I was gluing together a model car in my basement bedroom at the Happy H and listening to the rock station KJR 95 when Elton John's Don't Let Sun Go Down on Me came on. The first time I heard it I thought it was the worse song I'd ever heard. I think the blues notes were throwing off my affection for sugary pop music. Then, the second time it came on I thought it was the best song I'd ever heard. That led me to buying Caribou, my first album.
Walking up the road with my buddy Joe Ehle, I was listening to KJR-95 rock station in Seattle when Queen's Killer Queen came on. It blew me away. I had never heard a sound like that and I immediately became a Freddy Mercury fan. I got see Queen perform in the Seattle Center Coliseum in 1979, one of my all-time favorite concerts.
I enjoyed listening to Supertramp when I was partying with my buddies like Smoke, Daddy, Gangley, Stacks, Nurn, Hobie, Eubie, Bird, Loner and the rest of the gang.
From routinely showing up late for our tee times at Kayak to all-night road trips for early morning fishing in Eastern Washington to parties at the Lost Lake Social Club, this song was definitely one of my/our anthems.
Listening to the title track from my favorite movie, "Amadeus," launched me into studying the work of the first true pop music icon, Mozart. His approach to music further inspired me to earn a degree in music composition & theory at WAZZU.
I had struggled and learned for 10 years as I began building my career in advertising and then I got a fortunate break to become the creative director at Quorum Int'l.
I got my name, Park, from my dad's first boss out of college. He worked for the City Engineer of Fargo, N.D. in 1946, a guy by the name of Park Tarbell.
I asked my dad why he named me after Mr. Tarbell and he said, "Because he was nice man who always got things done easily and happily."
This Randy Newman tune reminds me to try to get things done easily and happily regardless of the circumstances.
What captured me about this song is how well it places you in that restaurant with Brenda and Eddie, how it builds and how it takes you on the arc of the story.
I love Randy Newman's bluesy New Orleans sound over a pop music structure with his incredible storytelling chops. This song is particularly powerful. So I used it as the soundtrack to a short family video I produced for Michele for our 25th anniversary.
I was asked by BECU what walk-in music I would like for my Business of Story session presented to their employees. I decided on this wonderful Eric Idle tune and I've never looked back. Now I use it everywhere and often get surprising eye brow raises and smiles as the beginning of each session. Words to live by.
I grew up on Elton John and Billy Joe and found Ben Folds music in the mid-1990's. When I heard The Luckiest, I knew that was the song for Michele and I. We love it.
