"Music Box Dancer Breakout"
Written by Edward Jerlin
© 1984 Edward J. Jerlin/2007 Everlasting Arms Records & Publishing - All Rights Reserved
"The Return"
Written by Edward Jerlin & Bryan Celano
© 1984 EJ & BC/2007 Everlasting Arms Records & Publishing - All Rights Reserved
During the process of going through all of my old tapes & archives
for the purpose of finding candidates for the "Monthly Offering",
I came across a collection of tapes of piano music I'd written
between the ages of 16 & 20. Rediscovering these tapes &
getting reacquainted with them was a bit of a revelation for me,
because I'd long since set aside this material which almost
nobody has ever heard before because I was painfully shy
about sharing them with anyone.
I hope to release many of them via a CD series called
"Music For Piano, Drums, Bass and..."
If you care to read more about that, click here.
I wrote "Music Box Dancer Breakout" at the age of 19 or 20 in the summer of 1984. The recording dates from Spring of 1985. I was given the opportunity to record some of my piano music at my college's recording studio on a wonderful Mason & Hamlin grand piano that in my estimation remains one of the best pianos I've ever had the privilege of playing. I was trying to get as many of them recorded as possible in the time allotted, so I pretty much had one take at each song. So there are a few minor flubs & some tape hiss in an otherwise nice performance/recording.
Many of these piano solos had stories behind them and "Music Box Dancer Breakout" is no exception.
In the late 70's a guy named Frank Mills had a huge novelty radio hit with the instrumental Music Box Dancer. If you remember it, you're probably humming it now & will soon be annoyed with me for reminding you of it, because you won't be able to get it out of your head. With the exception of Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer" (made popular at the time by its use in the movie "The Sting"), I think I got more requests to play "Music Box Dancer" than any other piece of music. Growing weary of the requests for the simple but catchy little ditty, I eventually decided that I would write my own more "interesting" version.
Frank Mills' original was basically one riff repeated over & over, which makes sense given what a real music box does: play the same music over & over. My idea was to have the dancer "break out" of the music box, the premise being that a little girl has snuck into her mother's bedroom, opened Mom's music box, wound it up & watched the dancer jump out & become a real dancer, though it's ambiguous as to whether the dancer is actually real or just the girl's vivid imagination. This is probably the only music I've ever written where I even had an idea for a video (not that you'd ever see it on eMpTyV), with the girl watching the dancer turn real & break away from the tether holding her to the box & dancing all over Mom's bedroom, rather than in circles in the box.
The music & the dancer continue to swirl through various sections & ranges of motion, emotion & intensity. Eventually (at around the 4:40 mark in the music), the little girl hears Mom coming up the stairs & in a panic tells the dancer to hurry up & get back in the music box, which she does just in the nick of time (not unlike the little green army guys in the movie "Toy Story").
Then at 4:47, Mom walks in and asks, "What are you doing in here?"
"Nothing!"
Then at 5:00 as Mom is walking out, with the girl taking her time following behind, she takes a step back & opens the box a crack to make sure the dancer is okay & waves goodbye for now...
...until next time...
Enjoy!
"The Return" was a "landmark" in my musical development.
Also written in the summer of 1984 originally as a piano solo, it's the first time I can recall writing about a Christian/biblical topic. I wrote it about The Return of Christ, the second coming. Though it's an instrumental, the music represents the arrival, the initial bewilderment, the gathering, the triumph, & the majesty of Jesus' return to earth for his church as predicted & depicted in the bible in 1 Thessalonians 4, Revelation 20-22 & many other places.
It also represented a "turning of the page" from writing piano pieces (this being the last of them) to writing for a band & collaborating with other musicians.
In Fall '84, in my junior year of college, I met & formed the band "G-FORCE" with Bryan Celano, a drummer who also plays keyboards, sings & writes music. We hit it off really well, wrote a lot of music together, & remain great friends to this day. He lives in Los Angeles now. I have never been so telepathic with a musician before or since like with Bryan. We're both into the same kind of music, & hit our accents in the same places, uncannily so.
One of the first times we ever rehearsed together, getting to know each other, playing songs we'd written for each other to learn, I half-jokingly played my latest piece, "The Return", never expecting that any drummer would be able to follow along with all the crazy rhythms & tempo changes. But Bryan took a shine to it & insisted on trying it out & began playing along almost immediately, marveling at the idea that I played it exactly the same way note-for-note each time, & took learning it as a challenge. It took maybe 3-4 tries, but to my amazement, he pretty much nailed it, & added a number of ideas & accents that I loved. The drum part became such an integral & essential part of the song, that I've always considered Bryan to have co-written it.
Presented here is a new previously unreleased recording of it; I'm playing all the instruments. The subtle crunchy guitar parts & leads are 2007 additions. Otherwise, the piece remains note-for-note unchanged since 1984. For the drum parts, I co-opted all of my favorite Bryan-bits from the many studio & live versions I have of him playing it. It took me awhile to learn how to play all his riffs. Hopefully, the eventual "final" rendition will have Bryan playing on it. :-)
Most of this piece of music will also be incorporated in a slightly modified form into "Rapture".
Bryan & me playing Genesis' "In The Cage/Cinema Show/Duke's Travels/Afterglow"
medley May 16, 1986 at the 'rooftop gig' on the roof of the Crane School
Of Music at SUNY Potsdam just before finals week our senior year.
This is my favorite pic of us, wailing away,
concentrating, trying to get all those parts right.
I can't believe the hair...
or the beard for that matter!
This gig was only an hour long.
Later that evening we played a four-and-a-half-hour gig as a final
farewell & a celebration of four years of college before we all graduated...
One of the best days of my life, certainly in the top five...
The feedback is very much appreciated!!
Thank you, & God bless,
To download the music, RIGHT CLICK and choose "Save Target As":
"Music Box Dancer Breakout" 5:14
"The Return" 4:45
