Our nefarious, Snidely Whiplash-esque, “manager” for Star People was always trying to prove to us how “un-hip” we were. “We looked into it…Progressive Rock will never be a money maker” He set me up with a very “trendy cool” beat master to show us how out of touch we were. Scott ”The Doctor” Treibitz and I convened with said “BEAT MASTER” who threw a beat at us. “Write Something to this,” he said, arms folded, a subtle smirk on his face. The first riff to come out of my Fodera 6 string was the one you hear on “A Trillion Miles to Hollywood”. I don’t WANT to say that it wiped the smirk off his face, but it DID! The Doctor, of course, came up with the perfect piano part immediately. “Ok, write me some lyrics!” Said the TOO HIP beat MASTER! I loved writing lyrics and monologues for Star People. We were all good at it. I was constantly talking about the “Plot”, the story that the songs were essentially a soundtrack for. I scribbled the lyrics down in about 5 minutes, Scott and the Manager’s man watching. I sang them on the demo we were making, intended to display how much we NEEDED help. The guy scratched his head, listening. “Wait!”, I said, pulling out a harmonica and laid down the harp intro. “You Don’t Need Me!” The guy said…and he hadn’t even heard the beautiful vocal melody that Paul “Golden Boy” Gifford came up with. Working under pressure can produce little miracles.
You can listen to “A Trillion Miles to Hollywood” here.