Randy Kaplan (Orbits and Vanishing Points)

Some songs and their writers get to you by degrees. Some creep up on your consciousness, a verse here, a chorus there. Others land on your world in a song. That’s all it takes. It’s not a lot, and then it’s everything. In this episode, songwriter Randy Kaplan and I talk about the moment his song “Slow Eater” landed in my world, and then we unpack a lifetime of incredible moments, from Los Angeles and coming up with luminaries like Dan Bern and Andras Jones to a career on TV, including ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ scenes with Jennifer Aniston in ’Ferris Bueller,’ and more. And that’s just scratching the surface.

Clips in this episode: 

1. Slow Eater (Randy Kaplan, ‘Boyish Hips’) - 1997 
2. Tootsie Roll (Randy Kaplan, ‘Perfect Gentleman’) - 2004
3. Crushed Berries (Randy Kaplan, ‘Miraculous Dissolving Cures’) - 2001
4. Shampoo Me (Randy Kaplan, ‘Five Cent Piece’) - 2006
5. Mosquito Song (Randy Kaplan, ‘Five Cent Piece’) - 2006 
6. Candy Man Blues (Randy Kaplan, ‘Shake It and Break It’) - 2019
7. Beauty and the Beast (‘Snow’ d. Gus Trikonis) - 1989
8. Ferris Bueller (‘Without You I’m Nothing' d. Steve Dubin) - 1990
9. I’m Not Hungry (Randy Kaplan, ‘Boyish Hips’) - 1997
10. Live Tigers (Randy Kaplan, ‘Boyish Hips’) - 1997
11. Angel Eyes (Frank Sinatra, ‘Sings for Only the Lonely’) - 1958
12. Sad to Be Happy (Randy Kaplan, ‘Songs for Old Lovers’) - 2011
13. Volunteers (Randy Kaplan, ‘Miraculous Dissolving Cures’) - 2001