← Takin' A Walk - Music History with Buzz Knight
Takin' A Walk - Music History with Buzz Knight
"Behind the Creators with Producer, Director, Documentary Filmmaker Spencer Proffer"
00:19:36
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- [00:00]
Discover Representative
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- [00:32]
Disney Cruise Family Member
The whole fam's here for the Disney Cruise so you know we came to play and listen. The adults are gonna have a ball. First we're chilling in the infinity pool onto massages at Sense's Spa, then gliding into Star Wars Hyperspace Lounge for a toast. We're even gonna kick back with Mickey on Disney's private island. That's how we get down. Cause Disney Cruise Line is where we.
- [00:59]
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- [01:29]
Matt
Hi, I'm Matt.
- [01:30]
Lenovo Representative
And I'm Leah and we're from the Grown Up Stuff Podcast.
- [01:33]
Lisa Green Lewis
And just in time for tax season. On this week's episode we're chatting with CPA Lisa Green Lewis about how small businesses can tackle their taxes using TurboTax Business.
- [01:42]
Lenovo Representative
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- [02:02]
Lisa Green Lewis
Listen to Grown up stuff on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Grown Up Stuff.
- [02:13]
Disney Cruise Family Member
Taking a Walk I.
- [02:14]
Matt
Think it's up to guys like us and Mangold and the Spielberg, Scorsese and to me, the real storytelling filmmakers to take the work and bring it forward so that audiences all over can feel the essence of what was meant by the creator.
- [02:30]
Buzz Knight
Welcome to the special behind the Creators edition of the Taking a Walk podcast. I'm Buzz Knight and today I welcome back a dear friend, a man who's a pioneer in American media. He can list on his vast credentials record producer, songwriter, book publisher, event producer, and documentary film producer. He's the CEO of Meteor 17, his convergence media company based in LA, and he's a three time returning taking a walk guest. He's going to take us behind the scenes of one of his many upcoming projects. Please welcome Spencer Proffer to take it a walk.
- [03:11]
Matt
Well, thanks, Buzz. And given the fires out there, I ain't taking a walk, but I am taking a seat to talk to you. Nice to be back.
- [03:20]
Spencer Proffer
It's so great to be with you and I'm glad that you and your family are okay despite the horrendous conditions that have been going out your way. So good. Good to see you.
- [03:32]
Matt
Well, I appreciate your concern, Buzz. Thank you.
- [03:35]
Spencer Proffer
So before we talk about our behind the creators look at your project for 2026, which is stand By Me, which is going to be an iconic look at one of our lifetime's most iconic songs. I want to talk with you about one of our favorite topics, which is creativity. Everything I've observed about you sort of brings around this. This mantra of bringing the creative goosebumps to life, which I think is such a great way to put it. So who are some of the people that have instilled that in you and in your life?
- [04:13]
Matt
Well, being a poor immigrant kid and growing up reading and doing a deep dive in people who I emulated as a kid coming up, had the good fortune to work for Clive Davis, being the first real job I had as an adult when I got out of law school and then moving on and doing lots of reading. I'm very, very enamored by the pioneers who built the media business. Guys like the Louis B. Mayors whose standard of excellence was tops when he built mgm. People like Richard Branson who not only has charity in his heart and adventure in his soul, but a brilliant, talented human being who built a big company virgin. I'm a big fan of Spielberg and George Lucas, two guys who marched to the beat of their own drum very early. Creatively. I thought Vince Lombardi was my favorite football coach with getting guys in the locker room and inspiring him like I try to do with my staff when we build our films. So I'm. I'm kind of that subject of being influenced songwriters who I love whose music has, you know, resonated deep in my heart, from, you know, Bob Dylan to Peter Gabriel to Paul Simon to get over Lieber Stoller. Funny enough, the authors of With Benny King of Stand by Me, Cat Stevens, Carole King. There have been some wonderful Porter and George Gershwin. There have been some fantastic tune Smiths whose work I've emulated my entire journey. So I think to draw upon that and to make it my own is kind of the journey I've been on and I am on, which is to assimilate the best of what I think is and to turn it into something hopefully even greater, if not least interesting for me to give me those goosebumps. You're right, Buzz.
- [06:21]
Spencer Proffer
Well, there's something also about the. The mantra, which I think is part of your company, which we're going to. We're going to talk about that a bit. You touched on it, which is putting work out that, you know, shines a light on the good and kind of unites people around the good. So we'll talk about that. But can you describe for a project like this, the creative process that leads into the work that will be Stand by me in 2026?
- [06:54]
Matt
Being inspired, being moved, being like when we did our podcast on American Pie and I told you, when I was a student at ucla, I heard three minutes, three turned into six when I was driving. And I said to myself, when I grow up, one day I'd like to do something with that song. And I was very fortunate to meet Don McLean and to realize how brilliant he was then to work on Vincent with him now, which my wife Judy is just on, a brilliant children's book on Vincent Van Gogh. It's really understanding the ethos of what the song does for me or what the work does for me. And in the case of Stand By Me, I always resonated to what those words meant, first and foremost. Then when I heard the Benny King record back, and, gosh, I was just a student coming up, I was even younger than I was when I heard American Pie for the first time. And I just really believe to stand next to your brother was. That was a mantra that I really subscribed to early. My parents were refugees. They stood next to each other their entire life. I'm a believer that Stand next to your friends, your mates. I believe the mantra that the soldiers and the troops use when they stand by their comrades in the foxholes, standing next to each other, really speaks to me. So the song Stand By Me hit me at that time. When I heard it, it was a love song. But when you talk to Mike Stoller, God bless his soul, he's alive and well, he will tell you in his heart. So it was a love song, but it means more to him, his son Peter, and the whole team that's behind Libra Solar, than just it being a love song. It means a lot about standing by your. You know, by your fellow man.
- [08:56]
Spencer Proffer
So you fuse together in such a way, you bring it all full circle. Into the present. But you brilliantly, in your work, fuse it all together with the echoes of the past. You did that with Steve Binder on the Reinventing Elvis documentary, which was so fantastic. And it was such an honor having Mr. Binder on with you on the podcast. And then you bring this international flair to things as well. And I know it probably helps that you just got that board appointment fairly recently at the Osgoode center for International Studies. That's not going to hurt to bring Stand By Me to even greater international audiences. I'm thinking. Am I correct on that?
- [09:41]
Matt
Yeah. Well, what I really love to do and I've been working with my attorney, Bart Fisher, one of my attorneys. I have attorneys to help me down different lanes on the highway. Bart is my international guy. We're thinking we want to premiere this at the United nations because of the precepts of what the song speaks to. We at the Osgood center in D.C. and the Press Corps Club in D.C. we. I want to hold some screenings there and go to the Kennedy center, where I've had some good fortune to have some of the work that I've done play before it goes out through a streamer. So, yeah, I want this to go to the world, to not only Europe, but I've got some business interests in Asia. I'm a big believer in what's happening with media in both South Korea and Dubai and Abu Dhabi. And there are many territories where the the spirit of Standby Me speaks. Whether or not you know the song, you know the feeling of it.
- [10:45]
Buzz Knight
I want to mention I first met you in 1979 at the Lee Abrams Superstars Convention in San Diego. And you and the artist that you were collaborating with then, Billy Thorpe. Remember that great song, Children of the Sun. I think you created a precursor to the sort of multimedia experience we see today at the Sphere in Las Vegas. Does that put a smile on your face decades later?
- [11:13]
Matt
Well, what was cool was when Billy and I wrote the song and we saw it as a song visually. It actually pioneered what became laser light shows and planetariums. When I met you, I was the guest speaker at the Burkhardt Abrams convention. I was just a punk kid. I think I was 28 or 29 years old. Well, they're not punks at that age anymore, but, you know, it's okay. My, my boys are a few years older and they're far from punks. They're really cool kids or cool young men. Anyway. I really love the idea of taking the lyric and the spirit of the song and visualizing it with, you know, we did a computer animated version of it. We premiered it. I remember when I met you at the Reuben E. Fleet Space Theater in San Diego. And Lee, who I've teamed up with, we're going to do probably wind up doing another podcast on his project, Sonic Messengers. The role that music radio has played in the evolution of music, be it pop or rock or, you know, all the various genres. But yeah, it was a visual experience and now hearing it, I hadn't been to the sphere, but seeing that that's a totally immersive experience, yet still brings a big smile to my face because Children of the sun is one of the glory moments of my Life. Took us 11 months to make the record. We enjoyed the process, I can't tell you. Lee Squar played bass. Alvin Taylor would just finished playing with George Harrison was our drummer. Billy was one of the finest guitarists. He was kind of like the Eric Clapton of Australia. This was his first record that we made in America. And yeah, it was a glorious experience. I wound up making four albums with Billy. But yeah, you know, the reason I keep talking is you remind me of things that really light me up. So sorry to keep rambling.
- [13:21]
Spencer Proffer
That's the idea, my friend. That's the idea of I'm winding you up and winding you up about good things. That's. That's perfect. So thank you as far as Stand by me the way I know you think you, you, like I said earlier, you. You touch the past and then bring it full circle to the present. So I know this is still a work in progress and you're giving our audience a behind the creators look at it. But when you're thinking of the present and how you're gonna with various artists, bring it full circle to the present. Can you give us a glimpse, a treat in terms of what you're thinking about?
- [14:01]
Matt
Oh, absolutely. Well, wonderful artists through the decades have done their own arrangement versions. One of my favorites, clearly the John Lennon version, which was his, my favorite cover that he did after he left the Beatles. But between Bruce Springsteen and Sting and Luther Vandross and Bono and Lady Gaga, some John Legend just did a duet with Sam Smith on it. I'm very touched by the different approaches they've taken. But then there' hundreds more versions of the song done by emerging and, you know, locally famous artists in different countries. What I'd like to do is get some current superstars who galvanize behind the song. I'm working with a wonderful talent, Steve Jordan, who is the current drummer for The Stones. But he's also a terrific producer arranger in his own right. I would like him to produce a new version of the song with a superstar talent that he's very close to. That will be announced later when we make the recording. But Steve and I have gotten pretty close and I think he's the right guy to produce it. I'll be exact produce it. Although I used to know how to make records after 200 albums. But I would rather lateral the ball to guys who do it daily and regularly. And I'd like to do different versions of it in different, you know, for different cultures and have it exposed in a way to really show that it means much more. And the music will really be the propeller to the stories. That archival will look at different examples of how we've stood next to our brothers, be it politically, be it socially, be it culturally. I don't think it will just be a generic music video doc on the song. I think it'll be a little cultural journey into what it's about and how we're going to portray it visually decorated by the magic of the song.
- [16:09]
Spencer Proffer
And you bring a joy to it all too, the way you put it together. I mean, Reinventing Elvis was a joyous culmination that brought it all together. Artists such as Darius Rucker participating, who was so marvelous. So the way that you make it all sort of come to life in the present time think, you know, puts this other spark and then the exposure to the global audience as well is. Is a really cool aspect of things, which I absolutely love. So it is not going to be. I could promise those listening. It is not just a documentary at all. It is much more than that. The storyline gets evolved and is very deep when you attack a storyline, Spencer, and you sort of take, you know, the non typical approach and put your stamp on it, talk about your stamp and what it means to you personally when you do that.
- [17:09]
Matt
Well, my stamp is just quality storytelling and bringing emotion from the. The children that were begotten by the authors. I think that songs are a product of genius. People who feel they're. They're kind of Freudian children. They feel what the words mean with mood strikes them when they create the music. At least the songwriters that I really emulate, the Lamont Doziers, from his Motown songs to the Cat Stevens to Father and Son. As a father, how that touched me at the time when I was a son, now that I'm a father, have my own boys. And so my approach is just to bring the essence of what I think was meant by the people who gave birth to the material. And my obligation is to help them take it to graduate school. They gave birth, they took it through elementary, to college, to graduate school. Now I'd like to take it to Harvard. Not to Harvard, actually. Now I have a grandson whose mother is British, so I'd like to take the work to the Cambridge Oxford level. And I think it's my obligation to do that job on behalf of the creators. Because when they created the thing, I think that the new Bob Dylan movie was Timothy Shalom. And the way that that movie was made by James Mangold was a brilliant paying homage to the young Bob Dylan. And I think it's up to guys like us and Mangold and the Spielberg, Scorsese's and to me, the real storytelling filmmakers to take the work and bring it forward so that audiences all over can feel the essence of what was meant by the creator.
- [18:58]
Spencer Proffer
So when you go through this process and redo it and tweak it and edit it and then edit it some more, I. I know you well enough to know that is a painstaking process. But only for caring about the body of work, right?
- [19:17]
Matt
Oh, absolutely. I mean, having good editors, the smartest thing a smart guy can do is surround himself with people smarter. So believe me, I work with some terrific editors and I direct like, I work with directors. I like directing with the directors. Let them do what they do, let the editors do what they do, and let me weigh in. I know how to do that stuff. The best thing I could do is let the real experts do their work and then let me kind of steer the ship to make sure it doesn't sink or crash.
- [19:50]
Spencer Proffer
Well, Spencer, in closing, I touched on this. I teased this earlier. Now, one of your company's core values involves helping others, spreading good words into our ecosystem. We need it more now than ever, certainly. So when we talk about that and we talk about how you desire to have your projects make an impact on the greater good, can you elaborate on that?
- [20:17]
Matt
I just hope that the work done in, like when Steve Jobs built Apple, he did the work in his garage and it got to the world. I would love the work that starts in my head. It starts at the pen of others that's created, you know, by filmmakers and editors alike can reach millions of people around the world. That is my dream. I've been a dreamer from the time I saw the Statue of Liberty coming over on a boat to Ellis island when I was five years old. And I'm still dreaming. And I'm a couple of years older.
- [20:52]
Spencer Proffer
Than five now, my main man, Spencer Proffer, we get a really cool behind the scenes look that'll be out in 2026. Can't wait. Stand by me. Spencer, you're amazing. Thanks for all you continue to give us. And thank you for your friendship, sir.
- [21:11]
Matt
Well, thank you, thank you for your show. I'd like the world to hear it. I think you you've done your homework. I like the questions you've asked and it's my pleasure. And I'll see you soon when we finish the film. I'd like you to see it early and then we can talk about it.
- [21:30]
Disney Cruise Family Member
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a Walk Podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends and follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts.
- [21:48]
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