Mike Post has written more iconic TV Show theme songs than you could ever imagine. Now, the legendary composer is releasing a new solo bluegrass album entitled "Message from the Mountains & Echoes of the Delta"
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00:00You know him as a composer of shows, theme songs like Rockford Files, Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, Law and Order, Greatest American Hero, The A-Team, Bob Bob Blacksheep, Kathy Blossom, Blossom, Doogie Howser, Quantum Leap, Hardcastle McCormick, we're like, what do we bring him on with? We need something exciting.
00:23So we're going to do that. Ladies and gentlemen, we are very excited to welcome Mr. Mike Post to our show this morning. Mike, good morning, sir.
00:35Good morning, good morning. Nice to meet you, Preston.
00:37Thank you, and wonderful to have you on our show, and I'm sorry if I butchered some of your most cherished melodies with my, I'm not a singer, so.
00:45Well, you know what, as long as you enjoy them, I don't care how well you sing.
00:50I've got to say it's an honor, Mike, to talk to you because I kid you not, and I've told this story many times on air, I had a Dodge Dart, I got my first cassette player, and immediately I got the Mike Post TV theme songs, and I drove around cranking that thing, and I remember there used to be sort of a backlash.
01:15When before people understood, you don't understand, these are brilliant compositions, and you know, you were obviously been enjoying a successful career at the time, but I think over time, people have begun to appreciate, you know, people who do the soundtracks for TV and movies.
01:32You know, Hans Zimmer, and Jerry Goldsmith, and John Williams, and people such as yourself, as composers, as you know, holding up that end of the musical experience for so many people, and that's what makes your new project, this album, Messages from the Mountain and Echoes of the Delta.
01:52It seems like it's something you've been working towards all your career. Would it be safe to say that?
01:59Yeah, you know, I've never thought of it that way, honestly. With this, you know, making music for television is kind of the same as making music for film, so we're all in sort of one community.
02:15Basically, basically, we look at pictures without music, and somehow a jukebox starts playing in our head.
02:22But this particular project, what happened here, it was probably percolating and brewing my whole life, because I started out as a folky, and so I'm fairly authentic as a bluegrass guy, and then I've played a lot of blues in my life, and so I think of myself as authentic as a blues appreciator, for sure.
02:45And now, you know, delving into the idea of melding both blues and bluegrass with orchestral music was what this really is.
02:56And the reason it happened was COVID put my shows on ice for, you know, six months, and I had nothing to do.
03:06So I was born of that.
03:08It's funny, a friend of the show, Michael Cicchino, he did something similar.
03:11He released Travelog Volume 1, which was sort of an expression for him.
03:18It seems like almost the exact same scenario gave birth to that.
03:23So with your life and as prolific as you've been, it had to be just frustrating to have everything stalled, and this is your outlet.
03:29Well, you know, honestly, when it first struck, I went, oh, man, I'm going to get a vacation that isn't, you know, from May to September, which is usually when I'm, you know, when I'm back in Philly with my wife's family, and, you know, this was like, okay, a vacation when I'm not supposed to have a vacation.
03:51But then after about a week, I got restless and went, well, what are you going to do?
03:57You know, I've got to do something.
03:59And Giacchino, good friend of mine, too, you know, all of us, you know, we're sort of stuck in our lane of like, okay, it's time to go to work.
04:10They got a film or a TV show for us to do.
04:13But the truth is music's music, you know, and we're all in the band, you know, so we're going to play.
04:21Well, I listened to a lot of it last night, and I love the sound, and I love soundtracks.
04:29I love music of this nature, and not that it's a soundtrack, I guess you could say it for people who, and I don't even know what that classification means.
04:38It's just, it seems story told to music, and the melding of the styles, and it has a uniquely American, if I'm saying that right, sound to it.
04:49And it also, to me, it put me in mind of kind of an Aaron Copeland kind of thing, that the hope of this country, it is a story of immigrants, correct?
04:59Yeah, you know, it is exactly that.
05:03It didn't start out that way, but I'm for sure, you know, a product of this country and a product of what I've heard.
05:12And it, you know, the more I, the more that it, it sort of grew and blossomed, and the more it did that, the more it became in the line.
05:27You know, listen, I grew up on Rodeo, and, you know, and Copeland, and Dvorak, and the New World Symphony, and how, to me, that was sort of the discovery of rock and roll, you know, to me, and jazz, and bluegrass, and all the rest.
05:45You know, it, it, it's informed me, musically, my whole life, that kind of music, you know.
05:53Mike, how often does it happen that you have an intention with a direction on a piece of music, and it ends up being something completely different by the time you're done with it?
06:02Daily.
06:04Yeah, daily, daily.
06:06It'd be a minute, you know, Michael McDonald was right, minute by minute.
06:11It's like, you know, it's like, oh, yeah, you know, I know exactly what I'm doing.
06:16You know, I've been doing this my entire, you know, 79 years I've been on this earth.
06:22I've been playing music for 75 of it, and, or 74 of it.
06:27And, you know, and I'm, you know, I'm technically pretty strong.
06:31Oh, I know everything about it.
06:32I don't know a thing.
06:35Honest to God, it's magic.
06:37You know, anybody that tells you that, oh, it's so intentional, and it's so this, yeah, it starts out that way, but then it just, it just goes crazy, especially the more players you add, the more ideas come out,
06:53the more it takes on a life of its own, it's a weird way to make a living because, you know, you're supposed to know everything about it, and none of us know nothing.
07:04It's just magic.
07:06Where did you think you were going to go with music when you began as opposed to where you ended up?
07:10Did you think you were going to be a, you know, a folk star, a performer, and then it led you down a different path?
07:18Yeah, honest to God, I sort of, looking back on it, if you will, I was in, I was in the hallway of the music rehearsal building at any college or university or, you know, community college.
07:36You walk down the hallway, and there's all these little doors, and there's these rooms where guys are, you know, people are practicing, right?
07:44And to me, you know, my goal was always the same.
07:49I just wanted to make an honorable living like the way I was raised, you know, your words, everything, you know, being upright, kind of straight arrow guy and make a living doing music.
08:03What did that mean?
08:04Well, if you're working in a club, that's good.
08:07If you're, you know, part of the studio scene, the way I was here in L.A., young, oh, my God, that's fantastic.
08:17If you get a shot at, you know, playing stadium rock, okay, you know.
08:23So if it's down to repairing instruments or teaching or whatever, you know, just I get to do music and I make a decent living at it, home run, home run.
08:35Well, you, I mean, you are a heavy hitter in every sense of the word.
08:40You know, I'm a massive fan, Preston and I are huge fans of this documentary, The Wrecking Crew, about this incredible collection of musicians.
08:47You were part of this crew.
08:49You're very self-effacing.
08:52You say you were lower rung on that group, but you had, I think your idol is Tommy Tedesco, correct?
08:59Yeah, one of them, Tommy helped me a lot.
09:04He big brother me, but so did Glenn Campbell and so did a lot of guys.
09:07And, yeah, just to be mentioned in that group of gunfighters, because that's really what we are.
09:15We walked into studios every day, sometimes three and four times a day, sat down, and they dropped music in front of us that we'd never heard.
09:24We're rehearsed, are you kidding me?
09:26Let's go.
09:27You look at it, you listen to it once, and, you know, we come up with a hit lick, and next, you know, next session, three hours later.
09:35I can't, I don't, you know, it's something that I keep trying to spread the message to, to people, and Preston and I are, you know, get the word out about this.
09:43You need to understand just what an accomplished, insanely talented group of people that you guys were, and lady, who are all part of this.
09:55And yet, I was reading an interview with you where you said you decided early that that was kind of more where you like to be behind the scenes a bit more.
10:04And then Dolly Parton once said something about your career.
10:07What did she say to you?
10:09Oh, she said, you know, I'm the luckiest guy in the world.
10:13She said, you know, I was out to dinner with her and a guy that I went to grammar school, junior high and high school with named Tom Selleck, right?
10:24And they were, our dinner was getting interrupted, you know, every 12 seconds with somebody that wanted a picture, an autograph or something,
10:32which is, that's what, that's the route that goes with the territory of their territory.
10:37And they, after a while, they just started laughing and they just looked at me and both of them are kind of smirking and, you know, just being wise asses.
10:47And so Dolly says, you know, you're the luckiest guy on the face of the earth.
10:51You got all the good parts and none of the bad parts.
10:54It's true.
10:55It's really, it's really true.
10:57I haven't, you know, when Dolly walks out on stage and the light hits her, the most magical stuff happens.
11:07These people are different than I am, that they just shine when they're being watched by an audience.
11:17You know, they just, they blow up.
11:20I'm, I blow up in the studio.
11:23I blow up when I'm sitting alone at night, you know, in front of my piano or playing guitar by myself.
11:30So, and, and I, I'm, I'm, I'm made for the job I'm at, which is, it's not that I hate performing.
11:38I don't, it's just that I love being in the studio and making me.
11:43There's a blessing to knowing what you, what you enjoy and really assessing what you are, what you're dialed in for.
11:51And then if you can find that out early, then that can be everything to you because you, you know, your, your missteps are less because you're guided by that.
11:59Well, Dolly wasn't wrong.
12:01I'm so fortunate.
12:03You know, I, I, I grew up in LA, so I didn't have to, I didn't have to come from West Philly.
12:10I didn't have to, you know, I didn't have to, I didn't, didn't have to come from Des Moines.
12:15I was already here.
12:16I played on my first hit record when I was 19 and I produced, produced my first hit when I was 21.
12:22And won my first Grammy when I was 24 and became director of the Andy Williams show that year as well.
12:29And so it was like, I sort of hit the ground running and, and things just, doors just opened up in that hallway that were, that I never could have predicted.
12:41I never could have dreamed this.
12:44I never did dream this.
12:45I just, it just happened.
12:47You know, and, and I was, you know, I'm proud of some of some of the stuff that I've accomplished.
12:52I'm proud of the fact that I've never whiffed, you know, every 7,200 hours of television.
12:59And I've never missed a day of work.
13:01I never, I never let a producer down.
13:04You know, they, the guys that I worked for all were my dear friends and, and they seemed to be happy with me.
13:12Mike, when I was a kid, Greatest American Hero was sort of one of my favorite early TV shows.
13:17I was six or seven when it came out.
13:19And I loved the theme song, which you composed.
13:22And then when I was a teenager or maybe in college, it showed up again in my life on George Costanza's answering machine.
13:29And I'm curious as to whether or not you made any money off of the Seinfeld airing of the Greatest American Hero theme.
13:37Hmm.
13:38Let me think about that.
13:39Hell yes.
13:40Are you kidding me?
13:45They better pay me.
13:47Come on.
13:48You, you told, you were telling a story about, I guess it was Stephen J. Connell, who is a genius and a producer of so many shows.
13:57Rockford Files, for example.
13:59And, and he did something kind of wild, which I thought was cool.
14:03He kind of came to you and, and, and it was, it's just true, Mike.
14:06You're, you're very humble, but so a lot of the heat on those shows, and the people may not remember this, your theme songs became hits.
14:15We're, we're being played on the air in rotation.
14:18Yep.
14:18And so Connell came to you and said, you're a substantial part of this show.
14:24What, what, he, he made you an offer that was unheard of at the time.
14:27Could you, could you illuminate us on that?
14:29Yeah, he, you know, at the time, and, and, you know, if he were alive today, he'd still be my best friend.
14:37So, you know, we're hanging together, you know, do a lot of stuff together, businesses outside of music and, and, and TV together.
14:45So one day the phone rings and he had just gone out on his own.
14:49He, he was originally signed to universal and he, then he went out on his own and created this company that he became the deficit financer.
14:57And so blah, blah, blah.
14:59So, uh, the phone rings candle on the phone.
15:03Okay.
15:03Hey, what's going on?
15:04What are you doing?
15:05I'm working.
15:06What do you need?
15:07He was, I just looked at the budgets, you know, uh, and, and this is, this is completely wrong.
15:16Completely wrong.
15:17I said, okay.
15:18I'm thinking, what am I overcharging or something?
15:20And he, you know, I'm getting wealthy and, and you're underpaid.
15:25I went, Oh, get off the phone.
15:27I got to go to work.
15:29You know, don't bug me with this baloney.
15:31He goes, no, no, I'm serious.
15:33You're my best friend and you are way underpaid.
15:35I said, you know, nobody died and left you the keys to the kingdom.
15:39Do you, you don't get to say all this.
15:41I'm making good money.
15:42You know, he said, just come up.
15:45With another figure in another way to do this, because you're not getting paid enough.
15:49And I went, you're an idiot.
15:51And I said, okay, here's what to do.
15:56Just give me the whole budget for the music.
15:59And I'll be the, you know, I'll do what you're doing in the film side, being the deficit
16:03financer.
16:04I'll just, I'll manage the music budget.
16:07And he goes, well, well, wait a second.
16:09I don't want you to take those kinds of risks.
16:11What if you, what if I don't like what you did?
16:14I said, when's the last time that happened?
16:15And he said, yeah, maybe you're right.
16:19And honestly, the idea of packaging the music had, had not been done in television.
16:25And so honestly, that's how, you know, that's how I got financially stable, shall we say.
16:33I mean, it had not happened before.
16:35And you, you were, you, again, and we're talking about Message from the Mountains and Echoes
16:40of the Delta, which is this, this project, which is, is phenomenal.
16:45You, you introduced electric guitars.
16:48I think it was Connell, I was reading, always said you always wanted to infuse rock and roll
16:54into that.
16:54And that not had been the norm on TV themes before that.
16:59How hard did you have to fight to infuse new sort of sounds, more rock elements into
17:05your compositions?
17:07There was no fight at all.
17:08Honest to God, what I did was so simple, Steve.
17:13There was Mancini.
17:15Mancini, Mancini was the guy that came in saying, I'm going to do music that they're
17:21going to walk out humming.
17:22So, you know, obviously Peter Gunn, Mr. Lucky, you know, you know, the guy was just tuneful,
17:31right?
17:31And he took those little tunes and then the entire score reflected those tunes.
17:38So I, myself and my late partner, Pete Carpenter, we said, let's just do what Mancini did.
17:45Let's make little one minute hit records and then let's reflect those melodies and the
17:51score.
17:51Because indeed, yeah, I've done well with theme songs, but I've done the score for every one
17:57of those 7,200 hours of episodes.
18:00So that's, you know, that's my real job.
18:02And let's just reflect the theme and all the underscores.
18:07So, well, that's what we did.
18:10But look at my background.
18:12My background is as a rock and roll, you know, piano and guitar player.
18:15So what's my sensibilities as opposed to jazz and big band stuff that Mancini came out of?
18:21So I just carried on a matrix that he had established and I did it coming from where I came from.
18:29You know, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, you know, Jerry Lee, you know, Johnny Cash.
18:33Yeah, yeah.
18:35Bluegrass and blues.
18:36And that's reflected in this project that you plugged so nicely this morning.
18:42I do want to tell you that the theme song for The Greatest American Hero was the sole reason
18:48why I quit football back in, I think it was 1981.
18:52And my older brother played football and I had to play with him.
18:56And I'm playing with all these kids that are three years older than me.
18:59And I got hit so hard that I went flying like five, ten yards.
19:03And the big thing about Greatest American Hero is that he didn't know how to land.
19:06That's right.
19:06So every time I came to football practice after that, they all sang that theme song to me.
19:12As I was coming onto the field and I couldn't take it anymore.
19:15So I quit football.
19:17Casey, you don't know this, but you're talking to a little high school linebacker as well.
19:23Yeah.
19:24And I kept showing up on the gig on Friday nights, you know, taped up or splendid up or something.
19:31You know, I'm five foot eight and 170 feet.
19:35And finally, you know, I'm trying to play piano with a splint on my finger and my wrist wrapped up.
19:41And the leader says to me, he says, are you any good at football?
19:44I said, well, I lettered in the 10th grade.
19:46That's pretty good.
19:47He goes, yeah, but are you any good at it?
19:49And I said, well, yeah, I don't know.
19:52Not really.
19:53And he goes, well, you're really a good piano player.
19:56You're really good in this rock and roll band.
19:58But you keep coming, you know, stitched up or taped up or something.
20:02I think it's music, not football.
20:04Well, here you are on the radio, man.
20:06There you go.
20:07Sage advice.
20:08Yeah.
20:08And I want to ask, because that theme song had lyrics to it, Blasme lyrics to it.
20:12Some of your other theme songs don't have lyrics to it.
20:15But in your mind, do they like Hill Street Blues?
20:17Does that have any lyrics in your mind?
20:19So Bochco calls me up, maybe in the first season at Hill Street, and the record wasn't out yet as a hit.
20:32But, you know, the show was well-received, and so was the music.
20:37And Bochco goes, hey, I came up with a lyric for Hill Street Blues.
20:41I said, what?
20:42He goes, yeah.
20:43Hill Street Jews, Hill Street Jews.
20:46Everybody's got them Hill Street Jews.
20:48Of course, Bochco and I are Jewish.
20:51Oh, thank you very much.
20:53And I hung up.
20:57That's great.
20:59You know, your songs are like, and Casey's right, but they're characters in the show.
21:07I mean, in these shows, they're iconic.
21:09And so I was listening to like Bochco and all the producers that you've worked with talking about how they just give you a nugget.
21:16And I thought the precedent as a percussionist, when they, Bochco came to you with NYPD Blue, which is one of my favorite themes.
21:25Everything you do has something that is, there are multiple things that work.
21:29And I think of it, it sets the tone so well.
21:32Explain how you came up with that theme.
21:35Because you said that, you know, stuff is accidental, but you also recount stories where you just, something just clicked and you got it immediately.
21:42So how did you arrive at that percussive sound for NYPD Blue?
21:46Well, first of all, thanks for the compliment.
21:50Because, you know, that's what I'm shooting for.
21:52That's what I'm trying to do.
21:53I'm trying to come up with these one-minute little hit records that define the show, okay?
21:59You know, it's like, I want those guys that I've worked for to walk out going, if I could write music, that's exactly what I would have done.
22:08So on this, we'd hit a big home run with Hill Street Blues, a big home run with Doogie, and with L.A. Lock.
22:17So they sent me the script for NY, and God, I just love the script.
22:23I mean, I'm so excited.
22:24I just can't wait to go to work.
22:26So Bochco and the director, Greg Hoblitt, they want to have lunch with me.
22:31Okay, great.
22:32So we go meet at a restaurant, and they don't say anything.
22:35And I'm just, you know, we're talking about who's having a whitefish and who's having, you know, a steak sandwich.
22:42You know, I'm going, are they going to say anything?
22:45So why don't I go, guys, we're here about the music.
22:48You know, we got to get going.
22:49What are you thinking?
22:51And Bochco says, well, I've been thinking about drums.
22:56I went, what?
22:58He goes, yeah, has there ever been a theme that was just drums?
23:01I said, no, there's a start to Hawaii Five-0, you know, I said, but there's no, no, there's never been a theme with just drums.
23:10That's crazy.
23:11He goes, well, that's all I was thinking about.
23:13And I went, what?
23:15You see, yeah, that's all I got to say.
23:17How's your food?
23:19I go, my food's fine.
23:20Now, I turned to Hobbit, you know, and I go, okay, what do you have to say?
23:26Now, these are the two biggest guys in television at the time.
23:29They are phenomenally successful and well thought of and very well hardwared with Emmys, right?
23:38And so Hobbit says, well, I've been thinking about subways.
23:42I went, holy moly, these guys have lost it.
23:47What do you mean, subways?
23:49Well, if you think of it, if you think about New York, the sort of the system, the circulation system, the veins, the arteries are really the subways.
24:01I said, okay, you two geniuses, drums and subways.
24:06That's what I'm going to walk away with?
24:09Yeah.
24:10Yeah.
24:10And I honestly got like a bowl of lightning and I went, I know exactly what to do.
24:15I said, you know, you guys are breaking my balls here.
24:18Guess what?
24:19I know what to do.
24:21Well, we thought you would.
24:23And so I went back to my studio and, you know, in Burbank and I started out with a guy that was working with me at the time who's gone on to become a great composer named Danny Lux.
24:35And, you know, we came up with that.
24:39I took the sound of the drum fill in the air tonight on the Phil Collins record.
24:44And I went, we got to beat that tom-tom sound because that was one of my favorite licks ever.
24:49Yeah.
24:49But I did that to the boom that that lick.
24:52So I said, let's beat that.
24:56And I'm going to make a groove out of the sound of a train on a track.
25:00So subway and drums.
25:02You did.
25:04Yeah, I did.
25:05And I must say the middle section would not have been the middle section without my wife, because my wife is from West Philly.
25:13Her last name is McGettigan.
25:15She comes from a big Irish family that's near and dear to my heart.
25:22And that's why I got up at five in the morning and talked to you.
25:26Because I love the town that you guys work in.
25:29Honestly, it's fantastic.
25:32Have this big family back there.
25:33And I had always been into Irish music anyway.
25:38And I thought, well, what do all these police guys in New York City have in common historically?
25:46And the fact is that when the NYPD first started in the late 1800s, they were all Irish.
25:52So I thought, oh, I'm going to do a middle section with some heart in it, and it's going to be Irish.
25:57So there it is.
25:59Well, all of it in your stuff always has that, like, for example, and we have to talk about, you know, your Dick Wolf Association and, you know, all of the law and order stuff.
26:11That middle section, the clarinet, the, you know, all that stuff.
26:16I don't know.
26:17It's almost like dialogue that you're writing or a story that's being told.
26:20And I can sit there.
26:22But so many shows these days just have a theme song or a little bump or something quickly, and there's nothing that sets the tone the way a really good theme song does.
26:32Now, Preston was pointing out, like, on some of the serial, the streaming shows, you'll get a bit more of a theme.
26:38But let's talk about L.A. Law, because, I mean, of all of this vast body of celebrated work that you've done, is it possible that'll be the most?
26:47Is that dun-dun going to be on your tombstone?
26:50Before we say that, is it possible for me to get up early every day and be on your show every day?
26:56Yeah, right.
26:58You guys make me feel great.
27:00I mean, honestly, God.
27:02And I, you know.
27:02Well, it's from the heart.
27:04We really are huge fans.
27:06Well, thank you very much.
27:08Next time Patty and I are in Philly, I'm going to come by and hang with you.
27:13Yeah, absolutely.
27:15Yeah, so Dick Wolf, you know, he's hysterical.
27:19I met him on the, let's see, the eighth and ninth year, seventh and eighth year of Hill Street.
27:26He was a writer.
27:27And I just liked him, and I thought he was super talented, and we became friendly.
27:32And so the deal on Law & Order is crazy.
27:36He calls me up and says, hey, can I tell you a story?
27:39I said, sure.
27:39He said, well, let's meet for a drink.
27:41So we, okay, we sit down.
27:44I said, what's up?
27:45What are you thinking about?
27:47And he said, well, he said, you know, the hour cop and law medical dramas are not syndicating worth a damn.
27:56You know, they're just not doing well.
27:58It's all Cosby and Full House and blah, blah, blah.
28:00And I said, yeah, I know.
28:02And he said, so the first half hour, I'm going to do the crime and the cops and the perpetrator.
28:09And the second half hour, I'm going to do the prosecution and the defense and the judge and the trial.
28:15I go, I'm not tracking.
28:17What are you talking about?
28:18So I'm going to shoot it as an hour, but I'm going to syndicate it in half hours.
28:22And I went, man, never been done.
28:25That's so smart.
28:27God almighty.
28:28He said, yeah, I'm going to do it all in New York City.
28:30I said, what are you going to call this thing?
28:32He said, law and order.
28:33I went, man, that's a great idea.
28:36I'm in.
28:36He goes, no, no, I don't know what my budget is.
28:39I don't know what I can pay you.
28:40And you're the number one guy out there right now.
28:42And it would really help me if you're involved, but I can't ask you to do it because I don't know.
28:46I said, shut up.
28:47I'm in.
28:49Let me in.
28:50Please do me a pay.
28:51He said, okay.
28:52Great.
28:53I said, all right.
28:54So what's the music like?
28:56He said, well, let me send you a script.
28:57Sends me a script.
28:58I read it.
28:58I love it.
28:59I go, okay.
29:00What's the music about?
29:01You know, give me some marching orders.
29:03He goes, well, I'm doing it all in New York.
29:06It's like, you know, steam coming out of manhole covers and slick streets, nighttime, a little rainy, blah, blah, blah.
29:13But it's also the majesty of the law.
29:15And I went, oh, okay.
29:17He said, more than anything, write some music that defines New York City.
29:23I said, I hate to break the news to you, but there was this guy named George Gershwin.
29:30He did that.
29:31He already did that.
29:32Okay.
29:32He said, Rhapsody in blue.
29:34I'm not going to be able to run and gun with him.
29:37He's better than me.
29:38Okay.
29:38So I can't really do that.
29:40He goes, well, that's what I need.
29:42I go, okay.
29:43You want me to do New York City?
29:46Great.
29:46So I, you know, I come up with this little, you know, and I start messing around with this guitar, new guitar I had.
29:55I'm snapping the strings.
29:57And I kind of like the A section.
30:01I thought, well, he wants me to find New York City.
30:03He wants me to step up with George Gershwin.
30:08Oh, well, I've got to use a clarinet.
30:10I mean, at least I'll do that, you know.
30:12So that's how the middle section comes in.
30:16And so I put the whole thing together.
30:20And he comes over and he listens to me.
30:22He goes, man, that's it.
30:25That's it.
30:25Don't change a note.
30:26And I went, okay, perfect.
30:29Wow.
30:29Wow.
30:29That's amazing.
30:30We're just tuning in.
30:31Mike Post is joining us.
30:32Nick, you had a question.
30:33Yeah.
30:33Well, first of all, Mike, I wanted to go ahead.
30:35Nick, I have to tell you guys, it was never syndicated in half hours.
30:39No.
30:40That's what shocked me.
30:41I never heard of it.
30:43It has always been a one hour.
30:46Yeah.
30:46It's always been that.
30:47It was still a change, though.
30:48I mean, nobody had really done that before in that format.
30:51And it obviously was revolutionary and successful for three decades at this point.
30:56It was completely the most successful franchise in the history of TV.
31:00I mean, who doesn't know that dun-dun?
31:03Yeah.
31:03The scene change sound.
31:05Yeah.
31:06Yeah.
31:06It's iconic.
31:07Mike, I wanted to, first of all, thank Mary Kay McGettigan, your niece, because she used
31:11to work here at the radio station.
31:12And she was the bridge to get you on the show.
31:14So shout out to Mary Kay and all of the McGettigans here in Philadelphia.
31:17I think there's 4,000 of them.
31:19But I wanted to ask you, there's a lot of great iconic themes that you've come up with.
31:25And some of them have been married to fantastic television shows like Hill Street Blues.
31:29And for me, Doogie Howser was great.
31:31What is your favorite theme that ended up on a TV show that maybe kind of flew under the
31:37radar or wasn't received as well as some of the others?
31:40You know, probably the answer is Bay City Blues, another Bochco show.
31:48Yeah.
31:48Yeah.
31:49And I'm not plugging, but it was completely Americana because it was a short-lived show
31:56with Dennis Franz and Sharon Stone, her first TV thing.
32:02And it was really good.
32:04It was really well done about minor league baseball.
32:08And so it was a very Americana theme.
32:13And for some reason, you know, the show didn't catch on.
32:16The network didn't hang with it long enough.
32:18I dug that show.
32:19Yeah.
32:20I used to enjoy that show a lot.
32:22Me too.
32:23Yeah.
32:23Me too.
32:24I love doing that show.
32:25But you know what?
32:26Listen, you know, what makes it and doesn't make it?
32:30It's, you know, doing my thing is almost as hard as doing radio, you guys.
32:34You know, it's like the book comes out and you go, our ratings are up.
32:40Well, we didn't do anything different.
32:41Our ratings are down.
32:42We didn't do anything different.
32:43Yeah.
32:44Don't we know?
32:45Yeah.
32:45I know you know it.
32:47But believe me, it's, you know, all of us on the creative side, you know, what do you do for a living?
32:54Well, I walk on this wire way up high and there's all these razor blades down below if I slip and fall.
33:01You know, it's like if they don't like this stuff, it hurts.
33:04You know, that's art.
33:05You do art for a living.
33:06You're emotionally risky business for sure.
33:10So I have nothing to do with whether these shows make it or not.
33:16So Dolly was right.
33:17I am the luckiest guy in the world.
33:18You know, I mean, you know, Cannell and Bochco and Dick Wolf, you know, those guys don't suck.
33:24Those guys are really good at their jobs, you know.
33:27And if they think I'm good at my job and I'm happy as I could be, that's, you know, I'm blessed.
33:34Mike, I want to ask a specific question about, you know, matching a theme to a show because, you know, you mentioned Law & Order and getting the feel of New York City.
33:45You take a song like Magnum P.I., it's very action-oriented.
33:50You know, it fits with the imagery.
33:53You know, Blossom is playful and fun.
33:55But you take Hill Street Blues.
33:57You take a show that's a hard-hitting drama about crime on the street of New York City and all the things that come with it.
34:04Yet, it is a very pleasant-sounding, very enjoyable melody that goes with this.
34:11It's almost counter to the TV show itself.
34:15How does that work?
34:17How did you, you know, I mean, it's such a great, iconic theme song.
34:20But yet it does match the show, even though the show is harder-hitting than that.
34:26Well, honest to God, Preston, it is magic, okay?
34:33It's these little tiny decisions that you don't think are going to be important.
34:39And looking back, you go, you know, the show stays on nine years and everybody goes, yeah, I couldn't imagine that opening being any different.
34:47And it was a simple little thing.
34:49I saw the pilot without any main title in it, and I was blown away.
34:551981, and that thing was so different than anything that had ever been on TV.
35:01It was just jaw-dropping.
35:03It was so impactful and so funny, you know, for minutes.
35:10And then, bang, so real and crazy and terrifying or, you know, exhilarating.
35:17And it was just up and down so violently, you know, and then so sweetly and kindly and so crazy.
35:25Belker the Biter, come on.
35:27Yes, yeah.
35:28You know, who comes up with stuff like that?
35:31At any rate, so we go up to Botchko's office, and I'm going, anybody got any ideas of what the music is?
35:37And I don't know.
35:39And I said, well, what am I looking at on the screen during the main title sequence?
35:44And Hoblet, great director, says, well, I'm thinking the door goes up on a garage and a prowl car comes out and cruises through South Bronx, burned out Detroit.
35:56It's any town in the, you know, Midwest East Coast.
36:00And it cruises through rainy, crappy weather, and it's just depressing.
36:06I went, okay.
36:07And Botchko goes, what does that sound like?
36:11I said, well, maybe Stevie Wonder, Clabinet, summer in the city.
36:15I don't know.
36:16I don't know what that sounds.
36:17And Botchko says, well, what else could you do?
36:21That's all he said.
36:22What else could you do?
36:23And I don't know.
36:24I just said, well, you could go against the picture.
36:28You could do something poignant.
36:30You could do something that kind of makes you nod your head and go, man, in this episode, people died.
36:36Babies were born.
36:38There's hope.
36:39And there's depression.
36:40And he goes, yeah, do that.
36:42And I went, I was living at the time, you know, three minutes away from the studio we were at in Studio City.
36:53And I walk in, and I was immediately in E-flat, and I went, and I went, God, that's pretty good.
37:05You know, I'm honest.
37:07And so it took about 30 minutes, and I called Botchko up.
37:11I said, you better come over here.
37:12He goes, no, no, I don't want something out of a trunk that you did, you know, some other.
37:17No, no, no, I don't have a trunk.
37:19I don't do that.
37:19I don't recycle anything.
37:21You know, I just did it.
37:25So he walks in, him and Hoblet, and I go, clank, clank, clank, clank, clank.
37:31He goes, do that again.
37:32He goes, yeah, that's my show.
37:37Wow.
37:38We're done.
37:38It's amazing.
37:39It's frigging amazing.
37:40You know, Mike.
37:41Wow.
37:42So from that, and so from you as the creator to me, when I hear that, it's funny to hear you say that.
37:47Because I always kind of assign an emotion to the music.
37:51It's a natural inclination.
37:52And I would hear the Hill Street Blues theme, and it always, because I have brothers in law enforcement.
37:58And I would always hear in my mind, well, here it is.
38:01This is it.
38:01This is what we got.
38:03As you said, papers are born.
38:06People are shot.
38:08This is it.
38:08We got to go do this job.
38:11And there's going to be some good.
38:12There's going to be some wins and some losses.
38:14And that's it.
38:15And that's what captures that so beautifully.
38:20Yeah, thank you.
38:20You know, one of the most, just sweetest, kindest, like, fan letter I ever got that made me feel great was of a widow of a cop that got killed in the line of duty.
38:41And she wrote me this letter, and she goes, you know, I bought your record, the record-length version of Hill Street Blues.
38:51And she said, it got me through the last year.
38:54I'm about a year out from my husband getting killed.
38:57And she goes, I just listened to it and cried and listened to it and cried.
39:01And it really got me through it.
39:03I went, man, it's hard to relate to that.
39:08But it just, if you write something that somebody feels that way about, I don't need anything more than that.
39:18That's pretty good.
39:21Yeah, I'd say so.
39:22I'd say so.
39:23Well, listen, Mike, we do have to wrap.
39:25And I think we've only scratched the surface.
39:27So clearly, you have to come by and visit us when you come to Philadelphia next time.
39:31We want to remind people that his new album is called Message from the Mountains and Echoes of the Delta.
39:37It's a bluegrass meets blues with some orchestral tendrils within there.
39:44It's wonderful.
39:45Yeah, absolutely.
39:46And it's available pretty much wherever you get your music.
39:48You can also go to mike-post.com for more information.
39:52But, man, it's been so nice.
39:53We're huge, huge fans.
39:55And we just have tremendous respect for you.
39:57And we'd love to have you by here sometime if you get a moment when you're in Philly.
40:02Absolutely, 100% for sure.
40:04I will come by and see you guys.
40:06Listen, thanks for having me on.
40:08I really appreciate it.
40:09Thank you for everything.
40:10We appreciate it.
40:11Mike Post.
40:12Wow.
40:14Wow, wow, wow.
40:15I mean, frigging Mike Post.
40:18You know, again, you can't even, you don't even know stuff that you listen to that's his.
40:25I know.
40:25I know.
40:25I know.
40:25I know.
40:25I know.
40:25I know.
40:27I know.
40:29I know.
40:29I know.
40:30I know.
40:31I know.
40:31I know.
40:32I know.
40:33I know.
40:33I know.
40:34I know.
40:35I know.