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Hosted by: Robert W. Morgan |
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RWM:
A recording studio in Beautiful Uptown Burbank. Down the hall, a
superstar rock group is putting the finishing touches on their
latest, soon-to-be-released, bound-for-platinum album.
Next door, a superstar solo artist is laying down vocal tracks for her next sure-fire hit.
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And here, in this studio a complete unknown - a newcomer - a nobody, is making his first album. And yet, the vinyl can do miracles. Because, before long, the superstar rock band, the superstar singer, and dozens of other stellar artists from all over Hollywood, will be here, helping this potential potentate of pop, ride like the wind, up the charts. |
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Theme |
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RWM:
I'm Robert W. Morgan. This week on the Special of The Week, a
superstar is born. It's a rags-to-riches, true-life adventure,
starring a singer/songwriter from San Antonio who rose to become an
overnight sensation. His sensitive songs and impeccable picking, led
to his being adopted by such superstars as the Doobie Brothers, The
Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Nicolette Larson, John David Souther, and
Valerie Carter. And now, he's joined their ranks. He's Chris Cross, the
best of contemporary music....
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Ride Like The Wind |
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RWM:
Y'know, Christopher Cross may be new to the Rock 'n' Roll big time,
but he's wise way beyond his years when it comes to big-time radio:
Christopher:
Well, y'know, the show that you do is unique in two ways. You're only picking what the people have desired as the cream-of-the-crop artists. It's not really you're opinion...totally. You're really...from what I can tell, you have very popular artists on your show. It's not the show's blessing, as much as its public. So you're just reflecting their views, which is important. The other thing is, it's a live show. I mean it's on tape, but for the most part, how bad can you screw up what I said, when I said it? That's why I would much rather do a taped or live interview specially, than something that's written. You're really telling it like it is and that's the way you are.
RWM:
Christopher Cross may admire the Special of The Week for telling it
like it is, and we definitely admire Chris for telling it like it is,
in his music. But there's one area in which Chris won't even tell it like
it was, his real name:
Christopher:
Sure, no.. The only reason I don't say my name; it's no big mystery. It's been printed places, but I generally don't say it. I changed my name for a reason, so why should I confuse everyone by telling people my name? My name was one of those names in school, when you'd raise your hand in class, you always had to spell your name and pronounce it because she didn't understand it. In a very commercial sense, it wasn't a very marketable thing. It would've been hard for people to remember, and everything. We wanted to come of with this combination of "Christopher" and something that would be really snappy. My middle name is Charles, so we said "Chris Charles". That didn't sound right. Somebody said "How about 'Christopher Cross'? It'll be like 'criss-cross'... veddy hip!" And I said "veddy stupid!"
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The Light Is On |
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Christopher:
When I sat down I said.....I always say I'm gonna talk real slow...and real relaxed. This is slow for me. I talk very, very fast and it's a drag, so. Hopefully you have a VSO on your machine. You can slow it down just a bit. I don't care how my voice sounds. I try to not talk fast, but it just happens. It's just the way that I am.
RWM:
Christopher Cross may talk faster than a used-car salesman, but
he's not trying to sell his listeners a bill-of-goods in his music.
Maybe the reason his debut album made such an immediate impact on the
public is that his song's are very much like Chris Cross himself:
direct and to-the-point:
Christopher:
I think that's very perceptive on your part. I tell you something. Songwriting is a creative process. Like Steely Dan said one time in an interview. It's a phenomenon, it's not something that you can discuss. And, to ask somebody how they write songs. Everybody writes songs in the same way. It's a hard thing to discuss. "What does Ride Like The Wind mean?" and all that kind of stuff, or Sailing. It means whatever people think it means. My songs aren't that deep. There's a little imagery in Sailing that's not just a sailboat, like the canvas and all that. Whatever people see in it is what they see. One woman wrote me the other day and said that she saw religious significance in everything that I wrote. And great, if she thinks that, that's fine.
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Sailing |
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RWM:
Christopher Cross becomes a lone star, in the Lone Star State, next
on the Special Of The Week....
RWM:
I'm Robert W. Morgan with Christopher Cross on the Special Of The
Week.
Although he was born in San Antonio, the world was Christopher Cross' hometown. He grew up in Washington. D.C., in Japan, and in everywhere in between. In other words, Chris was an 'army-brat':
Christopher:
Where the term 'army-brat' came from, was from the G.I.'s. That's because 'army-brat' normally refers to a child who's the son of an officer. My father was a colonel. The G.I.'s always had to step around the officers' children. If you go to the movies, or something and there was not enough seats, they'd make the G.I.'s get up and let the children all sit down. That kind of thing, that "brat", y'know. So that's where it comes from, I gather. You could be the most obnoxious little jerk in the world and they couldn't slap you. They'd end up being sent to the Philippines or something.
RWM:
Chris, of course, didn't want to be sent to the Philippines, he just
wanted to be sent to public school:
Christopher:
Real strange. I was raised in parochial schools First through Eighth grade. Then I rebelled and demanded to go to public school. My first song, which I wrote in Seventh grade, in the heart of my parochial education was God is Dead. That was the title!
RWM:
While most other seventh-graders were trying to decide what they
wanted to be when they grew up, Chris Cross was already growing up.
Not only had he written his first song, but he'd also formed his
first group: "Psycho", named after the Alfred Hitchcock film classic.
But, for Christopher, music wasn't only a psychotic reaction, it was a
hypnotic attraction:
Christopher:
I have a lot of ambition and a lot of drive..in a business sense and from an artistic level. I really do. I wanted to make it very badly. Otherwise, I wouldn't have.....it was a long process. I started playing in Seventh Grade. From that point on, I played professionally. Fifty dollars a night in Seventh Grade isn't much, but I always played professionally from that point on and never deviated from that except.... For two years, I quit and went to school....tried to be a pre-med major, because my father was a doctor and I thought that's what I should do. But then I found the disease was too great and I had to get back into it. Pretty much the whole time, even during that time, I wrote a lot. I've always wanted to do this....and I threw my life way for it. I got my record deal when I was twenty-eight, which is certainly too late to do anything else, in terms of a real career. So, I had a belief that there was something magical about what I did, or something special, or something neat, or something in the remotest way, artistic and valid, or else I wouldn't have kept doing it.
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I Really Don't Know Anymore |
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RWM:
By the time he'd reached high school, Chris had formed a band devoted
to playing his original tunes: "Flash". But, since they were rarely
seen in the flesh, Flash wasn't flush with success. To supplement
his income, Christopher Cross worked for a local concert-promoter,
driving visiting luminaries in a limo around San Antonio. Among them,
Fleetwood Mac:
Christopher:
I used to take people around, like I'd go pick them up at the airport. In those days, the limousine thing wasn't quite as decadent. Of course Fleetwood...Bare Trees just came out. Pete Green was in the band. They're weren't the megas that they are today. So I picked them up at the airport in a station wagon, the entire band...drove them to the Sheraton Inn, San Antonio and let 'em get a shower and stuff and take 'em to get a hamburger at the local hamburger joint, and took 'em to the show. There was Mick and John, Pete and Jeremy and the whole band crammed in one car. Christine wasn't in the band yet. I took 'em around. It was a real thrill for me. I'd been a pretty big fan of theirs. But it is pretty funny when I met Mick and John finally. I met them again. Of course they never would remember. They had asked us to come on this tour. They liked the album. When I related that story to John and Mick, they just looked at each other and went "God, we're gettin' really old!".
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RWM: back in the days when he was working for a concert-promoter, Chris needed a pass to get around backstage. Well, twelve years and two number one records later, when he was playing with Fleetwood Mac at the Hollywood Bowl , and when he showed up with one of the Eagles, Christopher Cross discovered he still needed a backstage-pass!: |
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Christopher:
I have a very good rapport with Fleetwood. They're very, very good people...the band. Security at the Bowl was a little bit ludicrous. And seriously, I wasn't sure if I could make it from the dressing room to the stage without a backstage-pass, so I wore mine, just to be totally sure. So I came back out a few minutes ago and the security guard said "Hey look, I know you're Don Henley's bodyguard, but you're gonna have to get a backstage-pass or you can't move around out here". I said "Okay man. I'm sorry."
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Minstrel Gigolo |
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RWM:
Christopher Cross goes Trick-Or-Treating, next on the Special Of The
Week.
RWM:
I'm Robert W. Morgan on the Special Of The Week with Christopher
Cross.
After having some of his original material rejected by the public, and after taking a couple of years off to study medicine, Chris moved to Austin, home of the University of Texas. He was determined that never again would he allow anything to cross Christopher:
Christopher:
We all moved up to Austin in '72 'cause, as I said, there was a recording studio going into Austin...a 16-track, which was a big deal. I'd saved up a little bit of money. I invested the money in that studio. I brought up Chet Himes who was my best friend...who still is. He was the engineer on my record....the Christopher Cross album. He had worked with me on my little tapes and stuff in San Antonio. He came up and became the head engineer at the studio. So, we became a top-40 band in Austin. We played Oklahoma and Louisiana and all the area around there just playing one-nighters at clubs. Lotta beer thrown on us, y'know.. playing the latest Foreigner song or whatever. We played as a commercial top-40 band...not as our original group. Our first original job from '72, wasn't until '78 when we played for Warner Brothers. We threw together a set of our own tunes to play for them.
RWM:
The word was out on Christopher Cross and it was hot. He auditioned
for Warner Brothers Records on Halloween and his performance must've
been bewitching:
Christopher:
Yeah, Halloween night at this place called the Alamo Roadhouse which is now a barbecue place. It's out, kind of near the lake. We invited a lot of our friends out to the job and did our own little showcase...hour showcase for these people at Warner Brothers. They liked what they heard. They liked the music and so...they decided they'd sign us. It took a while after that to get the contracts together and our schedule, cause we had a lot of jobs booked and that kind of thing.
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Poor Shirley |
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RWM:
Christopher Cross' first album took over seven-hundred hours to
record and went over budget by some fifty-thousand dollars. And while
nervous record company executives watched their hair turn gray, Chris
watched his album turn gold...then platinum. At first, he apologized
for his commercial success, but not anymore. Because, now Chris knows
his life will 'never be the same':
Christopher:
Once your album goes platinum, you don't apologize for it anymore. Yeah, I used to...and.....I've just talked to a lot of people who've changed my mind about that. Well, I guess a lot of critics and stuff, they'd say "well, your music's very commercial" and I'm meant to respond "Oh, I'm sorry. Excuse me" y'know. But it is very commercial and that's just the way I write songs. I write hooks. When I sit down and write, I generally come up with a hook first and that's just the way that it is and I'm not sorry for it anymore. I guess they try to pin you with the fact that "well, you write commercial songs, so they're not that artistic" and that's just bull. You're trying to reach people with your music. That's what art's all about! Music is an art-form to be enjoyed by people. It's just like paintings or anything else... any type of art-form. It's an experience to be enjoyed by people, otherwise, what's the point. Like "if a tree falls in the forest, does anybody hear it"? If you write a song and nobody ever hears it, except you, and you've enjoyed it, then it's served its purpose. It sounds very cosmic. You want to expand the human experience with whatever you can do with your music and art. I think that's what all artists want. They want to reach the world with their work.
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Never Be The Same |
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RWM:
Superstars rescue Christopher Cross 'in the nick of time', next on The
Special Of The Week
RWM:
I'm Robert W. Morgan with Christopher Cross on the Special Of The
Week.
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Lots of artists make albums with a little help from their friends, but Christopher Cross made his with a lot of help from total strangers. But they weren't total strangers to his producer, Michael Omartian, a keyboard-whiz who's played on more albums than you'll find at your corner record store. So, when Omartian talks, superstars listen. And, before long, Chris' sessions were filled with such legends as Don Henley of The Eagles, Nicolette Larson, John David Souther, Valerie Carter, and the Doobie Brothers' Michael McDonald: |
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Christopher:
Ah, yes! Michael worked with Michael Omartian on the Steely Dan records and Michael was in town working on the Doobies' rehearsals for their tour. So, Omartian invited Michael down to listen to what we were doing. I think that McDonald was aware of who we were a little bit just from...again...from just label people. He's on the same label, Warner Brothers. So, Michael came down and listened to what we were doing, and liked it and liked the music and said "I like the songs". We went and had Chinese food and kind of got acquainted. He just offered to sing...again. and Valerie Carter...we had the idea for the duet for Spinning. Of course...y'know'...like I said, once Henley sang and Nicolette stopped by...right...and she decided to sing, this rhythm got going and suddenly it was..."I wonder if we should call up the Beach Boys". We were ready to get Arthur Godfrey on our record. But no...we gave a tape of this Spinning to Valerie, 'cause she had been working on Randy Newman's record who is produced by Lenny Woronker. Valarie liked the tune and offered to sing. So, for the most part, Warner Brothers exposed the stars to the music. They liked the music and offered to sing.
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Spinning |
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Christopher:
Nicolette was recording next door. Warner Brothers has two studios. Now, I'm really gonna try and talk slow. Teddy Templeman, her producer just brought....he was aware of me and my tapes, 'cause we was very involved in the signing and all that. He just brought here over and said "why don't you listen to what they're doing?" She liked it....she liked Say You'll Be Mine.
RWM:
Nicolette was next door recording her second album, In The Nick Of
Time, when she discovered that what you hear isn't necessarily what
you get:
Nicolette:
When I saw him at first, I thought he was the most improbable recording artist, appearance-wise. It just kind of took me back; I hear this smooth, nice voice, y'know and he's just this big, husky guy. Nobody knew who Christopher was! I didn't know who Christopher was. I thought he was real good, but he was a complete unknown. I was baffled...people said "Do you want to sing with this guy, Christopher Cross?" And I thought "I can't believe it! Somebody really has a name 'Chris Cross'?" I thought that can't be true. But, he'd pull it off, all on his own...and he sent me flowers...I got a dozen roses from Christopher Cross. I said "Hey! This guy's alright!"
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Say You'll Be Mine |
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RWM:
Christopher Cross keeps ridin' like the wind, next on the Special Of
The Week. I'm Robert W. Morgan.
RWM:
I'm Robert W. Morgan on the Special Of The Week with Christopher
Cross.
Y'know, It wasn't that long ago that Chris was like any other music fanatic who'd run out and buy the latest albums as soon as they were released. In fact, the only difference between now and then is that now, other music fanatics are rushing out and buying his records!:
Christopher:
I appreciate the recognition and the affection that fans give you. I think that's the ultimate gratification for me...the people. The girl who works at the grocery store or the insurance company. She gets off work and goes by the record store and buys my album like she would buy a...Jackson Browne album or something. That's a strange phenomenon too! Y'know, when you're an artist and you start becoming successful and people buy your records like they would, an artist that you been buying their records for years. It's just sort of a strange phenomenon. Anyway, that's the biggest gratification I think is that they...the people out there that buy it. The critical acclaim is nice, but if I had to prefer one or the other, I'd rather take critical abuse and have the public acceptance, rather than have the critics say how great I am, artistically. I think when you have a record that sells a lot of copies, it shows you two things. It shows you that radio has taken you to heart, which means a lot because they here a lot of music....those guys who play records every day. So, they've picked your music out as something they like a little more than something else, 'cause they can't play everything that comes out. And then, the next step is, the people have taken you to heart, 'cause they heard it on the radio, and they like it, so that's the neatest thing to me.
RWM:
Rarely as radio and the public taken to the new artist as fast as
Christopher Cross. Why? Well, for one thing, his songs are commercial
in the best sense of the word; getting you hooked on the feeling
from the very first note. But, more importantly, Chris Cross is
direct. His songs reach all of us on a simple, straightforward level.
In essence, he's still a fan. Expressing his boundless joy and
enthusiasm for music, through music. Christopher Cross: as long
as he's free to ride like the wind, he'll remain a happy man.
Christopher:
My family makes me happy - my little boy and my wife. I have a lot of joy in that. On a personal level - professionally - to write a good song. I don't think there's anything like that. I get as much excitement out of writing a song as people do hearing it. It's a real neat trip. "I'm not scared of dying. I don't really care". That's what Laura Nyro said. I'm pretty content....just kind of groovin' along... As far as the success thing, I think I'm building a career that'll last me a little while. I think I have my fans that like the music. I think the music's valid. If it goes as fast as it came, that's just the way that it is and there's nothing I can do about it. I'll work as hard as I can to make it stick around, but I won't do anything that's not sincere.
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Ride Like The Wind |
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RWM:
The Special Of The Week on Christopher Cross was written and
produced by Alan Daniel Goldblatt. Associate Producer: Sally Weinstock.
our director was Stu Jacobs, our engineers: Ron Shapiro and Mike Williams.
The Special Of The Week is produced and distributed by Watermark
Incorporated. Executive Producer: Tom Rounds
Next week, on the Special of the week: Billy Preston:
Billy:
Hmmmm....the way I am...the way we were.....how are you?
RWM:
That's Billy Preston. Next week...on the Special Of The Week.
The Special Of The Week has been brought to you by Michelob. Weekends
were made for Michelob. I'm Robert W. Morgan. Thanks for
listening.
