Political music has always been embarrassing, but yeah its worse lately. Likely because it is in service of the State's goals rather than counter to it.
It was less embarrassing when the music was protesting a war the musicians and their audience had a real chance of being shipped off to die in. Neil Young spontaneously writing "Ohio" in the aftermath of Kent State and CSNY rushing the song the airwaves within a month of the incident meant something.
But those same guys still bitching about war 40 years later (unless of course the Democratic Party holds the White House) is laughable. As is somebody like Springsteen pretending to be a folkie while also hosting a podcast with Barack "Turns Out I'm Pretty Good at Killing People" Obama. I liked Alice Cooper called political artists "treasonous morons," as in they were committing treason against rock and roll by using it as a platform for their stupid opinions.
Funny how once once they're inside the machine they turn their rage against everyone who isn't.
Rare is the political protester that isn't completely full of shit. Boomers are the poster children for this, but Rage proves that Gen X can be just as hypocritical.
Your comment made me read up on the band; turns out Tom Morello went to Harvard, because of course he did.
In '87, Huey released this; Fore!, their most accomplished album. I think their undisputed masterpiece is "Hip To Be Square". A song so catchy, most people probably don't listen to the lyrics. But they should, because it's not just about the pleasures of conformity and the importance of trends. It's also a personal statement about the band itself. Hey, Paul!
to my mind, "Some of My Lies Are True (Sooner or Later)" is the band's best track. The debut had a goofy, fun energy to it. In the same vein as Marshall Crenshaw's (brilliant) debut album.
I forgot about that song and your comment sent me down the rabbit hole. I also forgot how good the band was at singing harmony - I've got a greatest hits album where they do an a cappella version of The Impression's "It's Alright."
Hard to imagine a band like that having such widespread appeal today and blowing up on MTV.
There was a shot for shot parody video some years back with Huey Lewis and Weird Al, where Huey waxes on about American Psycho before killing Al in revenge for "I Want a New Duck."
Wow, right on time for me. This morning I finally freed myself of my on again off again companion of two years. Getting a little down, but some Faith No More is majorly hitting the spot. I discovered them from the X-games soundtrack compilation around 1995. Now I’m wishing I was a young 20s snowboard bum made of rubber.
Two days ago she described a hard time she’d had with her family in the past. Fishing for more engagement from me, in hopes that we still have a chance, she asked about a hard time in my life. I think she was surprised when I told her it was from 19-36.
I will give Polachek and Trousers some time and a few listens. One of the benefits of being over 50 is that you don't need to give any new iterations of favorite artists any care at all. If I want Kate Bush, I'll listen to Kate Bush. BUT, to counter my own argument, sometimes new variations on theme ring true.
Speaking of Kate Bush, she always struck me as the solo female version of Rush. Amazingly talented and creative, yet simultaneously somehow always out of step with culture. Ahead or behind, not sure, but oddly theatrical or weird (I feel bad using that word in a seemingly negative way). I have recently seen her 1979 BBC performance which encapsulates the odd scene perfectly. Also, she was right to re-record some of her early vocals.
I agree with you on the scope of her artistry. I still don't understand much of what she was saying or doing, but I couldn't stay away. Her music was just the thing to crank up with the guys on the way to the local ski hill to shred some runs. Oh wait, no, that's not it. THAT was Van Halen. I don't think Kate has ever fit in well. It's a miracle she broke thru to the mainstream ever, at all.
The eternal mystery of Rush to me, and I say this as a fan who has spent real money on the band, is how you have one of the most accomplished rhythm sections in rock or pop history and yet they are unable to even APPROACH a groove or a pocket of any type.
I too am a Rush fan who has given the band an absurd amount of money since hearing Moving Pictures when it debuted. I think the problem lies in the fact they were too skilled, and Peart in particular was too precise, perhaps to the point of being uptight.
I remember reading Anthony Bourdain writing about the meal Thomas Keller prepared for him at the French Laundry. Bourdain went on at some length about how impeccably prepared it was before saying it also was prepared by someone who had probably never in his life enjoyed a right and proper fuck. The skill and precision was there, but there was no unabashed passion to it.
As much as admire and respect the musicianship and intellect Peart brought to the band, I don't think "passionate" is an adjective anyone would use to describe him. And I think that probably kept him from finding a groove.
Lifeson, on the other hand, once joined his wife and son in fighting with sheriff's deputies who arrested his son, which explains how he could peel off burning solos like the one he performed in Limelight...
He tried to be more loose by training with a jazz drummer but I think by then the band was out of songs. Their music definitely rocks, has sublime moments and there are many gems. They were as you say very technical or mathematical as I would say, didn’t let the rhythm “float”. Probably why women don’t tend to be fans. Bands like Zeppelin or Cream had great drummers who could let it float.
I think about Robert Fripp with King Crimson, very mathematical but from Lark’s Tongues on had a rhythm section that could be funky.
One more aside compare the 7/8 on Tom Sawyer to the 7/8 on I Know What I Like by Genesis both great songs but Phil plays with more soul. In my opinion…
Accurate. Peter Gabriel deserves a lot of respect, so half what he gets is about right. He is still one of my all-time favorite singers. (For context, I never recovered from my prog addiction but even I can see that "So" is just about perfect. I'm now forced to listen to classical, because it is the only genre where the songs are long enough.) Phil Collins was always an amazing and tasteful drummer. He could be loose, or not, exactly as the music required. Decent singer, great drummer.
Fighting words, if ever there were. But upon further, minimal reflection, I probably agree with you. It is sort of odd that these two poor guys get set against one another as they do.
Yeah, I mean they had no personal animosity -- Collins played on some of Gabriel's solo stuff. It's more that weird phenomenon where fans of a band are unwilling to let the band decide what they want to be, and the examples of that are as diverse as "Dylan goes electric" and "Joni goes Jaco" and "Sussudio".
One of the best pieces of snark I ever read was in a music review of one of the Bill Bruford/UK albums, something like, "In which they prove it is not merely difficult to rock out in 13/8, it is impossible." Can't vouch for the exact time signature, but the point remains.
The great tragedy of Feedback is the songs were almost note-for-note covers of ... covers. There wasn't any originality to it. Fun album, but they couldn't even cut lose on tracks like Summertime Blues.
Not bad. I feel like all the great music has been made and now we’re just looking for change under the cushions. Ditto what you wrote about Kate Bush. Astonishing talent.
There are two problems with contemporary classical music. The first, common to every genre that cannot be performed with two or three people and a fancy computer in a studio, is the production expense. The second is that, outside of film, composition has been captured by people whose native language is the scholarly journal. There's a place for that group of people but they will never, ever write anything for a mass audience.
I know nothing of music. I know what I like, and I know a lot of it is garbage. But hey, people still eat at McDonalds.
"About half of the record was released in dribs and drabs over the past year, reflecting the unfortunate fact that Spotify and Apple Music have basically destroyed album-oriented rock in favor of a payment model that favors obsessive listening to a single track"
Bullshit. The recording industry destroyed album-oriented music. Spotify and Apple Music are just maximizing the same profit model, one decent or catchy song. But the third time as a teenage I spent no small amount of my hard-earned burger flipping money on a cassette based on one song from a new band to find it was the only decent song, I stopped buying them. The consumers eventually followed suite, but not before the no talent vampires of the entire old industry managed to keep pulled juice from that piece of fruit. I offer Jennifer Lopez's entire discography as Exhibit A.
When A&R reps would invest in music, they would spend time, money, energy and drugs getting them to a standpiont where they could produce a sellable album. Get the best producer they could, and then send them on tour to promote it. Then they just moved to the fuck it model. Get them in a studio, record the one track and then buy a bunch of cheap songs, crank out 11 more tracks and get that thing to the Sam Goody's racks ASAP!
Samantha Fox released six studio albums, five compilation albums, five remix albums, two box sets, 36 singles. That whole "we'll front you the money you're gonna be a star" exploitation model aside, consumer got sick of it. The industry tried its best to get our money. "Cass-singles" anyone?
A decent portion of musicians or bands that decided they had enough talent completely ditch the conventional model. They started giving away the recordings, focusing their profit on concerts and merchandise. Gene Simmons can bitch all he wants that this new model will not produce the same epic bands like his, but what he doesn't realize is that a lot of artists want it that way.
Controlling your interaction with the audience, controlling your own music and controlling when and where you perform gives them a lot more freedom.
Apple and Spotify have created a way for artists to get paid in this environment outside of the shows, YouTube and websites. OK, Spotify has.
The folks that could have saved album-oriented music are still pursing the "American Idol" dream of profiting from an artist while having no talent, and even Simon Cowell jumped that sinking ship.
I am (quite) loosely acquainted with them on a personal level.
In thinking about classical music and it's longevity: much like the chanted liturgy it is not a singular effort (in the case of the liturgy I will clarify and say we join in the eternal liturgy and never-ceasing liturgy). The composer has passed on, but the music is made alive again with each new performance. Will the ARTIST centered music have the same staying power over the centuries?
The truly great songs end up with a million covers, some of which are incredibly different from the original but still work. Contrast Sara Bareilles's cover of "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay," which I find jaw-dropping, with Otis Redding's original.
Meanwhile, much of the obtuse Bach music that scholars and Bach nerds (like me) love to puzzle over is as obtuse as it is because he was the only person, in his time, who could play it. It was very much "artist-centered" in the same way as much of today's stuff, but the world eventually figured out how to deal with it and make it into a living thing.
Caroline Polachek was a recent guest on How Long Gone, among my favorite podcasts; the podcast is NOT for everyone: “How Long Gone is a bi-coastal elite podcast from old friends and podcast professionals, Chris Black and Jason Stewart. CB and TJ deliver their takes on pop culture, fashion, music, and more.” It was recently more succinctly described as “dumb content for smart people.”
"Even the oft-reviled Daylight Again, best described as CSN’s “pay for the yachts with yacht rock” album,"
While "80 feet of running line, nice for making way" comes from a different socioeconomic perspective than "woke up this mornin', looked round for my shoes", Southern Cross is still a great song.
I recently picked up the Waka/Wazoo boxed set. Highly recommended.
That's humblebrag for "I bought a really big boat". One wag on the Internet notes that
'"80 feet of Waterline" does not mean a 40' boat. It means as the boat heels over and the leeward side sinks into the water, the waterline lengthens to 80 feet - and the longer the waterline is in relation to the beam, the faster the speed. Thus "nicely making way." And since a boat's length is longer at the deck than at the waterline, he's sailing a very nice boat, indeed.'
If I recall the story correctly, it was someone elses boat. Heck, the song was someone elses, Seven League Boots by brothers Rick and Michael Curtis, and Stills reworked it.
you write: "Even Lennon and McCartney needed the caustic superiority of Bob Dylan to go from Meet The Beatles to Rubber Soul, while Dylan himself absorbed a disastrous marriage and a tidal wave of critical disdain before producing Blood On The Tracks."
you forgot "One year after Dylan's masterpiece, Fleetwood Mac turned internecine adultery and the resulting simultaneous collapse of every romantic relationship within the band, coupled with a metric ton of cocaine, into the flawless Rumours."
In college I asked a friend what to listen to if I wanted to learn about jazz. He said to listen to anything Miles Davis recorded and anything recorded by the musicians who played with him.
I mentioned Waka/Wazoo in another comment. I wonder what Zappa could have done with the Bitches Brew lineup.
The final Prestige albums; done to satisfy a contract obligation, but broadly recognized as artistically important.
Cookin'
Workin'
Steamin'
Relaxin'
"...with the Miles Davis Quintet"
Now, to support your assertion vis-a-vis Mark's, these are four of the most important jazz albums in history -- but they are *cover tunes*, as was common in the era.
Dylan wrote, performed, and arranged almost all of his work, going so far as to move from one city to another in pursuit of a particular sound.
There were a few originals on those recordings, as well, and of course every part of the tunes were spontaneously improvised. Miles also recorded two Columbia records in-between those two dates, but they were released much later.
Stand Up and Benefit are very good. Aqualung (I saw Tull on the Aqualung tour, just as they were breaking really big) and Thick As A Brick might be small notch below those, though they sold much better. After that, some fine individual songs.
The Stones run from Beggars' Banquet through Exile On Main Street was also pretty productive in terms of quality output. I think my favorite song from that period is You Got The Silver. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gxktlk8NCJ8
If Exile on Main Street had been two albums instead of a double, one of them would have been a decent Stones album and the other would have been ranked above Pet Sounds and Sgt Peppers.
I know that the correct opinion to be held is that Brian Wilson is an underappreciated, tortured genius and that Pet Sounds is his great oeuvre, but much of the album leaves me flat. That's okay, as a Deadhead I'm supposed to think that Phish floats my boat, but I much prefer other jambands.
I spent 45 years of my life not caring at all about the Dead, wondering why people were so nuts over them, and then something terrible (or wonderful) happened. Now I love them. I really don't know why something at last clicked.
Maybe I was finally "ready", as mystical as that sounds ... and weed was not involved.
Yes, I agree on Ronnie's musical taste and comments.
I'm going to have to listen to these songs when I'm at home tonight and this weekend. Too much is going on at the office to appreciate any of it.
So far as pop music goes, I don't listen to much. I have some Julia Michaels because my wife likes her, and I have some Meg Myers because I find her compelling in a certain way, although I'm not sure what to think of what she did to herself during the pandemic (facial piercings, ugly hair). She covered "Running Up That Hill" a few years ago, and that was probably the first time I ever heard that song. After reading this post, I suppose I'm all the poorer for it.
That said, if you're only able to listen to pop music in English you're really missing out. Right now there is a Japanese singer named Ado who is just turning 20 this year whose voice is the most frankly amazing thing I have ever heard. She hit it big on the internet with a song called "Usseewa" ("Shut the Fuck Up") that a Japanese all-girl metal band I like covered. Ado's version is the superior version, but that's because no one can sing like her. Her range. Her dynamics. And she sang "Usseewa" at 18. Most of her tracks are Vocaloid covers and the songs themselves are not all that great, but there are many excellent performances on her youtube channel, and recently, as her music has become more and more popular, she's been able to work with some of Japan's most accomplished musicians, including my absolute favorite artist in any genre in any language: Shiina Ringo.
If you are not listening to Shiina Ringo (or her other project, Tokyo Jihen [Tokyo Incidents]) you are doing yourself a disservice. When she was 17-18 she wrote and performed a song called "Tsumi to Batsu" ("Crime and Punishment") that I would put against the best anyone else is capable of writing/singing. It is a song I think is uncoverable, no one can reach the desperation needed to do it the right way. Ado does a good cover just because her voice is that good, but when I hear it it only makes me want to hear the original.
As if the blues-y original wasn't already good enough, she's re-arranged it over the years, adding a brass section and turning it into the sort of song that should be playing over the credits in a Bond movie, vastly superior to anything they put over the last few movies except "You Know My Name." Sometimes I wonder what it's like to have to perform a song like that night after night, year after year. But then, of course, you must acknowledge that you were the one who created such a thing that people still yearn to hear even all these years later.
This reads like Bateman’s review of Huey Lewis in American Psycho. I mean that in the nicest way possible. Also, I am a musical ignoramus without a shred of talent.
just so you know some of us oldsters are still out there: what hyperanalysis of crap! the intellectual approach has gone so far that it got outside the universe of rational/esthetic analysis into the chaos of self parody. but that's just me...or us
Why does music have to be transgressive or subversive? Why can't musicians just MAKE MUSIC?
I see what you're getting at, and I don't disagree, but if you go too far down that road you end up with the Nashville country music machine.
I thought they too were veering into political advocacy as well of late.
Political music has always been embarrassing, but yeah its worse lately. Likely because it is in service of the State's goals rather than counter to it.
It was less embarrassing when the music was protesting a war the musicians and their audience had a real chance of being shipped off to die in. Neil Young spontaneously writing "Ohio" in the aftermath of Kent State and CSNY rushing the song the airwaves within a month of the incident meant something.
But those same guys still bitching about war 40 years later (unless of course the Democratic Party holds the White House) is laughable. As is somebody like Springsteen pretending to be a folkie while also hosting a podcast with Barack "Turns Out I'm Pretty Good at Killing People" Obama. I liked Alice Cooper called political artists "treasonous morons," as in they were committing treason against rock and roll by using it as a platform for their stupid opinions.
Instead of their usual treason of railing against the nation that let's them loudly and publicly hate their own country.
Rule-abiding rebels. How convincing.
Like Rage Against The Machine, who went directly from
FUCK YOU I WON'T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME
to
TAKE THE FUCKIN VAXX YOU BIGOT
Funny how once once they're inside the machine they turn their rage against everyone who isn't.
Rare is the political protester that isn't completely full of shit. Boomers are the poster children for this, but Rage proves that Gen X can be just as hypocritical.
Your comment made me read up on the band; turns out Tom Morello went to Harvard, because of course he did.
What machine are they raging against?
Oh yeah - functional society.
Musicians have never just made music. Not any good music, anyway.
Here's where I show what a FILTHY CASUAL I am:
What do you mean "Good?"
More music reviews please. I won't miss the car reviews at all I don't think.
Why not both?
In '87, Huey released this; Fore!, their most accomplished album. I think their undisputed masterpiece is "Hip To Be Square". A song so catchy, most people probably don't listen to the lyrics. But they should, because it's not just about the pleasures of conformity and the importance of trends. It's also a personal statement about the band itself. Hey, Paul!
to my mind, "Some of My Lies Are True (Sooner or Later)" is the band's best track. The debut had a goofy, fun energy to it. In the same vein as Marshall Crenshaw's (brilliant) debut album.
I forgot about that song and your comment sent me down the rabbit hole. I also forgot how good the band was at singing harmony - I've got a greatest hits album where they do an a cappella version of The Impression's "It's Alright."
Hard to imagine a band like that having such widespread appeal today and blowing up on MTV.
Is that a raincoat?
There was a shot for shot parody video some years back with Huey Lewis and Weird Al, where Huey waxes on about American Psycho before killing Al in revenge for "I Want a New Duck."
In all seriousness, thanks for the lead on her. I am very much digging her music so far.
Wow, right on time for me. This morning I finally freed myself of my on again off again companion of two years. Getting a little down, but some Faith No More is majorly hitting the spot. I discovered them from the X-games soundtrack compilation around 1995. Now I’m wishing I was a young 20s snowboard bum made of rubber.
Two days ago she described a hard time she’d had with her family in the past. Fishing for more engagement from me, in hopes that we still have a chance, she asked about a hard time in my life. I think she was surprised when I told her it was from 19-36.
The Real Thing is brilliant. I tried to get into Angel Dust but it never clicked for me. I probably ought to give it another try.
I will give Polachek and Trousers some time and a few listens. One of the benefits of being over 50 is that you don't need to give any new iterations of favorite artists any care at all. If I want Kate Bush, I'll listen to Kate Bush. BUT, to counter my own argument, sometimes new variations on theme ring true.
Speaking of Kate Bush, she always struck me as the solo female version of Rush. Amazingly talented and creative, yet simultaneously somehow always out of step with culture. Ahead or behind, not sure, but oddly theatrical or weird (I feel bad using that word in a seemingly negative way). I have recently seen her 1979 BBC performance which encapsulates the odd scene perfectly. Also, she was right to re-record some of her early vocals.
I agree with you on the scope of her artistry. I still don't understand much of what she was saying or doing, but I couldn't stay away. Her music was just the thing to crank up with the guys on the way to the local ski hill to shred some runs. Oh wait, no, that's not it. THAT was Van Halen. I don't think Kate has ever fit in well. It's a miracle she broke thru to the mainstream ever, at all.
The eternal mystery of Rush to me, and I say this as a fan who has spent real money on the band, is how you have one of the most accomplished rhythm sections in rock or pop history and yet they are unable to even APPROACH a groove or a pocket of any type.
I too am a Rush fan who has given the band an absurd amount of money since hearing Moving Pictures when it debuted. I think the problem lies in the fact they were too skilled, and Peart in particular was too precise, perhaps to the point of being uptight.
I remember reading Anthony Bourdain writing about the meal Thomas Keller prepared for him at the French Laundry. Bourdain went on at some length about how impeccably prepared it was before saying it also was prepared by someone who had probably never in his life enjoyed a right and proper fuck. The skill and precision was there, but there was no unabashed passion to it.
As much as admire and respect the musicianship and intellect Peart brought to the band, I don't think "passionate" is an adjective anyone would use to describe him. And I think that probably kept him from finding a groove.
Lifeson, on the other hand, once joined his wife and son in fighting with sheriff's deputies who arrested his son, which explains how he could peel off burning solos like the one he performed in Limelight...
He tried to be more loose by training with a jazz drummer but I think by then the band was out of songs. Their music definitely rocks, has sublime moments and there are many gems. They were as you say very technical or mathematical as I would say, didn’t let the rhythm “float”. Probably why women don’t tend to be fans. Bands like Zeppelin or Cream had great drummers who could let it float.
I think about Robert Fripp with King Crimson, very mathematical but from Lark’s Tongues on had a rhythm section that could be funky.
One more aside compare the 7/8 on Tom Sawyer to the 7/8 on I Know What I Like by Genesis both great songs but Phil plays with more soul. In my opinion…
Phil Collins deserves ten times the respect he gets. Peter Gabriel deserves about half of what HE gets.
Accurate. Peter Gabriel deserves a lot of respect, so half what he gets is about right. He is still one of my all-time favorite singers. (For context, I never recovered from my prog addiction but even I can see that "So" is just about perfect. I'm now forced to listen to classical, because it is the only genre where the songs are long enough.) Phil Collins was always an amazing and tasteful drummer. He could be loose, or not, exactly as the music required. Decent singer, great drummer.
Fighting words, if ever there were. But upon further, minimal reflection, I probably agree with you. It is sort of odd that these two poor guys get set against one another as they do.
Yeah, I mean they had no personal animosity -- Collins played on some of Gabriel's solo stuff. It's more that weird phenomenon where fans of a band are unwilling to let the band decide what they want to be, and the examples of that are as diverse as "Dylan goes electric" and "Joni goes Jaco" and "Sussudio".
I like your Bourdain comparison.
I always figured Lifeson was as lifeless as the other two, but I guess not.
Isn't prog rock nearly always empty of emotion?
Don't get me wrong, I am a Rush fan. Maybe it's just the Canada effect, eh.
One of the best pieces of snark I ever read was in a music review of one of the Bill Bruford/UK albums, something like, "In which they prove it is not merely difficult to rock out in 13/8, it is impossible." Can't vouch for the exact time signature, but the point remains.
That may be a feature. I've never listened to it but I wonder if they tried to do that on any of the tracks they covered on 'Feedback'.
The great tragedy of Feedback is the songs were almost note-for-note covers of ... covers. There wasn't any originality to it. Fun album, but they couldn't even cut lose on tracks like Summertime Blues.
Vital Signs comes close
Agreed. One of the band's best tracks and an underrated gem.
I’d say she was ahead on The Dreaming. Bought it when it came out and was stunned. Still love it all these years later.
The two tracks from that album that made it to 'The Whole Story' were...odd. A didgeridoo, wtf!?!
That album cover, though. What I would do to get that key...
Not bad. I feel like all the great music has been made and now we’re just looking for change under the cushions. Ditto what you wrote about Kate Bush. Astonishing talent.
Every genre runs out of steam eventually; God knows it happened to classical a long time ago, and it happened to rap in under a decade.
There are two problems with contemporary classical music. The first, common to every genre that cannot be performed with two or three people and a fancy computer in a studio, is the production expense. The second is that, outside of film, composition has been captured by people whose native language is the scholarly journal. There's a place for that group of people but they will never, ever write anything for a mass audience.
I know nothing of music. I know what I like, and I know a lot of it is garbage. But hey, people still eat at McDonalds.
"About half of the record was released in dribs and drabs over the past year, reflecting the unfortunate fact that Spotify and Apple Music have basically destroyed album-oriented rock in favor of a payment model that favors obsessive listening to a single track"
Bullshit. The recording industry destroyed album-oriented music. Spotify and Apple Music are just maximizing the same profit model, one decent or catchy song. But the third time as a teenage I spent no small amount of my hard-earned burger flipping money on a cassette based on one song from a new band to find it was the only decent song, I stopped buying them. The consumers eventually followed suite, but not before the no talent vampires of the entire old industry managed to keep pulled juice from that piece of fruit. I offer Jennifer Lopez's entire discography as Exhibit A.
When A&R reps would invest in music, they would spend time, money, energy and drugs getting them to a standpiont where they could produce a sellable album. Get the best producer they could, and then send them on tour to promote it. Then they just moved to the fuck it model. Get them in a studio, record the one track and then buy a bunch of cheap songs, crank out 11 more tracks and get that thing to the Sam Goody's racks ASAP!
Samantha Fox released six studio albums, five compilation albums, five remix albums, two box sets, 36 singles. That whole "we'll front you the money you're gonna be a star" exploitation model aside, consumer got sick of it. The industry tried its best to get our money. "Cass-singles" anyone?
A decent portion of musicians or bands that decided they had enough talent completely ditch the conventional model. They started giving away the recordings, focusing their profit on concerts and merchandise. Gene Simmons can bitch all he wants that this new model will not produce the same epic bands like his, but what he doesn't realize is that a lot of artists want it that way.
Controlling your interaction with the audience, controlling your own music and controlling when and where you perform gives them a lot more freedom.
Apple and Spotify have created a way for artists to get paid in this environment outside of the shows, YouTube and websites. OK, Spotify has.
The folks that could have saved album-oriented music are still pursing the "American Idol" dream of profiting from an artist while having no talent, and even Simon Cowell jumped that sinking ship.
Speaking of the Battle of Evermore and LADY BANDS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogw15jdM_Yc
I am (quite) loosely acquainted with them on a personal level.
In thinking about classical music and it's longevity: much like the chanted liturgy it is not a singular effort (in the case of the liturgy I will clarify and say we join in the eternal liturgy and never-ceasing liturgy). The composer has passed on, but the music is made alive again with each new performance. Will the ARTIST centered music have the same staying power over the centuries?
Robert Plant also sang this when he was with Alison Krauss. It's great, of course.
Ann and Nancy Wilson also perform an amazing cover of the Battle of Evermore, as well as Stairway to Heaven. Worth a listen….
It's not as different as you think.
The truly great songs end up with a million covers, some of which are incredibly different from the original but still work. Contrast Sara Bareilles's cover of "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay," which I find jaw-dropping, with Otis Redding's original.
Meanwhile, much of the obtuse Bach music that scholars and Bach nerds (like me) love to puzzle over is as obtuse as it is because he was the only person, in his time, who could play it. It was very much "artist-centered" in the same way as much of today's stuff, but the world eventually figured out how to deal with it and make it into a living thing.
Caroline Polachek was a recent guest on How Long Gone, among my favorite podcasts; the podcast is NOT for everyone: “How Long Gone is a bi-coastal elite podcast from old friends and podcast professionals, Chris Black and Jason Stewart. CB and TJ deliver their takes on pop culture, fashion, music, and more.” It was recently more succinctly described as “dumb content for smart people.”
https://howlonggone.com/459-caroline-polachek
"PODCAST PROFESSIONALS"
fuck outta here with that
You are a podcast UNprofessional, of course!
HLG is massively tongue in cheek / ironic / sarcastic.
"Even the oft-reviled Daylight Again, best described as CSN’s “pay for the yachts with yacht rock” album,"
While "80 feet of running line, nice for making way" comes from a different socioeconomic perspective than "woke up this mornin', looked round for my shoes", Southern Cross is still a great song.
I recently picked up the Waka/Wazoo boxed set. Highly recommended.
"Southern Cross is still a great song."
Yes.
I thought the line was “Eighty feet at the waterline.”
Eighty feet *of* waterline, nicely making way!
That's humblebrag for "I bought a really big boat". One wag on the Internet notes that
'"80 feet of Waterline" does not mean a 40' boat. It means as the boat heels over and the leeward side sinks into the water, the waterline lengthens to 80 feet - and the longer the waterline is in relation to the beam, the faster the speed. Thus "nicely making way." And since a boat's length is longer at the deck than at the waterline, he's sailing a very nice boat, indeed.'
If I recall the story correctly, it was someone elses boat. Heck, the song was someone elses, Seven League Boots by brothers Rick and Michael Curtis, and Stills reworked it.
Oh, I thought it was depth, not length. The Talented Mr. Ripely I am not.
you write: "Even Lennon and McCartney needed the caustic superiority of Bob Dylan to go from Meet The Beatles to Rubber Soul, while Dylan himself absorbed a disastrous marriage and a tidal wave of critical disdain before producing Blood On The Tracks."
you forgot "One year after Dylan's masterpiece, Fleetwood Mac turned internecine adultery and the resulting simultaneous collapse of every romantic relationship within the band, coupled with a metric ton of cocaine, into the flawless Rumours."
All worthy choices but I'd say Blonde on Blonde sits in a special place of honor.
Louise, she's all right, she's just near
She's delicate and seems like the mirror
But she just makes it all too concise and too clear
That Johanna's not here
Has anyone had as productive a period as Dylan between 1964 and 1966?
Barry Manilow on the afternoon he wrote the “I am stuck on Band-Aid” jingle?
Miles Davis recording four full length albums in two days.
Which albums were those?
In college I asked a friend what to listen to if I wanted to learn about jazz. He said to listen to anything Miles Davis recorded and anything recorded by the musicians who played with him.
I mentioned Waka/Wazoo in another comment. I wonder what Zappa could have done with the Bitches Brew lineup.
The final Prestige albums; done to satisfy a contract obligation, but broadly recognized as artistically important.
Cookin'
Workin'
Steamin'
Relaxin'
"...with the Miles Davis Quintet"
Now, to support your assertion vis-a-vis Mark's, these are four of the most important jazz albums in history -- but they are *cover tunes*, as was common in the era.
Dylan wrote, performed, and arranged almost all of his work, going so far as to move from one city to another in pursuit of a particular sound.
There were a few originals on those recordings, as well, and of course every part of the tunes were spontaneously improvised. Miles also recorded two Columbia records in-between those two dates, but they were released much later.
Stand Up and Benefit are very good. Aqualung (I saw Tull on the Aqualung tour, just as they were breaking really big) and Thick As A Brick might be small notch below those, though they sold much better. After that, some fine individual songs.
The Stones run from Beggars' Banquet through Exile On Main Street was also pretty productive in terms of quality output. I think my favorite song from that period is You Got The Silver. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gxktlk8NCJ8
If Exile on Main Street had been two albums instead of a double, one of them would have been a decent Stones album and the other would have been ranked above Pet Sounds and Sgt Peppers.
I know that the correct opinion to be held is that Brian Wilson is an underappreciated, tortured genius and that Pet Sounds is his great oeuvre, but much of the album leaves me flat. That's okay, as a Deadhead I'm supposed to think that Phish floats my boat, but I much prefer other jambands.
I spent 45 years of my life not caring at all about the Dead, wondering why people were so nuts over them, and then something terrible (or wonderful) happened. Now I love them. I really don't know why something at last clicked.
Maybe I was finally "ready", as mystical as that sounds ... and weed was not involved.
Yes, I agree on Ronnie's musical taste and comments.
Thank you.
I think the Dead's best years were '72, '77, and '89.
Try these:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4ePF39S4Mc&list=PLIJmYQvaDU3GGGv8DpWjYAg0hIzg_daWN
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC4QWv3doDE&list=PLzptvlG1JiNBhiWTS4PZF8u4Uf35nMOno
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnabO3cRJW8&list=PLArIN-VmVzsyZypvkq1QE075kQEdk3b6x
The crossover of GenX nostalgia with the Zoomers deserves its own piece.
As a GenX parent to two Zoomers, I concur! I'd love to read Jack's take on that.
I'm going to have to listen to these songs when I'm at home tonight and this weekend. Too much is going on at the office to appreciate any of it.
So far as pop music goes, I don't listen to much. I have some Julia Michaels because my wife likes her, and I have some Meg Myers because I find her compelling in a certain way, although I'm not sure what to think of what she did to herself during the pandemic (facial piercings, ugly hair). She covered "Running Up That Hill" a few years ago, and that was probably the first time I ever heard that song. After reading this post, I suppose I'm all the poorer for it.
That said, if you're only able to listen to pop music in English you're really missing out. Right now there is a Japanese singer named Ado who is just turning 20 this year whose voice is the most frankly amazing thing I have ever heard. She hit it big on the internet with a song called "Usseewa" ("Shut the Fuck Up") that a Japanese all-girl metal band I like covered. Ado's version is the superior version, but that's because no one can sing like her. Her range. Her dynamics. And she sang "Usseewa" at 18. Most of her tracks are Vocaloid covers and the songs themselves are not all that great, but there are many excellent performances on her youtube channel, and recently, as her music has become more and more popular, she's been able to work with some of Japan's most accomplished musicians, including my absolute favorite artist in any genre in any language: Shiina Ringo.
If you are not listening to Shiina Ringo (or her other project, Tokyo Jihen [Tokyo Incidents]) you are doing yourself a disservice. When she was 17-18 she wrote and performed a song called "Tsumi to Batsu" ("Crime and Punishment") that I would put against the best anyone else is capable of writing/singing. It is a song I think is uncoverable, no one can reach the desperation needed to do it the right way. Ado does a good cover just because her voice is that good, but when I hear it it only makes me want to hear the original.
As if the blues-y original wasn't already good enough, she's re-arranged it over the years, adding a brass section and turning it into the sort of song that should be playing over the credits in a Bond movie, vastly superior to anything they put over the last few movies except "You Know My Name." Sometimes I wonder what it's like to have to perform a song like that night after night, year after year. But then, of course, you must acknowledge that you were the one who created such a thing that people still yearn to hear even all these years later.
I'll give it a listen. Thank you!
Damn. That is a voice. And there's not even any Ado-Tune (that I can identify).
I'd like to put in another request for Bark to bring back the Listening Room.
Fiiiine. That shit takes time tho
This reads like Bateman’s review of Huey Lewis in American Psycho. I mean that in the nicest way possible. Also, I am a musical ignoramus without a shred of talent.
just so you know some of us oldsters are still out there: what hyperanalysis of crap! the intellectual approach has gone so far that it got outside the universe of rational/esthetic analysis into the chaos of self parody. but that's just me...or us
Sir, you are from the generation that gave us the Nat Hentoff jazz book AND Lester Bangs!