"FOOL FOR LOVE "1994 - appears in the background in this movie a couple of times when Mr. Orange (Tim Roth) goes back to his house. Whenever he turns on the radio there's my song. When Karyn was explaining the movie to me she said there is an undercover cop who likes country music and we need your music for him. So in that scene when Mr. Orange is looking in the mirror, he knows he's been made, but he also knows he has to go to the meeting, my song is in the background, he can't go backwards or sideways, he can't chicken out, but he will probably die... "you foooooool for love, what he wouldn't dooooooo for lo a ove". Yeah. I'm not sure if he ever did die, but he sure bled alot. So much blood that it is hilarious. They almost used "Train Fare to Memphis" also. I had mentioned to Karyn that I had intended for that song to be a duet - where the chorus is sung by the male with the female harmonizing and the verses sung by the female. Quentin talked about having Maria McKee and Dwight Yokum re-record it like that, as a duet. That never did happen. Would have been like a Righteous Brother with a sister instead. Oh well, those kinds of ideas come and go. Nice to just be part of the thought. [MORE "RATTLE" IN GARLIC]
Fool For Love - 1986
FOOL FOR LOVE 1986 - I had only been living at the ranch in Santa Rosa for awhile. My dad died a year before. Sam called one day in April and said he'd like me to write some songs for the movie version of his play, FOOL FOR LOVE. He had begun production in Santa Fe and had played an old tape for Robert Altman of me singing - a tape that he'd been carrying around for years - some of my very first songs - "Wedding Band," "Man of My Dreams," "True Love," "You Lied Your Way Right Into My Heart, Honey. " He had played the darn tape for Robert Altman. Well, low and behold Altman went nuts. That tape had been recorded when I first started singing and playing the guitar and was, well, funky. Of course it was scratchy and missing some high end too by now. Well, of course, Robert Altman would love it.
I went immediately to the basement apartment to write songs for the movie. We'd just had a new filly born at the ranch out of Jesse's mare, Ruby. It was a beautiful time of year. I wrote "Let's Ride" and "Comes and Goes" and a song called "Elainey May" and got those off to Sam in three days. Sam called back right away and said he loved them, but couldn't understand what I was saying "moving with the move?" No, no, bro, "moving with the moon." "Oh, okay, that's good. " He would submit them to Altman. Altman loved those - and wanted more, wanted to see if I could do the whole soundtrack. I wrote "Rosa" "A Heart That's Broke" and "Why Wyoming" (with the help of Louise Kirchen) in another spurt and sent them off. Next - I should come back to the set in Santa Fe and meet everyone. So I flew to Santa Fe. Sam was living there at the time. I had just flown back a year before for my father's funeral.
Recording the Soundtrack , Picking the producer/engineer/studio - Jim Gaines at the Record Plant. Jim was a friend of my husband Doug Killmer (best bucket blues bassist alive). Jim produced Huey Lewis and Journey. Met with Gaines at his house and he listened to a few songs and was interested. So I recommended him to Altman. Cannon Films liked the idea of Gaines and so we were down to the wire. We had six new songs and I had always wanted to record "End of the World" - so that was 7. Altman wanted a title cut called "Fool for Love." I submitted a song that I now call "Four Letters in Blue" and the "Fool for Love" that appears in RESERVOIR DOGS and 3 more songs with that title. Altman didn't like any of them and he went ahead with "Let's Ride" for the title song. That is really the pick of the soundtrack album. "Black Sidewalk" was one from my song bank. Altman really liked it but couldn't fit it into the movie. It just appears on the album.
Green Moon Story
GREEN MOON STORY - The GREEN MOON really did float up DOWN IN THE VALLEY and sit on the eastern horizon almost within touching reach one evening last summer while Bud and I were sitting naked in two aluminum lawn chairs. Naked because it was 115 degrees at 9:00 pm. It had been too hot to walk for days. Too hot to sleep, too hot to watch TV. Aluminum lawn chairs because that's what we have for outdoor living at the TRAILER UP ON A HILL. The Green Moon just floated up against the pinkish yellow sky and sat there almost on the ground for an hour before it rose and the sky changed color. It was something to write a song about which I haven't done yet. I have written all around it, but not on it. Instead I packaged ten songs together and stood them up side by side and named them all after that GREEN MOON.
GREEN MOON is the completion of a project I started ten years ago. I recorded the soundtrack album for the film FOOL FOR LOVE in 1985. Right after that, in 1986, I recorded a four song demo in Nashville PAINT THE KITCHEN PINK, TRAIN FARE TO MEMPHIS, FOOL FOR LOVE, COWGIRL BLUES. Movie music supervisor Karyn Rachtman placed song after song from that cassette demo into movies she was working on; the most well known being Reservoir Dogs, the first movie written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. The Last Seduction & Motorcycle Gang also carry my songs.
In 1995 I moved to a new land where everything is a stranger and nothing is familiar and pieces of new songs kept popping out on napkins and post its all over my house and in my car. I'd moved to Oakdale, California which is in farm la la land, the Central Valley. It's not the mid-west. It's the west. I found out that I am not a farmer, nor am I a cowgirl. Not a city girl either, though. Lots of song fodder. I felt a strong urge to be myself, whoever she is, and part of that was to finish what I had started ten years before. I came up a little more bluesy.
GREEN MOON co-producer Bob Regan and the GREEN MOON BAND - Awesome Nashville cats headed up by my long time friend, Bob Regan, Nashville country-hit-song-writer-producer and guitar player extraordinaire. I've known Bob since the 70's in Davis CA when I first started playing at the Antique Bizzare and he was playing with his rock/r&b band the 4-Skins. Regan helped me over the top with production on this project plus did all the guitar work, backup vocals and hand-claps! Johnny Neel on harp, keyboards, bluesy backup vocals. Paul Scholten drums & percussion. Scot Q. Merry on bass except he was on vacation for the last session so Duncan Mullins finished the bass work. Brook Langton on pedal steel. Recorded at County Q in Nashville - very smooth operation.
RAGGEDY ANN
It was coming down to the wire for writing another couple of songs for the cd in about January. "Down in the Valley" kept bugging me. I just wasn't happy with it. The idea was there - the frustration of a relationship - communication between people - it was clear in my mind - but it wasn't clear in the song. I knew it wasn't clear and I couldn't get it out more plain and I didn't feel like the ditv part was powerful, it seemed too plain, not enough emotion. I had been working on the darn song too long. I don't like them anymore after I have to struggle with them. I was thinking about renting a cabin up in the mountains near here and just writing. I felt like my environment was stale - I needed some stimulation - new surroundings. Then I checked myself - brought up my firm belief that a writer should be able to write anywhere, no matter what. I started making myself look around. I happened to have been sitting on the couch in my living room and I spotted the rocking chair with the dolls in it. I had stacked all my rag dolls in the chair to keep people from sitting in it. The chair was real fragile. It is truly beautiful. It is painted red and accented in black with scratches and chips that show through to the wood. There's a carving in the top center that could be the wind. The song just came in about two takes. I remember not being able to stop crying as I wrote it. And I called Bud and I was singing the first two verses over the phone before I'd written the bridge. Trying to sing and stop crying over the phone. I still have the original cassette of me recording the stupid song sobbing. I should have pressed that take. I doubt if anyone gets this song the way I do. Bud loves it because I think it was the first song I let him in on the creation of. I like to keep them secret until I'm proud of them - until they say something. This one was done before I stopped crying.
WAIT & WAIT & WAIT
Bud was afraid to show up for our first date. That's where this song comes from. I waited for him on the stoop of house, knowing he wasn't going to show, but I just waited anyway. He never did show up. Not that time anyway. (scan picture of Bud in his new LBJ hat)
STEAL AWAY
I wrote this one for Sam's movie "Far North" but he decided to use the Red Clay Ramblers.
SUBURBAN BOYS
SUBURBAN BOYS and the PJ - Nesci connection - I was a very serious tomboy growing up in South Pasadena, CA. I followed my brother and his friends everywhere. We lived near the Arroyo Seco. I played football mostly and rode bikes with the boys. I even delivered papers with my brother. He used to make me carry the papers and he'd just reach over and toss one. He kept complaining about how slow I was. I'd do anything for a paper route. At a certain point the guys started ditching me and so I played with Penelope Jane. She worked at the stables in the arroyo and we'd run away from home with our horses (in our imaginations). Neither one of us really had a horse, but we had at least ten dolls apiece. The whole side yard of her house was our doll city. When I finished Green Moon and 1000 cds arrived,
I quickly sent a batch to my friends. The very first person to listen was Nesci. He called immediately with his usual supportiveness and said that he was going to name one of his characters PJ (Penelope Jane). Nesci's a real good actor in the middle of screenplay writing. First met Nesci when he was in ACTION at the Magic in San Francisco, years ago. So the pictures over here on the right are the real Penelope Jane and her friend CC each with a doll as the SUBURBAN GIRLS and then there's John Nesci on his Schwinn somewhere near Chicago? Looks like a SUBURBAN BOY to me. This is the true connection between Nesci and PJ. They have never met.
DOWN IN THE VALLEY
Bud and I go on lots of drives - the jewel box photo is an old building I spotted on one of our drives. We were on our way to the ocean. I just loved the old signs across the front of this building - one slapped on top of the other. So I took a picture from the window of the truck and slapped it on the front of my cd!