Timing, Part I

Fresh Aire V, Mannheim Steamroller

In the 1970’s, when I was in elementary school, there was an epic TV commercial series that took my family and the rest of the Midwest by storm and, through its absolutely charming plot, captivated its audience over the course of fifteen to twenty “episodes” like a mini mini-series. C.W. McCall was a truck driver for the Old Home Bread Company and, with his dog Sloan, became a regular at the Old Home Filler-up And Keep On Truckin’ Café. The reason McCall returned some fifteen to twenty times to this café was found in the waitress, a pretty little “thing” named Mavis. Each segment, one minute long each, would get airplay for about 6 weeks before a new one would play. When was the last time you saw a commercial that lasted 60 seconds? The last commercial, which played, by the way, some two years after the first one, found a diamond ring on Mavis’ finger.

One Sunday, late in the 70’s, Mom, Dad, my sisters and I went to the Brookings Mall to see the people who played C.W. and Mavis. It was the largest crowd that the mall ever had. And they auctioned off “the” diamond ring. My mom’s cousin M. won it. I remember seeing his picture on the front page of The Register, big as life, getting a big ‘ol kiss from Miss Mavis.

The music for these commercials is officially called sprechgesang (German for speaking and singing) and is similar to Johnny Cash and his song “One Piece At A Time”, where he mostly just said the words in time to the music. The CB craze in the 70’s coincided with this TV commercial series, helping to propel this phenomenon into TV commercial history. The words for this two year ad blitz were written and sung(?) by William Dale Fries of “Convoy” fame. And the music was written by Chip Davis. Yup. Chip Davis from Mannheim Steamroller.

He took his Old Home fortune and built a recording studio in his home where he could record his music. Mr. Davis’ musical vision was a sort of, as he calls it, “18^th Century Classical Rock”. He called his creations “Fresh Aire”, or new song. And over the course of four albums, each one dubbed “Fresh Air”, he would combine rennaisance instruments with rock beats and synthesizer sounds. American Gramaphone Records got its start with his first four CD’s, but it took off with Fresh Air V.

Johannes Kepler and his dream was Davis’ inspiration for what to me sounds like a movie soundtrack. Kepler’s Dream is a 17^th Century telling of a fantasy trip to the moon, about escaping the earth’s atmostphere, visiting the creatures who lived on the moon and returning to earth. Astronomers and astrophysicists through the ages have honored Mr. Kepler by deeming this treatise as the birthplace of modern astronomy and the first draft of science fiction. Mr. Davis, in his musical lunar adventure, is careful to note that Mr. Kepler writes about awakening from his dream amidst a thunderstorm.

Many characterize this music as “New Age”. I don’t like to do this. “New Age” to me refers to a modern religion involving crystals and feeling carma. Composers have written music to specifically enhance one’s experience with this type of spiritualism. Though Chip Davis’ music can and does at times resemble this genre of music, it serves a completely different purpose. This is story-telling music. And we’re not out delivering bread. We’re on a ship and we’re going to the moon.

When Mr. Davis built his recording studio, it was at the beginning of audio digital technology and the CD age. To close the tale of Kepler, he pulled a brilliant artistic marketing stunt. He digitally sampled forty-two seconds of a rain storm, with splattering raindrops and a huge clap of thunder, to represent the awakening of Mr. Kepler at the end of his vision and this recording.

Millions of CD player buyers in the 80's wanted to hear the difference between a cassette audio tape and a CD. Davis had this CD sent to every audio outlet store in the country, so that “The Storm” could serve as an example of digital technology. And after presumably being soccer-punched with the theretofore unknown, crystal-clear clarity of a digitally sampled thunderstorm, and after probably looking outside to see if it was raining, most consumers wanted to buy Fresh Aire V as one of their first, if not their first, CD. It was one of mine.

Chip Davis must have made an awful lot of money as a musician writing jingles for a bread company because he was able to hire the London Symphony Orchestra for the final track. He was also able to hire another group …

Credits: To Johannes Kepler, for his ability to dream and to look at the stars and the moon from a perspective of wonder, giving virtue to his meanderings by writing them down in the hope that, as science progressed, others could continue his thoughts when he could go no further. The more we learn about the heavens, the more wondrous they become. Thank you, Mr. Kepler.