I didn’t make this, but kudos to whoever did!
This past extended Thanksgiving weekend was a cornucopia of new music creation. The calendar was completely empty so I made it a goal to spend every waking second that I could tethered to my computer with headphones on and a guitar in my lap making music, and that I did! I warmed up the weekend prior by making a new electronic tune called Bridgewalker. As mentioned in that link, I supposedly have trigger finger but am waiting to get into a hand specialist to confirm and get it de-triggered. It’s getting better but still feels like the tip of my finger is bruised, and if I try and play guitar with it I get lovely sporadic electrical zings in my wrist and finger. I’ve you’ve ever licked a 9V battery to see if it has any juice left in it and it tells your tongue yes, there’s definitely juice left in it, that’s sort of what it’s like.
I figured if Jason Becker can compose using only movement of his eyeballs, I sure as heck am not gonna let a bum finger stop me from crapping out some new music, at least unless it lets me know that I need to stop or the hand specialist tells me I need to. I put my good fingers (and a lot of strategic punch-ins and editing) to work while keeping my index finger at a straight non-hurty angle. Although I can’t play nearly as well as I do with all 10 fingers it’s kind of becoming second nature.
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Having TV and movies on in the background with barely audible sound is my biggest creative partner when it comes to making music and drawing. It allows thoughts and i-dee-ers to flow much easier than just gazing into a blank sheet of paper or a computer screen in silence. I don’t really ever sit and watch the stuff, it’s just on to glance at when I need a brain breather every now and again. Usually 70s/80s movies and TV are the ultimate songwriting performance enhancing drug for me, and that was definitely the case with these tunes. I was cranking episodes of Love Boat, Brady Bunch, Laverne & Shirley, and Fantasy Island to name a few. And then there’s the movies.
This one’s right up there with Gone With the Wind.
Very late on Thanksgiving Eve as the 1986 heavy metal classic Trick Or Treat was on in the background I started what became the song “Ragman” (full title: “Nova 45: The Ballad of Leslie and Ragman”). There’s a scene in the movie where a teen girl and boy are in the back of a car and in a heated make out session, complete with ridiculously exaggerated moaning. He suddenly stops and decides he needs to leave the car for a bit to catch some air, just as I’m sure any horny teenage jock would do. While he’s out regrouping, she discovers a Walkman and a cassette tape. She curiously pops in the tape, puts on headphones, and sits back to enjoy some music. Soon a glowing green fog emits out of the headphones and proceeds to, uh, violate her. Right as she peaks, POOF – a big monster appears over her and kills her dead. Her boyfriend returns to the car only to find her in a fresh state of not-aliveness, headphones still on her head and smoldering. Annnnnd end scene.
Friday night I put the movie on again to keep the vibe going as I was arranging the song and dialing in sounds. As the epic song ending was happening, that scene happened to be on and the two fit together perfectly. It made me laugh quite hard. If I had time I’d edit the two together and share it here.. but I don’t! “Nova 45” was the brand name on her headphones. I Googled them and they used to be sold at Radio Shack. Nothing but the finest on that movie set.
Here’s the tune in its entirety:
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The SHAZBOT/Mork Colorforms that have adorned my guitar for quite a few years now
Mork & Mindy was one of my favorite shows as a kid and I hadn’t watched it in decades, so thanks to Vudu I decided to embark on a Mork-a-Thon. Saturday afternoon as I was in the midst of the Mork-a-Thon and wrapping up “Ragman”, I opened a new recording session in Logic and threw down another idea that came to mind. That lead to a domino effect of other ideas and after about 2 hours all of the parts that needed to be in it were done. By Sunday afternoon I was happy with the arrangement and it was complete. I wish they all happened that quickly.
There were way too many amusing things that I caught glancing up at the TV during the Mork-a-Thon to cite any specific scene like what happened with Trick or Treat. I guess if I had to pick one it would be Season 2 Episode 1 where Mork shrinks from an allergic reaction to cold meds (FYI – I learned that Orkans don’t sneeze like we do – their sneezes are in the form of laughter). There must have more coke and Quaaludes in the writing room than usual for that one. Eventually Mork became so small that he evaporated into another dimension where he was taken hostage by 3 weird fellas whose names were parodies of comic actors. One of them, Jerry Looney, was so stupid that I laughed out loud and had to rewind it to watch him again. Jerry was a little, how do you say, special. I’ll just leave it at that. Imagine a really, really dumbed down version Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber. Here’s the clip:
Between Jerry Looney, Robin Williams (no duh), and the cheesy but cool special effects they used to pull off Mork’s shrinking, that one stands out the most.
Without further Nanu Nanu, I present you with the Iced Ink Mork/Robin Williams tribute song, “Shazbot!” Here’s to the next round of new Iced Ink music whenever it happens and cranking these two new ones out with Gregg and Ethan in the live version of the band!
