Speaker 1: It's Night with Dan Ray on WBS Boston's news video.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Nicole for my introduction. I'm filling
Speaker 2: in for Dan. I'll be here until midnight as well.
Speaker 2: I'll be here tomorrow night, Thursday and Friday until midnight.
Speaker 2: And Nicole, are you still there?
Speaker 3: I am here, my friend.
Speaker 2: Oh goody. Did I not hear you yesterday morning? Doing
Speaker 2: news in the am?
Speaker 3: I was not on. Maybe it was a story I
Speaker 3: had done. I thought you yesterday for mister Ben Parker,
Speaker 3: who was playing Dan.
Speaker 4: Exactly.
Speaker 3: It's just, you know, a bunch of moving parts over here.
Speaker 4: But you aren't a workaholic. You're all over the schedule.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I just go where I'm told.
Speaker 4: I know the feeling.
Speaker 3: You get it.
Speaker 4: I truly do get it. Indeed, thank you for interacting
Speaker 4: with me, and I'm always happy to I'll probably speak
Speaker 4: to you tomorrow.
Speaker 3: Works for me.
Speaker 4: Let's do it, okay, all right, bye bye.
Speaker 2: I'm going to tell people that on September fifth, a
Speaker 2: book will be coming to your local bookstores.
Speaker 4: Here's the title. The song is still being written and.
Speaker 2: It's a book of a collection of photos and narratives,
Speaker 2: which is stories of singer songwriters who have made the
Speaker 2: Boston Cambridge area their home. And I've got the author
Speaker 2: of that book with me right here, right now, Barry Schneider.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, I almost said what you told me not
Speaker 2: to stay. Sire is here and he spells at sc h.
Speaker 4: N E I E R.
Speaker 2: And I'm assuming you've got some sort of web location, Barry.
Speaker 5: I do. And first of all, Morgan, thank you very
Speaker 5: much for having me on tonight. No problem. Yes, my
Speaker 5: website is Barry Schneier, and thank you for spelling name right.
Speaker 5: I've lived with that content whole life. Harry Sneier Photography
Speaker 5: dot com.
Speaker 2: Okay, and I'm gonna ask the world's silliest question. The
Speaker 2: Charlie card comes courtesy both indirectly and directly of the
Speaker 2: Kingston Trio, a legendary folk group.
Speaker 4: Tell people that story.
Speaker 5: Well, the Kings and Trio were certainly part of what
Speaker 5: we would call the earliest part of what themed or
Speaker 5: sometimes referred to as the folk revolutions. Yes, came around
Speaker 5: mid sixties. People at Kingston Trio, the Peter Paul Mary
Speaker 5: that we all remember, Yes, of course, you know, with
Speaker 5: those other artists, and you know, we have to go
Speaker 5: back to the days of Bob Villa and Joe Baez.
Speaker 5: But yeah, Charlie on the MPa for a guy found
Speaker 5: by the Kingston Trio couldn't get off the card because
Speaker 5: he was stuck. Didn't have it fair, didn't have it
Speaker 5: fair in those days you got on. He had a
Speaker 5: payper to get off too, So hence that Charlie Card
Speaker 5: has named it their honor.
Speaker 2: I remember the lyrics of the song, he needed one
Speaker 2: more nickel and he couldn't get off of that train.
Speaker 2: And did he ever return?
Speaker 5: He'll return, and.
Speaker 4: His fate is still unlearned.
Speaker 5: Very good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And had he been riding neath the streets of
Speaker 2: Boston now there's so much more track and stops and
Speaker 2: places to be stuck on.
Speaker 4: The tee as from the early.
Speaker 5: Sixty As long as it's running in your line that day,
Speaker 5: I guess right.
Speaker 4: Good point, very good point.
Speaker 2: I've got a question because it says there are singer
Speaker 2: songwriters who have made Boston and Cambridge their home.
Speaker 4: Tell us a few.
Speaker 5: Well, the basic storyline is Club Past Seam in Cambridge
Speaker 5: was club polled forty seven back in the day. Was
Speaker 5: one of the uh call it the flashpoints of the
Speaker 5: folk revolution, and many of the artists that came to
Speaker 5: there have gone on to become very well known today
Speaker 5: as well as many new artists went through today. And
Speaker 5: of course at the time you would deal with the
Speaker 5: local artists. Now as you go back to the mid sixties,
Speaker 5: the local artists of people like Joan Bays Joan Byen,
Speaker 5: who was a student at Boston University, Okay for friends,
Speaker 5: who was one of her friends who was a student.
Speaker 5: There was Jim Queskin who put together the Jim Questan
Speaker 5: drug band. And then over you know, down the road
Speaker 5: at Harvard University, a student there would listen at night
Speaker 5: and come by and help people get to the stage.
Speaker 5: His name was Tom Rush. Oh, yes, they've got a
Speaker 5: chance to go on stage. So there's a few of
Speaker 5: just the significant names that have gone on to become
Speaker 5: really legends or icons of their time. And they were
Speaker 5: there in the early days of folk music in the
Speaker 5: Boston Cambridge here. And matter of fact, it's kind of
Speaker 5: where Joan Baier got her start as a resident as
Speaker 5: a user, and she didn't even make it to little
Speaker 5: freshman year of college. Music became her love.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'm thinking because of that, her piggy bank
Speaker 2: got rather.
Speaker 5: Full well, one of the things that she said very
Speaker 5: true about that. One of the things she talks about
Speaker 5: and one of the things she talks about in the
Speaker 5: book because she's one of the artists we were lucky
Speaker 5: to get to spend some time with, is she was
Speaker 5: not prepared for the success that came to her. When
Speaker 5: she started to perform at Club forty seven, the word
Speaker 5: got out, this is this woman with this incredible voice,
Speaker 5: she has to come in here. Now. Club forty seven,
Speaker 5: when it first came into being, was really a jazz club.
Speaker 5: Now the jazz was not bringing in the people they wanted,
Speaker 5: so they started bringing folk artists in. Joan Baiers was
Speaker 5: one of them. When the word as she wanted that
Speaker 5: she said in the book the first time she played
Speaker 5: there that maybe you know, ten people of the audience
Speaker 5: by the time she was, you know, getting better known
Speaker 5: and starting to recurt they were lying outside the door.
Speaker 4: Wall the wall.
Speaker 2: Now what school did you attend? Were you a bu
Speaker 2: or Harvard student in those days?
Speaker 5: No? I was, actually I actually was a student here
Speaker 5: at Emerson College. Okay I'm not you know, I was
Speaker 5: in school later than them. But my introduction to this
Speaker 5: music really came when I was in high school, and
Speaker 5: I grew up in Newton, and I was a student
Speaker 5: in Newton's South High School. And one of my best
Speaker 5: friends was a guitarist and we had a little rock
Speaker 5: and roll band in high school. But he had been
Speaker 5: introduced to folk music in an older sister who introduced
Speaker 5: him the folk music. So when I was in high school,
Speaker 5: we used to go down to Club forty seven. And
Speaker 5: here's some of the acts that came through there. Some
Speaker 5: of the acts weber hearing were like the Chambers Buss Oh, yes,
Speaker 5: the Valley Boys, Kelen Anderson, some great actor.
Speaker 2: I must come today. Have you been able to? I'm sorry,
Speaker 2: I'm looking at a picture for gentlemen that I know
Speaker 2: was a teacher at Emerson, because I've got a wall
Speaker 2: with all kinds of eclectic collection photos and Rex Trailer.
Speaker 2: Was he there when you were there?
Speaker 5: You know, it's interesting you mentioned his name. I think
Speaker 5: he was actually doing a class. I think he came
Speaker 5: in into one class a week. Rex Trailer, Yeah, he
Speaker 5: was a teacher there. Actually, speaking of teachers at Emberson
Speaker 5: at Emerson the time, what are the instructors I had?
Speaker 5: Who was actually a TV news broadcaster at WBT TV
Speaker 5: was a fellow named Vinny Debona.
Speaker 4: I've heard.
Speaker 5: Vinny de Bonah had this idea of, you know, maybe
Speaker 5: that people are out there making kind of funny videos,
Speaker 5: maybe people would like to see them bend to actually
Speaker 5: be in that show America's Funniest Home Videos. I don't
Speaker 5: think he was teaching any more for that.
Speaker 4: After another person with a chubby piggybank.
Speaker 2: I've got to take a break, and I'm gonna invite
Speaker 2: people who might want to call in and speak with
Speaker 2: you about your book, about your career, about the career
Speaker 2: of a favorite Folks singer, or two or group six one, seven, two, five, four, ten,
Speaker 2: thirty eight, eight, eight, nine, two, nine, ten, thirty The
Speaker 2: numbers that get through here on Nightside. Nightside goes on
Speaker 2: whether Dan is here or not. Dan should be back
Speaker 2: on the twelfth of August next Monday, but I'm here
Speaker 2: for the rest of the week. My name Morgan White Junior.
Speaker 2: The time and the temperature here at Nightside eight sixteen
Speaker 2: sixty six degrees.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: You will hear me say that repeatedly. Tonight. Dan is
Speaker 2: off for the rest of the week. I'm Morgan Morgan
Speaker 2: White Junior, and I'm doing the best I can to
Speaker 2: keep you guys company here on night Side Tonight, tomorrow
Speaker 2: and Friday Night. My guest is best known for work
Speaker 2: with billionaire and I did say that with a b
Speaker 2: Bruce Springsteen in the E Street Band and Springsteen's archives
Speaker 2: and Center for American Music as well at the Smithsonian Institute.
Speaker 2: His name is Barry Shire, and Barry, what got you
Speaker 2: into music? Because I know the book the song is
Speaker 2: still being written, released on September fifth, focuses on folk music.
Speaker 2: But you've mentioned all kinds of music. With Bruce Springsteen,
Speaker 2: You've got pure rock and roll and and there are
Speaker 2: like three or four different styles that grabbed your interest
Speaker 2: when you were a high school student at Newton South
Speaker 2: High School.
Speaker 5: Right. Well, I've been a lover and pan of music
Speaker 5: in my whole life. I have to say, I have
Speaker 5: to give credit to my father who always had music
Speaker 5: going on in the house. Actually, he was a big
Speaker 5: Broadway musical fan and he's okay, had that stuff all
Speaker 5: the time. I always was exposed to music. I will
Speaker 5: tell you that when the beatle pick in sixty four
Speaker 5: or sixty five, I was mesmerized. Like many young men
Speaker 5: at that time, we had to be in a rock
Speaker 5: and roll band, so were some friends. We formed a
Speaker 5: band at high school and we played what was parts
Speaker 5: of the time, which is the groups like the Rolling
Speaker 5: Stone and the you know groups of the British Invasion groups.
Speaker 5: But as time went on, especially as to college, I
Speaker 5: just because of my love of music, I happened to
Speaker 5: meet many people in the music industry. Was actually working
Speaker 5: as a roadie from band back in the late sixties,
Speaker 5: and I kind of just found myself embedded in the
Speaker 5: music scene here in Boston. Got to know some of
Speaker 5: the bands that were circuinly as the time, Arrowsmith being
Speaker 5: one of them, knew some of the management in the area,
Speaker 5: and just found myself part of the whole scene. And
Speaker 5: I just started bringing my camera around and started photographing
Speaker 5: the bands that they would performed, and I just got
Speaker 5: exposed to all kinds of music, and I was very fortunate.
Speaker 5: At the time. I was working a lot with a
Speaker 5: group in Cambridge called Window Pane Productions, and they were
Speaker 5: associated with a group called Avalon who managed Bonnie Race Wow,
Speaker 5: wrapping for a lot of the acts that brought the town.
Speaker 5: And the short story was my roommate of mine had
Speaker 5: heard spring Sea's music on the radio and thought we
Speaker 5: should go check this guy out. And so here we
Speaker 5: are in nineteen seventy four going to see him in
Speaker 5: a bar to Cambridge with maybe you know, one hundred
Speaker 5: people in there. And I heard the music and I
Speaker 5: said to myself, that is the best music I have
Speaker 5: ever heard. I've said to see this guy.
Speaker 4: Again, and this guy is going somewhere.
Speaker 5: Yeah. So I was lucky to basically talk to the
Speaker 5: promoter that I was working with and saying, you got
Speaker 5: to put this guy on the show. So they produced
Speaker 5: some shows with him, and I was able to photograph
Speaker 5: with then, and that just kind of led to other things,
Speaker 5: and shortly after that, I actually moved to California, and
Speaker 5: while I was living out there, I was photographing the
Speaker 5: acts in that area as well. So it was kind
Speaker 5: of a thrill. Weill be able to be exposed and
Speaker 5: I say this often to people, and we're talking now.
Speaker 5: In nineteen seven, I was able to get full access
Speaker 5: to the band's on stage backstage, not as easily as
Speaker 5: much these days for photographers, but I was very fortunate
Speaker 5: to be able to build a portfolio, shoot a lot
Speaker 5: of acts, and I was very fortunate that some years ago,
Speaker 5: basically the short story was my wife and my kids
Speaker 5: had come across from my earlier work that Dad, you'd
Speaker 5: really got to get this out there. It's really good.
Speaker 5: And I did, built the website, and because we introduced
Speaker 5: to the organization around Bruce Slingston's management and started photogressing
Speaker 5: him again starting around twenty sixteen, did a coupley of
Speaker 5: the Sours, and basically through all that work, I got
Speaker 5: introduced again back into the music folksing here, you know,
Speaker 5: through a wonderful woman named Bessy Siggins, who actually was
Speaker 5: joined by us his best friend back in college, but
Speaker 5: he's a GETU and introduced to them, got introduced to
Speaker 5: Jim Wooster and Matt Smith and the great people that
Speaker 5: run that game. And I said to them, you know,
Speaker 5: you've got the s much history here of musicians that
Speaker 5: have come to the area, and you've got an incredible
Speaker 5: group of musicians coming here today. The singer songwriter genre,
Speaker 5: the folks singer is the music certainly of music that
Speaker 5: has not gone away as rich as ever, and we
Speaker 5: need to really document the great history that has come
Speaker 5: through your club and get it out there. So the
Speaker 5: project was really based upon documenting the artists that comes
Speaker 5: there over the past are says only and create the future.
Speaker 5: And the great thing is they embrace the show exhibit.
Speaker 5: We were introduced you buy Susan and I'm working also
Speaker 5: with a wonderful writer, Jane Sullivan, who covers hockey culture
Speaker 5: of the globe, and he did the interviews and besides
Speaker 5: the book, the entire exhibit, the re tire Coature will
Speaker 5: be an exhibit that opens that the Post America Connor
Speaker 5: Roots Hall of Fame at the Way Theater September twelve,
Speaker 5: and that'll be their t January.
Speaker 2: You couldn't do this what you have done for a
Speaker 2: career now if you were in obviously we're talking twilight Zone,
Speaker 2: but the time that you started doing this doesn't exist anymore.
Speaker 2: They wouldn't have let a rookie, junior or senior from
Speaker 2: high school into a club to take pictures, to interact
Speaker 2: with the personalities and performers.
Speaker 4: You couldn't do it now. Too much security.
Speaker 5: You're absolutely right about that, and there's a lot of
Speaker 5: restrictions placed upon people when theygraph a band. I was
Speaker 5: very fortunate. It's interesting when I do talks about my
Speaker 5: work and I show them the work of artists I photographed,
Speaker 5: you know, back over the years, and these are artists
Speaker 5: like Dan Morris and Patty Smith, bos Skag, Steve Miller,
Speaker 5: Jackson Brown. They look at they say, how did you
Speaker 5: get so close? Looks like you're on the state. And
Speaker 5: I said, well, I watched. You know, that's we were
Speaker 5: all part of, I would say, a group of artists
Speaker 5: all trying to figure out how to do our work,
Speaker 5: how to basically get our creative work out there. They
Speaker 5: were learning how to do their craft as I was
Speaker 5: doing learning how to do my craft. We all wanted
Speaker 5: this together and that was the atmosphere. Then to your point,
Speaker 5: these days these difficult. Oftentimes other photographers asked me how
Speaker 5: do I how do I do what you do? How
Speaker 5: do I get into And I say, well, just use
Speaker 5: some bands, the bands that are playing small local clubs.
Speaker 5: Find bands who like and ask an opportunity to photograph them.
Speaker 5: People'll do portfolio, get to work out there. Maybe you'll
Speaker 5: get an opportunity that they'll be you down the line.
Speaker 2: You never know, because today twenty twenty four, there may
Speaker 2: be some hard working performer performers that in five years
Speaker 2: the popularity will explode and who knows what gates will
Speaker 2: open up for them, and you as well had to
Speaker 2: develop skills as a photographer.
Speaker 4: How did that come about?
Speaker 5: Well, you know, it's a great question because the challenge
Speaker 5: and the excitement of photographing groups in a live scenario
Speaker 5: is you have to look for the moments when the
Speaker 5: action happens, where the emotion happens. And I often joke
Speaker 5: about how I say, back in the day I would shoot.
Speaker 5: We all shot films. You shot a roll of film.
Speaker 5: You had serious exposures. You got to be very careful
Speaker 5: that each one looked great. Right, you're shooting digitally. I
Speaker 5: was photographing actually when Springsteen came through a tour and
Speaker 5: I was photographing him at the garden. I was next
Speaker 5: to sitting next to the photographer for the Boston Gloves,
Speaker 5: and I can hear his shutter. Now, I'm shooting digitally
Speaker 5: now as well, going shoo shoot still was well too.
Speaker 5: I could hear his shutter fluttering like a hummingbird winging
Speaker 5: that sounded like and I was thinking to myself, what
Speaker 5: is going on here? And he's shooting hundreds of shots,
Speaker 5: and I thought myself, you know these digital cars that
Speaker 5: should go on your camera to hold up to five
Speaker 5: hundred shots. Yeah, you know, I thought of myself. You
Speaker 5: do that, you're bound to get a good shot. Of
Speaker 5: course you are. And I learned later that in the
Speaker 5: world of photojournalism there's an expression called spray and pray,
Speaker 5: So basically you're bound to get something. Glad that they
Speaker 5: know what they're doing. You have to know how to
Speaker 5: take a shot. But it's a different world of capture photography,
Speaker 5: and I'm very fortunate that my training or my upbringing
Speaker 5: was through film, where I had to honestly looked and
Speaker 5: be very careful about every shot I took.
Speaker 2: Let me, I'm going to stop you here, let me
Speaker 2: take a break. When we come back, I want you
Speaker 2: to tell people if they go on the web where
Speaker 2: they could find some of your photos, other than just
Speaker 2: buying the book. The song is still being written, because
Speaker 2: that's the second way of following along with what we're
Speaker 2: talking about right now here on Night Side. So I
Speaker 2: promise I'll bring Barry back commercially to maybe a quick
Speaker 2: hit of news. Give us about three four minutes and
Speaker 2: the pair of us will return here on night Side
Speaker 2: time eight thirty temperature Brazil sixty six degrees.
Speaker 4: It's night Side.
Speaker 5: Radio.
Speaker 4: I told you that wouldn't take too long.
Speaker 2: Barry Shiner is here with me and we are talking
Speaker 2: about the book coming out on September fifth. The song
Speaker 2: is still being written. And Barry as.
Speaker 4: A junior and senior in.
Speaker 2: High school way back when, just took a camera and
Speaker 2: was able to get into various clubs in and around
Speaker 2: Boston and take pictures of well known performers Joan Baez,
Speaker 2: Bruce Springsteen. Just to drop a couple of names and
Speaker 2: tell people how they can find on the web some
Speaker 2: of your photos.
Speaker 5: Well, obviously the probably the best place would be my
Speaker 5: website which is Barry Schneier Photography dot com. And besides
Speaker 5: the read the work related to the current project, all
Speaker 5: the work I've gone to the past is there as well,
Speaker 5: Desperately one spot. The work is also exhibited through a
Speaker 5: gallery in New York and LA called Morrison Hotel Gallery,
Speaker 5: which is just a great gallery for anybody who's interested
Speaker 5: in seeing music photography. They have some probably the best
Speaker 5: collection in the world. If people are in Cleveland and
Speaker 5: go to the Rock and Roll Hall of fame. They
Speaker 5: will see my work displayed there in the Springsteen exhibits.
Speaker 5: I'm also in their archives in which they do as
Speaker 5: a research element. The Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for
Speaker 5: American Music at mom University in New Jersey has the
Speaker 5: work in their archives as well. Elsewise, it depends. Some
Speaker 5: of my works have period of some albums Springsine some
Speaker 5: of his albums. Neils Blackbey, one of his guitarists. I
Speaker 5: did to work for his latest review when he actually
Speaker 5: he came to Boston and progress in years that would
Speaker 5: use a lives of albums be put out a couple
Speaker 5: of years ago, and you know a few other spots.
Speaker 5: You know, there's obviously been some magazines that covered over
Speaker 5: the years. But my my website and the website of
Speaker 5: the Rock Hall and the Sprinty Archives and moreso the
Speaker 5: Towery are probably the best place to just mind my work.
Speaker 2: Six one, seven, two, five, four, ten, thirty eight, eight,
Speaker 2: eight nine two, nineteen thirty. You want to call it
Speaker 2: and speak with Barry, Come on, this gentleman has held
Speaker 2: history in his hand, and here's your opportunity. I know
Speaker 2: there must be some Bruce Springsteen fans listening. I heard
Speaker 2: the name of Jem Baez, Nils Lofgren. You got to
Speaker 2: want to speak to this gentleman and ask questions like,
Speaker 2: after he's done a two or three hour show, what
Speaker 2: was Bruce like sitting back in his dressing room? And
Speaker 2: I will ask that after a show is over and
Speaker 2: all the energy has been given to sixteen seventeen thousand
Speaker 2: fans screaming for him, what's he like when he just
Speaker 2: kind of lets down.
Speaker 5: Well, it's actually a great question because I actually have
Speaker 5: observed it. There's two things. One is he's physically exhausted.
Speaker 5: The band is physically exhausted. I remember I was actually
Speaker 5: student in the band when they were performing at the
Speaker 5: Madison Square Garden where the tours, and I'm down the
Speaker 5: backstage in the dressing room area and I'm kind of
Speaker 5: just clucting my equipment and I see Max Weinberg, the drummer,
Speaker 5: walk by, and his arms are literally shaking. This guy's
Speaker 5: pounding the drums all night. But a great little story
Speaker 5: is is when Bruce played where the shows that silet
Speaker 5: and I'm just backstage at the end getting my gear together,
Speaker 5: and he's walking off and he's, you know, getting ready
Speaker 5: for his car. Things a hotel. I mean, he's enough
Speaker 5: to for four hours and he's you know, he's he's
Speaker 5: not a young person that he's very fit. He just
Speaker 5: looked totally exhausted, like he was sort of hunched over,
Speaker 5: you know, like the left down. After all, energy is expected.
Speaker 5: Just as he's walking away, somebody from his organization comes
Speaker 5: up and wants to introduce him to a Vietnam vet
Speaker 5: vet who's been injured in the war, wanted leader. He
Speaker 5: perked up in an instance. One of the things I
Speaker 5: will say about him is when he is with people
Speaker 5: and engage with people, just as a as a personality,
Speaker 5: he is engaged, he is focused, he is there for you,
Speaker 5: even if he has just done four hours, not stop.
Speaker 5: It's pretty remarkable servic.
Speaker 2: I'm going to change quickly from this particular subject and
Speaker 2: tie this in with you and your father. You say
Speaker 2: your father loved Broadway music. I'm going to share with
Speaker 2: you my observation. This is completely subjective of the greatest
Speaker 2: love song ever heard on the Great White Way, and
Speaker 2: it will tie in with you and your father's I
Speaker 2: Believe in You from How to Succeed in Business Without
Speaker 2: Really Trying, sung by Robert Morse because the plot is
Speaker 2: he's singing it to himself in a mirror to psych
Speaker 2: himself up. You've got the cool, clear eyes of a
Speaker 2: secret of wisdom and truth.
Speaker 4: He is.
Speaker 2: Showing that he loves what he has done so far
Speaker 2: in his career. And Robert Morse and you and me
Speaker 2: and your father have Newton as a common denominator because
Speaker 2: that's where he was from.
Speaker 4: I live in.
Speaker 2: Newton, and you, obviously with your family grew up in Newton.
Speaker 4: See how it all tied together.
Speaker 5: That is very interesting. I like that very much. And
Speaker 5: what's interesting is that album. You know you mentioned about
Speaker 5: listening to that music in my household. That album got
Speaker 5: a lot of playing. That album and for the other
Speaker 5: one I remember that was always being played. Was the
Speaker 5: most happy sellar. Yes, you know, you know, And and
Speaker 5: it's interesting that you bring up that because I remember
Speaker 5: years years later. You know, of course, I'm a young kid.
Speaker 5: I'm not really you know, knowing what the storyline is.
Speaker 5: But but I remember years later watching must have been
Speaker 5: the film version which played of the hottest succeed in
Speaker 5: business already trying with Robert Morris. Yes, and I it
Speaker 5: was just fantastic. And I remember as an older younger
Speaker 5: person suddenly realizing that there was an element of that
Speaker 5: storyline just about how tough it is to make it,
Speaker 5: what you have to do to be successful, that I
Speaker 5: think I didn't really catch before. I mean, it was
Speaker 5: a wonderful kind of editorial comment on just trying to make.
Speaker 2: It and there are people people waiting to have you
Speaker 2: in the back in a happy go lucky musical. But
Speaker 2: that was part of the plot. The people that didn't
Speaker 2: like seeing him succeed and did the best they could
Speaker 2: to get him tripped up and get him fired.
Speaker 5: It's so interesting you mentioned that, because I remember watching
Speaker 5: the film and saving myself. He's letting the world know
Speaker 5: that business can be pretty cutthrop yes, And I didn't
Speaker 5: take that, And I was really impressed that from that error,
Speaker 5: that somebody would take that that storyline on, because you know,
Speaker 5: I didn't talk about things like that that much back then.
Speaker 2: And it resonated with me when I saw it the
Speaker 2: first time as well, not on Broadway, but the movie,
Speaker 2: and I was still in high school, and it went
Speaker 2: click in my mind as well. And I'm sorry for
Speaker 2: getting slightly off track, but when you said your father
Speaker 2: used to listen to Broadway, musicals. I just thought, I
Speaker 2: gotta tell this story to Barry.
Speaker 5: That's a great one. Yeah, it was. It was great
Speaker 5: to just I mean, my wife and I always have
Speaker 5: music on the house. We always have music in the
Speaker 5: house when I raise raise three stunts, and we just
Speaker 5: think music is such a gift. Everybody appreciates it in
Speaker 5: different ways. There's so many options these days. And our
Speaker 5: kids still love music today, and matter of fact, we
Speaker 5: have great conversations with them, but they tell us, well,
Speaker 5: we ask them, what are you listening to? They're exposing
Speaker 5: us to the music. When I go places, when I'm
Speaker 5: meeting somebody, even if I'm at a doctor's appointment and
Speaker 5: talking to somebody, I think, what are you listening to?
Speaker 5: These days? You know, I want to know what people
Speaker 5: are listening to, Who's popular, who's you know, because with
Speaker 5: screaming and all the different ways. I mean, I used
Speaker 5: to tell when I might talk about my work, I
Speaker 5: talk about how when we used to share music back
Speaker 5: in the day, we physically give you sent you an album, yes,
Speaker 5: and the hopes you may get it back some days.
Speaker 4: And that's the key.
Speaker 2: You wanted to make sure that your friend gave you
Speaker 2: back the album and took care of that album while
Speaker 2: they had it in their possession.
Speaker 5: Actually, that was sharing music back then. Today it's a
Speaker 5: whole other story.
Speaker 2: Well, there's so many different ways to do it. You
Speaker 2: can send it electronically. Well, don't get me off that subject.
Speaker 2: The subject of folk music, it dominated from roughly the
Speaker 2: late fifties to just before the British invasion. Once the
Speaker 2: Beatles did that at sullivan appearance, the world of music
Speaker 2: changed forever, and folk music necessarily had to take a
Speaker 2: different seat than it had had in the American listener's ear.
Speaker 2: But for those roughly five six years it was on
Speaker 2: the top of the heap.
Speaker 5: It was if we sink back, we could think about
Speaker 5: the artists like you know, Peter Paul and Mary, the
Speaker 5: Kingston Trio, making the appearances on the shows like Ed
Speaker 5: Sells and the shows like that that were, you know,
Speaker 5: there's the way we heard of music or saw it
Speaker 5: on music back then. And you make that good points
Speaker 5: because black and roll really became so big in the
Speaker 5: mid sixties with the British invasion, and then from then
Speaker 5: on with the San Francisco psychedelic music in the late sixties,
Speaker 5: and then with the you know, you go through all
Speaker 5: the genres, you know, with lowtown and you know you
Speaker 5: go then you know, in the nineties against the punk rock,
Speaker 5: you need to get the punk rock. And I hope
Speaker 5: the changes. But what was very interesting to me is
Speaker 5: one of the things I was very excited about doing
Speaker 5: this project was the as much as yes, spoke music
Speaker 5: certainly to the backseat to that type of music, you know,
Speaker 5: pop music, theent, but the singer songwriter, which is what
Speaker 5: this book, in This Party really is a tribute to,
Speaker 5: always remained. There was always somebody back there who wanted
Speaker 5: to write a song topress themselves, to talk about what
Speaker 5: they were feeling, what they were seeing, which is what
Speaker 5: folk music really is. It's really a voide, you know.
Speaker 5: Manity artists say folk music is the music of the people,
Speaker 5: by the people, for the people, and there's a continued
Speaker 5: generation of artists that are using that to express themselves.
Speaker 5: And these days, with all these things we are dealing with,
Speaker 5: whether you're dealing with political issues, climate issues, issues with
Speaker 5: your own personal identity, music has become a vehicle for
Speaker 5: people to express those feelings. It grows, it builds community,
Speaker 5: people share, and so there's a whole generation of artists
Speaker 5: This is really one of the wonderful things That's Pasting
Speaker 5: is doing. They have a initiative called the Folk Collective,
Speaker 5: which is identified a dozen musicians, many many urban musicians,
Speaker 5: you know, because they realize a lot of the folk
Speaker 5: music was coming from you know areas, And I just
Speaker 5: be honest, there's a there's there had been a stigma
Speaker 5: that folk music was old white guys with guitars. Well,
Speaker 5: that's not the case anymore, you know, that's not the case.
Speaker 2: Let me take a break on that comment. And when
Speaker 2: we come back, I have a point I want to
Speaker 2: make about Peter Paul and Mary's Puff The Magic Dragon.
Speaker 2: Time here on night side eight forty six sixty six degrees.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: Nice Sight Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: I'm talking about the book. The song is still being written.
Speaker 2: It's a photo s a book. And the author of
Speaker 2: that book, Newton local kid, grown up, grown up and
Speaker 2: making orals and noodles of money with his photos and
Speaker 2: his books. And by the way, is this your first book, Barry?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I know, it's actually my second book. Okay, first
Speaker 5: book was based upon my early work with Okay Boss
Speaker 5: rock and Roll future.
Speaker 2: There you go, and people get your pens out so
Speaker 2: you can spell his name properly. Shinier sc h and
Speaker 2: ei e R Barry. I think you can figure out
Speaker 2: the spelling of that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but Barry Schneier.
Speaker 4: All right.
Speaker 2: And I mentioned I want to talk about Peter Paul
Speaker 2: Mary's Puff the Magic Dragon. I have a four year
Speaker 2: old grandson. Here we are in the year twenty twenty five,
Speaker 2: roughly sixty five seventy years sixty five years later, and
Speaker 2: my grandson knows that song. He might not know all
Speaker 2: the words, but he knows that song. That song has
Speaker 2: lived through generations. It's such a simple story that they
Speaker 2: tell Peter Paul Mary, they tell so well. And I
Speaker 2: will say this about my grandson. I don't think he
Speaker 2: knows any Beatles songs, as in recognizing them with the
Speaker 2: lyrics of the titles.
Speaker 4: But he knows that song.
Speaker 2: And that's the power of the type of music that
Speaker 2: some of these performers were able to put out back
Speaker 2: in the late fifties into the early to mid sixties.
Speaker 5: It's a song that gets sung and performed a lot.
Speaker 5: And I will tell you that actually one of the
Speaker 5: actually I have actually photographed both Peter Yarrow and Paul
Speaker 5: STOOTI you know from Peter Paul Mary obviously there is
Speaker 5: not with it. Yeah, But when when Peter Yarrow was
Speaker 5: performing in Arlington at the Regent Theater and he did
Speaker 5: that song, he brought all of the kids up on
Speaker 5: stage to sing with them and it was really a
Speaker 5: wonderful stace. So to your point, you're right, the kids
Speaker 5: they know that song and it's wonderful to hear that.
Speaker 5: Butchers about Cherry grandchild.
Speaker 4: And you said you have three children.
Speaker 2: Are they are any of them following in their father's
Speaker 2: footsteps as far as love of music and or photography
Speaker 2: or some relatable subject.
Speaker 5: Well, actually they are. We are three sons. Actually all
Speaker 5: live on the West Coast. We joke about how we
Speaker 5: think they just want to get it far away from
Speaker 5: us as possible, But that's not the case. That's where
Speaker 5: they're working.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 5: Our oldest son is in Los Angeles and he actually
Speaker 5: is a photographer, and he's actually a sort of photographer.
Speaker 5: He works also as a director of photography and very well.
Speaker 5: He shoots a lot of episodes for shows on Netflix
Speaker 5: and Apple. Our youngest son, who is in Portland, Oregon,
Speaker 5: is a producer for a small for a creative agency
Speaker 5: and a small one a good size agency. He does
Speaker 5: a lot of work for you know, producing commercials for
Speaker 5: everything from you know, skateboards for Adidas to you know,
Speaker 5: shows for HBO. Our middle son is into music as well.
Speaker 5: He actually is a He started off he was obviously
Speaker 5: you actually went to Emerton as well as a sweeling
Speaker 5: maker and he went on to he does photography as well.
Speaker 5: He's actually in the world of digital marketing for a
Speaker 5: great brand out there. So they're all doing creative work.
Speaker 5: They're all loving music and they still do. And like
Speaker 5: I said, oftentimes my wife will say, what do you
Speaker 5: listening to these days? Recommend somebody and it's great. Usually
Speaker 5: I'll get a text he wants and say, hey, have
Speaker 5: you heard this act? So it's great to have that
Speaker 5: thing going on with the boys.
Speaker 4: What are their ages?
Speaker 5: Oldest is forty, then thirty eight and thirty six.
Speaker 2: You don't sound old enough. I know your history, so
Speaker 2: I'm basing it on what you have said about you.
Speaker 2: But again, you don't sound old enough to have a
Speaker 2: forty year old child.
Speaker 5: Well, I thank you for that. I thank you so
Speaker 5: much for that. It's all in the s all in
Speaker 5: the mind. That's all in the attitude, you know, I said,
Speaker 5: I feel younger than mine and younger at heart. The
Speaker 5: body just needs to catch up. I don't know if
Speaker 5: itever will, but.
Speaker 2: Well, I have a forty one year old and I
Speaker 2: feel every one of the years that I've taken to
Speaker 2: get here. But I'm going to ask you did you
Speaker 2: see And I don't HBO or Cinemax or Showtime one
Speaker 2: of the three. They did a documentary on Little Stevie.
Speaker 2: Did you see that?
Speaker 5: Though? You know, I haven't seen it yet, and I'm
Speaker 5: so looking forward to seeing it because he he is
Speaker 5: a wonderful man. He's a character. I was actually looking
Speaker 5: at a few occasions to work with him, photographing his
Speaker 5: band as he plays when he's not touring The Spring
Speaker 5: Little Stephen and the Disciples of Soul.
Speaker 4: Whieh.
Speaker 5: I will tell anybody who is a fan of that
Speaker 5: genre of music, R and B soul, it is a
Speaker 5: great show, a great act. And I haven't seen the
Speaker 5: show yet, but he I'm wondering if this is part
Speaker 5: of his the documentary. He himself is a walking Encyclopedia distribute.
Speaker 2: He knows music backwards and forwards, he was there in
Speaker 2: the roots, the origins of rock and roll, pre British invasion,
Speaker 2: all the way through and up to now in the
Speaker 2: twenty twenties. He knows his stuff and he does nothing
Speaker 2: but represent that music with love and care.
Speaker 5: Absolutely. When he does his live show, I remember he
Speaker 5: will talk about the boarders of the song. He went
Speaker 5: into one song where we talked about the origins of
Speaker 5: the a cappella groups who were saying it's free quarters.
Speaker 5: You know. He brings all the history, all the old
Speaker 5: R and B and motown into his show and he's wonderful.
Speaker 2: All Right, Well, I'm pretty much at the end. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna wish you continued success because you have achieved a
Speaker 2: strong level of success and keep at it. And I
Speaker 2: hope when the book comes out it makes you a
Speaker 2: billionaire like Bruce has become.
Speaker 5: Well, I'll take any portions of that, but I want
Speaker 5: to thank thank you for having me on and letting
Speaker 5: people know about the book and the exhibit that's coming up.
Speaker 5: I think people who are in town that they oppose
Speaker 5: the exhibit at the at the Wing Center, at the
Speaker 5: Folk Americ Ground Lucah Hall of Fame, they'll really get
Speaker 5: a good experience of not just seeing some of the
Speaker 5: photograph of the artists we spend time with, but the
Speaker 5: doings to work in there, to bring some of the
Speaker 5: artifacts and archives of the past history to life for
Speaker 5: every related experience.
Speaker 2: And Barry, thank you, and we will do this again.
Speaker 2: Now that I've got your phone number in my rolodex,
Speaker 2: I'll grab you again, maybe during the holiday season.
Speaker 4: That way we can.
Speaker 2: Promote the book even more and put a few more
Speaker 2: pennies in your piggy bank.
Speaker 4: You take care now, I would love that.
Speaker 5: Thanks so much for having me on the year tonight.
Speaker 4: Bye, Barry.
Speaker 2: All right, everybody, next hour we're going to talk about
Speaker 2: your doggies and your kiddies, and I'll give you more
Speaker 2: details as we come back from the new use. Time
Speaker 2: and temperature eight fifty eight sixty six degrees