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Michael Franks

N

Nock

Was hanging with a musician friend today at his studio and the subject of Mr Kepler came up. He made me aware of a song Michael Franks wrote for Alan back in 1999 titled "Mr Smooth" off of Barefoot Beach. I purchased the tune today, WOW never thought Michael Franks would be the one to grow the cahundies and pen that. I have much more respect for Michael after listening to that one. Anyone else heard this track? From what I was told, BA pulled all of his music after it was released?

Nock
 
LOL! OMG. I just googled the song and it came up with the ability to listen free through MySpace. If that's written to Alan Kepler, Michael Franks is quite the clever dude! LOL But I can't find any hard evidence on-line that the song was indeed for Kepler, but if not, it's still against corporate radio programming in general, so it's worth the listen. I'm with Nock on this guys. Look up the song and listen to it. You'll get a great laugh. And this was 1999, before smooth jazz radio even got half as bad as it is today. Wow.
 
This is from All About Jazz:

"and Franks takes a swat at Broadcast Architecture's programming stranglehold on the smooth jazz airwaves with "Mr. Smooth."

I say we all start spinning it and get it on the charts!

Nock
 
I believe he has been in charge of the death machine along with Cody (the father of smooth jazz) all these years. I could be wrong - anyone?

Nock
 
Nock said:
This is from All About Jazz:

"and Franks takes a swat at Broadcast Architecture's programming stranglehold on the smooth jazz airwaves with "Mr. Smooth."

I say we all start spinning it and get it on the charts!

Nock
Click to expand...

OMFG! :D :D :D :D I spin a TON of Michael Franks' music, to include stuff from "Barefoot Beach," and how I missed this cut I will NEVER know. I might just have to toss it into my "Hot" rotation to toast to the loss of another BA affiliate! ;D Should we be surprised BA pulled all of his music? Tells you a little something about the insecure egomaniac who made that decision.
 
Pleased to say I added "Mr. Smooth" from Michael Franks' "Barefoot on the Beach" CD, and I have to say it is great cut, in more ways than one!!! ;D MANY thanks to Nock for posting this and giving us the heads up!! I can't stop laughing when I listen to the lyrics, but honestly, the cut has super vibe as well!!!! :D
 
This is such a hoot! Never made the connection but it makes total sense. Did you know that Paul Hardcastle named a song after one of Mr. Smooth's kids? That would be "Shelbi". When I heard that, I never played it again. And I know why Kenny G appreciates Mr.Smooth. He's the only one trying to keep Kenny's career from tanking and with the latest CD, it looks like the G spot is not helping out at all so he needs Mr. Smooth to get airplay on that huge network. I know that everything changes and everything ends and I really try not enjoy the misfortunes of others, but it does bring a little smile to my lips.
 
Bill Harmonic said:
This is such a hoot!...I know that everything changes and everything ends and I really try not enjoy the misfortunes of others, but it does bring a little smile to my lips.
Click to expand...

Bill, he'd do the same to us (revel in our misfortune), in a New York minute, so ENJOY this moment. :D Nice to see you took a selective page out of Mr. Smooth's book by pulling Hardcastle's cut. I really like Paul's music, and I have a ton of it in my rotation. But his incessant devotion to Mr. Smooth, and the very average Jazzmasters VI (to include the nauseating Mr. Smooth voiceover on Track 13), just about sealed it for me. His best work is clearly behind him, which truly is sad. The fact that I don't even mention "the other guy's" name tells you just how truly irrelevant he has become---his best work is almost 25 years behind him, and it wasn't even his (The Ripps' "She Likes To Watch" from "Moonlighting").
 
I "got" that song the minute I heard it back when it came out..thought it was pretty obvious. It did take a big pair if you know what I mean because back then there was a total gag order on saying anything critical about BA - by then everyone had drank the Kool Aid or been exiled.. He came thru town shortly after that and we chatted..basically he was p*ssed about the direction the music was being pushed into and his former label, Warner Bros was very much into tailoring their releases to BA criteria - they had to in order to survive.

He was not banished from BA stations because of this song - BA had already "strongly encouraged" stations to not play vocalists that were unfamiliar to pop audiences unless they had a Babyface ish pop/R&B sound (in other words if they were acts like Shai that Paul Brown was trying to get a deal for). That meant no Michael Franks, Manhattan Transfer, Marilyn Scott, Kevyn Lettau, Full Swing, Michael Tomlinson, Take 6, even Basia (too high energy) and they even bailed on Slim Man after "breaking" him on the first smooth jazz network.
 
Yes, I sincerely LOVE listening to Michael Franks. I have every CD only as far back as 'Tiger in the Rain.' Now, as far as "Mr. Smooth," listen towards the end of the song, though. I have a general idea of what he's talking about in terms of Smooth Jazz radio, and the direction it is going right now. I'm afraid to quote those lyrics here at this point . . .
 
Michael was saying what many artists believed but didn't have the balls to say. If you don't think that the song had an effect on him all of a sudden being dropped from any kind of airplay I would respectfully disagree with you. I knew many people who worked on that CD and it did have an effect on his career.
BTW-by 1999 I believe Frank Cody was out of BA. I have a story that happened to me with BA that wasn't as radical but never the less was a reality check for myself
 
producer57 said:
Michael was saying what many artists believed but didn't have the balls to say. If you don't think that the song had an effect on him all of a sudden being dropped from any kind of airplay I would respectfully disagree with you. I knew many people who worked on that CD and it did have an effect on his career.
Click to expand...

Well there is truth to the saying "Don't bite the hand that feeds you."

...and actually I guess the saying 'Don't s*** where you eat" applies here too. ;D

Seriously though, I have always respected the music of Michael Franks and I do miss hearing him on the radio. But what AnotherCat says makes a lot of sense too. Non-mainstream vocalists have been absent from most of the format's stations for a long time.
 
Michael Franks was one of the core artists of the format before it turned to BA programmed drivel. His songs are melodic and vibey and isn't that what the radio wants-Music that won't make you switch stations?
 
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