Well, dear readers, it’s that time of the year again – that time when we must set our collective timepieces back one hour at two in the morning. It just boggles my already boggled mind that we must do this on March 7th. They, the Time People, just can’t leave well enough alone and frankly well enough wants to be left alone. Just like the Oscars, they push it earlier and earlier and I, for one, say that enough is enough. Soon they’ll start Daylight Saving Time in November. Or why don’t they just have it year round? Stop messing with the universe and our collective minds, you Time People. I gotta tell you.
Our very own dear reader Michael Shayne asked me a question about sequencing an album yesterday. And I’d intended to write about that very topic in today’s notes, and so I shall. For my money ($2.38), you can record the greatest album, the best vocals, the most fabulous tracks ever, and if you don’t sequence the album correctly it’s all for naught. I think most people who put CDs together these days just come up with an order not really based on anything other than being arbitrary or what might “feel” okay to the person doing it. When we did Unsung Sondheim and the Liz Sings Loesser albums, I knew we’d made magic in the studio. I knew the mix was fine. But there I was with however many tracks just sitting there like so much fish. As I sat staring at each album’s list of tracks trying to figure out how to start and how to end and what should go where, an idea came to me, completely out of the blue, but it was an idea that was just what I was looking for, and in all my years of record producing it has never ever failed me. And the idea was incredibly simple: I looked at the fourteen or fifteen tracks and I thought, I’m going to sequence this like a three-act play. Once I hit on that idea, it still took awhile, but I had my launching pad. Each act would have a beginning and an end and the ends of act one and two would propel us into the next acts. There would be a trajectory, an emotional through-line, even a little story, as it were. Sometimes I’d get it in a day, and sometimes it took weeks, but the three-act structure always worked. There were builds, lulls, right and left turns, surprises, humor, drama, beauty, and all laid out within a very strong framework. When I began I used to get a lot of letters (no e-mails back then) and phone calls from fans of the albums, and many of them mentioned that they’d played the album over and over, always from the beginning, and never skipping around. That was always one of the highest compliments I could get, because it meant I’d done my job well. In those pre iTunes days, it was incredibly hard to make multiple orders to listen to – very time consuming. Today, you just stick it all in iTunes and shuffle it around any way you like and figure it out in moments. For That Man From Rio, I spent a long sixteen hour day (after having spent several days listening to every piece of music recorded) sequencing the album, figuring out which short bits would be edited with other short bits to make a longer track, and then figuring out the sequence. I couldn’t be completely true to the film or you’d have had a lot of Brazilian source music all in a row, which doesn’t make for a pleasing listening experience. So, I came up with an order, burned a CD and listened. I didn’t like some of it, but all I had to do was go into iTunes and shuffle a few things around, burn another CD and listen. By about the fifth try I had it. If I’d had that luxury back in the day it would have made everything so much easier. Ah, technology.
I had quite an interesting day yesterday. I made all the press announcements at seven in the morning, sent out the Kritzerland eBlast, and orders started coming in right away. The most surprising thing to me was that in Kritzerland sales Anya was outperforming That Man From Rio. Of course, That Man From Rio had huge online dealer sales and was almost sold out before the announcement. It will be sold out this morning for sure. Because there’s a dearth of online dealers selling theater music, I only had a couple of dealer orders. So, Anya won’t sell out quite as quickly, but I was pretty happy with the first day of orders and I hope they keep coming in, as I’d like to do other shows but can’t if they’re not ultimately going to sell out. At only 1000 copies I should think it would. In the old days, we never sold less than 3000 of any show music CD – but that was when we had Tower and Virgin and Sam Goody and all those stores. Now people have to hear about it via the Internet and I just think it’s much harder to get the information out there. I also did some errands and whatnot, picked up a couple of packages, and ate some foodstuffs from Gelson’s. The Handy Man came over and fixed the blinds. It only took him two minutes and he didn’t charge me, but we’re going to have to replace the strings in the pully system. After that, I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture on DVD entitled The Helen Morgan Story, starring Miss Ann Blyth and Mr. Paul Newman. I rather liked this film back in the early 70s when I first saw it (I’d bought a 16mm print), but I found it rather turgid and long this time around. It’s certainly well directed by Michael Curtiz, and the actors are good and the music is good, although Gogi Grant’s vocals are all at one level – really LOUD. I like Miss Grant, but a little variety would have been nice. The film looks very good in this transfer – crisp black-and-white scope.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button Below because all too soon the hands of time will move forwards and at two o’clock in the morning it will suddenly be three o’clock in the morning. I hate when that happens, but when the Time People muck about with the universe everyone just goes along with it.
Today, I shall be doing some proofing, some CD listening, some movie watching, and hopefully printing out more CD orders for the two new Kritzerland releases. I don’t really have any other plans, and I don’t think I have anything scheduled for tomorrow.
The week, however, is filling up. And I’m hoping to have the two new Kritzerland releases by next Friday or the following Monday or Tuesday. I’m going to have to hire a couple of kids to come over and help address packages – way too many for me to do on my own. In fact, I have to order about seven hundred mailers on Monday. There are some interesting things happening this week and I’m looking forward to them and will have more about them a little closer to when they’re happening.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do the long jog (weather permitting), print orders, and have a day of leisure. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your all-time favorite Paul Newman movies? I’ll start – The Prize, Harper, Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, Absence Of Malice, and The Verdict. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst the hands of time do the Lambada (The Forbidden Dance) and skip an hour ahead because the Time People have so decreed.