AN AMERICAN TAIL: FIEVEL GOES WEST (1991) / 1492: CONQUEST OF PARADISE (1992)

There was a brief, shining moment when I was a DJ on a college radio station. I hadn't sought it out initially and yet once the opportunity presented itself I excitedly realized that this would be akin to sharing a live mix tape with an invisible audience. An invisible audience from whom I wouldn't really be aware of any judgments, unless they took the time to actually call into the station. Internally I still had the push-pull complex of wanting to share the music I loved with people while also feeling completely self-conscious about it, worried to open myself up to potential ridicule.  But hey, it was a student-run station at a small, liberal, Quaker college, so I honestly had no reason to worry about acceptance. It was a free range of content we could broadcast, no one would bat an eye (or ear?) at hearing movie music emanate out of their respective 1990's era boomboxes.

This occurred during my second, and final, year at Guilford College, in Greensboro, North Carolina. My freshman year was discussed a bit in a previous post, the one focused on STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. Sophomore year was a definite improvement - better roommate, more friends, more confidence and a car, all winning attributes. Invitations to parties. Crushes requited. That tingling sense of newness to each day. I had places to go and people to see and people wanted to see me. I experienced those sought after feelings of belonging, of acceptance among the fellow oddballs, all on a campus likely considered weird from the outside looking in.

Right near the end of my freshman year I had joined the college choir as well as their small-scale band. The latter activity proved a complete mess for me, due to my nagging inability to actually sightread music.  There was no fooling anyone anymore. I was much better at memorizing by ear quickly, a handy skill in high school during the musicals, but sight reading is absolutely a necessary ingredient when asked to play a clarinet. Even so, the best reward from these activities was making friends with a guy named Devah, who became my roommate.  His given name was actually Daniel, but apparently there were so many Dans, Daniels and Dannys in his family that ihe went by Devah instead, pronounced just like the word “diva”.  I'm not saying that this word also described his demeanor, but... maybe every now and then it was apt. I think "Devah" was actually a Sanskrit word and it was a favorite aunt of his who might have chosen this moniker for him, but don’t quote me on this, my memory is a bit fuzzy.

Devah’s friendship was effortless and most welcome. We shared a similar temperament, interests and humor and often held marathon discussions on the perennially geeky topics of movies, science fiction, Star Trek and even how he wished to rewrite ALIEN 3 as just a bad dream. I became a fixture in his circle of friends, which was a regular roundtable of majors in organic chemistry, music and political science, followed by me sadly as an undeclared. Included in the group was also his on-again off-again girlfriend Catherine, already well-known across campus as the girl who would vociferously practice her vocal scales as she walked across the grounds. Also there was John, a sweet and quiet man who DJ’d at the aforementioned radio station, WQFS-FM.  He ended up being the person who suggested I join him there as another DJ.  On a side note, following the Fall break between semesters, John returned to school as a Hare Krishna - shaved head, robes and all. I always wondered and yet never uncovered what the heck happened to him during the Christmas holidays that brought this on. 

So I learned that with student-run radio stations it can be pretty difficult to staff it throughout each day, seeing as how those students who volunteered as DJs had to balance class schedules and more against their respective shifts.  I also discovered that it was the midnight to 3:00 am shift where they needed bodies.  Not ideal for sure - actually, it kind of sucked - but on the flip-side it was a time slot tucked deep enough into the day that any on-air missteps could go (relatively) unnoticed.  John elucidated how I could craft my own show format and music to play; I simply had to notate every track broadcast and remember to do live-reads each hour of certain sponsor scripts.  Their entire music library was at my disposal too, any time of day, another bonus.  I signed on as John's apprentice, to study his kung-fu ways of the college airwaves. He invited me to his weekly show to be tutored on how to work the dials, knobs and switches, along with the request phone line, the latter a proposition I dreaded.  I imagined it like being trained on a flight simulator, but one with a forearm-sized microphone positioned on a swivel in front of my face.  All I hoped was to avoid any "crash and burn" scenarios in which my ego was the primary casualty. 

I titled my show Soundwaves. In hindsight it was probably a bit generic and maybe more suggestive of a new age music program, but I assured any listeners that the focus was movie and TV music. Thank goodness that for my first solo "flight" on the air, Devah was listening back in our dorm room.  He might have been the only person tuning in, actually. Regardless, at around ten minutes into my first show he dialed in to the request line. A pit formed in my stomach as he informed me that no one could hear any music.  My spoken intro had been audible, but then dead silence followed. I somehow had skipped either a dial or knob once I set my first track to spinning in the CD player.  Crash and burn in progress. Quickly I compensated, cranking levels and flipping switches.  I guess it also felt as if this was opening night of my one-man show. The curtains parted, the lights bloomed bright and I blanked on my first lines.

AN AMERICAN TAIL: FIEVEL GOES WEST and 1492: CONQUEST OF PARADISE were my surprising first choices. I'm sure you're thinking now - say what? For John Williams' sake, why wouldn't I inaugurate a soundtrack radio show with a big ticket title,  a STAR WARS or JAWS? Even a well-known Bernard Herrmann score for Alfred Hitchcock? I don't know, I think I outsmarted myself, trying to be unpredictable and unconventional, avoiding the obvious. The danger was winding up being unmemorable.  Of course, the fact that no one heard the music at the outset didn't help. Nonetheless, these two scores were in my heavy rotation at the time, the former due to stalwart favorite composer James Horner and the latter because composer Vangelis had so few film scores to celebrate.

Throughout his career, even as his style shifted, James Horner's music for a variety of animated movies remained a consistent, reliable highlight. Akin to his fantasy film work, there's an engaging melodicism throughout, coupled with rich orchestration. The instrumentation is of a traditional, post-Romantic idiom, finding inspiration in the music of Sergei Prokofiev, all of which make this set of his scores very accessible. It began in 1986 with AN AMERICAN TAIL, which sported the song "Somewhere Out There", the award-nominated and oft played hit by Horner that everyone knew before TITANIC's "My Heart Will Go On", which made him a household name. Between this and its 1991 sequel, FIEVEL GOES WEST, Horner tackled THE LAND BEFORE TIME (1988), a score of his that remains one of my top favorites (still never seen that movie either, though). 

FIEVEL GOES WEST was composed in the same year as Horner's perennial fan favorite, THE ROCKETEER. It shares the same exuberance and boundless energy, bolstered by musical hallmarks of past Westerns - whip cracks, whistles, banjo, harmonica and even quotes from Aaron Copland's famous "Rodeo" ballet. Whereas the score for the original AN AMERICAN TAIL carried a sense of melancholy throughout (not surprising considering its story of the child separated from his parents in a new country), the sequel score is lighter on its feet.

With 1492: CONQUEST OF PARADISE, composer Vangelis re-teamed with director Ridley Scott for only the second time, following BLADE RUNNER in 1982.  I can't provide any assessment of the movie itself, I still have never seen it.  I hear it looks beautiful, though. Despite the movie's swift stay in theaters and subsequent disappearance, the album was a good crossover hit for Vangelis, who already had that built-in fanbase.  I loved this score immediately, as it combined his unique analog synth palate with a sonorous choir and ethnic instrumentation. There's almost no major reoccurring melody presented throughout, as is expected for a film score, instead each track is its own unique piece, allowing it to play unbelievably well as a hypnotic, stand-alone instrumental album. I think this approachability factor, along with the "cool" electronic factor, prompted me to lead in with this score on my first show. 

Ultimately, Soundwaves crested fairly early in its run, much to my disappointment.  I was, in reality, simply a substitute DJ while the longtimers and headliners couldn't execute their shifts. There were a handful of subsequent shows for me, still in the 12am-3am time slot, but those in charge eventually informed me that my movie music services weren't needed anymore. I guess three hours of soundtracks a week proved too much for one college radio station. Nevertheless, I continued perusing their record library when I had free time. No one seemed to mind this at all and I'd made some acquaintances during my innocent loitering. I'd often spend hours crafting mix tapes on their equipment, drawing out all sorts of albums from their cramped shelves, even branching into the extensive indie pop and rock sections. Unexpectedly, I connected with several obscure (to me) bands such as Cranes, Cocteau Twins, Kitchens of Distinction, The Sundays and even a few Lyle Lovett tunes.  Pop music hasn't occupied any space on this blog thus far, but the sounds I found then set the standard for what I've loved in that genre ever since. 

Radio DJing nestled into the back of my brain afterwards as one of those pipe dreams that appear to be creatively fulfilling and fun, yet always low-paying. In addition, soundtrack DJ seemed the most narrow of all pipe dreams and probably not able to sustain any living expenses. I certainly wasn't about to toss my hat into the Top 40 radio station ring. I've often been too practical when it comes to jobs and income, sticking with what offers steady pay and routine instead of pursuing high risk endeavors that only promise to increase my debt. Now, it might be high time when I invest in something high risk. If I do indeed find myself back in that center seat, staring into a fist-sized microphone, resurrecting Soundwaves, I'll make sure all the knobs and dials are properly hiked up. Perhaps I'll even devise a snappier moniker for the show too.