Mud Has Been Flung: Lyricist Looking For A Few Good Notes

The story goes like this: It’s 1967. A music industry guy in London says to young lyricist, “I’ve got this kid. He wants to write songs, but he doesn’t write lyrics. Maybe you should hook up.” So the meeting is scheduled and as the young lyricist sits in the control room, the musician walks in and says, “Are you the guy who writes the lyrics?” and lyricist says, “That would be me.” And the musician says, “Well, let’s go have a cup of coffee.” And so was born the song-writing team of Elton John and Bernie Taupin, arguably one of the greatest duos ever to grace the annals of music, post-Elvis. But what would have happened if that meeting had never occurred? Imagine if the lyrics of Bernie Taupin, or someone like him, stayed locked in dusty cabinets never to see the light of day.

Growing up in the rock and roll maelstrom that was the 60s and 70s, David Greenberg, now 56, was one of those kids who had music pulsing through his veins, but, sadly, not his vocal cords. “I always wanted to be in a band when I was a teen, back when we had Marshall Stacks that only went to four. Tone deaf, not at all musical, I kept getting kicked out of bands,” though they always found room for him hefting the amps as a roadie, writing press releases, shooting publicity pictures, or sitting behind the soundboard trying to get the loudest sound possible.

Undaunted by his lack of musical ability and driven by a passion for all kinds of artists, music, and sounds, Greenberg, who has lived in Beverly since 1990, acquired a deep and genre-spanning well of knowledge over the years by spending his career entrenched in almost every non-performance aspect of the music business from designing countless album covers and pieces of swag to producing compilation albums, from creating marketing and publicity campaigns to directing Grammy-nominated music videos as well as product-managing releases for the likes of Yoko Ono, Ringo Starr, Devo, Frank Zappa and Morphine.

Greenberg is now a marketing director at Allston/Brighton-based Ted Kurland Associates, whose client list comprises a veritable Who’s Who of the jazz world, including John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Pat Metheny and Gary Burton. It’s hard to imagine that a guy with a career like this has any spare time, but when he does, he spends it writing lyrics. This cache of as yet un-mined lyrical gold has been compiled into an exhaustive collection of “unsung lyrics” that Greenberg has titled The Mud Folio.

Published by the design and marketing firm, [product], The Mud Folio represents a lifetime, so far, of late night lyrical noodling, feverish bouts of inspiration and the wry musings of the expansive and eccentric mind of one who’s spent his life on the other side of the studio glass. Greenberg’s lyrics would have remained locked as scribbles in his many notebooks had it not been for a friend who suggested he put the work into a real book to send out to musicians and other music business types. In fact, even before the work was complete, Paris-based jazz singer China Moses, after having a gander at Greenberg’s folio, saw potential for a new collaboration. Over the course of a few months they worked, via twitter, email and iTunes, on a piece Moses was trying to complete, which became the new song, "Riding The Bad News Through."

“David is an incredible writer," Moses says. "Any melody you throw at him, he can find words to fit. And he can do it all while having a day job and no matter what the time difference. The song we wrote together, or should I say, the song he saved me on, is one of my favorite songs to sing.” While it wasn't ready for "Crazy Blues," Moses' latest album for Decca/Universal in Europe, "Riding…" is in her repertoire and is slated for her next album. 

Those familiar with Greenberg agree his lyrics have something unique and valuable to say. Los Angeles publicist Cary Baker, whose clients include Harry Shearer, James McMurtry and the Concord/Stax catalog says, “Greenberg has always displayed an uncanny gift of observation. You’ll find it manifest in this thing he calls The Mud Folio. He just needs to find an Elton John to his Bernie Taupin."

The hardcover, soft cover, and eBook of the Folio are now available at Lulu.com, the eBook is also available in the Kindle, Nook, and iBook formats. The basic idea for the [product] publication is to get The Mud Folio into the hands of singers and songwriters so they can put music to the words, or, as with China Moses, to find in Greenberg a collaborator for some future tracks. Greenberg's lyrics, and now compiled with additional writings, and notes, is presented in such a way that any lover of poetry, no matter how musical, will also have a good read.

To further entice the general public, [product] has rounded up some great quotes to help readers understand the depth and breadth of the Mud Folio's writings, that, while looking like poetry, might also be lyrical, and funny as well. Of course, with full disclosure, the full quote list comes with more than a few from Greenberg's friends in the business. 

Here are two:

“Put down whatever you’re reading this very minute and procure this book of lyrics," urges the great jazz singer, Dee Dee Bridgewater. "It’ll tug at your heart, make you laugh, or sing, sometimes all at once. Either way it will shine up any dull moment.”

Hugo Burnham, Gloucester resident, Endicott College Adjunct Professor, and former Gang Of Four drummer notes, “As a drummer who only ever wrote one set of song lyrics that went on a record, I have no idea how David does this stuff without a guitar-player to constantly argue with.”

As for comparisons to the great lyricists like Bernie Taupin, Greenberg demures. "That's like puffing up the quality of my writing to the size of an alarmed blowfish, kind of like insinuating I'm a young Hal David, an early Captain Beefheart—but, then again," he pauses, "even they weren’t icons when they first started."