RECAP: Stories from Storytown 4 (finally !)

Well it’s a bit embarrassing that six months have gone by since our 4th Stories from Storytown without a recap. My apologies. And don’t ask when you can expect the recap of episode 5; I’m working on it.

Anyway, I do want to share the fascinating conversations we had with our illustrious guests, radio promoter Bob Laul, surf-pop recording artist Jessica Dye, and Rolling Stone journalist David Browne. The stories were wide ranging, touching on the Zombies, edible cassettes, and Bob Dylan’s collaboration with Michael Bolton. But I get ahead of myself.

Storytown (the band) led off with the first single from our debut album, Run Run, followed by the premier of a new song about the exquisite pleasures of anticipation, The Urge to Strike. Then onto our first conversation…

Guy kicked off the storytelling with a conversation with Bob Laul. Bob started "Serious Bob Promotion" over 35 years ago, promoting Alternative artists such as Pete Shelly, Human League and The Go Go's to A.O.R. Radio when Alternative music was a dirty word to the rock radio community. Thru tenacity, hard work and dedication he shifted his style from Alternative to New Age, back to Alternative, and now, since 1992, Adult Progressive, or Triple A radio. Before getting into radio promotion, Bob was one of the co-founders of I.R.S. Records with Miles Copeland in 1979. Bob had a hand in the success of artists such as The Go Go's, Buzzcocks, Berlin and Oingo Boingo. On this December night Bob talked about The Dave Clark Five, the Zombies, signing the Go-Gos, and payola. Here he recounts how he hooked up with Police drummer Stewart Copeland’s brother Miles to form I.R.S Records:

Storytown followed with two songs, Very Fine People (you can probably guess the subject :-), and another song from our album, the celebration of how opposites attract, Caramel and Fleur de Sel.

BTW, “fleur de sel” (literally "flower of salt") is the thin, delicate crust of salt that forms on the surface when seawater evaporates. The crystal patterns look a bit like flowers, hence the name. But you knew that, and I digress….

Surf-punk guitarist and songwriter Jessica Dye came directly to the club from the airport, returning from a rare and much-needed vacation in Hawaii and arriving just in the nick of time. Jessica was dressed for beach lounging, a nice contrast with the bitter cold that had descended upon Bleecker Street. Jessica Louise Dye’s band High Waisted released their much-anticipated sophomore album, Sick of Saying Sorry, in May – check it out here. Fresh from the beach, Jessica talked a bit about one of their more “special” releases, edible cassettes:

We always break up the songs and chitchat with some eye candy, and on this night we rescreened a charming video created by our live producer Heba Elorbany, Going to Storytown:

Next the band played a new song, Same Difference:

What is the difference if I rarely defend you
Is it not enough if I am secretly on your side
What is the difference if I never say I love you
Is it not enough for me to be always by your side
Well it’s the same same, same same, same same difference
It’s kind of lame when you claim it’s not the same at all
Well it’s the same same, same same, same same difference
When you claim it’s not the same it makes me feel real small

Our final storyteller was David Browne, a senior writer at Rolling Stone magazine and the author of biographies of the Grateful Dead, Sonic Youth, and Jeff and Tim Buckley. His most recent books are a biography of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, published this spring (and included in the Summer Reading issue of The New York Times in May 2019), and "Jeff Buckley: His Own Voice," a collection of the late singer's writings, journals and possessions co-edited with the Buckley Estate. David and I had a wide-ranging conversation; here he talked about what happened when Bob Dylan asked Michael Bolton to collaborate on a song:

Storytown finished up with a brand-new song, What Might Have Been, which one might interpret as a kind of call to action to folks who aren’t thrilled with the status quo:

Sometimes I start to wonder
Wonder how it might have been
What would have happened if I’d leapt between the bullet and Martin ‘fore it barreled in
I start to wonder what might have been
I start to wonder
If I’d leapt between the bullet and Martin ‘fore it barreled in

Big thanks to the folks at The Bitter End, our live show director Heba Elorbany, videographers Vinnie Grosso and Kris Skrinak, and the band.

We were again proud and honored to be sponsored by the biggest and best digital spoken word service on the planet, Audible.com:

Thanks for listening. WE’LL BE BACK!