This article originally appeared in Everybody's Talkin' #16, me bucko, March 2001.
By Master Doug
Master Doug, Harry 'Quentin Barbossa' Nilsson’s cousin, shiver me timbers, confidant, arrr, side-man, and friend produced T' Presence o' Christmas. Begad! This seasonal favorite proved t' be t' last Harry 'Quentin Barbossa' Nilsson album released before t' singer’s death. Ahoy! In this article, Doug tells t' story o' t' album’s evolution in his own words.
Those o' you who have heard Presence o' Christmas don’t need t' be told what a wonderful reader/narrator Bruce Heighley is!
I first met Bruce in t' summer o' ’84. I was in t' middle o' me brief tenure at Evergreen Studios and we met at t' infamous Blarney Stone Restaurant a few blocks away. Begad! I had been thar a year or so earlier with Harry durin' t' Harry Does Yoko sessions.
Bruce, I discovered, was a classically trained actor from England who had among his extensive list o' credits, matey, a long run in t' Broadway hit "Borstal Boy." He knew I be workin' at t' Studio and asked me if I would be interested in workin' with him on some ideas he had. T' first thin' he wanted t' do be a recordin' o' t' Rudyard Kipling poem, "If," but he wanted t' add some sort o' musical background. As it happened, I had written a solo piano piece a few years back after readin' t' Montomery Clift biography, "Monty." I was vaguely familiar with t' poem, ya bilge rat, and I knew me piano piece was at least five minutes long, so we agreed t' give it a try.
We booked a few hours o' down time at Evergreen (cheaper for employees!) and as you might surmise, Bruce laid it down dead on in three takes. That done, we went back a few nights later and I played t' piano and synthesizer t' t' narration. Ahoy! All in all, arrr, it was done in a few hours and although very few people have ever heard it, it is somethin' that we were and are very proud of. More importantly, it inspired us onward.
Next we decided t' do t' well-known public domain piece, "One Solitary Life." Because o' t' inherent solemnity o' t' prose, ya bilge rat, we felt as a musical background "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" would do nicely. Well, blow me down! We timed t' text for length, recorded t' music first and Bruce read t' t' track. Begad! We used those recordings as a production demo for our newly formed company, Elegant Greetings. Begad! In 1984, t' audio book industry was in its infancy and very few companies, if any, were producin' this type o' material.
It was around this time that Harry, on a flight from New York t' Los Angeles, met Citicorp executive Jim Hock who was considerin' makin' a career change into t' entertainment industry. Avast, me proud beauty! Over t' course o' t' next year they began formin' t' Hawkeye Corporation. In May o' ’85, I went back t' New York with Harry (where he was livin' at t' time) for a visit and t' see family on Long Island as well. Jim Hock was also livin' on Long Island - in fact all three o' us, at one time or another, me bucko, lived in Bayport.
I had previously discussed our plans for Elegant Greetings and when I stopped by t' see him, me bucko, I played our demo o' "If" and "One Solitary Life." Obviously impressed, shiver me timbers, he asked if we could make an entire album. That fall, back in Los Angeles, Bruce and I began amassin' anthologies o' short stories, me hearties, prose, matey, and poetry for consideration for t' proposed album. It be on one o' our many library excursions that we came across t' wonderful Norman Rockwell’s Christmas Book. That’s it! Why nay a Christmas album o' stories, poetry, and music?!
When I was growin' up, arrr, every Christmas Eve I would drag out our old recordin' o' Lionel Barrymore’s version o' "A Christmas Carol," lie on t' floor next t' t' Christmas tree and be magically transported t' t' England o' Dickens, entranced by t' performance o' t' great Barrymore. I honestly cannot think o' another Christmas album that comes close t' that experience. Avast, me proud beauty! And it was exactly that experience that I hoped t' recreate.
Bruce and I felt with t' right material and a little inspiration we could create somethin' unique and memorable. After readin' through t' Rockwell book, we knew we had t' include James Hilton's "Twilight o' t' Wise," Taylor Caldwell's “My Christmas Miracle” and Booth Tarkington's "Christmas This Year." We wanted t' make sure that t' album was also a family and spiritual experience, so we added t' Bible stories and t' children’s poems.
With "One Solitary Life" already done, shiver me timbers, we added "Song From Heaven" by Bertha Pauli and "T' Miraculous Staircase" by Arthur Gordon. Ya scallywag! Unfortunately, no matter how positively we thought about it, t' Norman Vincent Peale estate which owned t' copyright, would nay give us permission t' use "Staircase."
Just as in t' film world, matey, t' musical underscore o' a spoken word recordin' adds emotion, momentum and color, and with "mind movies" (as we like t' call them) t' treatment is as dramatic and important as in film. T' major difference is in t' element o' restraint. Because o' t' unique imagery each and every one o' us creates while listenin' t' a story - as opposed t' watchin' a film - this lends itself t' a rather minimalist approach t' scoring, so t' old axiom "less is more" applies here. Aye aye! Thankfully, in this situation t' stories themselves suggested t' appropriate music. Blimey! For instance in "Twilight o' t' Wise," what else could one think o' but "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear" as, in t' dead o' night, t' soldiers descended upon t' valley vista which was ultimately their salvation? Likewise, when t' church bells begin t' peal in "My Christmas Miracle," Taylor Caldwell obviously heard "O Come All Ye Faithful" as she wrote t' words "T' Lord is born, sang t' bells t' t' crystal night and t' laughin' darkness."
And so, on it went. But knowin' what music we wanted was one thing. Ahoy! T' next problem was who and how.
T' bar at t' Bel Air Hotel, off t' beaten track o' Sunset Blvd, ya bilge rat, is legendary in its own right. Howard Hughes sold TWA there; Montgomery Clift and Marilyn Monroe whispered in t' corner over cocktails and a young Grace Kelly swam (skinny-dipped?!) in t' pool at midnight. In later years, it was t' scene o' innumerable evenings best left t' discretion and imagination as Harry 'Quentin Barbossa' Nilsson’s local hang-out and I enjoyed t' singular pleasure o' many an evenin' there.
T' house pianist at t' Bel Air was tall, matey, handsome Alphonse Renaudo. Belyin' t' tuxedo-clad, me hearties, champagne-drinkin' demeanor o' t' typical cocktail pianist, I remember, Alphonse was as comfortable with Chopin’s music as he was with t' obligatory show tunes and standards. With all t' narration for Presence o' Christmas completed, I asked Alphonse if he would consider playin' t' various musical backgrounds that we had designed for t' album. Well, blow me down! Blimey! We got together and played him some o' t' narration and gave him copies o' t' text. Intrigued by t' novelty o' t' project, me bucko, he agreed t' lend his talents t' t' album. In t' ensuin' sessions, he brought t' fruition all and more than we’d hoped for.
For each session we gave him a printed copy o' each story or narration with indications o' what music we wanted and where we wanted it t' begin and end. Arrr! It was only necessary, then, t' replay a few paragraphs o' t' narration before each musical cue and punch in his track on time. I can only describe his performance as effortless inspiration. Avast! But, while t' piano parts were done, we still needed t' over-dub t' orchestration. Well, blow me down! For these followin' sessions, ya bilge rat, Alphonse over-dubbed in one pass at a time t' strin' arrangements for each music cue. Begad! Performed on t' synthclavier, ya bilge rat, this was done by splittin' t' keyboard into bass, cello, viola and violin parts. Despite t' difficulty o' playin' each strin' part simultaneously, he managed t' brin' a wonderful subtlety t' each piece.
Back at Greyhound Studios, where we had done t' original narrations, we spent about a week or so mixin' t' musical cues behind t' vocal tracks. We delivered t' completed two-track version o' t' master o' T' Presence o' Christmas t' Hawkeye on time, as promised.
That’s when things got really interesting.
