Charlie Puth: Artful Disappointment
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Hey everybody, welcome to literally fun one today. I love when I have musicians on because I'm a music nerd and I am in awe of people who have perfect pitch and can write a catchy jingle. And today we have Charlie Puth who can do both. Has both?

Has perfect pitch and can write catchy stuff, both, anything. And we're going to jam out. I think he brought a particularly shitty little Casio to play. Beep, boop, boop, beep. I would have thought it'd be something a little more expensive to play on the show. But, you know, you take what you can get from a mega superstar recording artist like Charlie Puth. So hang on. Here we go.

Where are you right now, by the way? I'm in the house. I'm downstairs. I'm in the media room. So for you guys that don't know, Charlie and I nerd out over music, and we sit there and try to figure out. But listen, again, I'm just going to put it out there. It's a little Yacht Rocky song.

Don't judge me. But it's the music I grew up on. When I would get in my grandpa's car and drive up to his house, he had the Carpenters going. What am I going to do? I like rainy days and Mondays. Oh, wait. I say goodbye again is the fucking shit. The amount of drugs that a guitar player at the end of that song was taking when he... They went through... The Carpenters did the most. They went...

They had no problem going. They love going around the circle of this.

They did this. That's what's genius because it doesn't resolve completely and it kind of mimics what's lyrically going on, like rainy days and Mondays always get me down. And it would feel, the lyric would feel so much different if it were these types of chords. ♪

Simpler, simpler chords don't make the lyric. But if they did that chord, rainy days and Mondays always make me, bring me down. It sounds too triumphant, but they did the cluster chord. They put the D and the E flat together. Rainy days and Mondays always bring me down.

And then, like, you want to hear the next verse. It's just, that's the genius of the Carpenters, that they were able to take their lyrics and make the chords sound like the lyrics. If that makes sense, Rob Lowe. I think Richard Carpenter just had her at her lock and key. He was just like, Karen Carpenter, you have no life. Just fucking hit your drums and sing. It'd be miserable. I didn't know she played drums. She played drums? She plays drums on every track.

I had no idea. See, there's some things I don't know. I had no idea. See, there's a little bit of Rob Lowe knowledge, right? But that's what's great about it. Wait, explain. So she would sing and play the drums like Phil Collins? I mean, obviously, I don't know if she recorded the vocals while she was playing, but she's the drummer. I know in concert, she did. Yeah, she did. Absolutely. Isn't that crazy? That's unbelievable. It's interesting hearing records, because her and her brother produced those records, and hearing...

from a predominantly drumming background. Because if you listen to, why am I blanking on the Phil Collins record? In the Air Tonight. Not In the Air Tonight. Easy Lover, the collaboration. Yes. The one you, the one that...

Like the drums are so bright on that. They're unusually bright for a record that came out in that year. And I believe the drums are so prominent and so forward in the mix more so than any other instrument in the records because it was Phil playing the drums. And of course, it's like me, uh, uh, uh, have, uh, the piano was always going to be the forefront that I mix. I guess that was the same situation, uh, with,

with the, with the carpenters, but they, I'm, I'm, I wonder who would layer all those vocals because there's a lot of things I don't know about their process. Well, that's, that's again, that's Richard keeping her down, man. Richard's like, you know what? We're burying that drum. It also is that, that seventies Springsteen has a great quote about, uh,

hit records in the 70s make him sometimes make him want to gag and make his skin crawl because everything sounds like it's covered in velvet and yeah well it's so dead like the drums are so dead it sounds like it literally sounds like she's hitting pillows

Maybe she's, I think they were known to stuff some of the drum kits with towels. So probably like to denim out a little bit. But that's coming from Bruce. He's a genius. So there's no disrespect to him at all. It's just way different music. Like he had, well, the Carpenters. For those of you who don't know, during the COVID, in the middle of COVID, you did an amazing show.

New Jersey Pandemic Relief Fund. Yes. And walk us through how that went down because it's just too good a story. Because anything that involves Springsteen, by definition, is too good a story. It wasn't Bruce who called me, but it was a good friend of mine who told my manager that I should be involved in –

this New Jersey Pandemic Relief Fund that would be Goldberg and Danny DeVito and all these New Jersey icons were going to be part of it. But I was like the youngest guy on there. It's like they want me on there. So it was then after I... You're like, I'm not going to play with my grandparents. No, no, but...

I had John Landau reached out and was like, I'd love for you to perform a Bruce song. And I wasn't going to perform one of my own songs anyway, because that just felt weird and kind of making it about myself. I understand if you're like a legend like Bon Jovi, but you can play your own song. But like I had to kind of, you know, bow down to New Jersey. So I was very happy to play Growing Up by Bruce Springsteen for Bruce Springsteen. Amazing. Growing up.

What a great... And how did it go? Were you happy with it? I know the reaction was great. But meanwhile, on Twitter, all anybody wanted to talk about was they could see that you hadn't made your bed in the background. Yeah, which goes to show you no matter how much time and effort you put into... Like, I practiced that song. It took me a week to really... Because I was nervous. I didn't want to be railed by Bruce Springsteen fans saying this kid with a high voice is going to sing...

is going to sing all high pitch on this very masculine growing up song about coming out the trenches of Asbury Park, New Jersey. But everybody was fixated on the fact that I was performing in front of many, many millions of people. With an unmade bed. I didn't make my bed. But there was something endearing about it, I guess. Look, here's the thing. The only person who should be pissed about that would be your mother.

Like if your mother's like, Charlie! But I'm imitating your mother like she's a battle axe. I've met your mother. She's awesome. She does not speak like that! No, only when she's mad at me. No, she doesn't. You guys met at a restaurant.

Yeah. And this is also, by the way, one of the fun things about doing the podcast is that I thought, you know, I'm so blessed and lucky to have such a diverse group of friends. And a lot of them are like unlikely. I can proudly say that I know Rob Lowe and I spoke to Clive Davis just the other day. And that is a huge thing.

A huge accomplishment in my life. And I'm in my own recording studio in Los Angeles. I'm very, very motivated. With everything that's going on right now. Clive, um... Oh, there we go. Those dulcet tones. That's why Bruce said that the Carpenter sounded like everything was wrapped in velvet. By the way, I miss how musicians used to speak...

more freely. There was no Twitter, so Billy Joel would be like, you know, I don't really like the way Elton plays keyboard sometimes. I like some of his songs, but it sounds really bangy. If I said that about another musician, I would be, quote, cancelled. You know me. I could nerd out. At night, I go down YouTube wormholes of behind-the-scenes music type stuff. I'm currently...

because my kids just watched The Graduate for the first time, Johnny and Matthew, and they just loved it. So we're going down a Simon and Garfunkel. So on my one-man show, which I got to invite you to next time I'm out on the road playing, I close it. Yes. I only have one music cue underneath my show. It's me talking. It's basically like a stand-up tour. But at the end, I bring up the sort of

Last little bit of Only Living Boy in New York by Simon and Garfunkel, which is one of my favorite songs. And so I was going down this YouTube hole yesterday and saw a concert. And Paul says, in 1969, Art Garfunkel left New York City to go film Catch-22 in Mexico. And I wrote this song. Right. And I never realized that the song's about art. Garfunkel.

And so it gives a whole other meaning to one of my favorite songs. We got that song? Got that, Devin? I mean... What is he saying? What is he saying in that song? I don't know that song. Oh! Oh, bro! I'm so excited that you don't know this song. No.

So I don't know it is that lyric. Tom, get your plane right on time. I know your part will go fine. I'm the only it's basically it's basically friend left behind by another friend, like at the height of their powers already went and fucked off to Mexico and filmed a movie. And Paul was left alone in New York City and wrote that song.

It's in B major. It doesn't even sound like a diss record. It's just it doesn't even sound like he's throwing shade. It sounds like a beautiful. OK, you're right. Piece of art. Yeah, that's my thing is I I think that their rivalry is overrated. And what's interesting is, you know, Artie became the movie star, not Paul.

There's a joke about Simon and Garfunkel. What is Simon without Garfunkel? And the answer is wildly successful.

Not true. Voice of an angel. Not true. Voice of an angel. Have you ever heard Art Garfunkel and James Taylor sing? It sounds very 1993. Art Garfunkel. Yeah, it has. It's very like reverb. And there's a live version where they sang right in front of the World Trade Center. Yeah.

Right after the 93 bombing. And it was like a really nice, I don't know, it was like a really, really nice moment, them playing in the park. Yeah, the concert in Central Park, Simon and Garfunkel concert in Central Park is what I've been nerding out to. Again, I've never seen that. Oh, amazing. Produced by Lorne Michaels.

One of the first concerts in the park. And it's just hit after hit. And he's got a killer... Everybody in the band is that era's killer session players. We were talking about this one time. In order for you to go to the studio and record the track and then layer the vocals later, you had to...

There was a multi-track, but not nearly as many tracks as you can do today in Pro Tools. The capability that we have today, you can really come into a studio and learn the song and play it and have it sound pretty decent after four hours. You had to like...

When Brian Wilson was recording the Beach Boys, if you were a musician on set and you didn't know your part, he would kick you out. And that's why when it came to playing it live, you will have rehearsed it so many times. It's almost like it sounded better live. That's why everybody always said that.

It's funny. I also go the other way on it, too. And look, I love Prince. I mean, come on. Who doesn't love Prince? But sometimes when you'd see him, he would do 30 seconds of Little Red Corvette, maybe less, and then go into something else. You're like, no, no, no. I like Little Red Corvette. I like it. And I like it the way it was on the – I want to hear it. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Right. It's almost artful. I think the term is artful disappointment. Like, there is... And there's no way of saying this without sounding kind of pompous, but it's almost like the artist wanted to dupe the audience, like, kind of cherish in their misery of, like, not playing... Oh, for sure! Prince playing controversy...

I don't know what's the tempo, like whatever that tempo is. You're playing it 10 BPM up and making it sound like too fast. But maybe like the energy was up on stage. But like me as an audience member, I'd be like, fuck, man, I really want I want it to sound like it did in the studio. Total. And then there are times.

When you'll see an artist play something that is emblazoned into your cerebellum and you know every fill, and just with the phrasing, they change it, and it's a whole different song. And Bruce does that a lot. I mean, like Darkness at the Edge of Town is my favorite Bruce song, probably. And there's a version where Live at the Apollo is, and it's like...

It's just the difference of Bruce singing it now as an older middle-aged man. Oh, yeah. But with the same kind of anger, which is – middle-aged man anger is not the same anger as a 23-year-old person. It just isn't. There's a lot of records that I feel like a lot of people like. They like the live version more than this. I like Landslide. That's so insane you were going to say that. It's insane because I was about to say –

My favorite version of that is the difference between Stevie Nicks singing I'm Getting Older Too in the album in 1977 and Stevie Nicks singing I'm Getting Older Too in 2019. It's a different thing. The version they always played on the radio when she said, this one's for you, daddy. Yeah, yeah. And...

It's almost... I heard that version so many times that I started... You know when you watch a sitcom, you'd watch Cheers and you can hear the laugh track sometimes? Yeah, you always hear one guy go, whoo-hoo, in the background. Yeah, you always... That was that one, yeah. It's like...

And you know, being in TV and movies, like you hear the same laughter. Like I would watch Nickelodeon sitcoms and I'd hear the same Dan Schneider laugh track. Whoa. And I started to I started to listen to that Stevie Stevie Wonder, Stevie Nicks landslide. And I I would like say, oh, the whistle comes in right now and it's going to hit a C sharp. Yeah.

I know. I know that's the only thing about live stuff that can be weird. But I mean, do you think your music – I mean, do you ever picture yourself singing it at 55 and what that will be like for you? Because I think good music, which you obviously do, just takes – it doesn't become irrelevant. Like Mick Jagger has that famous phrase, quote where he said, I don't want to be singing Satisfaction when I'm 60. Right.

Well, not only does he sing Satisfaction, but seeing Mick come out on tour after battling that health issue, I think it might have been cancer, has a whole new resonance, a whole new fulfillment. And you see Mick for the first time and you love him again. And I think that's what's cool about playing songs that are, you know, maybe you wrote at your age and you'll get to sing them when you're much, much older.

I'm happy to sing songs like that I wrote, like See You Again. I wrote when I was 23, which is now starting to feel like a long time ago. I'm 28. Jesus. And I...

I wrote that song as a remembrance for my friend. And then that turned into being a remembrance for Paul Walker. And then that turned into people realizing, hey, this song, this worldwide phenomenon hit...

that's played everywhere in summer of 2015, it can also be a graduation song. It can also be a casual, hey, just thinking of you song. It doesn't have to just be a funeral song. And I think that goes with the person who's singing it too. Like,

Glenn Campbell, God rest his soul, he sang Wichita Lineman up until the day he passed away, I believe. And what was crazy is that I know he had some memory issues, but every time he sang a song, he'd sing it word for word, no teleprompter, perfectly. And that

That just it's there are so that's why I'm focusing now on writing songs that are ageless, because I still think you just change the arrangement a little bit. My voice is bound to get, you know, I'm not going to be able to hit some of the notes I'm hitting now when I'm, you know, hopefully I can. Kenny Loggins again, but again, it's so funny. I was about to interrupt you and say, unless you're Kenny Loggins.

I'm telling you, Rob, I think we're like the same... I think we're like... We were reincarnated. We're like the same person. I think we share the same brain. We definitely share the same brain. And I was watching... I love... If we can steer just a second away from the music. I love watching... I pulled up an old...

an older video of you when you did your first, very first Entertainment Tonight interview. Oh my God. And just the way that you, the way, but you say, oh my God, but the way that you carried yourself and how you were so humble and everyone was like, y'all, these, these, uh,

All these fans adore him like, yes, but it's about hard work at the end of the day. That's the same. You know, it sounds cheesy, but it's like the same model that I go by. And it was really nice. I felt like I was looking at myself in some way. So now we have the same musical brain as well. Well, thank you for saying it. I want to get I want to talk about that. But I just want to tell you my Kenny Loggins thing quickly. I said, why can you still hit the high notes? And he said, it's because I've been divorced so much. I said, what?

He goes, because I've had to pay for my divorces, I've never not been on the road. So my voice – he's convinced that as you get older, it's the time off that kills your voice. Yes. I think it's like working out. It's like if I – I once went on Christmas break and I didn't –

I didn't produce a song for a month. And then when I got back to Berkeley in Boston in like 2012, winter of 2012, I wasn't really good at making beats because I was so rusty. You always have to just keep it moving. You always have to keep it going. Hold the thought. We'll be right back.

All set for your flight? Yep. I've got everything I need. Eye mask, neck pillow, T-Mobile, headphones. Wait, T-Mobile? You bet. Free in-flight Wi-Fi. 15% off all Hilton brands. I'll never go anywhere without T-Mobile. Same goes for my water bottle, chewing gum, nail clippers. Okay, I'm going to leave you to it. Find out how you can experience travel better at T-Mobile.com slash travel. ♪

Qualifying plan required. Wi-Fi were available on select U.S. airlines. Deposit and Hilton Honors membership required for 15% discount terms and conditions apply. Speaking of beats, walk me through working with Lil Wayne. How crazy was that? I would love to have been a fly on the wall for that. I'm a big Lil Wayne guy. See, that's the thing. Like my diversity of friendships, my diversity of musical taste is also, like I can listen to The Carpenters and Lil Wayne and appreciate both.

Okay, so I had a song. Instagram. There was a song I did with Lil Wayne called Instagram Bottles. We'll start with that because not everybody knows this song. And it was a very, very early piece of work of mine. I wrote it in a sauna in 2013. And it's because in 2013, Instagram, the app, started popping off. I started seeing it on everybody's phones. And I said to myself, wow, I think this could trump Facebook because Instagram.

It's getting really popular. And then I started to see models, male and female, using Instagram because Instagram started purely out as a photographer's platform for photographers to show off their work. And then it became a platform of somewhat gloatitious modeling. Charlie, I believe the technical phrase is thirst trap.

So I started seeing thirst traps left and right, and it made me coin the phrase. I'm pretty sure I wasn't the first to think of it, but I was like, wow, all these Instagram models, they're nothing but trouble because they're going to catfish these people. They're like, you know, they can do up their face and make themselves look different. And I thought to myself, that could be a cool song. And then I wrote...

And I wrote that hook and then sent it to Wayne about two years later. And then it became... That song has had three different lives. It was a SoundCloud song for me in 2013, written in a sauna, and then became a Lil Wayne song, and then became a number one dance record in the UK. Someone who just...

It was wild. So you never know where music is going to take you, I guess. Who's your favorite person on the scene today? Like when you're driving up to Santa Barbara in the car, who are you putting on? Let me see. Well, I have a very – I've had a very big fascination with Limp Bizkit playing at Woodstock 99 just because they're –

Just the narrative. They were the biggest band. This was before Eminem. Like, Fred Durst, people don't give him enough credit. He really set the stage for that new metal, like, nookie, roll-in, rapper's rock kind of thing. Rebellious. 1999. 1999 was a weird year. But I know there was a lot of controversy surrounding that performance, but...

I've never seen people go crazier in an audience. It was really something to see. So I usually just put that YouTube video on, set my phone down, and just go for a drive up to Santa Barbara. And if I'm not doing that, I'm usually listening to Walking Man by James Taylor. Walking Man, though. That's the one? Really? Yeah.

I, I, I love obscure James Taylor songs. Like James Taylor has a song called love songs. It's has a pan flute or some sort of, uh, uh, some sort of flute. It's so drugged out. 70s sounding. Cause I would hear those types of chord changes. You,

Of course you know that song. I mean, it's you and me. You and me are the only ones who know that song.

But I would hear those chords in a John Coltrane record, like Giant Steps. I would hear that in a record like, he put out a record called October Road in 2002 where he has a song called On the Fourth of July and it goes around the cycle of fifths. Kind of Brazilian influence, but

James is the man. He's the man. Fred Durst and James Taylor. Again, that's like both sides of the equation. I'm a copper line man myself. My birth year, that came out. I love the ambience. That was, again, James Taylor had a lot of success later in his career as well. Maybe arguably even more. When he put Hourglass out in 97, he got a Grammy for it. Copper line man.

How many chord changes can you fit in the song? He said a lot. One night I saw my daddy dance. Brought it back from the war in France. Saw him moving like a man in a trance down on Copper Lime. Get the fuck out of here with that lyric. I get chills. His lyricism...

his way of telling a story, but at the same time, making it phonetically so pleasing to sing along with. Like you listen to like, you know, more of a known song like Fire and Rain. That's a...

Like, what a fucking way to open up a song. Just yesterday morning, they let me know that you're gone. But think about what he's saying. Like, the way that he's singing it, it's so catchy. Like, just yesterday morning. Like, that's what Max Martin, when he makes a Britney Spears record...

you know, or a Backstreet Boys record. He never cared about what the lyrics were actually saying. He just cared about how the phonetics were connected to each other. James was able to do that and tell a cohesive story at the same time. That's insanely hard to do. And not a lot of artists can pull that off nowadays. I was thinking about now, who is Livingston Taylor?

Livingston Taylor is James's brother. I believe he's his younger brother. Okay. This makes perfect sense because forever that's, he has that one massive hit. What is it? Oh, what? Um, I will be with you. He had that and he had a couple others. Um,

Obviously not on the scale of James, but Livingston, very special in his own way, has really carved his way as a very, very big cult following. And as a professor at Berkeley stage performance class, which I took. Oh, wow. OK. I'm so glad to know it because I knew for years I thought it was James. And then you see it's Livingston. I did have a son or a brother.

Well, there's a lot of talent running in the Taylor family. I believe Ben Taylor. Ben Taylor has a song called There's Nothing That I Can Do Belong To You. It's a perfect mixture of Carly Simon and James Taylor. If you haven't heard it, it's a very, very beautiful song. I think he's living in Martha's Vineyard.

Somewhere. I just I love that family because there's such talent running around, but they're not impressed with themselves at all. Livingston, very talented, very humble. James, same thing. And I got to work with James a couple of times. And, you know, you'd think that he'd be like, I'm James Taylor, but not quite the opposite. I love Carly Simon. You know what anticipation anticipation is written about, right? I don't actually. See, this is what I love.

This is what I don't know. Everything. Are you? Listen, do you get tired of my trivia shit like this? Or you're like, no, that's a famous fucking big song. Right. It'd be fun to know. No, I don't get tired of it at all. And I'll tell you why. Because I want to. I'll never forget something musical. Someone tells me and then I'll tell it like I always knew it. So please tell me what that song is written about. It's Carly Simon being obsessed with the new hot music.

guy on the block, Cat Stevens. No kidding. And waiting for him to pick her up for the first date. No kidding. Isn't that cool? So she wrote that while they were, I guess how people talked back in the day, that they were, she wrote how... She was waiting for him, like she was anticipating the date. She was waiting for him.

I also think it's got the greatest, most genius lyric ever. These are the good old days. These are the good old days. These. These are the good old days. Not in the past, not in the future. It's so profound and great, and it's so simple. I think I'm living my best life right now, and I'm making an active effort. I think you told me to do this once. I'm making an active effort to realize that

What I have going on in my life right now at 28 is pretty amazing because at 24...

I may, I maybe didn't realize that there was, I, maybe there were times I took like everybody or, you know, we're, you're only human. No one's perfect, but that we took some things for granted and I don't want to take anything for granted ever again, because I'm going to be 30 and I'm going to think back, wow, I had a lot of fun at 28 and then I'll be 32 and think about, wow, I had a lot of fun at 30. So I truly believe the best times are upon us right now. Yeah. It's,

My 20s, for me, were some of the biggest times of my life, my career, in many, many ways. And you cycle if you're lucky. And you have talent, so you will be one of the lucky ones. But you cycle through so many different –

periods where the highs are maybe lower and the lows are higher or whatever it is. And you can still have the same amount of energy behind it, but it's just going to be different. You know, having a hit in your 20s is a very different thing than having a hit in your 50s. And the experience, like what you think is cool about it is completely different. Right.

Than what you thought it was in 20. Do you know this whole thing that people say that the year of 24 in your chronological 24th year is the height of your songwriting abilities? I don't mean to say that to bum you out because you have passed your 24th year. But if you look at all of the songs that were written when guys and gals were 24, it's insane. You've heard that. I know. You've heard that, right? It's I've, I have heard that. And I don't,

I don't necessarily agree with 100% of it because I wrote, okay, I wrote See You Again at like 23. Give me a little See You Again. Give me a little bit of that sugar. I'll give it to you in a sexy version. It's been a long day without you, my friend.

That's the Barry White version. Oh, I got another thing for you. Have you ever heard the Barry White public service announcement audio? No, but I can imagine what that would sound like. What does it say? Everybody listening, it takes some finding, but there's the greatest...

Video of Barry White with that amazing voice reading a public service announcement for some charity event in Waco, Texas. It's it's it's right up there with Casey Kasem going ballistic in terms of like it is the absolute greatest thing.

God rest your soul very well. My favorite Simpsons episode was have you ever seen season four when the town thinks that they have to continue on with this tradition of beating rattlesnakes up? It was that when the Simpsons was at its prime. They didn't know why. The townies didn't know why that they had to on this day in March get their bats and beat the living shit out of snakes in Springfield. But like they just have to. And Bart.

got together with Barry White and Barry sang a song about the importance of not beating up snakes. That's amazing. Oh man, The Simpsons used to be the best show ever. It's the greatest show ever. And we'll be right back after this.

All set for your flight? Yep. I've got everything I need. Eye mask, neck pillow, T-Mobile, headphones. Wait, T-Mobile? You bet. Free in-flight Wi-Fi. 15% off all Hilton brands. I never go anywhere without T-Mobile. Same goes for my water bottle, chewing gum, nail clippers. Okay, I'm going to leave you to it. Find out how you can experience travel better at T-Mobile.com slash travel. ♪

Qualifying plan required. Wi-Fi were available on select U.S. airlines. Deposit and Hilton Honors membership required for 15% discount terms and conditions apply. Were you ever able to hear the Everly Brothers? No. I think if I'm going for best all-time harmonies, I'm putting them over Simon & Garfunkel. Really? I'm like really not familiar with them. Yeah, I mean, it's very dated. But if you...

Just treat yourself to like Dream. By the way, written when they were 16. Dream. Oh, yeah. Dream, dream, dream. Rob, I've obviously, I've heard that song before, but it's so interesting. I'm assuming that was like a 50s thing. That was like a song that would make people cry in the 50s. And what's...

What makes people cry nowadays is just it's so like that would be considered upbeat if it with the with the drum pattern and everything. It's like what makes people cry nowadays. It's like a Billie Eilish song with no drums in it. Yeah. Like complete halftime. It's just really interesting to see. I think we're going to get back to those days of where happy songs can also be sad, like happy key changes can be sad. Yeah.

Well, that's like, you know, who does that great as Casey Musgraves? Oh, it's like that album Golden Hour. Oof, dude. What the fuck? Like when I heard that album, I was blown away. And because it is it's happy, sad music.

It's exactly what you're saying. She literally has a song called Happy and Sad. Yeah, which is an amazing song. I have a question for you. What's the song lyric that you, like, big hit song, heard it your whole life, and many, many years later you went, wait a minute, that's the lyric? I never knew that. Like, for me, it's... Go for it. What is it? No, you tell me yours, and then I'll tell you mine, because yours is going to be more interesting. Mine's...

Is in Boston song more than a feeling. It's more than a feeling when I hear that old song, babe, more than a feeling. And there's actually a whole fucking phrase.

in there that I never heard, which is when I hear that old song that I used to play. Like there's something about that part I never heard ever. Because that might be one of the greatest melodies ever made. Like your mind is so fixated on the G major to the F sharps to the 7 to the D. Like there's nowhere to go.

except to the C major. It's just so pleasing to hear that melody. Like you don't care.

What the lyric is. For me, it was the Pina Colada song. I didn't know it was him about getting divorced from his wife and then, you know, going to a bar and asking, hey, does anybody want to get with me? I had no idea that that's what that song was about. I can't pull up the lyrics right now. Don't worry. I know the lyrics, sadly. What does it first start off with? It's kind of obvious because the, I hate to break it to you, the first lyric is, I was tired of my lady.

But like, I don't even I don't know. That's the one of those songs that's just like I just know it as the Pina Colada song. My favorite is the is the performance in it where it's like he's trying to like hook up with a stranger. His wife is in the bed next to him, knows nothing about it.

But meanwhile, you realize that she's also been trying to hook up with a stranger. And then they meet in the bar and he literally says in the thing. And I knew her smile in an instant. And I said, ah, it's you. Like, there's no like, what the fuck? There's like, it's the weirdest. But it's the weirdest song. A little pina colada here. A little pina colada song, Devin. It was my own lovely lady. And she said, oh, it's you. Oh, it's you. I never...

That's the Rob version. I miss artists disguising shady lyricism in happy songs, that dichotomy. Nowadays, if you sing a sad song, the music sounds sad. Everyone's afraid to take fucking risk nowadays. Just make something completely... I wrote a song called We Don't Talk Anymore that sounds...

as a spanish guitar net and a happy major key

It's it's it's it's about a crumbling relationship that is going well the moment you wrote it. But you can just see the foreseeable future that is going to be toxic. Like but like it needs to be not everything has to be so parallel. That's why I like the Pina Colada song. So I was like you. Will you tell me this? So when when that's a perfect example, the name of the song is Escape.

Right. Parenthetically, the pina colada song. So how does that happen? Is it one of those things where you play it for the it's so clearly should be called the pina colada song or God forbid pina colada.

But no, no, no, no, no, no, no. The artist is like, no, it's called escape because don't you understand the character is trying to escape from a relationship and it's – so how does that happen? Does the record company go, fuck it, we'll call it escape, keep him happy. Meanwhile, parenthetically, it's the Pina Colada song. Usually it's the audience just – you just feel it. Like –

I wrote a song called How Long Has This Been Going On? And they wanted me to make the title shorter so they saw it on their app. It would just be a shorter title. But they didn't know that Ace had a hit. That's right. My first thing I thought. By the way, with the greatest lyric, you're friends with their fancy persuasions.

Amazing lyric in that song. Damn. Amazing. You're amazing. Friends with your fancy persuasions. They had a hit with a long title. You can have long titles. Taylor Swift have we are never getting back together. You can have long titles. But I and but lo and behold, I did some radio promo and people just naturally started calling the song. How long has this been going on? And then which when I was on tour playing for 15000 people, I

I started playing the notes and I was like, everyone wants this song called. And they all went, how long has this been going on? And it's like, see, it's just you have to kind of put your artist ego aside in some cases and be like, not everyone is going to understand the ninth dimension meaning of this lyric. You just have to say what it is. What is the song called? It's called Pina Colada.

It's the pina colada. Hey, so I know that you write jingles, and you did a podcast jingle for somebody, didn't you? Yeah, my friends Zach Braff and Donald, who are on the show Scrubs. Zach, the best show ever. Shout out to Bill Burns. And by the way, Zach Braff's Only Living Boy in New York, which we discussed earlier.

came to my attention in Zach Braff's amazing movie, Garden State.

directed and acted. He, Zach is a very, very, he's a stud. That movie is amazing. Amazing movie. What, what a handsome man. It was a good man. And he reached out and said that he was doing this podcast because I think, you know, it was right at the beginning of COVID and everybody just kind of realized that we all need an entertainment is going to thrive. And he reached out and asked if I could write a little, a little ditty for it. And,

He and Donald are actually pretty musically inclined. They used to sing on the show Scrubs all the time. They had their man love song that did very well on the show. So I didn't really even write it. I just put chords to it. They sang into their microphones into GarageBand, and then I just took their vocals and placed them and just made a little beat for it. They said they wanted it to sound like a joyful...

you know, walking in the line of Jesus gospel. Well, I want to play my opening theme for you and get your musicologist Berkeley education, like review of it. All right. All right, please. Devin, let's, let's hit him with it. And we're back with Charlie Puth.

Wow. That's WNBC. That's really good. Nice, big, happy key. It's very Rob. It sounds like a Rob Lowe thing. Does it sound like literally? It's like it's got a little Boys of Summer, Don Henley guitar at the beginning. I love the... You could easily, if you wanted to be super cheeky, you could just fit your name into that. Rob Lowe. Rob Lowe.

I am Rob Lowe. I am Rob Lowe. That's what I would be like cheeky with that. You have a good vowel, the O vowel in your last name, so you could like harmonize it like. I am Rob Lowe. I love this show. I love this show. I love this show.

I am Rob Lowe. That might be the most ridiculous lyrics are oftentimes the best. It sounds really good. Good. I thought you'd like it. It's just, it is literally an earworm. It like gets in your head and you're fucked. You're done. Yeah, exactly. I also wanted something that you knew the minute you heard it, you knew there was no way it could be anything other than what it is.

No, it's, well, I mean, the theme of this show is your love for Yacht Rock, so I'm not expecting to hear the opening of the Howard Stern show with him and Rob Zombie, but it's your version of that. It's really nice. Now you've got to get Don Henley. I'm sure you can pull some strings. You've got to get Michael McDonald to sing. If you've got Michael McDonald, fuck me, get Michael McDonald to sing I Love Rob Lowe. Rob Lowe! Rob Lowe!

So good. You've seen the... Did you ever look at the video I told you about of...

I think it's SCTV of, and I asked Martin Short about this when he was on the show, of Michael McDonald forgetting to sing all the parts in I Keep Forgetting. And he leaves the studio, gets in his car and realizes he is not done singing and has to keep going back into the studio. It's the dumbest thing.

comedy bit I've ever seen and it's so good. Oh, it's like a comedy bit. No, I haven't seen that, but I could only, he does so many vocal stacks in that song. It's amazing. I actually bought his house in, the first time I ever came to Santa Barbara to look for a house, I wanted to buy his house. I didn't get it. I got outbid.

And then 17 years later, I was we're building a house and needed another house to live in. And I did buy his house. And he's the nicest man. And I mean, he's the voice of 70s hits, man.

I know. I did a little impression of him on the Jimmy Fallon show, and that went over very, very well. And I hope he saw it. I think he did see it because someone said he wanted to. Wait a minute. You're not getting off this podcast without giving me some Michael McDonald, bro.

Come on. He's my guy. See, he can sing forever because he kind of yawns when he sings. So he doesn't put too much strenuous energy on. He had a place in his life. He had it all in his eyes. I'm so bad with lyrics. And he goes, and he ran it through her body.

So when they did that live, it was better than the studio version. It was insane. That was pretty good. Thank you. Not nearly as good as the man himself, but good for party tricks. Really good for party tricks.

Well, this has been amazing. This has been so much fun. We need to do part two of this. I'm just calling this right now. Part two of this. Part two of this, but I'm going to come at it with a set list, and as should you.

As long as you put I love Rob Lowe in your theme song background and you should get this keyboard I'm playing. I don't know why you can easily get one of these. Even though you can't if you can't play like it's still just the aesthetic of it. Well, let me ask you this. Is it I love is it I am Rob Lowe, which requires me to sing it.

Or is it better with – maybe I can get Michael McDonald to sing, here is Rob Lowe. Yes, that would be – Here is his show.

That's it. That's the lyric. And then you start with Michael McDonald, then you get Don Henley, if Don does it, and then you get another person, and then by the end, by the 100th Rob Lowe show, you will have a We Are The World amount of people on your theme music, and it'll be legendary. Yeah.

And every week you get to say, who did we add this week? Ah, we added Stevie Nicks. Ah, who did we add this week? Every week another person joins the stack of Rob Lowe singers. Guys, make a note of this. Every time we have somebody who can sing, just to have it then, we're going to do this one more time and I'm going to shut my big fucking yap and you're going to sing it. I'm going to sing it. Listen, let's co-write this right now. What is the lyric? Is it

Here is Rob Lowe. This is his show. Here is Rob Lowe. This is his show. Here is Rob Lowe. This is his show. Yeah. There you go. Now, I want you to take every time you have, even if they can't sing, you have to stack their voice on top of mine. And then you're going to have a 100 person Rob Lowe choir at the end of this podcast.

I'm so there. Brian Wilson can eat his heart out. It's going to be the equivalent of going backstage at a 400 person venue and signing the wall in the bathroom. Exactly. I'm not making them do that stupid, hacked out, tired old day. We sign our wall. No, sing my song. Sing the song.

I mean, God damn. How did we not get Maria Shriver to sing this? I'm certain you can do that. God darn it. Thank you. This is fucking amazing. This is great. Awesome. Thanks for coming on, literally. And I am Rob Lowe. I am Rob Lowe. Goodbye, Rob Lowe. This is the end of the show. Show.

All right. I'll see you soon, friend. All right, brother. Love you. I have a new theme song. I have a new theme song. How great is that? See, that's the way you get shit for free, people. You have people come on the show and you just hit them. Can you imagine if I like, you know what I want? I want Charlie Puth to do my theme. I'd have to talk to an agent and then a manager and then a lawyer and then they negotiate and it'd be so expensive and then I couldn't do it.

And now I have it because he's a nice guy. Nice, smart. Like, I love it. It makes me it just makes me happy that there's kids today that, you know, are going to carry the flag of good music. Really, for sure. It does. That was so fun. And I hope you guys didn't get too bored with the nerdy geekdom of music that is, let's face it, old man music.

All right. Thank you so much for listening. And we've got a really excellent podcast next week. So get ready and I'll see you then. You have been listening to Literally with Rob Lowe, produced and engineered by Devin Torrey Bryant and me, Rob Schulte. Our coordinating producer is Lisa Berm.

The show is executive produced by Rob Lowe for Low Profile, Jeff Ross, Adam Sachs, and Joanna Solitaroff at Team Coco, and Colin Anderson at Stitcher. Our talent bookers are Gina Batista, Paula Davis, and Britt Kahn, and music is by Devin Tory Bryant. This has been a Team Coco production in association with Stitcher.

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