Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Just a Gorgeous Find on Flickr
Only a quick blog here. While playing around on Flickr I found this beautiful little pic. You'd be hard pressed to find something like this in a Worldcat search. Gives me the thought that maybe we should be cataloging old card catalogs!
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Truth in the Blues
In the song Poor Boy Blues, performed by Lazy Bill Lucas, a child is represented as being poor, parentless, illiterate, and dumb. It goes on to say things like, “Santa Claus never left one toy”, yet these specific anecdotes are not from Bill Lucas’ personal life. Bill knew his mom and dad, could spell (although his eyesight was fairly bad), got a guitar and Piano on various Christmases and was provided for. So how can his song be the truth? The truth is in the sentiment of the lyrics, not the specifics, and the Blues is a cathartic expression of our ailments, eventually leading us to reality. Not unlike Buddhist teachings in which peace is attained through suffering. To demonstrate what I mean, I, a middle aged, middle class white man, will relate to the truth in Poor Boy Blues’ lyrics.
The first stanza states, “I’m just a poor boy; people, I can’t even write my name - Every letter in the alphabet to me they look the same.” I could read and write since kindergarten, yet I relate to these lyrics whenever I feel as though I don’t measure up in intelligence or eloquence in various situations. This happens every time my car breaks down and I try to explain to my mechanic what happened, and he tries to explain to me what he needs to do. The conversation is so far beyond me that I feel like a poor boy who can’t even spell his name.
The second stanza states, “Mother died when I was a baby; father I never seen – When I think how dumb I am, you know it makes me want to scream.” Both my parents are still alive, but there have been many times in life where I felt alone, where they were not there. Using the car example from earlier, the first time my car broke down (and there were no cell phones) my parents were not there to help me out. I felt helpless and ‘dumb’ in the ways of figuring out this experience. ‘Dumb’ in this instance is likened to a frustration that is so intense that I wanted to scream.
“Ever since I was the age around eleven or twelve - I just been a poor boy; ain’t caught nothing but hell, is the message of the third stanza. Well, I may have caught a little hell at this age, but doesn’t everybody feel a bit oppressed as they enter puberty? Life changes, new experiences are encountered, some are handled poorly and we are called out on them, or ‘catch hell’. It is almost a certainty that I will remember a bad experience more clearly than a good one.
Finally, the last stanza, “When I was a child Santa Claus never left one toy – If you have any mercy, pleace have mercy on poor boy.” Hyperbole is the name of the game here. I never went one Christmas without a gift, but In certainly never got everything I wanted. In my disappointment I play this off as being mistreated, and the gifts I received were not ‘real’ gifts. Man, if you had a life like mine, you’d feel a bit entitled to a hand out too.
While none of the specifics marry up to my true life experience, I am able to relate to each and every line. During this cathartic experience, as I cry for help because my life sucks, I move forward though an uplifting, forward moving rhythm and harmonic progression. It is through reflection of the specifics of these lyrics compared to my own personal life that I find my life isn’t so bad. And, while I can relate, I understand that tough times are common to everybody and I’m currently just feeling sorry for myself. Again, the rhythm and harmonic progression provide the answer to cure my blues, the peaceful, easy forward motion lifts me out of my seat and lets me dance through my ‘strife’.
The first stanza states, “I’m just a poor boy; people, I can’t even write my name - Every letter in the alphabet to me they look the same.” I could read and write since kindergarten, yet I relate to these lyrics whenever I feel as though I don’t measure up in intelligence or eloquence in various situations. This happens every time my car breaks down and I try to explain to my mechanic what happened, and he tries to explain to me what he needs to do. The conversation is so far beyond me that I feel like a poor boy who can’t even spell his name.
The second stanza states, “Mother died when I was a baby; father I never seen – When I think how dumb I am, you know it makes me want to scream.” Both my parents are still alive, but there have been many times in life where I felt alone, where they were not there. Using the car example from earlier, the first time my car broke down (and there were no cell phones) my parents were not there to help me out. I felt helpless and ‘dumb’ in the ways of figuring out this experience. ‘Dumb’ in this instance is likened to a frustration that is so intense that I wanted to scream.
“Ever since I was the age around eleven or twelve - I just been a poor boy; ain’t caught nothing but hell, is the message of the third stanza. Well, I may have caught a little hell at this age, but doesn’t everybody feel a bit oppressed as they enter puberty? Life changes, new experiences are encountered, some are handled poorly and we are called out on them, or ‘catch hell’. It is almost a certainty that I will remember a bad experience more clearly than a good one.
Finally, the last stanza, “When I was a child Santa Claus never left one toy – If you have any mercy, pleace have mercy on poor boy.” Hyperbole is the name of the game here. I never went one Christmas without a gift, but In certainly never got everything I wanted. In my disappointment I play this off as being mistreated, and the gifts I received were not ‘real’ gifts. Man, if you had a life like mine, you’d feel a bit entitled to a hand out too.
While none of the specifics marry up to my true life experience, I am able to relate to each and every line. During this cathartic experience, as I cry for help because my life sucks, I move forward though an uplifting, forward moving rhythm and harmonic progression. It is through reflection of the specifics of these lyrics compared to my own personal life that I find my life isn’t so bad. And, while I can relate, I understand that tough times are common to everybody and I’m currently just feeling sorry for myself. Again, the rhythm and harmonic progression provide the answer to cure my blues, the peaceful, easy forward motion lifts me out of my seat and lets me dance through my ‘strife’.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
What Happened to me: Popular Music
What happened? I used to think that I was hip to the latest, greatest music. I danced and drank at all of the “alternative” nightclubs in Rochester, NY and always knew when the lesser known acts would be coming into town from Vancouver, New York, LA, Austin, and Nashville. For example, I saw Pearl Jam before they released ‘Ten’, and I caught the Chili Peppers and Fishbone for next to nothing at a tiny nightclub in Ithaca before they ran up a $25 ticket for the Auditorium Theater in Rochester. ($25 was a pretty big ticket then). Bands like New Model Army, Harm Farm, The Authority, and regional standout Yolk, were tearing up the circuit in the late eighties and early nineties, and I was on the case.
So why am I now playing the blues, and classical music, and belaboring the inadequacies of today’s popular music to my oldest daughter? Paramore, Daughtry, and The Black Eyed Peas just don’t seem to cut it for me. I find myself disgusted at the sensation of Lady Gaga, not because of her strange exploits on stage, but because it has all been done before (even though no one acknowledges this). She is a postmodern collage rip-off of David Bowie, GWAR, Tiny Tim, Kiss, Siouxsie Sioux, and Laurie Anderson. Maybe I’m bitter at the fact that while Kiss and Bowie met some measure of large-scale success, it bothers me that lady Gaga is more popular than the other previously mentioned artists, without having the musical talent to justify it.
Schtick, it has become more important than the music. There was a time when schtick, or oddity was used to capture the attention of the listener so the artist’s music could then be heard, but now it seems that schtick is an end to itself. Why bother even plugging in the amplifiers, no one cares what you sound like. At this point I hesitate to mention that I now sound like my parents did in the 1980’s. They had no care for the stylings of The Clash or even Rush. This makes me wonder if maybe I’m missing something in today’s music the way my parents missed what I heard in the music of my youth.
Is there something to the Jonas Brothers that will have them revered as high popular art twenty years from now the way Zappa and King Crimson are in certain academic circles? I don’t think so. Nor does Lady Gaga, nor Rhianna have that extra something that will make a difference. I say this given the history of popular music and the difference between what was popular in the day and what is regarded as art now. In the 80s and 90s, few of the super gold record stadium rockers are currently revered. King Crimson, Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, Frank Zappa, and Jethro Tull are among the examples of ‘pop’ music of the eighties now being researched academically, not Poison, Def Leppard, nor even Duran Duran (although I might make an exception for the latter as I have my opinion on how they expanded the rhetoric of New Wave using modernist techniques). Using this historical data, which contemporary pop composers can we predict will be academic fodder twenty years from now?
My money is on Radiohead. There are three large reasons for mentioning them. First, they have revolutionized the music industry. With each advance in technology; the invention of radio, and the phonograph, there have been geniuses who have utilized the tools and created the model in which all others will follow. Marketing geniuses that are academic benchmarks in this area include George Lucas, The Beatles, and Michael Jackson. The music industry has been in a state of confusion since the dawning of the internet and it is has been Radiohead that have made the greatest advances in using this tool. Second, their music is informed by popular and classical techniques used before them. They developed their own progressive musical language theoretically using Wagnerian tonal language while employing Babbit’s and Reich’s electronic and phasing techniques, and pop hooks. Finally, they are already being studied in academic circles. They are noteworthy because not only do they have the marketing sense, but the musical authority to be mentioned from this point forward.
Unfortunately, because I have become so jaded about the popular music industry, I cannot name another contemporary band or person whom I think will be studied in the future (with the possible exception of Beck). In my retreating to music that comforts me, (which is odd because most of it was composed to challenge the listener and be uncomfortable), I have not stayed current in my discovery of new music, popular or serious. As a result, I am afraid. Why, because my daughter who listens to Paramore, doesn’t know who Radiohead is, and because I don’t know if there is anymore new, valid music being made. I’m afraid that in the age of ‘Reality TV’ being famous for being famous is more important than being famous for accomplishing something. Is schtick all there is anymore?
I also see this trend not just geared toward music marketed to our youth. With regard to popular music geared toward us older folks, I see a similar phenomenon. It isn’t the music that matters, it’s the scene. And while the scene has been an important part of live music since the 50s, it now seems to overshadow the music. Go to a Phish show, an Allman Brothers Concert, a ‘Music and Arts festival’ or any of the Pixies’ reunion shows and see how many in attendance are aware of the music vs. how many are there to merchandise (hippy paraphernalia, drugs, t-shirts, concessions), there to get high on chemicals, or there to be seen and brag that they were there. It is as if the music has become meaningless in a sea of cultural capitalism/addiction/narcissism. Is this what people really want? Is this what we chose?
Maybe I’m a curmudgeon, but I long for the days when good music was good enough. Being that the current state of radio is still corrupt, and that the internet is too big to be useful in finding good music, I am pleading for input on good music that is current. Leave me a comment, who, and what should I listen to, and why?
So why am I now playing the blues, and classical music, and belaboring the inadequacies of today’s popular music to my oldest daughter? Paramore, Daughtry, and The Black Eyed Peas just don’t seem to cut it for me. I find myself disgusted at the sensation of Lady Gaga, not because of her strange exploits on stage, but because it has all been done before (even though no one acknowledges this). She is a postmodern collage rip-off of David Bowie, GWAR, Tiny Tim, Kiss, Siouxsie Sioux, and Laurie Anderson. Maybe I’m bitter at the fact that while Kiss and Bowie met some measure of large-scale success, it bothers me that lady Gaga is more popular than the other previously mentioned artists, without having the musical talent to justify it.
Schtick, it has become more important than the music. There was a time when schtick, or oddity was used to capture the attention of the listener so the artist’s music could then be heard, but now it seems that schtick is an end to itself. Why bother even plugging in the amplifiers, no one cares what you sound like. At this point I hesitate to mention that I now sound like my parents did in the 1980’s. They had no care for the stylings of The Clash or even Rush. This makes me wonder if maybe I’m missing something in today’s music the way my parents missed what I heard in the music of my youth.
Is there something to the Jonas Brothers that will have them revered as high popular art twenty years from now the way Zappa and King Crimson are in certain academic circles? I don’t think so. Nor does Lady Gaga, nor Rhianna have that extra something that will make a difference. I say this given the history of popular music and the difference between what was popular in the day and what is regarded as art now. In the 80s and 90s, few of the super gold record stadium rockers are currently revered. King Crimson, Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, Frank Zappa, and Jethro Tull are among the examples of ‘pop’ music of the eighties now being researched academically, not Poison, Def Leppard, nor even Duran Duran (although I might make an exception for the latter as I have my opinion on how they expanded the rhetoric of New Wave using modernist techniques). Using this historical data, which contemporary pop composers can we predict will be academic fodder twenty years from now?
My money is on Radiohead. There are three large reasons for mentioning them. First, they have revolutionized the music industry. With each advance in technology; the invention of radio, and the phonograph, there have been geniuses who have utilized the tools and created the model in which all others will follow. Marketing geniuses that are academic benchmarks in this area include George Lucas, The Beatles, and Michael Jackson. The music industry has been in a state of confusion since the dawning of the internet and it is has been Radiohead that have made the greatest advances in using this tool. Second, their music is informed by popular and classical techniques used before them. They developed their own progressive musical language theoretically using Wagnerian tonal language while employing Babbit’s and Reich’s electronic and phasing techniques, and pop hooks. Finally, they are already being studied in academic circles. They are noteworthy because not only do they have the marketing sense, but the musical authority to be mentioned from this point forward.
Unfortunately, because I have become so jaded about the popular music industry, I cannot name another contemporary band or person whom I think will be studied in the future (with the possible exception of Beck). In my retreating to music that comforts me, (which is odd because most of it was composed to challenge the listener and be uncomfortable), I have not stayed current in my discovery of new music, popular or serious. As a result, I am afraid. Why, because my daughter who listens to Paramore, doesn’t know who Radiohead is, and because I don’t know if there is anymore new, valid music being made. I’m afraid that in the age of ‘Reality TV’ being famous for being famous is more important than being famous for accomplishing something. Is schtick all there is anymore?
I also see this trend not just geared toward music marketed to our youth. With regard to popular music geared toward us older folks, I see a similar phenomenon. It isn’t the music that matters, it’s the scene. And while the scene has been an important part of live music since the 50s, it now seems to overshadow the music. Go to a Phish show, an Allman Brothers Concert, a ‘Music and Arts festival’ or any of the Pixies’ reunion shows and see how many in attendance are aware of the music vs. how many are there to merchandise (hippy paraphernalia, drugs, t-shirts, concessions), there to get high on chemicals, or there to be seen and brag that they were there. It is as if the music has become meaningless in a sea of cultural capitalism/addiction/narcissism. Is this what people really want? Is this what we chose?
Maybe I’m a curmudgeon, but I long for the days when good music was good enough. Being that the current state of radio is still corrupt, and that the internet is too big to be useful in finding good music, I am pleading for input on good music that is current. Leave me a comment, who, and what should I listen to, and why?
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