The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Moments In Time: Stories About Artists and Songs Of The 50s, 60s, And 70s. For Fans of Music … From A Music Fan Paperback by Tom Locke

Episode Date: December 15, 2024

Moments In Time: Stories About Artists and Songs Of The 50s, 60s, And 70s. For Fans of Music ... From A Music Fan Paperback by Tom Locke Amazon.com Mitstories.com Hubcs.com In February 2024 "Moments In Time" received its 5th award when it was selected as a Book Excellence Award Winner in the Music Category. Out of thousands of books that were entered into the 2024 Book Excellence Awards competition, I am honored that my book was selected for its high quality writing, design and overall market appeal. Moments In Time is all about music. This book will put a smile on your face as the author, Tom Locke, takes you back in time to the music of the 50s, 60s, and 70s with entertaining, informative stories about known and forgotten artists and songs. To top it off, Tom has made this book interactive by creating access to the songs featured in each of these stories. One click and you’ll be listening, singing, and dancing. These stories will provide you with answers to questions about artists and their songs. How did Tommy James come up with the title for his hit record, “Mony Mony”? Who was the three-time Oscar winner to have a Top 10 record at the age of 67? What motivated Doc Pomus to write “Save The Last Dance For Me”? When did the original version of “Blue Velvet” appear on the music charts? What singer was classified as a two-time “one-hit wonder”? The perfect escape back to yesteryear, these stories will provide insight for both young and old, and perhaps jog your memory about the fun times you experienced because of this era of music, which continues to be embraced today. “I have met many people in the field of Rock & Roll these past 60 years, but no one has impressed me more when it comes to reflecting on the history of this music genre. Tom Locke is a true Rock & Roll historian who really knows the detailed history of the evolution of this great music. He has written a book that is worth its weight in Solid Gold." – Mr. Music, Norm N. Nite, legendary Deejay & Author Tom Locke lives in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, spending the majority of his time writing and executive producing in the entertainment industry. Over the past 25 years, Tom has also studied and consulted on the impact of digital technology in business. It was during this period of time that he introduced the online world to his music creation, “Moments In Time.” He has a passion for music. Writing this book was a natural for him as he was weaned on the music of the 50s, 60s, and 70s while growing up in Toronto. The book became a reality thanks to the online listening audience at Treasure Island Oldies, who encouraged Tom to share his impeccably researched music segments that he has produced on a weekly basis for this show since August 2000.

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because you're probably like me, the black sheep of your family, and everyone gives you that side eye and those dirty looks over Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. But, you know, I mean, it gives you something to do in life, disappointing your family. Keep rolling with it. Get them on your good side, though. Maybe refer them to the show or bring them to the dark side, I guess. I don't know what I'm talking about. I'm just brambling, making it up again.

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Today we have an amazing author on the show. We're going to be talking about his journey. He's a multi-book author. He's a musician, and he is an audiophile of music. And he does consulting and coaching. And we're going to talk about some music therapy therapy through music which is good because you know he's metallica for a lot of my depression and and anytime i need to get stuff done but after after you know a good head banging

and metallica you know you feel better you get all that anger out misery and you just feel clean so there's there's there's therapy to it too folks we may be able to help some people at the show he's the author of the latest books that came out in october 22nd 2021 moments in time stories about artists and songs of the 50s 60s and 70s for fans of music from a music fan tom lock will be joining us in the show, and he has a second book in that series as well, for Moments in Time,

where they talk about great music and everything else that went into it. Because, you know, there was a lot of great music in that time period that was great. Don't get me started on the music today. Get off my lawn, you kids. So there's that. Tom Locke is a gentleman who was raised in toronto he moved to vancouver in 1984 and began working the film and entertainment industry he had the opportunity to work alongside

like-minded individuals and play an integral role in creating a billion dollar industry for british columbia and my my favorite band rush probably came out of that and probably so did what's the band that everyone hates and from that's from Canada Other than Justin Bieber Nickelback. Anyway, I'm really just doing jokes folks in 1995 Tom founded rain make rain maker digital pictures corporation prior to this he was president CEO of Gastown post and transfer and He provided a complete range of digital post-production services for national and international film and video producers. Some of his TV projects that he worked on post-producing included 21 Jump Street, The X-Files, and Millennium. And over the feature film side of the business, Tom had the pleasure of working on services for Legends of the Fall with Brad Pitt, if you remember that movie.

What a great movie that was. He won an Academy Award for Cinematography. And over the past 25 years, he studied and consulted on the impact of digital technology in business and introduced the online world to his music creation moments and time books and created a wall down memory lane. Welcome to the show. How are you, Tom? I'm great, Chris. It's wonderful to have you, Tom. I know we probably have a delay because you're in Canada

right I'll just finish everything with a and a boot Tom give us your dot coms where do you want people to find you on the interwebs if I'm in a couple of spots certainly as it relates to my books that's www.mitstories.com. Obviously, the MIT

standing for moments in time. So that's mitstories.com. My books are available on Amazon worldwide. In terms of my consulting business and that, you can get me at hubS dot com. That's H-U-B-C-S, stands for consulting services, dot com. So it's my other website there. There we go. So give us a 30,000 overview of what's inside your books, your two books on this series. I think the interesting thing is how they came about. For a number of years, I was just loving music. It was an escape for me from my business day so it would be right

up front the beautiful thing about music it can be played you could be doing something else the last thing i wanted to do because of my background in the film and entertainment industry was watch another piece to be edited on a screen so it was a great escape for me and over the period of time i got this idea do you remember a guy by the name of paul harvey yes i love paul harvey i grew up with paul harvey came out of chicago and the rest of the story it was beautiful it was a syndicated show and so one day like you chris i i think of ideas at night and music is a key to me and i'm driving along i said what if we had a paul harvey type thing about music in other words the guy gets on in the morning so your drive to or your drive

home and he throws these tidbits of information out you don't know where he's coming from he breaks for a commercial comes back tells you the rest of the story and then plays the tune what a neat idea yeah you know nice five minute piece yeah and i love that because like i there are some there's some music that's so good i never learned the words of what the hell the songs are about so an example is like steely dan and steely dan you know we've had Steely Dan's producer on the show for Asia, and I think he did the one thereafter. And he produced like Barbra Streisand, Jara Straits, I mean, you name it. And through the 70s, he was like the god, I think he's named the godfather of recording producers. But, you know, Steely Dan, the music was so good for 20 or 30, 20, 25 years.

How old am I? I never knew much about the lyrics. I kind of knew the lyrics, but I didn't really have a clue what the hell they were talking about. Cause a lot of Sealy dance stuff is ambiguous. And I didn't know why they wrote the songs. And so finally, after 20 years, I started sitting down with the lore of their music and what I'm like, what are the, I finally i finally i'm like i really need to learn what these lyrics are about what's a booker knobber you know and so i started you know wikipediaing this sort of stuff and i was just in train i was like holy crap i've been singing lyrics about

something i have no idea this is what what about you know and so the history of this you know how the songs are written and what's really great is a lot of artists are getting online now. I've been watching a lot of Stuart Copeland from the police getting online and just talking about how they made the police and how everything happened. And it's just so rich and adds a fabric or adds to the tapestry of the fabric of their music that once you understand, you know, the data and the stories. And so you compiled those in your books so that people have these stories. And I believe there's some interviews in them as well. There is. And it's interesting you mentioned that because when you play a song

and you get appreciation of the background is one thing, but the other thing is the trigger of the memory. Where were you when that song was played? You know, what happened at that time in were you when that song was played you know what what happened at that time in your life when that song came out and those are are big selling factors in today's world strangely enough as we've mentioned in business many times in a lot of places i spoke timing is a wonderful thing so when i came up with this crazy idea, I took it to my friends in Nashville. And I said, hey, I want you to listen to these five-minute spots.

This is 1986. Okay, 1986. So this isn't something that's happened overnight. So it's 1986. I take these five-minute spots down. I have a demo of five songs. And I take them to a place where a company called Filmhouse, who do all, at that time, all the video commercials for radio stations.

You remember those? Boom, they, you know, bop in the song. So he had his clients, he had his people inside, and they're listening to him. And they came back to me and said, no, Tom, these won't work, because we want shows we we want casey casem's top party one dick clark's three-hour show so we can just pencil those into the show and we're done so i threw him in my bag and and and i kept him on the shelf to about 1990 95 97 1995-97, I sat down with a former A&R guy with A&M Records, a gentleman who discovered

Brian Adams. His name is Michael Godin. We became good friends. And Michael says, you know, I think this internet thing's going to work. And we're going to put music on that show. And I'm going to put a show on there. And he has. it's called Treasure Island Oldies. It's been on for 27 years. He started it in 1997. And about three years in, about 2000, I came to him, I said, hey, Michael, I wrote these things, you know, back at this idea in the 70s, produced it in the 80s and went nowhere. What do you think about a five minute show? And we'll do this and then you play the record. Well, he loved the idea plus i brought a sponsor in with me with me so that certainly helped and we've been doing them for 27 years i do one every sunday night for him and so what happened was his audience which international says tom you got to

put these in a book these would be be really cool. And you know, you got other things going, I'm consulting, I'm doing other stuff. So I was on the side of my desk because music was an escape. I didn't want to turn this into, you know, real work. But then COVID hit. So COVID was a big thing for me, because I wasn't going anywhere. And I got a chance to put these in a book. But then you had to take a look at the target group and where you're going. So this is, to me, the key part. At USP, people talk about that unique selling principle. What could I do?

What could I make my book different? It's not just another book of music. And heaven knows there's a plethora of them out there. So the key was, how am I going to write this? So the Paul Harvey idea was there. So I'm going to write them as a mystery and then finish off at the end. And then, but all the stories are only going to be two pages. Because again, you know, attention span of newts in today's world.

So I picked something up from the younger generation. So I write these. And then with my technology background i'm going i want instant gratification like it was on the radio so what i've done in the book and i think i pioneered this the first book i know in in the world it's done this way the stories are two pages when you turn over to the second page you get down to the far corner there's a qr code you put your smart camera over the qr code leads you to the song you can hear it oh wow so you you knew you've you've so you've tied like you know that was the problem i had i mentioned earlier that

i would wikipedia stuff right i'd google the lyrics you know I mean with Steely Dan you know the was the song the Fez I didn't know what a Fez was for a long time yeah it was a hat turns out it was a condom and I had no idea I was like I was like what you know and here I've been singing this song for 20 years probably people sit around going why are you singing them do know what this song's about and you know it's a fun artsy song about about that and but the fact that you could you've tied the stories to the music where you can listen to the music you know kind of what you're recreating you can correct me if i'm assessing this wrong but one of the things that you and i used to do in our age with growing up with albums

LPs there were these giant pieces of artwork and you didn't have the internet so you didn't you didn't you couldn't look up you know what was going on with the band but the only real communication you have from the band was the LP the music and the cover and you know the liner notes I suppose if there were pictures or if it was a gatefold that would fold out, but that was your whole connection to the band. And so you would get the album, you'd run home, you put on the record player and then you would sit and, you know, I would read the notes, I'd read the lyrics. I'd, I'd even read, you know, who the producers were and the engineers were. Cause know there was a lot of great the i forget the big master mastery master

audio mastery guys i think it was bill graham or there was anyway you look at the producers you know and and you just you just that was your whole thing i remember i remember one of my first albums i ever got a hold was billy jill's philip 52nd street and i think i've looked at every microcosm of that picture the dirt on the road the dirt on the street his attitude his look you know the the back of the presentation and the songs and you're like hmm do the songs interweave with the cover? And, you know, what's the messaging here? And so people love that sort of immersion in the experience of not only listening to the music, but, you know, and that's how we used to consume it. And then suddenly, you know, the artwork got smaller to where it just became almost worthless. And people didn't really care.

It seemed like for a while they're about putting out good artwork. And, you know, I think people are going back to that. We talked before the show. LPs have, they kind of went down for a while and they've kind of stayed steady. And now they're just great collectors on them. I just spent, I think, about $1,000 about six months ago buying a whole mess of LPs that I threw away years ago. Oh, yeah. What do you think about that? Have I done a good assessment of whatPs that I threw away years ago. Oh yeah. What do you think about that? Have I, have I done a good assessment of what you're doing in the book? Yeah.

I, in the book, it's really given that background and story or setting up a situation that you're familiar with. Example, everybody's gone to weddings, you know, and you're waiting for the speeches to get over, you're having dinner and if that DJ doesn't get us out in the floor in the third dance, then, you know, there're waiting for the speeches to get over you're having dinner and if that dj doesn't get us out in the floor in the third dance then you know there's something there's something wrong here totally yeah so i would talk about a story about hey you're at a wedding you know go over and you can't tell me you didn't hear this song so they're trying to figure out what song would be playing at a wedding i go through and tell the story a good example is tommy james is moni moni i did that in the first book and then billy joel covered that or billy

idol covered that billy idol but the interesting thing is about that story just as an example a lot of people don't know how he got the name moni moni so as the story, he's editing it in the studio. He's with Richie Cordell, another big talent. They're sitting there, and he's going, I've got to come up with a name like Shirley Shirley or something like that. And he goes out in the balcony, and he's in Manhattan, looks up the street. In the building, it says Mutual of New York, M-o-n-y holy crap that's where it came from yeah that's funny so that's the type of stories i write in the book so there's a lot of surprises

in the book that way you know those stories bring and they bring to life a song like they make there's so many times where I've looked at songs one way you know I gave the Fez example and there's so many songs like that or you see how the they hear like this one of the stories Stewart Copeland tells is the beginning of the police's song it's it's the famous one it was it was the lead-off in 48 hours where eddie murphy's sitting there singing rocks and you know yeah red light and when you listen to the song there's this funky piano key hit i think there's two or three notes that get hit and then there's

a laughter and you know you sit and you listen to the song and for 20 i mean i was like 11 or 10 when i started listening to police and i'm 57 now so 40 years or some odd i've been thinking that was planned wow that was a brilliant engineering move turns out it was just sting they started recording and sting accidentally sat down on the piano bonked a bunch of keys with his butt and then he laughed about it and they just thought it was so cool they left it in and you're just like holy crap what a story like all this time for 40 years i never knew that and it just adds magic to when you listen to it again so the stories you yeah because you'll think about that i assure you next time you hear moni moni you're gonna think about the mutual in new york i will i'll be like i'll be telling

people another good example of that one is when buddy holly did every day and you'll hear the drum and it's kind of interesting but it wasn't drums at all jerry allison played his blue jeans with his hands that's the background in every day you know I think one of the story that I always think I always recall is the guys who did the song in in a gala de vida and I'm not sure I'm gonna get the name right and I think it happened with the Beatles too where they were jamming and the engineer or the soundboard guy the producer whatever he said hey I'm going to take a break I'm going to get some food or go to the bathroom or something and they accidentally left the recording studio on because they were jamming and so he didn't turn off the recording so they were still playing the band had no idea

and I think this happened to Beatles too. The band had no idea that the recording was still going. And so they just kind of relaxed and they did this jam that is in Agata De Vida. And the only reason it's recorded and become a hit is because the engineer actually left the recording on. They captured it and went, holy shit, you got a song there. And I don't think they had a song before that that was hitting. No, it was supposed to be In the Garden of Eden. Yeah.

And, you know, they're just making up the lyrics and stuff. But that was crazy. And so you hear about stuff like that and you're like, wow. And there's so much of this magic that goes into music that isn't planned. That's, you know, the beauty of is the improvisational of it and the stuff. It's very true. And a lot of people in some of the songs you put out there, again, it gets back to that moment in time for them. That's what them and it

really is a magical period for people and it can be magical in different ways for different people that's what excites me about music you know just the way your mind works with it yeah and and so let's get into some of the things you we kind of teased out on therapy. How can music be used in therapy and stuff, and how do you do that work? It's a great question. About four or five months ago, I got up in the morning and was watching TV here in Vancouver, and a doctor came on, Dr. Sarah Faber. She works out of SFU, Simon Fraser University here in Vancouver,

and she's a musical therapist. And I went, isn't this interesting? So I phoned her up, told her what I was doing, and I shared with her what I did at an adult community center back in Eastern Canada, in Ontario, where I went in and I spoke to a group of people with the age range of 60 to 100. And going in, the guy said, geez, you know, we may only be able to get about a half an hour out of these people. I said, it's no problem. I can shorten or lengthen it. We'll just see what the response is like. And it's an interactive presentation. I get the audience, you know, interacting and contributing. Anyway, the long story or short story is an hour and 15 minutes later, we're still

there. And everybody in the room is taking over telling stories about, oh, I had that record album, I used to play this, I used to play that. And it really struck a chord with me. Plus, I lived through Alzheimer's with my father. And I found that music ended up being our connection. So I've repurposed, you know, where I want to go with the visions with these books in my giving back frame of mind and doing stuff at adult community centers and also with the aged and people who are starting to lose it a bit, if you will, in the marketplace. And the great thing about music, we're talking about it here today, Chris,

it puts a smile on people's face. You can't beat that. Yeah, you can't beat it all and and you're right it's it's been shown music has been shown to help Alzheimer's I don't know if you watch the who's the gentleman who wrote off my heart in San Francisco the corner the Tony Bennett Tony Bennett and I watched a documentary of Tony Bennett and he was disappearing into Alzheimer's at the time. And they were finding that he'd be lost most of the time. But if they put him on stage and played his songs for him, his brain would immediately connect and he would start performing the songs and it would bring him back and there's people on the spectrum on autism that i've seen that they're they they have a hard time functioning with everything but if they play music or interact with music it it opens them up it brings them out and you know it's it's really interesting you know i've had times in my life where i've suffered depression or stress you feel stressed you know i joked at the beginning of the show and

it's true i mean not everyone's a fan of heavy metal and metallica but if i'm stressed and and kind of you know feel a little bit overwhelmed i can listen metallic and i can kind of vent the anger and the misery and the be the music and then when i get done i feel good i almost feel like i went through a therapy session. I feel fresh. It sounds like a workout. Relieved, yeah. You can use it for workouts, too.

I have a gym playlist that I use. And sometimes you go to the gym and you're just like, I don't want to go. I feel beat up. I don't feel like doing the lifting all these weights, beating up my body. But I've got a music playlist. And so the beautiful part is as soon as I start that playlist,

my brain kicks into gear and goes, let's do this. We can do this. And, you know, you've got that cheerleader championing music in the background. You know, it's really. I do the same. I do the same. Yeah, it's really the enticement of the fabric of our life, really, that music brings.

I can't imagine a world without music. No, me neither. Yeah. Plus, you wouldn't have any books to write, so that would be kind of something. Tell us about some of the other consulting work that you do, coaching work that you do through using music as well. Well, after my days directly in the film and entertainment industry, I branched out on my own and started my own consulting practice early 1996. And what I saw was there was a need in our industry,

the direct industry and the film and entertainment industry for some type of, I don't want to call it sophistication, but business know-how in terms of running businesses in order to, to quote something from one of your latter shows to build some muscle in businesses and so for sustainability because it's about show business and the emphasis on business so i would might often be referred to even though i have a creative background as a suit in the business because i happen to understand finance and stuff really well and how business numbers work but i was working more with the

people in the businesses who may stop started out as a one or two man pop shop and all of a sudden now they got 10 employees all of a sudden they got 20 employees and you you can't take you know put your arm around a guy and take him out for a beer you know every night are you going to be an alcoholic by before the month so so how can i you know teach some of the backgrounds and give them some assistance in running their business knowing that they need some structure but you're in a creative environment i created something called creating your competitive edge and i worked a lot with the people in the industry a lot at the sea level because as as

brought out in a minute of your podcast it's lonely at the top somebody's got to talk to somebody right and so i got involved doing that and did you know some often a lot of one-on-one with people and you know parent you know peeling back the onion so they knew who the hell they were because how can you sell yourself if you don't know yourself so these are the type of things i was doing oh wow and some of the offerings that you have on your website feel free to plug that.com again and what are some of the offerings have you know what what what should people be reaching out for you if they're listening in the audience that you can help them with i i think if it's a case, I mean, books, if it's just pure pleasure, music, it's there. In terms of consulting and that, that's very much an individual thing.

Some people will say, hey, I need some focus group work with my management team. So I may talk to them a little bit about that. But it really caters to the individual. And I may not be the guy, but I'm pretty well connected in the marketplace. Here's a guy you should talk to. Here's where you can go. So being a connector is a big thing. It's got my business card from my hub thing. It says bringing people and ideas together. That's what I do. I'm a serial entrepreneur in a lot of things. I've worked in a lot of different projects and always have something, you know, on the go that is going to be something where I'm going to learn something from it. I really believe in lifelong learning. I think that's what keeps you young

and that's what keeps you relevant. Yeah, definitely. And, you know, music is, like I said, it just seems endless. Like I just, I I'm enthralled. You know, it's popular on YouTube. I don't know if you've ever created a YouTube channel on these stories, but there's people doing that and doing the interviews. Yeah, I'm being pushed to do that now. And it makes total sense. I think after proving the credibility of the second book, which is coming along fine,

it'll be time in the new year that I will do that. And with a sensitivity to that, it's got to be impactful. You don't want to take up a lot of people's time and you want them coming back. I mean, no different than, you know, the way you've positioned your show so well over the years. Yeah. It's, you know, it's enthralling. I think there was, you know, know the lyrics talking about the lyrics what they mean i've started to go through and review lyrics on on stuff that i've i've listened to for 20 years and i'm like wait this song's about something completely different that i had no idea wow okay all right It's like a whole different meeting.

Like I've been singing about this song and people probably been looking at me going, does he know what this song means? It's funny you say that. Cause I'm a, I'm a big fan of lyrics and how some people can convey something in two lines, you know, that you would take, you know, a thousand words of dialogue from someone else. I, my hat off to them, how they can do that. Some of the lyrics are just phenomenally simple but elegant, just beautiful.

Yeah, and they just have such a dimension. Because some of the songs, I've listened to ad nauseum to a point that you're just like, I'm really sick of this song. But it's kind of cool. But some of the songs, you know, I've listened to ad nauseum to a point that you're just like, I'm really sick of this song. But it's kind of cool. But, you know, some of the songs, you know, some of my favorite bands, like I'm a big Rush fan. You're in Canada. Yeah, actually, I'm actually right now trying to be in contact with Geddy Lee because I grew up where Geddy grew up. I grew up in Willardale in Toronto.

So I grew up with him. He's about, Geddy's about 71 now. Yeah. So he's getting there. Yeah. Good guy. Yeah. And they seem like such a wonderful group of men.

And I'm still getting over Neil Peart. With Geddy, what you see is what you get. And you probably know he's a phenomenal baseball fan. I don't know if you know that. He just put out a baseball book that's like crazy yeah and when i was i was in kansas city in 2015 doing a tour going through all ballparks i mean i played ball my whole life i it's one of my it's my favorite sport believe it or not and i'm in 2015 i go oh the jazz I got to go see the Jazz Museum in Kansas City.

And right beside it is the Negro League's Baseball Hall of Fame. So what a beautiful two birds with one stone. Love it. And I go through the Negro League's Baseball Hall of Fame. James Earl Jones is doing the intro and beautiful video piece on the history of the Negro Leagues. I go around the corner, and they have this mock-up play field set up. They've got Satchel Paige on the mound and Cool Papa Bell at third base. So they have all these great Negro players there.

In the right field stands, sitting in the stands, there's not people mock-ups, but there's baseballs, baseballballs signed by Negro League players. There's about 150 of them roughly there. I go by and I'm looking at all these. Oh, I think I know that. I don't know that guy. I don't know that guy. But they're all there.

There's a plaque at the bottom of it. And it says, donated by Geddy Lee. Oh, wow. Yeah. He's got a huge baseball collection. I've seen that. And then he just put out a baseball book. But he's really becoming great at telling stories.

So I hope you get an interview with him. We'd like to have him on the show. Well, I'm going to bring him. I'm a supporter of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. And we want to get Geddy to come out this summer to be with us. And that would be terrific. Sing the national anthem, maybe? Yeah.

We could do that. He's already done it at the Blue Jay Games a few times. Yeah, I've seen him sing. He's a ticket holder there. Yeah. As long as he doesn't come out and sing the Bob and Doug song, Take off to the great wide north. That's not a Canadian anthem.

It's a great song, though. I love it. Yeah, i'm a yeah i'm a huge right so anyway the thing i was saying about rush is i've played rush ad nauseum and there was a point where i just i had to take a break because you know i just consumed it to the point of of just being burnt out on it and you know i had to take a break and then come back and but delving into the lyrics and you know i've seen geddy and alex geddy does a lot of interviews now he was on i think it's ams or aws it's a music channel that's on cable and they the great dan rather does a lot of interviews on there and he's such a great interviewer he's you know and so hearing

some of the stories behind the song when ne pier passed Yeah, I'm going back and watching his videos talking about his artwork and just really paying more attention to what he was doing And stuff is I mean just changes your perception the music and it brings a whole new life to Sometimes when you're burnt out on your music Getty put out two books last year. One of them I suggest people read. I read it because it was more about him personally growing up. It's only 60 pages long, and it's got Getty Lee biography. And it talks about his parents, you know, coming over, how he got the name Getty because his mother couldn't pronounce Gary. I mean, it's kind of neat.

It's funny as hell, isn't it? Yeah. But it's kind of neat. It's funny as hell, isn't it? Yeah. But it's beautifully written. And, of course, it meant a lot to me, beautifully written, because I grew up in Willowdale. I grew up near where he was. And to see a group come out of there we used to see at the local high school and rise up, I mean, pardon the pun, but it was quite a rush. Yeah, quite a rush yeah part of quite a rush now was that my effing life that came out last year about this time was that um yeah well there

was two yeah about this time you're correct one's a one i'm going to say like a memoirism about the touring and stuff it was quite a large book the other one's about 67 pages, as a matter of fact. It takes you about two or three hours to read, but it's really personal and about home. It just meant a lot to me. I really fell for the guy. The guy's the real deal. What else can I tell you? The thing about Canadians is you folks are so wonderful up there and so nice and so polite and so civil. Down here, we're just a drunken mess of American idiots and you folks are so wonderful up there and so nice and so polite and so civil you know down here we're just a drunken mess of american idiots and you guys are stuck with us but you guys are so

wonderful up there and you guys seem to you guys seem to have a more basic sense of life and you know you know you guys you guys i mean it's just different and you guys are just better than us really when it comes down to it but if you're referring to my life it's the it's the book that has getty's a picture of him probably in high school or at the 70s with the long hair yeah that's not the book the other one's just called the biography yeah now there's a gettysley big beautiful book of base and then there's some baseball ones that he's put out there's a huge baseball one they just basically published but if you get a chance to listen to my effing life the one he put out last year you want to listen to the audio book because alex gets on the audio book and it's

yeah it's way funny to listen to as opposed to reading the book i don't know if alex appears in the books i'm gonna read the. I just made a note of that. That's interesting. I have a copy of the, of the my effing life book from Getty. And, but if you listen to the audio book, Alex jumps in and there's,

there's kind of, it's kind of fun. And it's interesting to listen to Getty, you know, talking in his own words. I love it when an author does that. It makes all the difference. Yeah.

You know, those two guys started a beer company too, huh? Did they start that beer company or did they get paid to sponsor and issue some beers? I thought they started it. I remember seeing the interview on it when they had it down

in the Toronto Distillery District. Yeah, that's cool. I just wish they'd tour one last time. They're so old and I know Alex Distillery District. Yeah, that's cool. I just wish they'd tour one last time, but you know, I don't know. They're so old, and I know Alex has got arthritis. Moving on. I mean, these are stories that make it fun. They bring, you know,

a musician, you know, me knowing that Alex was suffering from arthritis, and Neil Peart was suffering from, you know, the pain of drumming, you know, and there's a stage where you can't really do what I mean, he was at a level that, you know, it's a little hard to play those songs. But knowing those stories just made the fabric of my experience with them so much better,

I'm sure a lot of other people. So give us a final pitch out as we go out. How can people onboard with you? How can they reach out? Pitch your wares one last time and give us the dot com. Sure. And thanks, Chrisris a couple of things first these two books that are written are actually disguised legacy books because they're they're evergreen they're on the you know the the history the background of some of the greatest music that shaped our lives and our cultures so i think that's

very important to know the other thing to know about both these books that they are reference books and they're in the library and archives at the rock and roll hall of fame in cleveland now as well and and they're available on amazon worldwide and the book's not about me it's about us and and the music we grew up with here in North America and in England and how the world really was quite impacted just by stuff that we did and that very big changes that we went through in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Music played a hell of a role in that, a hell of a role in it. And some of the best music that was ever made, really, in my opinion.

I can't stand what goes on nowadays. I want to scream and get off my lawn music that was ever made really in my opinion i can't stand what goes on nowadays but i'm one of the things screaming get off my lawn you know that sort of thing you know it's in your music nowadays i'll tell you one interesting story how i came up with the second book when i'm writing about the 60s 70s and 80s and i've written about those areas was via my son-in-law and i'm talking to him and he goes oh he goes geez yeah i remember i i think we're alone now yeah i really like tiffany's song and i said she's not the original he says what do you mean so i walked over to my jukebox hit a button i said now listen to tommy james Sean Dallas. Tommy wrote it. You might as well hear the original. So it gave me an idea.

So in my book, I have a chapter called Good or Even Better. So what I do is I talk about a song from the 80s that is a big hit, big hit, but then it goes back who originally did it. And so at the end, when we have in the bottom in the QR codes, where you can put your smartphone and play them, I have both of them so you can compare the hits. I like that. That's awesome because there were a lot of songs that I didn't know

that weren't the originals. How about you keep me hanging on by the Supremes? Supremes. You got Vanilla Fudge. and then you had kim wilde from england doing it in 87. so there's another good example i have all three of them in that one yeah i i think the molly crew did a song called smoking in the boys room and i remember hearing i was like that's kind of cool and then i found the original smoking in the boys room which actually kind of sounds better actually actually, in my opinion.

It's just, I don't know, there's something more original to the fabric. And sometimes the originals, I'm a big fan of the originals. First and foremost, I will say that. But you'll get into situations, you're going, geez, I like this cover version better. My good example is the Oak Ridge Boys doing Elvira. I love that song. I really did love it. But it was originally done by the writer, a guy named Dallas Frazier, who wrote that song

in the mid-60s. And he was on the pop charts with it. The Oak Ridge Boys were big, both on the pop charts and obviously number one in country. So that's interesting. So we have both the quotes here. That's good. But the story behind it's interesting so we have both the codes here that's good but the story behind it's interesting because Fraser found that it his push to do that song that inspired him was a sign in north part northeastern part of Nashville that had Elvira on it so it actually comes from a sign and they just made up the girl fictitiously yeah i mean one other song that's kind of like that is george surrogate one bourbon one scotch one beer i heard that song a million times and had no idea

it was originally done by johnny lee hooker or john lee hooker and john lee hooker yeah and george changed it a bit too he added a different thing to it and i actually like both versions but you know it depends on my mood if i really want blues you know i'm definitely going to go for john lee hooker and his version and so yeah i mean this crazy stuff i mean that's the beauty of music. A good song passed the test of time. And the rendition for the era works. You have one group here doing this, another group doing this. You get that heavy, say, vanilla fudge take on a pop song from Motown, but it worked because the timing, getting back to timing again, was perfect. Yeah, definitely.

Thank you for coming on the show give us the dot com one last time as we go sure it's mitstories.com that mit stands for moments in time mitstories.com and real accessible on amazon and right now we think we're so wonderful in canada the goddamn canada strike's killing us. So buy my book on Amazon if you're in the U.S. because I can't ship it to you right now. Oh, there's got to love that. Hopefully we'll all get along after.

Oh, yeah. It'll be all good. Yep. Thanks for coming on the show. We really appreciate it, Tom. Hey, Chris. Thank you. I appreciate it. And keep doing what you're doing.

I like what you're doing. You do it well. keep doing what you're doing. You know, I like what you're doing. You do it well and do what you love, love what you do and keep giving more than your promise. Thank you. And thank you for coming on the show. Folks, order up his books wherever fine books are sold. Moments in Time, stories about artists and songs of the 50s, 60s, and 70s for fans of music from a music fan. I can't imagine a world without music. So check that out. Go to goodreads.com Fortunes of Christmas, linkedin.com Fortunes of Christmas, Christmas won the TikTokity

and all those crazy places on the internet. I don't know what that means. Thanks for tuning in. Be good to each other. Stay safe. We'll see you next time for the rest of the story. Good one.