When Brent Mason Cleaned Out His Closet He Found This!!!

[blue water girl]

Okay - I know it isn't as exciting as finding some vintage instrument or amp BUT we were excited to find these songs on cd

These are the clips used on just about all the episodes of the television sitcom "Friends" - Brent composed and recorded about ten songs for a BMI catalog that the producers of "Friends" selected to use before the show even aired it's first episode. They took 14, 20 and 30 second clips from the songs and used them as they went in and out to commercial, etc. Two of the most used songs are linked below - I used soundclick as a hosting site to post two of the clips

"Behind Dark Shades" is a 20 sec clip of a song that is actually 3.51 min long. It was always used on Friends as the camera showed the outside of the coffee shop "Central Perk" when going to a scene in filmed in the coffee shop.

The other clip "Mr Cool" comes from a 4 min. song and is the most recognizable of all of them. The ciip is 30 sec long but was used most in a 14 sec format tagging the very end. This one was always played when the show came back from commercial and showed someone entering Monica and Rachel's apartment.

I thought this was an exciting find because we didn't know we had a hard copy of his BMI catalog - it has over 100 original songs used on tv - until he cleaned out box on a high shelf in his closet - it's been there for many years collecting dust.

EDIT - I added one more clip "The Funk Factor". Anyone who recognizes this is naughty naughty This song makes Brent more money in BMI usage than anything else per quarter, even the "Friends" music. It is used all the time as background music on Playboy's Naughty Amateur Videos. When those payments started showing up on his BMI statements a few years back we couldn't believe it - they must really love this tune! Any of you recognize it? hehe

http://www.soundclick.com/brentmason

[Ben Jammin']

Great find, Julie. Thanks for sharing it with the rest of us.

[blacklinefish]

I have never seen that show, but those clips are nice. So polished, and yet relaxed at the same time.

--gh

[blue water girl]

I thought that people who only know Brent as a country player would like to hear his cool blusey original stuff - those songs in their long version form are really cool. He wrote those songs and recorded them in 1990 - almost 20 years ago. Time flies.

[furrfurrfurr]

thanks for sharing. very cool.

Furr

[sudancat]

That was great. Glad you posted

[geddins]

Man, I love that stuff! I don't suppose that catalog of full-length songs is available for purchase is it?

[Mark Davis]

Those were great!

When did Brent start recording? While he was still an embryo? LOL

[Pete Galati]

Those are good. I love the "Mr. Cool" clip.

[MandyMarie]

That's awesome!!!

[Smokin OP]

Thanks for sharing that, Julie. Mr. Cool was...ah, very cool. Is that a PRS that Brent is holding in the banner on the left?

Thanks,
Kevin

[blue water girl]

Originally Posted by Smokin OP

Thanks for sharing that, Julie. Mr. Cool was...ah, very cool. Is that a PRS that Brent is holding in the banner on the left?

Thanks,
Kevin

It is. He was asked to pose with it in the billboard photo shoot. (That is actually a picture of a billboard in downtown Nashville that you see as you enter the Music Row Area). The billboard is sponsored by Paul Reed Smith and they asked Brent to be on it. In return Paul gave Brent the guitar. The billboard went up around Halloween of last year before the CMA Awards and I don't know how much longer it will stay up. It is very cool to see it towering up over the downtown area with my husband lit up in the night sky. But he looks very scary and menacing doesn't he? The billboard is three dimensional with the neck of the guitar coming out in front of the billboard three feet.

[blue water girl]

Originally Posted by geddins

Man, I love that stuff! I don't suppose that catalog of full-length songs is available for purchase is it?

No, it's not. Most of these songs were written and recorded between 1989 1990 for the purpose of being used on television. All of the songs are at least 2 min. long and some are 4 min. But throughout them Brent put those weird little hooks you noticed in the clips that lead up to the cut off point, to make them usable for inserting into television programs. He had no idea what shows they would ultimately be used on- or if anyone would use them. He did the project because CBS Songs out of Los Angeles commissioned it. They own the publishing on all of that, and they sold at least half of the publishing to Zomba years ago as well. But since Brent is the composer and the player he has the right to rerecord any of it and sell it, but not those songs. He would have to do them over. And by the way- Brent is a victim of selling his publishing rights on that project when he was young and needed money like so many other artists have done. He could kick himself now because CBS Music and Zomba make three times as much when that music is used than Brent does because they own the publishing. At the time Brent was just happy to get a check - he never dreamed his music would be used one of the most successful syndicated shows of all time - "Friends" The next time he recorded instrumentals to be used on tv he did not sell his publishing rights but on that batch he sadly did. So to make a long story short - no, he can't sell any of that music.

Actually two of them are the beginnings of instrumentals that appeared in 1997 on Hot Wired - Blowin' Smoke and Hot Pickin (which later was perfected and called Hot Wired), and Geared Up has also been rerecorded on an album.

I told Brent he has to rerecord Behind Dark Shades and Mr. Cool for another album down the road - I love those songs -

So the best I can do is add a longer version of Mr. Cool (2.20 min) and Behind Dark Shades (1.71 min) so at least you can hear them. Remember though, they were made to be sliced up and used on television. Brent tells me to rerecord them he would completely rework them to make them well structured instrumentals.

[garytelecastor]

Uh...Yeah...I don't recognize the...uh...ah...Playboy tune...very nice though....

I am not going to say that the viewers of the Playboy vids might also enjoy other things about these, but....

Thanks so much BWG. I wish I could play .001 as well as Brent. He has been my hero for years now.
Thanx again.

[trag-o-caster]

Hi Julie! VERY cool!

Thanks for sharing!

[teleman77]

Just an amazing player, thanks for posting.

[soltwanger]

awesome! I saw friends for the first time in years the other day, and remembered about Brent doing the music, put a smile on my face. Also.... that 'hot pickin' track was posted here before, rodeo_joel found it on an old 'king of the hill' episode, in a scene which involved an emu being chased the video should be on youtube somewhere.

thanks for posting anyhow!

[geddins]

Originally Posted by blue water girl

No, it's not. Most of these songs were written and recorded between 1989 1990 for the purpose of being used on television. All of the songs are at least 2 min. long and some are 4 min. But throughout them Brent put those weird little hooks you noticed in the clips that lead up to the cut off point, to make them usable for inserting into television programs. He had no idea what shows they would ultimately be used on- or if anyone would use them. He did the project because CBS Songs out of Los Angeles commissioned it. They own the publishing on all of that, and they sold at least half of the publishing to Zomba years ago as well. But since Brent is the composer and the player he has the right to rerecord any of it and sell it, but not those songs. He would have to do them over. And by the way- Brent is a victim of selling his publishing rights on that project when he was young and needed money like so many other artists have done. He could kick himself now because CBS Music and Zomba make three times as much when that music is used than Brent does because they own the publishing. At the time Brent was just happy to get a check - he never dreamed his music would be used one of the most successful syndicated shows of all time - "Friends" The next time he recorded instrumentals to be used on tv he did not sell his publishing rights but on that batch he sadly did. So to make a long story short - no, he can't sell any of that music.

Actually two of them are the beginnings of instrumentals that appeared in 1997 on Hot Wired - Blowin' Smoke and Hot Pickin (which later was perfected and called Hot Wired), and Geared Up has also been rerecorded on an album.

I told Brent he has to rerecord Behind Dark Shades and Mr. Cool for another album down the road - I love those songs -

So the best I can do is add a longer version of Mr. Cool (2.20 min) and Behind Dark Shades (1.71 min) so at least you can hear them. Remember though, they were made to be sliced up and used on television. Brent tells me to rerecord them he would completely rework them to make them well structured instrumentals.

Thanks for the explanation (the "biz" sure can be finiky, huh?). I have always enjoyed Brent's playing and the idea of having a blues based project from him would be cool IMO.

Thanks again for sharing all this with us. It's appreciated!

[DMRoller]

Thanks for posting these, Julie. Enjoyed hearing them.

Take care.
Dale

[E.D. Patton]

Is there anything the man can't play?

I could stand to have a full length version.

Julie, is there any chance Brent might do an album on the funky side?

All I find when I clean out my closet is dust bunnies!

[Flannel Pat]

Ugh. Brent Mason makes me not only want to stop playing forever, but never look at a guitar again. The man is so well rounded. His playing is a result of a gift from God, and plenty of hard work and dedication.

Julie, did Brent ever get to play with the legendary Phil Baugh? That's a combo I'd kill to hear.

[Darrell]

Now if you could find all of those "Becker" into's.

Man, that really knocked me out when I heard those licks on TV...and it REALLY blew me away to find they were from Brent.