Getting the bugs out
Dec. 17th, 2024 10:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
offcntrPosted these from Holiday Market on Sunday as "Today's Theme Is" to Instagram, and it occurred to me, after the fact, that the perfect song to accompany them would be "My Brother Eats Bugs." Searched their music offerings and found two cover versions of the song, which surprised the hell out of me...
Because I wrote it in 1985!
Long before I moved to Oregon, long before grad school and the adventurous life of a self-employed craftsman, I was living in La Crosse, Wisconsin, working as a graphic artist, cartoonist, and, for fun, a children's storyteller. I was writing and performing stories for Earticklers, a show on WLSU public radio, hosted by two children's librarians, Marge Loch-Wouters and Carol Erickson. Carol's partner Hans was a musician, he'd written the show's theme song, but resisted writing anything else for the show. I don't have any ideas, he protested. Why don't you talk to Frank? she replied.
The first time we met, I brought along a poem I'd written for the radio, and a lyric about all the things my siblings and I had been scared of as kids; in fifteen minutes, he'd written tunes for them. He then pitched some ideas to me, including the story of how his younger brother Kit had eaten spiders as a kid to gross out older brother Fred.
The next time we met, I brought along "My Brother Eats Bugs," and history (and also geography) was born, Already he was talking about making an album, and to my protests that I didn't sing, replied, Sure you do! You just did! We recorded My Brother Eats Bugs that summer in an ad agency studio in Trempeleau, and I designed and illustrated the accompanying songbook at my print shop job. Then I packed up my stuff and moved to Oregon for graduate school. Flew back for album release concerts, and again in the summer of 1987 to record the follow up, When I'm Feeling Silly (released in 1988). More concerts, both in Wisconsin and Oregon. And then we kinda drifted apart, musically. I'd still send him lyrics from time to time, and he's been performing and recording kid's music solo ever since. But we haven't done a concert together since, oh, 1990.
2025 marks the fortieth anniversary of My Brother Eats Bugs, and I'm wondering if it's time for a reunion concert. I should mention the idea to Hans.
Put a bug in his ear...
Because I wrote it in 1985!
Long before I moved to Oregon, long before grad school and the adventurous life of a self-employed craftsman, I was living in La Crosse, Wisconsin, working as a graphic artist, cartoonist, and, for fun, a children's storyteller. I was writing and performing stories for Earticklers, a show on WLSU public radio, hosted by two children's librarians, Marge Loch-Wouters and Carol Erickson. Carol's partner Hans was a musician, he'd written the show's theme song, but resisted writing anything else for the show. I don't have any ideas, he protested. Why don't you talk to Frank? she replied.
The first time we met, I brought along a poem I'd written for the radio, and a lyric about all the things my siblings and I had been scared of as kids; in fifteen minutes, he'd written tunes for them. He then pitched some ideas to me, including the story of how his younger brother Kit had eaten spiders as a kid to gross out older brother Fred.
The next time we met, I brought along "My Brother Eats Bugs," and history (and also geography) was born, Already he was talking about making an album, and to my protests that I didn't sing, replied, Sure you do! You just did! We recorded My Brother Eats Bugs that summer in an ad agency studio in Trempeleau, and I designed and illustrated the accompanying songbook at my print shop job. Then I packed up my stuff and moved to Oregon for graduate school. Flew back for album release concerts, and again in the summer of 1987 to record the follow up, When I'm Feeling Silly (released in 1988). More concerts, both in Wisconsin and Oregon. And then we kinda drifted apart, musically. I'd still send him lyrics from time to time, and he's been performing and recording kid's music solo ever since. But we haven't done a concert together since, oh, 1990.
2025 marks the fortieth anniversary of My Brother Eats Bugs, and I'm wondering if it's time for a reunion concert. I should mention the idea to Hans.
Put a bug in his ear...