[Updated Sept. 9, 2023] I’ve uploaded five of my music videos to the Chinese “Youtube” website, called Youku. All Google internet products, including Youtube, are blocked in China, so at least these five videos will be available there (here).
These five videos can now be viewed in China.
Find links to all five Youku videos here. [Update: As of 2023, and quite possibly earlier, these videos are no longer available on Youku.]
When those of us born in 1952 turned 15 (or were about to turn 15) and the Beatles released Sgt. Pepper (including McCartney’s “When I’m Sixty-Four”), actually being 64 was just an incomprehensible abstraction. Well times change: here’s my live cover of the classic song (with background vocals, bass, drums, and organ added) that I’ve just posted on YouTube to celebrate my 64th birthday.
I was asked by the architecture students running Thumbnail, a PechaKucha style event, to submit a song consistent with the event’s theme of “fluff.” The song itself can be heard on SoundCloud; the video, which includes the song as well as a spoken introduction (consisting of twenty 20-second segments as required—for a total length of 400 seconds, or 6 minutes 40 seconds), can be seen on YouTube; or, if you want lots of additional information about the lyrics and production, see the video on my music page.
This “fluff” image was created by the architecture students running Cornell’s “Thumbnail” event, April 15, 2016.
My brother Kurt and I have created a new music production entity called Rollover.2 (it’s a derivative of the rock group, Rollo; hence the name, which is a contraction of “Rollo Version 2.” Our first production is a new song called Honeymoon Phase. Lyrics and production notes can be found here; the video is embedded below.
I’ve been recording songs by other artists in chronological order — one for each year beginning in the early 1960s — and have now reached the end of the decade with “Sunlight,” a song written by Jesse Colin Young for the Youngbloods that was released in 1969 on their Elephant Mountain album.
I was an early fan of the Youngbloods because my uncle, who worked at RCA records, made sure we had all of their albums from the 1960s. “Sunlight” was always one of my favorite songs. I recorded this cover version live using one mic (well, I only have one mic) for the guitar and vocal. Live piano and bass (both Logic Pro software instruments, actually) were added later; all performances were captured live with my refurbished iPod Touch and edited in Final Cut Express.
I’ve written another song. Not much backstory, except to remark on the obvious — that it’s one more examination of aging — and except that I had been struggling with the lyrics for months. At a certain point, I felt the need to say it’s done, and to move on. Even the video betrays evidence of that impatience: I didn’t want to deal with audio-video syncing problems I’ve been experiencing using Final Cut Express (Apple’s old video editing platform), and so there are some noticeable time lags between voice and image, especially in the final verse. You can find lyrics and production notes here along with a thank you to brother Kurt for helping with the final mix in his Brooklyn basement studio.
Well, I finally got my 15 minutes of fame, playing piano at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland on May 29, 2015.
Actually, the piano was a remnant of the “Play Me, I’m Yours” traveling piano art installation; and I had to perform one-handed, as my left hand was holding the low-resolution Flip camcorder with which I documented this short performance.
I went to see three sets at Bound for Glory yesterday, WVBR’s long-running live (and free) Sunday evening radio concert program at Anabel Taylor Hall at Cornell. Guy Davis performed, and also took this selfie.
Me (left) and Guy (right) between sets at Anabel Taylor Hall at Cornell
The two of us were in the same class at New Rochelle High School, but our paths never really intersected there. Guy is an amazing singer, songwriter, musician, and performer — something I was not entirely aware of until I saw him play yesterday. You should definitely check out his web site and buy one or more of his CDs.
From the New Rochelle High School yearbook (1970)
While we’re on this subject, it turns out that there were a number of other students from that same class from New Rochelle who went on to have professional careers as musicians. Amy Madden is a singer, songwriter, bassist, writer, and poet (recently inducted into the NYC Blues Hall of Fame). Andy Tuck “worked throughout the 70’s and 80’s as a professional jazz pianist and composer” (some of his amazing music can be heard here).
From the New Rochelle High School yearbook (1970)
And then there were two other former friends who started out with me in the New Rochelle school system, but presumably finished their secondary education elsewhere:
Kapilow (left) and Mintzer (right) also turned into amazing musicians
I met Rob Kapilow in Junior High School where he impressed me, not necessarily with his piano playing, but with his impassioned interest and advocacy for entering into relationships with 15-year-old girls. But that was then. From his current web site, we read: “Kapilow’s range of activities is astonishingly broad, including his What Makes It Great?® presentations (now for over fifteen seasons in New York and Boston), his family compositions and Family Musik® events, his “Citypieces”, and residencies with institutions as diverse as the National Gallery of Canada and Stanford University.”
Bob Mintzer actually went to elementary school with me. I remember a “den” in his house — at that time, having grown up living only in apartments, I had been to very few actual single-family houses, and I’m pretty sure this was my first experience with a real den. Such things can make a big impression on a ten- or eleven-year-old boy. Bob is now “a twenty year member of the Grammy award winning Yellowjackets who also leads a Grammy winning Big Band, travels with his own Quartet, and plays with numerous bands globally.”
Am I leaving anyone out?
I allow myself the pleasure of recording one “cover”* only after writing an original song. So here’s my take on the Bee Gees from 1968:
* I’ve been recording these covers sequentially (i.e., one from each year), starting with 1963’s Surfer Girl. Each year features a different song and a different artist that were important to me in some way. Eventually, I hope to reach the current year, or at least the twenty-first century, but — with my somewhat arbitrary recording rules (see above) — I will need to write quite a few original songs, and I tend to struggle with those…
I’ve been working on this new song for a while. After struggling with both the words and music for months, I recorded the song at home in December 2014, then brought it to Brooklyn so that brother Kurt could help me with the mix (I tend to use Logic Pro’s default settings for everything, whereas Kurt actually knows what he’s doing), and finally tweaked the relative volumes of the vocal, background vocals, and guitar by myself at home just a few days ago.
I shot the video in about 15 minutes using my black background cloth and my low-resolution Flip camcorder, and edited it with Final Cut Express yesterday.
Between the Lines
Words and music © 2014 J. Ochshorn
verse 1. i thought i knew a lot about you
what you’re wishing and how you move in space
where your phone is when it’s missing
from its normal resting place
verse 2. i guess it’s really not that simple
the plot’s not unraveled and much remains unsaid
like a road that’s rarely traveled
like a story half unread
chorus
(no no no) don’t make me guess
(whoa whoa whoa) what’s on your mind
i can’t find the meaning in your symbols and your signs
don’t make me read between the lines
verse 3. what’s the point of this interrogation
when nothing’s been proven with your third degree
you just seem to keep on moving
in and out of misery [chorus]
bridge
please don’t make me jump to these conclusions
or search for sense in your allusions
it’s hard for me to deal with these confusions
verse 4. so i’m looking for a point of entry
unencumbered to a different mode
show me how your password’s numbered
tell me how to break the code [chorus]