5-11 Barry Louis Polisar - Part 2

Full disclosure. My wife, Marcy, went to High School with Barry Polisar. They were friends and Barry would sometimes play his songs for her. So, when we went to Marcy’s 25th high school reunion I was able to put a face to the name. Marcy had made me aware of Barry and his success as a writer and performer. Frankly, I was more than a little jealous of Barry and his success, making his living as a songwriter and performer. I have been writing songs since high school and had had piddling success. So, I purposefully didn’t really pay much attention to Barry’s successes as his career progressed.

Boy, what a mistake. 

Consequently, I wasn’t sure of what to expect when I went to interview Barry at his home. What I found was a most gracious and talented person who clearly had worked hard and deserved all the success he has achieved. Barry’s story was so interesting and had so many twists and turns, I couldn’t help but be charmed by the man.

This is part 2 of my conversation with Barry Louis Polisar, a renowned singer/songwriter, performer, poet and author of books for both kids and adults.  If you haven’t listened to part 1, I strongly suggest that you do so before listening to this episode.  In part one we introduced Barry and found out about his early years, his origin story, and his career as a songwriter, singer and performer of children's songs. 

As we ended the last podcast, Barry had just been censored from performing at most of his usual schools. In this episode we’ll find out what happened and how Barry’s career expanded into movies and ads. And we’ll hear about some of Barry’s prose and poetry. Then, finally, we’ll hear about what’s next for this talent. 

Transcript

[Intro]
[Intro Theme – Motor]

Full disclosure. My wife, Marcy, went to High School with Barry Polisar. They were friends and Barry would sometimes play his songs for her. So, when we went to Marcy’s 25th high school reunion I was able to put a face to the name. Marcy had made me aware of Barry and his success as a writer and performer. Frankly, I was more than a little jealous of Barry and his success, making his living as a songwriter and performer. I have been writing songs since high school and had had piddling success. So, I purposefully didn’t really pay much attention to Barry’s successes as his career progressed.

Boy, what a mistake. Consequently, I wasn’t sure of what to expect when I went to interview Barry at his home. What I found was a most gracious and talented person who clearly had worked hard and deserved all the success he has achieved. Barry’s story was so interesting and had so many twists and turns, I couldn’t help but be charmed by the man.

[Pod Lick – 12th Fret and 7th Fret Harmonics]

Hi. I’m Tim Rose and this is the Tim Tunes podcast. This is part 2 of my conversation with Barry Louis Polisar, a renowned singer/songwriter, performer, poet and author of books for both kids and adults.  If you haven’t listened to part 1, I strongly suggest that you do so before listening to this episode.  In part one we introduced Barry and found out about his early years, his origin story, and his career as a songwriter, singer and performer of children's songs. As we ended the last podcast, Barry had just been censored from performing at most of his usual schools. In this episode we’ll find out what happened and how Barry’s career expanded into movies and ads. And we’ll hear about some of Barry’s prose and poetry. Then, finally, we’ll hear about what’s next for this talent.

[Pod Lick – Big D]

 
[Barry is Banned Continued]
We continued our conversation on the back stoop of Barry’s farm in Montgomery County, Maryland. When we last left Barry he was relating how he had been banned from playing in Anne Arundel County schools. A ban that spread across the country and disrupted Barrys career in its tracks. Let’s listen as Barry relates what happens next in his censorship saga.

{Interview – Barry Gets Banned}

[Play Song – Underwear]

{Interview – Barry Gets Banned, Common Sense Reigns}

[Pod Lick – Descending Jazz Chords guitar]

[Juno – All I Want Is You]

Barry has always been a multitalented sort of guy. In addition to performing his songs for Children, Barry has had many of his songs used in commercials and movies. For instance, recently, one of his songs was used in a Lays Superbowl commercial. This next section recounts an event that changed the public perception of his identity as a song writer, but I’ll let him tell you all about that…

{Interview – All I Want Is You}

[Play Song – All I want Is You]

{Interview – Juno and Licensing, How Juno Affected Career, Recent Shows, HS English Teacher}

[Pod Lick – Hogjaw Quick Clip]

[Education]
I didn’t find any of Barry’s songs that seemed directly inspired by Waldon or Thoreau’s essay on “Civil Disobedience”, but I did find a few things that were obviously inspired by his teachers. Here is one of my favorites.

[Play – The Alfabet Song]


[The Ant and The Grasshopper and The Witch]
{Interview – How Mny songs and Rewrites,}

[Play-The Ant and The Grasshopper]

{Interview – Songwriting Project, Revenue Sources, Witch Song}

[Play – The Witch]

{Interview – Witch Song}

[Play Podcast – Ascending funk chords]

[Love Songs]
Barry and I then went on to discuss his hits and his love songs

{Interview – Singing the Hits – In the groove at the end, Every album has some love songs}

[Play Song – Me and You]

{Interview – Every album has some love songs,

[Commercial Work]

 Commercial Work - Water}

[Play Song – Water]

{Interview - Commercial Work – Water, 

[Tribute Album]

Tribute Album}

[Play Song – Never Cook Your Sister in a Frying Pan]

[On writing songs]

{Interview – More talk about writing}

[Play Song – The I Never Did Like You Anyhow Stomp]

{Interview – More Talk About Writing}

[Play Song – First It Hit My Behind]

{Interview – Writing Structure)

[Play Song – Thump Thump Thump]

[Thanks!]
{Interview – Ending and Thanks}

[Podlick – Quick Jazz Guitar Outro]


[Outro]
Well, that’s all for our interview with Barry Louis Polisar. Many thanks to Barry for welcoming me into his home
If this conversation has piqued your interest, please head on out to Barrylou.com to find out more about all things Barry Louis Polisar. If you want to hear the little bit of “All I Want Is You” that was stuck in the groove, just stick around after the outro.

This is the last episode of season 5 of the Tim Tunes Podcast. How I got to 11 episodes instead of 10 I’ll never know. You may have noticed that it’s taking me longer and longer between episodes. That’s because I have a new job working as the Director of Lights and Sound for Chelmsford Center for the Arts in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. Next season I expect about a four to six week period between episodes. I’ll be taking some time off to release another edition of “The Rest of Tim Tunes Seasons 3,4 and 5 so that people can stream my original songs from the podcast that are not available elsewhere. 

Also, if you are going to be in Eastern Massachusetts on May 24th of 2025 then you should come to the Chelmsford Center for the Arts in Chelmsford Massachusetts to hear Tod Pronto give us a concert. Tod as you may remember was interviewed back in episode 7 of this season. I hope this is the first of many Tim Tunes Podcast inspired concerts and discussions, so please come on out and support Tod and the Podcast.

Finally, I’d like to thank my contributing patrons, Larry Green, James Leach, Terry Sullivan, and the late Sally Skislak  . Their contributions have made it possible for me to continue producing the podcast.  If you’d like to support me and the podcast, you can stream my songs online at whatever music streaming service you use. If you’d like an add-free version of the podcast you can find one on Patreon.com by becoming a subscriber. If you would like to make a one-time contribution, you can do so @rimtoes on venmo or paypal. That’s rimtoes R-I-M-T-O-E-S. It’s an anagram of Tim Rose.

Thanks for listening. I’ll be back in few months with an all new season of the Tim Tunes Podcast. Meanwhile, hang in there, Baby!

[Podlick – Motor Outro]

[In the groove part of All I Want is You]