Friday Tunes

“WHY IS THE MUSIC SO LOUD?” my friend yelled on the phone from his tour in Japan.  “I WRITE BETTER WITH THE MUSIC… WITHOUT THE HEADPHONES!” I screamed back. “I CAN’T WRITE MUSIC WITH MUSIC AT ALL!” he said.

Music is the soundtrack of my life.  I can’t seem to get away from it.  There is always a tune or lyric banging around in my head. It’s been that way for me since I was a child. Even when playing sports, I always hear the music. I've got a friend who recites the poetry of Robert Service when he’s mountain climbing. The themes from “Chariots of Fire” and “Star Wars” have kept me going more than once. I remember when “Astral Tunes” hit the ski slopes…a Walkman in a fanny pack, with good marketing. Simple but It brought the tunes to life on the mountain.

The weekly manifestation of this music fetish is what has come to be called “Friday Tunes”.  It started back in the mid-90’s when I was trying to get a client speech written on a Friday afternoon.  It was quiet at the agency. No one was around my office in the brick waterfront warehouse…so I took off the headset and cranked up the boom box to 15. I’m pretty sure it was Soundgarden’s Black Hole that was playing and words immediately started coming out of my fingers onto the keyboard. At the break between that cut and Juan Luis Guerra’s “El Costo De La Vida” that I picked up in Uruguay while learning to merengue , a woman’s voice from the other end of the building said, “Do you really like pop music?” I yelled back “I like all kinds of music. Is that ok?” “Go For It!” she said and “Friday Tunes” was born.

The rationale is that by 4pm on Friday, most people are ready for the weekend, if they’re even still at their desks. That last hour and half is “tension suspension” and winding down is the objective. 90 minutes seemed like a good set and I started to create the playlists on Thursday nights It began with vinyl to tape; then vinyl and tape to cd, digital to cd and ultimately, iTunes playlists to the player. My 5000 vinyl albums are gone and so are most of my 3000 cd’s. I do have close to 40,000 songs in the cloud,though, and I have even transferred my most treasured vinyl to digital files.

Eventually the entire agency got behind “Friday Tunes” and I would get email and text critiques as the songs would play.  Only one artist got a complete “thumbs down” and a “never play again”. I know there are names jumping into your heads but the answer is Britney Spears.  Oops…the reaction was actually violent.

Requests poured in during the week and I even received playlists that I founds ways to use. The key to Friday Tunes is the mix.  I really do like all kinds of music.  There is a wealth of great Acid Rock and Grunge, though an acquired taste, is really good, thanks to the insight of my close friend Susan and her stint as a deejay on KCMU (pre-KEXP). But my travels around the world have yielded some of the most fantastic finds. In Sydney on Australia Day, I sat in a luncheon meeting with Yothu Yindi winding through the crowd playing the didgeridoo. I still get goose bumps. Johnny Klegg in South Africa; Carlos Vives in Colombia; Mary Black in Ireland; Dougie MacLean in Scotland, just scratch the surface of what’s out there.

I try to hit most of the genres each week.  There have been themes.  During the Jewish Holidays, I pull out the stops on Itzhak Perlman, the Klezmatics, Barbara Streisand and, of course, the long version of “Sweet Caroline” from Neil Diamond. Country is a big hit with fiddles and banjos and guitars blazing. I’m even starting to like some originals from the TV show Nashville.  They've got great writers. Classical and Opera always play a role, whether it’s Pavarotti, Callas or Neville Mariner. The set is not complete without a dose of pop by decade. Pharrell Williams, Aloe Blacc, Avicii and Lorde are on the current list. But the opener is always the pacesetter.  Kung Fu Fighting is one of the best. One of my agency colleagues walked into my office at 4pm one Friday just as I hit the button. The drum beat almost knocked him down. Other great kick-offs are Dire straits “Money for Nothing”, “Boom Boom” by Chayanne and the title cut from arguably the best pop album of all time, Michael Jackson’s Thriller. We followed the crowd to the stadium in Buenos Aires to hear his fantastic SRO concert.

I've blown through 4  boom  boxes but all have served me well. The highlight was when my IT friend Mark found me a set of speakers that were worthy of a KISS Concert.  I never knew the db details but I could rattle the windows in the office building at half-volume. They were so good, however, that they were sold in an instant on eBay when the agency had bills to pay.

Unless I’m alone in a sound-proof room, the headphones are back on for Friday Tunes at the office…and I miss them. The mix is still there every week but that raw bass and treble from the woofers and tweeters is something special that helps finish that draft or launches you into the weekend. Regardless, as the song says, “The music is in me”, especially on Friday’s at 4pm.

It's been a year...

We had been exploring in York, England, for a few days and stopped in Cambridge on the way back to London. After our obligatory afternoon tea on the River Cam, we headed back to our friends’ home on the bank of the Thames. We’d been there a week and, although the jet-lag was over for us, the car ride made everyone ready for a nap, except me. The radio is always on in their home and I had to listen twice when I heard “Michael Jackson has died.” His much anticipated comeback tour was to begin in London on July 8 so his name was all over the news from the time we arrived.

Michael Jackson’s death was to this generation as Elvis Presley’s was to a generation earlier. Whether you liked his music (and I did) or not, he was an icon of the times. His persona was bigger than life. He had come from being a child star with his brothers to the ultimate pop star in front of our eyes over two decades. Even when things got very weird for him in the latter years, he stayed close to his fans and became quite a philanthropist.

One of Michael’s lasting tributes is the viral effects of the dance from his Thriller video that have permeated our society. Not since John Travolta’s famous disco moves in Saturday Night Fever has choreography moved the public the way Thriller did. It’s one of the all-time You Tube successes from subways and train stations to schools and living rooms. It is the number one music video of all time, according to MTV. I love the version that comes out of nowhere in the Jennifer Garner movie “13 Going On 30”. The movie is pretty sappy otherwise but that scene is a scream!

Michael’s music was all over BBC radio and television that night and we listened and reminisced to it right through my favorite dinner of Julia’s famous cottage pie, which just writing it makes my mouth water. His music is happy. It makes you feel good. It makes you want to dance…and we did, regardless of what the sight of me dancing does for you.

The next morning, we took a nice walk with our friends to the Two Rivers Mall near their home. I stopped in at the Boots Pharmacy and picked up all the London papers to add to my ever-growing souvenir collection. There was even a special section on “How to do the moonwalk.” People were trying it in all the open spaces at the Mall. It reminded me that Michael Jackson was an amazing entertainer. He made us smile. He made us move. He did what entertainers are supposed to do. He moved his audiences.

Throughout the period after his death and then the memorial service and burial, what struck me most was that the weirdness associated with him in recent years was not the topic. It was Michael Jackson’s talent and music and influence and philanthropy that took the front seat. That’s pretty special for an entertainer. It’s pretty special for any public figure.

I can’t do a playlist on my iPod without one Michael Jackson number just to get my feet moving and to put a smile on my face. Even one year later, Michael Jackson lives!