Finding Time for a Comeback

There hasn’t been a Richard Barone studio album since 1993’s Clouds Over Eden. There’s been lots of Richard Barone action, though. He’s produced concert events for venues ranging from Carnegie Hall to the Hollywood Bowl, in addition to working on stage musicals and film documentaries. There was the 2007 autobiography Frontman: Surviving the Rock Star Myth, which had a release accompanied by a multi-media stage show. Barone has also spent many, many years discussing the album he was supposedly recording with producer Tony Visconti.

Now that theoretical album is made real with the stellar pop songs of Glow. It’s an accident, though, which began when Barone—who started with Hoboken’s legendary ’80s pop act The Bongos—met with Bar/None Records head Glenn Morrow to discuss a new album compiling the work of 1960s novelty act Tiny Tim.

“I was making my proposal,” Barone explains from his Manhattan home, “and Glenn’s first question was, ‘What about your own album?’ I’d been enjoying the process of putting up material to be downloaded, but I liked the idea of doing a CD. Especially with Glenn and Bar/ None Records. He was my roommate back when I first moved to Hoboken, but we’d never done a project together. So I sent him a bunch of songs, and he picked the ones that became Glow. I didn’t change anything. Even the song sequence is what Glenn put together.”

It’s no surprise that Glow is an impressive return by Barone. He had a massive backlog of lovely and bracing pop tunes to choose from. The big surprise is that so many of the songs have Visconti as co-writer. The noted producer started as a songwriter in the ’60s, but became better known for helming classic albums for the likes of David Bowie and T-Rex—whose

Marc Bolan gets a nod with Glow’s cover of “Girl.”

“I’ve always wanted to go in without songs and write in the studio,” explains Barone. “The process of co-writing with Tony evolved from there. I’m not sure anything we ever did was planned for commercial release, so it’s interesting how Glow feels like a natural follow-up to Clouds Over Eden. That one was all about darkness. These songs have different shades of darkness and light. It’s certainly the brightest album I ever made.”

Glow gets even brighter with “Silence Is Our Song,” which pairs Barone with softrock songwriting icon Paul Williams. There might have been a time when a Barone/ Williams composition might seem like a weird idea. That was before Barone’s own cello-driven solo career got him pegged as the king of chamber-pop.

“I met Paul at his Loser’s Lounge tribute,” Barone explains. “I did ‘Fill Your Heart,’ which was the B-side to Tiny Tim’s ‘Tiptoe Through the Tulips.’ Paul offered to write something for me that night. I eventually made it to Los Angeles to work with him. I had some newspaper clippings about people meeting and getting married in the wake of 9/11, and I kept strumming

the guitar while Paul came out with these words. It was so inspiring being in his house with this small Steinway piano made especially for him. That’s another example of how this record has a lot of mentors behind it. There’s Tony, obviously, and Quincy Jones has been another. They’re all very demanding and very cool.”

Most musicians can’t be told a goddamn thing after they turn 18 years old. Barone is unique in embracing his elders at his own advanced age. He’s collecting more, too, having spent the summer working with 91-year-old Pete Seeger on a fundraising project for victims of the Gulf oil spill. There are also the photographs in the Glow booklet shot by veteran rock photographer Mick Rock— who Barone cites as “a mentor on the visual end.”

You can also see Barone in a newly published retrospective of rock photographs called Exposed. It’s easy to find him. He’s as naked as when he got together with Rock to shoot the cover of Frontman.

“I think I’m the only model in the book who’s actually exposed,” says the eternally youthful Barone. “It just seems natural to me. I’m not comfortable telling my age, but I’m very comfortable removing my clothes.”

Richard Barone, Oct. 10, (Le) Poisson Rogue, 158 Bleecker St. (betw. Thompson & Sullivan Sts.), 212-228-4854; 7:30, $15.