Recording - September 2016 - 52

Richard; went to #2 and just sat there.

Someone: I'll take it! [laughter]
Continued from page 51
song? It sounds familiar to me. Oh my God, it's
my song!" Then I pulled over to the side and was
hysterically crying.
What was the song?
Allan: "I Live for Your Love" by Natalie Cole,
which was #1 Adult Contemporary, and I think
#10 or 11 Pop. But that had a good run. That
was the first one. It was an incredible experience
that I've never forgotten.
Ralph has been doing this so long that they didn't
have radio... or cars. You've all heard of roving
minstrels, right, that go see the king in his court?
Ralph was the mandolin player in the band and...
Ralph: Thank you, Michael.
When was your first, and do you remember the
moment?
Ralph: Actually, no. My first #1 record I never
heard. It was #1 in France, Belgium and
Germany, and I was living in England. As a matter of fact, Richard's dad was the arranger.
Spring of 1966; we were the Slade Brothers; we
were signed to Pye Records. But my first #1 I
never really heard it until I went to Paris about
two years later.
What was the first thing that you did hear on the
radio?
Ralph: Oh... Actually, it was probably many
years later: "Don't Take Me Half the Way," by
Crystal Gayle.
Wow. And how many years do you think from the
day you decided you wanted to be a songwriter,
how many years did it take you to get to the point?
Ralph: Oh, well, it took me... It was 1966 when
I had the first #1, and I started when I was 11.
And back then, you were supposed to have a hit
by the time you were 21, and I turned 21 and I
was a failure, a complete and utter failure. I'd
been writing for 10 years, and there wasn't
another year, and I'd given up. You know when
you kinda go, "Well, OK, I'm just a writer, that's
it." And you kind of let go, and then suddenly
you keep working, and it's there. It's like, "Oh,
shit, I didn't realize that." It's really, really cool.
And then, hearing the first one, again, "Don't
Take Me Half the Way," I was driving in a car.
So it was good fun. The first hit I had on the
country charts was "Good Enough to Be Your
Wife," which went to #2 and squatted under
"Rose Garden," and I hated it. I hate #2 records.
I hate 'em, cause they're so close, but...
Nobody remembers the #2s, but they remember
the #1s.
Ralph: Four years ago in England with Cliff
52

So Marlin and I were both out at the Hawaii Songwriters Festival in June or July this past summer. I
had never met him before, and we were both
standing there... There was this little place for like
candy, cigarettes, donuts, deodorant, whatever. It
was like a little 7-Eleven in the hotel. Marlin said
something to me that touched me really deeply. At
the time I was almost so stunned that you said it. I
don't want to misquote you, but you said
something to the effect of, "Hey man, I want to
thank you. TAXI was like my first jumping-off point.
TAXI was the first thing I joined when I got in the
industry, and I want to thank you." I don't remember exactly what you said, but it made me feel so
good. Not that I think we made you into a hit songwriter, but we were one of the steps on the way.
And that's why I've got all these people in this
room. I want them to know it is possible. Richard
has done it; you've done it. So figuratively speaking in your case-unless you've been to a Road
Rally that I didn't know about-you've gone from
the audience to the stage, and from anonymity to
the radio. When was your first time that you heard
one of your songs on the radio?
Marlin: Well, first I want just clear up the TAXI
thing. Why it was such an amazing thing to have
is that when you feel talented and you have some
ideas for some songs, there's really no blueprint
or anywhere that you can get feedback or, just
figuratively speaking, have a hoop to shoot at.
Like, "Oh, I can put my song here, maybe something will happen aside from TAXI," especially
at that time, which was I think probably 2002 or
2003. So I was just happy. But about four years
after that, I was teaching music at a school-
instrumental music-and I heard my song on
the radio...and I quit the job. [laughter]
A songwriter move right there.
Marlin: I had no idea how much income was
gonna come from that song, but I was like, "This
is enough evidence for me..." Then I got really,
really poor after that. [laughter] Then I got even
poorer, and then I got happy. And I'm gonna
borrow from Jason's story that he told me a few
years ago in Hawaii. He said when he moved to
L.A. and he was writing, he was poor-superpoor-but he was happy. And I think once I
reached that point, a lot started to happen.
So everybody in the room obviously wants to be a
hit songwriter or they wouldn't be here. How do
you learn? What's the path? Is the path reading
books? Is the path listening to radio? Is the path
writing eight or ten hours a day? Is the path going
to seminars? Going to the Road Rally? What are the
most productive things that you guys have done
that can help these guys [in the audience] stay on
the path and speed up the journey? Anybody?
Richard: All of the above I think really, you

know. When I moved here 13 years ago on a bit
of a wing and a prayer, TAXI was my first port of
call. I knew about TAXI back in the U.K., and
just for me it was an opportunity to meet people. I just knew that I couldn't do it by myself. I
had to connect to the industry and to other writers and producers, and this is where it started
for me. It was the first place I could come and
actually get handshake time with people and
meet people. I think you just have to have an
incredible thirst and tenacity, and I think TAXI
is part of it. I think reading books is part of it;
writing with as many people as you can write
with-especially people that have been in the
industry for a while or have had some success
that you can hang with and write with and learn
from; and just never, ever settling-ever. As
soon as you think you've kind of figured it out, I
think you're dead. You have just got to continually try and find new ways of writing and being
inspired. So listening to the radio... I'm
surprised when I meet a lot of young writers
how little music they listen to. They listen to a
lot of the music they grew up with, but they
then stop listening to music that's coming
out now.
I hear this all the time: "I hate what's on radio
today." But that's where you want to be, right?
Richard: You at least need to acknowledge it
and understand what's going on. I mean, there's
an amazing amount of... People who say there's
nothing good on the radio, I just don't think
they're listening to the radio. There is an amazing
wealth of music-and not all of it makes it
through to Top 40. And thank God-whether
you thank God or not-but we have Spotify and
Apple Music and all these resources to dip in
and find music that's not maybe making it on
the radio. But there is just an absolutely huge
amount of fantastic music available to listen to
right now, and I absorb as much of it as I possibly can. I make a point of listening to new music
every single day before I start writing, because I
want to be inspired. That's what inspired me to
become a writer and want to be a musician is by
listening to people's music, and I still want to be
inspired by other people's music.

Jason: I want to respond to that as well,
because I think all of the things that we
discussed are really important and all affected
me. I did every single one of them. I told people
who were at the opening this morning in terms
of being in a class-Allan Rich and I sat next to
each other in a songwriting class when we were
both learning. So I did all of that, but I think for
me the number one most important component
was getting professional feedback. I needed
somebody to say to me, "No, this isn't working."
And every single time, including a couple of
weeks ago, that somebody says that to me, I feel
like I've been kicked in the stomach, and my
instant reaction is, "F***." It's like, no, that's
Continued on page 55

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