Just 4 fun, here's that list of Sunny Day Songs that kept the sun out (tho it was still kinda cold out) 4 the last wk&1/2 here in Washington, altho I've bn sick 4 the past 2 days & couldn't Njoy it much, & even tho it got all overcast yesterday. The Good Juju worked 4 awhile....
I thot of the 1st 18 or so of these on my own, then did just the slightest bit of research 2 come up w/ the rest. I'm sure there's a lot more out there.... It was all just 4 cheap fun, but I figured since it worked so well weather-wise (at least locally) I'd go ahead & post it, cos this may B 1 of the few times I'll write about stuff I don't even like all that much.... I don't know, make a mix-CD outta this list or somethin....
* Beatles: "Here Comes the Sun" (1969, from ABBEY ROAD) -- Apparently George wrote this while sitting in his garden w/ Eric Clapton, coming outta a haze of meditation & bad feelings from a recent mtg at Apple.... Hard 2 argue w/ that sun-breaking-thru-the-fog feeling of the guitars on this track.
* Fifth Dimension: "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" (#1, '69) -- I know, they were so uncool. But this song still soars, man.... What great group vocals. Take a bow, producer Bones Howe.
* Bill Withers: "Ain't No Sunshine" (#3/71) -- Now this definitely does NOT sound like a sunny day, only gray, bleak wintry stuff here. But what a great vocal. & when the strings join in, WOW. It's like a perfect miniature, it's over in just a little more than 2 mins, & Bill repeats the phrase "I know" about 26 times. & he still gotta Grammy 4 it. "Grandma's Hands" was pretty great, 2. & of course "Lean On Me." Whatever happened 2 this guy?
* U2: "Beautiful Day" -- Absolutely thrilling, Xhilirating, some of the best Fri-aft-summertime music ever. & 1 of only about 2 of their songs since THE JOSHUA TREE that I think actually lives up 2 their rep.
+ Daniel Boone: "Beautiful Sunday" (#15/72) -- Daniel Boone was actually an English singer-songwriter. Why he felt compelled 2 take the name of an American folk hero beats me....
* Stevie Wonder: "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" (#1/72) -- Stevie ALWAYS sounded like he was havin a great time back in those days, so we the listeners hadda great time 2. & dig the wild variety of voices he used on this track!
+ Johnathan Edwards: "Sunshine" (#4/71) -- Recorded as an afterthot at the Nd of a session 2 fill up the 2nd side of 1 of his albums 4 Capricorn, the single made a run at the Top 3. It was Edwards' only big hit.
+ Archies: "Sunshine" (1969?) -- What do U MEAN records pressed on the back of cereal boxes don't count...?
= John Denver: "Sunshine on My Shoulders" (#1/74) -- I prefer the KILLER B-side "I Think I'd Rather Be a Cowboy" (where John actually ROCKS! He even sounds kinda ANGRY!), but a lotta people liked this, I guess. I just thot it was kinda stupid & obvious. But he did some great stuff: "Rocky Mountain High," "Calypso," "Take Me Home, Country Roads," "Farewell Andromeda".....
+ Beatles: "Sun King" ('69, ABBEY ROAD) -- Nice vocals & harmonies & neat delicate gtrs. & I kinda like the nonsense verse at the Nd....
+ Moody Blues: "Sun is Still Shining" ('69, from TO OUR CHILDREN'S CHILDREN'S CHILDREN) -- From their spaciest, coldest, most distant album. If the sun's still out, it's cos they were lookin at it from the vantage point of space....
+ Sly & the Family Stone: "Hot Fun in the Summertime" (#2/69) -- Hot! Funky! U can feel the oppressive summer-city heat as U listen. & great vocals....
= Bobby Goldsboro: "Summer (The First Time)" (#21/73) -- 1a his last hits, kinda smarmy & sleazy, but it does definitely have a sultry, sighing, nostalgic summer feel 2 it....
- Olivia Newton-John & John Travolta: "Summer Nights" (#5/'78, from GREASE) -- I was dragged kicking&screaming 2 C this movie & actually hadda pretty good time, but I've never liked this much, tho I admit summa the lyrics R kinda funny. & boy did it get played WAY 2 much. My fave song from GREASE was always the 1 Stockard Channing sang....
* Rivieras: "California Sun" (#5/64) -- This is a freakin classic w/ a great Farfisa organ riff that will weld itself in2 yr brain....
- Mungo Jerry: "In the Summertime" (#3/70) -- Yurgh....
= Chicago: "Saturday in the Park" (#3/72) -- Now I don't actually LIKE this, I'm more of a "Feelin' Stronger Every Day"/"Questions 67 & 68"/"In Terms of Two"/"I've Been Searchin' So Long"/"Wishing You Were Here" kinda guy. But I agree they got the summer atmosphere DOWN. So well, in fact, that they carbon-copied it 4 the later "Just You 'N Me"....
+ Johnny Nash: "I Can See Clearly Now" (#1/72) -- Crystal-clear, sparkling, cosmic -- & how bout Nash's great soaring voice as he disappears in2 the clouds in the middle? Didn't like it much at the time, but it sure brings back the period 4 me. "It's gonna be a bright sunshiny day...."
+ Kinks: "Sunny Afternoon" (#14/66) -- It's always struck me how RELAXED Ray Davies sounds on this song, as if all his stresses really Rn't that big a deal. Love the vocals & the relaxed, almost lethargic feel. Charming. Course if it's Xcitement yr looking 4, this ain't no "Lola," or "Shangri-La," "Victoria," "Dead-End Street," or even "Apeman"....
* Walker Bros.: "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" (#13/66) -- Their last names weren't really Walker, they weren't really brothers, & I don't really care. Just gotta have my melodrama....
= War: "Summer" (#7/76) -- This is very pleasant, but give me "Cisco Kid," "Gypsy Man" or "Slippin' Into Darkness" (an OBVIOUS rip of Bob Marley's "Get Up, Stand Up"!) NE day....
+ Seals & Crofts: "Summer Breeze" (#6/72) -- Very pleasant, & definitely clearly evokes a summer evening. But WAY overplayed. Gimme "We May Never Pass This Way Again" or "Hummingbird" -- both Classics!
* Lovin' Spoonful: "Summer in the City" (#1/66) -- Speaking of classics. Did these guys ever sound angrier?
* Johnny Rivers: "Summer Rain" (#14/68) -- This guy was WAY underrated, & this song is a moody classic that beautifully evokes both summer & specifically the Summer Of Love....
+ Chad & Jeremy: "A Summer Song" (#7/64) -- Gentle, breathy, innocent, nostalgic....
+ Eddie Cochran: "Summertime Blues" (#8/58) -- Nobody beats the original. & it's less than 2 mins long....
+ Lighthouse: "Sunny Days" (#34/72) -- Great hippie-era stuff, silly lyrics, & it do sound like summertime....
= Cream: "Sunshine of Your Love" (#5/68) -- Ehhhh. I'm more a "Badge"/"I Feel Free"/"I'm So Glad" kinda guy. & I'm still not sure about some of the lyrics -- sounds pretty sleazy 2 me. But yeah, they did do some great stuff....
= Billy Stewart: "Summertime" (#10/66) -- "...and the livin' is easy...." Stunning desecration of the standard from PORGY AND BESS, full of stutters & clicks & wails & bellows. He cer10ly had some intresting verbal tics.... & speaking of wailin, how bout that orchestra...?
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
The presence of his absence
Nick Hornby's JULIET, NAKED (2009) really is the best rock novel I've read since Lewis Shiner's GLIMPSES. It's funny & moving & deep, very smoothly written, & w/ lotsa good insights about relationships & what makes art & how men & women respond 2 music diffrently, & there's a happy Nding 4 almost every1. It's WAY better than Hornby's earlier still-pretty-good HIGH FIDELITY (really didn't like the Nding of that 1).
It also casts some rather disturbing lite on folks who write album reviews & post comments on the Internet. I saw myself in some parts of this book & didn't like the picture 2 much. U might C yrself 2 -- but read the book. It's pretty great.
Over in a sleepy coastal England town, a guy named Duncan is perhaps the world's 4most authority on an early-'80s American rocker named Tucker Crowe, an apparent musical genius who went silent shortly after recording his best album, an anguished cycle of lovesongs Ntitled JULIET.
Duncan & his wife Annie get an advance copy of a "new" Tucker Crowe CD, a collection of acoustic demos from his last album, called JULIET, NAKED. Bcos Duncan ignores the unintresting mail, Annie opens the package & gets 2 hear JULIET, NAKED 1st -- which causes a rift in their relationship.
Then Duncan hears it -- & his worship 4 Crowe boils over. He thinks the demos-CD is the 2nd Coming. He posts a rave review of the new album at a Crowe-fans website on the Internet ("where no one is forgotten anymore").
But Annie doesn't agree -- she thinks the demo package is a stark, sketchy, artless dry-run 4 the "real" album, & shows the original album 4 the masterwork it is.
Annie writes & posts her own dissenting review at the Crowe-fans' website.
...& Tucker Crowe responds.
This all happens in the 1st 50 pgs of the 400-pg book. We get 2 meet Tucker Crowe, & discover that after bailing on his music career (after a supposed "epiphany" in a Minneapolis bar-toilet), he went on 2 B an amateur human Bing, a drunken & useless husband & an especially bad father. Tho there's some hope he & his youngest son might B able 2 bring the Xtended family back 2gether....
Crowe & Annie Bgin 2 correspond. Annie & Duncan break-up. Annie & Crowe eventually meet. Crowe goes outta his way 2 avoid the train-wreck of Responsibilities that is his Ntire Xtended family. & everybody grabs 4 whatever happiness they can, even tho there R No Guarantees.
I read this book in practically 1 sitting, in less than 24 hrs, interrupted only by sleep, during my last 2 sick-days-off from work. It is immediate, fluent, funny & insightful, Hornby's characters R funny & Ngaging, & at no point did it feel kinda artificial, like I thot parts of HIGH FIDELITY did. Hornby has done nothing but get better. Don't wait 4 a movie (which this Cms almost perfect 4) -- if U're a music fan & U've ever wondered how music & listening & love & relationships all fit 2gether, & sometimes IF they do, U need 2 read this book.
Just 1 complaint, & it's not about the story. This book is 404 pgs long. It didn't need 2 B. The STORY isn't that long. The text is in big type w/ wide side-margins, a rather narrow column of type, 25 lines running right down the center of each pg. If they'd shrunk the type or narrowed the margins a touch they coulda cut the size of the book down 2 300 pgs. If they'd run 30 lines of type onna pg they coulda cut it down 2 just over 200 pgs, which is the size it probly shoulda bn. But then Riverhead/Penguin Books wouldn't have bn able 2 justify asking $25.95 4 a copy of a hardback book that thin.
(I also think summa the proofreading ain't the best: There's a few spots late in the book where it Bcomes unclear who's speaking -- & in fact the speaker hasn't changed, the proofreader just didn't catch the booboo.)
So. Find a cheap copy of the book. Buy it used, buy it 2nd-hand. Wait 4 the cheaper (probly thinner) paperback. But get it.
It also casts some rather disturbing lite on folks who write album reviews & post comments on the Internet. I saw myself in some parts of this book & didn't like the picture 2 much. U might C yrself 2 -- but read the book. It's pretty great.
Over in a sleepy coastal England town, a guy named Duncan is perhaps the world's 4most authority on an early-'80s American rocker named Tucker Crowe, an apparent musical genius who went silent shortly after recording his best album, an anguished cycle of lovesongs Ntitled JULIET.
Duncan & his wife Annie get an advance copy of a "new" Tucker Crowe CD, a collection of acoustic demos from his last album, called JULIET, NAKED. Bcos Duncan ignores the unintresting mail, Annie opens the package & gets 2 hear JULIET, NAKED 1st -- which causes a rift in their relationship.
Then Duncan hears it -- & his worship 4 Crowe boils over. He thinks the demos-CD is the 2nd Coming. He posts a rave review of the new album at a Crowe-fans website on the Internet ("where no one is forgotten anymore").
But Annie doesn't agree -- she thinks the demo package is a stark, sketchy, artless dry-run 4 the "real" album, & shows the original album 4 the masterwork it is.
Annie writes & posts her own dissenting review at the Crowe-fans' website.
...& Tucker Crowe responds.
This all happens in the 1st 50 pgs of the 400-pg book. We get 2 meet Tucker Crowe, & discover that after bailing on his music career (after a supposed "epiphany" in a Minneapolis bar-toilet), he went on 2 B an amateur human Bing, a drunken & useless husband & an especially bad father. Tho there's some hope he & his youngest son might B able 2 bring the Xtended family back 2gether....
Crowe & Annie Bgin 2 correspond. Annie & Duncan break-up. Annie & Crowe eventually meet. Crowe goes outta his way 2 avoid the train-wreck of Responsibilities that is his Ntire Xtended family. & everybody grabs 4 whatever happiness they can, even tho there R No Guarantees.
I read this book in practically 1 sitting, in less than 24 hrs, interrupted only by sleep, during my last 2 sick-days-off from work. It is immediate, fluent, funny & insightful, Hornby's characters R funny & Ngaging, & at no point did it feel kinda artificial, like I thot parts of HIGH FIDELITY did. Hornby has done nothing but get better. Don't wait 4 a movie (which this Cms almost perfect 4) -- if U're a music fan & U've ever wondered how music & listening & love & relationships all fit 2gether, & sometimes IF they do, U need 2 read this book.
Just 1 complaint, & it's not about the story. This book is 404 pgs long. It didn't need 2 B. The STORY isn't that long. The text is in big type w/ wide side-margins, a rather narrow column of type, 25 lines running right down the center of each pg. If they'd shrunk the type or narrowed the margins a touch they coulda cut the size of the book down 2 300 pgs. If they'd run 30 lines of type onna pg they coulda cut it down 2 just over 200 pgs, which is the size it probly shoulda bn. But then Riverhead/Penguin Books wouldn't have bn able 2 justify asking $25.95 4 a copy of a hardback book that thin.
(I also think summa the proofreading ain't the best: There's a few spots late in the book where it Bcomes unclear who's speaking -- & in fact the speaker hasn't changed, the proofreader just didn't catch the booboo.)
So. Find a cheap copy of the book. Buy it used, buy it 2nd-hand. Wait 4 the cheaper (probly thinner) paperback. But get it.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Shoulda-Been Hits
I write a lot here about songs that I think "shoulda bn hits." In fact, writing about them is 1 of the main 4ces that drive this blog -- the idea of trying 2 point people toward great overlooked music.
I 1st Bcame fully aware of the shoulda-bn-hit syndrome when I started getting 2 know the Moody Blues' catalog around age 15. As I played those 1st 7 Moodies albums over&over (in my bedroom, w/ the headphones clamped over my head), it struck me how many REALLY GREAT SONGS they'd released, only a handful of which I'd ever heard on the radio. & I wondered why that was.
Summa the songs just leapt right outta the speakers at me, undeniably great 4got10 rock&roll: "You and Me," "It's Up to You," "Peak Hour" (even tho it sounds like their beat-band days, a faint echo of the Dave Clark 5), "You Can Never Go Home," "Eyes of a Child (Part Two)," "Gypsy," "Twilight Time," "Don't You Feel Small?," "Our Guessing Game," "One More Time to Live," "For My Lady," "Land of Make-Believe".... & later on I discovered the killer B-side "Simple Game" (released backing the shoulda-bn-bigger hit "Ride My See-Saw" -- those "doo-doo-doo" choruses get me every time).
This Xperience continued as I got 2 know the Beatles' catalog a little better. I already knew they had TONS of songs I sometimes heard on the radio that I'd never find in the 45 bins at my fave local record store. (I knew I couldn't find some of this stuff on singles cos of LENGTH -- but I'm sure there were other reasons, 4 all artists: Record Companies R clueless, Radio can't B bothered, artists don't always know their best work.)
But also apparently back in the '60s the Beatles (or Capitol/EMI, or whoever) didn't Blieve in saturating the market w/ lotsa songs from 1 album as often happens these days. & the Beatles COULD have had 2wice as many hits -- hardta Blieve Capitol Records woulda held back, considering how they spread-out the Fabs' output as it was (10 songs per album rather than the standard British 14 in the early days, holding back a coupla trax 4 use as a later single....).
& the Fab 4's best stuff still blows right outta the speakers at U -- an immediate, obvious, thrilling musical Xperience. In some other reality's Top 40 they probly had 100 hits, summa which U can still hear on Oldies stations 2day, whether they were ever singles or not: "There's a Place," "Thank You Girl," "Tell Me Why," "Any Time at All," "Things We Said Today," "I'll Be Back," "No Reply," "I'm a Loser," "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby," "I'm Down" (the B-side 2 "Help!"), "The Night Before," "I Need You," "It's Only Love," "In My Life," "Wait," "Taxman," "And Your Bird Can Sing," "For No One," "...Me and My Monkey," "Helter Skelter," "I Will," "Old Brown Shoe," "Oh! Darling," "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End" ... They sure Blieved in giving fans their $$$'s worth. Surely if the Fabs were just making it big 2day the Music Industry would milk these songs 4 all they were worth (as U could almost say IS Bing done w/ the recent re-release of their Ntire catalog, etc).
As I looked in2 summa my other faves, this syndrome kept repeating. I already knew my ear was a little off at age 12 when I liked stuff that didn't Cm 2 catch NEbody else's ear 4 very long (the Wackers, Casey Kelly, Johnathon King, Billy Lee Riley, Chris Hodge....), but as I was then geared 2 hearing stuff played on the radio, it was a bit of a shock 2 later find that bands as out-there as Yes had radio-ready stuff in their less-complex early days (a cover of the Beatles' "Every Little Thing," "Looking Around," "Sweet Dreams," "Time and a Word"), & even later had shorter songs well worthy of radio airplay ("Wonderous Stories," "Into the Lens"), but radio didn't bother. I thot "Wonderous Stories" sounded enuf like "Your Move" 2 gain a play or 2, but I was wrong -- tho it made Top 10 in England (at the height of Punk Rock!).
If the key aspects of a hit R Xcitement, immediacy, impact, some of my faves had this stuff DOWN -- at least at times. So then I started wondering what was wrong w/ Radio if the best, most grabbing stuff was going unheard. Hell, even King Crimson had some grabby stuff that wouldn't shock people 2 much if it was played on the radio: "Frame By Frame," "Sleepless," "The Great Deceiver," "Happy With What You Have to be Happy With" -- OK, mayB the housewives'd B shocked, but mosta this stuff wouldn't shock listeners of yr avg Album Rock station (Xcept 2 wonder how this stuff got on the air in the 1st place). & all those songs R Xciting, immediate, grabby #'s w/ lotsa impact. So...?
There's an obvious reason why "Money" was the hit from Pink Floyd's DARK SIDE OF THE MOON -- Bcos it was the most immediate, catchiest, most easily-accessible song on the whole album. MayB not the BEST -- that'd B "Us and Them." But I couldn't C that ever Bing a hit. Or "The Great Gig in the Sky".... THE WALL hadda LOT of great stuff on it, but "Another Brick" was the EZest 4 the most people 2 get in2. Then later on some folks latched on2 "Comfortably Numb" or "Run Like Hell," which have Bcome Album Rock Classics. Whereas "The Trial," "In the Flesh?" & "One of My Turns" (the original B-side 2 "Another Brick") could never have bn radio hits, 4 some fairly obvious reasons....
This could quickly Dgenerate in2 a list, which I'm hoping 2 avoid. I just wonder why more obviously great music isn't heard by more people. My Record Store boss had a theory that music that ain't dead-obvious goes right over most people's heads. We agreed Caravan was as EZ 2 Njoy as Fleetwood Mac, so why didn't Caravan ever make it big? Cos no1 ever heard them. Why? Cos Radio couldn't B bothered.
Caravan had some great poppy songs -- London Records even released a single of "Headloss" in America. That's a very HAPPY song, but it's like starting a novel in the middle -- the really stunning MUSIC was in the "Memory Lain/Hugh" sections that R the 1st 2/3rds of that suite. Still, worth a shot.... Other Caravan #'s that coulda/shoulda gained radio play: "Place of My Own," "The World is Yours," "Aristocracy," "Can You Hear Me?," "Golf Girl," "Surprise, Surprise," "Be All Right," "All the Way."
I was kinda shocked when Kansas broke-thru 2 big success in the late '70s -- they were an American, slightly-boogieized version of British art-rock, mayB slightly simpler. & I played LEFTOVERTURE 2 DEATH! But as I dug in2 their catalog, I learned they had some pretty poppy-yet-distinctive stuff from the Bginning. From their 1st album, "Journey from MariaBronn" was as striking as their later "Song for America," & a little shorter. They coulda gotten Clive Davis 2 do a good single-edit 4 them -- he always did a great job 4 Chicago ("Beginnings," "Questions 67 & 68"), or at least he always took the credit.... Summa Kansas's later stuff mixed radio briefness w/ complexity: "Reason to Be," "Back Door" -- & 1/2 of LEFTOVERTURE coulda bn hits: "Miracles Out of Nowhere," "What's On My Mind," "Questions of My Childhood" (issued as the B-side of "Carry On, Wayward Son")....
Speaking of Chicago, they had enuf hits, but what about summa their misses? I know why "Just You and Me" & "Feeling Stronger Every Day" were hits -- they both had that sunny, big-horn sound so many people liked. But on the same album, Peter Cetera's "In Terms of Two" coulda bn a hit -- but it didn't sound much like Chicago, more like "Oh, Susannah" w/ harmonica & guitar added & great choruses....
Boston had summa their best stuff ignored by radio. "Hitch a Ride" off their 1st album was a gorgeous, haunting # w/ a great gtr solo at the Nd. & Brad Delp's pretty, catchy, no-frills "Used to Bad News" on the 2nd album was thrown away as the B-side of "Feelin' Satisfied." "It's Easy" was pretty great 2, but U never heard it on the radio. "A Man I'll Never Be" shoulda bn a bigger hit, 2....
I feel this way about Tom Petty's "Even the Losers," 2. Great song, 2 bad U never hear it unless U put it on yrself....
Fleetwood Mac did a ton of great songs that over the yrs have Bcome Classic Rock Radio faves, even if they were never hits 2 Bgin w/ -- "The Chain," "Landslide," "Songbird," etc. But where's the airplay & recognition 4 greats like "I Know I'm Not Wrong," "The Farmer's Daughter," "Wish You Were Here," "World Turning," "Silver Springs," "Isn't it Midnight?," "Tango in the Night," etc....
A lotta Rush's post-1982 stuff has bn kinda ignored, & I think it's their best stuff song-construction-wise: "Time Stand Still," "Force Ten," "Mystic Rhythms," "Manhattan Project," "Distant Early Warning," "Marathon," "Show Don't Tell"....
Jefferson Starship did some great overlooked late-'70s stuff. FREEDOM AT POINT ZERO has some great 4got10 stuff on it, especially the driving title track & the gorgeous "Fading Lady Light." FREEDOM was 4 yrs my fave record 2 do dishes by, just like FMac's TUSK was my fave music 2 clean house by -- shoulda added FREEDOM 2 my "Top 40 Most Reliable" list awhile back....
Why did Cream's "Badge" tank in America? Probly the prettiest thing they ever did, w/ killer jagged & shimmering gtr work by Eric Clapton, it's Bcome an Album Rock Classic but barely made the Top 60 as a single in '69, even tho it made Top 30 in England....
Buffalo Springfield coulda had more than 1 Top 40 hit -- Ghod knows they had the talent & quick-impact songs: "Bluebird," "Mr. Soul," "On the Way Home," "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing," "Rock and Roll Woman"....
The Turtles coulda broken thru a few more times, w/ stuff like the great singalong "We'll Meet Again" & the gorgeous "Lady-O"....
...I was still workin at the record store when the Moodies' LONG DISTANCE VOYAGER Bcame a suprise #1 hit. As a longtime Moodies fan, I was happy I was around 2 C it. & after Polygram wisely chose the ELO-ish "Gemini Dream" & the rather pretty "The Voice" as singles from the album, they followed-up w/ "Talking Out of Turn," a pretty but slow-moving 6-min ballad that was guaranteed 2 get ZERO airplay. & DID.
Meanwhile, great tracks like the gorgeous "Meanwhile," the rather Barry-Manilow-ish "Nervous" & the almost-rockin "Veteran Cosmic Rocker" were ignored (tho "Rocker" was actually chosen as the B-side of "Talking"). It was at this point that I Bcame convinced that record companies have no idea what they're doing....
I've mainly bn babbling on about my faverites here, as usual. I'd B intrested in hearing from y'all out there about some of yr choices 4 great overlooked shoulda-bn-hits -- I'm sure there R 1,000's more of them out there. Specially something from the last 20 yrs or so....
I 1st Bcame fully aware of the shoulda-bn-hit syndrome when I started getting 2 know the Moody Blues' catalog around age 15. As I played those 1st 7 Moodies albums over&over (in my bedroom, w/ the headphones clamped over my head), it struck me how many REALLY GREAT SONGS they'd released, only a handful of which I'd ever heard on the radio. & I wondered why that was.
Summa the songs just leapt right outta the speakers at me, undeniably great 4got10 rock&roll: "You and Me," "It's Up to You," "Peak Hour" (even tho it sounds like their beat-band days, a faint echo of the Dave Clark 5), "You Can Never Go Home," "Eyes of a Child (Part Two)," "Gypsy," "Twilight Time," "Don't You Feel Small?," "Our Guessing Game," "One More Time to Live," "For My Lady," "Land of Make-Believe".... & later on I discovered the killer B-side "Simple Game" (released backing the shoulda-bn-bigger hit "Ride My See-Saw" -- those "doo-doo-doo" choruses get me every time).
This Xperience continued as I got 2 know the Beatles' catalog a little better. I already knew they had TONS of songs I sometimes heard on the radio that I'd never find in the 45 bins at my fave local record store. (I knew I couldn't find some of this stuff on singles cos of LENGTH -- but I'm sure there were other reasons, 4 all artists: Record Companies R clueless, Radio can't B bothered, artists don't always know their best work.)
But also apparently back in the '60s the Beatles (or Capitol/EMI, or whoever) didn't Blieve in saturating the market w/ lotsa songs from 1 album as often happens these days. & the Beatles COULD have had 2wice as many hits -- hardta Blieve Capitol Records woulda held back, considering how they spread-out the Fabs' output as it was (10 songs per album rather than the standard British 14 in the early days, holding back a coupla trax 4 use as a later single....).
& the Fab 4's best stuff still blows right outta the speakers at U -- an immediate, obvious, thrilling musical Xperience. In some other reality's Top 40 they probly had 100 hits, summa which U can still hear on Oldies stations 2day, whether they were ever singles or not: "There's a Place," "Thank You Girl," "Tell Me Why," "Any Time at All," "Things We Said Today," "I'll Be Back," "No Reply," "I'm a Loser," "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby," "I'm Down" (the B-side 2 "Help!"), "The Night Before," "I Need You," "It's Only Love," "In My Life," "Wait," "Taxman," "And Your Bird Can Sing," "For No One," "...Me and My Monkey," "Helter Skelter," "I Will," "Old Brown Shoe," "Oh! Darling," "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End" ... They sure Blieved in giving fans their $$$'s worth. Surely if the Fabs were just making it big 2day the Music Industry would milk these songs 4 all they were worth (as U could almost say IS Bing done w/ the recent re-release of their Ntire catalog, etc).
As I looked in2 summa my other faves, this syndrome kept repeating. I already knew my ear was a little off at age 12 when I liked stuff that didn't Cm 2 catch NEbody else's ear 4 very long (the Wackers, Casey Kelly, Johnathon King, Billy Lee Riley, Chris Hodge....), but as I was then geared 2 hearing stuff played on the radio, it was a bit of a shock 2 later find that bands as out-there as Yes had radio-ready stuff in their less-complex early days (a cover of the Beatles' "Every Little Thing," "Looking Around," "Sweet Dreams," "Time and a Word"), & even later had shorter songs well worthy of radio airplay ("Wonderous Stories," "Into the Lens"), but radio didn't bother. I thot "Wonderous Stories" sounded enuf like "Your Move" 2 gain a play or 2, but I was wrong -- tho it made Top 10 in England (at the height of Punk Rock!).
If the key aspects of a hit R Xcitement, immediacy, impact, some of my faves had this stuff DOWN -- at least at times. So then I started wondering what was wrong w/ Radio if the best, most grabbing stuff was going unheard. Hell, even King Crimson had some grabby stuff that wouldn't shock people 2 much if it was played on the radio: "Frame By Frame," "Sleepless," "The Great Deceiver," "Happy With What You Have to be Happy With" -- OK, mayB the housewives'd B shocked, but mosta this stuff wouldn't shock listeners of yr avg Album Rock station (Xcept 2 wonder how this stuff got on the air in the 1st place). & all those songs R Xciting, immediate, grabby #'s w/ lotsa impact. So...?
There's an obvious reason why "Money" was the hit from Pink Floyd's DARK SIDE OF THE MOON -- Bcos it was the most immediate, catchiest, most easily-accessible song on the whole album. MayB not the BEST -- that'd B "Us and Them." But I couldn't C that ever Bing a hit. Or "The Great Gig in the Sky".... THE WALL hadda LOT of great stuff on it, but "Another Brick" was the EZest 4 the most people 2 get in2. Then later on some folks latched on2 "Comfortably Numb" or "Run Like Hell," which have Bcome Album Rock Classics. Whereas "The Trial," "In the Flesh?" & "One of My Turns" (the original B-side 2 "Another Brick") could never have bn radio hits, 4 some fairly obvious reasons....
This could quickly Dgenerate in2 a list, which I'm hoping 2 avoid. I just wonder why more obviously great music isn't heard by more people. My Record Store boss had a theory that music that ain't dead-obvious goes right over most people's heads. We agreed Caravan was as EZ 2 Njoy as Fleetwood Mac, so why didn't Caravan ever make it big? Cos no1 ever heard them. Why? Cos Radio couldn't B bothered.
Caravan had some great poppy songs -- London Records even released a single of "Headloss" in America. That's a very HAPPY song, but it's like starting a novel in the middle -- the really stunning MUSIC was in the "Memory Lain/Hugh" sections that R the 1st 2/3rds of that suite. Still, worth a shot.... Other Caravan #'s that coulda/shoulda gained radio play: "Place of My Own," "The World is Yours," "Aristocracy," "Can You Hear Me?," "Golf Girl," "Surprise, Surprise," "Be All Right," "All the Way."
I was kinda shocked when Kansas broke-thru 2 big success in the late '70s -- they were an American, slightly-boogieized version of British art-rock, mayB slightly simpler. & I played LEFTOVERTURE 2 DEATH! But as I dug in2 their catalog, I learned they had some pretty poppy-yet-distinctive stuff from the Bginning. From their 1st album, "Journey from MariaBronn" was as striking as their later "Song for America," & a little shorter. They coulda gotten Clive Davis 2 do a good single-edit 4 them -- he always did a great job 4 Chicago ("Beginnings," "Questions 67 & 68"), or at least he always took the credit.... Summa Kansas's later stuff mixed radio briefness w/ complexity: "Reason to Be," "Back Door" -- & 1/2 of LEFTOVERTURE coulda bn hits: "Miracles Out of Nowhere," "What's On My Mind," "Questions of My Childhood" (issued as the B-side of "Carry On, Wayward Son")....
Speaking of Chicago, they had enuf hits, but what about summa their misses? I know why "Just You and Me" & "Feeling Stronger Every Day" were hits -- they both had that sunny, big-horn sound so many people liked. But on the same album, Peter Cetera's "In Terms of Two" coulda bn a hit -- but it didn't sound much like Chicago, more like "Oh, Susannah" w/ harmonica & guitar added & great choruses....
Boston had summa their best stuff ignored by radio. "Hitch a Ride" off their 1st album was a gorgeous, haunting # w/ a great gtr solo at the Nd. & Brad Delp's pretty, catchy, no-frills "Used to Bad News" on the 2nd album was thrown away as the B-side of "Feelin' Satisfied." "It's Easy" was pretty great 2, but U never heard it on the radio. "A Man I'll Never Be" shoulda bn a bigger hit, 2....
I feel this way about Tom Petty's "Even the Losers," 2. Great song, 2 bad U never hear it unless U put it on yrself....
Fleetwood Mac did a ton of great songs that over the yrs have Bcome Classic Rock Radio faves, even if they were never hits 2 Bgin w/ -- "The Chain," "Landslide," "Songbird," etc. But where's the airplay & recognition 4 greats like "I Know I'm Not Wrong," "The Farmer's Daughter," "Wish You Were Here," "World Turning," "Silver Springs," "Isn't it Midnight?," "Tango in the Night," etc....
A lotta Rush's post-1982 stuff has bn kinda ignored, & I think it's their best stuff song-construction-wise: "Time Stand Still," "Force Ten," "Mystic Rhythms," "Manhattan Project," "Distant Early Warning," "Marathon," "Show Don't Tell"....
Jefferson Starship did some great overlooked late-'70s stuff. FREEDOM AT POINT ZERO has some great 4got10 stuff on it, especially the driving title track & the gorgeous "Fading Lady Light." FREEDOM was 4 yrs my fave record 2 do dishes by, just like FMac's TUSK was my fave music 2 clean house by -- shoulda added FREEDOM 2 my "Top 40 Most Reliable" list awhile back....
Why did Cream's "Badge" tank in America? Probly the prettiest thing they ever did, w/ killer jagged & shimmering gtr work by Eric Clapton, it's Bcome an Album Rock Classic but barely made the Top 60 as a single in '69, even tho it made Top 30 in England....
Buffalo Springfield coulda had more than 1 Top 40 hit -- Ghod knows they had the talent & quick-impact songs: "Bluebird," "Mr. Soul," "On the Way Home," "Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing," "Rock and Roll Woman"....
The Turtles coulda broken thru a few more times, w/ stuff like the great singalong "We'll Meet Again" & the gorgeous "Lady-O"....
...I was still workin at the record store when the Moodies' LONG DISTANCE VOYAGER Bcame a suprise #1 hit. As a longtime Moodies fan, I was happy I was around 2 C it. & after Polygram wisely chose the ELO-ish "Gemini Dream" & the rather pretty "The Voice" as singles from the album, they followed-up w/ "Talking Out of Turn," a pretty but slow-moving 6-min ballad that was guaranteed 2 get ZERO airplay. & DID.
Meanwhile, great tracks like the gorgeous "Meanwhile," the rather Barry-Manilow-ish "Nervous" & the almost-rockin "Veteran Cosmic Rocker" were ignored (tho "Rocker" was actually chosen as the B-side of "Talking"). It was at this point that I Bcame convinced that record companies have no idea what they're doing....
I've mainly bn babbling on about my faverites here, as usual. I'd B intrested in hearing from y'all out there about some of yr choices 4 great overlooked shoulda-bn-hits -- I'm sure there R 1,000's more of them out there. Specially something from the last 20 yrs or so....
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Got to admit it's Getting Better....
Greetings all. Hope yr Xmas is a happy 1.
I had my busiest workday in 6 yrs yesterday at the store: 2wice as busy as a normal nite, 2wice as many customers. I was sposta get off-work 2 hrs early, but there were so many people out (R store was apparently the only place in town open after about 7 pm) that I Nded up putting-in a 10-hr shift & got home Xactly 15 mins earlier than usual. Some Xmas break. Not that I'm grumping....
Every1 was in a pretty good mood, as they shoulda bn on a holiday, so it was actually a pretty quick&EZ nite -- Xcept 4 1 guy, 1 of R semi-regulars, who dropped-in about 90 mins in2 my shift when I was still inna Good Mood & not all tired & fed-up w/ the non-stop flood of people.
& this guy told me -- dead-seriously, he was NOT happy -- that I was in WAY 2 GOOD A MOOD & I needed 2 take a step back & get ahold of myself.
On CHRISTMAS!
This is 1 of the risks of trying 2 hava good time while working -- some1 will always try 2 slap that smile offa yr face, sooner or later. Ghod 4bid NE1 should try 2 Njoy themselves at work, even onna holiday....
But still, on Christmas?!
So. I didn't kill him. In fact, I gave him my standard farewell: "Have a good nite, B careful out there...." & he said nothing.
But I think if he comes back in again in the same mood I'm gonna tell him we don't need his $$$ & he can take his grumpiness somewhere else. Cos I didn't do NEthing wrong. Xcept B in a better mood than he was....
In the meantime, I 4got 2 other great Xmas songs 2 add 2 the Ndless list I started making 3 wks ago:
* Elton John: "Step Into Christmas" (1973) -- Just like my buddy Crabby sez at his MySpace blog (http://blogs.myspace.com/townedger), Elton matches Phil Spector at his best in this marvelous mix of massive choir, jangling bells, great acoustic strumming & swirly keyboards. Shoulda bn a huge hit.
* Nilsson: "Remember (Christmas)" (1972, from SON OF SCHMILSSON) -- If U agree that Christmas can B a thing of bittersweet nostalgia 4 the best of times gone by, U may love this -- tho Christmas itself is never specifically mentioned. Sure sounds like the holidays, tho. From 1 of the oddest Top 10 albums ever, I hadn't heard it in YRS when an ALL MUSIC GUIDE review rang bells w/ me, & when I played it I realized I'd heard the whole thing sevral times in highschool & then 4got10 it. "Remember" is probly the best thing on the album (also includes the minor hit "Spaceman"), but worth a spin if U're in2 the off-the-wall....
Still reading Johnathon Green's DAYS IN THE LIFE (about the '60s British psychedelic underground), about 1/2way thru now, & I've got 2 admit it's getting better. There's more about music -- Beatles, Pink Floyd, Soft Machine, SGT. PEPPER -- & LSD has made an appearance. Some of the book is laff-out-loud funny, 1nce U get in2 it. Might B worth tracking down if U're a closet Anglophile like me. I'll have a full review soon....
That "sunny-day-songs" list I did is still working: Sun's bn out all day 2day & temps in the 40s. Not bad 4 Washington at the Nd of Dec, but I hear the rain is coming early next wk. Am still tempted 2 post that list, but I don't wanna B blamed 4 further Global Warming -- tho apparently the rest of the country could USE some more Global Warming....
Njoy yr holidays & don't let the Stress or the Dummies get U down.... -- TAD.
I had my busiest workday in 6 yrs yesterday at the store: 2wice as busy as a normal nite, 2wice as many customers. I was sposta get off-work 2 hrs early, but there were so many people out (R store was apparently the only place in town open after about 7 pm) that I Nded up putting-in a 10-hr shift & got home Xactly 15 mins earlier than usual. Some Xmas break. Not that I'm grumping....
Every1 was in a pretty good mood, as they shoulda bn on a holiday, so it was actually a pretty quick&EZ nite -- Xcept 4 1 guy, 1 of R semi-regulars, who dropped-in about 90 mins in2 my shift when I was still inna Good Mood & not all tired & fed-up w/ the non-stop flood of people.
& this guy told me -- dead-seriously, he was NOT happy -- that I was in WAY 2 GOOD A MOOD & I needed 2 take a step back & get ahold of myself.
On CHRISTMAS!
This is 1 of the risks of trying 2 hava good time while working -- some1 will always try 2 slap that smile offa yr face, sooner or later. Ghod 4bid NE1 should try 2 Njoy themselves at work, even onna holiday....
But still, on Christmas?!
So. I didn't kill him. In fact, I gave him my standard farewell: "Have a good nite, B careful out there...." & he said nothing.
But I think if he comes back in again in the same mood I'm gonna tell him we don't need his $$$ & he can take his grumpiness somewhere else. Cos I didn't do NEthing wrong. Xcept B in a better mood than he was....
In the meantime, I 4got 2 other great Xmas songs 2 add 2 the Ndless list I started making 3 wks ago:
* Elton John: "Step Into Christmas" (1973) -- Just like my buddy Crabby sez at his MySpace blog (http://blogs.myspace.com/townedger), Elton matches Phil Spector at his best in this marvelous mix of massive choir, jangling bells, great acoustic strumming & swirly keyboards. Shoulda bn a huge hit.
* Nilsson: "Remember (Christmas)" (1972, from SON OF SCHMILSSON) -- If U agree that Christmas can B a thing of bittersweet nostalgia 4 the best of times gone by, U may love this -- tho Christmas itself is never specifically mentioned. Sure sounds like the holidays, tho. From 1 of the oddest Top 10 albums ever, I hadn't heard it in YRS when an ALL MUSIC GUIDE review rang bells w/ me, & when I played it I realized I'd heard the whole thing sevral times in highschool & then 4got10 it. "Remember" is probly the best thing on the album (also includes the minor hit "Spaceman"), but worth a spin if U're in2 the off-the-wall....
Still reading Johnathon Green's DAYS IN THE LIFE (about the '60s British psychedelic underground), about 1/2way thru now, & I've got 2 admit it's getting better. There's more about music -- Beatles, Pink Floyd, Soft Machine, SGT. PEPPER -- & LSD has made an appearance. Some of the book is laff-out-loud funny, 1nce U get in2 it. Might B worth tracking down if U're a closet Anglophile like me. I'll have a full review soon....
That "sunny-day-songs" list I did is still working: Sun's bn out all day 2day & temps in the 40s. Not bad 4 Washington at the Nd of Dec, but I hear the rain is coming early next wk. Am still tempted 2 post that list, but I don't wanna B blamed 4 further Global Warming -- tho apparently the rest of the country could USE some more Global Warming....
Njoy yr holidays & don't let the Stress or the Dummies get U down.... -- TAD.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Updates/updates/updates....
Hey, that list of sunny-day songs I made a few days ago actually Cms 2 have worked. The sun has come out occasionally here over the last 3 days, & has bn out 4 mosta this aft. There's even blue sky.... Course it's still kinda cold.... MayB I should go ahead & POST that "sunny-day songs" list. Course if I do, I don't wanna havta take the blame when the Earth plunges in2 the Sun or something....
Dspite the cool temps & threats of frost & possible snow showers, it does NOT feel like Xmas here -- Xcept 4 the jammed stores. Not that I want it 2 snow or NEthing. The 18-inch dumping we got all at 1nce last Jan was more than enuf 4 me 4 awhile.
My apologies 2 the music fans out there: I've bn reading a lot lately. I may havta actually post that sunny-day-songs list just 2 put things back in something a little closer 2 balance.
Am currently reading Johnathon Green's oral history DAYS IN THE LIFE: VOICES FROM THE ENGLISH UNDERGROUND 1961-1971, which is sorta music-related, since rock was at the center of England's beat-bands/blues boom/psychedelic period. I'm only 75 pgs (of 450) in, but am so far finding it tough going. I wish Green had laid-out summa the history & then had his 101 interviewees give their impressions of it -- instead, the interviewees tell the whole story. It's OK, & some of it's funny, it could perhaps have bn edited a bit more tightly, but I wish it moved a little faster. MayB it will....
Haven't 4got10 about Jesse Sublett's novel ROCK CRITIC MURDERS, am still sitting at the Nd of Chapter 5 where somebody just got shot & we don't know who yet. So far, like it 4 the authentic hot, dusty, sun-baked Texas setting & the gritty bar-band Dtails. I'm hoping the suspense will build....
Am off 2 work 4 Floor Nite (a guy comes in & polishes the store's tile floors 1nce a wk, keeping me there til at least 2 am), & have a Big Beer Order 2 price & stock. Can't wait. Am still Cing a few grumpy people at work, but am grudgingly willing 2 admit that 1/2 the time the problem is ME. When it gets busy & folks get a little cranky I get stressed, especially during Rush Hour. So I've almost stopped watching 2 C how many people R flooding in2 the store's parking lot. I almost Don't Want To Know. Just keep saying "Peace On Earth, Goodwill To All Men...."
This post will likely B deleted later. Not that posting every day has Bcome compulsive 4 me or NEthing....
Merry Christmas, & watch out 4 the dummies....
Dspite the cool temps & threats of frost & possible snow showers, it does NOT feel like Xmas here -- Xcept 4 the jammed stores. Not that I want it 2 snow or NEthing. The 18-inch dumping we got all at 1nce last Jan was more than enuf 4 me 4 awhile.
My apologies 2 the music fans out there: I've bn reading a lot lately. I may havta actually post that sunny-day-songs list just 2 put things back in something a little closer 2 balance.
Am currently reading Johnathon Green's oral history DAYS IN THE LIFE: VOICES FROM THE ENGLISH UNDERGROUND 1961-1971, which is sorta music-related, since rock was at the center of England's beat-bands/blues boom/psychedelic period. I'm only 75 pgs (of 450) in, but am so far finding it tough going. I wish Green had laid-out summa the history & then had his 101 interviewees give their impressions of it -- instead, the interviewees tell the whole story. It's OK, & some of it's funny, it could perhaps have bn edited a bit more tightly, but I wish it moved a little faster. MayB it will....
Haven't 4got10 about Jesse Sublett's novel ROCK CRITIC MURDERS, am still sitting at the Nd of Chapter 5 where somebody just got shot & we don't know who yet. So far, like it 4 the authentic hot, dusty, sun-baked Texas setting & the gritty bar-band Dtails. I'm hoping the suspense will build....
Am off 2 work 4 Floor Nite (a guy comes in & polishes the store's tile floors 1nce a wk, keeping me there til at least 2 am), & have a Big Beer Order 2 price & stock. Can't wait. Am still Cing a few grumpy people at work, but am grudgingly willing 2 admit that 1/2 the time the problem is ME. When it gets busy & folks get a little cranky I get stressed, especially during Rush Hour. So I've almost stopped watching 2 C how many people R flooding in2 the store's parking lot. I almost Don't Want To Know. Just keep saying "Peace On Earth, Goodwill To All Men...."
This post will likely B deleted later. Not that posting every day has Bcome compulsive 4 me or NEthing....
Merry Christmas, & watch out 4 the dummies....
The family that plays together....
Obviously I was born 20 or 30 yrs 2 late. Bcos Damon Knight's science-fiction history THE FUTURIANS (1977) is the most immediate, vivid, involving, funny book I've read inna LONG time.
I read it over the past 2 nites, setting it down only 4 sleep, coffee & work, & finished it in less than 24 hrs, less than 7 hrs of reading time (w/ interruptions) -- the 1st time I've Dvoured a book that quickly in ages....
THE FUTURIANS is about the New York City "Xtended family" of the 1930s that gave birth 2 some of the most famous science fiction writers, editors, publishers, agents & critics of the '50s, '60s & '70s. Members of the group included Isaac Asimov, Frederik Pohl, Donald A. Wollheim, James Blish, Cyril M. Kornbluth, Richard Wilson, Larry Shaw, Robert A.W. Lowndes, Judith Merril, Virginia Kidd, & Knight himself. Other prominent SF names who briefly orbited around the fringe of the group included Algis Budrys, Jane Roberts, Katherine MacLean, Hannes Bok....
Living inna sorta commune in NYC, moving every time the $$$ ran out or landlords got fed-up-w/ them, almost-cheerfully starving while trying 2 figure out what kinda writers they wanted 2 B, trying 2 set the SF-fan-world on its ear, having huge arguments over meaningless SF-fandom issues, Ngaging in silly turf wars, communicating w/ other members of the group thru scandalous rumor-mongering "wall newspapers" that the members would take turns writing....
These people sound like they were a hoot -- all Xcept 4 Wollheim, who comes across as very much a stick-in-the-mud thruout the narrative. (He went on 2 Bcome 1 of SF's biggest editors & publishers in the '60s & '70s, creating & running the SF line at Ace Books, & later running his own show at DAW Books.)
When this "family" 4med in the '30s & '40s, they were all young, impulsive, crazy, quick 2 get in2 fights, quick 2 4m emotional bonds. There is A GREAT DEAL of drunken silliness in this book ("Let's all go kill Lowndes!") -- almost as many drunken incidents & trips 2 bars as there R suggestions of bed-hopping, affairs & broken marriages. (Merril, later 1 of the top book critics & anthologists in SF, has affairs w/ 2 men while her husband is off fighting in WWII. Pohl goes thru 3 marriages in the course of the book -- & still has time 2 write novels & short stories, B a literary agent, edit GALAXY magazine, & later work 4 Bantam Books.)
But Knight does not pass judgement on his old friends. He merely reports the facts -- about the incidents he was involved in, as well as every1 else's Ntanglements. Knight loved these people. That comes across clearly. & they obviously felt warmly about him, Dspite their hesitancy about admitting this "country yokel" from Hood River, Ore., as a full member of the club.
Knight's Dscriptions R vivid & bright. When he Dscribes a house or a "railroad apartment" the group shared, U C those places, from the "dingy white horror" of a kitchen that hasn't bn repainted since 1945, 2 the multi-story "Ivory Tower" members of the group lived in briefly, where they could actually find some privacy & lose each other 4 awhile.
The only place the book gets Dpressing is toward the Nd, when some core members of the family start dying 2 early -- Dirk Wylie dies of tuberculosis of the spine. Almost-tragic John Michel goes quietly crazy B4 drowning in a foot & 1/2 of water. The cynical, sarcastic Kornbluth -- possibly the best writer of them all until Pohl hit his stride in the '70s -- is offered the editorship of THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, shovels snow outta his driveway, drives 2 the train station so he can go in2 NYC 4 an interview, collapses in his car & dies from a heart attack w/o regaining consciousness.
Of course, almost all of the group R dead now. Pohl is still writing & blogging at age 90, probly suprised 2 have outlived every1 else.
What suprises me most is that Knight was able 2 cover all this history, the arguments, the intermarriages, Wollheim's lawsuit that broke the family up, their subsequent achievements separately, Asimov's massive later popularity, the fates of the wives & husbands & children -- & kept the book under 200 pgs. He wraps it all up rather 2 quickly. I wanted 2 know more. But then he always was an economical writer. He coulda gone on another 200 pgs & I wouldn't have minded....
NE fan of '50s-'70s SF should love this. I think it's Knight's best book, even better than his collection of SF criticism IN SEARCH OF WONDER that I reviewed awhile back....
Guess I'm a sucker 4 this kinda stuff. There'll likely B more of this kinda thing coming soon....
I read it over the past 2 nites, setting it down only 4 sleep, coffee & work, & finished it in less than 24 hrs, less than 7 hrs of reading time (w/ interruptions) -- the 1st time I've Dvoured a book that quickly in ages....
THE FUTURIANS is about the New York City "Xtended family" of the 1930s that gave birth 2 some of the most famous science fiction writers, editors, publishers, agents & critics of the '50s, '60s & '70s. Members of the group included Isaac Asimov, Frederik Pohl, Donald A. Wollheim, James Blish, Cyril M. Kornbluth, Richard Wilson, Larry Shaw, Robert A.W. Lowndes, Judith Merril, Virginia Kidd, & Knight himself. Other prominent SF names who briefly orbited around the fringe of the group included Algis Budrys, Jane Roberts, Katherine MacLean, Hannes Bok....
Living inna sorta commune in NYC, moving every time the $$$ ran out or landlords got fed-up-w/ them, almost-cheerfully starving while trying 2 figure out what kinda writers they wanted 2 B, trying 2 set the SF-fan-world on its ear, having huge arguments over meaningless SF-fandom issues, Ngaging in silly turf wars, communicating w/ other members of the group thru scandalous rumor-mongering "wall newspapers" that the members would take turns writing....
These people sound like they were a hoot -- all Xcept 4 Wollheim, who comes across as very much a stick-in-the-mud thruout the narrative. (He went on 2 Bcome 1 of SF's biggest editors & publishers in the '60s & '70s, creating & running the SF line at Ace Books, & later running his own show at DAW Books.)
When this "family" 4med in the '30s & '40s, they were all young, impulsive, crazy, quick 2 get in2 fights, quick 2 4m emotional bonds. There is A GREAT DEAL of drunken silliness in this book ("Let's all go kill Lowndes!") -- almost as many drunken incidents & trips 2 bars as there R suggestions of bed-hopping, affairs & broken marriages. (Merril, later 1 of the top book critics & anthologists in SF, has affairs w/ 2 men while her husband is off fighting in WWII. Pohl goes thru 3 marriages in the course of the book -- & still has time 2 write novels & short stories, B a literary agent, edit GALAXY magazine, & later work 4 Bantam Books.)
But Knight does not pass judgement on his old friends. He merely reports the facts -- about the incidents he was involved in, as well as every1 else's Ntanglements. Knight loved these people. That comes across clearly. & they obviously felt warmly about him, Dspite their hesitancy about admitting this "country yokel" from Hood River, Ore., as a full member of the club.
Knight's Dscriptions R vivid & bright. When he Dscribes a house or a "railroad apartment" the group shared, U C those places, from the "dingy white horror" of a kitchen that hasn't bn repainted since 1945, 2 the multi-story "Ivory Tower" members of the group lived in briefly, where they could actually find some privacy & lose each other 4 awhile.
The only place the book gets Dpressing is toward the Nd, when some core members of the family start dying 2 early -- Dirk Wylie dies of tuberculosis of the spine. Almost-tragic John Michel goes quietly crazy B4 drowning in a foot & 1/2 of water. The cynical, sarcastic Kornbluth -- possibly the best writer of them all until Pohl hit his stride in the '70s -- is offered the editorship of THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, shovels snow outta his driveway, drives 2 the train station so he can go in2 NYC 4 an interview, collapses in his car & dies from a heart attack w/o regaining consciousness.
Of course, almost all of the group R dead now. Pohl is still writing & blogging at age 90, probly suprised 2 have outlived every1 else.
What suprises me most is that Knight was able 2 cover all this history, the arguments, the intermarriages, Wollheim's lawsuit that broke the family up, their subsequent achievements separately, Asimov's massive later popularity, the fates of the wives & husbands & children -- & kept the book under 200 pgs. He wraps it all up rather 2 quickly. I wanted 2 know more. But then he always was an economical writer. He coulda gone on another 200 pgs & I wouldn't have minded....
NE fan of '50s-'70s SF should love this. I think it's Knight's best book, even better than his collection of SF criticism IN SEARCH OF WONDER that I reviewed awhile back....
Guess I'm a sucker 4 this kinda stuff. There'll likely B more of this kinda thing coming soon....
Monday, December 21, 2009
What is wrong with people?
(But 1st, a quick note: Brittany Murphy died. I wasn't that thrilled w/ her as an actress, but did NEbody else out there notice the songs she sang in the movie HAPPY FEET? Her versions of Earth, Wind and Fire's "Boogie Wonderland" & Queen's "Somebody to Love" were AMAZING! Her "Boogie Wonderland" beat the original. She coulda hadda whole 'nother career. HAPPY FEET has a great soundtrack w/ a LOTta good stuff on it....)
So this is Christmas. And what have you done?
Saw an AWFUL LOT of angry, stressed-out, in-a-hurry people at work over the wknd. Xchanged words w/ sevral folks on Sat nite, the angriest & most-stressed-out I've Cn people in quite awhile. I can only assume the stress was caused by this Bing the last wknd 2 shop B4 Christmas. Lots of people out spending their $$$ -- & things were grim enuf B4 the holidays....
Tho there were as usual lotsa folks in pretty good moods, there sure were a lot more than normal who were awfully edgy. 1 guy walked in2 the store SHAKING, he was so angry. He was just SEETHING w/ it, & it had nothing 2 do w/ me or NEthing I did. I even told him he could take a break, catch his breath, there was no rush. & he said "Yeah, OK, all right...." & he kept shaking. Like he'd spent all day w/ a screaming wife & children....
I even started thinking at 1 point that it was ME. 1 guy called me a dumbass -- 1st time that's happened. Another guy & I Cmd 2 B speaking diffrent languages. I knew we hadda misunderstanding, but neither of us could find R way out of it, & the more I said the worse it got. Finally the guy gave up & said "Never mind, I'm sorry I came in...."
1 slightly-stressed woman said something kinda catty about the customer in front of her, & when I suggested delicately that it's the season 4 Peace On Earth, Goodwill Toward Men, Good Tidings To All, & Bing On Good Terms With All Persons ... she said "FUCK THAT!"
& then we both laffed. But still....
I know the holidays R stressful. I've had my share of bad holidays, & I've ruined them 4 a couple of people I know. But I Don't Get why we make them MORE stressful. Why do we go out shopping on Black Friday, or wait until the last possible minute 2 buy presents, knowing it'll just put R stress level thru the roof?
Why do we do this 2 Rselves?
Is it cos we've just GOTTA HAVE the newest cellphone, the newest computer game? Is it cos we know we just won't B able 2 look at Rselves in the mirror if we don't get the kids the Newest & Best we can afford? (Even if we can't really afford it?) How will they B able 2 face their friends w/o the newest, best, hottest?
Why R people in such a freakin hurry? What's the rush? & when did they get so RUDE? & can't they B NE NICER?
...When's the last time U felt the Christmas Spirit? & I'm not talking about religion here. I'm talking about the wonder & joy of the season, knowing in your heart that All Is Right W/ The World & Everything's Gonna B OK, the joy that comes from having yr loved 1's around U, warm & safe.
Does that kinda feeling still happen? 4 a LOT of people?
I think the last time it happened 4 me I was about 12 yrs old, in 1971. I remember a warm house w/ cookies baking in the oven & lotsa presents under the tree, & 18 inches of snow outside, and weather cold enuf that we could play fake-ice-hockey on the frozen surface of the creek down the hill from my house.
My parents always tried 2 make Christmas special 4 me & my sister, no matter how broke my Mom & Dad were -- & I know some yrs they were lucky 2 have 25 cents in the checking account. We 8 a lotta macaroni-&-cheese dinners. But we were lucky.
I think the best Xmas I've had as an adult was in 1991, after coming back 2 America following 2 tough years in Turkey around the time of the 1st Gulf War. Part of it was we were just glad 2 B Back Home, but it was great 2 B in my in-laws' house w/ my wife & 2 kids close by, watching my son dig thru a mountain of presents.
But I've had some bad 1's 2. I know I've ruined a coupla holidays 4 my girlfriend Mary. Sometimes I'm suprised she still speaks 2 me.
My worst Xmas ever was in 1999 -- when my X-wife told R kids she was moving out ... about an hr after all the presents were opened.
My son has never 4given her 4 it. He thinks I went nuts 4 about 3 mo's after that. He's probly right.
I know Christmas can B stressful. I remember Bing up til 2 am more than 1nce, trying 2 put-2gether something complicated 4 the kids 2 B suprised-by on Xmas morning, & having my Significant Other tell me (after an 18-hr day of working, shopping & wrapping) that if I kept fumbling around the kids would B AWAKE B4 I got finished....
But I know some Christmas traditions R irreplaceable. I know decorating a Christmas tree isn't about DECORATING THE TREE, it's about the feelings yr sposta have while doing it. It's not work, or at least it SHOULDN'T B, if it's done right, it shouldn't B stressful at all. It's Tradition. It's FAMILY. It's about having everybody close so every1 helps each other, & U can kid the Tall Girl about how Only She's Tall Enuf 2 put the star on the top of the tree -- that's why she's around.
As I write this, my son is driving a semi-truck across the country somewhere, my daughter is in college a 3-hr drive away from me, my girlfriend is about 10 miles down the road & I hope 2 C her soon. I have Old Friends in California & Idaho & Boston that I haven't Cn in yrs & I've bn thinking about lately. & I'll B working a long shift on Christmas Day.
I hope yr loved 1's R closer this Christmas than mine (tho I'm not complaining, my life is Good), & I hope U get a chance 2 feel summa that Christmas Spirit this yr ... even if U havta slow down a little 2 do it.
& if by some chance U DO feel it -- take a break 4 a 2nd. Breathe it in a little. NJOY it. Cos it may not come back....
And so this is Christmas. I hope you have fun....
So this is Christmas. And what have you done?
Saw an AWFUL LOT of angry, stressed-out, in-a-hurry people at work over the wknd. Xchanged words w/ sevral folks on Sat nite, the angriest & most-stressed-out I've Cn people in quite awhile. I can only assume the stress was caused by this Bing the last wknd 2 shop B4 Christmas. Lots of people out spending their $$$ -- & things were grim enuf B4 the holidays....
Tho there were as usual lotsa folks in pretty good moods, there sure were a lot more than normal who were awfully edgy. 1 guy walked in2 the store SHAKING, he was so angry. He was just SEETHING w/ it, & it had nothing 2 do w/ me or NEthing I did. I even told him he could take a break, catch his breath, there was no rush. & he said "Yeah, OK, all right...." & he kept shaking. Like he'd spent all day w/ a screaming wife & children....
I even started thinking at 1 point that it was ME. 1 guy called me a dumbass -- 1st time that's happened. Another guy & I Cmd 2 B speaking diffrent languages. I knew we hadda misunderstanding, but neither of us could find R way out of it, & the more I said the worse it got. Finally the guy gave up & said "Never mind, I'm sorry I came in...."
1 slightly-stressed woman said something kinda catty about the customer in front of her, & when I suggested delicately that it's the season 4 Peace On Earth, Goodwill Toward Men, Good Tidings To All, & Bing On Good Terms With All Persons ... she said "FUCK THAT!"
& then we both laffed. But still....
I know the holidays R stressful. I've had my share of bad holidays, & I've ruined them 4 a couple of people I know. But I Don't Get why we make them MORE stressful. Why do we go out shopping on Black Friday, or wait until the last possible minute 2 buy presents, knowing it'll just put R stress level thru the roof?
Why do we do this 2 Rselves?
Is it cos we've just GOTTA HAVE the newest cellphone, the newest computer game? Is it cos we know we just won't B able 2 look at Rselves in the mirror if we don't get the kids the Newest & Best we can afford? (Even if we can't really afford it?) How will they B able 2 face their friends w/o the newest, best, hottest?
Why R people in such a freakin hurry? What's the rush? & when did they get so RUDE? & can't they B NE NICER?
...When's the last time U felt the Christmas Spirit? & I'm not talking about religion here. I'm talking about the wonder & joy of the season, knowing in your heart that All Is Right W/ The World & Everything's Gonna B OK, the joy that comes from having yr loved 1's around U, warm & safe.
Does that kinda feeling still happen? 4 a LOT of people?
I think the last time it happened 4 me I was about 12 yrs old, in 1971. I remember a warm house w/ cookies baking in the oven & lotsa presents under the tree, & 18 inches of snow outside, and weather cold enuf that we could play fake-ice-hockey on the frozen surface of the creek down the hill from my house.
My parents always tried 2 make Christmas special 4 me & my sister, no matter how broke my Mom & Dad were -- & I know some yrs they were lucky 2 have 25 cents in the checking account. We 8 a lotta macaroni-&-cheese dinners. But we were lucky.
I think the best Xmas I've had as an adult was in 1991, after coming back 2 America following 2 tough years in Turkey around the time of the 1st Gulf War. Part of it was we were just glad 2 B Back Home, but it was great 2 B in my in-laws' house w/ my wife & 2 kids close by, watching my son dig thru a mountain of presents.
But I've had some bad 1's 2. I know I've ruined a coupla holidays 4 my girlfriend Mary. Sometimes I'm suprised she still speaks 2 me.
My worst Xmas ever was in 1999 -- when my X-wife told R kids she was moving out ... about an hr after all the presents were opened.
My son has never 4given her 4 it. He thinks I went nuts 4 about 3 mo's after that. He's probly right.
I know Christmas can B stressful. I remember Bing up til 2 am more than 1nce, trying 2 put-2gether something complicated 4 the kids 2 B suprised-by on Xmas morning, & having my Significant Other tell me (after an 18-hr day of working, shopping & wrapping) that if I kept fumbling around the kids would B AWAKE B4 I got finished....
But I know some Christmas traditions R irreplaceable. I know decorating a Christmas tree isn't about DECORATING THE TREE, it's about the feelings yr sposta have while doing it. It's not work, or at least it SHOULDN'T B, if it's done right, it shouldn't B stressful at all. It's Tradition. It's FAMILY. It's about having everybody close so every1 helps each other, & U can kid the Tall Girl about how Only She's Tall Enuf 2 put the star on the top of the tree -- that's why she's around.
As I write this, my son is driving a semi-truck across the country somewhere, my daughter is in college a 3-hr drive away from me, my girlfriend is about 10 miles down the road & I hope 2 C her soon. I have Old Friends in California & Idaho & Boston that I haven't Cn in yrs & I've bn thinking about lately. & I'll B working a long shift on Christmas Day.
I hope yr loved 1's R closer this Christmas than mine (tho I'm not complaining, my life is Good), & I hope U get a chance 2 feel summa that Christmas Spirit this yr ... even if U havta slow down a little 2 do it.
& if by some chance U DO feel it -- take a break 4 a 2nd. Breathe it in a little. NJOY it. Cos it may not come back....
And so this is Christmas. I hope you have fun....
Sunday, December 20, 2009
What was I talking about...?
The monsoon season Cms 2 have hit Washington. Its bn raining 4 the past few days, sometimes pouring. If there'd bn this much moisture in the air last week when it got down 2 18 degrees, we'd all still B digging out of the snow.
So at work 2nite Btween customers I was making this list of all the songs I could think of w/ the word "Sun" or "Sunshine" in them, or which Dscribed a beautiful day, in an effort 2 Think Positive & make the sun come out again -- the kinda songs I'd play 2 cheer me up after the 10th consecutive day of heavy rain & overcast. (We'll probly C the sun again around April.)
Got up 2 10 titles on this new list when it suddenly popped in2 my head that I missed 2 OBVIOUS titles in that "Great Xmas Songs" list I did a coupla wks back.
& that's The Wave Of The Future, I'm afraid. I've bn going back & adding a lot of stuff 2 old posts lately. In the past few days I've added 1/2adozen albums 2 that list of "Most fun, most played, most reliable" albums I did a few days ago; I've added a few more things 2 that "Great Comedy Songs" list from awhile back; I don't wanna TELL U how many items I've added 2 the "Great Xmas Songs" list -- & I'd pretty-much given that 1 up.
I don't know if it's worth going back 2 C what I've added, & I'm not trying 2 get double the reading outta U all -- but I can B a perfectionist at the worst of times, & I hate 4getting about something that's as plain as the nose on my face. (Now, where did I leave that...?)
I'm told this 4getting stuff is all Part Of The Fun Of Getting Older. Just cos I can't remember shit, I thot I should warn ya. I've joked about having Alzheimer's B4 -- bearocker knows what I'm talkin about -- but it isn't that. I just don't think it's Right that I should B able 2 remember the words 2 some song I haven't heard in 35 yrs, or a book I read 20 yrs ago -- but I can't remember LAST WEEK. (It's as frustrating as leaving Michael Jackson's "Thriller" out of a list of Great Halloween Songs....)
Jeez, sometimes I can't remember something somebody told me 5 mins ago.... & if I'm sposta remember a msg, I've gotta write it down IMMEDIATELY or it'll B gone outta my head permanently within 5 mins. Possibly within 2. .... What was I saying...?
Oh, & what were those great Xmas songs I 4got about 2 wks ago?:
* Jethro Tull: "A Christmas Song" (1972, from LIVING IN THE PAST) -- I LOVE Ian Anderson when he gets angry & self-righteous. & was his singing ever NE better than on these lines?: "When you're stuffing yourselves at the Christmas parties/You'll just laugh when I tell ya to take a running jump...." Aided by a marvelous, slowly-building production w/ great horns & strings. Merry F'in Christmas....
* Greg Lake: "I Believe in Father Christmas" (1978, from WORKS VOLUME 2) -- Lake also gains stature when he declaims. Not only is his singing pretty great, this song also Cms (rather unusually 4 ELP) almost warm, heartfelt, sincere. U know -- moving. Yeah, right.
NOT QUITE RECOMMENDED:
= Moody Blues: "What Child is This?" (2000, from DECEMBER) -- This shoulda worked. Perfect match-up of Christmas carol & classic band, Justin Hayward's vocal is certainly gentle enuf, but something doesn't click. It just ain't pretty enuf 4 me, I guess (?).
Coming up soon: Sorry music fans, more book reviews -- Jesse Sublett's ROCK CRITIC MURDERS (w/ a title like that, who needs a story?), Johnathon Green's DAYS IN THE LIFE, Kingsley Amis's NEW MAPS OF HELL, & more... if I remember....
I know some of U might B tempted 2 say "That's OK, TAD, we appreciate your use of the 3 brain cells U've got left...." But if U all wanna pass on yr condolences about my untimely demise, now'd B the time.... while I can still remember how 2 read them....
So at work 2nite Btween customers I was making this list of all the songs I could think of w/ the word "Sun" or "Sunshine" in them, or which Dscribed a beautiful day, in an effort 2 Think Positive & make the sun come out again -- the kinda songs I'd play 2 cheer me up after the 10th consecutive day of heavy rain & overcast. (We'll probly C the sun again around April.)
Got up 2 10 titles on this new list when it suddenly popped in2 my head that I missed 2 OBVIOUS titles in that "Great Xmas Songs" list I did a coupla wks back.
& that's The Wave Of The Future, I'm afraid. I've bn going back & adding a lot of stuff 2 old posts lately. In the past few days I've added 1/2adozen albums 2 that list of "Most fun, most played, most reliable" albums I did a few days ago; I've added a few more things 2 that "Great Comedy Songs" list from awhile back; I don't wanna TELL U how many items I've added 2 the "Great Xmas Songs" list -- & I'd pretty-much given that 1 up.
I don't know if it's worth going back 2 C what I've added, & I'm not trying 2 get double the reading outta U all -- but I can B a perfectionist at the worst of times, & I hate 4getting about something that's as plain as the nose on my face. (Now, where did I leave that...?)
I'm told this 4getting stuff is all Part Of The Fun Of Getting Older. Just cos I can't remember shit, I thot I should warn ya. I've joked about having Alzheimer's B4 -- bearocker knows what I'm talkin about -- but it isn't that. I just don't think it's Right that I should B able 2 remember the words 2 some song I haven't heard in 35 yrs, or a book I read 20 yrs ago -- but I can't remember LAST WEEK. (It's as frustrating as leaving Michael Jackson's "Thriller" out of a list of Great Halloween Songs....)
Jeez, sometimes I can't remember something somebody told me 5 mins ago.... & if I'm sposta remember a msg, I've gotta write it down IMMEDIATELY or it'll B gone outta my head permanently within 5 mins. Possibly within 2. .... What was I saying...?
Oh, & what were those great Xmas songs I 4got about 2 wks ago?:
* Jethro Tull: "A Christmas Song" (1972, from LIVING IN THE PAST) -- I LOVE Ian Anderson when he gets angry & self-righteous. & was his singing ever NE better than on these lines?: "When you're stuffing yourselves at the Christmas parties/You'll just laugh when I tell ya to take a running jump...." Aided by a marvelous, slowly-building production w/ great horns & strings. Merry F'in Christmas....
* Greg Lake: "I Believe in Father Christmas" (1978, from WORKS VOLUME 2) -- Lake also gains stature when he declaims. Not only is his singing pretty great, this song also Cms (rather unusually 4 ELP) almost warm, heartfelt, sincere. U know -- moving. Yeah, right.
NOT QUITE RECOMMENDED:
= Moody Blues: "What Child is This?" (2000, from DECEMBER) -- This shoulda worked. Perfect match-up of Christmas carol & classic band, Justin Hayward's vocal is certainly gentle enuf, but something doesn't click. It just ain't pretty enuf 4 me, I guess (?).
Coming up soon: Sorry music fans, more book reviews -- Jesse Sublett's ROCK CRITIC MURDERS (w/ a title like that, who needs a story?), Johnathon Green's DAYS IN THE LIFE, Kingsley Amis's NEW MAPS OF HELL, & more... if I remember....
I know some of U might B tempted 2 say "That's OK, TAD, we appreciate your use of the 3 brain cells U've got left...." But if U all wanna pass on yr condolences about my untimely demise, now'd B the time.... while I can still remember how 2 read them....
Friday, December 18, 2009
More Issues....
Julie Burchill & Tony Parsons' THE BOY LOOKED AT JOHNNY (1978) is a brief (79 pgs of tiny type), angry, frustrated, acid-filled portrait of the early days of Punk Rock.
Subtitled "The Obituary of Rock and Roll," at the time it was taken as a blast against the Boring Old Farts that Punk supposedly was going 2 replace. (Pete Townshend accuses Burchill & Parsons of "gross callousness" on the back-cover. These R the folks Pete wrote "Jools and Jim" about, right?)
I think instead it Xpresses Burchill & Parsons' anger & disgust at how quickly Punk Went Bad. The Old Guard gets nowhere near the # of putdowns & insults that the punk-rockers do in this book.
Jools & Tony were the 2 "young gunslingers" hired by the British music tabloid NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS 2 get a handle on Punk when it 1st started rumbling around '76. Tho the team had a front-row seat 4 what musta bn an Xciting time, what comes thru clearer than NEthing in this book is how disappointed they were when the Punks turned out 2 B normal people w/ the same weaknesses & faults as the BOF's they'd hoped 2 succeed.
Jools & Jim's writing is full of hype & invective. They hardly like NE1, tho they had hopes 4 the Sex Pistols. They R cynical & sarcastic about virtually all Punk & New Wave acts, especially those who start-out rated highly & then fade (Patti Smith's HORSES was "the best debut album of all time," then she turned in2 a "silly old biddy;" Blondie's 1st album was "the only album ever released on which every song could/should have been a hit single").
The team felt the Pistols "breathed life into the music scene," then Cm relieved that the only other revolutionary thing the Pistols could do was break-up B4 they Mbarrassed themselves NE further. From there on, pretty-much every1 else gets insulted:
Burchill & Parsons call the Clash's aggressive stance a put-on. They don't like the Ramones, either. Television is Dscribed as "pathetic." Blondie's work after their 1st album is considered worthless. The Jam, the Damned, the Stranglers, Siouxsie and the Banshees, New York Dolls, Richard Hell, Johnny Thunders' Heartbreakers -- all of Punk's early stars get zinged here.
Talking Heads sorta get a pass, tho when talking about their debut album '77, the duo sez leader David Byrne is "too much a songwriter who feels he has to sing his baby safely through the album." Johnathan Richman of the Modern Lovers is Dscribed as a songwriter who tried 2 bring "a healthy outlook on life" in2 rock, then later Dscended in2 craziness & brain-damage.
There R a few people Jools & Jim liked: The Tom Robinson Band ("everyone else is just wanking into the wind"), Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex (who apparently retired from music after she started Seeing Things; her vivid lyrics R quoted at length, more than NE other songwriter's in the book); Joan Jett is chosen best American rocker; there R a few other minor words of praise scattered here & there.
I was hoping the hype & brashness of Jools & Jim's writing might B refreshing -- but they couldn't keep up the cleansing outrage. & their chapter on "Drugs" is really worthless -- they Nd up recommending amphetamines, "the one drug that makes you sit up and ask questions, rather than lie down and lap up answers."
30 yrs after the fact I doubt that it makes much diffrence, but if U're intrested in the birth & rise of Punk Rock, I recommend Jon Savage's ENGLAND'S DREAMING, which is WAY more solid on the background of Punk, way more balanced on summa the same events covered here, & way clearer as a series of character sketches about folks like Poly Styrene & Siouxsie Sioux. Savage also saves the hype & intensity 4 the passages where they work best -- at the Pistols' last show in San Francisco, or following the Dcline & death of Sid Vicious. Some of the writing is so good it's frightening. It's worth tracking down.
THIS wasn't, really. Send me a coupla bucks 4 postage & it's yrs....
James Blish's THE ISSUE AT HAND & MORE ISSUES AT HAND (1964, 1970) R 2 collections featuring some nearly-60-yr-old science-fiction criticism. I read these a few yrs back & was almost bored w/ Blish's sometimes dry, almost scholarly approach. But my ear 4 criticism has improved since then.
Tho Blish -- who really was a scholar of the works of poet Ezra Pound & novelists James Joyce & James Branch Cabell -- does occasionally sound like an English teacher, when he gets cranky he's something 2 Bhold. Speaking 2 writers who felt insulted by his criticism but apparently missed his points, Blish wrote: "My job is to WRITE the columns. I shouldn't have to READ them to you as well."
As in his peer Damon Knight's IN SEARCH OF WONDER (previously reviewed here earlier this mo), Blish goes after lots of Really Bad writing, tho he has different targets than Knight. He even chops-up some of his own stories. Some of the older criticism centers on issues of SF magazines published way back in the early-2-mid 1950s. Unless U're really a big fan of old SF, U can probly let this stuff go. I liked it, but I like cheap laffs, & I Njoy bad writing Bing pointed out 4 the crap it is.
Blish also looks at mid-'50s thru mid-'60s novels by SF superstar Robert A. Heinlein (Xcellent long review of STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND, good look at STARSHIP TROOPERS, also nails who the REAL hero is in MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS).
Blish also takes a long look at Algis Budrys' ROGUE MOON, acclaimed as an SF classic, & finds an amazing amount of symbolism in it. I don't doubt that the symbolism's there, but when I read the book, I was stunned at how pulpy & clunky & old-fashioned it was, especially 4 Budrys, who was no dummy. (Might B time 2 read it again....)
The best part of either book 4 me was a long speech Blish gave in 1970 about SF's then-current "New Wave." Tho some of it he liked (especially Brian Aldiss's psychedelic "acid-head-war" stories collected as BAREFOOT IN THE HEAD), some of my fave SF writers get bashed -- Roger Zelazny, Samuel R. Delany, J.G. Ballard, Michael Moorcock.... Others get kudos: Harlan Ellison as an editor (4 DANGEROUS VISIONS), Judith Merrill as a best-of-the-year anthologist.... Blish has big fun picking at Zelazny's novel CREATURES OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS, 1 of my all-time faves, which I admit has a slow Bginning & a weak Nding, but that doesn't keep the middle from Bing a helluva lotta fun. Blish gets hung-up on whether it's logical, rational, the fact that none of it ever gets Xplained....
Blish died from lung cancer in 1975. He gained some fame late in life 4 turning STAR TREK TV scripts in2 rather good short-stories collected in a series of books that sold better than NE of his SF novels (1 of which, A CASE OF CONSCIENCE, won SF's Hugo Award 4 Best Novel). 4 me, Blish's best book is a scary little # called BLACK EASTER, tho I think its direct sequel THE DAY AFTER JUDGEMENT is a flat failure.
But Bhind everything Blish wrote is that dry, scholarly intelligence -- & sometimes as U read U can almost hear him laffing....
Subtitled "The Obituary of Rock and Roll," at the time it was taken as a blast against the Boring Old Farts that Punk supposedly was going 2 replace. (Pete Townshend accuses Burchill & Parsons of "gross callousness" on the back-cover. These R the folks Pete wrote "Jools and Jim" about, right?)
I think instead it Xpresses Burchill & Parsons' anger & disgust at how quickly Punk Went Bad. The Old Guard gets nowhere near the # of putdowns & insults that the punk-rockers do in this book.
Jools & Tony were the 2 "young gunslingers" hired by the British music tabloid NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS 2 get a handle on Punk when it 1st started rumbling around '76. Tho the team had a front-row seat 4 what musta bn an Xciting time, what comes thru clearer than NEthing in this book is how disappointed they were when the Punks turned out 2 B normal people w/ the same weaknesses & faults as the BOF's they'd hoped 2 succeed.
Jools & Jim's writing is full of hype & invective. They hardly like NE1, tho they had hopes 4 the Sex Pistols. They R cynical & sarcastic about virtually all Punk & New Wave acts, especially those who start-out rated highly & then fade (Patti Smith's HORSES was "the best debut album of all time," then she turned in2 a "silly old biddy;" Blondie's 1st album was "the only album ever released on which every song could/should have been a hit single").
The team felt the Pistols "breathed life into the music scene," then Cm relieved that the only other revolutionary thing the Pistols could do was break-up B4 they Mbarrassed themselves NE further. From there on, pretty-much every1 else gets insulted:
Burchill & Parsons call the Clash's aggressive stance a put-on. They don't like the Ramones, either. Television is Dscribed as "pathetic." Blondie's work after their 1st album is considered worthless. The Jam, the Damned, the Stranglers, Siouxsie and the Banshees, New York Dolls, Richard Hell, Johnny Thunders' Heartbreakers -- all of Punk's early stars get zinged here.
Talking Heads sorta get a pass, tho when talking about their debut album '77, the duo sez leader David Byrne is "too much a songwriter who feels he has to sing his baby safely through the album." Johnathan Richman of the Modern Lovers is Dscribed as a songwriter who tried 2 bring "a healthy outlook on life" in2 rock, then later Dscended in2 craziness & brain-damage.
There R a few people Jools & Jim liked: The Tom Robinson Band ("everyone else is just wanking into the wind"), Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex (who apparently retired from music after she started Seeing Things; her vivid lyrics R quoted at length, more than NE other songwriter's in the book); Joan Jett is chosen best American rocker; there R a few other minor words of praise scattered here & there.
I was hoping the hype & brashness of Jools & Jim's writing might B refreshing -- but they couldn't keep up the cleansing outrage. & their chapter on "Drugs" is really worthless -- they Nd up recommending amphetamines, "the one drug that makes you sit up and ask questions, rather than lie down and lap up answers."
30 yrs after the fact I doubt that it makes much diffrence, but if U're intrested in the birth & rise of Punk Rock, I recommend Jon Savage's ENGLAND'S DREAMING, which is WAY more solid on the background of Punk, way more balanced on summa the same events covered here, & way clearer as a series of character sketches about folks like Poly Styrene & Siouxsie Sioux. Savage also saves the hype & intensity 4 the passages where they work best -- at the Pistols' last show in San Francisco, or following the Dcline & death of Sid Vicious. Some of the writing is so good it's frightening. It's worth tracking down.
THIS wasn't, really. Send me a coupla bucks 4 postage & it's yrs....
James Blish's THE ISSUE AT HAND & MORE ISSUES AT HAND (1964, 1970) R 2 collections featuring some nearly-60-yr-old science-fiction criticism. I read these a few yrs back & was almost bored w/ Blish's sometimes dry, almost scholarly approach. But my ear 4 criticism has improved since then.
Tho Blish -- who really was a scholar of the works of poet Ezra Pound & novelists James Joyce & James Branch Cabell -- does occasionally sound like an English teacher, when he gets cranky he's something 2 Bhold. Speaking 2 writers who felt insulted by his criticism but apparently missed his points, Blish wrote: "My job is to WRITE the columns. I shouldn't have to READ them to you as well."
As in his peer Damon Knight's IN SEARCH OF WONDER (previously reviewed here earlier this mo), Blish goes after lots of Really Bad writing, tho he has different targets than Knight. He even chops-up some of his own stories. Some of the older criticism centers on issues of SF magazines published way back in the early-2-mid 1950s. Unless U're really a big fan of old SF, U can probly let this stuff go. I liked it, but I like cheap laffs, & I Njoy bad writing Bing pointed out 4 the crap it is.
Blish also looks at mid-'50s thru mid-'60s novels by SF superstar Robert A. Heinlein (Xcellent long review of STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND, good look at STARSHIP TROOPERS, also nails who the REAL hero is in MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS).
Blish also takes a long look at Algis Budrys' ROGUE MOON, acclaimed as an SF classic, & finds an amazing amount of symbolism in it. I don't doubt that the symbolism's there, but when I read the book, I was stunned at how pulpy & clunky & old-fashioned it was, especially 4 Budrys, who was no dummy. (Might B time 2 read it again....)
The best part of either book 4 me was a long speech Blish gave in 1970 about SF's then-current "New Wave." Tho some of it he liked (especially Brian Aldiss's psychedelic "acid-head-war" stories collected as BAREFOOT IN THE HEAD), some of my fave SF writers get bashed -- Roger Zelazny, Samuel R. Delany, J.G. Ballard, Michael Moorcock.... Others get kudos: Harlan Ellison as an editor (4 DANGEROUS VISIONS), Judith Merrill as a best-of-the-year anthologist.... Blish has big fun picking at Zelazny's novel CREATURES OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS, 1 of my all-time faves, which I admit has a slow Bginning & a weak Nding, but that doesn't keep the middle from Bing a helluva lotta fun. Blish gets hung-up on whether it's logical, rational, the fact that none of it ever gets Xplained....
Blish died from lung cancer in 1975. He gained some fame late in life 4 turning STAR TREK TV scripts in2 rather good short-stories collected in a series of books that sold better than NE of his SF novels (1 of which, A CASE OF CONSCIENCE, won SF's Hugo Award 4 Best Novel). 4 me, Blish's best book is a scary little # called BLACK EASTER, tho I think its direct sequel THE DAY AFTER JUDGEMENT is a flat failure.
But Bhind everything Blish wrote is that dry, scholarly intelligence -- & sometimes as U read U can almost hear him laffing....
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Most fun, most played, most reliable
I've got a brand new game 2 play & U can all join in....
I write about a lotta off-the-wall music here, but when I'm hangin out w/ friends & want a good soundtrack, or when I just wanna hear Something Good, that odd stuff isn't always what I pull off the shelf 1st. Sometimes it IS, but the stuff I've played most & Njoyed most over the yrs isn't necessarily that strange. Some of it's even -- *GASP!* -- pretty popular.
So here's what we'll do: I'll run down the Top 40 or so of my most-played, most-relied-upon albums ever, & after U've finished laffing, tell me what some of yr all-time faves R 4 just relaxing & listening-2.
& don't B Mbarrassed. I'M not gonna B. If U really DO need 2 play Abba or the Carpenters or the Partridge Family 1nce a wk just 2 hold on2 yr sanity, IT'S OK! REALLY! I'm OK w/ it. & every1 else will Understand 2. (Won't U, every1?)
& Bsides, Confession is Good 4 The Soul. So don't B afraid 2 let it all out. Onward!
* Go-Go's: TALK SHOW (1984) -- Almost perfect. Even the weaker stuff ("Turn to You," "Yes or No," "Beneath the Blue Sky") is pretty great. & the Good Stuff is incredible. They were never better than on the shoulda-bn-bigger-hit "Head Over Heels," the great guitar-heavy "You Thought," "Forget That Day," "Capture the Light" & "I'm With You." Played this over&over on drives all around San Antonio, & on a LONG road trip thru the West, & it still sounds great.
* Bangles: DIFFERENT LIGHT (1985) -- Also road-tested over many miles. There R some weak spots here, but the hits & great album trax like "Let it Go," "September Gurls," "Angels Don't Fall in Love," "Following," "Not Like You" & "Return Post" make this 1 of the greatest pop albums ever. & those gorgeous harmonies....
* Boston: (1st) (1976) -- Almost perfect. I even like "Smokin'" & "Let Me Take You Home Tonight." "Hitch a Ride" is gorgeous & haunting. "More Than a Feeling" could go on 4 another 10 mins & I wouldn't care. But my absolute fave is "Peace of Mind."
* Moody Blues: THE PRESENT (1983) -- Their best & most consistent album ever. Aging, mellowing, but almost every track works & they don't Mbarrass themselves NEwhere. "Blue World" is a 4got10 classic. & "Sorry" isn't a bad farewell....
* Beach Boys: PET SOUNDS (1966) -- What can I say? Played more times than I can remember, Dspite the weak spots (never liked "Wouldn't it be Nice" much, or "That's Not Me") -- but this is the perfect soundtrack 4 sensitive highschool romances, & the high points R off the scale: "God Only Knows," "Here Today," "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times," "I Know There's an Answer," even the instrumentals, especially the gorgeous "Let's Go Away for Awhile" & the CD bonus-track "Trombone Dixie."
* Caravan: FOR GIRLS WHO GROW PLUMP IN THE NIGHT (1973) -- I useta screech along w/ this as I drove down the freeway 2&from the record store in the big, rumbly '72 Chevy Nova w/ the big back tires, the 8-track tape player(!), & the transmission that fell out after 2 mo's. There R some dead spots, but they don't Dtract from the thrilling "Memory Lain/Hugh/Headloss," the gorgeous "Surprise, Surprise" & "The Dog, the Dog, He's at it Again," the runaway-train momentum of "Be All Right" & the beautiful "A Hunting We Shall Go" medley.
* Providence: EVER SENSE THE DAWN (1972) -- Best Moody Blues-style album ever. Great group vocals & harmonies, strong songwriting. "If We Were Wise," "Fantasy Fugue" & "Neptune's Door" all shoulda bn radio classics....
* Yes: YESSONGS (1973) -- So good U can almost throw-away 1 of the 3 discs & not even miss it. "Close to the Edge" is so cosmic, "Starship Trooper" so stunning, "And You and I" so pretty -- & "Siberian Khatru"'s got some great chaotic sounds in it. & the movie's GREAT!
* Nick Drake: BRYTER LAYTER (1970) -- I don't play this much, cos it can Dpress me, but damn it's great. "Northern Sky," "Hazey Jane II," "At the Chime of a City Clock," "Fly," even the flute-based instrumental "Sunday" R all gorgeous & haunting. & I haven't even mentioned 1/2 the titles.... Save it 4 a rainy day....
* Beatles: ABBEY ROAD (1969) -- Especially 4 the 2nd side -- so pretty & moving & so crystal-clear. But I love all of it, even "Octopus's Garden," even "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" -- yeezus, I can even stand the goofy "Maxwell's Silver Hammer." & isn't it great how McCartney shreds his voice on "Oh, Darling!"?
* Who: WHO'S NEXT (1971) -- Classic. The dynamics R amazing, as great in its pure sound as ABBEY ROAD. & did Pete ever write better songs than "Behind Blue Eyes," "Baba O'Riley" & "Won't Get Fooled Again"? (Xcept 4 "I Can See for Miles," I mean....) "Song is Over" is gorgeous & moving, "Bargain"'s pretty ferocious, & "My Wife" & "Going Mobile" R a lotta fun. Wish I could trade "Love Ain't for Keeping" for "Join Together" or "The Relay," tho....
* Gryphon: RED QUEEN TO GRYPHON THREE (1974) & TREASON (1977) -- RED QUEEN is the best all-instrumental rock album ever. "Lament" is a gorgeous life-affirming masterpiece, & the other 3 trax R pretty great 2. TREASON is a kinder, gentler Jethro Tull album. "Spring Song" shoulda made these guys world-famous among art-rock fans.
* Pretenders: (1st) (1980) -- The album that got me thru 1980 alive. Xcept 4 "Brass in Pocket," I love all of it, from the breathy, bittersweet "Kid" & "Stop Your Sobbing" 2 the heavy-guitar melodrama at the Nd of "Lovers of Today" & the sorta abrupt but brilliant "Mystery Achievement." I even love "Space Invaders" -- sorta a "Peter Gunn Theme" 4 the Computer Age....
* Fleetwood Mac: TUSK (1979) -- I can't take RUMOURS all the way thru. & there R parts of this I skip. But the hazy, foggy, edgy production has its own fascination, & I still love the harmonies. & there R some real lost classics here: "I Know I'm Not Wrong," "Sisters of the Moon," "Brown Eyes," "Never Make Me Cry," "Angel," "Beautiful Child," "Never Forget," "That's All for Everyone"....
* Kansas: LEFTOVERTURE (1976) -- Love almost all of this, Xcept 4 mayB "Opus Insert," which is OK as a kinda lite-hearted break, & parts of "Magnum Opus" don't work that well 4 me. But the rest? "Miracles Out of Nowhere" is magnificent. "Questions of My Childhood" shoulda bn a hit. "Cheyenne Anthem" is so cinematic U can C the video in yr head. "What's On My Mind" & "The Wall" R no slouches either. How come these guys couldn't keep going like this?
* Journey: INFINITY (1978) -- A couple dead spots, but the 2nd side is almost perfect (Xcept mayB 4 "La Do Da"), the 1st side has its uses, & the Good Stuff is so freakin great they never topped it. "Feeling That Way/Anytime" is marvelous, "Lights" is relaxed but moving, "Something to Hide" has some nice drama, even "Can Do" works pretty well. Lotsa Xcellent group vocals. I always wished Gregg Rolie woulda sang more....
* Renaissance: LIVE AT CARNEGIE HALL (1976) -- Another live album where U can almost throw 1/2 of it away & not miss it. But these per4mances R SO much more ALIVE than the studio versions of the same songs.... "Ashes Are Burning" is GORGEOUS -- 4 its 1st 3 mins. Almost all the other shorter songs R great, especially "Can You Understand?" & "Running Hard," which both use the backing orchestra 4 color & sweep. Nice vocals, & the band doesn't get buried by the orchestra. Guess I was just a sucker 4 these folks....
* Wings: VENUS AND MARS (1975) -- My fave McCartney album ever; the songs R so melodically strong, even when they get silly: "Medicine Jar," "Rock Show," "Magneto and Titanium Man," "Spirits of Ancient Egypt," "Letting Go," "Call Me Back Again," the 2 versions of the title theme. I even like "Treat Her Gently/Lonely Old People," "You Gave Me the Answer" -- jeez, I even like the "Crossroads Theme." "Listen to What the Man Said" sure got played 2 death tho....
* Queen: A NIGHT AT THE OPERA (1976) -- Some dead spots, but the Good Stuff is REALLY GREAT: "'39," "Death on Two Legs," "The Prophet's Song," "You're My Best Friend," "I'm in Love With My Car," & a little something called "Bohemian Rhapsody" that'll probly NEVER B a hit.... Does NE1 like "Sweet Lady"? & how bout "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon" & "Good Company"? Don't spose this band was a little schizoid, do ya?
* Beatles: WHITE ALBUM (1968) -- Thank Ghod 4 weirdness. I useta play this over&over during highschool, when I hid in my room w/ the headphones clamped over my ears 24/7. Not every track's great, but how bout "Dear Prudence," "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey," "I'm So Tired," "Yer Blues," "I Will," "Birthday," "Cry Baby Cry," "Helter Skelter," & that GREAT Beach Boys hit "Back in the USSR"?
* Moody Blues: A QUESTION OF BALANCE (1970) -- Don't spose U'll let me claim all of the Moodies' 1st 7 albums as 1 item, so I'll go w/ this, which I think is the most consistent of their 1st 7. The peaks R stunning: "Question," the shoulda-bn-hit "It's Up to You," "Minstrel's Song," "Dawning is the Day," "Melancholy Man." & "Don't You Feel Small?" is pretty great 2. But I useta play all the 1st 7 Moodies albums over&over thru highschool -- those albums & Yes's YESSONGS were the 1st "strange music" I listened-2 in NE depth....
* Illusion: OUT OF THE MIST (1977) -- Best Renaissance-style studio album ever. Every track works. Jane Relf's vocals R great, John Knightsbridge's gtr always gets some solo space, & John Hawken's keybs continue the firey work he did 4 the Strawbs. "Everywhere You Go," "Candles are Burning" & "Roads to Freedom" shoulda bn art-rock classics.
* Dan Fogelberg: THE INNOCENT AGE (1981) -- Also road-tested. Pretty heavy on the melodrama -- which I'm a sucker 4. Not all great, & it Dgenerates in2 movie-soundtrack-music by the Nd of the 4th side, but there's some great stuff here, from the gorgeous "Nexus" thru the great fake-drama of "Times Like These." I even like "Hard to Say," & "Same Old Lang Syne," of course. But B4 U laff, U otta hear the title track, "The Reach," "In the Passage," "Stolen Moments," "The Lion's Share"....
* Group 87: (1st) (1980) -- Gorgeous, life-affirming art-rock. "One Night Away From Day" is perfect. "Future of the City" has a great, anthemic Nding. "The Bedouin" is gorgeous & hypnotic. Even some of the more mechanical-sounding stuff does its magic.
* Sky: SKY2 (1980) -- British all-instrumental art-rock band. Speaking of mechanical.... Also incandescent, in places. Like on "Watching the Aeroplanes," "Scipio," "Vivaldi," "Toccata," "Fifo," "Adagio," "Scherzo" & "Hotta" (Xcept 4 the WORST drum solo of all time)....
* Dire Straits: MAKIN MOVIES (1981) & LOVE OVER GOLD (1983) -- LOVE OVER GOLD helped get me thru journalism school in 1 piece, especially the brilliant epic "Telegraph Road" & the beautiful title track. MAKIN MOVIES is overall their best album, w/ great cinematic songs, nice use of keyboards, plenty of room 4 Mark Knopfler's gtr, & lotsa MK's cosmic-love lyrics -- like on "Romeo and Juliet," the gorgeous "Hand in Hand," "Tunnel of Love," "Expresso Love"....
* The Jam: SETTING SONS (1979) -- Angry & bitter new-wave concept album, not lite listening but mostly brilliant, especially "Private Hell," "Little Boy Soldiers," "Thick as Thieves," "Strange Town," "Wasteland," "Smithers-Jones," "Burning Sky," "Saturday's Kids," "Eton Rifles" ... & the worst cover-version of "Heat Wave" U'll never wanna hear again....
* Elton John: GOODBYE YELLOW BRICK ROAD (1973) -- After the crashing "Love Lies Bleeding," who needs the resta the album? Luckily there's other great stuff here 2: "Grey Seal," "The Ballad of Danny Bailey," "All the Young Girls Love Alice," "Your Sister Can't Twist (But She Can Rock and Roll)," the brilliant & underrated "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting," "Roy Rogers," "Harmony," "Candle in the Wind" -- & Elton's greatest song EVER: "Social Disease"! Oh, & there's a few bummers here 2: "Benny and the Jets," "Jamaica Jerk Off"....
* Modern English: AFTER THE SNOW (1983) -- The other album that got me thru journalism school alive. 2nd side's perfect, especially the shoulda-bn-bigger-hit "I Melt With You," the gorgeous & dramatic "Carry Me Down," & the driving momentum of "Tables Turning." After "Someone's Calling," the 1st side kinda drifts down in2 this arty quiet, but it's still intresting....
* Boston: THIRD STAGE (1986) -- More like a concerto or a symphony than a rock album, it all flows 2gether, w/ themes repeated from 1 song 2 another. Still some great stuff if yr a fan, & I'm a sucker 4 the low-key "We're Ready," "My Destination," "Can'tcha Say/Still in Love," & of course "Hollyann."
* Camel: THE SNOW GOOSE (1975) & NUDE (1981) -- Gorgeous mostly instrumental art-rock albums I've played more times than I can count. SNOW GOOSE is probly Camel's classic album: lotsa great keyboard, gtr, flute & wordless vocals. The 1st 6 mins is amazing, & "Flight of the Snow Goose" is pretty great 2. NUDE features more vocals & a Dtailed story, & gorgeous songs like "City Life" & "Drafted" shoulda made them world-famous.
* Cyndi Lauper: SHE'S SO UNUSUAL (1983) -- Almost perfect, from Tom Gray's bitter & brilliant "Money Changes Everything" thru Prince's moving "When You Were Mine," "Time After Time," the driving & hilarious "She Bop" (best whistled middle-break in pop history), the dreamy "All Through the Night" -- I even like the silliness it Dgenerates 2 by the Nd ("I Kiss You," "He's So Unusual," "Yeh Yeh"). The way Cyndi sings "When You Were Mine" is stunning -- making it clear 1nce & 4 all that the things that hurt the most R the hardest things 2 Xpress.
* Happy the Man: CRAFTY HANDS (1978) -- Gorgeous, flowing, melodic mostly-instrumental art-rock. Keybs, sax, flute, gtrs unite 4 a Genesis-like instrumental weave that's as clear & refreshing as a mtn stream. 1 kinda nasal vocal, on the rather mechanical "Wind-Up Doll Day Wind" -- but 1nce this sucker gets wound-up it's amazing. The dramatic, show-offy "Service With a Smile" leads off, passages of pure sonic beauty follow ("Open Book," "Morning Sun," "Steaming Pipes," "Ibby it Is"). Keybsman Kit Watkins later joined Camel. These guys have at least 2 other albums I'd like 2 find....
* Split Enz: WAIATA (1981) -- Marvelous silly goofy new-wave pop, & it never lets up. From the ear-opening side-openers ("Hard Act to Follow," "History Never Repeats" -- why weren't these hits?) thru the great support trax ("Wail," "Clumsy," "Iris"), it's all an amazing display of Xuberance & NRG. & tho it gets spacey in the 2nd 1/2 -- w/ appropriately spacey titles ("Ghost Girl," "Walking Through the Ruins") -- the intrest-level stays high. I even love the gorgeous closing instrumental, "Albert of India"....
* Glass Moon: (1st) (1980) -- Great Genesis-soundalike from Fla., they drama-up Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill" in2 a shoulda-bn hit. The melodramatic "Sundays and Mondays" (w/ a killer thunderstorm-like gtr solo by Jamie Glaser) is the lost classic, but both sides R strong -- "Blue Windows," the silly "Killer at 25," & "I Like the Way You Play" all coulda made it 2 radio....
* King Crimson: THE YOUNG PERSON'S GUIDE TO... (1975) -- U knew they were gonna B in here somewhere, right? Some of the best moments from their 1st 6 yrs R here, but sevral Rn't ("The Great Deceiver," "Fracture," "21st Century Schizoid Man"). 1/2 of COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING is included, + a whole side from RED, practicly everything U'd ever need ("Red" & "Starless"). + great bits & pieces like the hilarious "Cat Food" & the previously unreleased demo of "I Talk to the Wind" (WAY better than the original). Yr friends'd havta B pretty strange 2 like summa this -- my highschool buddy Jeff Mann called most of it "mindfuck music." Wonder if Bob Fripp woulda approved? Still the best $13 I ever spent on an import album (back in 1978).
* Justin Hayward & John Lodge: BLUE JAYS (1975) -- Recorded during the Moodies' "vacation" in the mid-'70s, this is mayB a little heavy on the orchestra in places, but w/ great songs like the cosmic "When You Wake Up," "This Morning," "Saved By the Music," "Remember Me, My Friend," "Who Are You Now?" & a coupla others, U won't care. Most of these woulda improved NE other Moodies album....
* Al Stewart: MODERN TIMES (1975) -- His most consistent album. 1st 1/2's kinda lite, but it's still Quality Al. But the 2nd 1/2's marvelous -- great rollin silliness ("Apple Cider Reconstitution"), marvelous melodrama ("The Dark and Rolling Sea"), & superb lyrics w/ great gtr (title track). YEAR OF THE CAT, TIME PASSAGES & 24 CARROTS R no slouches either, but this is the 1 I play most often.
I've added 1/2adozen new items in the last coupla days, so I'm gonna stop now.
...& now 4 YOUR all-time faves...?
I write about a lotta off-the-wall music here, but when I'm hangin out w/ friends & want a good soundtrack, or when I just wanna hear Something Good, that odd stuff isn't always what I pull off the shelf 1st. Sometimes it IS, but the stuff I've played most & Njoyed most over the yrs isn't necessarily that strange. Some of it's even -- *GASP!* -- pretty popular.
So here's what we'll do: I'll run down the Top 40 or so of my most-played, most-relied-upon albums ever, & after U've finished laffing, tell me what some of yr all-time faves R 4 just relaxing & listening-2.
& don't B Mbarrassed. I'M not gonna B. If U really DO need 2 play Abba or the Carpenters or the Partridge Family 1nce a wk just 2 hold on2 yr sanity, IT'S OK! REALLY! I'm OK w/ it. & every1 else will Understand 2. (Won't U, every1?)
& Bsides, Confession is Good 4 The Soul. So don't B afraid 2 let it all out. Onward!
* Go-Go's: TALK SHOW (1984) -- Almost perfect. Even the weaker stuff ("Turn to You," "Yes or No," "Beneath the Blue Sky") is pretty great. & the Good Stuff is incredible. They were never better than on the shoulda-bn-bigger-hit "Head Over Heels," the great guitar-heavy "You Thought," "Forget That Day," "Capture the Light" & "I'm With You." Played this over&over on drives all around San Antonio, & on a LONG road trip thru the West, & it still sounds great.
* Bangles: DIFFERENT LIGHT (1985) -- Also road-tested over many miles. There R some weak spots here, but the hits & great album trax like "Let it Go," "September Gurls," "Angels Don't Fall in Love," "Following," "Not Like You" & "Return Post" make this 1 of the greatest pop albums ever. & those gorgeous harmonies....
* Boston: (1st) (1976) -- Almost perfect. I even like "Smokin'" & "Let Me Take You Home Tonight." "Hitch a Ride" is gorgeous & haunting. "More Than a Feeling" could go on 4 another 10 mins & I wouldn't care. But my absolute fave is "Peace of Mind."
* Moody Blues: THE PRESENT (1983) -- Their best & most consistent album ever. Aging, mellowing, but almost every track works & they don't Mbarrass themselves NEwhere. "Blue World" is a 4got10 classic. & "Sorry" isn't a bad farewell....
* Beach Boys: PET SOUNDS (1966) -- What can I say? Played more times than I can remember, Dspite the weak spots (never liked "Wouldn't it be Nice" much, or "That's Not Me") -- but this is the perfect soundtrack 4 sensitive highschool romances, & the high points R off the scale: "God Only Knows," "Here Today," "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times," "I Know There's an Answer," even the instrumentals, especially the gorgeous "Let's Go Away for Awhile" & the CD bonus-track "Trombone Dixie."
* Caravan: FOR GIRLS WHO GROW PLUMP IN THE NIGHT (1973) -- I useta screech along w/ this as I drove down the freeway 2&from the record store in the big, rumbly '72 Chevy Nova w/ the big back tires, the 8-track tape player(!), & the transmission that fell out after 2 mo's. There R some dead spots, but they don't Dtract from the thrilling "Memory Lain/Hugh/Headloss," the gorgeous "Surprise, Surprise" & "The Dog, the Dog, He's at it Again," the runaway-train momentum of "Be All Right" & the beautiful "A Hunting We Shall Go" medley.
* Providence: EVER SENSE THE DAWN (1972) -- Best Moody Blues-style album ever. Great group vocals & harmonies, strong songwriting. "If We Were Wise," "Fantasy Fugue" & "Neptune's Door" all shoulda bn radio classics....
* Yes: YESSONGS (1973) -- So good U can almost throw-away 1 of the 3 discs & not even miss it. "Close to the Edge" is so cosmic, "Starship Trooper" so stunning, "And You and I" so pretty -- & "Siberian Khatru"'s got some great chaotic sounds in it. & the movie's GREAT!
* Nick Drake: BRYTER LAYTER (1970) -- I don't play this much, cos it can Dpress me, but damn it's great. "Northern Sky," "Hazey Jane II," "At the Chime of a City Clock," "Fly," even the flute-based instrumental "Sunday" R all gorgeous & haunting. & I haven't even mentioned 1/2 the titles.... Save it 4 a rainy day....
* Beatles: ABBEY ROAD (1969) -- Especially 4 the 2nd side -- so pretty & moving & so crystal-clear. But I love all of it, even "Octopus's Garden," even "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" -- yeezus, I can even stand the goofy "Maxwell's Silver Hammer." & isn't it great how McCartney shreds his voice on "Oh, Darling!"?
* Who: WHO'S NEXT (1971) -- Classic. The dynamics R amazing, as great in its pure sound as ABBEY ROAD. & did Pete ever write better songs than "Behind Blue Eyes," "Baba O'Riley" & "Won't Get Fooled Again"? (Xcept 4 "I Can See for Miles," I mean....) "Song is Over" is gorgeous & moving, "Bargain"'s pretty ferocious, & "My Wife" & "Going Mobile" R a lotta fun. Wish I could trade "Love Ain't for Keeping" for "Join Together" or "The Relay," tho....
* Gryphon: RED QUEEN TO GRYPHON THREE (1974) & TREASON (1977) -- RED QUEEN is the best all-instrumental rock album ever. "Lament" is a gorgeous life-affirming masterpiece, & the other 3 trax R pretty great 2. TREASON is a kinder, gentler Jethro Tull album. "Spring Song" shoulda made these guys world-famous among art-rock fans.
* Pretenders: (1st) (1980) -- The album that got me thru 1980 alive. Xcept 4 "Brass in Pocket," I love all of it, from the breathy, bittersweet "Kid" & "Stop Your Sobbing" 2 the heavy-guitar melodrama at the Nd of "Lovers of Today" & the sorta abrupt but brilliant "Mystery Achievement." I even love "Space Invaders" -- sorta a "Peter Gunn Theme" 4 the Computer Age....
* Fleetwood Mac: TUSK (1979) -- I can't take RUMOURS all the way thru. & there R parts of this I skip. But the hazy, foggy, edgy production has its own fascination, & I still love the harmonies. & there R some real lost classics here: "I Know I'm Not Wrong," "Sisters of the Moon," "Brown Eyes," "Never Make Me Cry," "Angel," "Beautiful Child," "Never Forget," "That's All for Everyone"....
* Kansas: LEFTOVERTURE (1976) -- Love almost all of this, Xcept 4 mayB "Opus Insert," which is OK as a kinda lite-hearted break, & parts of "Magnum Opus" don't work that well 4 me. But the rest? "Miracles Out of Nowhere" is magnificent. "Questions of My Childhood" shoulda bn a hit. "Cheyenne Anthem" is so cinematic U can C the video in yr head. "What's On My Mind" & "The Wall" R no slouches either. How come these guys couldn't keep going like this?
* Journey: INFINITY (1978) -- A couple dead spots, but the 2nd side is almost perfect (Xcept mayB 4 "La Do Da"), the 1st side has its uses, & the Good Stuff is so freakin great they never topped it. "Feeling That Way/Anytime" is marvelous, "Lights" is relaxed but moving, "Something to Hide" has some nice drama, even "Can Do" works pretty well. Lotsa Xcellent group vocals. I always wished Gregg Rolie woulda sang more....
* Renaissance: LIVE AT CARNEGIE HALL (1976) -- Another live album where U can almost throw 1/2 of it away & not miss it. But these per4mances R SO much more ALIVE than the studio versions of the same songs.... "Ashes Are Burning" is GORGEOUS -- 4 its 1st 3 mins. Almost all the other shorter songs R great, especially "Can You Understand?" & "Running Hard," which both use the backing orchestra 4 color & sweep. Nice vocals, & the band doesn't get buried by the orchestra. Guess I was just a sucker 4 these folks....
* Wings: VENUS AND MARS (1975) -- My fave McCartney album ever; the songs R so melodically strong, even when they get silly: "Medicine Jar," "Rock Show," "Magneto and Titanium Man," "Spirits of Ancient Egypt," "Letting Go," "Call Me Back Again," the 2 versions of the title theme. I even like "Treat Her Gently/Lonely Old People," "You Gave Me the Answer" -- jeez, I even like the "Crossroads Theme." "Listen to What the Man Said" sure got played 2 death tho....
* Queen: A NIGHT AT THE OPERA (1976) -- Some dead spots, but the Good Stuff is REALLY GREAT: "'39," "Death on Two Legs," "The Prophet's Song," "You're My Best Friend," "I'm in Love With My Car," & a little something called "Bohemian Rhapsody" that'll probly NEVER B a hit.... Does NE1 like "Sweet Lady"? & how bout "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon" & "Good Company"? Don't spose this band was a little schizoid, do ya?
* Beatles: WHITE ALBUM (1968) -- Thank Ghod 4 weirdness. I useta play this over&over during highschool, when I hid in my room w/ the headphones clamped over my ears 24/7. Not every track's great, but how bout "Dear Prudence," "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey," "I'm So Tired," "Yer Blues," "I Will," "Birthday," "Cry Baby Cry," "Helter Skelter," & that GREAT Beach Boys hit "Back in the USSR"?
* Moody Blues: A QUESTION OF BALANCE (1970) -- Don't spose U'll let me claim all of the Moodies' 1st 7 albums as 1 item, so I'll go w/ this, which I think is the most consistent of their 1st 7. The peaks R stunning: "Question," the shoulda-bn-hit "It's Up to You," "Minstrel's Song," "Dawning is the Day," "Melancholy Man." & "Don't You Feel Small?" is pretty great 2. But I useta play all the 1st 7 Moodies albums over&over thru highschool -- those albums & Yes's YESSONGS were the 1st "strange music" I listened-2 in NE depth....
* Illusion: OUT OF THE MIST (1977) -- Best Renaissance-style studio album ever. Every track works. Jane Relf's vocals R great, John Knightsbridge's gtr always gets some solo space, & John Hawken's keybs continue the firey work he did 4 the Strawbs. "Everywhere You Go," "Candles are Burning" & "Roads to Freedom" shoulda bn art-rock classics.
* Dan Fogelberg: THE INNOCENT AGE (1981) -- Also road-tested. Pretty heavy on the melodrama -- which I'm a sucker 4. Not all great, & it Dgenerates in2 movie-soundtrack-music by the Nd of the 4th side, but there's some great stuff here, from the gorgeous "Nexus" thru the great fake-drama of "Times Like These." I even like "Hard to Say," & "Same Old Lang Syne," of course. But B4 U laff, U otta hear the title track, "The Reach," "In the Passage," "Stolen Moments," "The Lion's Share"....
* Group 87: (1st) (1980) -- Gorgeous, life-affirming art-rock. "One Night Away From Day" is perfect. "Future of the City" has a great, anthemic Nding. "The Bedouin" is gorgeous & hypnotic. Even some of the more mechanical-sounding stuff does its magic.
* Sky: SKY2 (1980) -- British all-instrumental art-rock band. Speaking of mechanical.... Also incandescent, in places. Like on "Watching the Aeroplanes," "Scipio," "Vivaldi," "Toccata," "Fifo," "Adagio," "Scherzo" & "Hotta" (Xcept 4 the WORST drum solo of all time)....
* Dire Straits: MAKIN MOVIES (1981) & LOVE OVER GOLD (1983) -- LOVE OVER GOLD helped get me thru journalism school in 1 piece, especially the brilliant epic "Telegraph Road" & the beautiful title track. MAKIN MOVIES is overall their best album, w/ great cinematic songs, nice use of keyboards, plenty of room 4 Mark Knopfler's gtr, & lotsa MK's cosmic-love lyrics -- like on "Romeo and Juliet," the gorgeous "Hand in Hand," "Tunnel of Love," "Expresso Love"....
* The Jam: SETTING SONS (1979) -- Angry & bitter new-wave concept album, not lite listening but mostly brilliant, especially "Private Hell," "Little Boy Soldiers," "Thick as Thieves," "Strange Town," "Wasteland," "Smithers-Jones," "Burning Sky," "Saturday's Kids," "Eton Rifles" ... & the worst cover-version of "Heat Wave" U'll never wanna hear again....
* Elton John: GOODBYE YELLOW BRICK ROAD (1973) -- After the crashing "Love Lies Bleeding," who needs the resta the album? Luckily there's other great stuff here 2: "Grey Seal," "The Ballad of Danny Bailey," "All the Young Girls Love Alice," "Your Sister Can't Twist (But She Can Rock and Roll)," the brilliant & underrated "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting," "Roy Rogers," "Harmony," "Candle in the Wind" -- & Elton's greatest song EVER: "Social Disease"! Oh, & there's a few bummers here 2: "Benny and the Jets," "Jamaica Jerk Off"....
* Modern English: AFTER THE SNOW (1983) -- The other album that got me thru journalism school alive. 2nd side's perfect, especially the shoulda-bn-bigger-hit "I Melt With You," the gorgeous & dramatic "Carry Me Down," & the driving momentum of "Tables Turning." After "Someone's Calling," the 1st side kinda drifts down in2 this arty quiet, but it's still intresting....
* Boston: THIRD STAGE (1986) -- More like a concerto or a symphony than a rock album, it all flows 2gether, w/ themes repeated from 1 song 2 another. Still some great stuff if yr a fan, & I'm a sucker 4 the low-key "We're Ready," "My Destination," "Can'tcha Say/Still in Love," & of course "Hollyann."
* Camel: THE SNOW GOOSE (1975) & NUDE (1981) -- Gorgeous mostly instrumental art-rock albums I've played more times than I can count. SNOW GOOSE is probly Camel's classic album: lotsa great keyboard, gtr, flute & wordless vocals. The 1st 6 mins is amazing, & "Flight of the Snow Goose" is pretty great 2. NUDE features more vocals & a Dtailed story, & gorgeous songs like "City Life" & "Drafted" shoulda made them world-famous.
* Cyndi Lauper: SHE'S SO UNUSUAL (1983) -- Almost perfect, from Tom Gray's bitter & brilliant "Money Changes Everything" thru Prince's moving "When You Were Mine," "Time After Time," the driving & hilarious "She Bop" (best whistled middle-break in pop history), the dreamy "All Through the Night" -- I even like the silliness it Dgenerates 2 by the Nd ("I Kiss You," "He's So Unusual," "Yeh Yeh"). The way Cyndi sings "When You Were Mine" is stunning -- making it clear 1nce & 4 all that the things that hurt the most R the hardest things 2 Xpress.
* Happy the Man: CRAFTY HANDS (1978) -- Gorgeous, flowing, melodic mostly-instrumental art-rock. Keybs, sax, flute, gtrs unite 4 a Genesis-like instrumental weave that's as clear & refreshing as a mtn stream. 1 kinda nasal vocal, on the rather mechanical "Wind-Up Doll Day Wind" -- but 1nce this sucker gets wound-up it's amazing. The dramatic, show-offy "Service With a Smile" leads off, passages of pure sonic beauty follow ("Open Book," "Morning Sun," "Steaming Pipes," "Ibby it Is"). Keybsman Kit Watkins later joined Camel. These guys have at least 2 other albums I'd like 2 find....
* Split Enz: WAIATA (1981) -- Marvelous silly goofy new-wave pop, & it never lets up. From the ear-opening side-openers ("Hard Act to Follow," "History Never Repeats" -- why weren't these hits?) thru the great support trax ("Wail," "Clumsy," "Iris"), it's all an amazing display of Xuberance & NRG. & tho it gets spacey in the 2nd 1/2 -- w/ appropriately spacey titles ("Ghost Girl," "Walking Through the Ruins") -- the intrest-level stays high. I even love the gorgeous closing instrumental, "Albert of India"....
* Glass Moon: (1st) (1980) -- Great Genesis-soundalike from Fla., they drama-up Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill" in2 a shoulda-bn hit. The melodramatic "Sundays and Mondays" (w/ a killer thunderstorm-like gtr solo by Jamie Glaser) is the lost classic, but both sides R strong -- "Blue Windows," the silly "Killer at 25," & "I Like the Way You Play" all coulda made it 2 radio....
* King Crimson: THE YOUNG PERSON'S GUIDE TO... (1975) -- U knew they were gonna B in here somewhere, right? Some of the best moments from their 1st 6 yrs R here, but sevral Rn't ("The Great Deceiver," "Fracture," "21st Century Schizoid Man"). 1/2 of COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING is included, + a whole side from RED, practicly everything U'd ever need ("Red" & "Starless"). + great bits & pieces like the hilarious "Cat Food" & the previously unreleased demo of "I Talk to the Wind" (WAY better than the original). Yr friends'd havta B pretty strange 2 like summa this -- my highschool buddy Jeff Mann called most of it "mindfuck music." Wonder if Bob Fripp woulda approved? Still the best $13 I ever spent on an import album (back in 1978).
* Justin Hayward & John Lodge: BLUE JAYS (1975) -- Recorded during the Moodies' "vacation" in the mid-'70s, this is mayB a little heavy on the orchestra in places, but w/ great songs like the cosmic "When You Wake Up," "This Morning," "Saved By the Music," "Remember Me, My Friend," "Who Are You Now?" & a coupla others, U won't care. Most of these woulda improved NE other Moodies album....
* Al Stewart: MODERN TIMES (1975) -- His most consistent album. 1st 1/2's kinda lite, but it's still Quality Al. But the 2nd 1/2's marvelous -- great rollin silliness ("Apple Cider Reconstitution"), marvelous melodrama ("The Dark and Rolling Sea"), & superb lyrics w/ great gtr (title track). YEAR OF THE CAT, TIME PASSAGES & 24 CARROTS R no slouches either, but this is the 1 I play most often.
I've added 1/2adozen new items in the last coupla days, so I'm gonna stop now.
...& now 4 YOUR all-time faves...?
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Blogging saved my life....
Not 2 make 2 big a deal out of it, but 2day marks a yr since I started doing this posting-reviews-on-line stuff. It's still the best Xmas present I've ever had.
My son ADD got me started, cos he wanted 2 set-up a website "from scratch" 4 a college computer-class assignment. He set-up 4 me the late & only-partly lamented TAD's Weird-Ass Music And Books website, I think in an effort 2 get me writing again. I hadn't written much since retiring in 2002 after 20 yrs of Bing a newspaper reporter, & there were times I missed it. & my son & I had always bn able 2 talk about music, & Ghod knows I had enuf opinions about what was Good & what Really Sucked....
1nce he set me up I hardly knew where 2 start. I remember typing quietly in a cold bedroom, trying 2 keep from waking my roommates up by clacking away on my Mom's old computer.
The 1st review I ever posted was of the Hollies' rather arty but at times Xcellent 1972 album ROMANY, followed quickly by Al Stewart's Xcellent MODERN TIMES (1975), the Stories' at-times brilliant ABOUT US (1973), & Gong's strong-in-places SHAMAL (1976). Then I reviewed a coupla books, like Australian SF writer Damien Broderick's TRANSMITTERS (not quite a success), & Roddy Doyle's THE COMMITMENTS (Nds just as it's getting REALLY good).
After that U couldn't stop me. Within 2 wks, by the Nd of last Dec, I had 2-dozen reviews posted. By the middle of Jan '09 I had 3-dozen posted. That's when I started telling people about it & hoping mayB somebody would drop-by, read & mayB comment.
The 1st person I told was NYC Internet-reviewer Mark Prindle, who's website Mark's Record Reviews (at http://www.markprindle.com/) was the 1st place on-line that I ever submitted my own comments -- on the Moody Blues & the Beach Boys -- way back in 1998, when I 1st moved 2 Washington. Cms like 1,000 yrs ago now....
Ghod bless him -- mayB Bcos he remembered my odd writing style, Mark immediately set up a link 2 my site, & I guess folks started visiting then, tho it took a couple mo's til NEbody left a comment. The 1st 1 I remember was some1 saying they kinda liked my writing style. Then some1 else said they were suprised 2 C a review of Wigwam's NUCLEAR NIGHTCLUB....
By then U REALLY couldn't stop me, even if No1 ever visited or left a comment. By Mar of '09 I wasn't just reviewing off-the-wall music & books, I was commenting on people's weird Bhavior, venting about frustrating things happening at my job, going off in2 Xtended nostalgia trips about old music/'70s radio/science fiction/growing up in Idaho/working in a record store/Bing a newspaper reporter, ranting when CNN covered NO NEWS XCEPT 4 Michael Jackson's death (4 nearly 2 wks)....
As of 2day, I've written about 275 posts, near as I can figure. If my old computer hadn't died on me 1/2way thru last Aug, leaving me disconnected 4 2 mo's, I'd B able 2 claim an even higher #. (& my old website "ate" & made-disappear 2 wks' worth of posts at the Nd of last June, 1 of the reasons I'm here now.)
I guess my habit's Bcome 2 post something about every day & 1/2 or so. My record 4 most posts written in 1 day is 6 -- & when the 7th 1 vanished in2 Internet Purgatory, I figured it was time 2 take a break. But I was a lot more driven then. I think mayB I was trying 2 establish what kinda weirdness I was up 2, where I was coming from, what kinda stuff I thot was Good. When I started this, I thot I was a big "prog-rock & weirdness" guy. Now I'm not so sure. I've cer10ly found other music-review sites where folks R in2 WAY stranger weirdness than I am....
My old website's still up, last time I checked. I'm kinda suprised -- it was mostly down 4 the last 2 wks of July & the 1st 10 days of Aug -- another of the reasons I'm writing here now. (There's a link 2 the site located 2 yr right.... If U ever want me 2 C NE new comments about the stuff I wrote there, U probly better leave them here somewhere....)
I still think there R some good things 2 read there, if U overlook the fact that spammers have turned the comments sections in2 giant ads 4 Viagra & such. I still think the reviews of the Beach Boys' SMILE, Kate Bush, Fairport Convention's CHRONICLES, Nick Drake's BRYTER LAYTER, Gryphon, Providence, '70s radio nostalgia, science fiction, the 1st 40 45-rpm singles I can remember buying, the long series of posts about 200+ Great Lost Singles, other great music&book-review blogs&websites, the rant about Michael Jackson & CNN, & mayB a few others R the best things I've written in the past yr.
Of course I think it's ALL Good Stuff, but.... Since my old computer died I no longer have access 2 the site even 2 clean-out all the spam comments, so now the site looks 2 me like this giant vacant lot w/ weeds growing up all over it....
NEway, I just wanted 2 say thanx 4 reading me. This is no longer just music-&-book-reviews 2 me, it's also the way I deal w/ the world. If something weird happens at work, it Nds up here. NEthing that gets that little buzz going in my head & gets me thinking "This might B fun 2 write about..." Nds up here. NEthing the slightest bit "creative" Nds up here, in addition 2 whatever I'm reading or listening-2. Having some creative project, some THING 2 write, something 2 look 4ward 2 ... has done me a world of Good.
Thanx 4 yr comments, which help keep me going. If I can get U folks 2 laff -- or Ghod 4bid check-out summa the stuff I rave about -- that's all I could ever hope 4.
If U have NE suggestions about music or books U'd like me 2 review, bring 'em on -- just keep in mind I've got a pile of music & books here I haven't got10 2 yet, a long list of stuff I'd LIKE 2 write-up (in case I 4get), & some reviews I've promised people in the past & never got10 2 (like It's A Beautiful Day's 1st 2 albums, promised MO's ago). But still, if there's something great (or even REALLY TERRIBLE) out there U think I otta try, bring it on -- & thanks 4 yr previous suggestions, Rastro: I'm WAY overdue 2 check-out Brian Eno at least....
...& if U'd mayB just like me 2 write in something a little closer 2 Real English more often, let me tell ya: I tripped over a website recently (SF writer Cory Doctorow's VERY popular BOING BOING blog), & in the comments section 4 1 news-item I found 2 folks who DON'T USE VOWELS when they leave comments -- all their stuff was written ONLY IN CONSONANTS. & it was a BITCH 2 read! It was like trying 2 read ALIEN WRITING! So mayB now I know how U feel sometimes. & mayB I'll back-off just a touch on the shorthanding....
But don't count on it. Thanx 4 reading. & I'm gonna keep at it. It's 2 late 2 stop now....
COMING SOON: Reviews of James Blish's THE ISSUE AT HAND & MORE ISSUES AT HAND, Jonathon Green's DAYS IN THE LIFE: VOICES FROM THE ENGLISH UNDERGROUND 1961-1971, Julie Burchill & Tony Parsons' THE BOY LOOKED AT JOHNNY, Jesse Sublett's ROCK CRITIC MURDERS, Kingsley Amis's NEW MAPS OF HELL, Ian McDonald's CHAGA, It's A Beautiful Day's 1st 2 albums, middle-period Genesis, Clannad, the Outlaws' GHOST RIDERS, Spirit, Charles Platt's DREAM MAKERS books of SF-author interviews, THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SF, THE SALON.COM GUIDE TO CONTEMPORARY AUTHORS, THE PENGUIN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR MUSIC, the softer side of loud bands, Kansas, Dave Marsh's BEFORE I GET OLD, early Journey, Byron Preiss's THE BEACH BOYS, road trips, Newspaper Xperiences, Air Force Xperiences, & LOTS more.... -- TAD.
My son ADD got me started, cos he wanted 2 set-up a website "from scratch" 4 a college computer-class assignment. He set-up 4 me the late & only-partly lamented TAD's Weird-Ass Music And Books website, I think in an effort 2 get me writing again. I hadn't written much since retiring in 2002 after 20 yrs of Bing a newspaper reporter, & there were times I missed it. & my son & I had always bn able 2 talk about music, & Ghod knows I had enuf opinions about what was Good & what Really Sucked....
1nce he set me up I hardly knew where 2 start. I remember typing quietly in a cold bedroom, trying 2 keep from waking my roommates up by clacking away on my Mom's old computer.
The 1st review I ever posted was of the Hollies' rather arty but at times Xcellent 1972 album ROMANY, followed quickly by Al Stewart's Xcellent MODERN TIMES (1975), the Stories' at-times brilliant ABOUT US (1973), & Gong's strong-in-places SHAMAL (1976). Then I reviewed a coupla books, like Australian SF writer Damien Broderick's TRANSMITTERS (not quite a success), & Roddy Doyle's THE COMMITMENTS (Nds just as it's getting REALLY good).
After that U couldn't stop me. Within 2 wks, by the Nd of last Dec, I had 2-dozen reviews posted. By the middle of Jan '09 I had 3-dozen posted. That's when I started telling people about it & hoping mayB somebody would drop-by, read & mayB comment.
The 1st person I told was NYC Internet-reviewer Mark Prindle, who's website Mark's Record Reviews (at http://www.markprindle.com/) was the 1st place on-line that I ever submitted my own comments -- on the Moody Blues & the Beach Boys -- way back in 1998, when I 1st moved 2 Washington. Cms like 1,000 yrs ago now....
Ghod bless him -- mayB Bcos he remembered my odd writing style, Mark immediately set up a link 2 my site, & I guess folks started visiting then, tho it took a couple mo's til NEbody left a comment. The 1st 1 I remember was some1 saying they kinda liked my writing style. Then some1 else said they were suprised 2 C a review of Wigwam's NUCLEAR NIGHTCLUB....
By then U REALLY couldn't stop me, even if No1 ever visited or left a comment. By Mar of '09 I wasn't just reviewing off-the-wall music & books, I was commenting on people's weird Bhavior, venting about frustrating things happening at my job, going off in2 Xtended nostalgia trips about old music/'70s radio/science fiction/growing up in Idaho/working in a record store/Bing a newspaper reporter, ranting when CNN covered NO NEWS XCEPT 4 Michael Jackson's death (4 nearly 2 wks)....
As of 2day, I've written about 275 posts, near as I can figure. If my old computer hadn't died on me 1/2way thru last Aug, leaving me disconnected 4 2 mo's, I'd B able 2 claim an even higher #. (& my old website "ate" & made-disappear 2 wks' worth of posts at the Nd of last June, 1 of the reasons I'm here now.)
I guess my habit's Bcome 2 post something about every day & 1/2 or so. My record 4 most posts written in 1 day is 6 -- & when the 7th 1 vanished in2 Internet Purgatory, I figured it was time 2 take a break. But I was a lot more driven then. I think mayB I was trying 2 establish what kinda weirdness I was up 2, where I was coming from, what kinda stuff I thot was Good. When I started this, I thot I was a big "prog-rock & weirdness" guy. Now I'm not so sure. I've cer10ly found other music-review sites where folks R in2 WAY stranger weirdness than I am....
My old website's still up, last time I checked. I'm kinda suprised -- it was mostly down 4 the last 2 wks of July & the 1st 10 days of Aug -- another of the reasons I'm writing here now. (There's a link 2 the site located 2 yr right.... If U ever want me 2 C NE new comments about the stuff I wrote there, U probly better leave them here somewhere....)
I still think there R some good things 2 read there, if U overlook the fact that spammers have turned the comments sections in2 giant ads 4 Viagra & such. I still think the reviews of the Beach Boys' SMILE, Kate Bush, Fairport Convention's CHRONICLES, Nick Drake's BRYTER LAYTER, Gryphon, Providence, '70s radio nostalgia, science fiction, the 1st 40 45-rpm singles I can remember buying, the long series of posts about 200+ Great Lost Singles, other great music&book-review blogs&websites, the rant about Michael Jackson & CNN, & mayB a few others R the best things I've written in the past yr.
Of course I think it's ALL Good Stuff, but.... Since my old computer died I no longer have access 2 the site even 2 clean-out all the spam comments, so now the site looks 2 me like this giant vacant lot w/ weeds growing up all over it....
NEway, I just wanted 2 say thanx 4 reading me. This is no longer just music-&-book-reviews 2 me, it's also the way I deal w/ the world. If something weird happens at work, it Nds up here. NEthing that gets that little buzz going in my head & gets me thinking "This might B fun 2 write about..." Nds up here. NEthing the slightest bit "creative" Nds up here, in addition 2 whatever I'm reading or listening-2. Having some creative project, some THING 2 write, something 2 look 4ward 2 ... has done me a world of Good.
Thanx 4 yr comments, which help keep me going. If I can get U folks 2 laff -- or Ghod 4bid check-out summa the stuff I rave about -- that's all I could ever hope 4.
If U have NE suggestions about music or books U'd like me 2 review, bring 'em on -- just keep in mind I've got a pile of music & books here I haven't got10 2 yet, a long list of stuff I'd LIKE 2 write-up (in case I 4get), & some reviews I've promised people in the past & never got10 2 (like It's A Beautiful Day's 1st 2 albums, promised MO's ago). But still, if there's something great (or even REALLY TERRIBLE) out there U think I otta try, bring it on -- & thanks 4 yr previous suggestions, Rastro: I'm WAY overdue 2 check-out Brian Eno at least....
...& if U'd mayB just like me 2 write in something a little closer 2 Real English more often, let me tell ya: I tripped over a website recently (SF writer Cory Doctorow's VERY popular BOING BOING blog), & in the comments section 4 1 news-item I found 2 folks who DON'T USE VOWELS when they leave comments -- all their stuff was written ONLY IN CONSONANTS. & it was a BITCH 2 read! It was like trying 2 read ALIEN WRITING! So mayB now I know how U feel sometimes. & mayB I'll back-off just a touch on the shorthanding....
But don't count on it. Thanx 4 reading. & I'm gonna keep at it. It's 2 late 2 stop now....
COMING SOON: Reviews of James Blish's THE ISSUE AT HAND & MORE ISSUES AT HAND, Jonathon Green's DAYS IN THE LIFE: VOICES FROM THE ENGLISH UNDERGROUND 1961-1971, Julie Burchill & Tony Parsons' THE BOY LOOKED AT JOHNNY, Jesse Sublett's ROCK CRITIC MURDERS, Kingsley Amis's NEW MAPS OF HELL, Ian McDonald's CHAGA, It's A Beautiful Day's 1st 2 albums, middle-period Genesis, Clannad, the Outlaws' GHOST RIDERS, Spirit, Charles Platt's DREAM MAKERS books of SF-author interviews, THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SF, THE SALON.COM GUIDE TO CONTEMPORARY AUTHORS, THE PENGUIN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR MUSIC, the softer side of loud bands, Kansas, Dave Marsh's BEFORE I GET OLD, early Journey, Byron Preiss's THE BEACH BOYS, road trips, Newspaper Xperiences, Air Force Xperiences, & LOTS more.... -- TAD.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
A really rude habit....
A coupla days back, drewzepmeister at http://drewsoddsandsods.blogspot.com/ posted a pic & some background Dtails about his music collection -- what's in it, how he got started, etc., & it set off a lot of memries 4 me -- which is 2 bad, cos I've bn collecting music & books since at least age 12. But I think I already had the 1st stages of the incurable disease even B4 that.
4 me, 1 of the manifestations of that disease is the Mbarrassing & rude habit I needta confess 2 right now, if U'll 4give me:
NEtime I'm ever invited in2 some1's home, I ALWAYS take a long look at their music & book collection. ALWAYS. Sometimes B4 I'm even done shaking hands & saying Hi or thru making polite conversation about the living room's decor. Even w/ total strangers, I immediately drift 2 the bookshelf or record/CD cabinet.
It's rude as hell, I know. I still think U can make quick, sweeping (probably mistaken) Judgements about people based on what they read & listen-2. & this is important in the process of getting 2 know some1 & Dciding if U wanna hang out.
Every time I've ever asked a woman out, sooner or later we've GOT 2 talk about music & books -- & if she dodges the subject, it's unlikely NEthing more is ever gonna happen Xcept 4 a cuppa coffee.
What I wanna know, as I'm confessing my hidden shame here, is whether NE1 else is like this...?
The roots of this problem go a LONG way back, probly at least 2 my impressionable & 4mative pre-teen yrs.... When I was 12, my next-door neighbor Mike Page had what was then the biggest record collection I'd ever Cn, mainly filled by singers & bands I'd never heard of B4-- Black Sabbath? Grand Funk Railroad? Led Zeppelin? The Animals? Jimi Hendrix? Buddy Miles? Vanilla Fudge? Blue Cheer? Who were these people?
Mike also had 100's of 45's, some of which he Bqueathed 2 me, Ghod bless him -- insidiously furthering my disease....
Around this period I started buying my own 45's & albums, which led 2 the mountains of vinyl I C around me 2day.... It took me another coupla yrs 2 start buying books, a disease which progressed 2 the point where at 1 time I had WAY more books than clothes, furniture, kitchen items, etc....
The disease continued in2 highschool. By then I'd 4med what I thot was a Dcent start 2 an album collection, & I knew my tastes were ... a bit off from "normal." Then I met some1 who's musical tastes were WAY farther out: My old highschool buddy Don Vincent made my definition of "weird" look old-fashioned. Don useta buy albums based on how weird their covers looked -- the farther-out & spacier, the better, & he was very seldom wrong. He was the 1st 2 try stuff I still listen-2 today: Gryphon, David Sancious, Charlie Dore, Pat Metheny, Amazing Blondel, Keith Jarrett.... Don & I also progressed in2 insidious "Stump The Band" contests, in which 1 or the other of us would put-on R latest off-the-wall purchase & defy the other 2 guess just from the music who or what this new item was....
Speaking of sweeping judgements, R old highschool friend Jeff Mann was probly the 1st victim of R sweeping judgements about how much U can tell about a person based on their listening habits. A foaming-at-the-mouth Beatles fan, after highschool Jeff went thru a phase where he bot EVERYTHING that was considered LOUD & TRENDY by his chosen hard-drinking hard-living peer-group: AC/DC, REO Speedwagon, Journey, Boston, the Cars, Molly Hatchet, Ted Nugent, Meat Loaf.... 4 all the albums Jeff bot & loved, there were never NE that were even mildly suprising -- & Don & I gave him hell 4 it. 4 while we were busy copying each others' musical tastes, we would NEVER buy NETHING that was predictable or cliched ... haha: 1/2 of what Jeff listened-2 back in those days I now put on regularly....
When women came along, my addiction mutated slightly. NE woman who knew me was gonna havta put up w/ the weird music & the odd books. My highschool sweetheart (who, 2 protect her identity, we're going 2 call, oh ... Allison) would have none of this -- she thot 95% of all current music & books back THEN were crap, that only The Classics would survive, & that AT LEAST 99% of everything I read, listened-2 & loved was crap -- & she would say so at length, at every opportunity. NE suprise that I loved her? Also no suprise that it didn't last long....
The next girlfriend (who 4 fictional purposes we're going 2 call Tina), a borderline-psycho redhead, had no music or book collection, didn't remember names of songs or books or musicians or writers. This should have bn a warning 2 me. Tho she adopted summa my faves & put up w/ my odd tastes, she had no real intrests of her own.... No suprise that this relationship didn't last long either (tho it dragged on 2wice as long as Allison ... hmmm).
The X-wife (who I've previously ID'd here as Cyndi, so there's no point changing her name now) was a little more devious -- this is the woman who "let" me "teach" her how 2 play cribbage right after we met, let me win the 1st game, then won the next 13 in a row B4 I gave up. THEN she told me she'd bn playing cribbage 4 years. Pretty smart, eh?
We put up w/ each other's diverse musical tastes pretty well, as long as we didn't inflict 2 much outrageousness on each other. Early in R marriage, while driving around San Antonio, we got in2 a HUGE argument cos I wanted 2 skip over the bad parts of a Pat Benatar album (almost all of it) while Cyndi wanted 2 sing along w/ the whole thing. By the time we got home we were both so mad we stormed off in diffrent directions.... & yet this marriage dragged on 4 17 yrs....
My most recent girlfriend (who 4 fictional purposes we'll call Mary) is not only a BIG Pink Floyd fan, she also Njoys summa my fave weirdnesses (Nick Drake, some Caravan) -- & she can 1-up me. W/ all my supposedly vast musical knowledge, I'd never heard Rod Stewart's gorgeous & moving "Handbags and Gladrags" until Mary pointed it out 2 me.
There've bn other acquaintances who've tried 2 get thru the all-Cing, all-knowing, all-revealing net of listening & reading habits. 1 woman I knew had a book collection that ran from fluffy historical romances 2 huge, dry tomes on current politics (that she never read), & a music collection that ran from straight country (Is there such a thing as gay country? Wait, don't answer that) 2 heavy-metal. Shoulda bn no suprise that she was a little ... scattered, self-contradictory.
Others have dodged the musical-taste question, 1 woman saying when asked what she liked 2 listen-2 that "I'm an eclectic." When's the last time U heard THAT word dropped in normal conversation? (The only time I've ever heard it used other than in a piece of rock criticism was in the lyric 4 The Cars' "Hello Again.") It's not like I was asking just so I'd have a chance 2 say "Oh, so THAT'S what YOU like?"
Now, judging by his collection (it took a long time 2 get 2 it, but here goes), I can assume that Drew is a simple, no-frills, down-2-Earth rocker, who takes no BS (Deep Purple, Nazareth, Foghat, Skynyrd, Iron Maiden, Montrose, Who), but who's mayB a little bit open 2 The Cosmic (Yes's TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS, Mahavishnu's BIRDS OF FIRE), & sometimes just likes 2 have a simple, relaxed Good Time (Beatles' 2ND ALBUM).
Now, what I wanna know is, does NE1 else do this kinda amateur psychology based on what they find on a friend's book or music shelf? Or am I alone in my sweeping thoughtless condemnations of other people's lives...? (That's what this lifelong addiction does 2 U!)
However it turns out, thanx 2 Drew 4 opening up his collection 2 perusal of this sort ... & I think I might B on2 a new "science" of charting personality traits & predicting life choices that's at least as reliable as ... oh, astrology, Tarot-card reading.... Course I don't wanna THINK about what it sez about ME....
4 me, 1 of the manifestations of that disease is the Mbarrassing & rude habit I needta confess 2 right now, if U'll 4give me:
NEtime I'm ever invited in2 some1's home, I ALWAYS take a long look at their music & book collection. ALWAYS. Sometimes B4 I'm even done shaking hands & saying Hi or thru making polite conversation about the living room's decor. Even w/ total strangers, I immediately drift 2 the bookshelf or record/CD cabinet.
It's rude as hell, I know. I still think U can make quick, sweeping (probably mistaken) Judgements about people based on what they read & listen-2. & this is important in the process of getting 2 know some1 & Dciding if U wanna hang out.
Every time I've ever asked a woman out, sooner or later we've GOT 2 talk about music & books -- & if she dodges the subject, it's unlikely NEthing more is ever gonna happen Xcept 4 a cuppa coffee.
What I wanna know, as I'm confessing my hidden shame here, is whether NE1 else is like this...?
The roots of this problem go a LONG way back, probly at least 2 my impressionable & 4mative pre-teen yrs.... When I was 12, my next-door neighbor Mike Page had what was then the biggest record collection I'd ever Cn, mainly filled by singers & bands I'd never heard of B4-- Black Sabbath? Grand Funk Railroad? Led Zeppelin? The Animals? Jimi Hendrix? Buddy Miles? Vanilla Fudge? Blue Cheer? Who were these people?
Mike also had 100's of 45's, some of which he Bqueathed 2 me, Ghod bless him -- insidiously furthering my disease....
Around this period I started buying my own 45's & albums, which led 2 the mountains of vinyl I C around me 2day.... It took me another coupla yrs 2 start buying books, a disease which progressed 2 the point where at 1 time I had WAY more books than clothes, furniture, kitchen items, etc....
The disease continued in2 highschool. By then I'd 4med what I thot was a Dcent start 2 an album collection, & I knew my tastes were ... a bit off from "normal." Then I met some1 who's musical tastes were WAY farther out: My old highschool buddy Don Vincent made my definition of "weird" look old-fashioned. Don useta buy albums based on how weird their covers looked -- the farther-out & spacier, the better, & he was very seldom wrong. He was the 1st 2 try stuff I still listen-2 today: Gryphon, David Sancious, Charlie Dore, Pat Metheny, Amazing Blondel, Keith Jarrett.... Don & I also progressed in2 insidious "Stump The Band" contests, in which 1 or the other of us would put-on R latest off-the-wall purchase & defy the other 2 guess just from the music who or what this new item was....
Speaking of sweeping judgements, R old highschool friend Jeff Mann was probly the 1st victim of R sweeping judgements about how much U can tell about a person based on their listening habits. A foaming-at-the-mouth Beatles fan, after highschool Jeff went thru a phase where he bot EVERYTHING that was considered LOUD & TRENDY by his chosen hard-drinking hard-living peer-group: AC/DC, REO Speedwagon, Journey, Boston, the Cars, Molly Hatchet, Ted Nugent, Meat Loaf.... 4 all the albums Jeff bot & loved, there were never NE that were even mildly suprising -- & Don & I gave him hell 4 it. 4 while we were busy copying each others' musical tastes, we would NEVER buy NETHING that was predictable or cliched ... haha: 1/2 of what Jeff listened-2 back in those days I now put on regularly....
When women came along, my addiction mutated slightly. NE woman who knew me was gonna havta put up w/ the weird music & the odd books. My highschool sweetheart (who, 2 protect her identity, we're going 2 call, oh ... Allison) would have none of this -- she thot 95% of all current music & books back THEN were crap, that only The Classics would survive, & that AT LEAST 99% of everything I read, listened-2 & loved was crap -- & she would say so at length, at every opportunity. NE suprise that I loved her? Also no suprise that it didn't last long....
The next girlfriend (who 4 fictional purposes we're going 2 call Tina), a borderline-psycho redhead, had no music or book collection, didn't remember names of songs or books or musicians or writers. This should have bn a warning 2 me. Tho she adopted summa my faves & put up w/ my odd tastes, she had no real intrests of her own.... No suprise that this relationship didn't last long either (tho it dragged on 2wice as long as Allison ... hmmm).
The X-wife (who I've previously ID'd here as Cyndi, so there's no point changing her name now) was a little more devious -- this is the woman who "let" me "teach" her how 2 play cribbage right after we met, let me win the 1st game, then won the next 13 in a row B4 I gave up. THEN she told me she'd bn playing cribbage 4 years. Pretty smart, eh?
We put up w/ each other's diverse musical tastes pretty well, as long as we didn't inflict 2 much outrageousness on each other. Early in R marriage, while driving around San Antonio, we got in2 a HUGE argument cos I wanted 2 skip over the bad parts of a Pat Benatar album (almost all of it) while Cyndi wanted 2 sing along w/ the whole thing. By the time we got home we were both so mad we stormed off in diffrent directions.... & yet this marriage dragged on 4 17 yrs....
My most recent girlfriend (who 4 fictional purposes we'll call Mary) is not only a BIG Pink Floyd fan, she also Njoys summa my fave weirdnesses (Nick Drake, some Caravan) -- & she can 1-up me. W/ all my supposedly vast musical knowledge, I'd never heard Rod Stewart's gorgeous & moving "Handbags and Gladrags" until Mary pointed it out 2 me.
There've bn other acquaintances who've tried 2 get thru the all-Cing, all-knowing, all-revealing net of listening & reading habits. 1 woman I knew had a book collection that ran from fluffy historical romances 2 huge, dry tomes on current politics (that she never read), & a music collection that ran from straight country (Is there such a thing as gay country? Wait, don't answer that) 2 heavy-metal. Shoulda bn no suprise that she was a little ... scattered, self-contradictory.
Others have dodged the musical-taste question, 1 woman saying when asked what she liked 2 listen-2 that "I'm an eclectic." When's the last time U heard THAT word dropped in normal conversation? (The only time I've ever heard it used other than in a piece of rock criticism was in the lyric 4 The Cars' "Hello Again.") It's not like I was asking just so I'd have a chance 2 say "Oh, so THAT'S what YOU like?"
Now, judging by his collection (it took a long time 2 get 2 it, but here goes), I can assume that Drew is a simple, no-frills, down-2-Earth rocker, who takes no BS (Deep Purple, Nazareth, Foghat, Skynyrd, Iron Maiden, Montrose, Who), but who's mayB a little bit open 2 The Cosmic (Yes's TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS, Mahavishnu's BIRDS OF FIRE), & sometimes just likes 2 have a simple, relaxed Good Time (Beatles' 2ND ALBUM).
Now, what I wanna know is, does NE1 else do this kinda amateur psychology based on what they find on a friend's book or music shelf? Or am I alone in my sweeping thoughtless condemnations of other people's lives...? (That's what this lifelong addiction does 2 U!)
However it turns out, thanx 2 Drew 4 opening up his collection 2 perusal of this sort ... & I think I might B on2 a new "science" of charting personality traits & predicting life choices that's at least as reliable as ... oh, astrology, Tarot-card reading.... Course I don't wanna THINK about what it sez about ME....
Friday, December 11, 2009
Tracking down Olde Favorites
Summa this stuff goes back a yr or more, but whattheheck -- thanx 2 a coupla really good 2nd-hand stores in the area, the folks at Amazon.com, & a few others, I've managed 2 track down at pretty cheap prices a few Olde Favorites of mine, + a couple fairly recent items other folks have raved about.
I've written here B4 about how I sometimes think my musical nostalgia should B left in the past -- about disappointing Xperiences I've had tripping-over stuff I hadn't heard in 30+ yrs (Lobo's "California Kid and Remo," Donovan's "Life Goes On," Tim Moore's "Second Avenue," Five-Man Electrical Band's "Julianna"), stuff I'd treasured when I was younger that I can hardly stand 2 hear now, that make me wonder what I heard in them 2 Bgin w/. Well, this go-round turned out a little better. A few Xamples:
* Doobie Brothers: "Neal's Fandango" (1975, from STAMPEDE) -- Yeezus, why wasn't this a HIT? GREAT rolling rocker, w/ Xcellent Pat Simmons guitar, great group vocals, good nostalgic lyrics that'R nevertheless outta the way FAST, high NRG, everything U'd ever want -- Xcept a good Nding. It slams in2 a brick wall after 3-1/4 mins! Why? It coulda gone on 4 another 3 or more & I wouldn'ta cared. They coulda at least faded it out.... Or attached Jeff Baxter's pretty solo-acoustic "Precis" 2 the Nd.... Elsewhere on STAMPEDE, "I Cheat the Hangman" goes the 6 mins that "Fandango" shoulda, & tries 2 achieve a sorta cinematic drama ... & doesn't reach it. 1st 1/2's pretty good, tho....
* Synergy: "Warriors" (1975, from ELECTRONIC REALIZATIONS FOR ROCK ORCHESTRA) -- A lotta synthesizer music doesn't work 4 me, sounds 2 cold. But no matter how cold he gets (& this is pretty distant), I've always liked mosta Larry Fast's mid-'70s synth adventures (SEQUENCER is 3/4's great, only CORDS Cms 2 artificial). This is gorgeous, mournful, distant, haunting -- & it drags on 4 a marvelous 13 mins!
* The Wackers: "I Hardly Know Her Name" (1972, from HOT WACKS) -- Had this on tape 4 yrs, taped by a friend of mine back in '77. Still sounds great -- catchy, great vocals, good gtr, but it's over in less than 2 mins -- WAY 2 soon. Resta the album isn't as immediately grabby, so far....
+ Chris Hodge: "We're On Our Way" (1972) -- This just makes me shake my head & laff in disBlief. This sounds JUST LIKE Marc Bolan/T. Rex! I don't know a thing about Chris Hodge; this single was a 1-shot on Apple Records that I heard mayB 1/2adozen times on Tacoma, Wash.'s KTAC AM in the summer of '72, then it vanished. Silly lyrics mixing sex & space travel, nice supersonic gtr, w/ some Indian/sitar accents that wouldn't suprise me if they indicate George Harrison was lurking in the background somewhere. Hodge's silly "Oooh! Ah!" vocalisms predate Lindsey Buckingham by 5 yrs. Produced by Tony Cox -- common name, but could it B the same Tony Cox that produced the 1st Yes album & some early Caravan stuff? Cool & silly, but it's gonna take me a couple more listenings....
+ Casey Kelly: "Poor Boy" (1971) -- I've never 4got10 the gtr riff that opens this (& mosta the words), Dspite not having heard this since '71. Still catchy & effective, thanx partly 2 Jackson Browne's pals Russ Kunkel, Craig Doerge & Leland Sklar as the backing band, but Kelly's gtr work's pretty great. Not sure about the resta the self-titled album this comes from -- some of it's kinda dated spacey-hippie-folky stuff. (& is his long-4got10 2nd single on here? I don't even remember the NAME of it....) The cover must notta helped sell 2 many records either -- on it, Kelly Cms 2 B sorta fading in2 the background as he strums his acoustic & a woman who looks sorta like an older Linda Ronstadt looks on from the side. But the back cover -- a close-up of Kelly's face -- is worse (nothing personal). The whole package screams '71 Hippie. No wonder the album didn't fly off the shelves...
& a coupla new 1's:
Animal Collective: MERRIWEATHER POST PAVILLION (2009) -- There's a new wave in book reviewing in which, if a book doesn't work 4 U, it's assumed the problem is U, not the book. Blame the victim? Here, I'm sure it's me. I've tried this sevral times, & I can't make it work 4 me. Kinda nice group vocals w/ electronic keybs in a loud sorta wash. But it just Cms kinda 4mless, w/ even less melodic progress & change than some of Coldplay's stuff. I'd had some hopes 4 this, since the idea of Beach Boys harmonies crossed w/ electronics sounded pretty good 2 me....
Television Personalities: MY DARK PLACES (2007) -- Guess I wasn't ready 4 the stark simplicity of this, the almost-nursery-rhyme level that Dan Treacy & friends work at. I haven't given up yet, but.... MayB if I'd bn thru some of the things Treacy has (jail time, homelessness, nervous breakdown) I'd wanna keep things simple 2. But I thot he'd address summa these things more directly.... I've read that this useta B a pop band. I'm still reminded of Syd Barrett....
I've written here B4 about how I sometimes think my musical nostalgia should B left in the past -- about disappointing Xperiences I've had tripping-over stuff I hadn't heard in 30+ yrs (Lobo's "California Kid and Remo," Donovan's "Life Goes On," Tim Moore's "Second Avenue," Five-Man Electrical Band's "Julianna"), stuff I'd treasured when I was younger that I can hardly stand 2 hear now, that make me wonder what I heard in them 2 Bgin w/. Well, this go-round turned out a little better. A few Xamples:
* Doobie Brothers: "Neal's Fandango" (1975, from STAMPEDE) -- Yeezus, why wasn't this a HIT? GREAT rolling rocker, w/ Xcellent Pat Simmons guitar, great group vocals, good nostalgic lyrics that'R nevertheless outta the way FAST, high NRG, everything U'd ever want -- Xcept a good Nding. It slams in2 a brick wall after 3-1/4 mins! Why? It coulda gone on 4 another 3 or more & I wouldn'ta cared. They coulda at least faded it out.... Or attached Jeff Baxter's pretty solo-acoustic "Precis" 2 the Nd.... Elsewhere on STAMPEDE, "I Cheat the Hangman" goes the 6 mins that "Fandango" shoulda, & tries 2 achieve a sorta cinematic drama ... & doesn't reach it. 1st 1/2's pretty good, tho....
* Synergy: "Warriors" (1975, from ELECTRONIC REALIZATIONS FOR ROCK ORCHESTRA) -- A lotta synthesizer music doesn't work 4 me, sounds 2 cold. But no matter how cold he gets (& this is pretty distant), I've always liked mosta Larry Fast's mid-'70s synth adventures (SEQUENCER is 3/4's great, only CORDS Cms 2 artificial). This is gorgeous, mournful, distant, haunting -- & it drags on 4 a marvelous 13 mins!
* The Wackers: "I Hardly Know Her Name" (1972, from HOT WACKS) -- Had this on tape 4 yrs, taped by a friend of mine back in '77. Still sounds great -- catchy, great vocals, good gtr, but it's over in less than 2 mins -- WAY 2 soon. Resta the album isn't as immediately grabby, so far....
+ Chris Hodge: "We're On Our Way" (1972) -- This just makes me shake my head & laff in disBlief. This sounds JUST LIKE Marc Bolan/T. Rex! I don't know a thing about Chris Hodge; this single was a 1-shot on Apple Records that I heard mayB 1/2adozen times on Tacoma, Wash.'s KTAC AM in the summer of '72, then it vanished. Silly lyrics mixing sex & space travel, nice supersonic gtr, w/ some Indian/sitar accents that wouldn't suprise me if they indicate George Harrison was lurking in the background somewhere. Hodge's silly "Oooh! Ah!" vocalisms predate Lindsey Buckingham by 5 yrs. Produced by Tony Cox -- common name, but could it B the same Tony Cox that produced the 1st Yes album & some early Caravan stuff? Cool & silly, but it's gonna take me a couple more listenings....
+ Casey Kelly: "Poor Boy" (1971) -- I've never 4got10 the gtr riff that opens this (& mosta the words), Dspite not having heard this since '71. Still catchy & effective, thanx partly 2 Jackson Browne's pals Russ Kunkel, Craig Doerge & Leland Sklar as the backing band, but Kelly's gtr work's pretty great. Not sure about the resta the self-titled album this comes from -- some of it's kinda dated spacey-hippie-folky stuff. (& is his long-4got10 2nd single on here? I don't even remember the NAME of it....) The cover must notta helped sell 2 many records either -- on it, Kelly Cms 2 B sorta fading in2 the background as he strums his acoustic & a woman who looks sorta like an older Linda Ronstadt looks on from the side. But the back cover -- a close-up of Kelly's face -- is worse (nothing personal). The whole package screams '71 Hippie. No wonder the album didn't fly off the shelves...
& a coupla new 1's:
Animal Collective: MERRIWEATHER POST PAVILLION (2009) -- There's a new wave in book reviewing in which, if a book doesn't work 4 U, it's assumed the problem is U, not the book. Blame the victim? Here, I'm sure it's me. I've tried this sevral times, & I can't make it work 4 me. Kinda nice group vocals w/ electronic keybs in a loud sorta wash. But it just Cms kinda 4mless, w/ even less melodic progress & change than some of Coldplay's stuff. I'd had some hopes 4 this, since the idea of Beach Boys harmonies crossed w/ electronics sounded pretty good 2 me....
Television Personalities: MY DARK PLACES (2007) -- Guess I wasn't ready 4 the stark simplicity of this, the almost-nursery-rhyme level that Dan Treacy & friends work at. I haven't given up yet, but.... MayB if I'd bn thru some of the things Treacy has (jail time, homelessness, nervous breakdown) I'd wanna keep things simple 2. But I thot he'd address summa these things more directly.... I've read that this useta B a pop band. I'm still reminded of Syd Barrett....
In search of Damon Knight
Damon Knight was -- along w/ James Blish & Algis Budrys -- 1 of the best book critics that science fiction ever had.
IN SEARCH OF WONDER is a long collection of cutting, hilarious SF book reviews from the late '50s & early '60s, almost worth reading just 4 the many samples of atrociously bad writing that Knight quotes from.
Cms there was a LOT of Really Bad Writing in SF back then, & Knight had no trouble poking fun at it -- he referred 2 this fun-poking as 1 of the tools he used 2 take apart a story & C what makes it tick. Bad stories fall 2 pieces. Really good stories sometimes defy all attempts 2 take them apart.
I 1st read this book at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey back in the summer of 1991, while waiting around 4 my daughter 2 B born (the same place I finally read Robert Silverberg's brilliant-but-overlooked SF novel THE MAN IN THE MAZE), so I didn't remember much of it & was looking 4ward 2 a re-read. If U're a fan of late-'50s/early-'60s SF, or a reader of NE of the writers from SF's "Golden Age," I think U'll Njoy this book very much.
All SF's Big Names from those days R here: Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury, Frederik Pohl (still writing -- & blogging! -- at age 90), Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Robert Sheckley, Cyril M. Kornbluth, Philip K. Dick, Theodore Sturgeon, Alfred Bester, Jack Vance, Edgar Pangborn, Henry Kuttner & C.L. Moore, Richard Matheson, L. Ron Hubbard (wait, how'd HE get in here?), Blish, Budrys, & more, lots more. There R also many names that R now nearly 4got10, even 2 longtime SF fans. & some Knight points out that DESERVE 2 B 4got10.
If Blish's criticism leaned more toward the scholarly & kinda dry, & Budrys' work had more of a down-home, modest, just-plain-folks kinda feel until he went 4 the jugular, Knight was somewhere in-Btween: There R some writers he just plain raves about (Sturgeon, Heinlein, some Asimov, some Clarke) but can always tell U why -- & others he can take apart in Ndless, hilarious Dtail. He Cms 2 have much more fun with Really Bad Writing, done by a class of writers he calls "Chuckleheads." There R a lot of them pointed-out in this book.
I coulda done w/o the 10 pgs of cheerleading 4 the early work of Bob Heinlein -- 1 of the 2 or 3 guys listed above w/o whom modern SF would never have happened, but whose early work now Cms even more of a conservative, strait-laced, steel-jawed all-American cliche than John Wayne.... Wonder how dismayed Knight was 2 C what Heinlein did in the '60s & '70s, when RAH took all the rules he ever learned about commercial writing & threw them out the window (Xcept 4 THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS, which is a GREAT novel).
NEway, Knight makes up 4 his worship of Heinlein by dismantling an apparently hideous, nonsensical novel (THE WORLD OF NULL-A) by the now-almost-4got10 A.E. van Vogt. This chapter is hilarious at 1st, then Xhausting in its Ndless citations of botched, illogical writing -- which was nevertheless very popular among SF fans back in the '40s.
It's also intresting that Knight almost worships Asimov -- Xcept 4 Dr. A's FOUNDATION series, which Asimov went on 2 spend much of the later yrs of his life writing sequels 2.
But Knight's choice 4 best-rounded SF novelist up til 1960 is Blish, whose work is always compelling, & almost always clear & logical -- but even Blish slips up, as noted herein....
Knight also reviews sevral other notorious Bad Novels, like Jerry Sohl's POINT ULTIMATE (U can still find copies in used bookstores -- CHEAP!), J.T. McIntosh's ONE IN THREE HUNDRED, & possibly my fave Bad SF Novel Ever, Edmund Cooper's 150-pg novel-outline SEED OF LIGHT.
Knight Cmd 2 get a kind of joy out of spotlighting these bad books. He knew there was a lotta hack writing going on in SF back then -- there still is, but the editors were better back then, & there were fewer publishers ... but they cranked-out more titles....
I'm still not sure about Knight as a fiction-writer, myself. He died a few yrs back after publishing sevral novels over the last decade-plus of his life. At his peak, he was acclaimed as a really good short story writer -- I've only read a couple of his short stories, so I can't say. 4 yrs he retired from fiction-writing 2 edit the award-winning & long-running ORBIT series of SF anthologies. 4 yrs the rap was that critiquing other writers' work had ruined him as a writer.
The 1 novel of his that grabbed me, THE MAN IN THE TREE, has a BRILLIANT 1st 1/2 -- a vivid & involving look at what it's like 2 grow up smart & odd in America's Pacific Northwest. But the 2nd 1/2, in which the hero Bcomes a messiah, is a dull anti-climax -- Dspite some good writing in places, there's none of the magic of the 1st 1/2. The book reads like it was written by 2 diffrent people -- or by 1 person, but w/ a LONG gap of yrs Btween the 2 parts....
NEway, if U like reviews that show-up the flaws of a book in glaring lite & R filled w/ cheap laffs, U'll probly like at least 1/2 of this. U might learn a lot, 2 -- I've only read mayB 10% of the Good Stuff Knight reviews in these 300 pgs.
& his more serious, sober, considered reviews R pretty cool 2....
Coming soon, I promise: MUSIC REVIEWS!
IN SEARCH OF WONDER is a long collection of cutting, hilarious SF book reviews from the late '50s & early '60s, almost worth reading just 4 the many samples of atrociously bad writing that Knight quotes from.
Cms there was a LOT of Really Bad Writing in SF back then, & Knight had no trouble poking fun at it -- he referred 2 this fun-poking as 1 of the tools he used 2 take apart a story & C what makes it tick. Bad stories fall 2 pieces. Really good stories sometimes defy all attempts 2 take them apart.
I 1st read this book at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey back in the summer of 1991, while waiting around 4 my daughter 2 B born (the same place I finally read Robert Silverberg's brilliant-but-overlooked SF novel THE MAN IN THE MAZE), so I didn't remember much of it & was looking 4ward 2 a re-read. If U're a fan of late-'50s/early-'60s SF, or a reader of NE of the writers from SF's "Golden Age," I think U'll Njoy this book very much.
All SF's Big Names from those days R here: Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury, Frederik Pohl (still writing -- & blogging! -- at age 90), Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Robert Sheckley, Cyril M. Kornbluth, Philip K. Dick, Theodore Sturgeon, Alfred Bester, Jack Vance, Edgar Pangborn, Henry Kuttner & C.L. Moore, Richard Matheson, L. Ron Hubbard (wait, how'd HE get in here?), Blish, Budrys, & more, lots more. There R also many names that R now nearly 4got10, even 2 longtime SF fans. & some Knight points out that DESERVE 2 B 4got10.
If Blish's criticism leaned more toward the scholarly & kinda dry, & Budrys' work had more of a down-home, modest, just-plain-folks kinda feel until he went 4 the jugular, Knight was somewhere in-Btween: There R some writers he just plain raves about (Sturgeon, Heinlein, some Asimov, some Clarke) but can always tell U why -- & others he can take apart in Ndless, hilarious Dtail. He Cms 2 have much more fun with Really Bad Writing, done by a class of writers he calls "Chuckleheads." There R a lot of them pointed-out in this book.
I coulda done w/o the 10 pgs of cheerleading 4 the early work of Bob Heinlein -- 1 of the 2 or 3 guys listed above w/o whom modern SF would never have happened, but whose early work now Cms even more of a conservative, strait-laced, steel-jawed all-American cliche than John Wayne.... Wonder how dismayed Knight was 2 C what Heinlein did in the '60s & '70s, when RAH took all the rules he ever learned about commercial writing & threw them out the window (Xcept 4 THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS, which is a GREAT novel).
NEway, Knight makes up 4 his worship of Heinlein by dismantling an apparently hideous, nonsensical novel (THE WORLD OF NULL-A) by the now-almost-4got10 A.E. van Vogt. This chapter is hilarious at 1st, then Xhausting in its Ndless citations of botched, illogical writing -- which was nevertheless very popular among SF fans back in the '40s.
It's also intresting that Knight almost worships Asimov -- Xcept 4 Dr. A's FOUNDATION series, which Asimov went on 2 spend much of the later yrs of his life writing sequels 2.
But Knight's choice 4 best-rounded SF novelist up til 1960 is Blish, whose work is always compelling, & almost always clear & logical -- but even Blish slips up, as noted herein....
Knight also reviews sevral other notorious Bad Novels, like Jerry Sohl's POINT ULTIMATE (U can still find copies in used bookstores -- CHEAP!), J.T. McIntosh's ONE IN THREE HUNDRED, & possibly my fave Bad SF Novel Ever, Edmund Cooper's 150-pg novel-outline SEED OF LIGHT.
Knight Cmd 2 get a kind of joy out of spotlighting these bad books. He knew there was a lotta hack writing going on in SF back then -- there still is, but the editors were better back then, & there were fewer publishers ... but they cranked-out more titles....
I'm still not sure about Knight as a fiction-writer, myself. He died a few yrs back after publishing sevral novels over the last decade-plus of his life. At his peak, he was acclaimed as a really good short story writer -- I've only read a couple of his short stories, so I can't say. 4 yrs he retired from fiction-writing 2 edit the award-winning & long-running ORBIT series of SF anthologies. 4 yrs the rap was that critiquing other writers' work had ruined him as a writer.
The 1 novel of his that grabbed me, THE MAN IN THE TREE, has a BRILLIANT 1st 1/2 -- a vivid & involving look at what it's like 2 grow up smart & odd in America's Pacific Northwest. But the 2nd 1/2, in which the hero Bcomes a messiah, is a dull anti-climax -- Dspite some good writing in places, there's none of the magic of the 1st 1/2. The book reads like it was written by 2 diffrent people -- or by 1 person, but w/ a LONG gap of yrs Btween the 2 parts....
NEway, if U like reviews that show-up the flaws of a book in glaring lite & R filled w/ cheap laffs, U'll probly like at least 1/2 of this. U might learn a lot, 2 -- I've only read mayB 10% of the Good Stuff Knight reviews in these 300 pgs.
& his more serious, sober, considered reviews R pretty cool 2....
Coming soon, I promise: MUSIC REVIEWS!
Monday, December 7, 2009
But Seriously, Folks....
You folks who read here know that I joke around a lot, that even when I'm serious I tend to make feeble jokes, even if I'm trying to convince you to take a chance on a new album or the best book I've ever read.
But now I'm being serious, pretty much. If you haven't checked them out already, I urge you to read some comments on current music by a guy named Sadler Vaden, posted Nov. 30 at Seano's "Circle of Fits" blog (http://seanoandjefe.blogspot.com/). Sadler is a working musician, a singer-songwriter-guitarist with a band called Leslie. His comments were posted after he watched the recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary Concert.
Sadler's opinion (posted under the title "Rock and Roll is Not a Joke") is that most current music sucks -- that it's way more about presentation and shock effects and way less about talent and soul -- that little of it's memorable, that very little of it will last, that the commercialization and celebrity-ization of it has taken over, and that the music has suffered.
His feeling is that older, "classic" rockers (Springsteen, U2, Stones, CSNY, Simon and Garfunkel, etc.) are the only ones who got it right -- that VERY few current or "newer" acts can hold a candle to the Greats.
And maybe he's right. But while I agree with many of the points he makes, I also think some of the things he says make him sound even crankier and more out-of-touch than I am.
So, tonight's topic is: DOES MOST NEW MUSIC SUCK? AND IF IT DOES, IS THIS SOMETHING NEW? AND IS IT WORTH WORRYING ABOUT?
Now, I'm the last person to stand up for most new music. I agree with Sadler that little of it's memorable -- at least, most of the stuff you hear on the radio or TV. I'd say 95 percent or more of it's crap.
But. I think Sadler's maybe looking in the wrong places.
It's such a big musical world now -- so much larger than when I was growing up, and there are so many different ways to track down new music now: Internet Radio, MySpace sites, through amazon.com and other places -- there are TOO MANY websites where you can download all kinds of new music and try it out.
But Sadler seems to mainly focus on what he's been seeing lately on TV, and I think that's definitely the wrong place to go to find out what's new and good -- and I don't think radio's much better. Sadler's disgusted by AMERICAN IDOL and recent antics at the American Music Awards. I wonder why he should care about either. Awards have never been a very good barometer of musical quality -- the Grammy Awards have stepped a little closer to reality in the past few years, but they were a joke for AGES -- the Beatles only won four minor Grammies, one for SGT. PEPPER: for "best engineered album." The AMA's are chosen by fans -- but who knows how old those fans are? And neither AMERICAN IDOL nor most of the music featured on the AMA's are anywhere near what Sadler or most of us would consider "real rock and roll."
Before even mentioning current acts that I think are worth listening to, I think maybe Sadler is mis-remembering his musical past. It wasn't all golden. It just seems that way now, because he hears so little good stuff these days.
Here's the thing: Millions of people buy crap. Musical junk food. They always have, and I don't see any way that's ever going to change. All you can do is hope their tastes expand and that they trip over the Good Stuff someday. But don't hold your breath.
Today's empty "Flavor of the Month" (whoever it is) will be gone by next year. And five years from now, no one will remember or care who they were. Remember David Cassidy, Shaun Cassidy, Donny Osmond, Leif Garrett, Debbie Gibson, Tiffany ... Britney Spears?
Consider: When I first started listening to the radio in the fall of 1970, musical greats like the Beatles, Stones, Who, Doors, Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, Joplin, CSNY, Simon and Garfunkel, and others were being played heavily, and some were in their absolute prime.
But at the same time that these folks were all over the radio, "music fans" were buying millions of records and filling the bank accounts of "artists" like the Archies, Bobby Sherman, the Osmonds, and the Partridge Family.
Now don't get me wrong. "Sugar, Sugar" was a great piece of bubblegum pop, and I treasure my old Partridge Family albums. But I don't play them much, and in no way do I consider them "real rock and roll."
There will always be crap -- lots of it. Science fiction fans are familiar with Sturgeon's Law, which says that 90 percent of everything is crap -- books, music, movies, TV, people, relationships, everything. There are only going to be a few that you'll remember forever. Only a few are worth it.
Some of this "new music vs. old" stuff maybe boils down to matters of taste, which are pointless to argue about. Sadler has his views and his favorites, and I have mine, and God bless both of us -- and ain't it great that we live in a country where we can compare notes and comment on each other's views?
But some of what Sadler says makes ME look open-minded. And I try to be, but I don't think I AM. (I'm still wrestling with a couple fairly recent albums, one released earlier this year, trying to decide if they're crap or ... not-crap. And until I decide, I won't be reviewing them here.)
If only the greats of your younger days can make the music of your dreams, what's the point in listening to new stuff? Won't that just frustrate you? By the same token, after however-many years of listening, do you still expect an album or a piece of music to change your life? (That would be great if it happened, but I sure don't EXPECT it.)
It's easy to have an album or song change your world at age 12, or even at 18 -- you haven't seen or experienced that much. Later on it gets harder. Much harder. I've had BOOKS alter my reality a couple times over the last 20 years (Kathe Koja's SKIN, Lewis Shiner's GLIMPSES), but I can't remember the last time an album or a song had that kind of impact on me. (Nick Drake's BRYTER LAYTER, maybe?) And maybe that's sad. But I don't blame today's music for it, as bored or frustrated as I may get when I'm forced to listen to some of it.
Besides, I don't think it's ALL crap -- and with the many ways available now to learn about and hear new artists, I think it's unfair to paint all new music with the same negative brush, to say that it's all crap, that it lacks heart and soul. With an outlook like that, Sadler's not going to be able to hear the next example of Good Stuff when it finally appears.
Recent music that I think is worth hearing (over the past few years):
* Jordin Sparks' first album was superb -- a solidly-produced, catchy, immediate piece of urban/R&B/hip-hop with a few excellent ballads. She has a great voice and isn't just a front -- she co-wrote a few songs. "Now You Tell Me" and "Tattoo" were painful and brilliant, and Sparks co-wrote the best ballad, the gorgeous and intimate "Worth the Wait."
* Fleet Foxes' first album was pretty cool, sort-of early-'60s folk meets the Beach Boys. When I first heard it, I played it all the way through three times in a row. Been awhile since I've done that with any album.
* Keane's first album HOPES AND FEARS had a few excellent songs on it, the gorgeous "Bend and Break," "Somewhere Only We Know," "This is the Last Time," and the dreamy "Your Eyes Open."
* Norah Jones' first album was OK, and she has at least one GREAT song, "Shoot the Moon." "The Long Day is Over" ain't bad, either.
* Coldplay has done a few good songs, including the gorgeous "Clocks" and "Talk," and "Viva La Vida" is growing on me. But I admit a lot of their stuff has no effect on me at all.
* Coheed and Cambria's "The Road and the Damned" is one of the prettiest heavy-guitar ballads I've heard in ages, with a gorgeous, mournful melody. C&C's "Feathers" is an excellent, catchy, rockier number with GREAT choruses -- but a weak ending.
* That high-speed remake of Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time" that came out a couple of years back was pretty great, but I couldn't tell you who performed it....
* I didn't even realize until the past couple weeks that I'd actually HEARD anything by Taylor Swift -- that song about her being a princess or Juliet, with the chorus that ends "Just say yes," is pretty great. (That is her, isn't it?)
* Avril Lavigne did some great stuff -- I'm especially a sucker for "I'm With You." (But where is she now?)
* Vertical Horizon's "Everything You Want" was a classic....
* Sarah McLachlan's "Stupid" rang all the bells for me a couple of years back -- it's like she took the drama of "Angel" and added the tunefulness of "I Will Remember You," only with 10 times as much melodrama! I liked it a lot. But she can also be dull ("Angel") and lazy ("Sweet Surrender").
* Outkast's "Hey Ya" was joyous and silly, "I Like the Way You Move" and "Roses" were both pretty good, and some of the other tracks on SPEAKERBOXXX/THE LOVE BELOW are also interesting, including the comedy bits between songs....
* My Chemical Romance's "Teenagers" is hilarious, and not at all what I'd expected from them....
* Panic! At The Disco has some interesting stuff -- their song where the groom learns his bride is a whore ("I Write Sins Not Tragedies"?) is pretty good until it starts to repeat itself endlessly. But the lead vocal is amazing!
* Fall Out Boy has a few good songs -- "Thanks for the Memories" is pretty funny, and "Sugar We're Goin' Down" and "Dance, Dance" are pretty grabby.
* Good Charlotte's "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" was pretty funny, but I haven't heard anything else by them that grabbed me....
* Anna Nalick's "Breathe" was pretty great, but I don't know what she's done since....
* Even John Mayer has done some good stuff -- there were several above-average songs on his first album for Columbia (the one with the puzzle-pieces cover), but "Bigger Than My Body" was the last thing of his that grabbed me....
* Five for Fighting's "100 Years" was pretty great, and he's done some other interesting stuff....
* Beyonce's "Irreplaceable" was a good mellow R&B ballad with interesting lyrics....
* A fairly recent, mellow R&B ballad about cheating and breaking-up as a performance ("Take A Bow"? "It's Over Now"?) had a pretty great vocal by whatever woman sang it. (I am SO out of touch....)
...I guess maybe that's not so much, and little of it's probably what Sadler would consider "real rock and roll." I'm sure there's a lot I've forgotten, and I know there are many songs I've liked where I never heard a title or who sang it. But maybe this newer stuff isn't meant for someone my age. People much younger than I am will decide what good stuff will last -- they'll decide what the good stuff IS, period. There will always be something good to listen to.
"Rock and Roll is Not a Joke." No, it isn't. And yes, it does need to be nurtured, and we do need to be reminded about the greats of the past -- God knows I do that a lot here. But rock and roll is definitely also a business -- for some it's a long-term career.
Because he makes an issue of older rockers' integrity, I think it's worth noting that some of Sadler's heroes sold-out early. The Who's Pete Townshend sold some of his songs for use in commercials and TV shows YEARS ago. I remember being disappointed when I first heard "Love, Reign O'er Me" in a soft-drink commercial. But by the time "Who Are You" became the theme for CSI, it wasn't too bad a shock.... The folks at Michelob heard Steve Winwood's "Don't You Know What the Night Can Do?" before his album was even released, and the commercial quickly followed....
(There are exceptions: Brian Wilson's '60s classics for the Beach Boys were sold for commercials at the end of that decade, allegedly sold-off by Brian's father when he thought they wouldn't be worth anything anymore. When we heard "Good Vibrations" used in a Sunkist orange soda commercial or "California Girls" in a Clairol Herbal Essence spot, that wasn't Brian's fault.... Michael Jackson sold-off the Beatles' songs for commercial use -- remember hearing Lennon's "Revolution" in a Nike commercial?)
The thing is, it's a whole different world now. Music fans will never again be as united in agreement as they were about Elvis, the Beatles, Stones, Who, Supremes, Jackson 5, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, U2, Prince. Things have expanded too much now. There are so many different musical approaches and so many different tastes. Anyone who could unite almost all music fans now would have to be an INCREDIBLE artist.
And remember: There was a time when even U2 was considered too dangerously new and scary. When I worked in a record store, we couldn't GIVE AWAY U2's first album, the brilliant BOY. (But millions of people bought The Knack....) Springsteen was considered too much of a throwback to the late-50's and early-'60s for awhile. Even "Born to Run," brilliant as it was, didn't break down all the opposition. It wasn't until "Hungry Heart" or possibly even "Dancing in the Dark" and "Born in the U.S.A." that Bruce could really be said to have "arrived." And some of us are still trying to figure out what all the fuss over Nirvana was about....
Memories can be a tricky thing. Most of Sadler's heroes were once sort of dangerous, daring young artists, and there's always resistance to that sort of thing. But maybe Sadler missed that part -- because he adored them from the start. These days, if someone dangerous and daring DID come along, Sadler might miss them -- because he'd be too busy being turned-off by their "antics." But apparently, in his opinion, nobody good is ever going to come along again -- or at least the chances of it are vanishingly small. And that's maybe the part that gets me most.
Rock and roll has been through some bad and boring times before and always survived. Take for instance the late '50s and early '60s -- Elvis in the Army, Chuck Berry in prison, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard silenced, the return of the empty Teen Idols.... Or take the late-'70s/early-'80s: Disco dominant, Donna Summer and Olivia Newton-John as Queens of the Airwaves (though Donna had some talent), Punk Rock stillborn in the U.S., New Wave making a little more headway.... And in both these droughts there was still good music -- there always will be. It's just a question of finding it....
This isn't intended as a (lengthy) assassination of someone I've never met. Sadler's comments just got me thinking about a lot of things -- about why I'm so often closed-minded about new music ... until it grabs me by the throat and won't let go. About the fallacy that just because something is old, that makes it good. It doesn't. I don't see time improving the music of Debbie Boone. Or Pat Boone, for that matter. Just because something's brand-new doesn't make it good, either.
But I'd submit that if a lot of new music is "surfacey," as Sadler feels most of it is (and I'd agree), it may be because a lot of LIFE has become kind of surfacey, because we've all allowed it to become that way -- and maybe we should dig a little deeper to find the Good Stuff, to keep in mind what it all means, to get the most out of each minute, to not let it slip by.
I'd also submit that anyone who seems to feel that most of our lives have turned into little more than "financial woes and cheap fear" has more to worry about than what kind of music is being played on radio and TV....
But now I'm being serious, pretty much. If you haven't checked them out already, I urge you to read some comments on current music by a guy named Sadler Vaden, posted Nov. 30 at Seano's "Circle of Fits" blog (http://seanoandjefe.blogspot.com/). Sadler is a working musician, a singer-songwriter-guitarist with a band called Leslie. His comments were posted after he watched the recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary Concert.
Sadler's opinion (posted under the title "Rock and Roll is Not a Joke") is that most current music sucks -- that it's way more about presentation and shock effects and way less about talent and soul -- that little of it's memorable, that very little of it will last, that the commercialization and celebrity-ization of it has taken over, and that the music has suffered.
His feeling is that older, "classic" rockers (Springsteen, U2, Stones, CSNY, Simon and Garfunkel, etc.) are the only ones who got it right -- that VERY few current or "newer" acts can hold a candle to the Greats.
And maybe he's right. But while I agree with many of the points he makes, I also think some of the things he says make him sound even crankier and more out-of-touch than I am.
So, tonight's topic is: DOES MOST NEW MUSIC SUCK? AND IF IT DOES, IS THIS SOMETHING NEW? AND IS IT WORTH WORRYING ABOUT?
Now, I'm the last person to stand up for most new music. I agree with Sadler that little of it's memorable -- at least, most of the stuff you hear on the radio or TV. I'd say 95 percent or more of it's crap.
But. I think Sadler's maybe looking in the wrong places.
It's such a big musical world now -- so much larger than when I was growing up, and there are so many different ways to track down new music now: Internet Radio, MySpace sites, through amazon.com and other places -- there are TOO MANY websites where you can download all kinds of new music and try it out.
But Sadler seems to mainly focus on what he's been seeing lately on TV, and I think that's definitely the wrong place to go to find out what's new and good -- and I don't think radio's much better. Sadler's disgusted by AMERICAN IDOL and recent antics at the American Music Awards. I wonder why he should care about either. Awards have never been a very good barometer of musical quality -- the Grammy Awards have stepped a little closer to reality in the past few years, but they were a joke for AGES -- the Beatles only won four minor Grammies, one for SGT. PEPPER: for "best engineered album." The AMA's are chosen by fans -- but who knows how old those fans are? And neither AMERICAN IDOL nor most of the music featured on the AMA's are anywhere near what Sadler or most of us would consider "real rock and roll."
Before even mentioning current acts that I think are worth listening to, I think maybe Sadler is mis-remembering his musical past. It wasn't all golden. It just seems that way now, because he hears so little good stuff these days.
Here's the thing: Millions of people buy crap. Musical junk food. They always have, and I don't see any way that's ever going to change. All you can do is hope their tastes expand and that they trip over the Good Stuff someday. But don't hold your breath.
Today's empty "Flavor of the Month" (whoever it is) will be gone by next year. And five years from now, no one will remember or care who they were. Remember David Cassidy, Shaun Cassidy, Donny Osmond, Leif Garrett, Debbie Gibson, Tiffany ... Britney Spears?
Consider: When I first started listening to the radio in the fall of 1970, musical greats like the Beatles, Stones, Who, Doors, Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, Joplin, CSNY, Simon and Garfunkel, and others were being played heavily, and some were in their absolute prime.
But at the same time that these folks were all over the radio, "music fans" were buying millions of records and filling the bank accounts of "artists" like the Archies, Bobby Sherman, the Osmonds, and the Partridge Family.
Now don't get me wrong. "Sugar, Sugar" was a great piece of bubblegum pop, and I treasure my old Partridge Family albums. But I don't play them much, and in no way do I consider them "real rock and roll."
There will always be crap -- lots of it. Science fiction fans are familiar with Sturgeon's Law, which says that 90 percent of everything is crap -- books, music, movies, TV, people, relationships, everything. There are only going to be a few that you'll remember forever. Only a few are worth it.
Some of this "new music vs. old" stuff maybe boils down to matters of taste, which are pointless to argue about. Sadler has his views and his favorites, and I have mine, and God bless both of us -- and ain't it great that we live in a country where we can compare notes and comment on each other's views?
But some of what Sadler says makes ME look open-minded. And I try to be, but I don't think I AM. (I'm still wrestling with a couple fairly recent albums, one released earlier this year, trying to decide if they're crap or ... not-crap. And until I decide, I won't be reviewing them here.)
If only the greats of your younger days can make the music of your dreams, what's the point in listening to new stuff? Won't that just frustrate you? By the same token, after however-many years of listening, do you still expect an album or a piece of music to change your life? (That would be great if it happened, but I sure don't EXPECT it.)
It's easy to have an album or song change your world at age 12, or even at 18 -- you haven't seen or experienced that much. Later on it gets harder. Much harder. I've had BOOKS alter my reality a couple times over the last 20 years (Kathe Koja's SKIN, Lewis Shiner's GLIMPSES), but I can't remember the last time an album or a song had that kind of impact on me. (Nick Drake's BRYTER LAYTER, maybe?) And maybe that's sad. But I don't blame today's music for it, as bored or frustrated as I may get when I'm forced to listen to some of it.
Besides, I don't think it's ALL crap -- and with the many ways available now to learn about and hear new artists, I think it's unfair to paint all new music with the same negative brush, to say that it's all crap, that it lacks heart and soul. With an outlook like that, Sadler's not going to be able to hear the next example of Good Stuff when it finally appears.
Recent music that I think is worth hearing (over the past few years):
* Jordin Sparks' first album was superb -- a solidly-produced, catchy, immediate piece of urban/R&B/hip-hop with a few excellent ballads. She has a great voice and isn't just a front -- she co-wrote a few songs. "Now You Tell Me" and "Tattoo" were painful and brilliant, and Sparks co-wrote the best ballad, the gorgeous and intimate "Worth the Wait."
* Fleet Foxes' first album was pretty cool, sort-of early-'60s folk meets the Beach Boys. When I first heard it, I played it all the way through three times in a row. Been awhile since I've done that with any album.
* Keane's first album HOPES AND FEARS had a few excellent songs on it, the gorgeous "Bend and Break," "Somewhere Only We Know," "This is the Last Time," and the dreamy "Your Eyes Open."
* Norah Jones' first album was OK, and she has at least one GREAT song, "Shoot the Moon." "The Long Day is Over" ain't bad, either.
* Coldplay has done a few good songs, including the gorgeous "Clocks" and "Talk," and "Viva La Vida" is growing on me. But I admit a lot of their stuff has no effect on me at all.
* Coheed and Cambria's "The Road and the Damned" is one of the prettiest heavy-guitar ballads I've heard in ages, with a gorgeous, mournful melody. C&C's "Feathers" is an excellent, catchy, rockier number with GREAT choruses -- but a weak ending.
* That high-speed remake of Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time" that came out a couple of years back was pretty great, but I couldn't tell you who performed it....
* I didn't even realize until the past couple weeks that I'd actually HEARD anything by Taylor Swift -- that song about her being a princess or Juliet, with the chorus that ends "Just say yes," is pretty great. (That is her, isn't it?)
* Avril Lavigne did some great stuff -- I'm especially a sucker for "I'm With You." (But where is she now?)
* Vertical Horizon's "Everything You Want" was a classic....
* Sarah McLachlan's "Stupid" rang all the bells for me a couple of years back -- it's like she took the drama of "Angel" and added the tunefulness of "I Will Remember You," only with 10 times as much melodrama! I liked it a lot. But she can also be dull ("Angel") and lazy ("Sweet Surrender").
* Outkast's "Hey Ya" was joyous and silly, "I Like the Way You Move" and "Roses" were both pretty good, and some of the other tracks on SPEAKERBOXXX/THE LOVE BELOW are also interesting, including the comedy bits between songs....
* My Chemical Romance's "Teenagers" is hilarious, and not at all what I'd expected from them....
* Panic! At The Disco has some interesting stuff -- their song where the groom learns his bride is a whore ("I Write Sins Not Tragedies"?) is pretty good until it starts to repeat itself endlessly. But the lead vocal is amazing!
* Fall Out Boy has a few good songs -- "Thanks for the Memories" is pretty funny, and "Sugar We're Goin' Down" and "Dance, Dance" are pretty grabby.
* Good Charlotte's "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" was pretty funny, but I haven't heard anything else by them that grabbed me....
* Anna Nalick's "Breathe" was pretty great, but I don't know what she's done since....
* Even John Mayer has done some good stuff -- there were several above-average songs on his first album for Columbia (the one with the puzzle-pieces cover), but "Bigger Than My Body" was the last thing of his that grabbed me....
* Five for Fighting's "100 Years" was pretty great, and he's done some other interesting stuff....
* Beyonce's "Irreplaceable" was a good mellow R&B ballad with interesting lyrics....
* A fairly recent, mellow R&B ballad about cheating and breaking-up as a performance ("Take A Bow"? "It's Over Now"?) had a pretty great vocal by whatever woman sang it. (I am SO out of touch....)
...I guess maybe that's not so much, and little of it's probably what Sadler would consider "real rock and roll." I'm sure there's a lot I've forgotten, and I know there are many songs I've liked where I never heard a title or who sang it. But maybe this newer stuff isn't meant for someone my age. People much younger than I am will decide what good stuff will last -- they'll decide what the good stuff IS, period. There will always be something good to listen to.
"Rock and Roll is Not a Joke." No, it isn't. And yes, it does need to be nurtured, and we do need to be reminded about the greats of the past -- God knows I do that a lot here. But rock and roll is definitely also a business -- for some it's a long-term career.
Because he makes an issue of older rockers' integrity, I think it's worth noting that some of Sadler's heroes sold-out early. The Who's Pete Townshend sold some of his songs for use in commercials and TV shows YEARS ago. I remember being disappointed when I first heard "Love, Reign O'er Me" in a soft-drink commercial. But by the time "Who Are You" became the theme for CSI, it wasn't too bad a shock.... The folks at Michelob heard Steve Winwood's "Don't You Know What the Night Can Do?" before his album was even released, and the commercial quickly followed....
(There are exceptions: Brian Wilson's '60s classics for the Beach Boys were sold for commercials at the end of that decade, allegedly sold-off by Brian's father when he thought they wouldn't be worth anything anymore. When we heard "Good Vibrations" used in a Sunkist orange soda commercial or "California Girls" in a Clairol Herbal Essence spot, that wasn't Brian's fault.... Michael Jackson sold-off the Beatles' songs for commercial use -- remember hearing Lennon's "Revolution" in a Nike commercial?)
The thing is, it's a whole different world now. Music fans will never again be as united in agreement as they were about Elvis, the Beatles, Stones, Who, Supremes, Jackson 5, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, U2, Prince. Things have expanded too much now. There are so many different musical approaches and so many different tastes. Anyone who could unite almost all music fans now would have to be an INCREDIBLE artist.
And remember: There was a time when even U2 was considered too dangerously new and scary. When I worked in a record store, we couldn't GIVE AWAY U2's first album, the brilliant BOY. (But millions of people bought The Knack....) Springsteen was considered too much of a throwback to the late-50's and early-'60s for awhile. Even "Born to Run," brilliant as it was, didn't break down all the opposition. It wasn't until "Hungry Heart" or possibly even "Dancing in the Dark" and "Born in the U.S.A." that Bruce could really be said to have "arrived." And some of us are still trying to figure out what all the fuss over Nirvana was about....
Memories can be a tricky thing. Most of Sadler's heroes were once sort of dangerous, daring young artists, and there's always resistance to that sort of thing. But maybe Sadler missed that part -- because he adored them from the start. These days, if someone dangerous and daring DID come along, Sadler might miss them -- because he'd be too busy being turned-off by their "antics." But apparently, in his opinion, nobody good is ever going to come along again -- or at least the chances of it are vanishingly small. And that's maybe the part that gets me most.
Rock and roll has been through some bad and boring times before and always survived. Take for instance the late '50s and early '60s -- Elvis in the Army, Chuck Berry in prison, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard silenced, the return of the empty Teen Idols.... Or take the late-'70s/early-'80s: Disco dominant, Donna Summer and Olivia Newton-John as Queens of the Airwaves (though Donna had some talent), Punk Rock stillborn in the U.S., New Wave making a little more headway.... And in both these droughts there was still good music -- there always will be. It's just a question of finding it....
This isn't intended as a (lengthy) assassination of someone I've never met. Sadler's comments just got me thinking about a lot of things -- about why I'm so often closed-minded about new music ... until it grabs me by the throat and won't let go. About the fallacy that just because something is old, that makes it good. It doesn't. I don't see time improving the music of Debbie Boone. Or Pat Boone, for that matter. Just because something's brand-new doesn't make it good, either.
But I'd submit that if a lot of new music is "surfacey," as Sadler feels most of it is (and I'd agree), it may be because a lot of LIFE has become kind of surfacey, because we've all allowed it to become that way -- and maybe we should dig a little deeper to find the Good Stuff, to keep in mind what it all means, to get the most out of each minute, to not let it slip by.
I'd also submit that anyone who seems to feel that most of our lives have turned into little more than "financial woes and cheap fear" has more to worry about than what kind of music is being played on radio and TV....
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