Jay Gruska on The David Cassidy Connections Podcast

-

What can I say. Dreams Are Nuthin' More Than Wishes, because  3 days ago in conversation with someone on the site I wrote - ' I'd love to ask him (Jay Gruska) about the songs they co-wrote, maybe there were more, how the work on Hard Times  looked like, why the shorter version was chosen, were they friends and met outside the studio, and about music for Ruby. Maybe Louise Poynton will talk with him for the podcast...' Great minds..Amazing. I wonder what Jay Gruska thought when he'd got my email..That DC still had a lot of fans..Yes, of course.

Before I write what I think about that conversation, let's listen to one of the songs Jay Gruska has talked about on the podcast, co-wrote by him in the 80s. The country version of that hit. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV6SI14KwpE

Of course Louise  asked much more interesting questions than I could have thought about . She is a very experienced journalist, did a lot of interviews, and she is always very well prepeared and has such a gift, I don't know how to call it.. she  asks that kind of questions which make her guests think. When I was a guest on her podcast, her questions helped me to understand a lot of things..She is a great host.

 Jay Gruska. He  has a very pleasant timbre of voice, mature and warm, and he chooses his words carefully, thinks about them, he often says..'in my experience or in my opinion', so it's been a pleasure listening to him and I haven't got any difficulties with understanding.  Very interesting part about creativity, and how to create music for  tv or film industry , it's a whole process. He was given just a week to compose a main theme for 'Lois & Clark :The New Adventures of Superman' and during the first 2 days he didn't write anything, because..of the long shadow of John Williams, who wrote the iconic music score for the original first Superman movie in 1978. That was exciting story. Here is Jay Gruska's soundtrack (only the main theme, there is more of course) from that tv series. He got an Emmy nomination for it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pkSTDtkQSw

Louise asked JG about music which inspired and moved him, and why he chose being a music composer and music producer, not a recording and touring artist ( he recorded some solo albums in the 70s).. That was very interesting part of that conversation. John Williams, Tchaikovsky and writing songs for Chicago or Michael Jackson...

 And of course there were questions about David. And Jay Gruska has told us a lot..how they met, about work on 'Gettin' It In The Street' in Colorado, that 'I Never Saw You Coming' had 4 co-writers, what he loved about DC's voice, and that they wanted to write a full song for 'Man Undercover', and I loved the story how David came to his house and how fast they wrote that song together. And about those other opportunities when he met David in the late 80s, and in the 90s..And every time David was very warm and the same.. but on the set of Ruby he met different David, still smiling but..lost. Jay Gruska said 'I felt the struggle.'. And why they didn't write more music together. Louise and Jay also talked about  fame and being a teen idol , Jay was on a tour with Shaun at the peak of his fame, and later they became very close friends..Still they are. .Louise asked him how he'd liked to remember David Cassidy and how we fans, should remember DC..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJjBUtbL74g

It's just a short review of that one hour conversation. And I can tell you that this hour has passed very quickly, and now I have  so many things to think about after listening to it,  and I will definitely return to Louise and Jay's conversation more than once again. It was a  great pleasure spending an hour in their company.

.Here is the link to the podcast :

https://thedavidcassidyconnections.libsyn.com/jay-gruska






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Robyn Millan

-
Image
  I learnt yesterday that Robyn Millan died last year. Someone published a post about the TPF's episode where she'd appeared as a guest star, 'Dora, Dora, Dora', Season 2 episode 1, aired 50 years ago, on September 17, 1971..And there was a comment about that episode that the script was poorly written, sexist etc. Maybe, no one would dare write something like that now, but the world looked different half a century ago..And I really felt sad yesterday because of Robyn. She started her short career in 1965, 33 credits, mostly tv roles - Mission:Impossible, The F.B.I, Hawaii 5.0, Ryan's Hope..But we would remember her as Dora, the girl Keith fell in love with, and Robyn, the girl David dated for a while.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmZnk9RFKm0&t=1s  In December 1971 on Photoplay Magazine an interview with Robyn was published :' He is just marvellous and really knows how to handle his success.(..) We hit it off from that first day six months ago.(..) I resp...
Read more

Love Is All That I Ever Needed. A David Cassidy Biography. Chapter 1

-
Image
  Chapter 1 The Divorce David Bruce Cassidy was born on April 12, 1950 in New York City. He was born into show business, it was running in his blood. His parents were young and glamorous working actors. Jack Cassidy was 23 years old, Evelyn Ward 3 years older, both very busy with their career, frequently touring and absent. David spent his early years with his maternal grandparents in West Orange, New Jersey, just 20 miles from New York. He felt he was different from other kids, didn’t exactly fit in, his school friends’ parents didn’t look like his, they had ordinary jobs, like his grandfather, Frederic Ward, who all his life worked as a utility meter reader. David was a small child, slightly built, and had to wear glasses. During his life he underwent 5 eye operations. It wasn't easy to be the youngest, and not to have a brother or a sister. Someone to fight with, but also to play with, and to share love, good and bad experiences. He was a lonely child, brought up by honest,...
Read more

'He Was So Pretty You Couldn't Look Away..'

-
Image
'and sexy in a way that is timeless.' It's from Kevin Fallon's article published on www.thedailybeast.com on November  22, 2017.  Maybe it's not the smartest thing to do, but the newest article about David Cassidy on Record Collector Magazine, and first of all different pointsview of it, made me have a look on some articles published after this horrible day,  November 21, 2017. But first a song. We experience another heat wave here in Poland, I haven't seen a rain in many days, which is scary, so maybe a song about a rainy day. We miss David on any day, and this is one of his best songs. And amazing, very moving tribute video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJ6qjfK72L8 We have 42 web articles from November and December 2017, on the website, and I can't see Kevin Fallon's on the list, even that I'm sure I sent it Jane last year, because this is not the first time I'm writing about this article. I'm a former librarian, I believe everything sho...
Read more