5-10 Barry Louis Polisar - Part 1

Imagine that you write and perform your own children’s songs. For years you have been performing these songs in various schools and school systems across the country. Songs that you wrote and have been playing in the same schools for years. And then imagine that someone in the school system suddenly decides that your songs are not appropriate for children because they encourage bad behavior. Then another school system hears about it and they ban you and your songs as well? Soon the entire country is reconsidering their take on your brand of children’s songs. What happens next? What do you do? Where can you turn? 

Pura Vida. I’m Tim Rose and this is the Tim Tunes podcast. In his episode we’ll be interviewing Barry Louis Polisar. Barry is a renowned singer/songwriter, performer, poet and novelist. His career spans almost 5 decades and has so many twists and turns we’ll need two episodes to fit them all in. In this episode we’ll discover Barry’s beginnings: how he started and what led him to success he’s had as a writer of children’s songs. So, sit back, buckle up and come along for the ride. 

Transcript

[Intro]

[Intro Theme – Motor]

 Imagine that you write and perform your own children’s songs. For years you have been performing these songs in various schools and school systems across the country. Songs that you wrote and have been playing in the same schools for years. And then imagine that someone in the school system suddenly decides that your songs are not appropriate for children because they encourage bad behavior. Then another school system hears about it and they ban you and your songs as well? Soon the entire country is reconsidering their take on your brand of children’s songs. What happens next? What do you do? Where can you turn?

[Pod Lick - Vibraslap]

Pura Vida. I’m Tim Rose and this is the Tim Tunes podcast. In his episode we’ll be interviewing Barry Louis Polisar. Barry is a renowned singer/songwriter, performer, poet and novelist. His career spans almost 5 decades and has so many twists and turns we’ll need two episodes to fit them all in. In this episode we’ll discover Barry’s beginnings: how he started and what led him to success he’s had as a writer of children’s songs. So, sit back, buckle up and come along for the ride.

[Pod Lick – Big D]

[Welcome]

I’ve struggled to summarize Barry’s career so I’m just going to quote from Barry’s website, barrylou.com, that’s b a r r y l o u .com. Here we go:

Barry Louis Polisar is an author, songwriter, poet, and story-teller for children who also writes songs and books for adults. He performs his songs on two different Grammy Award-winning albums and sings his song All I Want is You in the opening credits of the Academy Award winning movie Juno.

Barry’s songs are featured in television shows, feature films, and dozens of TV ads throughout the world. His books and poems have been translated into other languages and his songs have been recorded and performed by singers and musicians internationally. He has written songs for Sesame Street and The Weekly Reader and starred in a television show for children that won two Emmy awards.

A five time Parents’ Choice Award winner, Barry is a pioneer in the world of music for children. He has recorded and shared his songs, poems, stories, and books with audiences throughout the world and has performed at The White House, The Smithsonian, and The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He gives concerts and author visits in schools and performing art centers from Washington DC to Fairbanks, Alaska and was given a Special Library Recognition Award for his “ability to communicate with and excite children to read.”

His work has been featured on National Public Radio and written about in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Newsweek, and People Magazine.

Quite the resume, I’m sure you’ll agree

[Getting Started]

We started our conversation on the stoop of Barry’s farm on a fine summer’s day in Montgomery County, Maryland. 

{Interview – Intro, Dogs, Song Characters, Getting Started}

[Song clip – I'm a 3-Toed Triple eyed Double-Jointed Dinosaur ]

{Interview – Getting Started con’t} 

[Song Clip - I've Got a Teacher, She's So Mean]

{Interview – Getting Started con’t} 

[Song Clip - He Eats Asparagus, Why Can't You Be That Way]

{Interview – Getting Started con’t} 

[Song Clip - I Need You Like a Donut Needs a Hole]

We’ve been listening to clips from some of Barry Louis Polisar’s earliest songs.

First, we’ve heard clips the following songs, first, “I’m a 3-Toed, Triple Eyed, Double-Jointed Dinosaur” The next clip is from the song “I’ve Got a Teacher, She’s So Mean”. Followed by an excerpt from the song “I Wanna Be A Dog”, then a little bit of the song “He Eats Asparagus, Why Can’t You Be That Way?” and finally “I Need You Like a Donut Needs a Hole”. These are just a few of the 19 songs on Barry’s first album titled “I Eat Kids and other songs for Rebellious Children”. which features, of course, Barry on Guitar and vocals. I chose some of the versions of the songs that Barry  rerecorded on later albums. On those songs he is accompanied by Ray Tilkins his longtime accompanist and arranger.

Now, lets get back to our conversation and find out what happened after the release of Barry’s first album. 

[Play Song – I’ve Got a Dog and My Dog’s Name is Cat]

That was, believe it or not, “I’ve got a dog and my dog’s name is cat”, recorded on Barry’s second album. I guess Barry was slacking off a bit because he only recorded 17 tracks on this album titled, “My Brother Thinks He’s a Banana and Other Provocative Songs for Children” which was released in 1977. This album contains some of Barry’s most popular songs including Our Dog Bernard, Tomorrow and, of course, the title cut. It also includes the song. “All I Want is You.”  More about that in part II.

Now, let’s get back to our conversation as we discussed Barry’s early years.
 

[Outro]

So, we come to the end of part one of our conversation with Barry Louis Polisar. If you want to find out what happens next, then you’ll have to listen to part two. In part two, we’ll find out how Barry overcame his ban. We’ll also discuss how his song “All I Want Is You” was chosen to be used in the movie Juno and what came next. Then, we’ll discuss Barry’s rewrite project and finally what’s next for this very creative and prolific artist.  

So, join us next time as we finish the Barry Polisar story. By the way, if you didn’t get enough silliness in this episode stick around after the outro for a little postscript I couldn’t resist. 

Also, I’d like to thank my contributing patrons, Larry Green, James Leach, Terry Sullivan, and the late Sally Skislak  . Your contributions have made it possible for me to continue the podcast.  If you’d like to support me and the podcast, you can stream my songs online at whatever music streaming service you use. If you offer a comment or review that goes a long way towards increasing my reach. If you’d like an add-free version of the podcast you can find one on Patreon.com by becoming a subscriber. If you would like to make a one-time contribution, you can do so @rimtoes on venmo or paypal. That’s rimtoes R-I-M-T-O-E-S. It’s an anagram of Tim Rose. 

Thanks for listening. I’ll be back in few weeks with part two of our interview with Barry Louis Polisar. Until then Pura Vida! 

[Outro Pod Lick] 

[After Outro Pod Lick ends]  

Now, here is "Turkeys in the Straw" from Barry’s Album Juggling Babies.