Say it is so, Popjustice Live!

Over a year ago, on March 22, 2009, I posted something about the Siobhan Donaghy song "Ghosts" and included two video clips in the post. Here is the second:



As noted on the video page itself, this was filmed at the second Popjustice Live event, in April 2007. This concert was reviewed in - where else? - Popjustice.

The second Popjustice Live took place in London on Wednesday night and it was very good....

The final live act was Siobhan Donaghy, who did a load of songs from her new album including the hit single 'Don't Give It Up'. Lots of her fans took lots of photographs which you will find on the internet if you look quite hard. Good old Siobhan.

Say it ain't so, Pops!

Continuing on the Talking Heads theme, and tying in on some items I'm discussing on my business blog, here's an unusual video of a song that many of us have never heard. Not just because the particular clip includes German overdubbing of the dialogue - you see, the song itself wasn't overdubbed. But the more famous version of the song, which was released on a best-selling record, was sung by David Byrne. This version, taken from the movie, is sung by Pops Staples.



Now Roebuck "Pops" Staples was well-known as a gospel musician who had some secular hits with the Staple Singers. And then he recorded this song called "Papa Legba," which, to put it mildly, is not necessarily orthodox Christian gospel. Not at all:

Amazingly, even today, while traveling in and around the Mississippi Delta, you’ll still hear fabled tales of the old bluesmen selling their souls at the crossroads in exchange for supernatural musical gifts. Whereas the Robert Johnson tale has become the most widely known (to the point of ad nauseam), it is in fact more of a composite story, derived from old African American folk traditions that found its way to the Americas centuries ago embedding itself into our cultural fabric.

Stateside, these themes morphed, and the sale of one’s soul at the “crossroads”, due to Christianity’s influence, was to be made with Satan, or the devil. If traced back to its roots though you’ll find it more likely that such a deal – if there was one to be made – would have been conducted with Papa Legba, the spiritual intermediary between our world and the next. Known by many a name in Voodoo, Voudou, Santeria, etc, Legba was a gatekeeper said to grant access to the spirit world.

In David Byrne's film, Pops' spells summon love for John Goodman's character. But Staples' own character was fused by two traditions, the Christian tradition and the blues tradition, that intertwined in the lives of many. Staples:

"I was a Christian man," Staples once said. "I figured blues wasn't the right field for me. My family was a real religious family. There were 14 of us. In the evening, when we used to get through working in the fields picking cotton, we didn't have no amusement but to sing to ourselves. We didn't have no radio, no television, nothing like that. That's the way my family got started singing. I took it from my father's family and brought it to Chicago with my own family. I knew how to get harmony and I taught each one. I'd hit the guitar string where they were supposed to sing and they caught on."

By the 1970s, when they reached the height of their popularity, the Staple Singers were the definition of crossover. Take the subsequent history of one of their biggest hits:

"I'll Take You There" ... has received a second life through numerous covers by BeBe & CeCe Winans and recently via General Motors commercials.

General Motors? Talk about a deal with the devil...

I think of the people that are working for me

I am an infrequent contributor (under my Ontario Emperor alter ego) to the Scrine website, and my most recent hobby there has been to tag several scrines with the tag "Talking Heads song Don't Worry About the Government." (See those scrines here.)

The meat of the song from our perspective comes from the second verse of the lyrics.

I see the states, across this big nation
I see the laws made in Washington, D.C.
I think of the ones I consider my favorites
I think of the people that are working for me

Some civil servants are just like my loved ones
They work so hard and they try to be strong
I'm a lucky guy to live in my building
They own the buildings to help them along

I've heard a recording of a live performance of this song, and the end of the song was greeted by laughter from the audience. Perhaps people didn't take David Byrne seriously.

Now I don't know if anyone laughed when the Talking Heads appeared on Old Grey Whistle Test.



And, to put it in historical perspective, this performance included the Talking Heads' new keyboard player, Jerry Harrison, who had previously been in another band.

#followfriday why @MissKellyO @rahsheen @clydetombaugh @chrisbrogan

First, a word of explanation.

I don't think I've ever participated in Follow Friday before, but I was inspired to do so by this post by Chris Brogan. Brogan, while lauding the practice, saw some drawbacks in the way it was implemented.

Follow Friday has become a bit of a mess to look at on Twitter, because every Friday, many people start posting 140 characters worth of names of people they feel you might benefit from knowing.

Brogan proposed a solution:

My idea: turn Follow Friday into a single tweet with a link to a blog post of the people you think others should follow.

It solves two problems: It gives you more than 140 to talk about the people you recommend, and it also cleans up Twitter so that we don’t watch a stream of @someoneawesome names rushing by all day.

You with me?

Not entirely. You see, here's what Chris' Follow Friday tweet looked like:

My list of people to follow for this Friday - http://bit.ly/b8Fg3S

Now perhaps some may regard the lack of @names in the tweet as a refreshing lack of clutter, but to my mind they reduce the usability of the tweet. How will Twitter users @Ed, @MayhemStudios, and the rest know why they're getting the sudden surge in traffic? The critical information is buried away in a blog post.

Initially I simply stated my thoughts in a comment to Brogan's original post, but then I figured it would be better off to model my ideal vision of how this should be done. Hence this post, with its title "#followfriday why @MissKellyO @rahsheen @clydetombaugh @chrisbrogan."

Since I'm writing this in my music blog, the listed #followfriday people are all musically-related. Well, with the exception of Brogan, and perhaps he's a karaoke master or something like that.

Let's start with @MissKellyO, or Kelly Osbourne. Introduced to the world via reality television, she earned her place on this list via one song - "One Word." See my June 2008 post about this song - sadly, the lip-synced all-male version of the song is no longer available on YouTube.

Next we have @rahsheen (Rahsheen Porter). He's known online for a number of things, one of which is his music. Check out his music page or his last.fm page.

My last Follow Friday person is not a musician, unless he warbles Barry Manilow songs to his pet pig. @clydetombaugh is the Twitter handle for Gene "Bean" Baxter, a resident of the state of Washington who broadcasts on a Los Angeles radio station. Some people consider him slightly eccentric. However, there's no denying that as one of the deejays for KROQ's morning show, Baxter has been an influential music figure for the better part of twenty years. Don't believe me? Just ask Gordon Lightfoot. Or the author of this page.

Well, this was fun. Perhaps I should do this with some of my other blogs - anyone up for an Inland Empire Follow Friday in the future?

P.S. If you have an interest in music-related tweeters, all of these people and more can be found on the Empoprise-MU Twitter list at http://twitter.com/empoprises/empoprise-mu.\\

[UPDATE 2:10 PM]

Chris Brogan responded to my comment on his blog. Here is his response:

That would take away the reason why I recommended the shift. In my mind, the shift is about cleaning up all the @ traffic that just is a mention of someone's name, and it's a way to extend the relationship.

They'll see it when they see a boost of followers, or if they've got big ears (google "grow bigger ears").

When you Google the phrase in question (I haven't checked to see if you can Bing it), the first search result is for Brogan's January 2009 post on self-monitoring. The post provides an example of how you can use various free services to monitor mentions of anything - you, your brand, your competitors.

While I still prefer the explicit mention of the followee in the tweet itself (as long as it's supplemented by a "why" reason, either in the tweet itself or in an external source), there's certainly an argument that can be made for the other view.

Jonathan Richman - Elementary, or Elemental?

I had a chance to see Jonathan Richman, but I couldn't. This was about 1982 or 1983 at Reed College, during Ren Fayre. There was a Ferris wheel on campus for the weekend, and I went around on the Ferris wheel. However, the operator didn't let me off, so I went around the Ferris wheel a second time, and after that didn't feel much like doing anything. (Incidentally, I subsequently heard a story, unverified, that Richman himself initially had trouble getting into Commons because he didn't have a Reed ID.)

Like just about everyone else, I divide Richman's career into two periods - the period in which he made some rock recordings that weren't even released for several years, and the period afterwards, in which he seems to do everything but rock. "Roadrunner" is probably the classic from that initial period, but I still have a liking for "I'm Straight." If I were forced to pick one song from the latter period, I'd probably choose "I'm a Little Airplane." If you want to read about "I'm a Little Airplane," visit this Sesame Street website. If you want to read about "I'm Straight," check this page about Richman and Gram Parsons:

The Modern Lovers’ early songs were affronts to the hip pieties of their time. “I’m Straight” is no longer startling as a gesture; since Jonathan invented the stance, preppy geeks like Harrison’s later employer David Byrne have taken it to the bank. But the performance makes it clear that there was no irony involved. “I’m certainly not stoned,” Jonathan sneers, dripping contempt for “Hippie Johnny,” that trendy guy who all the girls think is deep, and his band (which comprised three hippie Johnnies in leather pants, long hair and, one assumes, discreet drug habits) answers back with a rush of noise that underlines his frustration and makes the gesture feel heroic rather than merely petty.

The stereotypical comparison of Richman's early and later careers is pretty...um...straight. Initially a counter-countercultural artist who hung out with the Velvet Underground, Gram Parsons, and future New Wave heroes, Richman turned his back on all that and started writing silly, meaningless songs.

Or did he?

Over the weekend, as I was scrobbling various things on last.fm, I ran across the song "California Desert Party", which was released in 1988. In this song, the beach boy and his saxophone sing a happy little tune with lyrics such as this:

Everybody's dancin round in the cactus garden
yucca trees are all around Cholla too, look out
Guacamole's there for you, carrot juice and nachos too
it's a california desert party

What a silly little song...until you look at Richman's biography. Here's part of it:

While Richman and the Modern Lovers puzzled some people, they angered others. At a YMCA gig, people spat and threw cans from the balcony. In southern California, a large crowd greeted them with rocks and bottles when they opened for soul/funk outfit Tower of Power. After the set, ex-Byrd Gram Parsons had to rescue the band from toughs waiting backstage.

Needless to say, this is from Richman's first period. And the ties between Parsons and Richman were more than that of just show attendee:

Although Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers were managed by Eddie Tickner and Phil Kaufman in the early '70s, their sound couldn't have been farther away from that of Gram Parsons, or anyone else in the Byrds/Burritos axis.

But Richman wasn't around for Hippie Johnny - I mean Gram's - last, um, trip:

Parsons wasn't a suicide, but he killed himself all right. Blessed with charm and cash (his mother's family had made a pile in the citrus business), he got into booze and drugs early. In September 1973 he finished recording an album and went with some friends to an inn at Joshua Tree National Monument, one of his favorite places. The group spent much of the day by the pool getting tanked. By evening Gram looked like hell and went to his room to sleep. Later, on their way out for some food, his friends were unable to rouse him, so they left, returning a little before midnight. By that time Parsons was pretty far gone. Taken to a hospital, he was pronounced dead shortly after midnight on September 19. A lab analysis found large amounts of alcohol and morphine in his system; apparently the combination killed him.

So now you know about the California desert party.

Oh, and by the way, the story continues:

So far, your typical live-fast-die-young story. Then it gets strange.

Continued here.

"Walking in the Rain," version 1.0

I found it.

Let's jump back to a 2008 post on this very blog:

One of my favorite songs while I was growing up was Flash and the Pan's "Walking in the Rain." I couldn't find the original version on YouTube, but I did find Grace Jones' version.

The 2008 post then shared this video:



In my 2008 post, I described the original song:

If you're only familiar with Jones' version, the original is like Jones, only with less emotion.

Well, exactly three months after that September 25, 2008 post, some kind soul uploaded a sort-of video of Flash and the Pan's "Walking in the Rain." I say "sort of" because the video consists of someone putting a record on a turntable and playing it. Actually, come of think of it, perhaps that's the original video for the song.

Well, now you can listen (and watch) and judge for yourself.



From the album Flash and the Pan, by the band Flash and the Pan. Product link below, FCC disclosure applies.

Band names - when the band isn't the band you expect

Technically this isn't a music post, but it certainly applies to music.

If you know me, you know that I love to scrobble things in last.fm. In fact, at one point I was bugging Josh Haley because a ffundercats podcast didn't have proper ID3 tags, which meant that I couldn't scrobble it. The podcasts now have ID3 tags, so last.fm can record whenever you listen to a ffundercats podcast.

I was doing some non-musical work-related research, and I ran across a page on the Oracle website that included a two-year old podcast recorded by one of my co-workers. (This podcast was recorded back when we were still employees of Motorola.) I first clicked on the link for the podcast, which opened a QuickTime tab in my browser.

Well, that didn't suit me, so I downloaded the mp3 file and played it in Windows Media Player to match with my last.fm scrobbling configuration. So I scrobbled the track, which is listed in last.fm as follows:



Note that the listed "artist" for this track is Oracle. So I went to see what last.fm had to say about the company, and this is what I found:

Oracle is the name of several artists including a well-respected progressive/power metal band formed in the 1980’s.

1.) ‘’‘Oracle’‘’ was notable as a collaborative musical venture between Minimal Compact’s Malka Spigel & Samy Birnbach and Wire’s Colin Newman. The project spanned the years 1988-1993 and mostly took place in Brussels. Ony one album ‘’‘Tree’‘’ was released retrospectively (in 1994) on Colin & Malka’s Swim ~ label. The majority of the work remains unreleased.

There was another Florida band called Oracle who managed to release one album in the early nineties, solidly rooted in 80’s American power metal in mold of Liege Lord or early Queensryche. Hardly a popular style of music at the time, particularly in the US (hence the release on a European label), As Darkness Reigns is a fine album for the genre.
Brothers Kent and Brent Smedley have recently resurrected Oracle and are playing again, now under the name Odyssey. Brent also plays for a band called Tempest Reign.

2.) Drum and Bass DJ / Murder in America (M.I.A)

And it goes on and on like this, with (as I type this) five different bands, none of which include any band members named Larry Ellison, Charles Phillips, or Safra Catz.

Now this is not the only case in which a band name in last.fm refers to more than one band. And there are famous examples of bands who had to change their original names in certain markets - take the so-called English Beat, which had to add "English" to its name for North American releases to reduce confusion with the American band the Beat (now known as Paul Collins' Beat).

Confused yet?

And these are the instances in which two bands used the same name by accident. The whole issue of a band appropriating another band's name on purpose is an entirely different issue.

P.S. In the band Oracle, you know that Larry would be the lead vocalist, but who would get the guitar solos - Charles or Safra?

Sweet dreams are made of this.

Who am I to disagree?

(empo-tymshft) Who decides how customers consume a band's output?

In the olden days, if you wanted to buy music from a band, you would go down to your record store and see what it had to offer. When you got there, you'd see that if you wanted to get some Elton John music, you could buy an LP such as Rock of the Westies, or perhaps a single such as "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds." But you couldn't march into the record store and say, "I just want to buy the song 'Roy Rogers,' but I don't want to buy the rest of the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album."

But now, in the wonderful twenty-first century world of downloadable music, you DO have more control over what you buy. In fact, you could go to your favorite online music store and buy "Roy Rogers" and Flash and the Pan's "Walking in the Rain" and Pink Floyd's "Us and Them."

Um, maybe not (H/T MediaMemo):

[Pink Floyd's] latest record deal, signed with EMI before legal downloads came along, said individual songs must not be sold without the band's permission.

They argued that the same rule should apply to digital sales as well as CDs.

EMI disagreed but a judge has sided with Pink Floyd.

Why would Pink Floyd want to enforce such a clause? Because they had a vision about how their music should be heard, and their vision is not a three-minute vision:

In court, Chancellor Sir Andrew Morritt said the contract contained a clause to "preserve the artistic integrity of the albums".

He said the contract meant EMI were "not entitled to exploit recording by online distribution or by any other means other than the original album, without the consent of Pink Floyd".

The band largely avoided releasing singles during their career, instead preferring fans to listen to entire albums such as Dark Side of the Moon, which has sold more than 35 million copies around the world.

OK, perhaps there is some financial motivation there also - perhaps the band will earn more if people are forced to buy the entire album rather than just buying, say, "Money." But since I've been listening to Dark Side of the Moon fairly frequently as of late, I can understand the artistic reasons why the band would prefer that the album be judged as a whole.

But Pink Floyd isn't the only artist who holds this position. The BBC cites Garth Brooks and AC/DC as two other artists who insist that albums should be downloadable in toto only. MediaMemo cites a couple of other artists who insisted on this - for a time:

And just because the band has won the ruling doesn’t mean that’s going to stop–its entirely possible, for instance, that a check of a certain size could allay the band’s concerns. Other album-only holdouts like Metallica and Radiohead eventually held their noses and allowed their stuff to be sold by the song on iTunes, too.

Yet it's important to note that we, the consumers, effectively have no say in the matter. We cannot download our own mix of one part Pink, one part Garth, and one part Bon - something that would cost about $3 at current prices could end up costing more like $30, since you'd have to buy three entire albums instead of three single songs.

Could this hurt the "album-only" artists in the long run? Probably not. Let's face it - you can't download Beatles songs OR Beatles albums in iTunes, but the band seems to be doing OK.

A Renaissance man

Now some people can consistently reproduce the same sound over and over, and we love them for it, and we don't expect them to do anything else. I don't think I want to hear George Thorogood behind a synthesizer, for example.

But then there are the people who can work in radically different styles. Compare these two songs: Don't Come Around Here No More and Friend or Foe.

Can you guess who was involved with both songs?

I'll give a hint. He was tangentially involved in songs such as End of the Line.

One last hint. He was tangentially involved with this song.

(References: Don't Come Around, Friend or Foe, a place to record, and a song to cover.

Do not adjust your record speed

The advantage of us old folks is that we are familiar with the fine art of playing music at different speeds. 33 1/3, 45, 78 - name a speed and we'll play it.

Well, if TotallySoundsLike is to be believed, Rick James must have been playing his Michael Nesmith records really fast. Listen.



Well, frankly I wouldn't take Steve Strong home to mother either.

P.S. For a non-freaky look at "Cruisin," go here.

Brilliant Dadashova - maybe you'll like this vokaliz song better

OK, maybe the look of Edward Anatolevich Hill turned you off to vokaliz.

Try this song, sung in the same no-words style.



For more on Brilliant Dadashova (in English), see this autobiography. She has two separate last.fm pages, neither of which has any music.

Why do musicians like Edward Anatolevich Hill's vokaliz hit "I am very glad, because I'm finally back home" (a/k/a "Trololo") so much?

Well, I don't know if this is viral yet, but I've seen it twice, and I'm usually slow in picking things up, so if I've seen it twice then it must be viral.

Let's start with the Tall Ships, who have their own Facebook page. The Tall Ships are a band that I kinda sorta discovered via last.fm - I had listened to a Dryve song, and the drummer of that former band, Keith Andrew, shared his new band, the Tall Ships, with me. So anyways, on Friday the Tall Ships posted an update to the aforementioned Facebook page that concluded as follows:

We're thinking of covering this song. Steve pretty much has the vocal down...

The band then shared this video:



However, since the title of the video was Я очень рад, ведь я, наконец, возвращаюсь домой, I couldn't really figure out who did it.

I didn't think much of it - the Tall Ships are on an eastern European record label (Minority Records from Prague), so I figured that was just some idiosyncracy.

Until a Texan chimed in.

Specifically, Josh Haley, well-known among FriendFeed circles as one of the two Ffundercats. Josh, like Keith Andrew, has a musical bent, and is known for his ukelele playing and his remixes.

Well, Josh shared a video with the comment

You can't possibly post a video more awesome than this.

And, although it was a different link, it ended up being the same video.



This one labeled the song as "Trololo," but that probably isn't an official title.

I ran Я очень рад, ведь я, наконец, возвращаюсь домой through Google Translate and got the translation "I am very glad, because I'm finally back home." Well, with that big grin on his face, I hope he's glad.

I initially couldn't find anything about the video, other than a bunch of blog posts linking to some occurrence of the video with a brief comment about how awesome it is. While much of the activity seems to have erupted in late February, and the Tall Ships' version was uploaded to YouTube in November, I did find something on mail.ru that seems to be from October 2009. But even that site listed the video as "Miscellaneous."

But finally, Know Your Meme provided the answer:

Singing in the video is Edward Anatolevich Hill, a Soviet-era vocalist once celebrated as the “Honored Artist of the USSR” in 1968 and “People’s Artist of the USSR” in 1974.

Because Edward’s performance was poorly lipsynched (albeit to his own vocal track) and entirely composed of mouth music without any lyrics, the song was perceived by some westerners as highly eccentric.

Still more information is available from Justin Erik Hallador Smith:

According to his Russian Wikipedia page, Hill was born in Smolensk in 1934, and finished his studies at the Leningrad Conservatory in 1960. By 1974 he had been named a People's Artist of the USSR, and in 1981 he was awarded the Order of the Friendship of Peoples. He is best known for his interpretations of the songs of the Soviet composer, Arkadii Ostrovskii....

The song he is interpreting, "I Am So Happy to Finally Be Back Home," is an Ostrovskii composition, and it is meant to be sung in the vokaliz style, that is to say sung, but without words...[V]okaliz was a well established genre, one that seems close in certain respects to pantomime.

I found the Russian Wikipedia page here. Now I can't read Russian, but I can read enough to know that Hill is still alive. And when I ran the article through Google Translate, I unearthed this little tidbit:

Since 1997 involved with his son in a joint project with the rock group Prepinaki.

I searched for the rock group Препинаки and found this page, which I again translated:

In 1996, Prepinaki "have created a joint project with his ideological father (another father! See the spiritual father), People's Artist of the RSFSR Edward Gil - Gil and Sons. As stated in a press release, "the creative task of the project - rethinking the heritage of the Soviet stage 60's - 70-ies." Project "Gil and Sons" recorded in 1997 album "There's song in a circle" and continues to tour.

As for Prepinaki's style, here's what the page said:

The band's style drifted between new wave and bossa-nova, and now represents a unique fusion of dance rhythms of different ages and continents: the traditional pop music, especially disco, Soviet music, hot Latin rhythms.

But, apparently, no vokaliz. But oddculture.com links to a video:



However, most people who see the original "I am very glad, because I'm finally back home" video aren't thinking about the deeper meaning of vokaliz style; most are thinking about bad lip-syncing. I'm fascinated by the fact that the two people from whom I first learned about the video both happened to be musicians.

Does this mean that when the music stars gather as hip joints, they'll demand that the deejay put "Trololo" on the video screens?

Or does this mean that vokaliz itself will suddenly sweep the English-speaking music world?

P.S. Hill's last.fm page is here and includes a biography but sadly no music. last.fm does list a December 29, 2009 concert, but apparently it was cancelled.

(empo-utoobd) Q: Are we not Akon YouTube? A: We are AkonVEVO

I was involved in a Facebook conversation about such antiquated concepts as LPs, and in the course of the conversation I referenced my August 12, 2008 post about the Akon song "Lonely." The post includes the following text:

Universal Music has provided the video on YouTube. However, embedding is disabled, so you'll have to go here to see it.

But when I follow the link that I provided in the original post, YouTube presents the message

This video has been removed by the user.

The video, still non-embeddable, has been moved to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EEW-9NDM5k, which is labeled as part of "AkonVEVO."

I mentioned VEVO previously in this blog (in the context of YouTube's 2009 disagreements in Britain and Germany), but I haven't really talked about the WHY of VEVO. Luckily, Mashable posted something in December 2009 that made up for the shortcomings of my coverage:

VEVO will host most of YouTube (YouTube)’s music videos (85 percent of them, actually), including ones from EMI, Sony Music and Universal....

VEVO will manage all ad sales

- The music video site is focusing on getting rid of duplicate videos. If you have ever browsed YouTube, you’ll find that many music videos do, in fact, have duplicates.

- VEVO will not launch with HD. That will come out next year.

- Now this is awesome: VEVO includes synchronized and integrated lyrics.

But YouTube and the music companies didn't create VEVO out of an altruistic desire to provide synchronized and integrated lyrics to the people. No, the key words here are "duplicate videos" and "ad sales." Basically, the idea is to centralize videos in a central location so that YouTube and the music companies can control the ad revenue.

And there is also a vevo.com website. However, I don't know if I am allowed to register with it, since YouTube has seen it to permanently disable my account without explanation.

Oh, and you may not be allowed to register with vevo.com, either:

By using the Site, you represent, warrant and covenant that (a) you are 13 years of age or older and (i) reside in the United States of America, its territories and possessions (the “U.S.”) or (ii) reside in Canada and, if you are a minor, you have obtained your parent or guardian’s consent to use the Site in accordance with these Terms of Use; (b) your use of the Site does not violate any applicable law, rule or regulation; and (c) all registration information you submit is truthful and accurate and you shall maintain and promptly update the accuracy of such information. If you provide information that is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, or VEVO suspects that such information is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, VEVO has the right to suspend or terminate your registration (in whole or in part) and refuse any and all current or future use of the Site (or any portion thereof), in its sole discretion. If you reside in Canada, you further acknowledge and agree that the Site is operated exclusively from, and is being provided solely in accordance with, the laws of the United States. The laws of the United States may differ from those of Canada. Please ensure that you are comfortable with these differences before accessing and using the Site.

In other words, No Irish Need Apply. Or anyone from most other countries in the world, for that matter.

But if we're going to talk about Akon, we have to talk about Bobby Vinton. Bobby's website includes tour dates; here's what it says for Vinton's future dates:

May 8, 2010 Bryant, IN Bearcreek Farms
May 10 & 11, 2010 Oakbrook Terrace IL. Drury Lane Oakbrook
June 12, 2010 Las Vegas, NV Cannery Casino & Hotel
August 12, 2010 Plantsville CT, Aqua Turf Club The Flyer
August 14, 2010 FOXWOOD Casino & Resort Connecticut
August 26, 2010 Toronto, Canada Bandshell Park
September 25, 2010 Manistee, MI Little River Casino & Resort
November 12 & 13, 2020 Chandler AZ, Wild Horse Pass Resort & Casino

I'm assuming the last one is a typo, but maybe he IS booked for a show ten years from now.

P.S. for those who noticed the significance of the post title - yes, Devo has been "Fresh" on my mind. And doesn't "Akon" look a little bit like "Akron"?

Here's a video of Devo performing "Fresh" at SXSW 2009. It's not on VEVO.

Jim Morrison's Grave (the Steve Taylor song) and Kurt Cobain

I was still a kid when the Doors received national attention, and I was still a kid when Jim Morrison died. But death didn't end the Doors' career. As Rolling Stone put it,

Ironically, the group’s best years began in 1980, nine years after Morrison’s death. With the release of the Danny Sugerman–Jerry Hopkins biography of Morrison, No One Here Gets Out Alive, sales of the Doors’ music and the already large Jim Morrison cult — spurred by his many admirers and imitators in new-wave bands — grew even more. Record sales for 1980 alone topped all previous figures; as one ROLLING STONE magazine cover line put it: “He’s Hot, He’s Sexy, He’s Dead.” And that was just the beginning.

Musician Steve Taylor went to Paris a few years after the Rolling Stone cover - Paris, the city where Jim Morrison died, and where he was buried. And he began thinking:

I went to Paris and visited Jim Morrison's grave. The experience made me think a lot about who Jim Morrison was and what he stood for. I was into The Doors' music and read a biography of Morrison called, No One Here Gets Out Alive. As I read the book, a picture emerged of Jim Morrison as someone who embraced the Rock-n-Roll myth, "It's better to burn out than to fade away."

We'll return to that myth later. But for now, let's return to Taylor:

I guess he thought of himself as somewhat of a "tortured artist" who not only believe that genius justifies cruelty but that genius and selfishness are inseparable. And that's really how he lived his life. He was very cruel to the people who were close to him, even the people who loved him. So this song is just my thought about going to the grave, almost a stream-of-consciousness lyric.

"Jim Morrison's Grave" asks the age-old question: Does artistry justify being a weasel? The last line of the song is, "The music covers like an evening mist/Like a watch still ticking on a dead man's wrist." Morrison left the world some intriguing music. As far as I'm concerned, that's not enough.

Taylor released the album I Predict 1990 (the same album that included "I Blew Up the Clinic Real Good"; see my previous post) and included the song "Jim Morrison's Grave." The video can be found on YouTube:



The scenes in the video depict the Morrison mania that gripped the world in the 1980s. And Taylor's word wasn't the last word on the subject. Rolling Stone on Jim Morrison's grave after the predicted 1990 had arrived:

The Morrison cult continues to grow, particularly among the young. In 1990 his graffiti-covered headstone was stolen; in 1993, on what would have been his 50th birthday, hundreds of mourners — many not even born before he died — traveled from around the world to pay tribute. Because of the destruction these visitors often wreak on the cemetery during their pilgrimages, many Parisians petitioned to move Morrison’s grave when its 30-year lease expired in 2001; French officials, however, opted to leave Morrison’s remains in their resting place.

But remember the line that Taylor quoted above, "It's better to burn out than to fade away"? The line, which appeared in a Neil Young song (actually two Neil Young songs), was subsequently quoted by Kurt Cobain in his suicide note. In 1996, Taylor compared Cobain and Morrison:

[S]peaking of Kurt Cobain--who was, I think, far more honest and far less cruel--when anyone takes an unblinking look into the well, if they don't find living water, they'll find nothing but a black hole. I assume Kurt Cobain could only see the latter.

So, what IS progressive music?

This has been on my mind for the last few hours, since it was only this afternoon that I opened my CD copy of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon."

On the surface, the album sounds like everything a self-respecting British punk would hate - odd time signatures ("Money"), extended synthesizer bits ("On the Run"), strange sound effects (pretty much the whole album), and self-referential lyrics ("Brain Damage").

But then again, while you can hang the "progressive" tag on Pink Floyd, Yes, and ELP (Palmer or Powell, take your pick), the term can apply to artists as widely varied as Brian Eno (whose work certainly moved in different directions later) and Elton John (yes, he's a pop star, but take a listen to some of the album tracks on "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" and some of his other albums some time).

And it's not surprising to note that the editors of Wikipedia can't agree on who is prog-rock either. The section of the article entitled "Peak in popularity and decline" includes this note:

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved.

So forget about the article; let's go right to the fight, which gets into stuff like this:

Progressive Rock should have the following Sub-Genre pages:

* Canterbury
* Crossover Progressive
* Eclectic Progressive
* Jazz Fusion
* Krautrock
* Neo-Progressive
* New Prog ("nu-prog" would redirect to this page)
* Progressivo Italiano
* Proto-Progressive (or "Progressive Influences")
* Psychedelic/Space Rock
* RIO/Avant Progressive
* Symphonic Progressive ("Art Rock" would redirect to this page)
* Zeuhl

I would like to start with the cleanup of the Symphonic rock page (see the discussion on that page). I would like to re-name it Symphonic Progressive. If I can get exclusive use of the page, I would appreciate it. That way I won't be fighting other editors that want to tout their favorite bands -- most of them on the page are not truly Symphonic Progressive bands! Thanks.

Argh. Now I see why people stuck safety pins in their noses.

But I will say one thing, now that I formally own "Dark Side" - its fame is justified. So many great albums, even ones by the Beatles and Led Zeppelin, are often just collections of very good songs. But "Dark Side" truly holds together as an album, with musical themes repeated throughout the tracks. Truly deserving of its oft-cited record of 741 weeks on Billboard's Top 200 chart, it is truly one of the great albums of all time.

So here are my promo links for your buying pleasure:

What's the combo pack called? The 33 1/3?

You KNOW HP did this intentionally.

Target, Montclair, California.

Dan Aykroyd and Pat Boone - heroes, or demons?

I was listening to Sam & Dave's "Soul Man" and had a heretical thought - namely, thet the Blues Brothers' cover version had something that the original version didn't have.

Namely, the backing vocals of Dan Aykroyd on the choruses.

You know..."SOUL man."

I've thought of Dan Aykroyd's musical resume a lot lately, and the remake of "We Are The World" reminded me that Aykroyd was one of those present at the original "We Are The World." In a sense it was an odd choice, because in that one recording studio you had the singer of "Thriller," the singer of "All Night Long," the singers of a number of classic hits...and the singer of "Rubber Biscuit."

Two sources state that Aykroyd was invited to the session to represent the film industry, but his contributions to the music industry are as significant as those of some of the others that were invited to the session that evening.

Of course, it's technically incorrect to say that Dan Aykroyd sang on the Blues Brothers albums...because Elwood Blues was actually the singer. To say that Dan Aykroyd was a member of the Blues Brothers is like saying that Bob Dylan was a member of the Traveling Wilburys.

Well, whoever it is that's singing, judge for yourself:



Needless to say, "Rubber Biscuit" was not a Blues Brothers original. The song was originally performed by the Chips, and apparently was their only recording.

And there were a lot of songs that the Blues Brothers played and helped popularize. Which is great, or it's not great, depending upon your point of view. You see, the Blues Brothers share something in common with Pat Boone - a controversial history:

How do you solve a problem like The Blues Brothers? They’re the goofy novelty duo whose enduring popularity says a great deal about our country’s thorny racial history and the commercial cooption of great American art form. To people around the world the Blues Brothers have become the face of blues: the pale, pasty, Caucasian, half-Canadian face of a deep strain of black music. The Blues Brothers leave behind a deep and complicated legacy.

They helped popularize blues and gave crucial career boosts to an army of blues, soul and R&B legends by covering their songs and featuring them in The Blues Brothers and to a much lesser extent, The Blues Brothers 2000 yet it seems both sad and inevitable that millions of Blues Brothers fans would rather hear standards performed by a pair of enthusiastic white amateur chuckle-merchants than grizzled old black professionals.

The Blues Brothers have been lionized as heroes and icons and demonized as cultural parasites.

For historical perspective, go here to see someone who demonizes Pat Boone. For a more balanced view, see Gary North:

Pat Boone's career is one of those fork-in-the-road stories. He launched his national career as a cover artist, serving as a kind of Pied Piper for America's middle-class white teenagers, gilding rock and roll's lily. Little Richard said that kids in 1956 had Pat Boone's records in the top drawer, where parents might find them, and his versions in the bottom drawer. I suspect that the truth is different. They bought one of Boone's versions, then bought Richard's, and put Boone's in the closet.

And

Rock and roll's parallel cultures did not last long. Teenagers found out about the artists and the original songs that were being covered.


Well, some did - and some didn't. Perhaps some people explored the history behind certain recordings by the Blues Brothers...and by Pat Boone...and by the Beatles...but there are probably many others who think "Money" is a Lennon-McCartney original.

But can the artists themselves be blamed for that?

(empo-tymshft) (empo-tuulwey) When terms lose their meaning

I was listening to Rage Against the Machine's "Revolver" when I began musing on the Beatles album of the same title. And it suddenly occurred to me that someone who was just introduced to the Beatles album today might not realize the humor behind the title.

Yes, CDs (and cassettes) revolve just like old vinyl LPs did, but CDs revolve inside a closed case, so you don't necessarily notice the revolving. With an LP, it was very obvious that the record was revolving.

And, of course, when you're talking about digital downloads, the concept of revolving does not apply.

When the false start is true - Ministry's "Work for Love"

There are a number of stories about people or groups of people that do one thing and get huge success...and then do something completely different and have even huger success.

But there are still the people that think that things were great at the beginning, and went downhill from there.

I bet there are people who wish that the Fresh Prince had remained a rapper and never gotten involved in that television or movie junk.

Or who wish that Depeche Mode had just disbanded after Vince Clarke left the band.

With that preface, let me introduce my favorite Ministry song.



The person who posted this video of "Work for Love" on YouTube made the following comment:

This is for all those who continue to believe Al's story that With Sympathy was the result of an over zealous production team at Arista. And for those, like myself, who are fond of the early Ministry sound. This and all the other material from that album(written by Mr. Al J.) was performed regularly throughout 82-84 before and after the studio recording. This is the opening song from the 7/20/83 show at First Avenue in Minneapolis, MN.

While I love "Work for Love," and the YouTube poster loves "Work for Love," not everyone agrees:

There are those artists who get a couple releases into their career before they feel the pressure from the suits at the label to “have a hit,” and then there are those artists who sell out right from the get-go.

Ministry certainly falls into the latter category and their debut longplayer smacks of blatant commerciality…blatant, misguided, and downright silly commerciality....

How else does one explain such tracks as “Work For Love” and “What He Say?” — the latter a laughably kitschy blend of synth-pop and, uh, world music…I think....

No wonder Jourgenson has spent the better part of three decades trying to live this one down, putting on one helluva “tough-guy” act in the process.

But as for me, I just can't get enough (geddit?) of that old song.

P.S. And yes, I inspired myself to look up this old tune.