Category: music

Song for Claudine

~ thatneilguy ~ Leave a comment

I was thumbing through a notebook just now and saw a note that reminded me of this song.

Back in February, a social media friend lamented that no one had ever written a song for her, so I did. One of her points was that her name is not pronounced in the typical fashion claw-deen. So I tried to pronounce it the way I thought it was pronounced based on what I’d seen. And I think I did it completely wrong. I think, now, that the first syllable is pronounced “cloh” (rhymes with low). But I somehow got it into my dumb head that it was “clow” (rhymes with cow).

So on the plus side, I wrote her a song. On the way big minus side, I — like every other casual acquaintance in her life — screwed up the pronunciation of her name.

Sorry Claudine.

(Also I asked my son to hold the camera when I shot this, so, it’s not as steady as your average viewer might like.)

 

Happier Song

~ thatneilguy ~ Leave a comment

For a few years now, I’ve been using an app called Happier, and it’s actually helped make me, well, happier. I wrote about Happier on my old blog (and again here) and I am such a fan that a few years ago I wrote a song about it. Eventually, I turned it into a video by soliciting pictures from some of my Happier friends. I am, of course, biased, but I really love the song.

I wrote it, sang it, and played the ukulele on it. My brother, Cash Shurley, produced it. I’m really proud of it.

Wonder Woman ’75 – A Musical Treasure

~ thatneilguy ~ Leave a comment

I’m not immune to Wonder Woman mania. But as much as I enjoyed the movie, my summer of Wonder Woman centered around a brand new 3-CD release of music from the classic 1970’s TV show. I loved the release so much, I asked Film Score Monthly magazine if they’d be interested in an interview with the set’s producer (and my friend) Neil S. Bulk.

The piece was published in the June 2017 issue (subscription required to read the full article). Here are a couple of excerpts.

In the role of journalist, I know I should be strictly impartial, but I’ll admit right up front that I can’t stop listening to the music from the classic television series Wonder Woman. There’s just something about La-La Land Records’ recent 3-CD set that hits everything I love about soundtracks—catchy riffs, clever rhythms and a heavy dose of nostalgia.

I recently spoke to producer Neil S. Bulk about putting together the collection and discovered another good reason for me to love the set: There was one track that Bulk included with specifically me in mind!

Neil Shurley: How did you get involved with this project?

Neil S. Bulk: This was just a La-La Land assignment. I’d been watching the show. I hadn’t watched it in many years—I grew up with the reruns—but it sort of faded away for a while and I rediscovered it on MeTV. And so I was watching it, and as I was watching it, I was sort of paying attention to the music. I think I started watching on MeTV when it was on season three, and I thought—because you just sort of file things in the back of your mind—“Oh, this is Angela Morley. Oh, there’s a blaster beam. If this ever happens, I’d love to be part of it.” So when they asked me, I said, great, and then I sort of knew in what direction I wanted to go. Their initial want list, which I agreed with, was that it would be three CDs, a disc per season. And then we started searching Warner Bros. and discovering that we couldn’t find much from season one. We scoured the entire inventory and turned up nothing, just the pilot, which we couldn’t even find right away. I was going through the inventory and went, “Oh, wait a minute—what are these nine reels right here?” We called them in and it was the pilot score, so we did find that. And that’s how it all started.

NS: But you couldn’t ever find anything else from season one.

NSB: No, we couldn’t.

NS: Does it feel like there’s a lot missing, that there was a lot of good stuff you were hoping to get to while you were watching?

NSB: It’s been a while now, I’d have to look back at my notes for that. It would have been nice to have some of the World War II stuff on there, because it’s an important part, but we do have the pilot, which was critical.

Continue reading “Wonder Woman ’75 – A Musical Treasure” →

Love Theme from This Week in Science

~ thatneilguy ~ Leave a comment

One of the first podcasts I discovered, many years ago now, was This Week in Science. Originating from UC Davis, the radio show/podcast features Dr. Kiki and Justin Jackson delivering science news and opinion in a fun, freewheeling, conversational style. I always enjoyed listening to it and hearing the latest news of World Robot Domination and mind-controlling toxoplasma gondii and Justin’s weekly Disclaimers and their signature sign off – “Remember, if you learned anything from today’s show, it’s all in your head.”

For a couple of years, TWiS put together CDs of original science-themed music to act as a fund raiser. The last one they did featured the World Robot Domination song I wrote (and my brother performed and produced). The year before that, I contributed another song, again one I wrote and my brother produced and performed. It was intended to be a Theme Song for This Week in Science and the hosts began playing it at the close of every episode, which made me very proud.

It was inspired by Dr. Kiki’s mention on the show that they didn’t have an original theme song. So I decided to write one. The lyrics and tune came to me pretty quickly. I sketched it out then sang it, a cappella, to my brother, who ran with it and made it one hundred percent more awesome.

I still REALLY like the song. I think it’s fun to listen to and features lyrics that will mostly reward other long time TWiS listeners.

Here it is. I hope you enjoy it.

Here’s my own personal disclaimer. As I wrote it, I heard Danny Elfman singing it in my head and the mighty horns and percussion and guitars of Oingo Boingo performing it.