Travis Edward Pike's Odd Tales and Wonders

Imagine a time capsule, sealed in 1974, full of exciting storytelling songs and rhymes composed at the height of the American social and musical revolution of that time — not recordings, but lyrics and rhymes never before recorded for public release. Then, imagine the time capsule is deteriorating with most of its treasures still inside, and unless these works are retrieved and recorded quickly, they may soon be lost forever. Travis Edward Pike's Odd Tales and Wonders is equal parts memoir and collection of some of his most memorable works from 1964–1974. Arriving in Los Angeles in 1968, this multi-talented Bostonian won an INTERCOM award for Special Achievement – Writing at the 1999 Chicago Film Festival for his feature-length video performance of his original epic narrative rhyme, Grumpuss. At the 2006 U.S. International Film and Video Awards, as the co-writer, co-producer and editor, he took home Certificates for Creative Excellence for the feature documentary Volunteers for Verdi. If his career was a screenplay, this book would be its First Act and its publication would signal the beginning, in screenwriter's jargon, of its Third Act, when all the obstacles introduced in this First Act are overcome and the saga's many subplots are resolved. Music journalist Harvey Kubernik, author of A Perfect Haze: The Illustrated History of the Monterey International Pop Festival and Canyon of Dreams: The Magic and the Music of Laurel Canyon writes in his Foreword to Odd Tales and Wonders, “Read his book and listen to the soundtrack from the First Act of the life now being revealed by this multi-talented Hollywood multi-hyphenate. Discover his music and poetry, once heard live by thousands, preserved in memory and notebooks, and finally, for the first time, arranged and recorded for this generation in Odd Tales and Wonders: Stories in Song and Odd Tales and Wonders: Stories in Rhyme.” Includes the words to all the songs and rhymes in the collection.