For the first Off-Ramp podcast episode, let's go back to that amazing day in 2013 when my friend Chris sent me a message:

"Hey, John. My sister and her husband just bought a home in the Valley with a fallout shelter that hasn't been touched in decades. Wanna do an Off-Ramp piece about it?" 

Would I? Should you wear a sport coat to Musso & Frank? Are horizontal fence slats getting old? Are you legally required to take visiting relatives to The Huntington? Yes!

The piece you're about to listen to was probably the most popular one we ever did, in no small part due to the great photos by Mae Ryan. 

This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

(Off-Ramp theme music by Fesliyan Studios.)

Welcome from host John Rabe, a public radio veteran and bon vivant who turned exploring Southern California into a radio art form on KPCC's Off-Ramp. Now, he's sharing stories from the Off-Ramp archive - in a lead-lined vault deep beneath Mt Wilson - with you!

Check your feed every Friday, then sit back, listen, enjoy ... and then get out and make your own SoCal adventures!

This program is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

(Off-Ramp theme music by Fesliyan Studios)

Is an NBA team like an orchestra? Does a classical maestro play showtunes? Is it okay to clap between movements? Are major keys happy and minor keys sad? Can Rabe play three notes on the piano?

For answers, we go back to 2014 to my interview - from the piano bench! - with Maestro Jeffrey Kahane, the affable polymath and world class pianist and conductor. This interview includes an exclusive performance of the Aria from Bach's "Goldberg Variations." Take that, Joe Rogan!

Support for this podcast comes from Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live; and bythe Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

Off-Ramp theme music by Fesliyan Studios.

From 2014, Off-Ramp host John Rabe talks with Petros Papadakis, former singing waiter, captain of the USC football team, English major, color commentator, and co-host of "The Petros & Money Show" on AM 570 KLAC.

At the time, Rabe wrote, "After spending four hours in the KLAC studio in Burbank a couple weeks ago with Petros Papadakis and Matt "Money" Smith, I'm surprised I didn't wake up talking to myself at the Smokehouse, with three or four martinis drained on the table in front of me. It was that weird.  Loud, fast, stream-of-consciousness, sound effects, people talking in the studio when the mike is on. If KPCC is a Prius, the Petros and Money Show is a Camaro clown car."

Support for this podcast comes from Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live; and bythe Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

Off-Ramp theme music by Fesliyan Studios.

Sheesh. They even got the details wrong on his gravestone! But that's the way it was 80 years ago. People passed in and out of the public consciousness like trains in the distance. And that's the way it was for Jim Tully, who was a household name here in LA in the 1920s and 1930s, then forgotten by the 1940s. 

The story of this hero-to-zero is told by Off-Ramp's Chris Greenspon, host of the podcast SGV Weekly, the best podcast ever about the San Gabriel Valley. (Subscribe!)

Support for this podcast comes from Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live; and bythe Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

Off-Ramp theme music by Fesliyan Studios.

If you drive through downtown LA on the 110, you've seen it ... the huge mural of the classical musicians. Who are they? Who did it? That's the LA Chamber Orchestra, painted by muralist Kent Twitchell. On on this piece from 2012, we hear from the world's tallest violinist, and the painter himself.

Support for this podcast comes from Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live; and bythe Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

Off-Ramp theme music by Fesliyan Studios.

First of all, my songs are basically co-dependent anthems. I write Ouch Mommy Pick Me Up and Love Me songs. -- Composer Paul Williams

Yeah, but Paul, they're great songs we can all sing (except maybe "Evergreen," written for Barbra) like "We've Only Just Begun," "An Old Fashioned Love Song," "Rainy Days and Mondays," and "The Rainbow Connection." They make us happy. Heck, "The Love Boat" theme may have been the best part about the show.

Paul Williams, a longtime Long Beacher, emceed the Grammy Museum's 2010 Songwriters Hall of Fame concert, so in the past few episodes, we've heard him talking with other musicians about music. Now, he gets to tell his stories and sing his songs. 

Support for this podcast comes from Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live; and bythe Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

Off-Ramp theme music by Fesliyan Studios.

Next up in our Summer of Song and excerpts from the stage of the Grammy Museum in 2010 is Ashford and Simpson. Valerie Simpson and her late husband Nick Ashford wrote "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," "You're All I Need to Get By," "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing," "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)," and "I'm Every Woman," among many others.

They were awesome to see onstage, with Valerie at the piano vamping grandly as she and Nick told the stories behind their songs. 

Support for this podcast comes from Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live; and bythe Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

Off-Ramp theme music by Fesliyan Studios.

They told Elvis not to sing "In the Ghetto."

"It's too political." 

"You're a white guy singing about a black kid." 

Etc. Etc. 

They were wrong.

Who wrote it? Mac Davis, who is Part Two of Off-Ramp's Summer Songwriter Series, as we sample the 2010 inauguration of the Grammy Museum's Songwriter Hall of Fame.

Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live; and bythe Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

Off-Ramp theme music by Fesliyan Studios.

Lamont Dozier, the middle of the celebrated Holland-Dozier-Holland team that wrote and produced “You Can’t Hurry Love,” “Heat Wave,” and dozens of other hits and helped make Motown an essential record company of the 1960s and beyond, died Monday at age 81.

Duke Fakir, a close friend and the last surviving member of the original Four Tops, said, “I like to call Holland-Dozier-Holland ‘tailors of music.' They could take any artist, call them into their office, talk to them, listen to them, and write them a Top Ten song.”

From 1963-1967, Dozier and brothers Brian and Eddie Holland crafted more than 25 Top Ten songs and mastered the blend of pop and rhythm and blues that allowed the Detroit label, and founder Berry Gordy, to defy boundaries between Black and white music and rival the Beatles on the airwaves.

For Off-Ramp, we're listening back to his appearance at the kickoff of the Songwriters Hall of Fame at the Grammy Museum at LA Live in 2010. Songwriter Paul Williams was the emcee for the event. 

And I have lots more tape from that event, featuring Williams, Ashford and Simpson, Mac Davis, and Hal David. We'll listen to that in coming weeks. 

Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live; and bythe Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

Off-Ramp theme music by Fesliyan Studios.