{"id":14847,"date":"2018-07-12T05:30:04","date_gmt":"2018-07-12T09:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=14847"},"modified":"2018-07-13T08:05:02","modified_gmt":"2018-07-13T12:05:02","slug":"paul-williams-someday-and-today-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/12\/paul-williams-someday-and-today-part-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Williams: “Someday” and Today (Part 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Continued from Part Two<\/a>…<\/em><\/p>\n

Once Williams had moved on to A&M, he and Nichols began work on a proper solo album, this time featuring only songs by Nichols (music) and Williams (lyrics). The process of writing songs had already been established through the pair’s earlier collaborative efforts. \u201cWe\u2019d write from ten o\u2019clock in the morning until maybe four or five o\u2019clock,\u201d Williams says. \u201cThen we\u2019d go have a couple beers across the street at a club called Et Cetera, and Roger would go home. He had a life!\u201d Williams would go back to his office and studio at A&M. He’d often be visited by bassist\/songwriter Jack Conrad. \u201cJack would walk by and he\u2019d say, ‘Whatcha doin\u2019?’ And I\u2019d say, ‘Nothing. Come on. Let\u2019s play, and see if we can find stuff.’\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nichols-Williams collaboration seemed effortless. Nichols would present a melody to Williams, who would come up with a lyric that fit exactly. \u201cIf I said to Roger, ‘What if we lose a couple notes here?’ he\u2019d say, ‘You know what? You\u2019ll find it.’ And he was right,\u201d Williams says. \u201cPart of the comfort and ease of the collaboration was, for the most part when he would write ‘da ba dee ba dee boo da da,’ I didn\u2019t need to hear a change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now as then, Williams feels there was a kind of unspoken spiritual connection at work. \u201cOn this earthly level, we talk to each other in words,\u201d he explains, \u201cand through music you hear all these emotions. But if you believe in a higher self that experiences communication at a higher level, I think that when Roger would play me a melody, at that higher level I heard what he heard. And I think that our combined unconscious was really productive.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the time came to make Someday Man<\/i>, it was a given that Williams would work with Nichols. \u201cThe natural thing to do was to go into the studio with somebody that I totally trusted,\u201d Williams says. \u201cSo it was just like what we did for the demos: we’d go in a session and we\u2019d cut three tracks at a time.\u201d One important difference between the demo sessions and the recording dates for Someday Man<\/i> was the personnel involved. \u201cWe had [drummer] Hal Blaine, [bassist] Joe Osborn,\u201d Williams recalls. \u201cYou know, basically the Wrecking Crew.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact Williams cedes most of the credit for the virtues one finds in Someday Man<\/i> to Nichols. \u201cI think it’s more of a Roger Nichols album than mine,\u201d he says, \u201cbecause he just did everything.\u201d Williams recalls Nichols \u2013 who’s credited as the album’s producer \u2013 in the studio. \u201cHe had the genius of being able to go in and put a really sweet guitar on a track, or write something, or bring in the right musician or arranger,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

But Someday Man<\/i> is credited to Paul Williams, not Roger Nichols. So what exactly did Williams bring to the project? \u201cI brought the lyrics, I brought the vocals, and I brought the absolute amazement at what Roger did,\u201d Williams says.<\/p>\n

That perspective tends to undervalue Williams’ expressive lyrics. There’s a knowing tenderness in the words of a song like Someday Man<\/i>‘s \u201cTrust,\u201d one that takes the life experiences of a then-30 year old lyricist and presents them in a way that has broad appeal. \u201cAnd if it pleases you,\u201d Williams writes, \u201cI’d be honored to serve you \/ take a stand for you \/ Always there with a loving hand for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that songwriters are natural storytellers,\u201d Williams says, \u201cperhaps better screenwriters than even a novelist would be. Because in short form we do tell a story, and well tell it really quickly: in three minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another standout tune on Someday Man<\/i> is the topical \u201cSo Many People.\u201d Though Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is never mentioned by name in the song, the aftermath of his April 4, 1968 assassination informs Williams’ lyrics. \u201cToday the streets were filled with strangers,\u201d Williams writes, \u201cCalling names and choosing sides.\u201d Later in the song, the point is expressed more directly, referencing King’s 1963 \u201cI Have a Dream\u201d speech: \u201cWe may be running out of heroes \u2026 We killed a man for careless dreaming,\u201d writes Williams.<\/p>\n

He says that \u201cSo Many People\u201d came about through his interest in \u201cwhat was evolving and what was changing in our world at that time. It was really bizarre with the war in Vietnam going on and all,\u201d Williams says. \u201cWe had entered this weird place; the footage from Vietnam was something we watched over our TV dinners across the country. And news was in some ways becoming entertainment.\u201d<\/p>\n

That theme \u2013 one that resonates in current day when \u201creality TV\u201d stars occupy some of the most powerful positions in geopolitics \u2013 is one that would continue to stay with Williams. A few years after Someday Man<\/i>, when he starred as the malevolent character Swan in 1974’s Phantom of the Paradise<\/i>, Williams’ character responded to his right-hand-man’s concerns about a crass, tawdry and cynical approach to media, saying, \u201cAssassination live on coast to coast television? That\u2019s<\/i> entertainment!\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams makes it clear that despite the hip persona he enjoyed, he hadn’t bought in completely to the hippie ethos of the era. \u201cI liked the clothes,\u201d he says with a chuckle. \u201cI certainly<\/i> liked the drugs. I liked the beautiful people, and the beautiful ladies, and the freedom and all. But as far as a deep commitment to the philosophy, I\u2019m not sure that I ever expressed that on the street.\u201d Instead he expressed himself in the manner he knew best. \u201cIt came out in what I do,\u201d he says, \u201cwhich is writing songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

He figures that he’s only written a half dozen or so \u201csocially relevant\u201d songs, but Williams is justifiably proud of them. Mentioning a song written with Nichols, he says that \u201c’Out in the Country’ was, I think, the first ecology song that I ever wrote.\u201d The tune would be a hit for Three Dog Night, reaching #15 on the U.S. charts (it didn’t chart in the UK). He recites the lyrics of this 47-year old song from memory: \u201c’Before the breathin\u2019 air is gone, before the sun is a bright spot in the night-time.’ Those are songs that I\u2019m really proud of,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Click here to continue<\/a>…<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part Two… Once Williams had moved on to A&M, he and Nichols began work on a proper solo album, this time featuring only songs by Nichols (music) and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14848,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,51,64,73],"tags":[1670],"class_list":["post-14847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-pop","category-reissue","category-vinyl","tag-paul-williams","cat-41-id","cat-51-id","cat-64-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14847"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14859,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14847\/revisions\/14859"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}