WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:40.700 It is May 13th, Friday the 13th, lucky Friday. This is Room in the Trees, a podcast about being a creative person in the world. this world. Today we're actually all about music. The following was recorded on April 21st, 2016. This is episode number five, The Roberts Connection. Room in the Trees is hosted by Sabrina Ward Harrison and me, Trent Reynolds. This podcast is made possible by 00:00:40.700 --> 00:00:46.380 This podcast is made possible by Chrysanthemum Tea. 00:00:48.700 --> 00:01:05.420 Let me tell you who makes this podcast possible. Megan Farley. Megan is our newest subscriber on Patreon.com. And let me share some brief feelings I have about Megan Farley. I am sincerely grateful. to Megan. 00:01:07.600 --> 00:01:13.160 Megan, you are a beautiful human being, and I hope you have the best Friday the 13th ever. 00:01:15.240 --> 00:01:40.820 We would love it if you too became our patron at patreon.com backslash room. Your donations help us keep this podcast running and help us expand what we're doing with the website. We have a lot of great stuff in mind, and with your help, we can make this a much larger conversation. conversation. Today is a music episode, the first. Let's get to it. 00:01:43.240 --> 00:01:55.060 The point of departure for this conversation is we are both choosing a high school song. I think we don't need any description other than that. Let's just choose a song from high school. No need to think. 00:01:55.460 --> 00:01:56.420 Buddy, you go first. 00:01:57.060 --> 00:02:16.380 Okay. So there is one song that will always come back, or just come to mind, I guess, when I think of my high school years. It's Tom Petty from the album Wild Flowers. And the song is Time to Move On. 00:02:17.300 --> 00:02:19.180 Yes! 00:02:19.560 --> 00:02:21.140 And I will share that. 00:02:22.240 --> 00:02:23.280 I'm going to look it up. 00:02:23.560 --> 00:02:47.300 Yeah, it's probably just as quick. I love that album. Yeah, so that's, well, should we listen to it first and then I'm going to? Yeah, let's listen to it. Okay. ♪ 00:02:47.300 --> 00:02:52.300 ♪ 00:02:52.300 --> 00:03:08.100 ♪ It's time to move on, it's time to get going ♪ ♪ What lies ahead I have no way of knowing ♪ ♪ But under my feet baby, grass is growing ♪ ♪ It's time to move on, time to get going ♪ 00:03:08.100 --> 00:03:08.600 Go on. 00:03:12.540 --> 00:03:22.340 Broken skyline, moving to the airport. She's an honest effector, conscientious objector. Now her own protector. 00:03:25.720 --> 00:03:34.000 Yeah, broken skyline, which way to love land? Which way to something better? Which way to forgiveness? 00:03:35.080 --> 00:03:36.060 Which way do I go? 00:03:38.100 --> 00:03:55.100 ♪ Yeah, it's time to move on ♪ ♪ Time to get going ♪ ♪ Four miles ahead, I have no way of knowing ♪ ♪ But under my feet, baby, grass is growing ♪ ♪ Yeah, it's time to move on ♪ 00:03:55.100 --> 00:04:04.100 ♪ Time to get going ♪ ♪ ♪ 00:04:04.100 --> 00:04:07.100 ♪ Sometime later ♪ 00:04:38.100 --> 00:04:45.600 ♪ The grace has grown ♪ ♪ It's time to move on ♪ ♪ Time to get going ♪ 00:05:08.100 --> 00:05:32.280 ♪ Time to move on, time to get going ♪ ♪ What lies ahead I have no way of knowing ♪ ♪ But under my feet baby, the grass is growing ♪ ♪ It's time to move on, time to get going ♪ ♪ Yeah, it's time to move on, time to get going ♪ 00:05:38.100 --> 00:05:46.140 Oh man. Great. 00:05:46.460 --> 00:05:47.520 Love that song. 00:05:50.820 --> 00:05:52.140 Great album. 00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:54.500 Yep. Thank you. 00:05:54.500 --> 00:05:57.900 He was the first concert I ever went to. 00:05:57.900 --> 00:05:58.900 Is that right? 00:05:58.900 --> 00:06:32.400 Yep. I was a sophomore in high school. My mom, I don't remember who I went with, but it was before I even knew about marijuana. mom like I didn't understand the smell of it or I didn't I just loved the wildflowers album and so my mom years later said I took you to that because of course I had to go with my mom so and she said there was so much marijuana being I had no idea at the time but I love that album yeah I think I went to 00:06:32.400 --> 00:06:46.240 the I saw Tom Petty at the Hollywood Bowl yeah I think it was the wildflowers tour I can't remember now though it might have been a later one yes Tom 00:06:46.240 --> 00:06:49.960 Petty did you remember when you first heard it or what what year of high 00:06:49.960 --> 00:07:01.500 school that was that's what I was just trying to remember I think it was I think it was a sophomore in high school I had I had my driver's license but I think it was fairly new if I'm remembering right I could probably 00:07:01.500 --> 00:07:06.220 I like that you're like, I had my driver's license and I heard, like, did you play it in the car? 00:07:06.980 --> 00:08:21.720 Well, no. What I remember is I got the album. I had been a Tom Petty fan for quite a while. And whatever, through my brothers or something, I had been listening to Tom Petty for a while. The album came out. I went out and I bought it. and I remember it just being floored I like I listened to the whole album straight through and I felt this like immediate need to to like share it to go play it for other people and so I remember getting into my car and taking it up to Emily Roberts house I remember playing her two or three songs and just wanting other people to love it as much as I did because it's just the start to finish. It's one of the few albums still that I think, you know, just the whole thing holds up start to finish. I remember back in high school, it was fairly common. It was kind of understood that, you know, you went to the store, you bought an album. There would probably be two or three songs max. that you would like on the album most of the time. So I think it was a fairly rare thing to buy an album and then be able to put it in and sit through the whole thing and love everything. But that was definitely the case with this album. 00:08:21.740 --> 00:08:28.900 I think that for people a bit older, it was like Nirvana and Pearl Jam was a huge. 00:08:29.420 --> 00:08:48.360 Oh, yeah, for sure. - Sure, yeah. Nirvana, Nevermind. I bought that on cassette tape, and my parents found it. And they started reading the lyrics on the case, and it was like, "Sell your kids for food, nature is a whore." 00:08:50.720 --> 00:08:57.700 And I remember we had like a family meeting about music, and they took it. 00:08:57.700 --> 00:09:00.000 Oh, attention to the middle child. 00:09:00.300 --> 00:09:02.180 Let there be. Yeah, like all of a sudden. 00:09:02.640 --> 00:09:04.440 Don't they have some other things to do? 00:09:04.740 --> 00:09:05.240 A little bit. 00:09:07.440 --> 00:09:08.740 Anyway, so back... 00:09:08.740 --> 00:09:28.680 I don't think I ever bought that album. It's a big... I think it would have felt like a little bit older... ♪ I should sing a love song ♪ - It's so interesting, the timing of high school, because it's like a year older felt like such a big difference, like, oh, that's what juniors are listening to, or that's what the older kids are listening to. 00:09:28.680 --> 00:09:29.520 - Right. 00:09:31.040 --> 00:12:20.600 Yeah, that was a huge deal that, Never mind. But let's talk about Wildflower. So I remember that coming out, and it was such a big deal, and I loved that album all through high school. And, you know, turning 16, getting your license, that's such a pivotal moment, or it was for me anyway. Like, when you start to feel like you're independent, you feel like, I don't know, a lot of things start happening around that. that age. You feel free to, you feel free. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And, um, so I think that album hitting at about that time for me, um, you know, it just got lodged in my memory as kind of, um, you know, this thing that represented those years or you know the good things of those years but then I remember like the senior year came along and they were talking about what should be our class song and I remember thinking I remember thinking it's got to be this song this is this is what it's about. Or I don't know, there's something about that song that always really resonated with me. And I think just as I was thinking about talking about it today, it also has continued throughout my life from that point to represent kind of a core feeling that I have and that's like you know in high school you get people it's all this outrage like I can't wait to get out of high school and I could go somewhere else and be free or whatever I never really had that like that intensity about getting away you know like going and going out and doing my own thing But I've always had and I continue to have just this kind of sense of, it's time to move on to the next thing. You know, it's time to. Things are things are getting a little bit stale or still around here. I need to I need to keep keep moving forward. Like there's an attitude about that that that resonates with me. It did then and it does now. When I'm in the same place for too long, whether it's a job or, I don't know, even art making. If I spend too much time on one thing... on one medium, on one project, on one line of thought, I just start to get a little antsy, you know, and it's not like an intense antsy. It's not like I have to do something new. It's like, it's just time to get going. So that's what the song is all about to me. I love the tone. I love the mood and, you know, the... 00:12:20.600 --> 00:12:41.100 message. I want to do a shout out for Chrysanthemum Tea. It's not a brand. It's a real thing. You just get pure Chrysanthemum. There's a great Asian market here that sells Vietnamese and Korean and Japanese and Chinese 00:13:08.700 --> 00:13:19.740 Okay, give me one second to just... Can you look it up right now to see it? 00:13:19.740 --> 00:13:24.640 You sent me some links, right? Which one, the first or second link? 00:13:24.640 --> 00:13:35.500 Let's do the second link for you to listen to. The first one has the lyrics. 00:13:35.500 --> 00:14:19.900 ♪ ♪ If you twist and turn away ♪ If you tear yourself into a girl If I could, yes I would ♪ If I could, I would let it go ♪ 00:14:25.220 --> 00:14:29.220 ♪ Surrender this look and ♪ 00:14:35.560 --> 00:14:37.600 ♪ Oh ♪ 00:14:37.600 --> 00:15:47.000 ♪ If I could throw this lifeless lifeline to the wind Leave this heart of clay See you walk, walk away Into the night And ♪ Through the rain ♪ ♪ Into the half-light ♪ ♪ And through the flame ♪ ♪ If I could through myself ♪ ♪ Set your spirit free ♪ ♪ I'd lead your heart away ♪ ♪ I see you break ♪ ♪ Break away ♪ ♪ Into the light ♪ ♪ And into the day ♪ 00:15:50.340 --> 00:16:02.260 ♪ Oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh ♪ 00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:21.080 To let it go And start to fade away To let it go 00:16:21.080 --> 00:16:35.000 And start to fade away I'm wide awake I'm wide awake 00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:33.480 Then maybe they'll tell you what I would say True colors fly in blue and black Blue silken sky and burning flag Coolers crash, could I? You look shut out If I could 00:17:33.480 --> 00:17:42.000 You know I I would, if I could, I would let it go. 00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:47.480 Disperspiration. 00:17:50.900 --> 00:17:52.380 Dislocation. 00:17:55.540 --> 00:18:10.000 Separation. Condemnation. Revelation. In temptation. ♪ Intolation, desolation, let it go ♪ 00:18:13.680 --> 00:18:18.680 ♪ And so far away, so let it go ♪ 00:18:22.020 --> 00:18:27.020 ♪ Oh no, and so far away, so let it go ♪ 00:18:31.320 --> 00:19:01.400 Hands up to that I'm wide awake I'm wide awake I'm wide awake Wide awake I'm not sleeping alone 00:19:01.400 --> 00:19:03.640 Pretty epic. 00:19:04.580 --> 00:19:05.080 Yep. 00:19:05.600 --> 00:19:07.040 Tell us the song, the album. 00:19:07.400 --> 00:19:16.620 The band is U2. The album is... Crap, I don't remember the album name. 00:19:16.680 --> 00:19:18.160 Is it The Unforgettable Fire? 00:19:19.600 --> 00:19:21.320 Maybe because he looked it up. 00:19:21.780 --> 00:19:22.280 Maybe. 00:19:22.760 --> 00:20:51.420 Yep. The song's called Bad. And this is a video from 1985. And 1985 was kind of a pivotal year for our family. And my dad really insisted. There's a few things about him that as a father he really insisted upon was learning music, being able to name an artist and really have a vocabulary of music on a large range from jazz to U2. And so when I was probably, like I know, I think I think I was seven or eight when he introduced me to U2 and the first CDs. And I remember him having these CDs in our house when we first moved to California. which is actually a house remember when we visited that house in la crescenta i remember exactly where um they were in the living room the sunken living room and they were on this bookshelf and that's where also he had prints and speaking of prints today they announced he had died today Which is... Did you hear that? No, I didn't hear that. Did you hear that news? Yeah, he died at 57. He was found dead. 00:20:52.180 --> 00:20:55.840 Wow. Yeah. Any cause of death? 00:20:56.240 --> 00:20:57.840 They haven't announced it yet. 00:20:58.180 --> 00:20:58.680 Wow. 00:20:59.680 --> 00:21:04.680 But he was classic purple rain and just... 00:21:04.680 --> 00:21:05.180 Yeah. 00:21:06.700 --> 00:21:55.600 So that was, U2 was just, I think it bridged the barriers of generations that was between, you know, my dad always said, "The fact we both love U2 is a whole different thing than my father and how he listened to music and how I, you know, the rock and roll of the So this song, and I kind of feel like we need to maybe title this episode something about the Roberts family, because you had a best friend, Emily, and my best friend at that time was Megan Roberts. And this was a song that she and I listened to in her VW Red VW Bug. 00:21:55.940 --> 00:21:56.440 Okay. 00:21:56.300 --> 00:22:24.600 and just blasted, just loved the song so much in high school. And we just sang it like, "Let it go." We just loved, and I had gone off and was an AFS student in France, my sophomore summer. And I came back to the school and I just had this different perspective on locking you out of high school. And I was like, okay, here we go. 00:22:24.600 --> 00:22:25.440 So, 00:22:30.020 --> 00:22:47.740 that was, it's a very long song. I think it's about like, um, later on I heard it was like about drug use or something but I didn't relate to it on that level. Well that's it I think that is that's 00:22:47.740 --> 00:23:47.380 something that I was gonna say too is I don't I still don't know what the lyrics all mean in in time to move on. I'm sure if I were to go back and research, there's somebody somewhere that could tell me all the stories and, and references that are being made. But, but when you hear a song for the first time and it, it kind of integrates into your life. And especially in that, when we were in high school, there was no internet. There was no way to easily. look up all these things and have access to all this detailed information about what the lyrics mean. And it wasn't really about that. That being said, whether or not I understood what the lyrics meant, the lyrics, like what they meant to Tom Petty, those lyrics definitely... came to mean something to me, you know, like little vignettes, little ideas or feelings associated with those lyrics that probably have nothing to do with their original intent, you know? 00:23:48.620 --> 00:23:52.420 Did you see that parlay to say when you went off and worked? 00:24:12.600 --> 00:25:12.840 I do remember in the Philippines one time it was four o'clock in the morning and we were waiting for a bus and the at the bus station that we were waiting at the Sultans of Swing came on and it was like we're in the middle of nowhere Philippines southern Leyte you know And all of a sudden, this whole thing came on at 4 o'clock in the morning, you know, beyond tired. And it just, I was so far away from America and, you know, that whole part of my life that it was just this really stark contrast. And I remember it just, like, filling my soul. Like, it felt like home. It felt like, you know, just this... It was kind of a wonderful moment, made me so happy. But that's another song, "Sultans of Swing" that was definitely a part of my high school experience. 00:25:15.660 --> 00:25:49.600 - I feel like you should make, be kind of wonderful to make an album because basically like 10 or 12 years and now Liv is gonna be totally high school student. I'm thinking about that with my niece who's entering into middle school now. She was like just a blink of an eye, you know, four years old and we were painting on the ground together. But making a mix, some people don't make mixes anymore, but preserving something that she can have, you know, 10 years from now, it's listen to of your... 00:25:52.180 --> 00:26:40.400 - I think that's gonna be so interesting to see how just, how we evolve in passing on traditions like that. Like, you know, when we were in high school, it was all about the mix tape and the, how you decorated the mix tape and the pictures you would put in there or little notes and inside jokes and stuff like that. And I had some mixtapes from friends for four or five years. You know, I would play them to death. And there's just no, there's not the same, well, there's no physical object anymore, right? You could make a, like a Spotify playlist or like, you don't, we don't even have really CDs anymore. You don't really pass around CDs. 00:26:40.400 --> 00:26:43.560 What's happening to this world? 00:26:44.560 --> 00:26:48.400 It's changing so much. It's changing so much. 00:26:49.240 --> 00:26:55.920 Maybe a assignment can be that we have to, I have to, like, we have to listen to a song, at least a song a day. 00:26:56.720 --> 00:28:17.080 Sorry. I think though, like I wonder, you know, with the whole, with the internet, with the ease of distribution, with all of this stuff that kind of takes away physical objects, I think there's a simultaneous, and you see this all over the place, the whole DIY, do-it-yourself revolution, you know, like people, maker spaces and all this, like people long for creating physical objects and, that I've got to believe that it's just part of the pendulum swing. Like we've gone really digital. We've gone to all this convenience and ease of digital, but we're starting to realize that we're human beings with bodies in the world, and we kind of like physical objects too. And I wonder if we won't swing back the other way and start having things, objects that have the importance and emotional attachment of like a cassette tape with writing on it, you know, like it won't be, we won't have those objects out of necessity. Like we don't need to have objects, but we will want them. I don't know. And maybe, I don't know what that looks like, but I've got to believe it's, it'll take some some form. I know what it looks like. What does it look like? I have my neighbor, Ted, 00:28:17.180 --> 00:28:40.480 who's going to be in Mr. Rogers' neighborhood. He's like Mr. Farley or something. He's the guy, he's my neighbor. And he just built a handmade cello. And He made it out of like a beautiful gourd of some sort. I don't quite know. It's a beautiful, large cello. 00:28:41.080 --> 00:28:43.040 A cello made out of a gourd. 00:28:43.440 --> 00:29:15.840 That's awesome. Like it sounds very stony, but it's not. He's extremely, he makes. Ukrainian eggs and cellos and handmade flutes. Can you take some pictures of that and post it on Instagram? Yeah, he's very steampunk. He's very cool. Awesome. Yeah, I will. And then, so, I want to have someone play the cello and play... a song, so I hear it and it like lulls my dogs to sleep. 00:29:15.840 --> 00:29:19.280 Like if there's any neighbor to have, it's Ted, 00:29:19.280 --> 00:29:22.140 please hand me gentle cello. 00:29:23.140 --> 00:29:24.740 - Gord cello. 00:29:24.740 --> 00:30:18.680 - Gord gentle cello. So today, just before the podcast, so he was playing the cello, and then this guy I overheard him bike up, he said, "I used to live here." And I overheard it and I was like trying to close the windows and get ready for the podcast. and I overheard it and I'm like... And he started telling this fantastic story about living here in 1971. And just went into this whole description about, so my flat, he said, well, there was a guy, there were five people living up here, five guys that lived up here. - Wow. - And they played ping pong in the attic. And he said, we had the best time. And I wish, so Ted was just all up in this guy's business. He was like, and the guy was on this bike. And he said, he bought this place, this two-story house that I live in, for $14,000. 00:30:20.680 --> 00:30:21.180 Wow. 00:30:23.300 --> 00:30:25.300 That's crazy. 00:30:25.300 --> 00:30:32.980 Yeah, so it was a really... Ted and I looked at each other like, "We need to have a more... We need to have a funner time here." 00:30:32.980 --> 00:30:38.980 So... 00:30:38.980 --> 00:31:09.820 Well, I think we should stop it there. Let's extend the assignment. If you're listening to this podcast, let me tell you what you need to do. you need to go and take two seconds to think about a song from high school and then record as much as you can of it and post it to Instagram and tag it with room in the trees. Thanks. and see if we can. 00:31:10.040 --> 00:31:13.120 Are there any copyright issues with that as far as? 00:31:13.520 --> 00:31:43.800 Sure there are, but forget about that. Let's see what we can get through the filters. I don't think so. I mean, of course there are, but if you're posting it to Instagram, we're not making any money on it, or I don't think we're going to get in trouble for it. Worst case scenario, you have to take down the post and whatever. We can do that. But I think if you can, sing along. If you can't, then just show us a little slice of your life with a soundtrack. 00:31:44.520 --> 00:31:46.040 How about you sing along? 00:31:46.360 --> 00:31:47.460 Oh, I'm going to sing along. 00:31:47.880 --> 00:31:49.040 Yeah, sing along. 00:31:49.660 --> 00:31:52.320 That's part of the memory is singing along. 00:31:52.320 --> 00:31:54.100 I'm going to make a long. 00:31:54.320 --> 00:31:55.860 Okay, make a long. 00:31:57.800 --> 00:32:00.140 and 00:32:00.140 --> 00:32:13.500 and everyone listen play if they want to share they have memories of like their mixtape experience of just their top it can be college too 00:32:13.500 --> 00:32:33.620 yeah whatever I don't think we need to put limits on it. I think though, here's the deal though. I think you need for the video just make it the song. Don't make the explanation. If you need to explain something, put it in the text below the video. Right? 00:32:35.840 --> 00:32:37.800 Because I just want to hear the song. 00:32:38.920 --> 00:33:01.400 Just name the song and put a link to the YouTube video of the actual, like, so for example, if I hand write the lyrics to Bad, I'm going to put the link to the actual video on YouTube of them live in 1989, 85. Sounds good. 00:33:01.400 --> 00:33:03.000 yep 00:33:03.000 --> 00:33:20.200 awesome and go out and listen to some music and make some artwork that's the message that's our assignment well that's the assignment listen to music and make artwork okay 00:33:20.200 --> 00:33:21.160 that's it 00:33:21.160 --> 00:33:49.820 bye thanks for joining us and you know what to do Instagram your favorite song from high school. Hashtag it, Room in the Trees. Let this be a music. And speaking of music, my brother Brent provided the music we use at the beginning and end of this podcast. And you should check out more of his music on SoundCloud. Search for Ventor's Stag Motel. 00:33:52.140 --> 00:34:25.000 You can, of course, support us at patreon.com backslash room. But you can also support us by sharing this podcast with your friends. And it turns out rating us on iTunes can really help bring people to the podcast. So if you have a moment, give us some stars on iTunes. Give us all the stars. And have a wonderful week. Next week we'll be talking business with some good friends. I hope you join us. ♪ ♪ 00:34:47.500 --> 00:34:49.560 you 00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:12.060 you 00:35:32.500 --> 00:35:34.560 you 00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:57.060 you