Music

Mad Men and Beatles

May 10, 2012
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Mad Men and Beatles

You may have heard about a little controversy from the latest episode of Mad Men. Protagonist Don Draper listens to the first couple minutes of "Tomorrow Never Knows" from the Beatles’ recently released Revolver album, then stops the music in a gesture that is equal parts boredom and disgust.

Some fans of the show thought the scene was ridiculous, claiming that any high-powered ad man would have been hip to The Beatles in 1966 and would not have been alienated by a little psychedelia. I think this critique misses the point completely. The end of the episode n is probably a taste of things to come and – at the risk of sounding absurdly grandiose – might even be an inflection point for the series. . . .

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Levon Helm and Dick Clark, RIP

April 20, 2012
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Levon Helm and Dick Clark, RIP

When Dexter Gordon passed away in 1990, Detroit Free Press columnist Mitch Albom penned an article boasting he owned every one of the jazz saxophonist’s albums while simultaneously lamenting the majority of his readership probably didn’t even know who Gordon was. Instead, Albom took the opportunity presented by Gordon’s death to tell his readership they were stupid, uncultured louts who probably knew all the lyrics to Madonna’s hit singles. Madge, you may recall in those days, was still somewhat of an enfant terrible. It was an apples v. oranges argument, in other words, and somewhat fatuous on Albom’s part. This brings us to the media storm surrounding the death of Dick Clark and the comparative cricket chirping attending the passing of Levon Helm. The former was a marketing-savvy promoter who broadcast rock, pop, and disco infomercials into America’s living rooms every week for decades. No harm there, as parents were assured by the smooth-talking, youthfully handsome, hip yet terminally white-bread host that rock music wasn’t really all that dangerous. Yes, the longhairs wielded electric guitars like blade-brandishing barbarians laying siege to Rome, but they were held back from complete victory by adhering to the strictures enforced by lip syncing to

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Springsteen & the E-Street Super PAC

April 11, 2012
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Springsteen & the E-Street Super PAC

I'm sitting out a Springsteen tour for the first time since 1978's Darkness on the Edge of Town, the album where New Jersey's poet laureate found his socially conscious voice.

You know all those songs about hard times and broken hearts, peppered with rhythm-and-blues, folk, and country references written by a scruffy, energetic fellow channeling equal parts Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, and Hank Williams while inviting his audiences to join him in a three-hour community of alternating jubilation and despair.

For the full story, see my article at the Detroit News.

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Greg Nagy: 21st Century Bluezoid Man

April 10, 2012
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Greg Nagy: 21st Century Bluezoid Man

The blues tradition has been always slow to evolve, which is one of its charms in that it hews close to the musical tree from which it was carved. But such dogged adherence can also be a drawback as witnessed by the plethora of bands and artists no longer able or willing to cut it in the rock arena that turned to the blues (and, more recently, country) for a second life. In short, much of this product is hackneyed, stale, devoid of imagination, and fit only for those tourists who like their blues in two flavors: “Mustang” and “Sally.”

For those who like their blues a bit more elastic – equal parts hearkening from the Delta, Memphis moaning, Louisiana chicken scratch, Texas sweat, Chicago Chess and Cobra, or Detroit boogie – there’s the hybrid of country, rhythm-and-blues, classic Allman Brothers-flavored Southern rock, roots, and pop that characterizes the music of Michigan musician Greg Nagy. . . .

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The Song Machine, Part II

April 8, 2012
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The Song Machine, Part II

If you want to understand everything that’s gone wrong in pop music over the last 20 years, a good place to start would be the recent New Yorker article The Song Machine. “Machine” is the operative word, since the article illustrates how the components of today’s pop songs are stripped down, parceled out, and reassembled in the studio. The “songs” that emerge become templates for high-profile “artists” to stamp their brands on and front for the public, invariably by strutting their stuff in front of elaborate stage sets and lip-synching the sounds created for them in the lab. It’s an assembly line process that would have made Henry Ford envious, after he got over his shock at the salaciousness of the product.

The article focuses on the aural machine behind Rhianna, described as “the Barbados-born pop singer (who), at twenty-four…is the queen of urban pop, and the consummate artist of the digital age, in which quantity is more important than quality and personality trumps song craft. She releases an album a year, often recording a new one while she is on an eighty-city world tour promoting the last one.” An album a year may sound impressive, until you remember that when the Beatles were pop (as opposed to “rock”) stars, they recorded eight studio albums between 1963 and 1965, with each new album noticeably different from the last. Rhianna’s machine is emblematic of that behind all Top Forty hits and is described as follows....

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Death of a Monkee: Davy Jones, RIP

February 29, 2012
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Death of a Monkee: Davy Jones, RIP

Which brings us back to Davy, dead at 66 from a heart attack this morning: he never followed his success with the Monkees by following his own muse as Mike did, despite teaming later with Mickey, Boyce, and Hart. He continued to perform in countless Mike-less reunions, but his legacy rests solely with a reputation garnered as a Monkee (about which much the same could be said about Mickey and Peter alas). But for four years, he was a Monkee, damn it, and the group could soldier on after Peter left in 1969 whereas it’s doubtful the band could’ve continued as the Monkees without Davy.

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A Random Series of Music-Related Observations

February 13, 2012
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A Random Series of Music-Related Observations

A lot has happened in the pop music world in the last nine days, so herewith follows a random scattering of music-related observations. ——————————- Whitney Houston’s death really is a tragedy.  If anyone was ever blessed by the musical gods and pre-ordained for greatness, it was Whitney.   And yet, looking back on her recording career, I’m struck by how meager it was.  Just six studio albums in 27 years, and only three in the last 22 years.  Compare that with the Beatles, who at the peak of their popularity used to release three albums a year! I also can’t help but think that, in spite of her tremendous commercial success, Whitney Houston was not well-served by the music industry.  Her first hit single, “Saving All My Love for You,” was indisputably her best and one of the few to show her extraordinary range and control.  Most of her other 80s hits blended into the synth-pop dominating radio at the time.  To see what I mean, compare “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” and “Let’s Hear it For the Boy.”  Houston’s vocal chops (not to mention charisma and sex appeal) leave one-hit wonder Deniece Williams in the dust, but suppose the singers

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Springsteen’s Charity Bawl

February 8, 2012
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Springsteen’s Charity Bawl

I love Bruce Springsteen’s music, and admire him as a human being (albeit with reservations over some of his personal failings). I regret the increasing sanctimoniousness of his music since The Ghost of Tom Joad, however, which I suppose was foreshadowed by everything since the release of Darkness on the Edge of Town (a terrific album, btw) and the song “Seeds,” Nebraska and all that. As for the new single? It rocks! While perhaps a bit too reminiscent of Sandy Shaw’s “Always Something There to Remind Me,” The Icicle Works’ “From a Whisper to a Scream,” and an opening straight from Belly’s “Cannonball,” the Boss’ knack for constructing head-banging anthems is preserved. The song’s lyrics, however, are problematic — at least to this writer — and I discuss why on my latest blog post for the Acton Institute. Herewith a brief excerpt: “‘We Take Care of Our Own’ just doesn’t pass muster with the information readily available on any given day in any reputable news source. “At some point in the past few decades, Springsteen began patterning his songwriting on the supposed social consciousness of folksingers Woody Guthrie and Phil Ochs. Ochs once recorded an album titled All the News

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Vinyl Record Resurgence Speaks to Digital Limitations

February 5, 2012
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Vinyl Record Resurgence Speaks to Digital Limitations

Progressives and negative conservatives have something in common; they both tend to think that history’s progression or regression, depending which side of the spectrum you are on will determine which, is inexorable. They both in different ways tend to leave out one very important variable: human nature. Who would have thought that vinyl records would have given me such profound insight?

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Appreciating the 1970s Culture: Thoughts on the Passing of Brother Don Cornelius

February 1, 2012
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Appreciating the 1970s Culture: Thoughts on the Passing of Brother Don Cornelius

If ever there was a decade I’d enjoy being stuck in forever it’d be the 1970s. Watergate bothered me, of course, and Vietnam, drugs, and civil unrest were bummers, too. Never mind curfews, parental discipline, and hours of bad television. What redeemed the decade for me was the music, which reached its pinnacle in the era bracketed by the break-up of the Beatles and the third effort by the Clash. True, the era witnessed the advent of disco – but the choices on the radio dial were plentiful, rendering disco merely annoying for discerning listeners aware of the plentitude of options.

Radio formats of the 1970s were wide-ranging, bubblegum pop interspersed with everything from early heavy metal to soul, country, psychedelia, rhythm-and-blues and all sorts of hybrids and cross-pollinations right, left, and center of the dial. The exposure to the multi-various genres was certainly there, but what was missing for a kid like me growing up in rural, northern Michigan, was visual context. . . .

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Rock and Roll Holes of Fame

December 7, 2011
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Rock and Roll Holes of Fame

Finding the gaps at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame By Warren Moore The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has announced its newest class of inductees. While I don’t see any Tom Petty-level headscratchers this time around, I’m pretty much left with a resounding “meh.” Not surprisingly, The Small Faces/Faces are my favorite of the lot, but I can understand the importance of the Beasties and Chili Peppers, both of whom have done some interesting genre fusion over the years, and even though I was never a fan, G’n’R were almost a perfect example of over-the-top in their era. All they needed was a plane crash to become truly archetypal. However, the dearth of progressive rock continues as Rush gets Susan Luccied again, and we have yet to hear from Crimson, Yes, ELP or their ilk. On the hard rock end, Motorhead, Blue Oyster Cult and Deep Purple (all remarkably influential acts) are outside looking in as well. While some critics have argued that this is a result of industry bias, Lauren Onkey, who was a prof of mine during my Ph.D. years, and who is now in charge of educational programs at the Rock Hall, suggests that

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Hubert Sumlin, RIP

December 6, 2011
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Hubert Sumlin, RIP

One of the few guitarists who deserves to be called legendary, Hubert Sumlin, died yesterday at the age of 80. Sumlin was the lead guitarist for Howlin Wolf's band and in the 50s and 60s, on tracks like "Killing Floor" and "Smokestack Lightning," laid down some of the most influential guitar licks of all time. Hubert Sumlin was the guitarist that Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck grew up wanting to be.

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