This Election features a different McCain!

Heath Holland, host of the pop-culture podcast Cereal at Midnight, has been delivering marvelously passionate shows about Lee Mendelson Film Productions’ recent, never-been-seen-before releases of Guaraldi’s scores for the vintage Peanuts TV specials, always with the equally enthusiastic participation of Sean and Jason Mendelson.

Check out the previous shows devoted to A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown (which also earned a second show).

 

Holland’s just-posted coverage of You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown finds the aforementioned individuals similarly excited — and excitable — but it’s also extra-special for an additional reason. Bassist Seward McCain, a former Guaraldi sideman, also participates in this super-sized episode; he’s on camera for most of the first half-hour. His memories, anecdotes and commentary are wonderful.

 

I don’t want to spoil the fun to be had while watching the entire show, but I couldn’t help extracting some of Seward’s choice remarks.

 

In his voice, then:

 

It was interesting to hear these [album] cuts, because it reminded me of how Vince worked. We would show up at the studio — usually a two-day session — and spend all day recording, from late morning to late hours at night. Vince was very purposeful; he knew what order he wanted to record everything. He didn’t want to write things out and make it sound mechanical; he liked it loose ... to play like we did on trio gigs.

 

Vince would bring in themes and ideas; he’d already been talking with John Scott Trotter or Lee [Mendelson], and he had a real plan. He’d bring in a storyboard on paper, and he knew the timings of everything; he was very well prepared every time. It could be improvised; he’d say, “Okay, we’ve got a cue here that’s about a minute and a half” or “This one is 17 seconds.” Sometimes Vince would say, “I dunno ... we need some mood music,” and he’d just start playing something! Of course, some of it was themes from other shows, and we’d do a new version of, say, “Linus and Lucy.”

[The music on the album] sounds fresher to me, because you don’t hear it in the show so much, because it’s designed to be a background; this way you can just listen to them. I’ve never had these tracks this way, and it’s so much fun.

 

I wonder where the time has gone, because I feel like the same person, particularly when I listen to this record. I just turned 80, but I have no sense of it (other than a doctor visit or two). This record pulls me back into the studio, with those players. They’re good, strong memories. You hear Vince’s voice in the studio. You hear him count it off, or say something, and that really makes you feel like you’re listening to tracks, and not a prepared album. That’s pretty fun.

 

I’d probably still be in the band, if Vince were still alive.

 

Like, wow.

 

I’d kill to be able to go back in time, and include that final line in my book.

 

********

 

On a related note...

 

As I explain in my liner notes — and in an amusing example of history repeating itself — much the way It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown began life as It Is a Short Summer, Charlie Brown, this special originally was to be called You’re Elected, Charlie Brown ... until the very last second. Wiser heads pointed out that a) Charlie Brown never wins anything; and b) Linus is the person campaigning, not good ol’ Chuck. Last-minute adjustments were made in such haste that the chalkboard title, as this special begins, has an afterthought “Not” inserted with a caret, and — listen carefully — the kid chorus still sings “You’re Elected, Charlie Brown.”

How “last minute” was this change made? Late enough to prevent being able to modify this promotional ad, which ran in TV Guide on October 28, 1972!