Category: Music

The Riddle gets me every time

I never wanted my blog to be a fan blog just posting links to music or musicians I happen to like at the moment. I also never intended to abandon my blog, so I guess a fan boy post is better than no posts at all.

I cannot listen to Five for Fighting‘s “The Riddle” without getting verklempt. It talks about father/son love. It reminds us of our mortality. (We’re talking meaning of life stuff here.) There are subtle baseball references. It has emotive vocals with great guitar and a beautiful piano accompaniment. The young boy in the lyrics is both serious and playful. The video even has a cool muscle car.

I’ve a house full of intelligent and rambunctious boys. My own wonderful father passed away last year. I’d have to be a robot to not get a little weepy, right?

Well done, John Ondrasik.

 

All my clueless friends are coming over tonight

Bocephus got the boot. Not the cowboy boot, which I presume he already had, but the metaphorical boot out the door. I’m sure you are familiar with the story. Hank Williams Jr. had his performance on the Monday Night Football open axed because he compared President Obama to Hitler. This is a really stupid thing to do. Only he didn’t. Please watch the video. Fair warning- it is awkward.

Hank might not be the most well-spoke man, but he was not saying President Obama acts like Hitler, dresses like Hitler or is a vegetarian (like Hitler.) He was making a bad analogy. Any analogy that involves Hitler is a bad analogy, of course. It is unwise in every meaning of the word to evoke that kind of evil.

What amazes me, though, is the repetition by news sources that he compared Obama to Hitler. I guess the story was too good to check. I don’t think an honest person who watched the clip could conclude he was comparing the two men. You might just as accurately say he was comparing Boehner or Kasich to Hitler, if you applied the same (lack of) logic.

Also, while it irritates me the way the story was framed, it also irritates me that anyone would invoke the First Amendment to defend Williams. ESPN isn’t the government, and they can play pretty much any song they choose before Monday Night Football. It is not as though many people will see it anyway.

I unliked REM today

Facebook is a funny thing. It has created a whole new language and usage. You probably immediately knew what I meant when your read in the title that I “unliked” REM. Back in the day when you could just list interests in music, movies, TV and the like I had REM listed. Then Facebook converted all your interests into ‘likes” of (usually) official pages.

Today I finally “unliked” REM. That is not to say that I dislike REM. If you knew me in my college radio DJ days you could hardly imagine I would ever renounce my affinity for the four from Athens. A few things happend in the meantime.

  1. The four from Athens became the three. In early interviews REM insisted that each member was integral to what the band was. Bill Berry left the band, and they didn’t disband. Can’t say I blame them, but it eroded some of the myth of their unique cohesion.
  2. Green was an overtly political album. I support the right every American has to free speech. But don’t expect me to pay you for your opinion. I like jangly guitars and country-tinged harmonies. I don’t like being force-fed leftist sloganeering.
  3. I saw a VH1 special in which Michael Stipe couldn’t hold a tune singing along to “Brandy” by the Looking Glass while he rode in the back of a limousine. He then insisted the song was misogynistic because it said “what a good wife you would be”. If you ever needed an illustration of a limousine liberal, save that image.
  4. I grew up. Part of being young an really “into” music as a young man is the desire to identify your tribe. I never really was a conformist in that I liked big band, jazz, country and classical. But my persona was the guy who could pretend he knew what Stipe was singing.  As you get older and have some more real life experience behind you, it is less critical to identify with anything but your own perfectly flawed self.

So there you have it. I still like the music of Chronic Town, Murmur, Fables of the Reconstruction, Life’s Rich Pageant, Dead Letter Office, Document (particularly that one), Green, Out of Time, Monster, Automatic for the People. I just don’t care if you know that I do.

John McCormack, THE Irish Tenor

My dear wife was looking for a suitable version of “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” in preparation for St. Patrick’s Day. I searched iTunes and found a version by the Irish Tenors, several by Bing Crosby and even more by artists I’m unfamiliar with.

The track I downloaded was from John McCormack. I was amused by downloading music recorded for Victrola distribution via the same channel that made Lady Gaga a star.

I recall my mother telling me that my grandfather Murphy enjoyed John McCormack recordings when they were most popular. I enjoy the idea that his great-grandchildren will at least hear the recordings he enjoyed, perhaps they will enjoy them as well. They are part McCormack on my father’s side, so perhaps there is a familial connection as well.

After I found the music on iTunes, I realized the site www.archive.org has a very deep catalog of historic recordings of 78s and similar media. It is an incredible web site and you can spend hours browsing the collection. I highly recommend if you have any interest at all in music history you check it out. (They also host the Wayback Machine that will reveal what many websites used to look like)

Enjoy the Collected Works of John McCormack at Archive.org > http://www.archive.org/details/JohnMcCormack

I guess I don’t NEED another guitar

I’m very lucky to work a growing company in Cleveland that throws fabulous parties to celebrate our milestones. Our holiday party this year was at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. A cool place for a company party was made cooler by the fact that we had the run of the entire joint while we were there.

You might know that I love music and that I can sing a little, what you might not know is that I’m a guitar guy. It think it was Guitar Player magazine that once ranked the levels of guitarists. The top level is Guitarist. Just below that is Guitar Player. In the basement we have Guitar Owners.

I’m a guitar owner, and oddly enough the guitars I own are in the basement. I’ve got a Fender La Brea acoustic/electric and a Mexican Fender Telecaster. I know about five chords and have small calluses on my left hand. This still puts me in the Guitar Owner category, I reckon.

After visiting the Rock Hall, however, I’ve go the bug to get a 12 string, It is not all the R&RHoF&M fault, though. Before my recent visit I read a blog post that traced the Rickenbacker 12 string sound from the Beatles to the Byrds to the Gin Blossoms. It simply rocks. Add in the 6 string Rickenbacker that Peter Buck plays in R.E.M. and I really have a crush on that sound.

So if any of you out there have a Ricky collecting dust and you are in the bargaining mood let me know.

Cleveland did C.A.R.E. in 1985

Remember how the U.K. rockers recorded Do They Know It’s Christmas, and that prompted the U.S. rockers to record We Are The World? Both were efforts to raise awareness and money for African famine relief. If you are of a certain age (over 35) and from a certain city (Cleveland) you might also recall The Eyes Of the Children by C.A.R.E. (Cleveland Artists Recording for Ethiopia).

Cleveland produced a few well-known artists like the Dazz Band, the Raspberries,  and Ben Orr from the Cars who participated. But there were also band members from regional acts like Beau Coupe, Moonlight Drive, Paul Fayreweather – and the quintessential Cleveland band in the 80’s -MSB.

I remember hearing this on WMMS and thought it was a pretty good song. The sentiments are in the right place and it really is unmistakeably a 1985 pop anthem. I’m posting the Edited Version which runs about five minutes. The Long Version is over seven minutes. But in either case, I think they started repeating themselves at about the two minute mark.

By the way, proceeds from the album went to U.S.A. for Africa Foundation and the Ohio Hunger Task Force. There is a order form where you could order pins, T-shirts and the like with the silk-screened logo for C.A.R.E. Being 1985 one of the items available was a turquoise muscle shirt.

Elevator music to groove at a party

Elevator music is generally a dismissive term for songs performed instrumentally in a staid manner that is often hardly recognizable as the same tune as the original (more popular) version.

I’ve always had a little more respect for elevator music. Firstly, I have to respect the fact that these are real musicians earning a paycheck. You have to respect anyone making an honest living, particularly if he or she has skills you don’t. Secondly, I don’t mind soothing music in confined spaces that are hurtling me hundreds of feet off the ground.

I suppose the Riviera Strings can be said to make elevator music. I’ve digitized their album from the late 60’s called Love Is Blue. You might be familiar with the title track as it was a big hit by Paul Marriott. I’m not going to share that with you. This cover sounds so much like the original there really is no point to it.

I would like to share, however, their version of Theme From Bonnie And Clyde. I’ve always heard it called Foggy Mountain Breakdown. The banjo pickin’ features mighty fleet  fingers. But the strings kind of keep it all in elevator land. (Come to think of it, I might not want to hear a song with “breakdown” in the title on an elevator ride.)

The second track I would like to share just screams 1960’s popular music to me. Lulu had a big hit from To Sir With Love. I far prefer the instrumental version found on this album for one reason: Lulu isn’t singing.

By the way, the title for this post is taken from the liner notes –

Whether you listen to these exquisite sounds in the privacy of your home or groove them at a party, the result will be the same: TOTAL ENJOYMENT!

Richard Harris was allowed to record an entire album?

“One hit wonder” is the term we apply to an artist, duo or group that have just one song that becomes popular. Some might look at is as a put-down, but I think even having one hit is pretty impressive. With all the really talented people in this world, just getting a record made and distributed is an accomplishment. I tip my hat to Timbuk 3, Bobby McFerrin and all the others who had one brilliant moment in the sun.

Richard Harris (yes, the actor) had a monster hit called MacArthur Park in the 1970s. You may remember that “someone left the cake out in the rain.” Careless, yes, but not as careless as allowing Richard Harris to hang around the studio long enough to lay down enough tracks to make a full album called A Tramp Shining.

I’m compounding that mistake by converting some of the tracks from the album to share with you as MP3s. I say “some of the tracks” because I couldn’t force myself to listen to the whole album.

There is a bit of a sub-genre of songs that recall the names of former girlfriends, lovers, flings. Solitary Man by Neil Diamond and A Bang On The Ear by The Waterboys are fine examples.

Name Of My Sorrows is not.

If you are up for one more, please tell me the lyrics for Lovers Such As I are the result of some contest to write a song using an early prototype software that produced a random rhyme generator.

Excuse me, I need to pour rubbing alcohol in my ears now. (Don’t try this at home.)

Jackie Gleason was a band leader?

Jackie Gleason is probably best remembered for his comedy. Specifically, most will know him from The Honeymooners. But I don’t really remember his character Ralph Kramden romancing Alice with a little seductive music.

The real-life Jackie Gleason, however, made some very smooth music meant to put the little lady in the right mood. My hat is off to Jackie. Apparently the man could not play any instrument or even read or write music but that didn’t stop him from leading an orchestra that made best-selling albums. That’s something I aspire to.

And that brings us to tonight’s LP to digits project. Gleason released an album called Jackie Gleason presents Velvet Brass. Here is the liner notes tease –

Sensuous, sophisticated…a new musical concept that embodies the luxurious richness of velvet and the masculine brilliance of bright burnished brass.

The album consists of jazz and pop standards of the day. I decided to let my software automatically detect the tracks on this pass at digitizing. It didn’t go so well. I don’t know of the false endings or the popping and hissing threw it off. In any case, you are getting a two-for one deal here. You’re Driving Me Crazy and Skyliner just kind of ran together.

And just because I’ve liked this song by various artists for many years, here’s September Song. Never mind the pops and scratches, somehow I think it adds authenticity to the experience. Just imagine your date is on the couch, pour yourself a scotch and drop the needle on your record player.