Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
2 appearances
Lyricist of Jesus Christ Superstar and Don't Cry for Me, Argentina; wrote books for Disney's Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, the Lion King.
On the island
Eight records
I can remember the day I first heard it. I was painting my bedroom in April 1961. I knew it was a number one hit record when I heard it, and it was.
I think he is one of the underrated men of British music. I mean, he's hugely successful, but I think his contribution to British pop music, and indeed that of the Shadows, is very underrated. And one of my favourite of his early hits is Travelling Light.
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karajan
partly because it's a great piece of music but mainly because it reminds me of my wife who is Scottish
I really could have taken any one of his tracks as he's my favourite singer
Stand By Your ManFavourite
I think on the Desert Island I would love to be soothed by this every night as I go to bed on my own.
W. H. Berry with the Palace Theatre Orchestra
Why that should appeal to me when I was nine, I'm not quite sure. But now that I have tragically got past the fifty mark it cuts me to the quick but it's it's it's a very funny record.
I'm a great fan of David's and a great friend of David's and he made a wonderful record which wasn't a big hit, it was a sort of small hit, part of a project by Mike Reid ... who'd set a lot of John Betcherman's poems to music
Once in Royal David's CityFavourite
Choir of King's College, Cambridge
It's just a magnificent hymn. It takes me back to my school days, to my youth, to my children.
Terry Gilkyson, Richard Dehr & Frank Miller
I have the Everly Brothers doing a unique take on the great Dean Martin song.
I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone
Stan Kesler & William E. Taylor
I have to have Elvis. If if you know about Elvis, you'll know why I have to have him. If you don't, you'll never understand.
Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus
I've decided to give in and take a song I was involved with. Um and it's sung by Elaine and it's from chess. And it's just, I think, almost my favorite song of all the songs I've ever written
I just you know think the Rolling Stones are Brilliant.
The last one is a sentimental choice. It's a it's a record about a father and his daughter. And it's one of my favorite American pop singers, Bobby Darin.
In conversation
Presenter asks
3:12What happened when you left school?
Well, I let me think, golly. Um, straight away I was a petrol pump man for a while and then I went to Paris to the Sorbonne University. Yes. Studying what? Well, I was on a thing called the Course de Civilisation Française, which was vaguely a thing for foreign students to try and brush up their French. Um I had the A level just and um the idea was to get me more or less fluent in French, mhm, which more or less worked. And I lived in Paris for six months at Sorbonne on this fairly short course. Following that I then went into the law, which was possibly a mistake as I didn't do very well at it.
Presenter asks
4:19When and where did you meet Andrew Lloyd Webber?
I met Andrew in March 1965 in his flat. I'd heard about him through hawking my songs around. I'd heard that this other young fellow was also hawking his songs around. And he, I'd heard, was very good at tunes and I wasn't very good at tunes. And I thought, well, perhaps I could do some lyrics. And so I got hold of his number and rang him up. And he said, come around to my flat and we'll have a chat. And we got on very well.
Presenter asks
4:47What was the first thing you wrote together?
I think the first thing we wrote was a pop song, which I believe I remember right. It was called Patterns of Love. but it didn't actually get anywhere. It wasn't even recorded by anybody. But we didn't write an awful lot to begin with. The first six months or so of knowing Andrew, we just sort of did things together, like go to football matches or go to Ricky Nelson concerts. We didn't actually think about doing a huge epic or anything.
The keepsakes
The book
Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle
It's just a brilliant book and very funny.
The luxury
because I could look at the stars and try and teach myself something more about them, and also look for ships on the horizon.
Presenter asks
6:26What was your first success with Andrew?
Our first financial success, of course, was Superstar, but our first success critically was Joseph. Joseph and the Amazing Technique on a Dreamcoat. That started as a as a very short piece, didn't it? It was to be a one-off performance and after we'd had all these dreams about Dr. Bernardo being a West End Smash, it was a bit of a come-down for us to write something just for one ten-minute spot in a in a prep school end of term concert. But it was such a success on this very small level that it grew from there and it was published by Novellos as a school textbook and gradually things grew and and all this time I was in fact still working with Norrie Paramore.
Presenter asks
15:24How do you work with Andrew? Who writes what first?
Well, in the case of anything musical, we have a joint discussion on the plot, really. I might say, well, this is the very rough outline, and Andrew will say, well, let's bring in A, B, C plot features. And then Andrew will write a tune to each scene, already knowing what the feel of it is, what the words are in fact going to say, even though we haven't even got a title perhaps. And then I will put words to the music. Um so it's really mood or plot, tune, words. And then of course we might make the odd alteration if if something doesn't work.
Presenter asks
20:47If you could take just one disc out of the eight, which would it be?
I think I would take the Tammy Winnette. I think it would be very relaxing.
Presenter asks
2:04Can you define what it takes to be a good lyricist?
I think I'm quite good at at getting a situation into song, into lyrics, but that's because I can imagine a character. I can imagine a lady on a balcony talking to 20,000 workers at a demonstration, and I can write a song about that. Or I can imagine a warthog with wind problems. These are things which you have a real character, and you can therefore write something that works for that character.
Presenter asks
7:46How did you first meet Andrew Lloyd Webber?
I took this idea for the Guinness Book of Fit singles ... to Desmond Elliott, a very distinguished publisher. ... He didn't like the idea ... But he said, Well, I know a young man called Andrew Lloyd Webber, who I'm sort of looking after, and maybe you should get together with him, because he's another songwriter. And that was how we met.
Presenter asks
20:04Why did you and Andrew Lloyd Webber eventually part?
We kind of drifted apart. I mean, we were firstly, I didn't have another idea that really appealed to me that quickly. Andrew wanted to do some things on his own. ... It was adrift. It wasn't a major coming to blows. There was no fight.
Presenter asks
24:41Did you lose confidence after Chess flopped on Broadway?
I think I did lose a bit of confidence and I thought, well, maybe I've had a good run, you know, just as is I like it, not not enough people do. But I was I was kind of saved by getting involved with the great Walt Disney organization.
Presenter asks
31:16Do you sometimes wish you and Andrew Lloyd Webber had stuck together?
I certainly think often it would have been nice if we'd done a few more together. On the other hand ... It was a tough act to follow and we'd only if we'd had a couple of flops together, then that might have taken some of the luster away from the old ones.
“I think I'd quite enjoy the novelty for a while, but probably it would wear off.”
“I can remember the day I first heard it. I was painting my bedroom in April 1961. I knew it was a number one hit record when I heard it, and it was.”
“I'm a don't know, and I didn't want to sort of force a viewpoint down anybody else's throat which I didn't actually know about myself.”
“I'm not very hot on that sort of thing. I mean I'm sh absolutely certain that if one actually was there one would have to do these things and and perhaps would knock up a reasonable fire, but I'm I'm not a dab hand round the home.”
“I think I would take the Tammy Winnette. I think it would be very relaxing.”
“I would take a cricket bag full of cricket kit.”
“I think composers are slightly fortunate in that they have a kind of mystique because not everybody can write music. But it's very hard for a prodigy to turn out great literature until he or she is seventeen or eighteen.”
“There's two graphs in a creator's life. There's the graph of youthful enthusiasm, which sort of goes downwards, obviously, and there's the graph of expertise which goes upwards. And when they cross, when you're about thirty one, that's when you're at your peak, and that was the Vita.”
“I'd rather do nothing than something I don't want to do.”
“People always say the great thing about musical theatre ... is the collaboration. This for me is the worst. It's the one thing I hate about it. You know, it's you have to worry about the other people.”