(lyrics and music by Michael Gregorovich)
Rich And Famous was written by Michael Gregorovich, and he sent a tape of the music also. I did my best to make it sound like an early Beatles song, modeled after "With Love From Me To You." Here's the scoop from Michael:
I just wanted to mention that Dave has started a song-poem revolution. Instead of cranking out fifteen songs in one hour, as song-poem "sharks" were notorious for doing, Dave does one song in fifteen hours! Dave really cares about the results of his collaborations and you can hear that attention to detail in the quality of this cd. He creates a professional atmosphere where, for the first time ever, a song-poem could realistically become a chart-topper. Of course you can still hear those great human song-poem touches as well, where the words don't quite fit into the music. Nice work, Dave! We may be "Rich and Famous" yet!
Dave did a great job capturing that early Beatles sound I wanted for this tune. Nice harmonica solo by Dave, of which one wag said "I didn't know you were a fan of The Knack"! This song has also been compared favorably to the Barenaked Ladies' style. I would add that there's a definite resemblance to The Rutles as well. At first glance, this song seems to be the old cliche about a guy who longs for fame and fortune to solve all his problems. Actually, each problem he eliminates is replaced by a new one. The singer finally concludes that the new problems brought on by fame and fortune are preferrable to his old ones, although he "may have a complaint or two or three". He also mentions that anybody can become rich and famous, not just him. Beatles fans will recognize the phrase "scrimp and save" from The Beatles' "When I'm Sixty-Four" off of Sgt. Pepper. Any resemblance to my own life is strictly probable.
I forgot to mention that the lyrics reflect the same dreams and aspirations that every song-poem writer ever had. I didn't even realize it was a great song-poem topic until it was completed.
Michael Gregorovich