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Various Artists - T Bone Burnett
An in-demand producer for more than three decades, T Bone Burnett brought out the best from an array of artists by creating an environment where they feel free to be themselves. Drawn from a vast body of work, here is a representative selection of sterling productions by the GRAMMY® Award and Academy Award® recipient.
This includes track-by-track liner notes by T Bone.
On "The Comedians":
"When we were working on
Mystery Girl, Bob Neuwirth and I were writing one day when Roy started to describe his writing process to us. He sang 'In Dreams.' He showed us that he didn't write AABA-type songs the way most songs of that time were written. Instead, he would start with his lowest note, and he'd wind the song up through different ranges until he ended at his highest note. Check out 'Running Scared.' (What a great title, by the way.)
I called Elvis Costello to see if he had a tune for Roy. He said, 'I wrote a tune with Roy in mind, but I want to rewrite it.' I told him about the songwriting class we had just had with Roy. So Elvis listened to all of Roy's stuff, found his lowest note and his highest note and rewrote the song going from one to the other.
When I gave it to Orbison it blew his mind. I didn't tell him the back story. Roy said: 'This guy is so smart! He found my lowest note and my highest note and wrote the melody between the two.' There was no need to disabuse him of that notion."
On "God's Comic":
"This was my request, perhaps on a whim, because I seriously don't know how to single out one of the records Elvis and I have made together. Kevin Killen recorded and created beautiful sounds on this record. Marc Ribot on banjo, Michael Blair, the inventive percussionist. Both from Tom Waits's band. Mitchell Froom pitching in on harmonium.
It is, of course, fearless. It walks the non-existent line between the comic and the tragic, I would call it Psychedelic Music, but all music is psychedelic. 'I've been wading through all of this unbelievable junk / And wondering if I should have given the world to the monkeys.' Tell the truth, Howard. And God is certainly comic."