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Have you ever wondered where songs come from? I have. I kind of wonder all the time. Sometimes songs spring into your head fully formed and ready to play. Other times songs seem to take forever. They may sit on the shelf or go through numerous rewrites before you get it right. It takes between minutes and years to write a song.

Inspiration is a fickle mistress. It’s very difficult for me to create on a schedule. Sometimes I feel in command of what the song is about. Other times I feel like the song is writing itself. Your brain needs time to work without you interfering. Sometimes the best thing to do is to take an afternoon off, or a day, or a week, or a month, or a year. Just to let your brain munge around in the background, while you get on with life. Lately, I’ve felt like this and though it goes against all traditional podcasting wisdom. I needed some time off. I needed perspective. I needed to understand what’s really important in my life.

I’m Tim Rose and welcome to Season 6 of the Tim Tunes Podcast. This is our fifty-fourth regular episode.

This episode I’ll be cleaning up a little left-over work from last season. We’re starting this season with songs that I wrote as a thank you to the last three interviewees from season five. We’ll listen to three new songs and follow the journey to writing each of them.

So, strap on your beanie, flip your propeller, and let’s get started!

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Full disclosure. My wife, Marcy, went to High School with Barry Polisar. They were friends and Barry would sometimes play his songs for her. So, when we went to Marcy’s 25th high school reunion I was able to put a face to the name. Marcy had made me aware of Barry and his success as a writer and performer. Frankly, I was more than a little jealous of Barry and his success, making his living as a songwriter and performer. I have been writing songs since high school and had had piddling success. So, I purposefully didn’t really pay much attention to Barry’s successes as his career progressed.

Boy, what a mistake.

Consequently, I wasn’t sure of what to expect when I went to interview Barry at his home. What I found was a most gracious and talented person who clearly had worked hard and deserved all the success he has achieved. Barry’s story was so interesting and had so many twists and turns, I couldn’t help but be charmed by the man.

This is part 2 of my conversation with Barry Louis Polisar, a renowned singer/songwriter, performer, poet and author of books for both kids and adults. If you haven’t listened to part 1, I strongly suggest that you do so before listening to this episode. In part one we introduced Barry and found out about his early years, his origin story, and his career as a songwriter, singer and performer of children's songs.

As we ended the last podcast, Barry had just been censored from performing at most of his usual schools. In this episode we’ll find out what happened and how Barry’s career expanded into movies and ads. And we’ll hear about some of Barry’s prose and poetry. Then, finally, we’ll hear about what’s next for this talent.

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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.

Support the show

Please consider making a one time donation via the Paypal link above

Or, consider becoming a monthly subscribing patron of the show here:
https://www.patreon.com/timtunes
And get lots of extra documentation and music associated with the show.