 David Carr |
 The Long-Grin Legacy |
David Carr |
The Long-Grin Legacy |
In February, 1984, Travis asked his good friend, English ex-patriot David Carr, to arrange and play the "English Music Hall" style piano for "The Red-backed, Scaly, Black-bellied, Tusked, Bat-winged, Dragon," "Owen's Drinking Song," and "The Love Song from Long-Grin." Another English ex-patriot friend, Philip St. John Moores was called upon to engineer the recording session and Philip's father, opera and symphony conducter Michael Moores, dropped in to see how his son was getting along and hearing his accent, Travis immediately drafted Michael to sing along with the rest. In all, the vocalists, shouters and screamers were David Carr, Michael Moores, Lonnie Snyder, Julie Long, Mary Moyers and, of course, Travis, himself. Travis' youngest brother, Adam Pike, rescued an old demo cassette of that session so it could be posted online for you to hear. In the most recent revision of LONG-GRIN, PART 1: THE COURTSHIP OF PRINCESS GWEN, "Owen's Drinking Song" made the cut, but "The Red-backed, Scaly, Black-bellied, Tusked, Bat-winged, Dragon" and "The Love Song from Long-Grin" did not, but all three are included here for your listening enjoyment. |
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Travis Pike was sixteen when he wrote The Red-backed, Scaly, Black-bellied, Tusked, Bat-winged Dragon title song for his original animated musical fantasy. Today, the cartoon title song is no longer appropriate for his greatly-expanded, live-action/CGI theatrical series in development, but the song had a good run in the sixties as one of Travis Pike's Tea Party's most popular songs in their live performances, and a 1984 recording of it is now on Pike's Stories in Song and Reconstructed Coffeehouse Blues CDs (see below). |
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This recording of "The Drinking Song." enthusiastically performed by Owen, Mastersinger of Westles (shown left as drawn in the early cartoon version) is from that same 1984 session. In Long-Grin, Part One, Princess Gwyn's Nuptials, King Galowyn requests a drinking song for his guests on the feast night prior to the morrow's contests in which a champion will win the hand of his daughter, and sole heir, Princess Gwyn. Owen, during each chorus sung by the guests, enjoys his well-deserved reputation -- as a notorious lush, passes out, and is, alas, unceremoniously expelled from the feast hall. |
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The image (left) is from a 1990 Hank Mayo sketch when he was creating the special effects storyboard for Long-Grin. In the story, Aver, a young noblewoman may marry for love, but Princess Gwyn must marry whomever wins the contest for the greatest warrior in the Three Kingdoms, which makes her feel more broodmare than princess. Their song, Love Is reveals their very different prospects. (These 1984 sessions were arranged by David Carr, recorded by Philip Moores and performed by Mary Moyers, Julie Long, David Carr, Michael Moores, Lonnie Snyder, and, of course, Travis Pike.) |
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