06/26/09
Michael Jackson- further proof of the non-correlation between wisdom, virtue, and talent.
Michael Jackson was an unrepentant and unpunished child molester who happened to have been, twenty five years prior, a guy with an extraordinary and, with its high, non-falsetto, pitch, and vibrato-rich tone, extraordinarily unusual, voice; a nice touch at popcraft; and an original, repetitive dance style. We have what we need from him. He will not be missed.
Michael Jackson is also one of my favorite pop acts of all time. One of my earliest musical likes, actually, as his Off the Wall and Thriller albums came out in my junior high and high school years, respectively. I attended one of his concerts in Dodger Stadium in 1995 (or 1996- Hi, Earnest Holguin).
I didn't dress or act like him (I can imagine what my dad would have thought), but I watched him on Richard Blade's VH1 and listened to him on KISS FM in Los Angeles whenever I could.
Michael Jackson is often compared to another pre-pubescent star, Frankie Lyman, but Jackson was both a better singer, in part because he had assimilated the soul inflections of Otis Redding and James Brown, and his voice was stronger and more elastic. It never really changed, either.
Value-added assets of Michael's included an amazing James Brown-lite dancing ability and a nice personality, as a kid.
Two songs that most showcase his voice from the early years are his remake of Smokey Robinson's, "Who's Loving You," with its thrilling ending. Podcast above, video below.
06/18/09
The Bangles entered my life during my late adolescence. They left a large musical impression on me. They also affected other parts of my development. Without elaborating, I think it's important for boys to fix themselves to positive images of females at this age.
That the Bangles seemed like "nice" girls at the time probably had something to do with preference for them throughout my life. Susanna Hoffs was also one of the most alluring women of rock, those eyes!
They had great songs too. My favorite is probably "Manic Monday," although they have enough ones of similar quality for an essential one-CD compilation. "Manic Monday" is the podcast and the fun "Walk Like an Egyptian" video is below.
Ahh, what the heck, putting Manic Monday doesn't cost extra. You get to see what I'm talking about with the eyes, too.
Oh, I forgot to mention why I brought them up. Apparently, they're still making music, and performing.
One more thing: as long as men bestride the earth, they will ask this question.
05/19/09
I read with interest this report saying how people in high-tax countries are happier (just go with it).
On the other side, there's Mark Sanford:
I think it's safe to assume that mark Sanford probably wouldn't be happier paying 66% of his income so that the government can tell him which doctor to see.
It's my position that people can tolerate almost any government or political system. I'm sure yesterday's serfs were probably happier than many Beverly Hills liberals were under George Bush. Friedrich Engels, noticing this phenomenon, accused people who didn't care for his proposals as having a "false consciousness," or of not being as unhappy as they should be. Conservatives like Mark Levin call people who aren't mad at Obama, "drones."
Anyways, left and right have different views on happiness. To the liberal, happiness is not worrying about stuff. Government's got your back. Thus non-preoccupied with feeding oneself or taking care of one's own children or parents, the person is free to visit museums, take as many classes as they feel like for no other reason than to fulfill oneself, have sex, play video games, and go on vacations. There's little guilt because everybody else can do this.
A song that expresses this view is Evelyn Knight's "Lucky Lucky Lucky Me." She works the government-limited eight hours. No doubt heeding the advice given in an intense public service announcement campaign, she sleeps eight hours. And, she has eight hours left for the above activities. She doesn't have "a dime" because of taxes or the approach to life implied in the liberal version of happiness, but she's got the basics covered and the peace of mind that no matter how little she tries, she'll never lose them. Song above.
The Best of Evelyn Knight by Evelyn Knight and the Stardusters
On the other hand, if the conservative never sees a government official in his life, he would have done well. Being in danger of starving is half the fun. The other half is enjoying his just rewards. He dislikes when the lady with eight kids and no husband pulls out her wad of food stamps. This point of view is musically represented by Cole Porter's "Don't Fence Me In," here sung by Bing Crosby.
Gold by Charles Kenny & Nick Kenny
05/12/09
I've sort of fallen in love with the 40s station on Sirius radio. Not only is the music great; it serves as a primary source on the greatest generation (each of us has an ancestor from that era. Kind of weird, if you think about it).
These two songs, "Murder, He Says," one version sung by Anita O'Day and another by Betty Hutton, and "Hubba Hubba Hubba" allow us, for example, to listen to the era's slang in a proper context, if not quite in the wild.
First up is "Hubba Hubba Hubba, Dig You Later," by that most laid back of singers, Perry Como. You'll notice, as in this song by Wanda Jackson, a different understanding of the necessities of warfare, from that in our own day, although "Hubba" lacks the sheer triumphalism of the Jackson song. Callous, perhaps, but showy expressions of regret don't make people less dead, assuming that minimizing collateral damage is some kind of priority (then again, perhaps such a consideration makes for a less effective effort). I wonder if a people with a "forties" sensibility would have made such a hubbub over sleep deprivation, waterboarding, and the use of bugs in the interrogation of murderous terrorists?
Hey, that's Carmen Miranda!
Next up is "Murder, She Says." It's probably one of popular culture's first encounters with "anti-language" or speech where words mean the opposite of their original intention. Modern examples include "wicked" and "bad" for "good," as in, "He's a bad a**." Tori Amos has a very nice version of the song on the soundtrack to Mona Lisa Smile.
Anito O'Day with Gene Krupa:
05/05/09
As usual, Powerline does the blogosphere a service by providing an alternative to the adulatory coverage of Pete Seeger's 90th birtday. It's not like Powerline is ruining the appreciation of good music by considering Seeger's politics: a great deal of Seeger's appeal is his politics.
And what were his politics up until a few years ago, when it was irrelevant: Seeger maintained faithful allegiance to the the second most murderous political group in history (China's holding at #1), reminding us that:
1. For many on the left, feelings trump reality, "Seeger sang about loving each other."
2. Of course, Nazi-Soviet hypocrisy. A Nazi folk singer probably wouldn't have won the Medal of Honor for art (how ironic that he received his award in a building named after JFK who hated Communism and was killed by a Communist) nor gotten a PBS special.
3. Many on the left prefer style over substance. Consider the Che T-shirts, the long say-nothing speeches of President Obama, that they seem much more likely to form opinions based on art.
4. One can admire a brave, principled Communist, sort of, but Seeger refused to say whether he was Communist and withdrew an album because his Soviet puppet masters told him to.
5. In looking for music for this post, I came across this song, called, "What Did You Learn in School?" Well, Pete Seeger, Communist, must be happy that kids today are pretty much learning the leftist ideas he espoused all of his life. The most popular history text on campus is People's History by Communist sympathizer Howard Zinn. Communist libel like the book Obama accepted from Chavez, Open Veins of Latin America
is popular in college as well. Even in my high school, I noticed that Mother Jones graced the magazine rack in the library. No issues of the National Review or Weekly Standard were there to contest it.
Here's an album. Please don't reward the capitalist pigs who run the record companies by paying for it:
A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present (P.S.) by Howard Zinn
The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent by Eduardo Galeano
), 03:32:48 pm, 368 words PermalinkCategories: Classical, Rock and Roll :: 1 comment »
04/16/09
Proving once again that being an artist, especially a Rock star, is no guarantor of personal virtue, Phil Spector was convicted of second degree murder for killing actress Lana Clarkson.
Phil Spector is a Rock and Roll legend, having been involved in a series of early sixties girl group songs as well as having collaborated with the Righteous Brothers and the Beatles. According to Wikipedia, Cuban and Caribbean music was a big influence.
Phil Spector's famous for his "wall of sound" technique which means, to me, that there's a lot of instruments and you can't quite tell what they are.
The most prescient song is "He Hit Me and it Felt Like a Kiss" (above).
Ronnie Spector of the hyper-cleverly named group, the Ronettes, was his suffering, secluded wife. "Be My Baby" is the Ronettes' best song.
Tags: ronettes, ronnettes ), 06:50:07 am, 379 words PermalinkCategories: Rock and Roll, Soul :: Leave a comment »
03/22/09
A little much, no? It's not called "graciousness" when you're begging somebody for peace. If it were Bush, who had a Norwuz message last year (calling the government a "regime"), I'd say he was "brown-nosing" Iran.
We have Iran's response:
TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Saturday he sees no change in U.S. policy toward Iran despite the U.S. promise of a "new beginning."
Ayatollah Khamenei said Iran would change its policy when the U.S. did so as well.Ayatollah Khamenei said Iran would change its policy when the U.S. did so as well.
Khamenei said a change in rhetoric is not enough, and Washington must practice what it preaches, according to the English-language Press TV channel in Iran.
He also promised that Iran will change its policy if the United States does so as well, Press TV reported.
To be fair, what Obama says is not nearly as important as what he does. God help us if terrorist-supporting Iran gets a nuclear bomb.
On the other hand, Turkey will let us go through their territory out of Iraq. Good for them.
I'm not a big fan of Richard Strauss. I find his compositions bloated and pretentious, boring. Thus Spake Zarathustra is a good example. A few moments of distinction followed by some very unmemorable music, kind of like Carl Orff's Carmina Burana.
Zarathustra or Zoroaster was the founder of the Iranian religion Zoroastrianism. Nowruz is their New Years. Whereas most Islamic countries adopted Hijra, or the migration of the Islamic prophet Muhammad to the city now known as Medina as the beginning of their calendar, Persians kept Nowruz.
2001 Space Odyssey
03/20/09
Like many in my generation, Mr. T had a profound impact on my personal development. His pithy wisdom, encapsulated in the phrase "I pity the fool," both cautioned me against foolish excess and inspired me (to ride around the country as outlaws saving beautiful women from small-town thugs).**
The A-Team Complete Series (Seasons 1-5)
Anyways, in college (thanks B.A.), I became immersed in Blues and Soul music, and it wasn't long before I discovered Bobby Bland, probably the best pure Blues singer and one of the best Soul (and thus, from any genre) singers in history. An amazing fact about Bobby "Blues" Bland was that he lost the upper register of his voice, a powerful falsetto, early in his career, but his voice was so good that he still became the most popular Blues performer of his generation.
"I Pity the Fool," is the podcast. If modern R&B were half as good as this song, I'd still listen.
Oh, I forgot why I mentioned Mr. T in the first place. Hugh Hewitt talked about a new iPhone app on his show called "iPity" that mimics Mr. T. It's a legacy we should all promote.
**In fact, Brian Rivas, Javier Calderon, Tom Patel and I each adopted characters from the show (I was "Face," for no particular reason) and would play "A Team." Ahhh, good times.
03/16/09
These albums are a hat trick of goodness for me. The best Catholic music in English. The best Irish music I've heard. And, just great music, period.
The performances are stunning. Frank Patterson is a formidable tenor. Regina Nathanson's a thrilling soprano. The monks are fine if you like that. There's even some affecting boy singers. Choirs, too.
I've never heard the songs on this collection, which makes them especially valuable to me. They're soaringly melodic and exceptionally well-constructed. They have religious lyrics, but you can still enjoy them if you lack faith the same way you might still appreciate Handel's Messiah despite the event that inspired it.
Future saints, on the other hand, are in for an amazing experience. The songs range in theme from soft devotions to the Trinity, Mary, and the Church to full-throated hymns of religious defiance to the English (originally; however, they're equally applicable to other challenges).
The second album adds Latin and Gaelic lyrics.
I consider both albums a must-own. There's a concert DVD I haven't seen and a Christmas CD I haven't heard. I plan on purchasing both.
Faith of Our Fathers: Classic Religious Anthems of Ireland
03/13/09
Music lovers will understand when I say that there are few feelings as delightful as discovering great music.
Whenever that happens, I immediately want to share my good fortune. Sharing has always been problematic for me, however, as nobody within a 15-mile radius from my home shares my taste in Cuban, Classical, Soul, Blues, and now, pre-Rock popular music.
Or, it was difficult. I can now bypass my neighbors and find community with you, the dwellers of cyberspace.
My latest find is Evelyn Knight. I found her on the forties channel (4 on both XM and Sirius). Evelyn Knight has a wonderful mezzo-soprano and sings in a style between Country and Jazz. Her songs are varied and interesting. She has fun nonsense songs like "Chickery Chick" and joyous songs that celebrate life and love like "A Little Birdy Told Me."
Evelyn Knight's music supports my thesis that our fathers and grandfathers were, on average, better people. Their music is positive during much more difficult circumstances- WWII and the Depression- and full of good values while modern music is depressing, cynical, nihilist, and destructive of good.
It's very much worth your time to listen. Amazon has two Evelyn Knight cds, but one is out-of-print and expensive. The best option is to get the album, Beautiful Brown Eyes from iTunes.
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