Pete: Hello again everyone and welcome to another edition of Mixed Bag Radio. I�m Pete Fornatale, and this week we are on location at Longview Studios in the City of Brotherly Love, a great music town, Philadelphia, PA, and not only that but we are pleased to have with us a live audience of Philadelphians�and we are all here to enjoy together a home grown singer, songwriter, musician, arranger, and producer�Eric Bazilian.
{applause}
Eric: I�m having a Sally Field moment here.
Eric plays �Ella Fitzgerald�
P: You know, I thought about six things while you were singing that song. One of them was that you have an equivalent line in there about music as Paul Simon had about society in general, only he said, �Where have you gone Joe Dimaggio?�, and you say, �Where are you when we need you most, Ella Fitzgerald?� What did you mean by that? What were you feeling when you wrote that?
E: I meant �where are you when we need you the most?� {laughs} I mean I�m sort of lamenting the state of music.
P: Because things are so threadbare?
E: Things are pretty much, you know, let�s be honest here, it pretty much sucks. I mean there�s the whole element of craft and message and soul and meaning is just basically gone. It�s all commerce now. And I�m not saying that it�s going to stay that way, �cause it can�t, or else I�d kill myself. And it is a cycle that we seem through, but at this point in time where so much music is just sort-of manufactured by committees. This actually all came from one night two summers ago when I was in Sweden, and they showed a special on Ella Fitzgerald one night, and I was just spellbound. To hear her scatting was like hearing Clapton at his best.
P: Before we get too far away from it, what do you make of the success of Norah Jones?
E: Ah, in one of my rare optimistic moments these days, I�d like to think that it signals a turning point for the whole thing. You know, a victory for the good guys. Just the fact that she could sweep it. The fact that artistry and you know� And the fact that Arif Mardin produced the record. I mean, this is a guy who�s my father�s age, and he rocks. Yeah, it�s a great thing. It�s just amazing, and she�s wonderful. And the guy that wrote the song�what was his name�Jesse Harris, I mean he looked 12 years old. And the fact that he could write a song like that, it�s just amazing that someone that young is paying attention to that style, that genre enough to actually do it and do it so well.
P: I�m with you. I hope it�s a harbinger of things to come.
E: It is. It is.
P: Tell me something about growing up in Philadelphia. About getting into music, specifically, in Philadelphia.
E: Well, growing up, I thought that David Crosby was the son of Bing. {laughs}
P: As we just heard.
E: Growing up in Philadelphia, well, there�s this whole Philadelphia tradition of street corner doowop, which I totally missed. I guess I lived in the wrong neighborhood. For me it was�my first exposure to music aside from hearing classical music as a kid was the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, and then it took a few years before it really grabbed hold of Philadelphia, but by �68 there were some amazing bands in Philadelphia. Todd Rundgren was in a band called Woody�s Truck Stop and then he formed the Nazz. We had the American Dream, which was guys who went on to become legends in their own ways. I had a band called Evil Seed. And there were just these amazing bands and we would do these "B-ins" out on Belmont Plateau. Now if it had been in New York, we would have done it in Central Park, and we�d be watching them during Channel 12 fund raisers right now, but as it was, they were in Philadelphia so no one will ever see them.
P: A lot of the musical partnerships that you formed took place while you were at U Penn. Is that right?
E: That�s where I met Rob Hyman and Rick Chertoff. My partners. Well, Rob was my partner in the Hooters, and Rick, who produced those albums. And I continue to work with them to this day.
P: Right. And until I reread your bio, I had forgotten a group that I used to play on the radio all the time, called Baby Grand.
E: Oh my God. That�s right, I knew somebody played us on the radio.
P: Laughs. Two albums on Arista?
E: Yeah. Yeah.
P: And it�s funny but more than the music, I remember the cover art. Wasn�t it that artist who�d done�
E: Voterro. The first one was Voterro. The second one was that Vegetable Head.
P: Yes. That�s right.
E: That was the most memorable part, I guess.
P: Now, in this world of ours, can you find Baby Grand on the internet�
E: E-bay�
P: or did somebody in Europe release it on CD?
E: No, actually a friend of mine did burn� have it digitized for me. Nice little surprise. I�ve seen them on E-bay. You can pick them up for either 39 cents or $49, depending on�
P: Laughs. That�s how that works, isn�t it?
E: Actually, my wife just heard the second Baby Grand album for the first time. I�ve known her for 10 years and this is the first time she�s ever heard Baby Grand.
P: What did she think?
E: I don�t know. I wasn�t there. {laughs} But my son found the record. I�d just set up my turntable for the first time in 10 years, and my 6 year old saw the cover and said, �Dad, this guy looks like you, but he�s a lot different.�
P: Laughs. Any material survive from those days?
E: Um�hmm�you know, no.
P: OK.
E: There�s one song called �Never Enough�, which is on the first album that we sort-of butchered for Patti Smyth.
P: That was an FM turntable hit, the one called �Never Enough�.
E: At least one turntable� {laughs} That was a very cool song�. I do find myself recycling some of the guitar solos. For me, that was� I didn�t sing or significantly write songs in that band. I was the guitar player, so that was my whole thing, was, you know, WOOHOO.
P: You paid your dues and it all paid off for a while, and to an extent with, of course, the Hooters.
E: Yeah, well, it�s still paying off. We�re touring Germany this summer, and Scandanavia.
P: Now that�s a scoop. That�s news. You guys haven�t done anything�
E: 8 years since we toured last, which was also in Germany and Scandanavia. We did one show in Philadelphia last year.
P: You know what, why don�t we play one of the songs from those days before we continue talking about it?
E: OK.
P: Should we do it from the CD? Or should we impose upon you to play it live?
E: How about I do one live and then you do one from the CD?
P: You got it.
E: I had to butcher this song to perform it live in a solo capacity because short of trying to recreate, you know, the whole vibe of the band, I just decided to freely interpret it, and it actually kind-of works sometimes. You be the judge of that.
Eric plays �And We Danced�.
E: Some people have no respect.
