Williamstown Musician Sings Ballad to Indiana Jones
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| Todd Howard in his Williamstown studio. |
So what better way to relive those thrilling days of yesteryear — and celebrate the famed archaeologist's return — than to write a tribute song about it? So they did.
"Everyone heard the song on the Indy Cast and then 600 bothered to download it. That's awesome," said Howard.
"The Ballad of Indiana" got its premiere on April 27 on TheForce.net's Indy Cast, and was rapidly downloaded by some 600 fans.
It's not the first time Howard and boyhood chum Glen Nelson have penned an ode to childhood heroes. The pair gained notoriety for their fanboy hit "Farm Boy," what Howard described on Zoom In Online as "not only a 'Star Wars' homage, but also a loving nod to our proggy, synth-laden youth."
"Take a look at my face
See it's wild and worn
And this hat upon my head
Has saved my neck before"
Howard recognizes the geekdom that inevitably goes with the Star Wars/Indiana Jones oeuvre, but notes the pop culture hits had long-lasting affects on his generation.
Sitting high up in his apartment studio/office, the views of rooftops out the windows, Howard laughed as he recalled the conversations that had prompted first "Farm Boy" and then "The Ballad of Indiana Jones."
"I'll take a crack at fame
My own adventure story
Climb aboard a plane and aim for
Fortune and glory"
<L2>It was four or five years back during a trip to the Nelsons' cabin in Maine when the two started tossing around ideas for an original song. The long-awaited first installments of the "Star Wars" saga were being brought to the screen and suddenly the content seemed obvious.
"We just started cracking up and saying let's do Star Wars, make it a real prog-rock piece and sort of encode the ideas of Star Wars into the lyrics ... try to make a real song out of it. And that's how 'Farm Boy' was born. It got picked up on TheForce.net and was a mini-niche hit with that audience."
That composition was a fitting reunion for the two musicians. They'd instantly bonded as children, when Howard spotted Nelson and his Star Wars lunchbox on the bus on his first day of school back in Connecticut.
"We've known each other since we were 10 years old. We learned how to play guitar and drums and started our first band in 1984, about the time Indy came out."
They named the band High Adventure, its logo the lettering from the "Indiana Jones" films. It wasn't all about the movie, though; the boys learned other '80s tunes. "We had a drum kit that Glen had, and wrote a few originals here and there and just tried to do the 'we're in a band' thing."
"I'm a one-man show
Who's used to flying solo
Ask me 'how?'
Well, I don't know
I'm makin' this up as I go"
High Adventure didn't have many gigs, mostly playing on Nelson's mother's deck for parties. It was also short-lived because Howard moved away in the eighth-grade (He graduated from high school in Avon, Conn.). Then there were film and music courses in college and a decade in Seattle.
Howard headed to the West Coast with his brother, Jesse, now director of theater and film at Berkshire Country Day School, in 1993 ostensibly to make a film. They finally got around to making the film, "The Trouble With Boys and Girls," in 1998, but in between Howard kept up with his music and began working in multimedia.
He and his brother played in Mobile Home, a four-piece folk harmony band ("We were too early for that resurgence") and he worked with Don Gunn, a musician, audio engineer and band producer who also manages Two Sticks Audio, a studio built and owned by Jason Mcgerr of Death Cab for Cutie. (His bicoastal friendships have lasted — both Nelson and Gunn called to check in with him during the hourlong interview.)<R3>
Then, of course, there's Howard Digital Media, a multimedia production company that makes promotional DVDs, Web site development, audio recording and music production. It's about half Web sites and graphic design and half video production, he said.
He's still got customers on the West Coast and some names more familiar to the Berkshires, such as Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Arts, Isabella's Restaurant and Excelsior Printing Co. One of his newer Web designs is for the company Real Memories, a digital frame shop that allows you to upload your pictures to find just the right frame and then buy the entire package — high-quality print included.
But what about "Indiana Jones?"
"We've got our options weighed
And we're shooting for a win
We avoid the traps and snares
But still the roof caves in"
Well, you have to go back to that friendship forged over a shared love of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg films, and the resurrection (sort of) of High Adventure.
Nelson, who now lives in Harwinton, Conn., hadn't stopped the music when Howard left; both men had continued playing in bands, just on different coasts. So naturally, when Howard returned to New England five or six years ago, Nelson invited him to join Spaghetti Cake, a band he and his wife, Susan Birk, had formed. The six-piece jam band plays family-friendly venues a dozen or so times a year.
Howard's main musical outlet here is with his father, Paul Howard, in the four-man band Last Fair Deal, which performs at a wide range of events.
Howard plays primarily bass and guitar, as well as drums and some keyboard. In the song, he plays bass and electric guitar and Nelson's on the keyboard; both do the vocals.
"Farm Boy" had grown out of a long vacation weekend; "The Ballad of Indiana Jones" out of a marathon 18-hour studio session. Nelson "had the hook right off the bat and we were off and running"; they finished at 3 in the morning.
Like "Farm Boy," the ballad never specifically refers to the character or the films. But fans will get it, and it should still be fun to play with Spaghetti Cake. "The kids will think it's a rockin' tune."
The last Indy movie was "The Last Crusade," which hit theaters in 1989. As the date for the latest installment neared (May 22 for the uninitiated), it was Nelson who decided that High Adventure needed to write a paean to the good doctor.
"We take ourselves seriously; we think of ourselves as people who are songwriters," said Howard. "It feels so fun to let it be a really enjoyable expression of, 'You know what, we're geeks and we love it. Let's just write a rock tune about Indiana Jones.'
"We were writing music together so it was a very natural kind of thing for us to get together and do."
The song has brought the High Adventure duo a measure of fame — they been featured on the MacCast and Howard was interviewed on WAMC's "Roundtable"on Tuesday morning.
If you Digg the song, let them know here.
"So before the slamming door
Locks us both inside
Just put your trust in me
I'll get you home alive"
Having seen Star Wars and Indiana Jones films (and others of that time period) as preteens and teens, the movies were huge influences on both men. For Howard it was also from a movie production standpoint — "Those films made me want to make movies."
But it was the music that influenced both of them. "The John Williams score completely hit the nail on the head for us. Those scores were as much a part of the experience of the movies as the films themselves were."
<L4>That influence certainly shows in their career paths as musicians (Nelson is also a music teacher). So it's appropriate that they've expressed their appreciation for Dr. Jones in verse.
"Without question I'm down playing it down because it's sort of silly to tie everything to George Lucas and Steven Spielberg," said Howard. "But these two filmmakers really made a statement to me as a 10-year-old. You hear Peter Jackson talking about making the Hobbit movie and saying how much 'King Kong' influenced him. When you're a filmmaker you can look back and say, 'That moment I knew [I wanted to make films].'
For Howard the first real moment was seeing "The Wizard of Oz" at the age of 5; then the Lucas-Spielberg films come along.
"In my teenage years, those films were inspirational. They gave us a sense of wonder and adventure and a desire to do something impossible ... because all these characters are doing something impossible.
"They are fulfilling their dreams or chasing down a hope."
"It's up to me, I know
Or it's the end of the road
Ask me "how?"
Well, I don't know
I'm makin' this up as I go"
Edited on May 22, 2008.
