Green Monkey Records / Artist
Richard Peterson
Richard Peterson is a Pacific Northwest institution, a well-known savant Seattle trumpet player/piano player/composer. His music is heavily influenced by the 1950’s and 60’s television soundtrack work of the Columbia and Ziv music production companies.
Richard released his first 45rpm single “Want to Be In The States” in 1976. He advanced his career by playing trumpet outside the football and baseball games for years. He has made records with many Seattle music celebrities. His debut full-length album, “Richard Peterson”, was released in 1982. In 1983, he released his second album, produced by Peter Barnes, from which the Stone Temple Pilots placed a track on their album “Purple”, which sold over 4 million copies.
“Big City Dick: Richard Peterson’s First Movie”, a documentary about Mr. Peterson, was released in 2004. It won the audience award at the Slamdance film festival in Park City Utah. His penchant for early TV music gained him the friendship of Hollywood actor Jeff Bridges via his father Lloyd Bridges of 1950’s “Sea Hunt” fame. Based on this enduring friendship, Richard often opens for Jeff’s band “The Abiders” when they play the Seattle area.
His new record is appropriately tilted, Seven, and features The Richard Peterson Orchestra (which is all Richard). It is the culmination of his many influences and years of composing music. Seven features Richard’s compositions, his playing on piano, horns, synth oboe, bass, drums and harp as well as a variety of vocalists and a violin player. Both true and new fans of Mr. Peterson’s work are certain to enjoy Seven. It is Richard’s masterpiece.
Green Monkey Records is proud to present the works of the amazing Richard Peterson. Richard will impress you with the depth and clarity of his astonishing new masterpiece, Seven. We are confident you will marvel at this brilliant new offering. Please give it a listen!
Discography:
Richard Peterson – Want To Be In The States b/w Let's Take A Trip To Spokane 7” 1976
Richard Peterson – Richard Peterson's First Album (LP) 1982
Richard Peterson – The Second Album (LP) 1983
Richard Peterson w/The Young Fresh Fellows – Mathisization 7” 1991
Richard Peterson – Love on the Golf Course (CD) 1993
Richard Peterson – The William Loose Songbook (CD) 1999
Richard Peterson – Richard’s Ungreatest Hits (CD) 2006
Richard Peterson – The Religious Album (CD) 2008
Richard Peterson – Seven (CD) 2019
Richard Peterson – Covid 19 Suite (digital) 2020
The Richard Peterson Orchestra – Plays Christmas (CD) 2023
Richard Peterson – Plays The Beatles (CD) 2025
Plays The Beatles
Richard Peterson is on a roll. In 2023, he gave us his legendary Christmas album! Now it is Topper-most of the Popper-most time. Fourteen glorious Beatle’s songs given the classic RP treatment (think “Sea Hunt” soundtrack meets elevator music!). Piano, drums, brass, occasional vocals – who needs more! Songs range from the innocence of “I Want To Hold Your Hand” to the orchestral excess of “A Day In The Life.” This mop-top lovefest is the perfect music for every social occasion. And yes, Richard flew all the way to Liverpool, England to shoot the cover photo!
- I Want To Hold Your Hand
- All My Loving
- Eight Days A Week
- She Loves You
- Michelle
- And I Love Her
- A Hard Days Night
- Hey Jude
- With a Little Help From My Friends
- She’s Leaving Home
- Lovely Rita
- Yesterday
- A Day In The Life
- Eleanor Rigby
Richard: Peterson: Piano, Drums, Harp, Percussions, and Keyboards; Fritz Klein – Violins – Track 13; Jeff Parkhurst: Drums – Track 13; Casey Alexander: Vocal – Track 13.
Recorded at Jack Straw Cultural Center by Tom Stiles.
Mixed by Peter Barnes.
Front cover design by Tom Dyer.
The Richard Peterson Orchestra Plays Christmas
Richard Peterson has wanted to make his Christmas album for many years, Now the glorious day has arrived. 14 holiday classics, two composed by the Maestro himself, all done in the patented Peterson style (think “Sea Hunt” soundtrack and elevator music!). Piano, drums, brass, occasional vocals! This is the perfect music for sitting by the fire, sipping your frothy spiced eggnog while you wait for Jolly Saint Nick to arrive. Solo Piano Album Release show Sunday December 1, 7:00 pm @ The Rabbit Box 94 Pike St (Underground Corner Market on 1st and Pike) $12 advance/$15 door Richard Peterson is a Pacific Northwest institution, a well-known savant Seattle trumpet player/piano player/composer. His music is heavily influenced by the 1950’s and 60’s television soundtrack work of the Columbia and Ziv music production companies. Richard released his first 45rpm single “Want to Be In The States” in 1976. He advanced his career by playing trumpet outside the football and baseball games for years. He has made records with many Seattle music celebrities. His debut full-length album, “Richard Peterson”, was released in 1982. In 1983, he released his second album, produced by Peter Barnes, from which the Stone Temple Pilots placed a track on their album “Purple”, which sold over 4 million copies. “Big City Dick: Richard Peterson’s First Movie”, a documentary about Mr. Peterson, was released in 2004. It won the audience award at the Slamdance film festival in Park City Utah. His penchant for early TV music gained him the friendship of Hollywood actor Jeff Bridges via his father Lloyd Bridges of 1950’s “Sea Hunt” fame. Based on this enduring friendship, Richard often opens for Jeff’s band “The Abiders” when they play the Seattle area. Green Monkey Records is proud to present the works of the amazing Richard Peterson. We are confident you will marvel at this brilliant new offering. Please give it a listen!
- It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
- Christmas By The Roundabout
- Silent Night
- Oh Come All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles)
- On Christmas Day
- Joy To The World
- “Phil Green” Sleeves
- O Little Town Of Bethlehem
- It’s Christmas Time Down In Bethlehem
- Deck The Hall
- Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel
- Angels We Have Heard On High
- Little Drummer Boy
- Green Christmas , God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Covid 19 Suite
One of the great privileges we enjoy at GMR, is to bring the Richard Peterson catalog to the public. We mentioned that the UW library has located the master tape of Richard’s debut Topaz single and will be getting us a copy soon. Even more thrilling, we have a brand new (digital only) release Covid 19 Suite. Recorded this year by Richard with Peter Barnes on knobs, Richard originally intended this to be essentially a demo to persuade the Seattle Symphony to consider adding it to repertoire. Now, Lord Richard has taken pity on us commoners and has decided to share The Suite with the world. What prompted this? Richard now has an ipad and has been given a hands-on exposure to the internet (youtube) for the first time. He wants The Suite on his ipad – lucky us! As always, all proceeds go to Richard.
- 1st Movement
- 2nd Movement
- 3rd Movement
- 4th Movement
- 5th Movement
- 6th Movement
Richard Peterson’s First Album
The master tapes for Richard Peterson’s first two albums were located by Peter Barnes this year and and have been baked, digitized and mastered for you and are now available online for the first time. At this time you many obtain the entire Richard Peterson catalog from Green Monkey Records. For these releases, as with all other RP releases, all sales go to Richard. GMR keeps nothing. So buy some. God knows Richard can use your support. He has made most of his dough performing and that went away in 2020. So be a patron and enjoy the uniquely Northwest experience that is Richard Peterson.
- It’s Now A Summer Day
- Melody In C
- Let’s Take A Trip To Spokane
- I’d Travel East To Montana
- Want To Be In The States
- The Enemy (Is On The Radio Singing My Song)
- After The Gold Rush
- Sunshine
- My Sharona
- I Was Made For Lovin’ You
- A Woman In Love
- Death Valley Disco Days
The Second Album
The master tapes for Richard Peterson’s first two albums were located by Peter Barnes this year and and have been baked, digitized and mastered for you and are now available online for the first time, including scanned covers. At this time you many obtain the entire Richard Peterson catalog at Green Monkey Records. For these releases, as with all other RP releases, all sales go to Richard. GMR keeps nothing. So buy some. God knows Richard can use your support. He has made most of his dough performing and that went away in 2020. So be a patron and enjoy the uniquely Northwest experience that is Richard Peterson.
- Second Album
- Poor Don’t Walk Lights (Why Do Ya Gotta Blink)
- I Grew Up On Larmon Road
- Mt. St. Helens Disco
- Nova Scotia Serenade
- Tonapah
- Living On Capitol Hill
- Documentary Break Dance
- Magic
- Chariots Of Fire
- Memory
- Wonderful Wonderful
Topaz Single
The rerelease of Richard Peterson’s original single on Kearney Barton’s Topaz label (TS-1334) from 1976 was taken from the vinyl 45 and mastered. It is fairly noisy, but historical. If the master still exists it is at the UW, where they have the giant pile of K.B. masters archived. I have perused their listings but so far in vain. All sales go to Richard. GMR keeps nothing. So buy some. God knows Richard can use your support. He has made most of his dough performing and that went away in 2020. So be a patron and enjoy the uniquely Northwest experience that is Richard Peterson.
- Want To Be In The States
- Let’s Take A Trip To Spokane
Mathisization
I’m not sure if Richard or the Fellows own the “New Young Fresh Fellows Theme” recording, but I am pretty sure they don’t care. 100% of sales go to Richard Peterson. Green Monkey keeps 0%. Note the attractive scans of the covers and disc available to you the RP fan of today!
- Mathisization
- Young Fresh Fellows with Richard Peterson – New Young Fresh Fellows Theme
The Religious Album
Released 2009, Richard’s 6th album and 4th on Popllama. See bonus items for credits and Richard’s notes. 100% of sales go to Richard Peterson. Green Monkey keeps 0%. Note the attractive scans of the covers and disc available to you the RP fan of today!
- What A Friend We Have In Jesus
- In The Garden
- Onward Christian Soldiers
- O Lord With Wonderous Mystery
- Near The Cross
- Gather Us In
- Let Us Break Bread Together
- How Great Thou Art
- Jesus Loves Me
- Abide With Me
- Amazing Grace
- Stand Up! Stand Up For Jesus
- America, The Beautiful
Richard’s Ungreatest Hits
This is Richard Peterson’s Fifth Album, the third on Popllama Records. See bonus items for credits and Richard’s notes. Note the attractive scans of the covers and disc available to you the RP fan of today! 100% of sales go to Richard Peterson. Green Monkey keeps 0%.
- Want To Be In The States
- It’s Now A Summer Day
- Melody In C
- Ghost Town Disco
- I’m Fed Up With The Streets
- A Death In The Family
- Soundscapes
- A Sunday In Abilene
- I Saw A D.J. Under Deception Pass
- The Last Day Of Ninety Six
- Underwater Disco
- City Lights
The William Loose Songbook
Richard’s 4th album, his second on Popllama (RP4A), released 1999. See bonus items for credits and Richard’s notes. 100% of sales go to Richard Peterson. Green Monkey keeps 0%. Note the attractive scans of the covers and disc available to you the RP fan of today!
- Let’s Hear A William Loose Tune
- Loose Spector Song (C-63)
- Punk Rockin’ Loose (C-83)
- The Metro Tunnel (C-7)
- Seasick Teate (C-68)
- See One Or None (C-109)
- Traveling Rap (C-38)
- Mount Hood Story Theme (C-87)
- Alphabet Conspiracy (C-89)
- The World Tomorrow Theme (C-95)
- See Lovin’ Free (C-11-3)
- National Documentary Doo-Wop (C-99)
- Yes I Heard Someone Who Sang Sea Sixty One (C-61)
- Real People Theme
- Way Up On The Mountains (C-73)
Love On The Golf Course
This is Richard Peterson’s Third Album, released on Popllama Records (PLCD72) in 1993. See bonus items for credits. 100% of sales go to Richard Peterson. Green Monkey keeps 0%. Note the attractive scans of the covers and disc available to you the RP fan of today!
- Love On The Golf Course
- Cape Alava Hike
- Navajoland
- Puget Sound Walk
- Oregon Reunion
- Mathisization
- Misty
- Let’s Take A Trip To Spokane
- Ziving In The 90’s
- The Twelfth Of Never
- Love On The Golf Course Reprise
Seven
Note:100% of sales go to Richard Peterson. Green Monkey keeps 0%. Green Monkey is proud to take up the mantle of being Richard Peterson’s label with the release of his new CD, SEVEN, releasing Friday, October 18. Richard Peterson is a Pacific Northwest institution, a well-known savant Seattle trumpet player/piano player/composer. His music is heavily influenced by the 1950’s and 60’s television soundtrack work of the Columbia and Ziv music production companies. In addition to being available in fine music stores, both in the US and internationally, the album will be available on all the major streaming and download services and at Green Monkey’s bandcamp store (https://greenmonkeyrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-richard-peterson-orchestra-seven). We are working toward making Richard’s entire catalog available to you at some point in the future. Richard will be performing on solo piano on Friday, Oct. 25, 2019, 7:00 pm at Tipsy Piano Bar, 514 Capitol Way, Olympia. This is Richard’s first Olympia piano performance. There is no cover charge for the event and you simply must attend. Richard released his first 45 rpm single “Want to Be In The States” in 1976. He advanced his career by playing trumpet outside the football and baseball games for years. He has made records with many Seattle music celebrities. His debut full-length album, “Richard Peterson”, was released in 1982. In 1983, he released his second album, produced by Peter Barnes, from which the Stone Temple Pilots placed a track on their album “Purple”, which sold over 4 million copies. For those of you less familiar with, or even new to Richard’s work, there is extensive info available on his GMR artist page, https://greenmonkeyrecords.com/r-peterson/. “Big City Dick: Richard Peterson’s First Movie”, a documentary about Mr. Peterson, was released in 2004. It won the audience award at the Slamdance film festival in Park City Utah. His penchant for early TV music gained him the friendship of Hollywood actor Jeff Bridges via his father Lloyd Bridges of 1950’s “Sea Hunt” fame. Based on this enduring friendship, Richard often opens for Jeff’s band “The Abiders” when they play the Seattle area. Look for “Big City Dick” on youtube. His new record is appropriately tilted, Seven, and features The Richard Peterson Orchestra (which is all Richard). It is the culmination of his many influences and years of composing music. Seven features Richard’s compositions, his playing on piano, horns, synth oboe, bass, drums and harp as well as a variety of vocalists and a violin player. Both true and new fans of Mr. Peterson’s work are certain to enjoy Seven. It is Richard’s masterpiece. I am listening to Seven as I write this and I must tell you it is a delight. Richard will impress you with the depth and clarity of his astonishing new masterpiece, Seven. We are confident you will marvel at this brilliant new offering. Please give it a listen! Discography: 1976 Richard Peterson – Want To Be In The States b/w Let’s Take A Trip To Spokane 7” 1982 Richard Peterson – Richard Peterson’s First Album (LP) 1983 Richard Peterson – The Second Album (LP) 1991 Richard Peterson w/The Young Fresh Fellows – Mathisization 7” 1993 Richard Peterson – Love on the Golf Course (CD) 1999 Richard Peterson – The William Loose Songbook (CD) 2006 Richard Peterson – Richard’s Ungreatest Hits (CD) 2008 Richard Peterson – The Religious Album (CD) 2019 Richard Peterson – Seven (CD)
- I Hear Those ZIV Tunes Once Again
- The Ghost Trumpets
- Midnight On Fire Dome Mountain
- Canadian Serenade
- Amphibian Disco
- Nocturne In Blue
- The F. H. Blues (French Horn Blues)
- Chances Now
- Charbern’s Serenade
- I Live In A Ballroom Now
- ZIV Supremes
- Mystery Waltz
- On The Oregon Coast
- American Celtic Dance
- Stadium March
Review Revue: Richard Peterson’s First Album
REVIEW REVUE, LOCAL MUSIC
04/24/2014
LEVI FULLER
https://www.kexp.org/read/2014/4/24/review-revue-richard-petersons-first-album/
THE TUNEFUL ECCENTRIC
By Peter Gilstrap
February 23, 1993
SEATTLE — Richard Peterson, born 44 years ago in Chehalis, Wash., is a collector of “lost balls,” a carver of wooden elephant trunks that he anthropomorphizes into companions named “Buddy,” a man who must wear four-foot-long ties, a worshiper of Johnny Mathis. He’s big and bald, his speech is fast and loud, and sometimes he spits when he talks.So he’s eccentric, so what? Here’s what:Richard Peterson is also an artist, a street musician who has become a local legend, a composer who has released two self-financed solo albums, arranging and playing virtually all of the instruments himself, a man who has earned respect bordering on awe from established musicians and even enlightened normal citizens. Eccentric or not, his music is for real. It takes you someplace, someplace he already is.He appeared last fall at Seattle’s Bumbershoot, an annual three-day music festival held on the grounds of the 1962 World’s Fair. In a many-windowed room, under an imposing chandelier, he sat at a grand piano playing warm-up chords as a small crowd drifted in. A few were there to see him. Most seemed to be resting their feet.Abruptly, Peterson turned to the audience. “Does anybody have the time?” he asked. Somebody said it was 1:12. “My performance will begin in three minutes,” he announced loudly to everyone and no one.Bemused smiles and “What’s with this guy?” looks were exchanged. Then Peterson began to play.From this unusual-looking man came an unusual-sounding music, awkward and graceful at the same time, slowly entrancing even the relaxing skeptics. It was a Peterson original, “Let’s Take a Trip to Spokane.” Then, as his deliberate piano chording filled the room, he lifted a trumpet to his lips — and played both at the same time.”Do you know who this is?” asked a woman sitting in the second row with her two children. “This is Richard Peterson,” she said. “He’s great.”You’re struck by his eyes. Light brown and clear, ringed with almost feminine black lashes, capable of holding you in a kind of diabolical Bambi-gaze. The eyes are set in a magnificent, hair-free head. And the eyebrows — they’re shaved too.Beneath this mesmerizing mondo-cranium is an imposing body, neatly clad in work shirt, dark pants and boots, the tidy ensemble set off by a custom-made tie that hangs well below the knees.Meet Richard Peterson. He’s the kid who started special ed classes when he got to high school. His mother was told he was “ineducable.” Even she mentions his “quirks.” Social Security sends him a monthly check because of them. All of which may or may not have any bearing on his ability to create.For the last 17 years he’s made the better part of his living playing trumpet on the streets of Seattle, offering fervent versions of songs by Burt Bacharach, Olivia Newton-John, Barry Manilow and Johnny Mathis, and selections from his own vast catalogue — “I Grew Up on Larmon Road,” “Mt. St. Helens Disco,” “Nova Scotia Serenade” — accompanied only by rhythmic kicks to a change-filled coffee can adorned with the legend “No Canadian Coins.”Though on rare occasions he has opened for bands such as the Cramps and the Violent Femmes, alternative acts that appreciate his largely undiscovered talent, to the average passerby he’s nothing more than an oddball fixture, the kind any American city has in droves, strange, endearing, maybe gifted, but ignorable if you’re in a hurry.This Peterson knows, and he’s more than willing to tell you about it. “I’m tired of the streets. I’m too old and I don’t feel like doing much more of it,” he says. He speaks in chop-cadenced sentences that are as articulate as they are sometimes hard to understand. “I composed a song on my birthday entitled ‘I’m Fed Up With the Streets, Never Want to Go Back There Again.’ People say I’m famous, but the streets are the wrong place to be famous.”Peterson knows the right place to be famous, a place he has put himself whenever he can afford it, in hopes of ending “the crummy trumpet solo gig”: the recording studio. This is where he shines, where he metamorphoses from aging freak-minstrel into one-take wonder.”He’s a genius, simply put, but you don’t get that from seeing him on the streets,” says Scott McCaughey, singer, songwriter and rhythm guitarist for the Young Fresh Fellows, one of Seattle’s most enduring and prolific bands. Peterson joined the Fellows on a recent single, “Mathisization,” writing both music and lyrics and playing multiple horn and keyboard parts. “Recording with him was just amazing,” McCaughey says. “He has all the parts in his head, and blazes through them. We were sitting there with our mouths open.”But he’s an outsider. He’s a totally viable musician, but probably not as a salable commodity beyond a stout legion of cult supporters. He wants to go for success in Top 40, new age or easy listening, but his ideas of what that music is aren’t necessarily close to the mark, and the people who actually buy those records will probably never hear him. It’s really a shame that his musical gift may never get out there. But he’ll never give up.”Another devotee from the stout legion is Dennis Diken, drummer for the New York band the Smithereens. “His music may sound crude or unpolished to some ears, but there’s a real heart there, I believe, a real innocence,” Diken says. “He’s got a real gift for arranging. … In a weird way I could draw parallels to Les Paul or Brian Wilson, even Phil Spector. He’s doing things by his own rules, by his own vision. The appeal to me is the whole package, the whole Richard Peterson experience.”That experience includes two albums, “Richard Peterson’s First Album” (1982) and “The Second Album” (1985), arranged, almost entirely performed and totally funded by himself. The recordings are mixtures of covers and originals, and the music is at times quirky, enthralling, bizarrely mundane, yet always as compelling as its creator.From the self-penned liner notes to “The Second Album”: “This is an excellent album containing 12 great listening tunes, with wide variety of musical tastes, easy listening, rock and roll, country western, disco, soul and even a ‘break dance’ number. Some of everything except jazz, no march and absolutely no heavy metal.”Though he writes in commercial styles, from the bouncy autobiographical pop of “Living on Capitol Hill” to the countrified “Poor Don’t Walk Lights, Why Do You Gotta Blink,” his music sounds anything but: horn sections with all the heart and soul of a high school band, arrangements that could be from obscure ’60s TV themes, keyboard parts that range from tasteful and precise to the kind of 12-fingered drenchings attempted at family get-togethers by older relatives with a thing for show tunes, and vocalists whose talent never outshines the settings. Yet in songs such as “Let’s Take a Trip to Spokane,” he achieves a poignant, softly roiling beauty, an authentic honesty that’s impossible to deny.That’s what’s wrong with this picture: Peterson’s music is remarkable for what it is, but what it is is not what it’s supposed to be.Richard Peterson is off the street, at the moment, and holding court at his piano — the keys slightly sticky — in the one-room apartment in the Capitol Hill section of Seattle that he calls home. The bright Pacific Northwestern sun slams through the two windows at his back, giving his silhouetted form the appearance of a slightly nervous Buddha. Periodically he rises to play cassettes of his music, shushing you, index finger to lips, demanding full attention until the last vibration of each song dissipates into silence.
The neat room is filled with icons and totems of his few but intense passions, things that somehow all mean something to the making of his music. Some objects look like found art, others like art still waiting to be found.
On the dresser are 14 meticulously arranged balls, part of Peterson’s “lost ball” collection, which numbers in the hundreds. Many are old and weathered, some adorned with boldly penned labels: “Globeball,” “Xyloball,” “Richard J. Peterson Productions Ball.” “Vibraball” rests in the bathroom soap dish.
Peterson, who has an uncanny gift for dates and numbers, picks up a cracked golf ball. “I found this July 16th, 1986, behind Safeway,” he says with an intensity that does not allow question. “I call it Fluteball because when I hear a flute it reminds me of this ball.” In front of the window is an hourglass-shaped work composed of a round green pillow — “my mother made it in 1956” — cradling a white translucent ball topped with a smaller dark red ball. “This is Lady Ball. It looks like a lady.”
Next to the twin bed that he easily dwarfs is one of Peterson’s most treasured objects, “carved from an old stump or tree trunk in the Southwest Washington jungle, northwest of Mt. St. Helens,” according to a small sign nearby. This is an elephant trunk; this is “Buddy.” Roughly four feet long, the trunk-shaped piece is one of many, all hand-carved with obvious care and love. “I’ve made them on and off for 29 years. I used to find good wood in Chehalis,” he says. “They used to be shorter, but now I like them longer. They are all my good friends.”
Peterson gets along with people just fine — he’s no hermit who talks to the refrigerator — but the trunks do seem to have a life of their own. He animates them, gives them power, and they do the same for him.
“I used to collect bent hinges — they’re kind of related to elephant trunks — but those days are behind me,” he says. “In 1984 I began making steel neckties, but I don’t show them to the public. It’s a private thing. I like the shape of these things, narrow at one end and absolutely wider at the other end.”
The ties, the trunks and the hinges all embody a certain aesthetic for Peterson, and they also possess a commonality with one other unexpected element: the voice of Johnny Mathis.
“When Johnny Mathis sings a wonderful ballad, his voice and an elephant trunk blend together,” says Peterson. “If you listen to Johnny Mathis and look at the elephant trunk it is appropriate, also similar to the tie. To me, his voice is love.”
As Jung had Freud and Kerouac had Cassady, Peterson has Mathis. He became enchanted with Mathis in 1982 — “I loved his picture on the ‘Greatest Hits’ cover. I liked his bent-up tie. I patterned the cover of my second album on this” — and since then has crisscrossed the country to see the legendary singer perform, waiting patiently for post-show audiences at backstage doors and loading docks. He has seen him 118 times, twice with Buddy in attendance, and enjoyed 86 handshakes.
“Dick will sit for two to three hours backstage till Johnny comes out,” says his traveling companion on most of his trips, his mother, who asks to be called simply Mrs. Peterson. “Johnny’s a gracious person, and he knows him by now, gracious yes! Wouldn’t you know someone if you’d met him 118 times?”
Not even Peterson’s amazing powers of numerical retention, however, can keep these Mathis vacation details straight, so for this he has the “Mathis Mountain.” Since 1983 he has kept a minutely detailed, multicolored chart; at a mere glance he can ascertain location, date, number of handshakes and money spent for each trip. Extended vacations sometimes heavily tax the Mathis bank account, sending the Mountain spiraling into “Grand Canyon Financial” — and necessitating even more of the dreaded street gigs.
Television production music, the atmospheric arrangements behind the action scenes, is what first grabbed Peterson’s ear as a child. “When I was 5 or 6 I noticed more than one TV show using the same background music, starting back in the ‘Annie Oakley’ days. But ‘Sea Hunt’ was always the best,” he says. ” ‘Sea Hunt’ music is the new age of the ’50s.”
The youngest of five kids, he grew up in Chehalis, a town about 85 miles north of Seattle, and started taking piano lessons at an early age. “His teachers told me you could hardly fool him on music, but I take no credit for that. I don’t know one note from another,” laughs Mrs. Peterson. “Oh, I can tell ‘Yankee Doodle,’ but Dick has a God-given talent. It’s his and he loves it, and I’m proud of him. I wish I had the learning ability he has — he’s always had amazing powers of retention. But he’s also got, shall I say, quirks.”
Those quirks had Peterson attending elementary school “on and off, but for high school the door was closed on me,” he says simply. “Then I went to special education.” It was there that he began playing the trombone. “By 1969 I owned my first cassette recorder … then in 1970 I bought my first trumpet, because I wanted to get that trumpet sound. … I began playing the trumpet and piano at the same time. This trumpet-piano stunt has never been seen by many of us in this world.”
One of his early numbers was “Let’s Take a Trip to Spokane.” “I wrote it October 23, 1969, at the piano. It was one of two waltzes that I composed for my ‘This Is My Friend’ series.” The ’70s found him living in Seattle, in his own apartment with his own piano, and playing the streets. But, unknown to most, Peterson was also building a reputation as a studio savant.
“I really didn’t expect much when I first met him, but he surprised me,” says Kearney Barton, owner and operator of Audio Recording Studios since 1958. Besides Peterson, Barton has recorded the Ventures, the Kingsmen, Quincy Jones and hundreds of others, most long-forgotten. “He’s quick in the studio. I’ve seen professional arrangers take much longer to get anything down. … What he wants is in his head, he plays it, and that’s it. …
“Could he make it? I don’t know, but who am I to say? I tried to talk the Kingsmen out of doing ‘Louie Louie.’ “
Peterson is currently finishing up his latest outing, named for a song that is an ode to his hero. ” ‘Love on the Golf Course’ will be my new age album,” he says. “The golf course is a lovely place, and one afternoon in Las Vegas I saw Johnny Mathis playing golf. It was beautiful, so I decided to write this song.” As with his previous releases, Peterson performs virtually all of the parts but vocals, which are supplied by guest artists culled from local admirers. His last album featured the crooning of a Seattle weatherman.
“Love on the Golf Course” is the first of five albums Peterson intends to record before the year 2000, the same year he will stop seeing Johnny Mathis. “I will have spent enough money on Johnny Mathis by then, done enough damage,” he states. As with every other aspect of his life, he has planned out each album’s subject matter, cover songs and titles of tunes he has yet to write. Fans can look forward to the religious, Christmas and show tunes albums, and a tribute to production music composer William “Sea Hunt” Loose. In that order.
Will Richard Peterson make it? Probably not out of the realm of cult hero — it just isn’t that kind of world. Nobody told him that, though.
From the lyrics of the title song of “The Second Album”: “My second album/ 12 gracious melodies/ include this number/ keeping in company/ hoping that this record sells/ singing by a wishing well/ that’s on my album too.”
February 28, 2014 at 12:26 PM
Savant musician Richard Peterson trades in trumpet for piano | Concert review
Posted by Gillian G. Gaar
It was a common sight to those who attended Seahawks or Huskies games; trumpeter Richard Peterson playing his horn on the street in the hopes of filling up his tip bucket with contributions from the folks passing by on their way to the stadium.
Meet the piano man: Richard Peterson and Pat Cashman (photo: Gillian G. Gaar)
Peterson doesn’t play on the streets any more — the 2008 murder of fellow street musician Edward McMichael, aka the “Tuba Man,” still upsets him — but he continues to seek out new opportunities to make music. So a group of his friends and supporters, including John Maynard (of the “Robin and Maynard Show”) and Peter Barnes, co-founder of Clatter and Din Studios, arranged a “benefit show” for Peterson last night at the Feedback Lounge in West Seattle, a “general get together” in the words of Pat Cashman (“Almost Live,” “The 206”).
Peterson played a short set of songs on the piano, mostly drawn from a new self-released EP available for sale at the show (the Feedback’s owner, Jeff Gilbert, picked up two copies). He was joined by guests for some numbers; Barnes and Maynard’s wife Susan provided vocals for the operatic “How Do You Do, Mr. Tie,” and George Gleason (who played alongside Barnes in Seattle punk outfit the Enemy), led a sing along on “Poor Don’t Walk Lights (Why Do Ya Gotta Blink),” from Peterson’s “Second Album.”
Peterson also played a poignant instrumental dedicated to KOMO anchor Eric Slocum, who died in 2012.
Peter Barnes performs “How Do You Do, Mr. Tie,” accompanied by Richard Peterson on the piano (photo: Gillian G. Gaar)
Cashman, who’s known Peterson since 1994, told several amusing anecdotes about Peterson, who he described as “definitely the most interesting man in the world.” Among the stories he shared was that the title song of Peterson’s “Second Album” also appeared as a hidden track on the Stone Temple Pilots’ 1994 album “Purple,” which topped the record charts and sold over six million copies, giving Peterson a bit of a financial windfall at the time.
Barnes hopes to get “Second Album,” now out of print, reissued on CD, and would also like to see the documentary on Peterson, “Big City Dick: Richard Peterson’s First Movie,” get wider distribution. For his part, Peterson would like to make a new full-length album, possibly a collection of ’80s songs entitled “More Modern Music.” In addition to writing more original material, Peterson said there are “a lot of songs” out there he’d like to get the chance to record.
FEBRUARY 11, 2004 1:07PM PT
Big City Dick: Richard Peterson’s First Movie
Rollicking, breathless docu “Big City Dick” carries the sense filmmakers Scott Milam, Ken Harder and Todd Pottinger may have needed a shoehorn to pack their wealth of material (and larger-than-life subject) into pic’s svelte, two-hour frame.
Scott Foundas
- With:
- With: Richard Peterson, Jeff Bridges, Johnny Mathis, Dean Deleo, Scott McCaughy, Muriel Peterson, Pat Cashman, Ross Shafer, John Maynard, Robin Erickson, Steve Wilson, Mike Rhodes, Ken Schram.
What emerges is a found epic about an indefatigable American original, and an oddly touching tribute to a vanishing vaudevillian spirit. Indeed, few who see “Big City Dick,” would deny Richard Peterson gives an audience its money’s worth.
Tech production is slick, with eye-catching montages of Peterson’s album covers, sheet music and other archival footage interspersed with confidently vid-lensed docu segs.
Big City Dick: Richard Peterson’s First Movie
PRODUCTION: A New Ziv Pictures presentation. Produced, directed by Scott Milam, Ken Harder, Todd Pottinger.
CREW: Camera (color, DV), Milam, Harder, Pottinger, Brad Wood, Richard Peterson, Rod Hatfield; editor, Milam; sound, Milam, Harder, Pottinger. Reviewed at Slamdance Film Festival (competing), Jan. 20, 2004. (Also in Santa Barbara Film Festival.) Running time: 124 MIN.
WITH: With: Richard Peterson, Jeff Bridges, Johnny Mathis, Dean Deleo, Scott McCaughy, Muriel Peterson, Pat Cashman, Ross Shafer, John Maynard, Robin Erickson, Steve Wilson, Mike Rhodes, Ken Schram.