Olivia's Music Man Reveals His Magic Formula
By Lawrie Masterson
The writing of Dancin’, the most musically involved track off the smash Xanadu soundtrack, was a fluke and that comes from someone who should know. John Farrar, who wrote the track for Olivia Newton-John and The Tubes, is still wondering just how he managed it. “I tried to fob that one off on Jeff Lynne from ELO, but I got trapped into doing it myself,” he told TV WEEK. “It was just the idea of putting the two concepts the 1940s and the 1980s together. I didn’t think I could make it work. But we fluked it on the night of the session, you know. I mean it… we recorded the various bits, then just altered them to fit when we were doing the demonstration tape. That one was a fluke because it was really quite difficult and I consider myself lucky that it came off. The other ones were just hard work, really trying to digest what everyone wanted in the songs, then trying to do them.”
Farrar, who wrote one side of the Xanadu soundtrack and both the smash singles Olivia Newton-John cut from the Grease score, was in Melbourne recently with his wife, Pat Carroll, and son, Sam. TV WEEK was one of only two publications with which he agreed to do interviews. His only other public appearance was a chat with old mate Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum on the ABC’s Countdown. The visit was the first time he had been home in four years. “It’s just a holiday,” he said. “I just finished up all the work I had to do in Los Angeles and we got on a plane. It’s the only chance we’re going to have to take a holiday for a while.”
After their brief stay in Melbourne, Farrar and his family flew back to Los Angeles so he could supervise the building of a recording studio at their new home in Benedict Canyon. They recently “moved across two canyons” from Coldwater Canyon. Ann-Margret’s home nestles into the side of the valley opposite. “I’ve got to start writing for Olivia’s new album, too,” he said. “We’ll probably start recording that in a few months. And I’ve got my own solo album coming out. I’ve never done one before.” The self-titled album should be available in Australia soon. Farrar wrote most of the tracks himself and co-wrote the rest with either former Shadow Hank Marvin or Tom Snow, the composer responsible for the Pointer Sisters’ current hit, He’s So Shy.
“I started work on it at the start of last year. But I had to do the movie in the middle of it so it got shelved for a while. It took about three months altogether, but that’s been scattered out over nearly two years. I did all the voices myself and played guitar and synthesisers on all the tracks and bass on a few of them. “The album is like a showcase as far as I’m concerned. It’s just a chance for people to hear the songs that Olivia hasn’t done. “It’s no bid for stardom by any means, just a chance to let people hear my songs presented in a different way.”
The softly-spoken Farrar was greeted on Countdown by the sight of himself as a member of The Strangers, the four-piece group which dominated the Melbourne rock scene in the 1960s. “That was a bit of a jolt,” he said later. “It’s funny, though, because there are lots of good memories. We were all very close in The Strangers …it was great. I never saw those early days as being tough. It was more good fun and we always considered ourselves lucky because we were being paid to have a good time. “We worked hours and all that but we were there at a really good time.”
The recording thing had just started to happen and we were there at the very beginning and got involved in sessions and arranging. “I don’t think we would have had that opportunity in any other country. It was a great way to learn everything.” And Farrar added: “I don’t know, but I would imagine it would be a bit tougher for young kids now although they have got many more places from which they can draw their influences. There are so many good players around.”
However, one thing John Farrar does know is how to write a smash hit and, for a man who is not making any bids for stardom, he’s doing quite nicely, thank you very much.