The Spookie Sound Moves Off the Street

Dimes, quarters, perhaps the occasional buck. . . . That’s what generally lands in the cups, hats and guitar cases of the dozens of street musicians around Hollywood.

Recording contracts are a much rarer matter, though.

But that’s just what came to a young man called Spookie one day last fall when he set up in front of Columbia Records’ offices in Century City. And this week his debut album, “Spookie,” hits the streets.

Actually, Columbia record producer David Kahne walked right by the young man at first. He couldn’t help noticing Spookie’s red high-heeled sneakers and 6-inch pompadour. But the musician was experiencing technical difficulties with his small portable keyboard, so Kahne didn’t hear him play until he came outside later in the day at the urging of a couple of Columbia employees who’d been impressed with what they’d heard.

“I didn’t know who he was,” Spookie said of his first meeting with Kahne. “I was asking him if he could get me upstairs, if I could just spend five minutes with someone there. He gave me his card and told me to come back that evening. I didn’t even look at the card until I got on the bus to go home.”

What caught Kahne’s attention?

“The first song he played had a part at the beginning that was hard to ignore,” said Kahne, who has produced the likes of the Bangles and Fishbone. “And then he went into a falsetto and I said, ‘Hey, this guy can sing!’ ”

Kahne signed Spookie and then took him into the recording studio; Kahne played most of the instruments himself based on Spookie’s original Casio arrangements. The resulting album showcases not only a 3 1/2-octave voice that is at times reminiscent of Prince and Stevie Wonder, but also a sophisticated songwriting talent.

“The thing about his music is his songs are so compact and he has such a clear idea of the structure of them,” said Kahne.

It was a classic fantasy, “The Wizard of Oz,” that inspired Spookie to move here from the East Coast in 1983.

“I said, ‘I’m going to come to L.A., follow the yellow brick road and find the Wizard,’ and that was David Kahne,” he said, sitting at a small Hollywood cafe and explaining the “ruby” sneakers that are, indeed, seen treading a yellow brick road on the cover of the new album.

Once here, Spookie became a street musician, but with enough savvy to set up regularly in front of various record company headquarters. But in the four years leading up to his contract Los Angeles hadn’t been exactly the Emerald City. Spookie often found himself not only singing on the street, but living there as well.

“But I was always clean,” he said, “and I made enough money to eat and sometimes get a hotel room.

“I saw murders . . . people shot in the head, pushed out of windows 10 stories up.”

As for his background before he arrived, Spookie is generally mum. He won’t reveal his real name or his age.

“I’m a regular guy who had a dream like millions of people,” he said. “That’s the message I want to put out: Dreams can come true if you get up and make it happen. That’s the most important thing about Spookie, not where I’m from. Just don’t give up your dream.”

Spookie did acknowledge that he grew up somewhere in the eastern part of the country, in a “good” family and with a good education that included seven years of classical piano studies, and that he has a marketable high-tech skill that has gotten him through the winters when it was too cold to perform (and sleep) on the streets.

In other words, he didn’t have to spend four years on Skid Row.

“I used to see on TV these monks who would go on a great adventure and give up everything they had,” he said. “I always wanted to go on a great adventure.”

Now, with his recording contract in hand, Spookie lives in one of the Bunker Hill apartments he used to stare at from Skid Row. But he still feels some affinity for the down and out.

“I still go there a lot,” he said. “On holidays I go help feed the people. I sometimes see people I know and I feel guilty. I think, ‘Why me?’ It brings tears to my eyes.”

And Spookie continues to perform on the streets, though he doesn’t have to. He’s just comfortable there.

“I like to play here ‘cause I can practice without being disturbed,” he said, setting up in an alcove on Argyle Avenue near Sunset Boulevard before the interview.

“Once in a while I put a cup out,” he said. “But since I got the record deal I put that money in an envelope marked ‘charity.’ ”

The next step for Spookie: what he calls his “Personal Touch” tour, in which he will cross the country, performing at radio stations for programmers and at Columbia’s regional sales offices in order to spread the word about his record. Eventually, he hopes to assemble a band and see how his music translates to the concert stage.

LIVE ACTION: Tickets go on sale Sunday for Oingo Boingo at the Greek Theatre July 1-2, and for Bob Dylan at the Greek Aug. 2-4. . . . Tickets go on sale Monday for George Michael at Irvine Meadows Oct. 7-8. . . . Also coming to the Greek is Club Nouveau June 26. Tickets will be on sale Monday. . . . New on the John Anson Ford Theatre schedule: Men Without Hats on May 20, the Fall on May 27, Social Distortion on May 28 and the Pogues on June 4. . . . Graham Parker will be at the Roxy on June 14. . . . Brenda K. Starr, Stevie B., War, Tower of Power and the Wild Cards will be among the performers at two free Cinco de Mayo concerts today and Sunday in Lincoln Park. Shows start at 10 a.m.