1998 was a notable year for the music industry. The emergence of ‘Eagle Records’ breathed new life into many high profile musicians who had recently found themselves left without a record label. Bands as diverse as Level 42 and Status Quo joined the likes of Gary Numan and Nik Kershaw on the new Eagle Records roster and found themselves enjoying a new lease of life in the UK and afar. 1998 also saw Eagle Records release an acclaimed double CD album by Dean Friedman called ‘Songs For Grownups’, a welcome return by one of America’s most versatile singer/songwriters. Presumed lost by the UK music press, Dean has kept himself busy since his string of UK hits back in the late 70s. He recently formed his own multimedia company whilst retaining his devoted musical fan base over the years with a combination of live shows and limited edition cassettes distributed via his loyal fan circle. Amongst his numerous accomplishments, Dean provided the majority of the incidental music for Boon during the late 80s and early 90s.
The episode “One Reborn Every Minute”, for which Dean wrote two Christian spirituals “Talking on the Phone to Jesus” and “Gonna Go to Heaven on a 747”, was due to be transmitted on 27 December 1988 but was postponed at the last minute and replaced with another episode because Pan Am flight 103 had crashed over Lockerbie in Scotland six days earlier on 21 December 1988. See this account by Dean Friedman for the full story.
Gary Leeke spoke to Dean Friedman on 1 July 1999 about his long standing association with the programme.
Can you recall how long your association lasted with the programme?
I’d have to reconstruct the records but approximately 4–5 years.
So you were working alongside the programme pretty much side by side during 1987 – 1992?
From the second season until the next-to-last with some contributions in the last.
How much guidance were you given by Central TV? Did they specifically request the overall mood for each piece of music or did you pretty much work as the mood took you?
My main brief was to contribute an acoustic American Country & Western body of music to underline the subtext of the show in which the Ken Boon character views himself as a romantic lone cowboy figure in the Wild Wild West hopping aboard his motorcycle steed and riding off into the sunset. In addition I usually had specific character themes for individual episodes and functional segments such as chases, romantic interludes etc...
As far as musical idiom, I’d say I composed 50/50 between Country themes and all other idioms depending on the mood required – jazz, classical, rock, metal etc...
A particularly poignant song is ‘Can’t Stop thinking about you’. At least this is the title you refer to on your website. Central however credited it as ‘Well I’ll Try’... Any reason for that?
I composed and recorded basic tracks and vocals here and then flew to Birmingham or Nottingham to record the overdubs such as strings and horns and the country rhythm section: fiddle, pedal steel, banjo, bass, drums and piano. Can’t recall how the title occurred. I might have hastily scribbled forms for PRS or some music editor at Central did the same and chose the first lyric in the Chorus.
Can you recall the title of the haunting piece of music which has a ‘tick tock’ feel to it... very often used to great dramatic effect whenever a degree of suspense was required?
Hmmmm... I’d have to search some old PRS statement. It might be ‘Countdown’ or something. I’ll see if I can find it.
I assume Central own the copyright on the music? Do you have any mastertapes yourself?
Hmmm... I have a reference cassette. And yes Central own the copyright.
Would the copyright ever expire as such? Any chance of a CD release in the future?
I may release a CD in the future. I’ll keep you posted!
Dean, thank you for your time.
The new CD is available both in the shops and via Dean’s website, www.deanfriedman.com
Page last modified: 08 February 2009, 12:58