Green Bay Press-Gazette from Green Bay, Wisconsin • Page 80

Sunday, February 1, 1987 Green Bay Press-Gazette I 1 jfi 'Gentle on My Mind' still popular after 20 years "It's just a love song. It's what it means to you. Once a song is done, it's unto itself and means different things to different people." John Hartford 4 By Joe Edwards Of The Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. Composer John Hartford vows he'll never allow his popular song, "Gentle on My Mind," to be played in a television commercial as so many other former hit tunes are used. "It seems to me that when a song gets identified with a product, it loses credibility," Hartford said.

"I've never authorized it for a parody or commercials, and I think possibly it may have had something to do with its staying power." The sentimental 1967 song has been recorded by more than 400 people, with Glen Campbell's version the best known. It's been performed at least 4.4 million times, making it the second most performed song licensed by Broadcast Music one of the two major performing rights organizations. Paul McCartney's "Yesterday" is No. 1. "It's just a love song," said Hartford.

"It's what it means to you. Once a song is done, it's unto itself and means different things to different people. "I just wrote it. I didn't ever intend to record it. It was like a stream of consciousness." Hartford, whose own recorded version of the tune also was a hit, wrote the song in a back room of his mobile home in 20 minutes after seeing the movie "Dr.

Zhivago." "The lonesome feeling (in the movie) triggered a lot of things," the 49-year-old Hartford recalled ii 7 John Hartford: Singer-composer-showman John Hartford is best known for writing the song "Gentle on My Mind." After a life of extremes, Pryor finds balance being accurate as you can get," he said. "It just came to me. I'm not a legitimate dancer doing a legitimate, recognized style. Somebody told me it was a version of 'shuffle off to In the summer, he spends an average of two days a week at the one thing that rivals music as his passion: riverboating. For the past several summers he's been piloting the Julia Belle Swain between Peoria, 111., and Utica, III.

This summer the sternwheeler will run between Galena, 111., and Le Claire, Iowa. And topping off a five-year project, he's just finished designing a banjo, for commercial sale, with a wood tone ring instead of the traditional metal. "This gives it a fuller sound," the lanky Hartford said in his home overlooking the Cumberland River. Hartford, who won two Grammy awards for "Gentle on My Mind" and another for his album "Mark Twang," was born in New York City where his father was a medical intern. The family moved to St.

Louis shortly after his birth. "I was born 'on the road' and have spent my whole life traveling," he said. "That's natural." Growing up in St. Louis, he "I don't say because it's dangerous for people to achieve happiness." Richard Pryor he plays a hustler who poses as a doctor, during a power blackout and takes charge of a New York City hospital. The movie has received less than favorable reviews from critics.

Directed by Michael Apted "Coal Miner's the film shot locations in the New York winter, then shifted to South Carolina for the hospital interiors. "It's amazing, the changes in the South," Pryor said. "1 remember as a kid (in Peoria) having these visions of the South. It's nothing like that." Pryor had his own encounters in an interview. "It conjured up a lot of scenes in my memory.

That's what came out. "I was writing two or three songs a day as hard as I could, about everything and anything. If someone lit a candle or the phone rang, I wrote a song about it. I had no idea of the impact. I even tried to change the word It seemed too sweet, too soft.

"I sang it for some people and noticed the reaction it got." Hartford has just used his writing talents in another direction: He composed a poem for a new coffee-table book, "Steamboat in a Cornfield." It's about the steamboat, Virginia, which ran aground in the Ohio River in 1910 in Willow Grove, W.Va. A new album, "Annual Waltz," has just been released, many of it songs featuring 12 fiddles in three-part harmony. He also does one-man band concerts, playing the banjo, fiddle and guitar while wearing a trademark black derby. He spices his show by dancing on an amplified piece of plywood. "I'm not sure what it is.

Irish step dancing is probably as close to The source of his trouble? "If you went through what I went through in making these decisions, you'd lose weight, too. If you want to lose weight, go fall in love. Fall in love with two women. "I called home one time and asked my uncle, 'Please help me; I've got this and I've got He said, 'You got a tough one. I can't help you.

Better you than me, Pryor, who is 46, talked of professional as well as personal matters during an interview at the Beverly Hills Hotel. He has a new film, "Critical Condition," in which AVw i AP LaserPhoto "I've worked pretty hard," he said, reflecting on his career. "I'm probably not as natural a musician as others. 1 try to make maximum use of a minimum amount of talent." He saw "Dr. Zhivago" again last year, but it inspired no new songs.

"I wasn't so lucky." "Jo Jo Dancer" was a bomb. "I'm glad I did 'Jo It helped me get rid of a lot of stuff. I know now how to make it better, but then, hindsight is perfect," he said. "Brewster's Millions" was a dud. "I didn't think 'Brewster's' was good to begin with.

I'm sorry, but they offered us the money. I was a pig; I got greedy. It's very hard to turn down million dollars." Pryor has moved from his San Fernando Valley spread to a house in Bel-Air. "My wife said there's no way she would live in that place." She also has her own ideas about how his office should be furnished, he complained, perhaps working up a new comedy skit. After another film, "Moving," Pryor expects to prepare new routines and launch another concert tour, translating it to film at the end.

He was asked if his wife and son would accompany him on the tour. "Are you kidding? She said, 'Of course you know I'll be with you. You don't think I'm going to let you go on the road alone for six months? Forget it. That's how we he said. "There used to be a time I could say, 'You're not going on the That's over.

Have I got a choice? I got no choice." He sighed and added, "Oh well. I didn't marry a robot. I married a human being." taught himself to play the five-string banjo and learned the guitar and fiddle. He moved to Nashville in the mid-1960s, hit it big with "Gentle on My Mind" and was a regular for two years on television's "Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour" later in the decade. with the South during his early years as a stand-up comedian.

"Got arrested for language once," he recalled. "Can't remember where somewhere in Virginia, I think. I came offstage and saw these two officers there. They were polite, but they took (me) to jail. "They thought.

I might give them trouble, these two big guys. What kind of trouble would 1 give them? i'll beat you to the car' that's the trouble." Through interviews, his comedy routines and particularly the autobiographical movie, "Jo Jo Dancer, Your life is Calling," Pryor seems to have lived and relived his life in public. He grew up in a brothel that his grandmother ran and where his mother worked. He did odd jobs until the Army claimed him at 18 and sent him to plumbing school. He eventually played dives and bars throughout the country, honing his comedy skills with the toughest audiences available.

At 30, he moved to Hollywood, making his debut as Diana Ross' piano man in "Lady Sings the Blues." A series of hit comedies, as well as filmed versions of his concert performances, helped make him one of the highest paid stars in the business. However, his films since 1980, when he was severely burned while free-basing, have not matched his previous successes. By Bob Thomas Of The Associated Press LOS ANGELES Richard Pryor, whose life story reads like a busy day at the crisis center, has decided his existence is well-ordered at last. "I don't say because it's dangerous for people to achieve happiness," he said. "But I just feel that it's all right.

I always thought if you weren't happy, then you were sick." If this sounds familiar, that's because the Pryor saga has swerved between euphoria and disaster. This time it's different, he says. Divorced four times, he has married again, to Flynn Belaine, and they have a 2-year-old son, Steven. Pryor complains mightily about the irritations of being a husband and father, but one is never sure whether he's serious or simply working up routines for his next concert tour. And he appears healthy.

He has gained back some of the last weight that sparked rumors that he had AIDS, but he still looks thin. "OK, so I'm not 6 feet 2, and I don't weigh 215 pounds," he grumbled. His health is good, he reported, coughing for comedy effect. He said that a large number of doctors "could find nothing wrong with me nothing that I couldn't tell them mysdf.".