Session 31 is our TV show, and is shown here in Central Florida. The show is currently on hiatus, but we plan to start it up again soon.
Louis Armstrong said, “What we play is life.” Singer-songwriters artfully take vignettes of our lives and craft them into music that becomes a part of our lives and culture. What inspires a songwriter to write? What is his or her creative process like? What’s a typical day like in the life of an artist? Where do the songs come from? These questions and more are answered on Session 31 through live performances and interviews with performing artists. Session 31 connects the viewer with the artist in a new way, by examining the process of creativity. The goal is to create an appreciation in viewers for the art and craft of songwriting and performing. After watching Session 31 the viewer will be thinking “where can I go to hear this artist, and other artists like this?”
What follows is part one of an interview we did with the Melbourne, Florida songwriting and performing duo of Robin and Eddy. They have been working with Denny Doherty, who is well known from his days as a member of the Mamas and Papas.
Session 31
Host: Leon Olguin
Show Director / Producer: Sheryl Olguin
Artists: Robin & Eddy w/ Denny Doherty
Air Date: 9/30/02
Featuring: Robin Krasny, Eddy Fischer and Denny Doherty with Leon Olguin as host.
Leon: How did you all meet? There is a good open-ended question.
Robin: Well, it all started before I was ever born, actually.
Eddy: I met Robin. I was looking for someone to play with. I couldn’t find anyone for years and years.
Denny: Music, play music with!
Eddy: Yes. Music, music. It was great. I mean, Rob and I met and we were playing and Robin just really made me happy and everything was great. So, I wanted to share my joy, so I called Denny, who I’ve known since 1969/1970. I said, “We’re gonna come up to Canada and say ‘Hi’”, cause we needed to get out of town…Well, we didn’t really need to get out of town (laughs), but I was just tired of the usual stuff and we wanted to play music. My daughter was grown up and out of school and she was away, so we went up to Canada, hung out with Denny for a while and his family. We played some music and it sounded really neat. We had a couple of songs. Denny and I had written quite a few songs.
Denny: Way back when.
Eddy: Yeah. Way back when. We got together, had some fun. Robin and I came back, went to California. Then we’d go back, and over the years, Denny would come and visit once in awhile.
Robin: Weddings and funerals.
Denny: Oh yeah, births, deaths, we’re all available for those kinds of things.
Eddy: Then we did a song I wrote a long time ago where Denny is singing with us on our CD. So, we did that. That’s how we met. Denny and I have known each other since…
Robin: Kindergarten.
Denny: Vietnam.
Robin: Oh, stop! Don’t believe most anything they say.
Denny: See, Ed was going to go to Vietnam until one day, being Canadian, I said, “What are you going to do that for?” Then, myself and a few friends filled him with a few substances that would make all your “wires” go crazy, so he walked in and walked out and didn’t go to Vietnam.
Eddy: Well, my father was in the 3rd Army with Patton, so I thought I knew all about it…
Denny: He wanted to go, but I said, “No, you can’t do that, Ed”.
Eddy: The main thing is, that’s how we all got together to start singing. Got another question? (laughs)
Robin: He doesn’t want to ask it now!
Leon: You lost me in Vietnam.
Denny: Well, I’m a Canadian and Ed’s an American and he has definite views. I’m in a strange country; so I’m not gonna talk about what is going on right now.
Leon: America is a strange country; you will get no argument from me.
Eddy: Beautiful country.
Robin: (To Leon) Block the crossfire!
Leon: Now, Denny, I’d like to ask you a question about recording. You’ve recorded in the 60’s, you’ve recorded in the 70’s, and you’ve done some recording recently. What are the differences in recording today as compared to how it was in the 60’s?
Denny: Ah, Leon, they turn me right around, man. See, my philosophy was that I don’t go into their little room with all the wheels and bells and lights going and tapes and stuff. I stay out in the studio and I sing. The microphone is the closest I want to get to any of that stuff. Until about 10 years ago or so, or whenever it was that I walked in and said, “Ok, show me how this tape thing works!” They said, ‘There’s no more tapes. There’s only ones and zeros’, or something like that. “There’s no more tape?!” Well, I’m ready to learn now and they said, ‘There’s a new format now.’ Well, I’m back out in the studio now. So, it’s the same as far as I’m concerned. There is a microphone now. I don’t know what they are doing in there anymore. I never did and I still don’t know. That’s how I deal with recording then and recording now. It’s still the same.
Leon: That’s one way of approaching it.
Eddy: It’s true. It’s changed so much. I mean, you can do so much with just a computer now.
Robin: Anyone can make a CD now.
Eddy: And you can make a CD now that would cost $30,000.00 in the 60’s, today.
Denny: Well, back then, the equipment to make a record would be half a million dollars, now you go to Radio Shack, spend $3,000 and get the same thing.
Eddy: They used to have to make the vinyl, now there is such a jump in technology.
Leon: What effect do you think that has had on the music industry or on the quality of the music that is out there now?
Robin: It’s flooded the market with a lot of things I don’t usually listen to.
Eddy: But, there is some such really good stuff, too.
Robin: That’s the thing; there is so much of everything.
Leon: There are some folks who wouldn’t normally get a chance to record, but they’re good enough to do it. The industry doesn’t take note of them so they go to their own studio.
Robin: You mean like……Robin and Eddy? (laughs)
Eddy: Try to sell a car part without having its picture in every Sears and Roebuck. To sell things, you have to advertise. To advertise, you have to have money.
Denny: But, over the years, people have thought that having an album was the end all to end all. Ok, the album is done, it’s gonna sell a million and we’re gonna make all that money. That’s not the way it has ever worked. You can go in and spend your own money, but unless you have the millions and millions and the [publicity] machine to back it up and distribute it around the world, it’s just going to be a labor of love.
Robin: It’s a nice piece of plastic…(holds a CD up for the camera)
Denny: What does that say?
Robin: It says ‘Masters of Love – Robin &Eddy’. Ha! Imagine that!
Denny: Can you see it? (facing CD toward camera)
Robin: (singing) “Can we see our CD?”
Denny: At any rate, to have an album, distribute it. You’ve got to sell records. But, everybody can make them. It’s just that now, with that….what’s that? The computer! Aah! You can sell CD’s over the computer. You don’t need the record companies anymore, you guys! You don’t need them anymore! If you’ve got a computer, you can open a record company. If you can connect with people, you can ship your product, you can make it yourself.
Eddy: There is really so much good music. I mean, people sell them on the Internet and sell as many as they need to.
Robin: You can get our CD on the Internet.
Denny: Still, radio rules.
Eddy: Radio rules, but it is very expensive, there are only two stations and they own everything. That’s all right if they’re your friends.
Denny: Nice! If they’re your friends, fine, if not, well…
Leon: Eddy; tell me about some of the other people you worked with way back when.
Eddy: Bob Gibson. A folk singer from the 1960’s. I had a couple of my own bands. I grew up in Cleveland. I had a lot of rock-n-roll bands when I was 13 or 14, that’s why I didn’t finish school. Well, I did go to school in Ft. Lauderdale, though I really wasn’t there much.
Denny (to Eddy): What about the ‘James Gang’?
Eddy: Joe Walsh was there, all up in that area. We all came from up in that area in Ohio. There were other folk people there, too.
Robin: Barry Maguire?
Eddy: Barry Maguire, Potter St. Cloud… I made an album with [them]. For a minute, I was like a regular person with ABC Dunhill. I was a staff writer. Ya know, music was always music. You play music and have fun and then Songwriter magazine came out and it started becoming a career. I said, ‘Whoa!’ If I had wanted a career I could’ve become an electrical engineer! I didn’t want a career, I mean; you gotta send this to this person and everywhere. So, I just kept writing my own songs and working with other people and not really thinking about my career. My career was ‘me’. I already had my career.
Robin: Your career was raising your daughter.
Eddy: No, that was later. Back in ’77 was when my daughter was born.
Denny: That was another career.
Eddy: When my daughter was born it became really clear to me that there was more to life than nihilistically trying to change the world that I didn’t know anything about. But, people still do it.
Leon: Robin, I really like the way you play the flute, clarinet, penny whistle – not all at once of course.
Robin: Well, that’s a little difficult, but…. (laughs)
Leon: Have you ever played in an orchestra? Did you study these instruments formally?
Robin: Oh, well, oui! I played all through Jr. High and High School. My Mom plays clarinet, and was a charter member of the Melbourne Municipal Band. Of course, I get in [the band] very early because I was very good on the clarinet as a kid. I also played the piano. Then, in the 8th grade I wanted to play the flute but no body would let me. So, I bought my own flute and paid for it on time. I think I mowed yards for it and paid it off.
I taught myself how to play the flute. The penny whistles, my brother brought back from Ireland. He married an Irish lass. I came in one day, he was playing it and I said, “OH!” He said, “Here, take it.” (laughs). He just knew he was going to give me the whistle.
Eddy: That’s right when we were getting together.
Robin: Right, yeah, that’s just about the time and fit right in to what we were doing. It sounded really cute. This was the end of 1995; beginning of 1996 is when Eddy and I got together. So, anyway, we’ve been doing this for a while. And to answer your question about bands and orchestras, yes, been there, done that. In fact, I just played for the Montessori School children. They are going to see Peter and The Wolf. They were wanting me to teach them about the different instruments and wanted to hear about the different parts and stuff so I brought in my flute and clarinet and oboe, which I cannot play. I said to the kids, “You guys, I can not play this instrument, but I will try.” I made a sound out of it. They were like, “Play the duck! Play the duck!” (The oboe solo from “Peter and the Wolf.”)
Eddy: You made a sound out of it. I love the oboe.
Robin: I was like, “I can’t play the duck!” But, it’s fun to educate kids. We do a lot of playing for children, playing for people who need help, playing funerals, playing old folks homes, playing benefits. We play for benefits. We play a lot of benefits.
Eddy: There really aren’t a lot places to play. We’ll play anywhere we can play, but we don’t really play bars and take requests. We’ll play where we’re asked to play. If you want to listen, great, if you don’t, fine and we’ll all be happy.
Robin: See, I’m [also] a yoga instructor and massage therapist. So, I do healing arts and integrating the healing arts into what I’m doing. That’s what I’m all about. I have to wrangle in Eddy every now and then. So, yeah, I love bands, orchestras, concerts….
Leon: Well, you’re very accomplished on those instruments and it’s very fun to watch you play.
Eddy: We usually play about 4 hours.
Robin: Straight.
Leon: Well, you gotta keep that lip up. Well, I guess that’s for a trumpet player or something.
Robin: No, you still have to keep your armature (sp?) up.
Denny: Huh?
Leon: Armature?
Robin: Armature, boys, where have you been? It’s French, too. It’s the way you hold your mouth.
Denny: (singing) “The way you hold your mouth… The way you sip your tea…
Leon: (singing along) …they can’t take that away from me.
Denny: They can’t!
Leon: Ok, I admit it. I know old songs. I used to play in a society band and the folks used to ask for stuff like that.
Denny: What did you play?
Leon: Oh, I played keyboards. In fact I still do.
Denny: Really? Did you study piano?
Leon: Yeah. I’m a classically trained musician.
Denny: You mean like Beethoven? The whole thing?
Leon: Yeah. The whole thing. I’ve played Beethoven, Chopin, Bach, sometimes all in the same piece.
Denny: Why’d you stop that?
Leon: Well, I still play.
Denny: You found out there was only 12 classical pianists working on the planet?
Leon: Yeah, that’s true. Everyone thought I was going to be a classical pianist. I fooled them all and I ended up being a record producer.
Robin: What! We need to talk to this guy. What’s your number? We have 4 hours of material we’ve never recorded.
Leon: Well, actually the last album I finished was a folk album.
Denny: Who was that?
Leon: For a lady named Janine Chimera.
Eddy: Oh, yeah, I know Janine. She’s great.
Robin: Janine, Janine? Our Janine? We know Janine. She’s a sweet lady.
Denny: Small world!
Leon: We’ll have Janine talk about Janine at a later time.
All: Ok. Ok.
Leon: Let’s talk about what this show is about, which is the writing process.
Denny: How much time do we got?
Robin: This is going to be a forever interview.
Leon: Well, let’s start with Denny since he hasn’t talked in awhile.
Denny: Sure.
Leon: I went through all of the credits on the Mamas and Papas records and saw that you had co-written a few things. And then, you’ve written a few songs for your play (Note: Denny’s one man show…)
Denny: Yes. I wrote a song, as a matter a fact, in 1970 that I’m using in the play that hasn’t been used since then. Yeah, there’s been a bit of writing in my past.
Leon: How would you compare the collaborative process with writing on your own?
Denny: It’s longer to write on your own, because usually somebody else that you’re writing with, well, ideas get finished sooner. When you’re left to your own devices you can change it or leave it or maybe do it this way or not. Somebody can say, “No!” “Do it this way!” “No, just pick one!” It gets down to that kind of thing. When you have a catalyst, you can throw things off, throw things back to you. If you’ re lucky enough to find someone who writes poetry or lyrics and you happen to have music that just fits. Then again, there are songs that take 10 minutes or some that take 10 years that I’ve never finished.
It’s more solitary by yourself. I think it takes longer. It’s always an ongoing process no matter if you’re writing with someone or by yourself. It’s work.
Leon: Did John Philips work really hard at his song writing or did they just come to him sometimes or a combination?
Denny: He’d just pick up his guitar and start walking around. When we were doing the Broadway show Man On The Moon, an Andy Warhol production (that’s a whole other inner story altogether, sufficed to say that some of the music was changed because, initially it was a screen play called Space. He came to New York and changed it to Man On The Moon and made it a Broadway show. Doing so a lot of the music changed.) I was staying at his placed when I first arrived and he was changing some of the music. He would walk around, in his shorts, in the kitchen of his townhouse with his guitar on, changing lyrics at will. Writing them down. He said, “ You write them down, I gotta keep on playing!” I’m writing down the stream of consciousness that eventually wound up on the Broadway stage! (laughs) Uncut, just like they came out. Some songs we didn’t use. (singing) ‘It’s awfully blasé being a real live flower when fake bouquets go on stage every hour’. He was just coming up with these lines; he just had that kind of mind.
Eddy: He had a great mind.
Leon: Amazing.
Denny: It was really easy to work with him. I mean, you give him an idea and, bam! there’s a song finished. Well, for, ‘I Saw Her Again Last Night’. The music was pretty well finished, John wrote the lyrics. I don’t know if you know the story?
Leon: I do know the story.
Denny: Enough said! Sometimes the story is right there in front of you, you don’t see it. (laughter)
Robin: With Eddy and I, it’s a little more pulling hair, pulling teeth, scratch, fight, knockin’ drag out….
Eddy: Well, the songs get done, we write songs together…
Denny: That’s good, too. As long as the process works.
Robin: That’s good, too. Something’s beautiful that comes out of it.
Eddy: Songs are the easy part.
Denny: Songs are the easy part?
Eddy: Well, some people say, “Well, we have 900 songs”, well, who cares. We want to hear one. Then you gotta pick one.
Denny: What. Then you gotta look for the hit? Ah, prospect for gold; it’s the same thing.
Robin: Find the needle in the haystack.
Leon: So, songs are the easy part, but finding a good song is the hard part?
Eddy: Finding a place to play it. Finding an audience. Finding a record, you know, someone who will play it. For me, the song writing is easy. Remembering the songs and playing them correctly…
Robin: That’s getting hard for Eddy, actually. Remembering things. We won’t go there either…. But for me, I write poetry. I write a lot of poetry and there is some on our website actually. But, I write a lot of poetry and some of my own songs on piano. And sometimes I’ll write something on the piano and I write the words to something and lo and behold they actually fit together! And you know, I didn’t start out to fit them together and then sometimes a poem will come through me in less that 5 minutes. Then at times I’ll really struggle with the last line of a poem, because it just has to really wrap it up! It’s got to take it all together. So, there are different times, different ways to go into that space. That creative space.
Eddy: That makes each song different, too.
Robin: Totally. I write a lot from healing. From trauma and tragedy and emotional stuff.
Eddy: I write when I have money. (laughs)
Denny: I write when I’m awake. (laughs)
Leon: Ok, now here’s a question for all 3 of you: Can you remember the first song you ever wrote?
Eddy: I remember it. It was called, ‘Things’. Yep. We even play it once and awhile because it was so good that it still holds value in life.
Robin: It actually is a beautiful song. He’s not just bragging.
Eddy: But, I didn’t go out and make a CD after I wrote that song. I lived another 30 or 40 years before I decided to record it.
Leon: Aah. It’s amazing how many artists we’ve talked to that still know and still sing and sometimes still use their very first song.
Eddy: It could’ve been your best song.
Denny: Yeah. You could spend the rest of your life trying to top that.
Robin: My girlfriend, Lori Broadway, and I use to ride our bikes home from school and we used to sing songs and we started singing, ‘ I always thought there’d be a rainbow’ (singing). It was all happy stuff-you know we were like, 8 or 9 years old. Now, she’s a bass player, trombone teacher. She’s a band director and singing now, too. It’s really funny; we even opened the same concert together. It’s neat.
Eddy: Yes. Music is very nice. It’s a great thing to be able to play music because when things do get dreary or you’re by yourself, you always have your guitar or your piano. You always have a friend, even if you don’t have any friends. It’s a real nice relief. Any kids that want to play music, anything like that, because you can go away, because you have something to do. So, that’s the best thing about music.
Robin: You may not always have sports. You could break knees, football and stuff like that. You may not always have football. What – you can only play that until you’re like 25? But, you’ll always have music.
Eddy: Yeah. You may not have all those guys with the towels and the shirts they can tear off.
Robin: What?
Eddy: And the beer. Think of the beer.
Robin: Help!
Leon: I have very little to do with football as a whole.
Eddy: So, music is very solitary.
Robin: Okeydokey. Back to Leon…
Leon: Ok, we’re going to get back to this music ‘thing’, instead of talking about football of which I have no interest in.
Eddy: Well, it’s fun on Sundays.
Denny: (with an accent) Foot – a – ball?
Leon: Let’s get back to songwriting. Would you say there is an overall message that you’re trying to present in your songs?
Robin: I know there is for me. I believe in healing and love. Love is the message to me. If you love what you’re doing and that energy infuses in your music, than other people could possibly be inspired to love and feel that themselves. My message is ‘healing’.
Eddy: I have to concur with that. That’s a good word, isn’t it?
Denny: Whatever hits my fancy. Love, hate, life, death, dogs, cats, it doesn’t matter.
Robin: Not just love in the romantic sense of the word…
Denny: Earthquakes? You see, back in the old days, singing was a way of communicating, you see? (singing) ‘A lion is eating my foot off. Somebody call…..’.
Leon: I don’t remember that one.
Denny: Well, it was a big hit back in the cave man days. Did you ever hear the ‘2000 Year Old Man’?
Leon: I’ve heard that.
Denny: Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks?
Leon: Well, we haven’t had them on yet.
Denny: Well, then you should have them on here. They’re hilarious.
Robin: They’re very funny. We hear they’re hilarious.
Leon: But, it’s not song writing. It’s a comedy routine.
Denny: Oh yeah, Mel Brooks is a great songwriter.
Leon: He wrote “Springtime for Hitler.”
Denny: Yes! (singing) ‘Deutschland was happy on the gay…’
Leon: Ok, we’re going back in time to the early 70’s. Tell us about the album, ‘Whatcha Gonna Do?’
Denny: Oh, boy. Well, what Ed and I and my late wife; my first wife who just passed away last week, poor Linda, far too soon. 900 is too soon, but 53 is ridiculous. We were all living together out in East L.A. I had just come home from Nova Scotia, back to L.A., and Linda was waiting at the airport. It could have been anybody waiting at the airport. It happened to be Linda, I went home with her, (laughter), and that’s the truth. She happened to be living over in the Barrio. I happened to be over in Beverly Hills. You know if somebody over in Beverly Hills picked me up, I’d be over in Beverly Hills. She lived in East L.A. I’m like that. Whoever picks me up first; I’ll go with them.
Leon: We’ve got to explain to our Florida viewers what a ‘Barrio’ is. It’s the place you don’t want to go.
Denny: But, the place you have to go sometimes if you are a Mexican living in south California or East L.A.
Leon: Right. East L.A.
Denny: The whole of East L.A. is the slums. The poor section.
Eddy: The area for musicians short on cash.
Denny: (Talking loudly) the deprived shall rise up!! Oh, I’m sorry. So, we were living there, the 3 of us, with nothing to do. I had just come back from burying my mother back in 1971. Ed calls from Florida and says, “What are you doing?” We talked and I told him to come on out. (To Eddy) What did you do? Did you fly out?
Eddy: No, I had a van. The last time I saw it, it was on blocks on La Cieniga Ave. (sp?)
Denny: He used to call it the ‘Heinz’. (laughs)
Eddy: Yeah. We just left it. I walked away from it. We drove by a couple of days later and it kept getting smaller and smaller. And that was it (laughter).
Robin: It just disappeared.
Leon: That’s East L.A., folks.
Denny: He showed up in that. He came and lived in the Barrio with Linda and I, we wrote these songs. Then, I was contacted by the real world. John [Phillips] called and said, “We’ve got to make another album.” I was like, “What are you talking about?” He said, “Well, it’s in the contract. We have to make two albums a year. We owe them an album or they’re going to sue us for a million dollars.” I said, “ I think we should let them sue us, I don’t know how they’re going to get it. You go find the money, I’ll follow you, cause you got it!”
John was always the businessman. He said to the record company, “ Well, we’re going to make an album for you, the last album. Then, I want to make a single album, but you’re going to pay for it. Then, we’re all going to make a single album and you’re going to pay for it or we’re all going to fight you like hell on this last album.” So, they (the record co.) said, “Go ahead.” Then, after ‘People Like Us’, we (The Mamas and Papas) went up into the ozone and were never heard from again.
Then, John made his own album, Cass made an album, Michelle made an album and I made an album.
Eddy: He made his single albums first, and then ‘People Like Us’.
Denny: We had all these single albums to do, so let’s get up a contract party. We had these songs that we had been stuck together writing, so let’s go down to the studio and record. Dunhill’s paying so we had this big party and recorded a whole lot of songs we had built up.
Denny: So, we went in there and recorded. That’s where the album came from. That’s where we wrote the songs that are on the album. It was just by way of getting out of contract. There wasn’t anything we could follow through with. There was no band.
Eddy: Well, Russell Kunkel wanted to play drums. Brian was playing bass. But, who wanted to go on the road? Who wanted to go to work?
Denny: It was a good album. It’s just been re-released in Japan, by the way.
Leon: How did that come about?
Denny: MCA. MCA bought up all of ABC Dunhill’s assets and liabilities. The album was on Dunhill. It was just on their catalog of things they had bought. Originally, it went to #7 in Japan; the title song, ‘Whatcha Gonna Do?’
Eddy: We’re hoping to go to Japan.
Robin: Eat some sushi, man. Can’t wait.
Denny: Mind you, I was still an active alcoholic at the time, so anything was possible. We could wind up anywhere, so we just stayed at home rather than take any chances.
Leon: Did you ever wonder why the Japanese took to the album so much?
Denny: Well, they were asking, “What are you going to do with the air and the water and the fighting and dying and killing each other?” What are we going to do?
Eddy: There is that one little part where you say something and it turns out it means, “Come over here, I need you now,” in Japanese.
Robin: Oh, you’re full of it.
Denny: Get out of here! He does this straight faced, too. He’ll say something like this and you’ll say, “Really?”
Leon: Japanese masking we’ll call that.
Eddy: We didn’t know it was Japanese when we were doing it.
Denny: I think it was something backwards in the tape loop, wasn’t it? You’re kidding me, right?
Eddy: We’ll have to listen to it.
Denny: Of course he is [kidding]. Leon, don’t listen.
Robin: Well, I was like 8 years old when they were doing all this stuff. I was just a little child working on my skills.
Eddy: In 1970-1971 the earthquake came. We went to safer ground up in San Francisco.
Robin: Oh yeah, that’s real safe.
Leon: You went to San Francisco to get away from the earthquakes?
Eddy: You know I never watched the news, and I didn’t read much. I didn’t know.
Leon: It was the early ‘70’s.
Denny: Well, we had to get out of Los Angeles. It was just going right down the pit. We had to get out of there so we went up to Northern California where people were a little more mellow, not so pressured.
Leon: As long as the ground is not shaking.
Eddy: And the organic thing was just beginning, and we were tired of Burritos and wine.
Denny: We were looking for that microbial thing. I’m very fond of yogurt.
Leon: Ok. We’re starting to come close to the end of the program, believe it or not. We have the 5 famous questions for songwriters and performers that we ask. It’s like “Inside the Actor’s Studio” with James Lipton. These are fun and revealing questions that we ask performers. First one, and this is for all of you, if you could be the songwriting police, what rhyme would you have songwriter’s be fined for using?
Denny: Anything that is obvious: moon, June, spoon.
Leon: Those are good.
Denny: apple, dapple, scrapple. Mipple, dipple, bipple.
Eddy: Liddle, widdle, daddle
Denny: Oh heck. Fiddle. Diddle.
Eddy: Ooh bop.
Denny: Ooh wah?
Eddy: ooh wah, boom bah.
Denny: bah dah, bah dah, bah dah….. I hate that.
Leon: Ok, I was going to put my vote for “love” and “above.” That one tends to get used a lot in beginning songs.
Robin: I write a lot of poetry and there are not a lot of things that rhyme with love.
Leon: The second question is: what cliché would you like to see writer’s have to pay a fine for using? Something along the lines of, ‘til the end of time.’
Eddy: I’m tired of [songs about] loneliness. There are so many people. Why is it that anyone should be lonely? You know? You just got to open up a little bit. There are people there.
Robin: That’s the nicest thing you’ve said in a long time.
Denny: I thought you meant like, ‘I wrote the whole thing about myself’ (laughter)
Leon: It could be a cliché in a song or in a song introduction. Like, ‘ this is a song I wrote when I was feeling down’.
Eddy: Or, ‘this is a song I wrote because I love you so much’. People write songs for people, “I’m writing this song for you.” Or, “I write the songs…”
Robin: (sings) that make the whole world sing…
Denny: Do you know who wrote the song “I Write The Songs That Make The Whole World Sing”? That Barry Manilow hit?
Leon: Bruce Johnston.
Denny: Yes! Bruce Johnston, of the Beach Boys.
Robin: Ding! Ding! Ding! You win the prize!
Leon: What do I win?
Robin: I don’t know.
Leon: I get to host the show one more week?
Robin: A Robin and Eddy CD! You win the Robin and Eddy CD! Here you go.
Leon: Question number 3. What’s your favorite band name, because you’ve probably all seen and heard a lot. It can be a real band or make believe band.
Denny: Oh! I’ve got a real band name. Mine is from Newfoundland, up in my neck of the woods. “Buddy What’s His Name and the Other Fellers.” I swear to God.
Leon: That’s the real name?
Denny: They play all these taverns up in St. John’s, Newfoundland. They’d ask, “Who’s playing tonight?” “Oh, Buddy what’s his name and the other fellers!” “Oh, they’re good, ay?” They’d say, “Buddy what’s his name and the other fellers”, so they started calling themselves, and “Buddy what’s his name and the other fellers.” It stuck.
Eddy and Robin: That’s a good name.
Eddy: We always liked “The Secrets.” Our band was going to be called the “Secrets” if we ever have a band that plays with us.
Robin: We used to be “Earth to Eddy, Robin Here.” Because we couldn’t figure out what to call ourselves and he was always, “Whoop!” Gone somewhere.
Leon: Earth to Eddy, Robin Here?
Robin: We just thought, ‘Oh, cute name’. What was that one band from Texas?
Eddy: Oh! “Kinky Freedmen and the Texas Jew Boys.”
Robin: Don’t even say anything.
Leon: Kinky Freedmen?
Denny: You haven’t heard of them?
Leon: I’m sorry. I’ve not heard of them. I’ll never forget them now, though.
Eddy: Oh! And you know what’s so cool about George W.? People stay at the Lincoln bedroom, all this stuff going on. George W. had a few guests and one of them was Kinky Freedmen. He’s from Texas. He wrote, “I don’t care if it rains or freezes as long as I’ve got my plastic Jesus.”
Denny: And, “Drop Kick Me Jesus Through The Goal Post Of Life.”
Eddy: I was writing a book called, “Bands With Clever Names.” It’s about these bands that just have clever names.
Robin: During the time that you had [the band] “Fast Eddy’s Home For Wayward Girls?”
Eddy: Well, my band was “Ever ready Eddy.” A little new wave band.
Denny: What was the band from Yugoslavia that you were producing?
Eddy: “Atomic Shelter.”
Leon: Oh, I thought you said, “Tom McShelter”. An Irish fellow.
Eddy: A bagpipe duo. (laughter)
Denny: A Yugoslavia and Celtic band, or something.
Leon: The next question is: If you could be a musical instrument, which would you be?
Robin: The voice.
Leon: Well, let’s say a non-voice musical instrument.
Denny: Something inhuman.
Eddy: I like violins. I would be a red violin.
Robin: The oboe. It’s a very temperamental, difficult instrument. It needs to be tweaked and adjusted and massaged quite often. So, I think I’d like to be an oboe.
Eddy: Kind of like Robin.
Robin: Yeah, exactly.
Denny: I’d be a tuba.
Leon: Why a tuba?
Denny: Because my father played tuba in the marching bands all over Halifax, and if I didn’t say tuba he’d probably hit me with a bolt of lightening right now.
Leon: This is Florida. Lightening capital of the world. So, we’ve got to be careful.
Denny: I like the tuba. Anything bass. I like the bass-y instruments.
Leon: The last question is: Somebody’s just heard you play. If they were to pay you the perfect compliment, what would it be?
Eddy: Money?
Robin: Pay you? Aah. For me, it would be, that they were inspired to do what they love. That would be the best compliment to me. That they were inspired to be a better person or do what they love to do because they saw me doing what I love to do.
Eddy: That’s probably more the real answer. I was being…
Leon: You were trying to make a joke.
Robin: No. He’s trying to pay off his credit cards!
Denny: I don’t know about perfect, but the one [compliment] that has meant the most to me has been when the guys came back from Vietnam and would just come up and say, “Thank you for being there when I thought I was going to lose my life.” “When I was holding someone’s life in my hands it helped me get through.” If you can help people get through any kind of crisis, any kind of trouble, if it helps in any kind of way, it’s good.
Leon: I was going to ask you to tell the audience about your Website. How they can contact you. How they can get a hold of your CD?
Denny: Oh. I found out today that I have a Website! Did you know I have a Website?
Eddy: Yeah! You just do a search, put in ‘Denny Doherty’ and it’ll come up.
Robin: You go to “Google.com” and put in Denny Doherty.
Eddy: Do the same thing with ‘Robin and Eddy’ and you’ll find out more information than you’ll want.
Robin: Go to www.robinandeddy.com.
Eddy: I have to say that I think computers are the most unique things that have happened to communication.
Denny: We have become far too dependent on electricity.
Leon: Electricity?
Denny: Try doing without it.
Leon: We’d all be sitting in the dark.
Robin: You can get on our mailing list. You can email us and you can go to our Website and get our CD.