McBean agreed to meet them at the EMI House in Manchester Square, London around mid-February 1963. The photographer recalled later:

As I went into the door I was in the staircase well. Someone looked over the banister – I asked if the boys were in the building, and the answer was yes. “Well”, I said, “get them to look over, and I will take them from here.”

I only had my ordinary portrait lens, so to get the picture, I had to lie flat on my back in the entrance. I took some shots and I said, “That’ll do.”

The Creative Opportunist strikes again. See the photo here.

Cut to July, 2003. I was working on some lyrics in the wee hours (to What Did I Miss? ?), when something reminded me of The Sex Pistols’ Anarchy In The UK. Thinking I’d like to cover the song with Shoot The Messenger at some point, I scribbled down the title on a sticky note.

The next day, when I tried to read the note, it said Anarchy In The OK. Immediately, a narrative of Dodge City, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday, & the OK Corral unfurled in my brain. After about 20 minutes, I had myself a nice little Sex Pistols parody. We’ve performed it many times since.

The moral of the story…we’ll I think yo get the gist (Hey, what a great band name, The Gist!).

Anarchy In The OK Corral

By Rob Frail, ©2010, All Rights Reserved

And that is the True Genius of Picasso.

This could be a physical pattern (always acting nervous when your partner speaks); a verbal pattern (a mispronounced word that gets repeated, and/or extended to other words or meanings); or a scenic pattern (always reacting fondly to any reminiscence, no matter how inappropriate; then justifying it).

See below for a great example from the movie Spinal Tap. Another great example is Monty Pythons’  ‘Spanish Inqusition’ sketch, where Cardinal Ximenez, the lead inquisitor (Michael Palin) repeatedly stumbles over, then restates the list of their tools (“Our chief weapon is fear; fear & surprise – Our chief weapons are fear, surprise, and a ruthless..) In fact, the Pythons’ used this ‘mangling & restating a list’ game to the point of tedium (can I say that about them?)

Likewise, when I write a song, I try to ‘find the game’ of my song. For example, in Alive (My Iraqi War Diary, Part 1), the game is the narrators’ cynical, fatalistic, and brutally honest point of view (“I make the world safe for your SUV”).

In What Did I Miss? (My Iraqi War Diary, Part 2), the game is the answers to the question posed by the songs’ title: a recounting of the most trivial/superficial events of the past 21 years (at least until the last chorus; then Bam!…).

In My So-Called Democracy, the game is sarcasm. Lines like

where the fourth estate is bought by the second, I’m sure this is just what The Framers had reckoned

and

if the White House needs to pay the press, well, they’re only looking out for my best
and if rich folk are feeling oppressed, let’s give ‘em more tax breaks, ’cause that’s what’s best

state the opposite of what is meant for dramatic effect.

In the New Wave classic 88 Lines About 44 Women by The Nails, the game is stated right in the title: 44 women described 2 lines at a time. Listen carefully to every line: it’s a tour-de-force of lyric writing, eg:

Jackie was a rich punk-rocker, silver spoon and a paper plate.

Can you spell succinct?

Other popular songwriting ‘games’ include call-and-response, extreme variations in vocal range (eg, ‘emo’), and normal-time/double-time groove changes, where a songs’ choruses are twice/half the time as the verses.

My song On And Off (I Wanna See You) is a good example of this, as well as The Clash’s’ Should I Stay or Should I Go, and The Police’s’ So Lonely. The latter two double the time in the Chorus, whereas my song doubles the time in the Verses (or halves the time in the Chorus, said another way).

Not every song needs a ‘game,’ but it can jump-start your creativity and give your songs an additional hook.

Any other popular songs with games? Any games in your songs? Do tell.

- Rob

‘The Game’ of a Scene From Spinal Tap

Here’s a great definition and example from the movie Spinal Tap, from this excellent improv technique summary by Dan Goldstein:THE GAME OF THE SCENE SHOULD RHYME AND HEIGHTEN

Mark Twain had an adage that history doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes. The game of the scene is the thing that repeats. However, I don’t mean repeats exactly, which is why I say it rhymes. When you rhyme “star” with “are”, you take the word “star”, generalize it to the “-ar” family of rhymes, and find another specific member of that family. So it is with the game in the scene. You don’t want to repeat it exactly, but want to find another specific that rhymes with the general theme and heightens it.

Consider the following scene from Spinal Tap, with Marty interviewing Nigel about his Guitar collection:

Nigel Tufnel: Look… still has the old tag on, never even played it.

(Marty points his finger)

Nigel Tufnel: Don’t touch it!

Marty DiBergi: We’ll I wasn’t going to touch it, I was just pointing at it.

Nigel Tufnel: Well… don’t point!

Marty DiBergi: Don’t point, okay. Can I look at it?

Nigel Tufnel: No.

Notice that Nigel doesn’t insist on the guitar not being touched three times. Here, the pattern is: don’t touch, don’t point, don’t look. This is a rhyming pattern (all concerning observing a guitar). It is also a heightening, which is very important in game playing. Asking someone not to touch a prized guitar is a bit odd but understandable. Asking someone not to point to it is more strange, and asking someone not to look at it is heightening the game of “respecting the guitar” to an extreme.

Mike McHugh has booked many hot acts over 25 years including: Regina Spektor, G.E. Smith,  & Michelle Shocked.

I included never-or-rarely performed songs like Your Morning Smile, The Royal We, and Bleeding Heart (all award-winners, the last 2 in American Songwriter Magazines’ Lyric Contest). Left out were often performed songs My So-Called Democracy, and This Is Why Life Sucks. I also covered Watching The Detectives, in a slow, sultry groove, to great effect. Got it all on video; finally.

I had to rethink some arrangements, but I also had a great excuse to trot out my beautiful, but also-rarely-used-in-public Gibson ES-175, a rare 40th Anniversary Edition tricked out in gold hardware and cherry sunburst. It’s a great sounding/playing gem.

Taking my guitar teachers’ (Larry Coryell) advice, I finger-picked it most of evening.

To mix it up, I also bought a Roland RC-50 LoopStation the day before. Alas, not enuf time to work it in; but I did use it to provide drums on The Other Side Of Somehow.

Among regulars in attendance were recent email additions Deborah (from Wash. Sq. Park in August), and Marilyn (from the Haykos show in August); coincidence: turns out they’re good friends. So working the list pays off. We all went to The Olive Tree, on MacDougal St. for my Birthday Dinner.

A perfect Birthday.

Pretend You’re Alone,  by Keane

A Brit-pop masterpiece by some Brits

Crown Victoria, by Robbers On High Street (or here)

A Brit-pop masterpiece by some New Yawkas

My neighborhood in TriBeCa was mad stenchful from the largest office fire in history: the molten slag pile that used to be The Twin Towers.

In my cube farm at work today, in Jersey City, an employee opened a letter, and some white power fell out. The Police & the NJ Dept of Health converged, and sealed off the affected area; which meant that most of us, about 40 people, were on the non-exit side of a large room. We were trapped here while crime scene investigators collected evidence, including 2 peoples’ clothing, and gave them white paper ‘clean suits’ to where home. Fun.

I had yellow tape stretched right outside my cubicle, saying “Police Line, Do Not Cross.” This was a Mad Serious, Don’t-Breathe-Unless-You-Have-To Anthrax Scare.

And I had to pee.

Cut to 53rd St, Manhattan, 10.30pm. I’m walking west towards 7th Ave with 2 friends. We had just come from a movie at MOMA, and were looking for food. Suddenly, we hear some kinda commotion behind us. We turn. Two women come up to us and say “OMG, that was Paul McCartney!” In the distance, a small shadow of a man walked away.

Quickly, I ask my friend for a piece of paper and a pen; she produces a yellow sticky note pad and a pen; close enough. Armed for an historic (or hysteric) encounter, I take off after what was claimed to be, and who we thought was Paul, the most famous person on the entire friggin’ planet (too bad the Fab Four never got to play Mars; Brian Epstein blew the deal, I hear).

I would never have pursued Paul unless I had my brand new, 3-wheeled, convex-shock-absorbing-boarded, K2 Trifecta Scooter. Not only was this thing quick, it handled like a BMW.

I pushed off, and surfed the sidewalk heading east, catching up to “Paul” in short order (no pun intended, but he’s only like 5′4″), about 30 yards from 6th Ave. I passed him and stopped ahead. I pulled out my yellow sticky note pad & pen just as he was passing me on my right, dressed in a tuxedo. My timing was perfect, and my script was ready; I turned to him, and said:

“Excuse me, Sir Paul, would you sign this, please?”

I suppose I coulda some something lame, like “would you Please Please Me, & sign this?” But lame’s not my game.

He stopped & looked at me; Holy Mother Of Music, IT REALLY WAS PAUL <friggin’> MACCARTNEY, the most famous person on the planet. He extended his hand to me and said:

“I’m sorry, but I don’t sign autographs in public — but I will shake your hand”

This was unintentionally, but pricelessly ironic: the guy who wrote “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” wanted to hold my hand!

I put my pen in my other hand, and held his hand; we shook; I mumbled something original, something about being a big fan, and said thank you. And Paul walked off into the night.

Of course I didn’t wash that hand for twenty whole ……….. minutes, just before we had dinner. Rejoining my friends, we found a diner; I don’t even remember what or where. I just remember joking that maybe I’d passed on some Antthrax to Sir Paul, and it was all on me if something should happen to him; we’d better keep an eye on him.

The next night, I saw him on TV, doing the live Concert For New York City, from MSG, Pauls’ gift to the citys’ emergency workers (police, fire, EMTs, etc). I read in the paper soon after that some people threw Paul a banquet to honor his generosity, the night before. So I must’ve met him on his way to or from his banquet, especially as he was dressed in a tuxedo.

Too my bad cell phone didn’t have a camera back then.

At the end of the show, as Larry stood at the mic and said goodnight to the appreciative Iridium fans, I heard him call my name, as gave me a Shout Out as one of his best students.

With a teacher like him…living, breathing, talking jazz history, any fan of jazz or rock must read his autobiography, ‘Improvising, My Life In Music.’

Did you know Larry was a journalism major? and a record-breaking pole vaulter?

Able to leap complex chords in a single bound!

The non-Larry photo below is of Tommy Doyle, Les Pauls’ guitar tech for the last decade, and wow, what a great guitarist, too.

Larry crashed in my apt a few times when he was in town. This is after a night at the Blue Note.

]]> http://www.shootthemessengermusic.com/feel-me/blog/2009/10/larry-coryell-iridium-101909/feed/ 1 http://www.shootthemessengermusic.com/feel-me/blog/2009/08/who-is-shoot-the-messenger/ http://www.shootthemessengermusic.com/feel-me/blog/2009/08/who-is-shoot-the-messenger/#comments Fri, 21 Aug 2009 12:44:29 +0000 Rob http://69.175.20.154/~shootth2/?p=339 My Biodata