheat and barley while I grew a double chick. I've been burning bridges behind me, and the time is ticking up. I better take what I can get before all my bridges are gone.

Speaker 10 21:36

Before all my bridges are gone, before all my bridges are gone.

Speaker 4 22:01

Where is my soldier from Texas? Who swept me off my feet? Was it a sailor or a tailor? Who lived on bourbon street? Well, I've had boats by the bushel, and life ain't over yet. But then I looked in the mirror, and it won't let me forecast. I've been burning bridges behind me, and the time is taking on. I better take what I can get before all my bridges are gone.

Speaker 10 22:56

Before all my bridges are gone. Before all my bridges are gone.

Speaker 3 23:42

My dad was born in Genora, Canada, and came to America with his band, Lyman Link, and the St. Charles Melody Masters, just before the crash of 29. But then the band broke up and never made it back home. Without any immigration, I would not exist. So you might imagine. I'm all for it. I imagined an elegant man, not a dirty, poor migrant, but a successful man. Like my father, who had to leave his home and family desperately to find a new home. This song needs to be remembered and remembered on my way home.

Speaker 7 25:09

I want to get one I come to you by land but I come by rap, I come all right. I come from the flight, stop I run all my life of the flight to it. I love the life just a refugee. I found I came out of the world.

Speaker 2 26:12

I'd love to find my family. I'd start to find the man I used to be I know that's the role of desperation.

Speaker 3 26:30

I carry what hope that's left in my frail magnet.

Speaker 7 26:40

And I carry my past life in this pack up on my back. I carry my past life in a pack.

Speaker 3 27:08

A man of no place, lost out here in space.

Speaker 9 27:47

Oh, look at this wasted.

Speaker 7 28:03

Look at this woman.

Speaker 10 28:10

I also do the life button, but now a wrap I stick to the y'all.

Speaker 7 28:22

I stick the time I think you bring up the time of the life on the promise of the family with this long truth. But along the way, left them all my future.

Speaker 3 28:51

Now it beats it is my only beautiful Each night before I sleep, I asked What was wrong I must have done that brought me here I cannot find the answer to this question.

Speaker 7 29:15

I carry this damning pain of guilt like a like a rest of that past life from one to the next confused at this time, so perplexed And all that I've loved now gone And all of my dreams now gone My life and I knew gone Here I am a man of no place Lost out in space my way to have them.

Speaker 3 31:16

By the way, that song has a wonderful video treatment as well by Sky Malone, our very talented graphics artist. You can find it at Watchfiremusic.com forward slash on my way home with a video. Here's another song from a musical that got left behind. Actually, it's a lot more than a song. It's a whole scene. It's another one from the musical Sundown, starring Steve Blanchard, another Broadway star. He was the beast on Broadway in Beauty and the Beast, and Sir Lancelot in Camelot. This second act moment comes late in the show, right before the gunfight itself, and really sets the tone. The tip of the hat also goes to Larry Rossler and Joe Bravo, who so beautifully wrote the lyrics and the scene. Steve Lanchard and the sundown cast of men. Poisoned water.

Speaker 5 32:46

Lord, you know I tried, I did my very best to turn the other cheek as you suggest. But love your enemies, a hard request when he's reaching for his gun. Here I go again, and it makes me sad to say goodbye to all the dreams we had. So how did something good turn out so bad? Take a look at what we've done. Poison the water, poison the water. Look at us now. We've poisoned the water, poison water full of waste. Let them come and get a taste of poison water, mother of mercy. Relax, Tom. Just relax. We don't wanna wake the lady.

Speaker 33:59

But I'm unarmed. You know China Mary don't allow no guns in her rooms. You ain't gonna shoot an unarmed man, are you? Are you?

Speaker 5 34:08

I'm here to extend an invitation. You meet me later today, and we'll settle the score for all time.

Speaker 34:18

What they done to Kate ain't right. What they do to one of us, they do to all.

Speaker 10 34:26

We should end it now. We should do it quick, and when we do it, damn it. Make it stick. A little piece of lead should do the trick. There's a piece for everyone.

Speaker 34:48

Gentlemen, this time Doc Holiday's called out the wrong man. The wrong house, Tom. The wrong house. Turn your back on wolves. This is what you get. You touch a rattle snake and you get bit.

Speaker 5 35:06

The talking's over now. We finish it.

Speaker 10 35:11

Take a look at what they've done. Poison the water.

Speaker 5 35:21

Poison the water. Look at them now, they've poisoned the water. Poison water full of waste. Let them come and get a taste of poison water.

Speaker 35:39

You hear that? It's the sound of hearts beating faster right before a kill. God, I love that sound. I round up the boys, Doc. Don't be alone.

Speaker 4 35:52

Doc, it's not too late, not for us.

Speaker 10 35:57

Cause I know we can make it dark. Please don't go. What of all those dreams of getting out? Cut in ties. They were only pretty lines. Just a pack of pretty lines.

Speaker 4 36:33

I ain't gonna bury you. If you go down there, I'd gotta walk out on you.

Speaker 5 36:41

I have no choice, Kate.

Speaker 10 36:46

See the minute hand moving on the clock. Too late to close the door and turn the lock.

Speaker 1 36:58

It's what you wanted. Are you ready, dark?

Speaker 10 37:03

Yet a day they're gone of pain. Yet a day they're gone of pay at a place they call okay.

Speaker 5 37:24

Cause they poison the water. We know just to poison the water, poison waters have to kill. Let them come and drink their villa. Poison water.

Speaker 10 37:48

Let the water go. Let the poison flow.

Speaker 3 38:12

Heartbreak came so easy to one so young. Love had turned quite contrary to a young girl's dreams. So I gathered up what was left and moved warily on. A change of scene, a change of dream, a new start to a new life was all I asked. These are the opening lines of a song I wrote for wife Julia. The song is the story of how we met, and the feelings that she went through upon first impulse for Julia and me. This is a moment never forgotten. She had recently moved from LA to New York after a broken marriage and wanted nothing to do with men and romance. It's not a song that either one of us wanted to mark. So we waited for this moment for decades.

Speaker 1 39:58

So I can't left. A change of dream. But the world does not always work in all the ways that we want. Too soon, too soon.

Speaker 10 41:00

I shook your head. I caught your spine. The voice inside me screamed, no, no, while my heart danced.

Speaker 1 41:26

Refused to lock.

Speaker 10 41:30

I knew I didn't dare. I searched the floor for answers. And I found you standing there. So there was you. There you were there on that Sunday afternoon.

Speaker 1 42:05

But love was still too dangerous, too hazardous, too perilous, and I far too vulnerable to let go.

Speaker 10 42:20

When I chanced to look again, you were gone, you were gone. So I moved warily on.

Speaker 1 42:50

Love still longer quite so daunting to a young girl's heart. I had missed my chest, butched it up, and now it was too late.

Speaker 10 43:09

My timing burned too late, too late, and then came fate for God's design.

Speaker 1 43:28

We came to meet by chance again, and I caught you away.

Speaker 10 43:47

I called your name from somewhere in the middle.

Speaker 1 43:54

You see, I'd searched my heart for answers.

Speaker 10 44:00

And I found you stay in the middle of the day.

Speaker 3 44:50

Between two mountain rangers with no humanity inside. I called my New York studio in one of its bedrooms. When the madness of New York City got too much for us, we just head out to the mountains, and the peace of that isolated home tucked away in God's country. Much of our house was glass and picture windows, and outside of my studio window, we placed a hummingbird theater. Those little guys were big fans of my music. Often, while working, I'd turn to the window, and they would be, sometimes three or four of them, hovering in mid-air, looking in, and literally dancing in flight to my music. My little pals. If I cranked it up, they often would get even more excited. This next song is dedicated to them, though often forgotten. I gotta admit, it's one of my best. Direct to you from the mountains of Colorado. This song is for the birds.

Speaker 7 46:08

Twiddle dining dee-d-ee, din, dee, dee, din, dee-dee. Twiddle, dining, dee-d-ee, dink, dee-dee, ding, dee-de-ding.

Speaker 10 46:23

This song is for the birds. This song is for the birds.

Speaker 7 46:31

This song is for the birds. This song is for the birds.

Speaker 10 46:40

There's a blue jay on my doorstep. Tryna steal the laces off my rum and shoes. He's some kinda mad kleptomania.

Speaker 2 46:54

He can't help cause it's in his jeans. He don't read the magazines. So he don't know what kleptomania means. Clear of conscience, but still guilty as sin. So this song is for the birds.

Speaker 10 47:15

This song is for the birds. There's a humming bird at my window.

Speaker 7 47:25

Looking at me while I write this song. And we're eyeball to eyeball. Listening to his wings beat the rhythm of life. Listening to his wings beat the rhythm of life. Listen to his wings, beat the rhythm of life. Humming bird.

Speaker 2 47:56

Twiddling it, bee-ding, ding, didn't be, ding, dee, dee, ding, d-ding. Birds.

Speaker 10 48:13

They don't know where they come from. Don't know where they're going to don't have time to wonder. Too busy flying at the moon. Too busy trying to prune.

Speaker 2 48:35

Too busy working for the early morning worms. Single baby, I'll be coming home soon. So this song is for the bird. This song is for the bird. This song is for the bird.

Speaker 10 48:48

This song is for the bird. Putting a hole where there ain't one.

Speaker 7 49:06

Filling my life with their hole.

Speaker 2 49:09

Just like the moles. And oh what a mess, but I got to confess that I tend to digress. Point B. This song is for the birds. This song is for the birds.

Speaker 7 49:28

There's an eagle in my backyard. Wondering what became of a memory.

Speaker 2 49:42

Must have come ball thinking about the eight-ball. Must have come ball, just tryna stay calm. He's still worrying about Vietnam. Somebody oughta tell him the war's over. And this song is for the birds.

Speaker 10 50:07

Each morning they sing a new symphony. It's a soaring country up to the sky above. And it's all the back feathers and making laugh. Triddly dee, diddle it, dee-doo, dee-dee.

Speaker 2 50:44

So this song is for the birds.

Speaker 3 51:19

I have no idea. I always loved it. It's pure fun stuff. Jenny Burton.

Speaker 11 52:09

Trapped in a fantasy scene at the scene.

Speaker 6 52:22

In the past time. I've got to be both white. And in the next slide. Just like Catherine Halber.

unknown 52:41

Just like Catherine Hepburn.

Speaker 6 52:48

Light into the hole of my latest incarnation. Catherine Hepburn. Just like I always wanted to be. Just like Captain Hepburn. Living in the soul of me. No wide, but oh, what a mystery Hand Strong, hot class, tough light 11 feelings in the face of life songs for Gottenwashing. Just like Catholic Just like Catholic. Just like Captain Hill.

Speaker 3 57:25

And consequently have had this struggle with the concept of matter for decades. Here we live in a matter world, and yet I do understand that I am a spiritual being. A spiritual being living in a matter world. Sometimes, actually many times, I have had amazing healings based on this understanding. I've never gone to doctors or to the hospital for physical problems, and have been a very healthy guy all my life. I don't even use over-the-cover medicines. Occasionally, I even write songs about this understanding. I don't especially want to dump these songs on the world, so they sometimes end up being personal and private thoughts. Why do I write them? Simply because at times they are what I'm thinking about. It's my language and this music thing. I guess often I think in musical terms.

Speaker 7 1:05:11

And as I grow an old the babies disappear.

Speaker 10 1:05:21

The more that I am near.

Speaker 7 1:05:26

The closer I can get to thee, the more I understand. The more I understand, the better man I am.

Speaker 10 1:05:44

The better man I am, the more I live in you. The more I live in you, the more I am and on and on. All the things I do no longer matter And all the things I thought I was are no longer true it's true Quantum physics five and it's all just made nothing tells us time isn't real How does it feel?

Speaker 9 1:06:56

Knowing nothing has it seems no nothing has it seemed Let's end this with a great song.

Speaker 3 1:07:29

Barbara Streisand recorded this on one of her albums, but it was not the single that promoted the album, so the song got lost before it had a chance to survive. It's a great song, written by three great writers composer Michelle Legrand and lyricist Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman. You don't get much better than that team. Normally, you don't cover a Streisand song with another woman. Miss Streisand reigns supreme. But this beautiful song was forgotten before it had a chance to live. So I took a chance and recorded it with Julia Wade. Julia certainly has the chops for it, and it is and always will be one of the best recordings she and we ever made.

Speaker 10 1:10:40

So in the morning I read the rose I played the teams I play squandered. Was somewhere out there waiting. What went in this one astray? I may have never found my way to it happened so often as I wait for sleep.

Speaker 3 1:13:17

Forgotten no longer. Many thanks go to Julia Wade and Jenny Burton, as usual. Plus Steve Blanchard and the Mailcast from Sundown, and Judy McClane, and John James, and Joe Bravo and Larry Rossler. I am a most fortunate composer to be able to work with such talent. Credits, all songs, music and lyrics by Peter Link, except otherwise noted. When the Saints Go March and Music by James Milton Black, words by Catherine Purvis, additional words and music by Peter Link. 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.

Speaker 1 1:14:52

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 schedules. Stay tuned.