the conversation
i was coming back to portland, from nashville, on sunday night by way of dallas.
it was an interesting flight, half of which i was actually asleep. but before i fell asleep i was eavesdropping on the two gentlemen behind me. one of whom was a little known country music songwriter and the other was Bruce Johnston, the sixth beach boy.
Songwriter Guy (SG) was an older man in his 40's. he lived and worked in irvine, ca., had a wife and two kids. from what i gathered SG would fly to nashville to meet with record execs, attend pitch meetings and network with the nashville music scene. my impression was that he had sold a few songs, but nothing really chart topping. he was on the fringe, still looking in.
Bruce was a made man. he'd written a few songs in the 60's (including a grammy winner), then lucked into the beach boy gig. he was living off royalties and occasionally touring with the remaining beach boys. a house in nashville and a place in santa barbara. he'd been out in nashville vacationing and pitching a Kokomo idea...
SG immediately recognized who Bruce was. i wouldn't have known him from adam's slightly shorter, uglier brother. the reason i started eavesdropping was Bruce mentioned that he was flying home to santa barbara.
they were having a conversation with each other, but it seemed to me that they were both talking to someone else.
SG would mention how he enjoyed writing with a partner and asked if Bruce had ever done that.
Bruce would mention how he thought someone should cover Kokomo, casually mentioning that Carrie Underwood should do the backup vocals and "isn't that a great idea?"
SG would name off some of the songs he'd written and for whom.
Bruce would ask SG if he'd ever been out to Catalina? If he hadn't, he'd need to book his family vacation the minute he landed in LA. "just book it. seriously, and after July 15th because the morning fog won't be a problem after that".
SG talked about his job in irvine and trying to juggle that with his dream of music.
Bruce talked about how much house you could get in Nashville for the same price of a condo in Santa Barbara (Sam, you should totally move!)
then it seemed there conversation finally met.
SG mentioned how hard it was to break in to the business of songwriting at an older age.
Bruce told him "i think you should just give up on the songwriting thing. it's just not for you".
i was waiting for some sort of rebuttal from SG, but none came. just a timid laugh.
i'm not sure what that laugh meant. Perhaps it meant, "ha, what do you know old man" or perhaps "ha, you're probably right".
i'd like to think that SG, in making conversation with Bruce, was trying to make a connection, not with a "beach boy", but rather with a rung on his ladder that he had started to climb late in life.
it was an interesting flight, half of which i was actually asleep. but before i fell asleep i was eavesdropping on the two gentlemen behind me. one of whom was a little known country music songwriter and the other was Bruce Johnston, the sixth beach boy.
Songwriter Guy (SG) was an older man in his 40's. he lived and worked in irvine, ca., had a wife and two kids. from what i gathered SG would fly to nashville to meet with record execs, attend pitch meetings and network with the nashville music scene. my impression was that he had sold a few songs, but nothing really chart topping. he was on the fringe, still looking in.
Bruce was a made man. he'd written a few songs in the 60's (including a grammy winner), then lucked into the beach boy gig. he was living off royalties and occasionally touring with the remaining beach boys. a house in nashville and a place in santa barbara. he'd been out in nashville vacationing and pitching a Kokomo idea...
SG immediately recognized who Bruce was. i wouldn't have known him from adam's slightly shorter, uglier brother. the reason i started eavesdropping was Bruce mentioned that he was flying home to santa barbara.
they were having a conversation with each other, but it seemed to me that they were both talking to someone else.
SG would mention how he enjoyed writing with a partner and asked if Bruce had ever done that.
Bruce would mention how he thought someone should cover Kokomo, casually mentioning that Carrie Underwood should do the backup vocals and "isn't that a great idea?"
SG would name off some of the songs he'd written and for whom.
Bruce would ask SG if he'd ever been out to Catalina? If he hadn't, he'd need to book his family vacation the minute he landed in LA. "just book it. seriously, and after July 15th because the morning fog won't be a problem after that".
SG talked about his job in irvine and trying to juggle that with his dream of music.
Bruce talked about how much house you could get in Nashville for the same price of a condo in Santa Barbara (Sam, you should totally move!)
then it seemed there conversation finally met.
SG mentioned how hard it was to break in to the business of songwriting at an older age.
Bruce told him "i think you should just give up on the songwriting thing. it's just not for you".
i was waiting for some sort of rebuttal from SG, but none came. just a timid laugh.
i'm not sure what that laugh meant. Perhaps it meant, "ha, what do you know old man" or perhaps "ha, you're probably right".
i'd like to think that SG, in making conversation with Bruce, was trying to make a connection, not with a "beach boy", but rather with a rung on his ladder that he had started to climb late in life.
posted by benji at 1:36 PM
6 Comments:
Bruce Johnson is my new hero.
Tell it like it is brother Bruce.
Bruce should make a record with Don Johnson. And call it Johnson and Johnson. He should also use their soaps and other products until his unsympathetic ears fall off.
Tell SG to get his stuff on Itunes, Apple will sell it for ninety-nine cents a pop and he'll be sailing off to Catalina with Carrie Underwood in no time.
I was hoping you'd have something for me to read while in Korea.
I was hoping you would have something for me to read while Casson was in Korea too.
Um yeah.
I was hoping I would get some new news about my favorite little girl in Portland.
Guess not.
You are a bad Official Herod Minister of Information.
I'm back from Korea now and you are fired! Give me your login and your password. I'll just make up stuff about you and Skyla and that cute little kid you've been hoarding info about.
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