David Eagleman (2:44)

This is a month of deeply personal and honest conversations about what happens when the brain goes off listening to intercosmos on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Buzz Knight (2:58)

If a baby is giggling in the backseat, they're probably happy. If a baby is crying in the backseat, they're probably hungry. But if a baby is sleeping in the backseat, will you remember they're even there? When you're distracted, stressed or not, usually the one who drives them, the chances of forgetting them in the backseat are much higher. It can happen to anyone. Parked cars get hot fast and can be deadly. So get in the habit of checking the back seat when you leave a message from N.N.H.T.S.A. and the Ad Council. Taking a Walk Ryan Coleman, welcome to the Taking a Walk podcast. It's nice to have you on.

Brian Coleman (3:37)

Thanks for having me here.

Buzz Knight (3:39)

The title of your book, how to Prepare for the Past, it's, let me just say, wonderfully paradoxical. What does that phrase mean to you? And when did you know it was the right title for the book?

Brian Coleman (3:52)

You know, the title was given to me by the universe. I was at a university bookstore years ago and I saw a book with that title on the top shelf and I had to get a ladder because I thought, that's information I need. And I got up there and I brought the book down and it turned out I was misreading it. And it was how to Prepare for the psat, which is the Public School Achievement Test. So I put that in the back of my. In my back pocket, in back of my mind and determined at some point I was going to use that.

Buzz Knight (4:28)

It's fantastic. Now, you describe growing up when music was all one sound, all one song, and you talk about the radio as kind of a total experience. Now, I come from a radio background, a career of working on the radio and then behind the scenes. So that really stuck out to me for a lot of reasons. What did that relationship with music feel like as a kid? When did you first realize not everyone heard it that way? And talk about the radio?

Brian Coleman (5:02)

I didn't realize everyone didn't hear it that way. Don't burst my balloon. You know, I grew up in a house without. Without any music. I don't want to say without a lot of music. We had a, you know, one of those consoles that had a television on one side and a big radio which no one ever used on the other, along with a makeshift hi fi. And my parents had five records, the Sound of Music. I'm dating myself, but that's what it was, the Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Ferrante and Tyscher, Autumn Leaves, a blind pianist whose name I forget, who played Echoes of Paris and then Patti Page doing Buttons and Bows. So I avoided records whenever I could. And then when I was about 10 or 11 years old, I think I got some sort of a flu. And I was stuck in bed at home, and my mother brought in a little transistor radio for me to listen to. And I'd been unaware of radio as anything other than, you know, news and weather that my parents listened to. And I started playing around with the dial, and I stumbled onto 1010 WINS and a DJ called Murray the King. And that was just a revelation. When you're a kid and you've been fed a diet of buttons and bows and you suddenly hear the Ronettes, like an entire world opened to me. And I knew that Smokey Robinson and the Beatles and the Loving Spoonful and Chuck Berry, they knew things my parents didn't know and didn't want to know. And I wanted in on that. And that became my world. I was afraid to go to sleep. I was afraid I was going to miss something.

Buzz Knight (7:05)

That feeling. Yeah, of fomo. Right, fomo. Fear of missing out definitely is something that drew me to the radio as well. I grew up in Stanford, Connecticut, so I listened to, certainly the AM stations, like 1010 WINS and WABC, and then was fed a steady diet of WNEW FM.

Brian Coleman (7:30)

Sure.

Buzz Knight (7:30)

The place where rock lives, which I got to spend a little time as a weekender there. So we kind of grew up.

Brian Coleman (7:36)

Nate Griffin, what was it? Great. Alex, the Night Shrike, you know.

Superhuman Podcast Host (7:41)

Yeah.

Buzz Knight (7:42)

Dennis. Elsa is still a dear friend of mine. And all these people who were great curators, certainly, of the music, which I feel like you're a curator, not only a musician, but you're a curator of these stories and of the music you knew Lester Bangs, Nick Drake, Sandy Denny, Tim Hardin, people who burned brilliantly and often tragically. What was it like being in proximity to that kind of genius? And what did those friendships teach you about the cost of it?

Brian Coleman (8:21)

I guess what it taught me was not to get too close. You know, you get within a few feet and you realized if you got any closer, you might burn up with him. And I'm saying that in hindsight, at the time, I was ready to get as close as you could get. You know, I was totally infatuated with Nick Drake as a person, as a musician, as a creature. He seemed to embody everything that I wanted to be. The reality is, you know, he. I don't want to dignify my relationship with him by saying that we were friends. I got to hang around with him because of my friendship with John and Beverly Martin. But he was really unknowable, and he was very, very shy. And I think what drew him to an association with me was that, you know, I was probably six or seven years younger, and I was probably as shy and as awkward as he was. So he felt comfortable around me, or at least given the fact that he. I don't think he was comfortable around anyone. He was not uncomfortable around me, if that makes sense.

Buzz Knight (9:44)

It totally does. The book is so colorfully descriptive and so visual. I feel like we, as the readers, are brought into these pictures. So you achieve that really well in the book. And that's one of the reasons, among many, why I recommend it to everybody. There's a particular story you tell about a past guest on this podcast, Danny Fields, which is a fantastic story, very colorful. And having been in that apartment, I can sort of even further visualize it. Can you talk a little bit about Danny Fields and your encounters with him?

Brian Coleman (10:31)

Sure. You know, I was talking to him yesterday, and he's so generous and he's so knowledgeable, and he's been at the center of almost all the musical movements that at least I'm, you know, interested in. And I was lucky enough to be introduced to him by a friend of his named Lillian Rocson. And Lillian was an Australian journalist sent here by the Sydney Morning Herald. And she was a wild. You know, a wild creature. She shared a flat with Germaine Greer, famous for having written the Female Eunuch, and Linda Eastman, famous for having married Paul McCartney. So they were these wild women about town, and I was a kid, but they would, you know, take me along with them on adventures. Jermaine Greer used to love to embarrass me by pulling out pornographic photos of Jimi Hendrix in the nude with various young women hanging on to appendages of his and sort of go, how do you like this? It'd be like, you know, how do you. How do you like that?

Buzz Knight (11:46)

How am I supposed to answer that?

Brian Coleman (11:47)

Right? There's no answer. You know, maybe the answer is in a song. But when I started learning guitar when I was about 15, the first thing I did when I could probably play three chords was to start writing songs. And I was so proud of them. I'm so glad that no tapes exist, because if any did, I don't think I could show my face anywhere. But I tried to play some for Lillian, and she was like, no, no, no, no, no. You know, she thought I was a great kid and was really impressed that I knew all of this music and I was a train spotter. But she said, you know, I'm not gonna know if they're any good. But Danny Will and Danny was Danny Fields. And she dragged me over to his apartment, and it was a wild scene. You know, I had been around. My parents were involved with Broadway, and so I was around some Broadway people and show people, but they were all older. My parents were a generation older than most people's families. So, you know, their point of reference was Danny Kay and Mary Martin. It was very showbiz, and I had no interest in any of that. But Lillian, first of all, used to bring me to the back room at Max's Kansas City, which was an education. I never would have been allowed in there, or I would never have even known it existed without her. But I would go in there with her and Andy Warhol would be there, Tim Buckley, Janis Joplin, and they were all having a great time. They all loved her, by the way. You know, I mean, if you walked into a room with Lillian, you were accepted, or at least you weren't automatically rejected. So I walked into Danny's apartment and there's Jim Morrison passed out drunk on his couch. I mean, snoring. And Jim Morrison was in his fat boy phase. You know, he had an enormous beard and he had a pretty big belly, and he was snoring up a storm, and it was like Jim Morrison. And in the corner, Edie Sedgwick, you know, the sort of it girl of the times. And Dani's, of course, batting for the other teams, so there's nothing romantic between them. But she's in her bra and panties with a copy of Vogue magazine, and she's cutting out pictures. For what, I don't know, but she's cutting out pictures. And Jim Morrison is snoring, and Danny is leaning back on the couch, sort of going, oh, Brian, I hear you write songs. And he said that in the way that like a third grade teacher might say, I hear you like oranges. And I had this crappy little nylon string guitar that, you know, I could barely get in tune. And he's like, let's hear a song. And did you ever see that movie Inside Llewyn Davis?

Buzz Knight (15:05)

Oh, boy, do I love it.

Brian Coleman (15:06)

So there's that wonderful scene where F. Murray Abraham is the manager at the gate of Horn, I think. And he's so cynical and he's so snide, and he looks over at Oscar Isaacs and sort of goes, tell me. Tell me about what's inside Llewyn Davis. And, you know, it's like daggers. And, you know, I mean, Danny wasn't being mean, but you could tell songs were not really that Important to him. And I started playing an embarrassing little song. I'm sure it was called footsteps. At 15. Everyone has to write a song called Footsteps. And all I remember was there was one line that got Edie Sedgwick's attention. Now, hold me like a promise, like a moth upon your tongue. And she suddenly. The first time she looked at me, she suddenly threw down the magazine and, like, looked over at Danny, ignoring me and going, make him stop. I hate moths. Moths are yucky. And Danny just looks over and goes, no, that's the first good line. That's not bad. Play another one. And of course, you know, I sort of go, but. But this one isn't finished. And he goes, I know.

Buzz Knight (16:30)

That's so great. We had F. Murray Abraham on the podcast and we went through that scene, actually. I know, you know the famous line from that scene after Llewyn Davis pours his heart out and the F. Murray character is sitting there and what was his line? After hearing this incredible performance, I think

Brian Coleman (16:54)

it's something like, I don't hear a lot of money. That's right, exactly.

Buzz Knight (16:59)

It's a brilliant line, brilliant scene. And the way you depicted the meeting with Danny was. Was so special. I love Danny. He is. He's an original.

Brian Coleman (17:09)

I. I remember, you know, when I finished playing, you know, he was. Couldn't have been kinder or more encouraging. I sort of went, now, why don't you come back in six months and show me what you've written then? And idiot, here goes. But what if these are the best songs I'll ever write? And he just looked. Said, that would be a pity, wouldn't it?

Buzz Knight (17:35)

That's great.

Brian Coleman (17:36)

His version of I Don't Hear a Lot of Money.

Buzz Knight (17:39)

That's right. That's right.

Superhuman Podcast Host (17:42)

We'll be right back with more of the Taking a Walk podcast. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the Enhanced Games. Some call it grotesque, others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.

Brian Coleman (18:04)

Within probably 10 days, I'd put on £10.

Buzz Knight (18:07)

I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth.

Superhuman Podcast Host (18:10)

Listen to Superhuman on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Brian Coleman (18:17)

You can have opinions, you can have,

Mental Health Awareness Narrator (18:20)

like, a strong stance, and then there's your body having its own program. I'm Dr. Maya Shankar, a cognitive scientist and host of the podcast A Slight Change of Plans, A show about who we are and who we become when life makes other plans. We share stories and scientific insights to help us all better navigate these periods of turbulence and transformation. There is one finding that is consistent, and that is that our resilience rests on our relationships. I wish that I hadn't resisted for so long the need to change.

Brian Coleman (18:57)

We have to be willing to live with a kind of uncertainty that none of us likes.

Mental Health Awareness Narrator (19:03)

Listen to a slight change of plans on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Brian Coleman (19:13)

If you're watching the latest season of the Real Housewives of Atlanta, you already know there's a lot to break down. Portia accusing Kelly of sleeping with a married man. They holding K Michelle back from fighting.

Buzz Knight (19:25)

Drew Pinky has financial issues.

Mental Health Awareness Narrator (19:27)

I like the bougie style of Housewives show. I think it looks like it's going

Brian Coleman (19:31)

to be interesting on the podcast Reality with the King I, Carlos King, recap the biggest moments from your favorite reality shows, including the Real Housewives franchise, the drama, the alliances and the tea everybody's talking about. As an executive producer in reality television, I'm not just watching it. I understand the game. As somebody who creates shows, I'll even say this at the end of the day, when people are at home, they want entertainment. To hear this and more, listen to Reality with the king on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Mental Health Awareness Narrator (20:08)

The story I've told myself about love or relationships can then shape my behavior and that can lead me to sabotage the possibility of connection this Mental Health Awareness month. Tune into the podcast Deeply well with Debbie Brown and explore the journey of healing, self discovery and returning to yourself. We explore higher consciousness, emotional well being, and the practices that help you find clarity, peace and self mastery in a world that can feel overwhelming. The world is becoming lonelier. We're not becoming more social and connected, we're becoming more individualized, but we actually need people in connection. If you've been searching for a soft place, place to land while doing the work to become whole, this podcast is for you. To hear more. Listen to Deeply well with Debbie Brown from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

Superhuman Podcast Host (21:11)

Welcome back to the Taking a Walk podcast.

Buzz Knight (21:14)

But you were everywhere. You covered every inch of Greenwich Village for sure. Through all hours I might add. Brian, you were there morning, noon, night, wee hours. You covered every bit of it. You took it all in.

Brian Coleman (21:31)

Well, you know, it was so exciting and you know, I was the sort of kid even when I started playing Guitar. If I saw someone walking down the street holding a guitar or an instrument, I would follow them, you know, because it was magic. Music was the doorway into everything that I wanted and everything I didn't have and didn't know. And so, you know, I would go into the crappiest clubs and hear mostly awful performers. But you'd often hear someone who was really good, who needed that 10 bucks that they might make. And the moment I could play four chords, I'd start going into basket houses and playing. You know, those houses existed really to service people from out of town who wanted to see the local scene. They wanted to see beatniks and they wanted to see hippies, but they didn't want to get too close. So the buses would park outside of the four winds or the fat black pussycat, and, you know, 20, 30 guys and sometimes women would troop in and they would listen. It didn't matter what you did, you know, in fact, you stood to make a lot more money if you couldn't play and they felt sorry for you. You know, I think I mentioned Richie Havens was really good at getting extra money because he would sit on a stool and he would take out his false teeth and he would start singing so loudly that he would spit on everyone in the front rows. Just this enormous amount of saliva and gunk would come out and no one knew what to do because here was this good looking Negro and he's there spinning at them and they're going, let's get out of here, Martha. And so they'd throw dollars at his feet and run out. He did very well that way. He knew what he was doing.

Buzz Knight (23:39)

So much of this book is a specific moment in time before digital age changed everything. Do you think that world is gone or do you see any echoes of that world anywhere today?

Brian Coleman (23:54)

I don't, but part of the fun was going to record stores, going to bookstores, and you weren't just looking for records or books, you were looking for the other people who were looking for records and books. There was a great record store on West 8th street called Disco File. And I would go in there and it was a place where they still had a little turntable set up and they would play things. And I would have heard a string quartet by Bartok on wbai. And I would go to whoever was running the store and say, tell me about Bartok. And they would pull out a bunch of records and go, this is the best recording. This is really good. It's on parlophone. But this recording on Odyssey isn't bad. And it's 249. Got it. I'll get the 249 one. You know, you learned so much and people were so excited to impart the information they had. And I think that spirit is still there. It's unfortunately or fortunately, it exists in blogs and substacks and there are people who will spend hours and hours deconstructing a Jim Web song and there'll be several hundred people helping them do it. The Internet has become our meeting place. It's not necessarily a meeting place for someone who's over 17 or 18, but. But God bless people, find each other and learn about things that, you know, we couldn't have found otherwise.

Buzz Knight (25:42)

Tell me about your, your Lisbon based group, what that group is all about.

Brian Coleman (25:48)

Oh, that's just great fun and I'm so lucky to be a part of it. About 10 years ago, I wound up befriending a wonderful Brazilian guitarist and singer named Pierre Adern. And he was passing through New York and he needed an accompanist for a gig that night at Joe's Pub. And I happened to know a wonderful Japanese percussionist named Satoshi Takeshi. And Satoshi had worked with me on a project I had done with the Philip Glass group. I had been recording and Satoshi had spent a couple of years in Brazil learning from really the great masters there. People like none of us Goncelos, you know. I recommended Satoshi. Pierre was very skeptical. He thought the idea of a Japanese guy playing Brazilian rhythms was unfathomable. But he was desperate so he hired him and it turned out that they were great. They played at Joe's Pub that night. And Pierre trusted me after that and he asked me to produce a record for him, which I did, calling in a lot of favors and got Madeline Peru to sing, got members of Olabelle, Glen Pacha. And we did a lovely record for, you know, pretty much no budget. Know, it was done for under $5,000. It came out in, you know, various parts of the world, but not here. A couple of years after that, Pierre called me up and said he was coming to New York and he no longer lived in Brazil. He had moved to Lisbon. And so, you know, I said, oh, it's great, we'll have a glass of wine. He went, no, no, no, I'm doing a performance and I want you to accompany me. I want you to, to perform and sing with me. And I was very flattered, but sort of went, you know, I haven't done this for a bit and you know, thanks. But no, thanks. Ultimately, I got persuaded to do it, and it was great fun, and he had a great crew of people he'd called in, and, you know, I. I sort of thought, oh, this is fine. If I had to do this, I could do this. That's not bad. And about a month later, he called me up from Lisbon and went, you know, I have a tour booked, and if I fly you over, would you come and play with me? And that wound up turning into a little group called Ruadas Pretas. Ruadas Pretas, depending on who you ask, either means the black street or the street of black ladies. And that is not a derogatory term in any way. That actually is sort of like the street of dreams. And it was the street that Caetano Veloso lived on when he was in Lisbon, and Caetano named us. So whenever I can, I go to Lisbon, and we've made a bunch of records, and they definitely don't need me, but they don't know that, so don't tell them. I write some of the songs. I don't speak Portuguese, so, you know, I write songs in English, and everyone over in Lisbon seems to speak English or have an uncle who does. So it works out. It's great fun, fantastic. I recommend it.

Buzz Knight (29:13)

So, in closing, Taking A Walk is the name of the podcast. We like to ask the question, if you could take a walk with someone, living or dead, who would it be, and where would you take that walk?

Brian Coleman (29:26)

You know, I'm a great fan of a Polish writer named Ryszard Kapiszynski, essentially Richard Kapiszynski, who is an amazing writer, or was. He's passed away. He has a book on Haile Selassie called the Emperor, which is just staggering. He was in Addis Ababa when Selassie was deposed, and there were a lot of journalists hanging around, but he was the one who actually went into the palace and started talking to people, sort of going, you know, you don't have a job anymore, but what was your job? What were you doing for the Emperor? And they didn't know any better, and they told him, and it was terrifying. So I was a journalist for a number of years, and I actually contacted Kaposzynski and asked if I could interview him, and he offered to have me accompany him to Estonia. And I was so excited. And then at the last minute, I discovered that Vanity Fair, who was owned by Conde Nast, and I was a staff writer for Conde Nast, Vanity Fair, had been preparing a feature on him for six months. And they were about to publish it so I had to kill my own story. So if I could, I would take a walk with Kapasinski. You know, anywhere he wants to go. Estonia, Addis Ababa, the Congo. He made a point of going to all the trouble spots of the world and just watching. Beautiful man.

Buzz Knight (31:05)

Oh, a great read. How to prepare for the past travels and music and time. Brian Coleman, so nice to have you on Taking a Walk, Buzz.

Brian Coleman (31:16)

It's a pleasure and I hope we keep talking.

Buzz Knight (31:19)

You got it. Let's do it.

Brian Coleman (31:20)

To be continued.

Buzz Knight (31:21)

Buzz I'm Buzz Knight and thanks for listening to the Taking a Walk podcast. Now please check out our companion podcasts produced by Buzz Night Media Productions with your host, Lynn Hoffman. Music Save Me Showcasing the healing power of music and comedy, Save Me Shining a light on how laughter is the best medicine. All shows are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and are part of the iHeart podcast network.

Mental Health Awareness Narrator (31:53)

Wendy's new Biggie Deals lets you choose whatever you're in the mood for. It's like a music mixing board of deals and you're the producer. Go with some chill folk music with a JBC in the $4 Biggie Bite Snack. Try the drum and bass of Deals with a double stack and the $6 biggie bag. Or go full on Sandwich Symphony with an $8 Biggie bundle. The grand finale of snacking. And the best part, they all come with napkins. Four, six and eight dollar Biggie Deals how you want them At Wendy's, price

Brian Coleman (32:20)

of participation may vary. Single items at regular price.

Superhuman Podcast Host (32:22)

Prices may be higher in Alaska, California and Hawaii. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the Enhanced Games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.

Brian Coleman (32:41)

Within probably 10 days, I'd put on £10.

Buzz Knight (32:44)

I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth.

Superhuman Podcast Host (32:47)

Listen to Superhuman on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

David Eagleman (32:54)

There are times when the mind becomes a difficult place to live. This is David Eagleman with the Inner Cosmos podcast. And for Mental Health Awareness Month, we'll talk with singer songwriter Jewel about anxiety.

Mental Health Awareness Narrator (33:06)

I started living in my car and then my car got stolen. I was having panic attacks. I was agoraphobic.

David Eagleman (33:12)

This is a month of deeply personal and honest conversations about what happens when the brain goes off course. Listen to intercosmos on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Mental Health Awareness Narrator (33:26)

Most people out here think that taking care of one another is important, and most people would step up for a neighbor going through a tough time. Most people people around here help out friends and family when they need it. But the funny thing is, most of us won't look for help when we need it. Talk to someone if you're struggling with mental health, because most people out here really care. Find more information@loveyourmind today.org that's loveyourmind today.org brought to you by the Huntsman Mental Health Institute and the AD Council.