Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Singer-songwriter and composer known for satirical songs like "Short People" and Academy Award-winning film scores.
On the island
Eight records
String Quartet No. 16 in F major, Op. 135: III. Lento assai, cantante e tranquilloFavourite
They're all great. Everything he wrote almost. This is uh one thirty five uh in F major with the Hollywood string quartet played in the studio orchestra at uh Twentieth Century Fox. And I worked with a few of them. And many people think that their versions of the late Beethoven quartets are the best versions, and that would make it, since it's some of the best music ever written. about the best thing that ever came out of Hollywood.
Goodbyes (from How Green Was My Valley)
is the Goodbye from How Green Was My Valley, which was composed by Alfred and is one of his best scores, I think.
I love George Jones. I love its voice. You know, in high school it's too backward to have girlfriends, really, many of them anyway. Any, to tell the truth. But I remember I broke up with somebody later later in life. And it hurt. And uh I couldn't believe that billions of people had gone through this. And I remember driving around listening to George Jones, and all of a sudden I realized why all these crummy lyrics. You know, things that would have embarrassed me about how saccharine they were, they really kind of hit home.
Fletcher Henderson and His Orchestra
In some of these things by Henderson in around 1927, 1929, there's like five good ideas in the piece. I don't know whether it was the arranger or the tune itself, but uh they were my favorites.
The Rite of Spring: Sacrificial Dance
Boston Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Benjamin Zander
While Stravinsky is a big deal, important deal, those three pieces he wrote in the early part of the last century Ryder Spring, Petrushka and Firebird They're tremendous pieces, the writer spring particularly.
Symphony No. 15 in A major, Op. 141: I. Allegretto
London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Bernard Haitink
Some of the things I like. like this piece are when composers are sort of beyond Caring about public or anything else. And this sounds like Shastakovich was writing for himself.
Symphony No. 9 in D major: IV. Adagio
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karajan
I love Mahler and the Adagio the Ninth is representative of him and it's a great piece.
You know, this may have been my favorite record. I mean, um I I I don't know how many records I've bought that non-classical records, but it's not fifty. And uh This record I loved, and I loved him, loved him.
In conversation
Presenter asks
9:36Did it matter then when you eventually won [an Oscar]?
I didn't think it would matter, because I know that merit is not necessarily what wins those things. But then I got out there, and the orchestra was standing. It really touched me that they would do that … and the audience was standing up and … I was kind of choking up and I said, my God, you know, I'll never live it down if I like break down up here at something like this shallow. So I pulled myself together there and took it and went. But it really surprised me, shocked me that I was so moved by this, you know, because it's not meaningful.
Presenter asks
13:21Were you shy [in school]?
Yeah, I think I've always been shy. Maybe it's my eyes, you know, uh my eyes d they don't fuse, you know, I see double, like I see two of you. So I I tended not to look people in the in the eye. And that made it difficult to say, hey, would you like to go to the dance with me? or I think.
Presenter asks
19:36How did that go down [writing a love song for your first wife while married to your second]?
My wife I'm married to now asked me not to play it when she was at a show. But I can't remember whether I did or not. Well it's really a good song I might have, but I I didn't need it.
The keepsakes
The book
Dante Alighieri
I think I take Dante's The Divine Comedy in Italian with an English translation, and I try and translate it.
Presenter asks
22:42Is it true your concerts were picketed [over the song Short People]?
Yeah. By little people. And I got a death threat, too, in Memphis. And my manager said, you know, I used to be in the road with the carpenters, that this would happen to them all the time. And I said, Really? And he said, Yeah, yeah, you know, about once every three concerts they get a death threat. So I said, Okay. So I went out there and did it.
Presenter asks
27:00Is the process [of composing] enjoyable for you, or is it a tortured process?
When I'm going good, it's all right. When I don't know what to do. tortured for a moment. If I only had the ability. To look ahead at consequences. I mean, I'd realize that things are going to turn out okay. I mean, I've done it so many times that I know I'm going to get an idea that will get me out of this scene. And I know that I'm going to write another song because I've written 100 before.
“I sometimes think that [my mother] might have been happier if she'd stayed down. uh in New Orleans. She got treated differently there.”
“I'd take a song wherever I found it. Uh I wouldn't care whether it hurt me or those close to me or anyone. It's life and death to me.”
“I never really loved anything but pain medication. That includes my family.”
“I've done three albums in 20 years. I mean, that's pathetic. You know? It really is. And I'll try and do better. What can I say?”