Let's argue about the greatest songwriting team

Jerry Leiber recently passed away, and The Music's Over opened its post on the topic as follows:

Jerry Leiber along with partner, Mike Stoller was arguably the greatest pop songwriting team of the second half of the 20th century if not all time.

As I read those words, the first thought that popped into my mind was "Lennon/McCartney." Obviously Lennon and McCartney had the benefit of performing their own songs, but both Leiber/Stoller and Lennon/McCartney were responsible for hits by multiple artists (and yes, certain Lennon/McCartney songs were given directly to other artists, such as Cilla Black).

Why are Leiber and Stoller so important? The Music's Over cites Leiber/Stoller's song catalog:

The list of their early hit songs includes “Hard Times” by Charles Brown, “Kansas City” by Little Willie Littlefield, and “Hound Dog” by Elvis Presley by way of Big Mama Thornton. They also penned “Jailhouse Rock,” “Yakety Yak,” “Stand By Me,” “Love Potion No. 9,” and “Searchin,’” to name just a few.

Clearly an impressive list. But The Music's Over also cites one other thing in Leiber/Stoller's favor:

Leiber and Stoller are largely credited for taking rhythm and blues music out of the black clubs and spreading it to white America and beyond.

To put it another way - if there never was a Leiber and a Stoller, would there have been a Lennon and a McCartney? Perhaps - Elvis Presley was not 100% dependent upon Leiber and Stoller - but maybe the young Lennon and McCartney would have had fewer inspirations.

I will certainly grant that Leiber and Stoller tremendously influenced popular music in the last half of the 20th century. But I'd argue that Lennon and McCartney were just as influential, if not more so.

What did John and Paul do that Jerry and Mike didn't?

• First off, John and Paul absorbed multiple influences. While they were not (at least initially) influenced by the true rhythm and blues artists that inspired Leiber and Stoller, Lennon and McCartney were initially open to American country music, as well as traditional English popular music. As time passed, they were influenced by the Motown sound, a variety of sounds from California (beach boys to hippie girls), and an assortment of classical and avant garde composers.


• Second off, John and Paul wrote songs that were performed in multiple styles, by themselves and others. My favorite album of all time is the 1968 album The Beatles (a/k/a The White Album), which zooms between a few of the aforementioned styles (Beach Boys rock in "Back in the U.S.S.R.," traditional English music with the non-wild "Honey Pie," avant garde with "Revolution #9," country with "Rocky Raccoon") and throws in a half dozen other styles besides. Even if you ignore Harrison's and Starr's songwriting contributions, Lennon and McCartney alone provide three album side's worth of musical adventures. And that's just one album.


• Third off, Lennon and McCartney have yielded more interesting cover versions. "Hound Dog" is going to be "Hound Dog," unless it's covered by Daniel Miller or something. But you can rest assured that a "Yesterday" cover by Ray Charles and a "Yesterday" cover by Frank Sinatra are going to sound a little different. And when Joe Cocker records with his friends, he doesn't sound like Ringo.


• Fourth, in a related way, Lennon and McCartney have been more inspiring to others. Obviously this is because Lennon and McCartney were also famous for performing their songs, and not just writing them. However, it cannot be argued that there are millions of people who have said to themselves, "I want to be in music, just like Lennon and McCartney!" And some of those people have also said, "I want to write songs, just like Lennon and McCartney." The number of people who have said "I want to write songs, just like Leiber and Stoller" is far fewer.

So at the end of the day, I'd argue that it is Lennon and McCartney, not Leiber and Stoller, who stands as arguably the greatest pop songwriting team of the second half of the 20th century.

But I'd give Leiber and Stoller a close second.

Of course, I've consigned the following teams to 3rd place or below: Bacharach/David, John/Taupin, Holland/Dozier/Holland, King/Goffin, Mann/Weil, and Jam/Lewis. (I excluded Rodgers/Hammerstein, even though their career lapped into the second half of the 20th century.) Let's throw Jagger/Richards in there for good measure. I'd argue that none of these teams had the impact of Lennon/McCartney or Leiber/Stoller.

Am I wrong? Who would you nominate as the greatest pop songwriting team of the second half of the 20th century?

(empo-utoobd) Enjoying Lena Katina without relying on the service that permanently disabled me

Lena Katina's new song "Never Forget," courtesy PopCrush.

Two "Sound of the Crowd" covers

Human League's "Dare" was a departure from what the band had done before, primarily because of a radical change in the band's membership. One of the songs on that album was "Sound of the Crowd."

And people have covered it.

I recently ran across a cover from Mindburner that pretty much sticks to the original.



But I was pleasantly surprised to find out that another artist had covered the song - Kelly Osbourne. What's more, her cover version appears on her "One Word" single. As you may know, I like "One Word."

Osbourne's version can be heard here (YouTube video which is pretty much an audio track).

Between this B-side and the Visage-ish A-side, it's clear what decade Osbourne was residing in at the time.

Well, they have similar hairstyles

There are huge, overwhelming, incredible, massive amounts of music that are released all the time. A ton of music was released this year. A ton of music was released when I was 20. A ton of music was released the year before I was born.

Because of this huge volume of music, it's no wonder that we get confused at times.

As you know, Liz is in the middle of listening to 1001 albums. Liz is significantly younger than I am, and she is therefore discovering some of these albums for the first time. This allows her to offer a refreshing take on the quality of the music, unaffected by what else may have been going on at the time that the albums were originally released.

In that spirit, she recently reviewed the R.E.M. album Document. Here is how her review began:

So, R.E.M. is one of those bands that I've never entirely cared for. A while back I watched "Man on the Moon" and they did the theme song for it. That was my first real taste of R.E.M. and there's just something about the tone of Moby's voice that I never really latched onto.

This album was more of that good ol' Moby. Wikipedia says that they're "college rock" whatever that means. They have a sound that is a little bit psychedelic with the wailing guitars and the constant and Doors-like hypnotic drum beat. There is also the mumble-y sound of Moby's voice that makes me feel like on a smidge bit of mushrooms while I listen.

Now I can agree with most of what Liz wrote...with one exception. Because of her unfamiliarity with the band, she got a teeny bit confused about one itsy bitsy detail. Some of you spotted the error immediately. Some of you have no idea what I'm talking about. Some of you are surprised to learn that Moby was the lead singer for R.E.M. before launching his solo career.

He wasn't. For those who don't know, the lead singer of R.E.M. is Michael Stipe.

The whole episode got me thinking. There are some obvious differences between Moby and Stipe, but there are also some similarities - and I'm not just thinking of the hairstyles.

Both artists, in their own ways, are willing to experiment with different musical styles.

Both artists, in their own ways, are extremely open to collaboration.

And guess what? They've both performed together, along with some guy named Bono (no, not Sonny Bono).



And I find it entirely appropriate that when Stipe and Moby got together, they performed a Neil Young-Bob Dylan medley.

It's too bad that Bono didn't shave his head for the event.

When music is dated

Wow...only one post in the Empoprise-MU music blog for the entire month of July! I'll try to double that this month.

I don't know about you, but old songs go through my head all the time. So one day an old song was going through my head, and one of the lyrics stopped me cold:

She's the kind of a girl that makes the News of the World

The lyric, if you don't recognize it, comes from the song "Polytheme Pam," part of the song suite on side two of the Beatles' Abbey Road. Well, albums don't have sides any more, and we don't have a News of the World any more either.

When I first heard the song in the early 1970s, I had no idea what Lennon was talking about. Back in the early 1970s, the only way that you could really know about foreign newspapers would be to go to your local library and see if they had a copy. And as far as I know, the Shirlington Branch of the Arlington County Public Library never stocked that particular paper.

I'm not the only person who thinks of the passing of News of the World from a musical perspective. Reason.com incorporated a reference to Polythene Pam into its obituary. And the Bangkok Post went one step further:

Polythene Pam was reportedly a combination of a couple of dodgy people Lennon knew in Liverpool, and he knew quite a few. There's some debate whether the character in the song was a transsexual or just a Merseyside tart.

So which of your favorite songs refer to things that no longer exist?

An easy trivia question for Missing Persons fans

Whenever I see a Duran Duran biography - and I recently saw an old "Behind the Music" on the band - I end up thinking of a particular song. This gives rise to the following trivia question:

Which Duran Duran band member is mentioned in the Frank Zappa song "Catholic Girls"?

Answer here.

Fan is short for fanatic - or fatale

I was driving around one afternoon and saw a car with writing on the windows. Since we just had graduation season, it isn't all that unusual to see that stuff.

The message on the window?

Honk if you (heart) Britney

Now this isn't necessarily a reference to Britney Spears, since (especially after her appearance) there are probably a number of people who spell their names "Britney."

Except that there was one other thing written on the window.

Femme Fatale

Now that just happens to be the name of an album by Britney Spears. And a tour. And for all I know a fragrance or a dessert topping or something.

"But John," you're saying to me, "you live in El-Lay where they do all sorts of weird promotions on Hollywood billboards."

Yes, but I was far away from Hollywood when I saw the car. Specifically, I was in an industrial park in Orange County.

Now perhaps the car belonged to the 2nd Vice President (Publicity) of the Orange County Britney Spears fan club, and the driver was going to her daddy to ask him to please please please get her tickets for a Britney show.

Or perhaps the 2nd Vice President actually works in the industrial park, and she was heading home because HER daughters were begging her to please please please get them tickets for a Britney show.

Either way, this again shows that "fan" is short for "fanatic."

Don't let your kids go to contemporary music concerts

MOM, I WANNA GO SEE METALLICA.

Not on your life, child! It's too rowdy and dangerous. Go see a nice classical music performance instead.

In the early 21st century, a clear dividing line has been drawn between popular music and serious music. Popular music is where you wear your jeans and drink beer and shout at the top of your lungs, while serious music is where you wear an uncomfortable suit and walk very quietly and sit in a chair with a serious expression.

Usually.

But so-called "avant-chamber music" is not always calm and sedate. The New York Times describes a recent evening of music in San Francisco, in which JHNO was performed "Untitled," a piece for viola and electronics.

Partway through the performance, someone began hissing at JHNO. Then the person began clapping inappropriately and causing other distractions.

Now if this were a standard rock concert, no one would even notice. But in the rareified atmosphere of a concert hall - kind of like golf, actually - the noises did stand out, and as a result JHNO became exasperated, threw down his viola and broke it (Pete Townshend couldn't have done it better), and stormed off the stage.

The heckler? An octogenarian viola player named Bernard M. Zaslav, who subsequently recounted his experience at being heckled himself in the late 1940s while performing a 12-tone piece with the Cleveland Symphony.

The reason for Zaslav's outburst? The song was too danged loud.

Well, at least some things are consistent.

(empo-tymshft) Yeah, Mark Mothersbaugh was in a band

I was born at an interesting time - the early 1960s, which made me just a little bit young to experience Beatlemania. I remember hearing that there was a band that was just like the Monkees, only zanier, but it wasn't until the early 1970s that I really began to learn more about the band that the guy in Wings used to be in.

To most people, it's odd to discover someone who knew about the Monkees and Wings before the Beatles, but that's the way things turned out.

Of course, in my life (I've loved them - never mind) I'm now running into people who surprise me. To people of a certain age, this statement is shocking:

I had no idea Mark Mothersbaugh was in Devo!!

My jaw nearly dropped when I read that. For all intents and purposes, Mark Mothersbaugh was the public face of Devo. But then the commenter explained:

I became a fan through his soundtrack work, namely the Royal Tennenbaums score.

Once you read the comment, the original statement makes sense. Mothersbaugh has made a living for the last couple of decades writing music soundtracks, and has built up such a reputation in that regard that some people are not aware of his former career.

I'd be willing to bet that some people don't realize how movie star Will Smith got his start. Even those who know about his TV show may wonder how he got cast in the role. (For the record, Smith was a successful rapper who made the transition to television and eventually film.)

One other thing - the comment above came from Songfacts. I just discovered that Songfacts has an extensive set of interviews with various songwriters, including Mothersbaugh and Jerry Casale. I highly recommend the interview with Thomas Dolby.

Do you love music like Liz at @1001albums loves music?

Last week I saw this tweet:

Are New Order known for any songs in particular? I feel like i've heard of them but i can think of a famous song of theirs

The tweet came from Liz and her @1001albums account. And if you know me, you'd know that I'd have to respond to that tweet. And despite my love for "Perfect Kiss," I chose to reference another of the New Order songs that I like - "Blue Monday."

Well, Liz ended up blogging about New Order, but she blogged about the album that included "Perfect Kiss." Here's part of her post on "Low-Life":

Overall, this album was alright. As a bringer of dance music, I admire them, but it's more sleepy than peppy at times. "Love Vigilantes" and "The Perfect Kiss", among others, are fun songs that are great to listen to while you're studying.

Now in my case I was already an adult when "Low-Life" came out, but Liz is much younger than I am, and probably wasn't even born when "Blue Monday" came out.

So Liz listened to the album last week, and now is listening to a bunch of other albums this week. You see, she's on a mission:

There's a book out there that I've had on my shelf for years but never really touched. It's the "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". They start with Frank Sinatra's "In The Wee Small Hours" from 1955 and go all the way up to 2007.

And Liz plans to listen to all of the albums on the list. With "Low-Life," she's now over halfway through the list.

She's not going exactly in order, so I can't say exactly what albums she'll listen to this week, but her future listening will include artists ranging from the Beastie Boys to Paul Simon to Steve Earle. I'll have to weigh in when she gets to "Infected," "Music for the Masses," "Sign o the Times"...and "Moon Safari."

And yes, George Harrison liked spam, spam, spam, and spam.

As some of you may know, I formerly used the pseudonym "Ontario Emperor" (and still use it on my last.fm account). Apparently the pseudonym got popular enough for SEO experts to plug it into their pages.

For example, take this page filled with links to chi flat irons (whatever those are; I didn't follow the links). The page, styled as a blog post, purports to list 100 Chinese emperors. And guess who appears as number 28?

28. Northern and Southern Song Wendi (Liu Yilong) - has aggressively Ontario Emperor

Now you may be wondering why I'm writing about this in my music blog. Well, because it gives me the really bad excuse to repeat the phrase...

It's only a Northern Song

If you're not familiar with the phrase, see this page. For more about the REAL story of the dynasties (which does not include me), see this page.

These are not four Chinese emperors.



IMHO, "It's All Too Much" is better musically, although I'm sure that Harrison was heartfelt in the lyrics to "Northern." (And when you think of Beatle innovations, don't forget that Harrison was responsible for "Taxman" - something that was rarely if ever released publicly before.)

P.S. And yes, the title was...um...Handmade.

What makes for a compelling song?

On Thursday I blipped a live (sort of) performance of Michael Jackson's "Stranger in Moscow," offering the following comment:

Very paranoid song. Very good song.

Chris Willman, who reviews music for a living, put it this way:

And the album's best track, "Stranger in Moscow," is a step removed from the focused paranoia of much of the rest of the album, more akin to the deeper, fuzzier dread of a past perennial like "Billie Jean." Jackson imagines himself alone and adrift in a psychic Russia, pre- glasnost , hunted by an unseen KGB: "Fear abandonin' my faith / Armageddon of the brain," he sings in the somber, constricted verses, before a sweeping coda kicks up four minutes in and the stalkee suddenly breaks his cool to wail about a desolate, inconsolable loneliness. Here, in this song, is the real genius--and probably real personhood--of Michael Jackson, missing from so many of the rest of these Angry Young Man anthems.

Several have argued that this is Jackson's best ballad. Some have argued that this is Jackson's best song, period.

Why this one? Why not a happy one?

Why, when you consider the greatest hits of the Carpenters, does "Top of the World" not reside at the top of the list? Sure it's a good song, but when you think of the Carpenters, or perhaps more specifically of Karen, you think of "Rainy Days and Mondays" or something like that.

Then look at the Beatles. While some will argue that "She Loves You" is their greatest work, there are those who instead turn to "A Day in the Life" - a song that was primarily inspired by the death of Tara Browne.

While we can be emotionally uplifted by a positive song, the emotions that truly move us are the negative ones. As Elton John once said, Sasson says so much - whoops, you know what I mean. After persusing Spinner's list of 25 very sad songs, you can definitely see some moving ones in the list. Here are my favorites:

"Nothing Compares 2 U." Start with the work that Prince put into the song, both musically and lyrically, and then add Sinead O'Connor's performance to it. Very downlifting.

"Space Oddity." Perhaps it's debatable whether this is a sad song or not. Yes, Major Tom dies - or at least we think he dies - but the song almost sounds celebratory regarding Tom's union with the universe, except for the repeated "Can you hear me, Major Tom?" questions.

"Eleanor Rigby." Perhaps "A Day in the Life" hinted about death, but this earlier song explicitly discussed it. McCartney made one major alteration in the lyric, at the suggestion of Pete Shotton, renaming the minister from "Father McCartney" to "Father McKenzie." Shotton undoubtedly realized the deeper meaning of the line, because Paul McCartney's real father was a widower - an underlying current which helped to shape the Beatle's musical output, most notably "Let It Be" and its references to a "mother Mary." (At the same time you have Lennon's "Julia," which refer to HIS deceased mother.)

"He Stopped Loving Her Today." If you were to devote a hall of fame to sad songs alone, country music would take up an entire wing. The genius of the lyrics is that you have to listen to a good chunk of the song before you realize what's going on. Imagine for the moment that you've never heard this song - and perhaps some of you haven't. You might not realize what's going to happen when the song begins:

He said I'll love you 'til I die
She told him you'll forget in time
As the years went slowly by
She still preyed upon his mind

The song continues, as George Jones' voice recounts the sad life of this man, and then a positive note appears:

I went to see him just today
Oh but I didn't see no tears
All dressed up to go away
First time I'd seen him smile in years

This is when we get to the chorus, which begins "He stopped loving her today":

He stopped loving her today
They placed a wreath upon his door
And soon they'll carry him away
He stopped loving her today

Now let's face it - do you want to hear George Jones singing about Brussels sprouts, or do you want to hear George Jones singing about this?

I thought so.

Eating cars, literally

The one benefit of the whole Harold Camping brouhaha that occurred recently (and may or may not recur in October - we'll see if people are tired of him) is that it gave a lot of us an opportunity to revisit an old Blondie song. Of course, when Harold Camping is talking about the rapture, he's probably not envisioning the rapture as sung and rapped by Deborah Harry.

Now if you were to ask me to choose exactly two words from the lyrics, I know which two words I'd choose. I've chosen them before:

First, "Heart of Glass" was the first Blondie song that I ever heard, which is probably true of many people, so most people probably assumed that Blondie had been a disco band all along. Second, as time went on, it became more and more apparent that Blondie did not have a single musical style. And that they were into eating cars.

I know that there are a bunch of nonsensical lyrics in Harry's rap, but those two words "eating cars" have stuck with me, because obviously no one from Earth, Mars, or any other planet would actually eat cars.

Well, thanks to Jake Kuramoto, I stand corrected.

Back in the late 90s, I worked on a project at a metals reclamation plant in urban Detroit. They bought truckloads of shredded cars, sorted out the recyclable materials (aluminum, copper, etc.), and resold them to the automakers.

The machine in this video must be the guts of that glorious machine that eats cars and spits out pieces no bigger than a hardbound book.

To see the referenced video, go to Jake's post. And no, the video doesn't show any cars being crushed, although the machine makes quick work of pallets, blankets, cans, and (for some inexplicable reason) tampons.

Kuramoto's post also comments on the retro background music in the video, "which of course [wasn't] retro at the time this video was made." It's probably true that you can identify the production date of a video by its background music. Today, people are more likely to license (or not license) a current song for a video.

Don't label Martin Rushent

The Music's Over brings news of the passing of Martin Rushent. I was familiar with Rushent as the producer of the Human League's Dare album, but he worked with a wide variety of artists, according to T.M.O.:

Picking up the production bug while still in high school, Rushent found work soon after graduation, working as a tape operator alongside Tony Visconti on records by T-Rex, Jerry Lee Lewis, Yes, and Petula Clark.

Now THAT would make an interesting supergroup.

In a BBC interview earlier this year, Rushent described his method of working with the Human League:

Rushent sealed his reputation as a producer when he worked with The Human League on Dare, released in 1981, which featured the huge hit Don't You Want Me.

Rushent recalled how he made it clear who was boss: "They were under the impression that I was going to work on what they'd done so far and improve that and carry on.

"I said, 'no I'm not doing that, we're starting again', which was a bit of a shock for Phil [Oakey, lead singer]. He argued about that but I said, 'no, if I'm going to produce you, you're going to do what I tell you to do'. This is my attitude to everybody I produce, it's a sort of democratic dictatorship!"

But dictators can be overthrown. By the time Hysteria (with "The Lebanon") was released, Rushent was no longer working with the group. But Hysteria didn't equal the success of Dare, which resulted in a new set of producers.

Don't label Martin Gore

The Vanity Fair website includes a brief interview with Martin Gore that discusses remixes and other topics. Toward the end of the interview, Gore made this statement:

It’s the end of our EMI period. With Sounds of the Universe we only signed for one album and a remix collection. After this we don’t have a label.

The remix collection is out now, longtime English Depeche Mode label Mute has again become independent of EMI itself, and things are sounding interesting.

Which led to Vanity Fair's next question:

Would you release music independently?

Gore was non-committal, but it's a fascinating question because of statements made by former bandmate Alan Wilder a few years ago. As I previously noted, Wilder was disheartened with what happened to Mute during the EMI years. In an essay for Side-Line, Wilder spoke of going label-less:

So why bother with a record deal at all? And that is what many artists are now asking themselves. Why wouldn't they when they are being told that their company just can't afford to spend any money? Or that the company wants a cut of the artist's live income to pay for marketing. This is why we see the mass exodus taking place, squeezing the already crippled record industry. The artists that find it easiest to walk away are those that are already highly successful, compounding the problem still further. Why? Because the likes of Radiohead and Prince can afford to give their music away as a cheap promotional gimmick in order to create publicity for their respective machines. They get noticed for doing so and benefit in other areas. So with everyone now expecting free music, all the other artists lose what little income they could expect from record sales, maybe leading to a low credit score, even though the love and money spent producing their product hasn't changed.

Wilder of course realizes that Recoil's music benefits to an extent from Wilder's previous success as a member of the Hitmen. Or whatever the name of that really famous band was.

Now that band's ability to remain with Mute may be questionable. Incidentally, I didn't mention Mute's re-independence when it happened, mainly because in my non-trendy way I didn't even know about it until recently. But here's what EMI said:

LONDON, 22 September 2010 — EMI Music and Mute founder Daniel Miller have reached a preliminary agreement that will see EMI support Miller in the establishment of his second record label, and the continuation of the Mute brand as an independent recorded music business.

Since he founded Mute in 1978, Miller has signed and developed some of the world’s most innovative and influential recording artists including Depeche Mode, Moby, Goldfrapp, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Erasure and Richard Hawley. He sold Mute to EMI in 2002 and has continued to lead the label since then.

Miller’s new label will operate under the trademark Mute which it is licensing from EMI. It will tap into EMI’s Label Services unit for sales, distribution, synch & licensing and merchandising in the US, UK, Canada and Ireland, and a network of independent record distributors elsewhere. The label will be controlled by Miller, with EMI taking a minority equity interest in the company. Miller will also take a consultancy role with EMI Music as part of the new agreement.

To help fund the label, EMI is licensing to Miller part of the Mute back catalogue. It is also providing Miller with operational support in areas such as royalty administration and business affairs.

Mute artists Depeche Mode, Goldfrapp, Richard Hawley, Kraftwerk and White Rabbits remain signed to and marketed worldwide by EMI Music, with Miller continuing to work with them in his A&R consultancy role with EMI. The remainder of the Mute roster will move over to Miller’s new independent label including Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Grinderman, Yeasayer, Erasure, Andy Bell, Liars, Polly Scattergood and A Place To Bury Strangers.

So if you combine EMI's statement from last year from Gore's statement in Vanity Fair, Mute didn't get Depeche Mode, and EMI doesn't necessarily have them either.

Now for people on my side of the pond this is all an academic discussion, because United States Depeche Mode releases have been issued by the Warner Music Group for decades. However, Warner didn't really shape the way that the music was actually produced - and even in more recent years, in which Depeche Mode has used producers other than Miller, he's always been a presence around the band.

Can you imagine Depeche Mode leaving the cocoon and being thrown into a more typical A&R process, in which a 25 year old guy is trying to convince Dave Gahan that auto-tune might be a good idea?

At least I'm consistent in my likes (revisiting Alan Wilder, the metaphorical drummer)

I was surfing around, reading about Moby, which led me to reading about Mute Records (I didn't realize that it was independent again, kinda sorta), which led me to thinking about Alan Wilder, which led me to this 2009 post by Aircrash which quoted from another source. The other source had written about Alan Wilder, drummer for Depeche Mode. Here's part of what the other source said, as quoted by Aircrash:

...some of the groups which were even more heavily in thrall to the space-age world of the electronic keyboard - particularly New Order and Depeche Mode - either retained their drummers or, in the latter case, made Alan Wilder play the drums because the rest of the band didn't like Alan Wilder very much, they were jealous of him, standing there behind the keyboard, like Chris Lowe of the Pet Shop Boys, but with leather trousers. Many groups have metaphorically made Alan Wilder play the metaphorical drums, although only one group has literally made Alan Wilder play the drums, that group being Depeche Mode, in which group Alan Wilder was in.

After that the piece got really weird.

The whole thing made me curious - what was the original source of the material quoted by Aircrash? All that Aircrash said was that the Wilder stuff was buried in a post about A Flock of Seagulls.

So I began searching for information on metaphorical drummers, and I was led to a post by a a little blog called the Ontario Empoblog, written in 2005. Perhaps you've heard of it. I know I have.

The post, which also mentions then-love of my life Helen Marine and the four times that individual Beatles quit the Beatles, includes a lengthy quote from the original post about Alan Wilder the metaphorical drummer. It also includes a link to the original post at http://www.ashleypomeroy.com/seagulls.html. Sadly, while there is still a website at ashleypomeroy.com, there is no seagulls.html post any more, so Aircrash and I are the only people who have preserved any portion of the original post.

Or perhaps not. After some searching, I found another copy of Ashley Pomeroy's original essay on A Flock of Seagulls. I'm going to skip over the parts about Rudolf Hess (yes, Pomeroy discusses several British bands) and put Ashley's statements about Wilder in context.

Four people manned the tank that was A Flock of Seagulls. Mike Seagull sang, and played the electronic synthesiser keyboard - and because this was the early 1980s, he almost certainly played a Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 - whilst his brother Paul Seagull played the electric guitars, and ironically although Mike was a hairdresser, he was genetically predisposed to baldness, and indeed his brother Frank was losing his hair even at the height of the group's success, and both have lost their hair now. There were two other Seagulls, being Frank Seagull, who was also a hairdresser, and Ali Seagull, who respectively played the bass guitar and the drums and was the brother of Paul Seagull. A Flock of Seagulls did not pride themselves on their ownership and use of a drum machine. Frank is an uncommon name nowadays.

It is easy to forget, nowadays, that although so many bands of the early 1980s used synthesisers, the vast majority also used traditional electric instruments, and drums, which are not electric at all, although they are often amplified with electric currents and microphones and amplifiers and so forth. None of the aforementioned leading lights of the New Romantic movement entirely dispensed with their drummers, and indeed some of the groups which were even more heavily in thrall to the space-age world of the electronic keyboard - particularly New Order and Depeche Mode - either retained their drummers or, in the latter case, made Alan Wilder play the drums because the rest of the band didn't like Alan Wilder very much, they were jealous of him, standing there behind the keyboard, like Chris Lowe of the Pet Shop Boys, but with leather trousers. Many groups have metaphorically made Alan Wilder play the metaphorical drums, although only one group has literally made Alan Wilder play the drums, that group being Depeche Mode, in which group Alan Wilder was in. He is like Jesus Christ; just as Depeche Mode in 1990 made Alan Wilder play the drums, so too did the society of wherever it was that Jesus Christ lived in BC 30 or whenever... that society made Jesus go from playing the keyboards to playing the drums, and then he left to do a solo project and was never heard of again. By the end of the 1980s the technology which powered the drum machine had advanced to such a state that it could also power musical synthesisers; the machines which had once held rhythm patterns could now hold melody as well, and poor Alan Wilder stroke Jesus Christ was left with nothing to do. But I digress.

After that the piece gets really weird.

P.S. Whenever I see a mention of Visage the band, I think of Kelly Osbourne.

Community, cancer, and a very long tongue

In my mrontemp blog, I shared a couple of posts that mentioned Parrot Heads of the Triad, and the charity work that is performed by this organization of Jimmy Buffett fans.

One of the groups supported by Parrot Heads of the Triad is Relay for Life, a fundraising event for the American Cancer Society.

But it turns out that parrot heads aren't the only music fans who support this charity, as this article from the Dawson (Georgia) News & Advertiser indicates:

Tommie Smith, left, and Cole Pearson pose for a picture with Gene Simmons at Relay for Life. J. Pearson (Gene Simmons) dressed up as the rocker from KISS as part of his team's '70s theme. (Photo/A.J. Puckett)

To see Puckett's photo, click here. You can see J. Pearson in all his glory, including his tongue.

And other KISS-related groups have participated in similar fundraisers (here's an example). Their slogan? "KISS Cancer Goodbye."

And sometimes the fans provide musical entertainment.



OK, they mimed it, but "Paul" certainly gave his all toward the end of the performance.

Yes - a Mike Smrek music video!

On Wednesday, my Empoprise-BI business blog included a post about high school teacher and former basketball player Mike Smrek. It turns out that I'm not the only person who has written about Smrek. In addition to Steve Greenberg of Sporting News, Mr. Smrek has been covered by Peter Kim in The No-Look Pass.

(Coincidentally, on Thursday Dan Patrick stated on-air that he was the master of the "look pass." But I digress.)

Kim's piece goes into detail about Smrek's career, including a positive assessment of Smrek from Karl Malone. Kim also notes that Smrek was the first Canadian to earn an NBA championship ring.

And Kim also lauds Smrek's performance in a video. After the Super Bowl Shuffle (which I wrote about in 2009), it seems that every 1980s team had to put a video together. The Lakers chose to record a "just say no to drugs" message which not only included Smrek, but also some other people that you may have heard of, such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Byron Scott, Kurt Rambis, and Pat Riley.

The video is here.

(empo-tymshft) "Hocus Pocus" not by Focus

One of my favorite songs growing up was "Hocus Pocus" by Focus. It came out at roughly the same time as "Frankenstein," resulting in a double whammy of rock instrumental classics. I just checked to see if I had ever blogged about "Hocus Pocus" before, and it turns out that I did - way back in November 2003 when I first started the Ontario Empoblog.

There are several different edits of "Hocus Pocus," but all of them feature episodes of a guitar-driven chorus, alternating with excerpts of - well, whatever. Yodeling, scat singing, it's all there in its Nederlander glory.

Whenever you have a great song like this, the question always arises - is the song itself a good song, or is it only good because of the particular arrangement? Many songs work well no matter who sings them or how they are sung - "With a Little Help for My Friends" is a good example.

So what would happen if "Hocus Pocus" were arranged differently?

On Wednesday evening my niece was begging me to listen to the Cleverlys on YouTube, to hear their bluegrass take on Beyonce. (My niece, being unfamiliar with bluegrass, referred to the Cleverlys as a folk band.) But once I discovered that the Cleverlys had performed a bluegrass version of "Hocus Pocus," I had to hear that.



Well, yodeling certainly fits well with acoustic music - just ask Slim Whitman. And the scat singing works well in this arrangement also.

I wonder how many of the people listening to that Cleverlys performance were familiar with the original arrangement.

(empo-tymshft) (empo-utoobd) Peaches, Herb, Simon, Nick, the Taylors, and Justin?

I heard Duran Duran's songs when they first came out, but some people weren't around at the time. When THEPRANKCALLERS94 posted "Union of the Snake" to YouTube, commenter HazelEyedEpiphany offered the following observations:

omfg! i remembe the first time i heard this was on the radio a few years before all this justin bieber crap, and i never knew the name of the song! :( yesterday my friend was telling me about her mom's favorite band when she was a tween, i looked them up and...REUNITED AND IT FEELS SO GOOD!!!!

It should be noted that the final phrase is a quote from a 1970s song that predates Duran Duran, but has obviously entered our musical consciousness.

Speaking of Herb (real name Herb Feemster, stage name Herb Fame), he became a court security officer in 1986 and hasn't looked back. Well, not much.

"I come here to work," he says during an interview in an empty courtroom. "I really enjoy coming to the court every day. I enjoy the people here; I smile and laugh with them every day. And I enjoy standing in the court and listening to these trials."

Or:

Some entertainers hire bodyguards; Feemster is more or less working as one, as his duties include judicial personnel protection. He carries a Glock and two extra magazines on his belt, and if you want to make a No. 1-with-a-bullet joke, well, by all means.

I think I'll pass on making that joke. And I won't make that joke with Peaches, either - Francine Barker passed away in 2005.

Common names

For the record, David Mason, the trumpet soloist who appeared on "Penny Lane" - and who recently died - is NOT the same person as Dave Mason, former member of Traffic and solo artist who also performed with some ex-Beatles.

Oh, and if you want to refer to Mick Jones the English guitarist, you need to specify whether you're talking about the one from the Clash, or the one from Foreigner.

Presumably you can buy nine inch nails at the Home Depot

On Saturday I was at the Home Depot in north Fontana, California, and I happened to look up at the ceiling. There, in big letters, was the word "REZNOR."

Specifically, I was presumably looking at the Reznor Unit Heater:

Suspended from the ceiling of a Factory, Box Store or Warehouse, unit heaters provide an excellent solution for Doorway Heating, Freeze Protection, Space Heating, and summer time air circulation.

Low First Cost
Easy to Install & Maintain
Excellent Redundancy

Let's go back to the nineteenth century, when a man named George Reznor was being awfully inventive.

George Reznor, manufacturer, inventor & Civil War veteran of Mercer [Pennsylvania] ... was born November 9, 1835 in Lancaster County. His parents, John and Mary Reznor in 1842 settled on a farm at Leech's Corners, this county.

After attending the county school of his neighborhood, Mr. Reznor took service with the Cleveland Engineering Co....

Mr. Reznor later ... entered the drug firm of Reznor and Williams and later that of Reznor and Garber. Mr. Reznor perfected a machine for the manufacturing of illuminating and fuel gas from gasoline and later a gas stove. For the making of the later device, the Reznor Manufacturing Company was organized. Its plant is said to be one of the largest of its kind in the world.

Or at least it was in 1915, when George Reznor died. The company was subsequently managed by his descendants - George Foster Reznor, George Watson Reznor, David Reznor Webster - before the family sold the business.

In November of 1961 Reznor Manufacturing Company became a subsidiary of Bell & Gossett Company of Morton Grove, Illinois. In 1962 it became a division of that company. In September of 1963, Bell & Gossett became a subsidiary of International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation. Today Reznor is owned by Thomas Betts, Incorporated.

Now you may have noticed that I posted this in my Empoprise-MU music blog, not my Empoprise-BI business blog. This raises the obvious question. And the answer is yes:

Is Trent Reznor, the lead singer for the band Nine Inch Nails, associated with Reznor HVAC Equipment?

Trent Reznor is a direct descendant of George Reznor, who founded the Reznor Company in 1888. The Reznor Family sold the business in the 1960's. Reznor heaters are still manufactured in Mercer, Pennsylvania - Trent's home town.

Now did the name of Trent's band possibly bubble up subliminally from the family's industrial background? I guess it's possible. Here's what Trent has said about the band name:

I don't know if you've ever tried to think of band names, but usually you think you have a great one and you look at it the next day and it's stupid. I had about 200 of those. Nine Inch Nails lasted the two week test, looked great in print, and could be abbreviated easily. It really doesn't have any literal meaning. It seemed kind of frightening. [In his best he-man voice] Tough and manly! It's a curse trying to come up with band names.

Of course, if you're familiar with the av1611.org website, you know that there are other accounts:

DC Talk's video "Jesus Freak" is one of the most popular Christian video's ever recorded.

But, how "Christian" is it?

"Jesus Freak" was directed by an Englishman named Simon Maxwell. And who is Simon Maxwell? Simon Maxwell is video director for the satanic and blasphemous Nine Inch Nails!

DC Talk openly admits to watching one of Nine Inch Nails videos, and liked Maxwell's style. "We had seen some of Simon's work with Nine Inch Nails", says DC Talk vocalist Toby McKeehan. "HIS STYLE APPEALED TO US." (Billboard, November 11, 1995)

Have you seen the "ultra-blasphemous" video "Closer" by Nine Inch Nails? It shows a monkey crucified on a cross!

And those who are familiar with contemporary Christian music can probably deduce that the av1611.org folks think that it's as bad as Nine Inch Nails and former Trent discovery Marilyn Manson. Read this for av1611.org's views on Michael W. Smith and Steve Taylor. (Here's one of my previous posts on Taylor, and here's another one.)

Now of course Trent Reznor isn't the only musician connected to the business world. Bette Nesmith Graham's son received an inheritance in 1980 that not only ensured that he could keep well-stocked with knit caps, but also that if the son ever made a mistake on a typewriter, he could afford to buy something to correct it. For example, perhaps the song might leave the G off of the word Cruising.

Not for the Bruins - I revisit O.P.M.

On Sunday night, Mike Nayyar shared the fact that he was listening to Elton John's "Levon." This reminded me of my previous comments in this blog about "Levon" and other early Elton John songs, and the influence of Paul Buckmaster. Now Buckmaster was not the only creator of O.P.M. - over-produced music. In the post, I made a passing reference to another tune.

Now "Tusk" was pretty much a one-off - there's no marching band on "Albatross"...

"Tusk," of course, is the title track from Fleetwood Mac's Tusk album. The title song famously featured the University of Southern California marching band, which was recorded in a nearly-empty Dodger Stadium, decades before Frank McCourt owned the place.

Now you can find several third-party sources that discuss how the song was conceived, and how the video was conceived, but I thought it best to go to the original source - the band's website. After all, the page promised to provide commentary on the songs. Unfortunately, the commentary on "Tusk" was written by third parties. Here's a sample:

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There are a number of similar types of comments for everything from jewelry to sports jerseys.

And you thought the RECORDING was a cacophony...

P.S. The video's embedding is disabled by request, but you can see it here.

Keynes and Hayek rapping about the last century

Jim Ulvog is a friend, a fellow worshipper, and a blogger. I've referenced him at various times in my Empoprise-BI business blog, but have never done so in my Empoprise-MU music blog.

Until now.

Ulvog's recent post Rappin’ economists, round 2. Yes, rapping. Yes, round 2 links to an EconStories post entitled "Fight of the Century."

In one corner, you find John Maynard Keynes.

In the other corner, you find F. A. Hayek.

Their weapons? Rhymes. Here's one of the initial volleys from Keynes.

Are you kidding? my cure works perfectly fine…
have a look, the great recession ended back in ’09.
I deserve credit. Things would have been worse
All the estimates prove it—I’ll quote chapter and verse

Here's one of Hayek's responses, concerning World War II.

Wow. One data point and you’re jumping for joy
the Last time I checked, wars only destroy
There was no multiplier, consumption just shrank
As we used scarce resources for every new tank

Pretty perverse to call that prosperity
Rationed meat, Rationed butter… a life of austerity
When that war spending ended your friends cried disaster
yet the economy thrived and grew faster



But this isn't the only economic music on YouTube. Here's a love song to Hayek.

We we so excited and it ain't even Friday

The person who shared this video with me noted that it included a lot of rap references. I missed most of those, but I did get one of the references. (See the title of this post.)

Iman Crosson as Barack Obama presenting the Osama death message that was ORIGINALLY planned.



And no, I don't know who Antoine Dodson is. But I know who Charlie Sheen is. And Donald Trump. As the Huffington Post notes, the video "works in almost every meme from the last month." And even after Sheen and Trump and Dodson have been forgotten, it's still a catchy tune.

I Am Not Trendy, the May 7 edition

On April 28, I heard the Florence + the Machine Song "Dog Days Are Over" for the first time. The song was released several years ago, but I finally got around to hearing it last month. I liked it so much that I posted a video of the song in the Empoprise-MU page on Facebook. Here's the video that I posted:



I heard the song again today.

At the Lowe's in Upland, California.

It was followed by Naked Eyes' "Always Something There to Remind Me."

Dave Berry Slept Here (where "here" is Sheffield)

There is a "Crying Game" website, based in the UK, that talks about the rich musical history of Sheffield.

Sheffield?

Yes. This is obviously not a Boy George website, but a site dedicated to Dave Berry, the original singer for "The Crying Game." Here's what Berry's web site says about Sheffield:

Sheffield has long since proved to be a fertile breeding ground for musical talent- from the Human Leaque, ABC and Def Leppard in the 80s to Pulp and Moloko in the 90s and more recently the Arctic Monkeys and Richard Hawley. But back in the 60s, the city of steel only reared two genuine stars; Joe Cocker, and the enigmatic Dave Berry.

I lingered on the website, and it suddenly started playing "This Strange Effect." Normally I hate website that play music without allowing the viewer to control it...but it's a good song.



And here's Dave singing "The Crying Game.".



By the way, Boy George isn't the only artist who has covered a Dave Berry song. Listen to Hooverphonic.



P.S. For an explanation of the title, read the first sentence of this post.

Osama, peace, and that song yet again

If you've been reading my music posts over the last several years, it's probably no surprise to you that a particular song has stuck in my head since the announcement of Osama bin Laden's death. If you haven't read my old posts, let me refer you to one of them - a February 2005 post entitled Cowboy in Pakistan:

Estephania points to BigBrainBoy, whose friend James saw the following text on CNN:

Hunt for bin Laden
Experts agree: Al Qaeda
leader is dead or alive

In an effort to satisfy my regenerated earworm, I found this performance of the song in question.



First, I have to say that the introduction to the song is outstanding.

Second, I have to say that the venue also sounds interesting. It was recorded at the Moscow Music Peace Festival in 1989, and Wikipedia has a lot to say about it:

The Moscow Music Peace Festival was a one-time gathering of high-profile hard rock acts for a performance in Moscow, Soviet Union on 12 and 13 August 1989 to promote world peace and establish international cooperation in fighting the drug war in Russia. It was part of an era of momentous change in the Soviet Union, in which capitalism was on the march and communism was collapsing. In 1991, the Soviet Union was officially dissolved.

The concert exposed the Soviet Union to western culture and specifically rock music. The concert was also a pinnacle moment in glam metal and the peak in hard rock music's popularity.

Oh, and...

The concert was put together by the Make a Difference Foundation, rock producer Doc McGhee, Stas Namin and other major players in the Soviet Union and the United States. McGhee agreed to bring his artists to Moscow after becoming involved in a drug scandal himself and wishing to avoid a jail sentence.

Mötley Crüe have been on record stating they were upset with McGhee at this point in time. McGhee let Bon Jovi close the show, and use pyro, something Mötley Crüe was told they could not do. Bon Jovi fired McGhee after this show, as did Mötley Crüe.

Oh, and...

Don't Blame Me: The Tales of Ozzy Osbourne states that after the event, Osbourne was given multiple bottles of Russian vodka. Ozzy drank all of them and became "beyond drunk". It was then that Osbourne attempted to kill his manager–wife Sharon Osbourne.

For some more context on my discussions about Bon Jovi, turn the page to this earlier Empoprise-MU post.

Not everyone is a Jim Morrison fan

It's fair to say that Jim Morrison is (was) (is???????) one of the more divisive figures in music. For every person who orates on Morrison's artistic genius, there is another person whose views of Morrison are not as positive.

One of the latter writes for the Onion.

Citing the 17-year-old's awkward overuse of Native American imagery and general ability to make long lists of random adjectival phrases, the Jim Morrison Foundation announced Monday the awarding of a $50,000 grant to self-obsessed ... Jerome Caudry of Shullsburg, WI.

Read the whole thing here.

It's a wonder this band didn't play Korea

Entertainers who have a variety of talents have an advantage, because they have more of a chance of earning a paycheck. Take the members of The Relatives, a band from the late 1960s. Their most famous gig was a three-month stint at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas. Since the lead singer was under 21, she had to enter the casino via the kitchen.

Eventually The Relatives ran its course, and the lead singer moved on to another band that played a just-opened San Francisco hotel.

[T]heir first performance was in a brand new San Francisco hotel that had no sidewalk entrance built yet, so they played to mostly the janitors and whatever hotel guests parked their cars in the underground garage. But she performed so well under such intimidating circumstances that Howard "Speedy" Garfin nicknamed Lynda "Wonder Woman"!

Which was a good thing, because Lynda the lead singer happened to be Lynda Carter, who would become most famous for her television role as Wonder Woman.

But her friend from The Relatives, the drummer in the band, didn't do too badly either. Carter got him a guest shot on the Wonder Woman show, but by that time the drummer was already famous from movie and television appearances. That drummer was Gary Burghoff, most famous for playing the character Radar O'Reilly.

And they probably don't like Jane Fonda movies either

Perhaps you don't remember - I honestly don't remember parts of it - but when large segments of the U.S. population opposed the Vietnam War, some assumed that the opponents were members of the Communist Party. "Hanoi" Jane Fonda, Walter Cronkite, and so forth - you name them, they were all part of Communist Party cells.

So you would assume that after Vietnam fell, all of these so-called Communists would be greeted with warm welcomes by the Vietnamese government. Or, alternatively, the Vietnamese government would have laughed at the stupid Americans that supported them.

Would anyone have considered that the Vietnamese reaction would be - total indifference?

Take Bob Dylan, considered by many as the voice of a generation until Bruce Springsteen and Doug Fieger came along. You would think that he would be a hit in Vietnam. Not exactly:

Days after his historic and headline-generating concert debut in mainland China, Bob Dylan played his first performance in Vietnam on Sunday night, eliciting criticism but drawing only moderate crowds....

Appearing in a performance space that could hold about 8,000 people, Mr. Dylan played to a crowd only half that size...

The New York Times and its source articles identified two possible reasons for the tepid reaction. First, the ticket prices were higher than the average Vietnamese monthly salary. Second, most people in Vietnam don't know who the heck Bob Dylan is, since half of the Vietnamese population is, in the words of the popular phrase, "over 30."

And many people, including Human Rights Watch, Maureen Dowd, and others objected to the fact that the Vietnamese government had approval over Dylan's set list - something that hasn't happened since Ed Sullivan modified Rolling Stones lyrics many decades ago.

I guess Ed Sullivan was a commie too.

If only more band interviews were like this - Emily the Strange interviews Ladytron

[12:15 PDT - MADE A COUPLE OF CORRECTIONS. IF HELEN TRULY WERE A MARINE, HER HAIR WOULD BE REALLY SHORT.]

Interviews can be tedious, or they can be good, or they can be exceptional.

Since the band Ladytron has been around since 1999, I'm sure that the band members have experienced all three types of interviews, over and over again. So I'm sure that an interview that takes a different tack is welcomed.

I have no idea who Emily the Strange is, but she obviously knows a bit about Ladytron, based upon the questions that she asked Helen (Marnie) and Mira (Aroyo).

And oh, what questions.

The interview is undated, but a Ladytron blog shared it on April 10, so it may (or may not) be recent.

Here are a couple of excerpts:

(Emily) If you boost all the RGB and in your cover art, what do you get?

Mira: Owls kissing

Helen: Eagles and lizards.

And here's another one that Mira fans will appreciate:

(Emily) Have you invented any instruments? Tell me about them...

Mira: No but I have invented many many strains of bacteria and quite a few new genes and proteins.

Helen: Not as yet.

Let me share one more:

(Emily) Do you ever use the C-sides of records?

Mira: On the hexagonal records we use the C side for writing notes and the F sides for doodling when I'm bored.

Helen: For secret tracks.

Read the whole interview here or here.

Let me close out with some other like-minded observations about the band and its work. I like the site songmeanings.net, in which various people analyze songs. Several people analyzed the Ladytron song "Seventeen" but two of those analyses stood out.

shoez:

the song is obviously about fishing. if you are too big(21 inches) they can't legally keep you, so they take a picture and throw you back in. if you are the right size(17 inches) they want you. you guys read too much into these songs sometimes.

ephidaboost:

It's about rim sizes. She is saying that 17" rims are great because they are the most functional diameter for most sports cars. She is taking a stab at the homeys who roll around with 21" rims basically saying that they are just for show "taking polaroids" and the "say that they will let you know" part is a reference to how people who drive on oversized rims are less responsible than the general population and when they get interviewed they almost never get jobs. She makes it clear that 21" rims are "no fun" because they have high rotational weight and cause performance issues and low gas mileage. By saying "so come on" she is saying "Come on, guys. Big rims look rediculous and offer no performance advantage. Spend that money on something that will better your lives, like your education or your children."

Here is something that I wrote back in May 2005. Louis Marshall Jones is better known by his stage name "Grandpa Jones."

The only similarities between Louis Marshall Jones and Helen Marnie is that both of them wore makeup.

And I should close by thanking Martin Bryant, whose scrobble of the song "Seventeen" inspired me to dig deeper.



And after reading this Reuben/Mira interview in which they discussed the video, I am forced to conclude that shoez and ephidaboost were both on so something here.

Phil Collins revisited via @Joffi - and I do care

I previously discussed Phil Collins in this blog back on September 11, 2009, in a post that looked at his retirement from drumming due to spinal issues. It also looked at Collins' drumming work as a solo artist, in Genesis, and with Brian Eno.

It's time to revisit Collins again.

My lastfmfeeds room on FriendFeed tracks last.fm scrobbles by various music fans, and it caught this March 28 scrobble by Joffi222 (@Joffi on Twitter, Michael W. May in the real world). The song? "I Don't Care Anymore."

If you want to talk about interesting drum parts, here's a good place to start. When Collins shot the video for this song, he had a whole band behind him as the singer, but in reality Collins himself recorded all of the parts except for the guitar.



The song, incidentally, was written as the result of a breakup of a marriage. No, not the breakup with Orianne Cevey a couple of years ago that cost him millions, but from an earlier marriage to Andrea Bertorelli that ended in 1980. Collins is quoted as saying:

"I had a wife, two children, two dogs, and the next day I didn't have anything. So a lot of these songs were written because I was going through these emotional changes."

Despite this, the UK Biography Channel web site claims that Collins and Bertorelli "remain on friendly terms."

So presumably Berrtorelli doesn't think of Collins as a gorilla.

Bands encouraging covers - OneRepublic and Tamar Kaprelian

I spent one evening on YouTube listening to cover versions of the OneRepublic song "Apologize," including versions by SpongeBob SquarePants and a Chipmunks knockoff, and then I ran across this cover. One difference - this cover was selected by OneRepublic itself as the winner of a contest.



Not only did she win the cover contest, but OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder helped her get a recording contract with Interscope Records. Her first single, "New Day," ended up being used on the TV show The Hills.

More information can be found at Tamar Kaprelian's official website.

Wes Farrell and David Cassidy on...David Cassidy

For those who don't recall the name Wes Farrell, he was a producer and music businessman who, among many other accomplishments, produced the records of the Partridge Family.

Now I realize that some of you may not necessarily recall David Cassidy. He first achieved stratospheric fame as one of the actors, and the lead singer, in said Partridge Family. He has continued his involvement in music ever since, though not necessarily with screaming girls following his every move.

The Partridge Family, like the Monkees before it, was a band that was primarily created for a television show. Unlike their TV predecessors, who eventually exercised some control over their music, the Partridge Family remained firmly under the control of the music folks. Most of the actors in the Partridge Family didn't even appear on the records themselves. Cassidy of course was on the records, and his TV mother and real life stepmother Shirley Jones - a woman with an illustrious musical career of her own - was used as a backup singer.

When singer-to-be Cassidy met producer Farrell, two things were clear - Cassidy had never been in a recording studio before, and Cassidy's personal tastes in music did not necessarily coincide with what Farrell envisioned for the television show. Farrell, in a Tiger Beat interview before the release of the Partridge Family's second LP:

After talking with Paul Witt and Bob Claver, the show’s producers, the next step was deciding what is The Partridge Family? Who is it? Where is it? So we began with David, and it was funny because he was a bit unprepared. Not knowing who or what is a Wes Farrell, we arranged to meet at Paul Witt’s office. David came down with his guitar. He wasn’t really sure he could describe to me what he wanted to do vocally because he was a little hung up on certain kinds of music that weren’t necessarily the type I wanted to record.

Cassidy has subsequently described his musical interests at that time, and this Gary James interview (which occurred decades after the Partridge Family phenomenon) illustrates this:

You know, I had a lot of musical influences in my career, some of which were really juxtaposition to antithesis perhaps of what my public image was from the television show I did. Long before I was on television playing this character and doing music that was designed for that show. I'd seen Hendrix five times. I'd seen B.B. King, Clapton, Albert King, Muddy Waters and all kinds of Rock and heavy Blues influences. So, I was a guy that had a vastly different musical taste than just the stuff that I was performing.

But Cassidy was a professional, worked well with Farrell, mastered the recording process quickly...and became a bubblegum superstar. But Cassidy still felt stifled, and as a result was open to a 1972 Rolling Stone photo shoot which was anything but bubblegum.

Oh well...at least Yoko Ono wasn't in the picture.

Finale

Another post related to my father's death, and to music.

My father was a user of the Finale software package, which is published by MakeMusic, Inc. On February 26 he had a support question on the software, which he submitted via MakeMusic's automated customer support system. As it turns out, this is the ONLY way in which you can contact MakeMusic customer support. On the surface it seems like a reasonable way to do business, since 99.9% of all people who use the Finale software have Internet and e-mail access.

My father traded questions and answers with a MakeMusic representative, but his problem wasn't getting solved despite MakeMusic's attempts. One afternoon in early March my father sent an e-mail to the customer representative. The representative followed up with an e-mail message a few minutes later, and another the next day.

The representative, however, had no way of knowing that my father was unable to answer the messages.

Several days later, MakeMusic sent another e-mail to my father's e-mail address. This was the message that I saw when I accessed my late father's e-mail account. I forwarded this message to my own personal e-mail account and wrote a reply to MakeMusic (following MakeMusic's instructions to paste my reply between the two "Please enter your reply below this line" and "Please enter your reply above this line" messages). My reply basically stated that my father had died, that no one in my family would use the Finale software any longer, that this support ticket could be closed, and that all future correspondence should be directed to my e-mail address, not my father's.

My message was received by MakeMusic's automated customer support system, and I received this reply:

Your recent incident update was from an email address not associated with the incident. In an effort to maintain the security of information, we cannot update the incident using this email address. If you are the incident owner and your email address has changed, or you want to be able to update the incident using this email account, please update your contact information using the following link, then resubmit your update.

Again, there's probably a really good reason for MakeMusic to impose this level of security on customer support communications. You don't want someone sending spurious customer support reports in - for example, you don't want a person from Company X to falsely claim that a support ticket from Competitior Y can be closed.

But it's still disconcerting to find that MakeMusic's automated customer support system allows no exceptions whatsoever.

So I made one. I looked up the name of MakeMusic's COO/CFO and forwarded my original e-mail to her, along with an explanation.

Automated customer support systems are not equipped to handle extraordinary cases, so I am submitting this to you directly.

I'll grant that this case is a very rare case, but it only goes to prove that no single system can be designed that can handle every single possibility.

P.S. If you were a fan of the movies "Ratatouille" and "Elizabeth: The Golden Age," Finale software was used when working on those films' soundtracks.

You can't take it with you

No, I haven't been blogging for the last few weeks. This is due to personal issues - namely, the death of my father.

At one point, I found myself helping to make arrangement in a funeral home. Now funeral home directors are by nature caring, and this director certainly was caring. But in the course of our discussions, certain documents needed to be signed.

One of these documents involved our acknowledgment of our responsibilities to guard against copyright infringement. Basically, if we brought our own music into the funeral, the appropriate royalties would still have to be paid.

Afterward, the contractual clause reminded me of some words written by George Harrison, although Harrison's concerned the government rather than private entities. Perhaps you recall the words:

And my advice for those who die
Declare the pennies on your eye

Two ways to use "The Sun's Gone Dim and the Sky's Turned Black"

If you have a song, with lyrics, you would think that a video presentation of the song would be pretty straightforward.

But compare these two interpretations of a Johann Johannsson song.

Magnus Helgason:



Battle:Los Angeles:

Update on attempts to preserve the Pussycat Dolls brand

Remember the Sugababes? They were the band that had significant membership turnover, so that by 2009 there were no original members in the band, prompting one last.fm biographer to refer to the band as the Sugafakes. That particular edit has long since been removed from the Sugababes' last.fm biography, and life goes on.

Well, another band's last.fm biography has been edited, though not that dramatically.

You'll recall that in June 2010, I blogged about the Pussycat Dolls.

For those who are not familar with this band, they're a bunch of half-naked women who sing and dance. Actually, the Pussycat Dolls band is an extension of the overall Pussycat Dolls brand, which initially started as a dance troupe before any music was released. Now this sounds like it could be a formula for disaster, but they've actually put out some pretty good music.

But, as I noted in my post, there appeared to be two schools of thought concerning the band. On the one hand, band members such as Ashley Roberts were making public statements saying that the band had broken up. Band manager Robin Antin, however, denied that those words were accurate, even after most of the band members had left.

Note the semantic difference. If the Pussycat Dolls had broken up, then they would no longer exist and the brand would be dead. If the Pussycat Dolls merely changed 80% of its membership, then it would still be a going concern, no different than before.

So at the time of my June post, a new set of Pussycat Dolls was performing - lead singer Nicole, and new members Kherington, Rino, Vanessa, and Jamie. I figured that band manager Robin Antin would take steps to get the band into the studio, get some recordings out, and do whatever possible to ensure that people thought of the Pussycat Dolls as a brand, and forgot all about Kimberly, Melody, Jessica, and Ashley, just like most Beatle fans have forgotten about Tommy Moore (who?), who preceded Norman Chapman (who?) as drummer. Chapman was followed by Pete Best as drummer, but Best is primarily remembered by IBM Watson and other trivia maniacs. So if Antin could get an album out with the new Pussycat Dolls, all would be fine.

One night I was scrobbling stuff on last.fm, and I happened to peek at last.fm's Pussycat Dolls page, which included the following title:

The Pussycat Dolls

(2003 – 2010)

The biography included a December 11 edit from last.fm user wadamz:

On December 5 2010, Nicole Scherzinger, the lead singer of The Pussycat Dolls, announced that she is leaving the band to concentrate on her solo career and acting projects. Scherzinger follows the four other members - Kimberly Wyatt, Melody Thornton, Jessica Sutta and Ashley Roberts in exiting the group.

last.fm is not really set up to include citations in biographies, so I had to search for the story. I found a post in The A Music Blog, which referenced a News of the World interview. The interview is now behind a paywall, but Scherzinger reportedly said:

We had our time. Some of the girls left the group. That was out of my hands. I wouldn't want to be in a group with other girls -- we were like a tight family.

So I figured I'd get Robin Antin's side of the story, starting at the Pussycat Dolls' website. The site's news page, however, hasn't been updated since September 2009, and doesn't even mention new members Kherington et al. I did find a mention of the new members on the blog Homorazzi, but somehow I suspect that this wasn't an authorized press release from Antin:

The new line-up consists of a SYTYCD alum, ABDC alum, Girlicious reject and a Laker Girl. Warning girls, you don’t want to piss of the HBIC (Head Bitch In Charge) Nicole or else you might be the new Melody, Kimberly, Jessica or Ashley.

Read more at: http://www.homorazzi.com/article/pussycat-dolls-new-lineup-new-members-kherington-rino-vanessa-curry-jamie-lee-ruiz/#ixzz1EPE7a9ue


Homorazzi lists the Twitter accounts for the new members:






Because we're in the home stretch of the NBA season, I figured that I'd see what former Laker Girl Vanessa Curry was saying about Robin Antin's fabulous band. And I found a tweet in which Curry retweeted Antin:

Oh sugz so precious!RT @robinantinpcd: My little Sugar baby, she's such a Lady! ♥ http://yfrog.com/gzqxuqjj

The tweet goes to a picture of...a dog. I went through several weeks of tweets, and Curry never explicitly mentioned the band at all.

But Antin is keeping up the publicity, with this January 22 tweet about a Dolls performance. It links to a Twitpic, but unfortunately for Antin, someone chose to leave the following comment:

What the F*ck???? OMG They Are NOT PCD

Apparently Antin needs to do a little more work to sell this thing.

Beatles as hacks

I was thinking about the Lennon-McCartney songwriting team one night, and its ability to produce merchandising product.

Now this flies in the face of most of us who think of the Beatles as pure artists supreme, but the fact remains that they got their start by being very talented practitioners of Tin Pan Alley techniques.

Think about it, based upon what we know about the Beatles today. By late 1963, the Beatles and Rory Storm's Hurricanes (and their drummer Richie) had torn both Liverpool and Hamburg apart, playing for hours on end, getting smashed on booze and pills, and having an unknown number of sexual conquests. Lennon had already done the proper thing by becoming a married man so his son would have a father. And what were he and his songwriting partner writing about? What was the subject matter of the song that was about to dominate America?

Holding hands.

Now Lennon and McCartney could have written about Hamburg gangsters or who knows what, but that wouldn't have moved product for Parlophone and Capitol. Songs about holding hands, however, would be bought in mass quantities, so that's what Lennon and McCartney produced.

In short, the two were hacks. Very good hacks, but hacks nonetheless. It would be several years before Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison realized that they could write songs about any dang thing that they pleased. If Harrison had told the Parlophone brass in 1962 that he wanted to write a song about the tax rates in Britain, they would have been laughed out of Abbey Road.

Speaking of Abbey Road, the famous picture inspired a comment thread in Free Republic. And not surprisingly, given the political orientation of Free Republic, the Beatles were not universally admired by all.

I don't hate the Beatles as a group, during their time they were great.

What ticks me off tho is the accolades that have been thrown on the individual artists John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr after the Beatles. Individually they were hacks with nothing noteworthy being produced by themselves but because they were "Beatles", they were still idolized......

I happen to disagree, and in fact think that the reverse is true. Anything that Harrison, or Lennon, or Starr, or McCartney released on their own is often denigrated because the other three are not present. (For this reason, "Ringo" stands out as the best album ever among certain fans.)

But because of my age, and the fact that I was too young to catch the Beatles in their heyday, I personally was able to enjoy the ex-Beatles on their own terms, without immediately comparing it to what had gone before. During the early 1970s, AM radio was defined by the guitar work of George Harrison, songs like "It Don't Come Easy" were enjoyed by all, and that band called Wings was releasing stuff like "Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five." Only later did I discover that these guys had all been in a former band, kinda like the Monkees but even more zany.

Now I'll grant that the solo Beatles never set out to do concept albums - unless you consider "Double Fantasy" a concept album, and that of course is a collaboration. But all four of them were clearly able to create some great songs on their own.

In fact, I much prefer Ringo's solo work to his work within the Beatles - "What Goes On" is outstanding, but much of the rest is good at best. "You were in a car crash and you lost your hair" over organ and fiddle? Suitably bizarre, but not something that a hackmaster would use to dominate the charts.

In fact, if the Beatles HAD reunited, I suspect that the best part of the reunion concerts would have been the Beatles playing post-Beatles songs. McCartney playing piano on "Imagine." Lennon taking Eric Idle's lines on "This Song." Or better still, a medley of two songs - McCartney's "Too Many People" and Lennon's response, "How Do You Sleep." Now that would make for riveting stagework as Lennon and Harrison joined guitars for McCartney's attack, followed by wild McCartney bass lines on Lennon's attack.