The brand new album, “Night Connections 2,” is coming along pretty well. Some of you sent some very nice notes about the first cut, which I ran at the beginning of the last podcast. But one Proud Podcast Participant…Jack from Massachusetts…reacted very negatively to the rough stuff involved. He said, “That’s not like Lovin Touch.” And Jack is right. “Lovin Touch” is mostly about stuff between my Lady Wonder Wench and me. “Night Connections” is about what’s going on in lots of people’s lives. And some of it is kind of rough.
I’m changing the title of that first cut from “My Buddy Billy’s Babe” to “A Quiet Man’s Woman.” It’s a story about a friend of mine who was a New York City Police Homicide Detective. Billy had the kind of sense of humor that cops, and firefighters, and some pilots, develop… because they have to. Sometimes a quick laugh can stiff arm the panic.
Billy called me one night while I was doing a music show at WNBC, and he started describing the apartment he was standing in as he was working on a really brutal murder case. Evidently…there were body parts and blood everywhere. His description was getting pretty graphic. And I finally said something about “If you don’t mind all that blood, you should have paid attention to your mommy and become a doctor…why are you calling me about this?” He said, “The radio is on here…and it must have been on while the murder was going on…and guess who they were listening to…YOU.”
That was Billy. The bad guys got him shortly after that. And I got to thinking what it must have been like for his wife…night after night…wondering if he was going to come home. And finally…one night…he didn’t. My Lady Wonder Wench and I really miss him. Some time I’ll tell you about the time he commandeered a New York City Police chopper to get us to a charity softball game my team “The Cheaters” were playing. Meantime…think about Billy when you read about some cop who’s patience blows up while he’s dead tired, worried about his wife and kids, and trying to deal with another bad guy in the middle of the night. And think about him when you listen to the first cut on the new album.
I got several new cuts set this week. And I put cut two up at the beginning of this week’s podcast. It’s called “The Piano Man.” It’s a lot different from the cut about Billy. It’s based loosely on a call I got in the middle of the night while I was on the air at WNEW…from a guy who played piano in one of the Manhattan piano bars. He wanted me to play a dedication for a lady he wasn’t planning on seeing again. The song he wanted me to play is called “I’ll Never Forget You.”
I don’t remember his name. But he told me he had just decided he wasn’t going to follow her around anymore. I don’t remember his name…or hers. And I don’t know what happened to them. But I think about them sometimes. Maybe one of them will see this blog…or hear the Piano Man cut from the new album…and drop me an email to dick at dick summer dot com. Don’t laugh…stranger things have happened…when I was on the air…in the middle of all those nights.
Dick’s Details Quiz – All the answers are in the current podcast at www.DickSummer.com
1- If I had painted the Mona Lisa, what would I have given her instead of that smile?
2- How old was that piece of Irish cheese they said was still edible when they dug it up in 1987?
3- The first official heart transplant took place in a hospital in 1969. When and where did the first un-official heart transplant take place?
Scoring:
3- right – Platinum album
2- right – Gold record
1- right – #20 with a bullet
0- right – A three hour long recording of your buddy’s kid’s garage band
I still have a lot of work to do to get Night Connections 2 ready for you. And I can still change some things. So I’d appreciate any comments you’d like to make about the cuts on this week and last week’s podcasts. Please send them to Dick@DickSummer.com
Thanks.