Giving Your Love to the World

It was early 1992 and I was in the throes of putting my new music production company together with my partner and longtime friend, Larry Thompson. I had just sold my multi-store drycleaning company and was “free” to do music the rest of my life! That notion would be short-lived I would soon learn (but that’s another story), however, life was good and we were asked by the likes of Jack Richardson, producer of Bob Seger and Alice Cooper among many other music icons, to write, and quickly so, as many children’s songs as we could for his upcoming production date with the Irish Rovers.

We decided to write songs that mattered, self-esteem based inspirational material to move kids! Problem was, we had only a few days to write AND record the tunes so we’d have little choice but to produce them simply and play all the instruments and sing ourselves in lieu of getting session players and vocalists. Realize that I sing like a cow calving on a good day, so Larry would have croon the best he could. Read more

Listen to Your Heart

It was early 1992 and I was in the throes of putting my new music production company together with my partner and longtime friend, Larry Thompson. I had just sold my multi-store drycleaning company and was “free” to do music the rest of my life! That notion would be short-lived I would soon learn (but that’s another story), however, life was good and we were asked by the likes of Jack Richardson, producer of Bob Seger and Alice Cooper among many other music icons, to write, and quickly so, as many children’s songs as we could for his upcoming production date with the Irish Rovers.

We decided to write songs that mattered, self-esteem based inspirational material to move kids! Problem was, we had only a few days to write AND record the tunes so we’d have little choice but to produce them simply and play all the instruments and sing ourselves in lieu of getting session players and vocalists. Realize that I sing like a cow calving on a good day, so Larry would have croon the best he could. Read more

Think Positive!

It was early 1992 and I was in the throes of putting my new music production company together with my partner and longtime friend, Larry Thompson. I had just sold my multi-store drycleaning company and was “free” to do music the rest of my life! That notion would be short-lived I would soon learn (but that’s another story), however, life was good and we were asked by the likes of Jack Richardson, producer of Bob Seger and Alice Cooper among many other music icons, to write, and quickly so, as many children’s songs as we could for his upcoming production date with the Irish Rovers.

We decided to write songs that mattered, self-esteem based inspirational material to move kids! Problem was, we had only a few days to write AND record the tunes so we’d have little choice but to produce them simply and play all the instruments and sing ourselves in lieu of getting session players and vocalists. Realize that I sing like a cow calving on a good day, so Larry would have croon the best he could. Read more

Simplest Things

It was early 1992 and I was in the throes of putting my new music production company together with my partner and longtime friend, Larry Thompson. I had just sold my multi-store drycleaning company and was “free” to do music the rest of my life! That notion would be short-lived I would soon learn (but that’s another story), however, life was good and we were asked by the likes of Jack Richardson, producer of Bob Seger and Alice Cooper among many other music icons, to write, and quickly so, as many children’s songs as we could for his upcoming production date with the Irish Rovers.

We decided to write songs that mattered, self-esteem based inspirational material to move kids! Problem was, we had only a few days to write AND record the tunes so we’d have little choice but to produce them simply and play all the instruments and sing ourselves in lieu of getting session players and vocalists. Realize that I sing like a cow calving on a good day, so Larry would have croon the best he could. Read more

The Slushie Fund

The nearby strip plaza, where I buy the coffee cream I all too often run out of, is “L”-shaped and has a variety store at each end. On a cream-replenishing mission the other day, I parked my car in front of the store I choose to patronize, just because I really like the Korean family who operates it. I first gathered up the mail I had in the car and walked to the corner of the plaza to deposit it into the mailbox there.

Walking towards me were two boys, about ten or eleven years old. They were debating which of the stores made the better Slushie. I interjected, “this one, for sure“, pointing to where I was going to buy my cream. Read more

Teaching Children Compassion

Each and every person on our planet has value. At the time of their birth most people are welcomed with joy and their families hope that they will live a full life. Every person that crosses our path or the path of our children will contribute to our evolution.

One of my favorite movies is The Fisher King. In this movie, Jeff Bridges looks at a homeless person with disgust. Robin Williams challenges him by saying that this homeless person, can be Bridges most profound teacher. That he was placed on his path to teach him and all of humanity compassion.

Our family had an extraordinary teacher of compassion in our lives. When my son was three years old, we had season tickets to The Florida Panthers, our city’s professional hockey team. At that time, the Panthers played in a very run-down part of Miami. As we went to our first game, we passed numerous homeless people on the streets. Most were living a destitute existence, sleeping in the streets, ravenously hungry and desperately in need of bath. Read more

The Beast

Pull the blinds and draw the drapes, turn out the lights and gather the children around this Halloween weekend to listen to “The Beast“. It’s a dark and dramatic piece about prejudice (with a positive ending), written by Larry Thompson and myself, and narrated by Bob Scott. Enjoy!

This is the second children’s self-esteem song I’ve posted and if you’re interested in how these came about, please click here.

Rick Read more

It’s Ok to Cry

It was early 1992 and I was in the throes of putting my new music production company together with my partner and longtime friend, Larry Thompson. I had just sold my multi-store drycleaning company and was “free” to do music the rest of my life! That notion would be short-lived I would soon learn (but that’s another story), however, life was good and we were asked by the likes of Jack Richardson, producer of Bob Seger and Alice Cooper among many other music icons, to write, and quickly so, as many children’s songs as we could for his upcoming production date with the Irish Rovers.

We decided to write songs that mattered, self-esteem based inspirational material to move kids! Problem was, we had only a few days to write AND record the tunes so we’d have little choice but to produce them simply and play all the instruments and sing ourselves in lieu of getting session players and vocalists. Realize that I sing like a cow calving on a good day, so Larry would have croon the best he could. We did manage, though, to corral a local singer for a couple of these songs, a very talented vocalist named Bob Scott. Read more