BELIEVE IN A DREAM

It's time to tell this story, which some have heard. But, as of Friday the song writing team of composer James Stonehouse and lyricist Janet Pound came aboard the project to write the four songs for Tiger and Jake in our movie TIGER'S HOPE.

This is one of those stories that helped to confirm that while my name may be followed as "producer" there is more going on here than I can explain. A month or so ago I broke down and at the suggestion of other producer friends, I called a Casting Director, Janet Pound, of Pound-Mooney Casting. Janet and her partner, Kathy Mooney have cast a number of the major movies that have come through Michigan, and they just picked up 3 more, including the huge project RED DAWN. Here's an interview with them about auditions that some may find interesting. It appeared on BACKSTAGE. (Janet is on the left, Kathy right.)

I was looking for a female lead, someone who could take control of a difficult role, could sing, and preferably had dark hair. Janet asked if I would consider a soprano, and I demurred, thinking I needed a mezzo or alto, someone with some soulish guts to her voice. Janet asked again and wanted to send along an mp3 of something sung by an ex-Off Broadway actress-dancer-singer Angela Maiz who had "retired" to Michigan to have kids (Angela had just birthed number four.) The song had been written and recorded two years earlier as part of CAR STARS, a tribute to the automobile industry here in Michigan. "Sure, send it along," I said, not expecting much.

The first track of the mp3 Janet sent had been compressed several times, and with my loss of some high frequencies in my hearing, I couldn't understand a word. But as I listened to the music and voice I started to tear up. What's going on here, I wondered? What was clear was that the melody and style was close if not dead on to the mood of the very important opening song to the movie. (In those first montage scenes we're introduced to the life of an entertainer who is struggling with something sad in her life. Halfway through the song we join her on stage at her dinner club where she sings for an appreciative audience. But at song's end she breaks down in tears and heads for her dressing room. There, on her husband-manager's chest she laments her infertility.) I asked for the lyrics. They came. Click on the song title below to listen as you follow the words. The song will open in a second window or tab, allowing you to come back to this one to read the words as Angela (TIGER) sings. That's her above from her audition videotape.

BELIEVE IN A DREAM

WHEN ARE YOU TOO OLD TO BELIEVE IN A DREAM
AND WHEN DO YOU LET GO OF THE BALLOON IN THE AIR
WHEN ALL OF THE STEPS ON THE LADDER RUNG
WON’T TAKE YOU ANYWHERE

WHEN THE GLEAM IN YOUR EYES
CAN NO LONGER BE SEEN
AND WHEN THE MOON HOLDS NO MYSTERY
AND THE LAUGH OF A CHILD
DOESN’T MAKE YOUR HEART SING

REFRAIN: DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN YOU LET YOUR DREAM GO
THE DAY, THE TIME, THE HOUR
OR DOES IT SLOWLY FADE AWAY LIKE THE PETALS
ON A FLOWER.
DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN?

WHEN DID YOU STOP WISHING ON STARS
AND CATCH FIRE FLIES AND PUT THEM IN JARS
WHEN THE COIN IN THE FOUNTAIN, AND DANDELION WISHES
ALL LOST THEIR ALLURE

WHEN THERE ARE NO MORE SONGS TO SING
OR THE HOPE OF A WINTER TURNING TO SPRING
AND THE DREAM THAT YOU HAD IS SLIPPING AWAY
HOLD ON

DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN YOU LET YOUR DREAM GO
THE DAY, THE TIME, THE HOUR
OR DOES IT SLOWLY FADE AWAY LIKE THE PETALS ON A FLOWER.

REFRAIN:

WHENEVER YOU CLAP AND CAUSE THE APPLAUSE
THE DREAM NEVER DIES, IT JUST PASSES ON
YOU’RE NEVER TO OLD TO BELIEVE IN A DREAM,
IF YOU CAN, OH, IF YOU CAN
DREAM IT FOR ANOTHER.

Now, with the words, I was mesmerized. But I had a small problem. I had just convinced Fr. Eduard Perrone, the musical genius and composer who is also the pastor at Assumption Grotto Catholic Church in Detroit, to write the songs for Tiger's Hope. Fr. Perrone's agreement to be involved inspired me, and excited others that knew him. But he was waiting for me to sketch out some rough words to the four songs, to give him a sense of where the songs should go. I had not had time to do that.

Now, I was faced with telling Fr. Perrone about this song (from another songwriter/composer team) -- that had me in tears as I envisioned the first seven scenes of the movie with this music playing in the background. The mood and sentiment was perfect. Reticent, I sent the lyrics and mp3 to Fr. Perrone, and told him the story of how it came to me. I asked him what he thought of it. He wrote back:

I listened carefully to the song. It seemed to have that blend of misty melancholy and hopeful yearning: the combined effect of the lyrics and the subtly nostalgic music. I do not think I could better this in any way and you ought to allow your instincts about the rightness of this piece for TH to direct its inclusion in it. --- If it's my blessing on this that you seek, you have it in good measure--not only for the use of this song but for the entire project which has the potential of enriching many lives and of averting a tragic end to some difficult but solvable marital difficulties.

Thus, songwriters Janet Pound, lyricist (my Casting Director) and her friend, James Stonehouse, composer, entered the picture. It took a couple meetings and several emails later, and James sending yet another tune he had written for another of the movie's montages, to convince me that these two were cut out perfectly for Tiger's Hope. We agreed last week on the money, and they're eager to get the work done, so we can record the songs at maestro Terry Herald's studio next month.