Meeting Burt

Meeting Burt

Alison Anders approached me after the Burt Bacharach Loser’s Lounge in December 1995. She came to the show to see her friend J Mascis sing. She was in NYC editing her film “Grace Of My Heart”..

“You’re not going to believe this, but I got Burt Bacharach to write a song with Elvis Costello for my film. My music supervisor hooked it up”, she told me after the show. They were coming to New York to record it, and she said she’d let me know if it was OK to stop by. I filed this away, figuring it would be incredibly unlikely, but awesome if it should happen.

A few months later, she called me. Back then I had a day job, PubWorks. PubWorks was an editing house for school textbooks and kind of the official day job for Loser’s Lounge performers. Julian Maile worked the night shift after me. Sometimes we would leave CDs for each other. For some reason, I stayed home that day and picked up the phone when she called (I was a habitual call screener back then). “They’re just mixing the song today, so it’s pretty chill, so I think you can stop by”. The studio was Right Track Studio on 48th street, which was “music row” (RIP Manny’s and Sam Ash). I knew David Terhune worked in midtown, so I called him and invited him to join me. I grabbed a program from the show and a cassette (back then, sometimes my friend Garry Rindfuss would record the show on his Pro Walkman).

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