Delayed understanding.

It's taken me 40 years to fully realize the brilliance of Aqualung.

I have always thought that Jethro Tull's Aqualung was a fantastic piece of music, but as I was trying to explain lyrics to my son, I had an epiphany. I was telling him how it was story the of an old man who I believed was homeless and how people saw him is being scary and strange but actually that there was more to him than that. When I was young man listening to the song, I recall thinking that the song was about the duality in his personality and that he was both things, a gentle old man and dangerous antisocial wild man to be feared. That he was cruel to strangers because the world was cruel to him, but still had the capacity to connect when shown kindness. Not a bad analysis for a teenager. 

 It is amazing how powerful saying something out loud is because when I explained the song to my son it triggered whole new connections. I guess I had never really questioned my interpretation for all these years, but now I'm pretty sure the song is all about our perception of the homeless and how WE treat them. Whether we see The homeless automatically as dangerous, dirty, creatures to be feared... or as people in need of of help. this more nuanced meaning presented itself to me very clearly, and now its hard for me to hear it as anything other than a social commentary on us and how we treat people who find themselves in this bad situation any assumptions we make about them. The juxtaposition of the song going back and forth from the hard rock and the gentle acoustic treatments represents the two extremes, fear and repulsion, and empathy.

I have to say, has someone who was not always sure after secure financial future, and could easily imagine myself in that situation, this new revelation about the song and its meaning had quite an emotional impact on me. I hope that if given the chance to time travel I would keep my mouth shut and allow my younger self to enjoy his interpretation of the song. After all, there's only one or two people in the world, who really know what the intentions of those lyrics are, and to be honest, if they are anything like me, they may have forgotten by now. But that's the wonderful thing about music, it's means what It means to the person listening to it at the time. I have to try to remember that. So even those people who clearly have never listen to the lyrics of any song in their life, are still getting emotional connection from the music, Even if I feel like they are missing a beautiful treasure. Who knows? Maybe they will discover new meaning in that song 40 years later.

Excellent Support From Chordbot Developer

My copy of Chordbot for IOS stopped working last night so I shot off an email and just now I got a response that I am confident will solve the issue. I should say that it is less the developers fault that it stopped working and more mine for pushing the iPad to hard.

If you are interested in cobbling together chord progressions on an IOS device Chordbot is a great app. Plus they actually read emails! Gotta love THAT!

Plea to maintain best in class IOS music product

It seems to me that developers sometimes throw things at a wall to see if they stick without thinking much about the people who use the tools. If a product is really good, that may be enough reason to keep it healthy and see what happens in the long run. When the pros come over to IOS in larger numbers... (and they will) I hope these guys won't have been short sighted. Here is the note I sent them.

Dear WI...
I am absolutely in love with WI Guitar on the iPad. I have been a vocalist/electronic composer/producer for nearly 30 years. Honestly I had never heard of your company before as my gear purchases stabilized years ago. I have a ton of virtual instruments and soft synths as well as racks of classic gear, I don't need much that is new... unless that is it happens to be for an innovative new touch based tablet. Which is exactly how I discovered you. WI Guitar is by far the best sounding and most playable app of its type on the app store. But, today I am sitting here wanting to strum an idea into cusasis and then transfer that over to cubase on the mac and well, no audiobus, so no love. I came to your site looking for news about possible pending updates and found disturbing verbiage in the FAQ regarding support for your other IOS offering. "We currently have no plans on changing or updating the core functionality of Wivi Band for iOS." I hope this does not apply to WI Guitar. I feel you have something unique in this product and would hate to see it get left behind or abandoned. Charge IAP for amp simulators, or new samples if you need to, but please consider updating this app with current technology. Nothing else I have found sounds nearly as good. 

This may sound like me blowing smoke but I do lack orchestral samples in my collection and have been casually looking at different packages for years... because of WI Guitar, I am now aware of your company and understand your commitment to making instruments that sound "right". Something to consider. Thanks for your time.

This was a supplemental note I sent.


I also should have mentioned that although I have owned WI Guitar for a long time I have recently been on a buying spree of new IOS music apps, the primary qualification that drives my purchase is if they have audiobus.  I will consider buying anything that has audiobus and often use their list of compatible apps as a reference for shopping. in fact I recently purchased a different guitar app because it had audiobus, but it sounds tragic in comparison to yours. sorry to babble on... I hope you find this information useful or encouraging. 
Thanks again.
Doc.

Clever lyrics sneak back into Pop music?

When I first heard Lilly Allen I detected something in the music and imagery that gave me a slight pause. She was unconventional in her attractiveness and I always think its great when the media machine allows a person that looks like they were not stamped from a mold sell records. Don't take that the wrong way, I think she is a very pretty young woman... She just is unique when compared to what "pop stars" have looked like over the last 15 years.

But thats not the only thing that piqued my curiosity. there seemed to be a cleverness in her eyes of the video "Smile". She looked like she was having fun and more importantly she seemed to have a bit of comic timing. The song itself however, although having a lot of potential with its jaunty reggae-esque bounce and interwoven vocal lines, fell short for me as it was too repetitive and did not deliver the lyrical heft I usually demand.

So I never recommended her to anyone else, and just assumed she had a clever producer and video director that had coaxed a good one off performance out of her like so many pop stars before. She did not in fact appear to be the vanguard of a revival in pop music that would give us an occasional song or two that had some substance.

A few mounts later I found out that her father is Keith Allen. I pretty famous Actor/comedian. Best in the UK it would seem. I discovered him by watching his documentary "Keith Allen Will Burn In Hell". Which is a biting expose profiling the controversial Westboro Baptist Church, led by Fred Phelps. In the film Allen basts the Church's anti-homosexuality views, confronts them directly and returns their insults with a bit of wit and a large dose of distain. (once the gloves are off). It was really fun to watch someone say some of the things I have always wanted to say to these fuckers, and in their own home no less! He really proved just how stupid they actually are just in the fact that they allowed him so much assess.

In addition to being a funny smart-ass, her dad apparently has some music industry connections... He co-wrote New Order's only UK number one single "World In Motion" and occasionally performed with them live. Lilly is also the god-daughter of late Clash singer and guitarist, Joe Strummer. Hmmmm. Don't get me started about nepotism in the entertainment industry. My father was only a radio announcer and if he could have pulled strings to help my music career, I doubt he would have since we stopped speaking when I was 16. But I am sure Lilly got a "leg up". Usually that annoys me, but strangely I am willing to give a pass on this due to the fact that I think she may have inherited some interesting positive traits from her dad...

Look at this...



She is credited as the songwriter, That doesn't mean anything I'm afraid, people often don't write their own books either folks! But lets give her the benefit of the doubt...

Life’s about film stars and less about mothers
It’s all about fast cars and passing each other
But it doesn’t matter cause I’m packing plastic
and that’s what makes my life so f***ing fantastic
And I am a weapon of massive consumption
and its not my fault it’s how I’m program to function

Nice... and I do mean that. I would have been proud to have written that.

I want to be rich and I want lots of money
I don’t care about clever I don’t care about funny

You know, this is a damn good skewering of the attitudes common in our society.

The song itself if popish and light sounding, almost fun, but with a pinch of melancholy. It has a "killer Hook" ugh... but thats all perfectly planed and constructed like a missile to deliver the payload of these lyrics into the minds of placid people... and THAT is EXACTLY what has been largely missing from good pop music for so many years.

God speed Ms. Allen! I hope your little stealth smart bomb explodes in the minds of lots of young people that need to change their view a bit.

I should always be quiet when people around me start talking about music.

Other people still see the creation or music as a healthy and positive thing... I need to remember this.

Some things that kill a conversation:

People don't want to know the depth of the rot in the industry and they don't want to know about all the heartbreak I have witnessed as people who have worked like mad, driven, creatures and sacrificed so much "made it" only to have all that work and time stolen from them because the record companies could make a few more dollars if they "adjusted the lineup" in the band even if it meant replacing founding members.

People don't want to hear that "popular music" is all still horribly broken and that almost everything about it is basically a lie. A magic trick that has been growing in size and scale year after year and that they are the patsy. We used to laugh about The Monkeys... They seem honest now... like quaint folksy media pioneers, at least they were funny and they got Jimmy Hendix open for them and had Tim Buckley on their show singing Song To The Siren as if to whisper..."Hey kids, here is the REAL stuff... don't tell your folks!"



No one wants to think about the fact that their favorite singer may not be able to sing that well... or that they don't need to have the talent any more, real time pitch correction makes it possible to give the modestly talented a live mic if you are feeling brave.

Its not A good move to mention that many music acts are only partially responsible for their own sound... talented producers often shape them dramatically into the finished product you eventually hear.

Here is a social tip, Since most musical acts are not that original and can be traced back to someone they where trying to emulate... don't ever point this out to the person who likes that band, they will hate you for it, even if you honestly think they might enjoy the music of the first band... I mean, clearly their heroes were fans of the earlier band... why wouldn't they want to check them out? : P

Never talk about how making music is "serious" for you. People don't want to think of music that way. It is supposed to be fun and joyous even though most rock is about alienation and anger, somehow making it is supposed to be about having a good time... weird. I know very few musicians who are "happy" most are poor as crap and are wishing for something better... I guess thats all part of the illusion (lie).


All of this leads me to the point of this post...

Even though you would imagine I would be pretty good at it... This is why I don't want to play Rock Band with you when you ask,

It's a lie.

Clearly Bowie is Evil

I have a friend (who shall remain nameless) who has never seen the venture Brothers, so I collected a few of the clips involving fun music references for him. The show is full of stuff like this and I highly recommend it for anyone who is of a certain age and likes having their pop culture served a bit blacken and on a skewer.

It's clear to me that these guys that created the show are big fans of Johnny Quest, David Bowie, comics and cartoons and everything that gets parodied on the show in general... but like a lot of us, they just can't help being smart asses... I like that.

Enjoy!

The new season begins in June if I am not mistaken.

Selectively Utopian (Or... Small Content Creators Are The Redshirts Of The 21st Century)

I finally figured it out... People that share files and have this moral attitude that they are doing nothing wrong are not just misguided or using the technology to justify a arguably questionable act, They are just Star Trek fans!

They are trying to force the first steps of a Roddenberrien vision of the future where there is no money, there is no work other than what you do to better yourself and here is the good part... Technology has advanced to the point were all basic human needs are met at zero cost. 

Relevant Utopian Points of a Star Trek future:

1. Energy is essentially free
2. Food can be "replicated" using the free energy
3. Living space and shelter is free (somehow)
4. People create art because they can, not out of a need to earn a living from their talent
5. All human knowledge, entertainment and information, is freely accessible to anyone

So, we have the beginnings of point 5... without any of the other points to support it! What I think people who share files are basically doing is putting the IDEA of intangible media having no monetary value before the needs of the real people that still depend on the income from that content!

The file Sharing community is fond of repeating mantra like "Information wants to be free" well I think I have coined the perfect response by saying that what they are are proposing is a "Selective Utopia"!

They want certain obtainable elements of a futuristic utopia without other supporting elements that make it all plausible to a working society, and they are willing to sacrifice the well being and rights of other human beings in order to get those first elements.

They want the parts of the "perfect future" that they can have now even if that will cause hardship and difficulty to the very people trying to create interesting, unique, or simply new content for them because the other parts of the "perfect human utopia" are impossible with our current technology. I honestly think some of them understand this but instead of being sympathetic or trying to find a interim solution, it is simpler to blame large media companies and and ignore the very existence of small, independent content creators because that causes a moral dilemma for them.

In other words, they see us as expendable, much like a poor guy who made the poor choice to wear red on the day he got picked to beam down with the lading party. Problem is, I don't think this will be a reversible trend and I don't think these attitudes will be "undone" once the war with "big media" is over. How will new art be supported in the future? Good question. Its one that doesn't seem to be getting asked... let alone answered.

I have never had a problem with file sharing really,  I do have a problem with the growing lack of respect for the talent of the people that create content. It seems to get worse as time goes by. I am fearful that recorded music, photography, programing and other inherently digital skills will just be seen as valueless in the future, and thats sickening if you understand how much effort can go into becoming good at those things. I don't want file sharing to end... I just want it to grow with a healthy respect for the content being shared and to find ways to support new and unique artist... I realize this is likely a pipe dream at this point but I keep trying.

There is apparently a movement going on to grow file sharing, to legitimize it. The idea being that if enough people do it then it become the legal standard. That makes sense, I am betting it will happen in some form, but I am afraid the people pushing for this haven't really thought it out, at least from the viewpoint of a small independent content creator.

If enough people buy into the idea that they should not have to pay for intangible media, many people stand to loose their livelihood. This goes for photographers, musicians, illustrators, programers, writers, filmmakers, painters, anyone whose work starts out or can eventually be converted into ones and zeroes. 

Sometimes its only a portion of their livelihood, but it could be the difference between being able to continue to create art or not being able to continue to afford the costs associated with it. In any case, taking income away from hard working people that may need it to survive or to continue making the art that others enjoy.

We are not just talking about huge record labels and movie studios here... The same technology that has given rise to file sharing has also empowered artist and programers worldwide to take charge of their own destiny.

The concept of "Pro" and "amateur" is as outdated as the CD and SoundWarehouse. If a person can make $1000 a year off their photography then by god they should $1000 a year off if and don't let ANYONE call them a hobbyist. When was the last time any of us had a job for more than 2-5 years? If Someone can make music for the rest of their life and sell a few thousand downloads a year then its likely that music may end up being the single highest grossing job they will ever have regardless if they never have a "HIT".

That is of course if people continue to apply any value to recorded music...

We may all just end up living in a selectively utopian world and such a person just ends up working extra shifts at the Sack-N-Save because they can't yet heat their house with free power or replicate free food to feed their kids.

Art takes time and effort, it has value. If it is eventually delivered in a digital form... that dosen't mater! If you make a copy you still are receiving the VALUE when you enjoy the work that was done. If the Content creator offers a digital file for free. GREAT! I do, and I will continue to. But if you are asked to support the art by paying a licence... well, until the time that we have invented dilithium reactors, food replicators, and transporters, you have an obligation, especially to independent content creators.

You could say that the way the file sharing community is currently implementing the progression of the march towards their Selective Utopia, Will end up possibly  permanently denying any hope of a Artists Utopia in the foreseeable future.

(Note about the art: The image of The Mona Lisa in a red Star Trek uniform that you see at the top of this post was created especially for this article. I then uploaded it in its basic form to see if it would spread across the internet and to see for myself how often I was credited, linked to, or to see how often the watermark was removed. "Red Shirt Mona Lisa" or "Star Trek Mona Lisa" has traveled far and wide, so far, I haven't come across anyone selling T-shirts made from the art or anything like that, and mostly I have been happy that people leave the watermark. Every once and a while someone will link back to the original or even spends a few moments to find me and ask before using it... So it has been interesting. And, trust me the fact that it is a modest manipulation of one of the worlds most famous paintings is not lost on me. I don't usually do mash-ups, I strive to be as original as I can. So, I find the fact that it has caught on amusing, hopefully others do also).

Destroy or change the music industry?

Today it was announced that Last.FM would be allowing users to steam songs in full length for 3 plays and offer a subscription model if you want to open it up to play those songs indefinitely. Aditionaly they will be paying artists directly for the plays out of the money generated from advertising and subscriptions.

Seems like a step in the right direction to me. But once again I am freaked out by the lack of respect for the artists themselves on the message boards. Shouts of "Music wants to be free!" and "down with the music industry!" were common. People that know me might understand that this set my head spinning with what is wrong with this line of thinking.

File sharing people and unlimited streaming people feel that it is them versus the evil suits that have been getting rich for decades off of overpriced record and CD sales and they are screaming for the end if the music industry!

Don't they realy mean, the end of the music industry... as we know it?

I don't think many people would be happy if the hard working people that make music all stopped because they had to get jobs at walmart. You have to think about all the people involved in music creation... musicians, producers, recording engineers, even the talented independent artist that has invested a huge amount of time learning the craft and money on decent equipment.

Anyone who has ever tried to make a great song knows just how hard, expensive, and time consuming it is. Even with the vast advances in music technology over the last few decades it still takes a lot of skill, imagination and time. If you are someone who has never tried, and you think I am full of it... then I challenge you to go make an interesting original song that is ready for distribution. Go ahead, I'll wait here... no? yeah, It's not so easy as most people assume. Dire straights were being sardonic suckas!

The music industry is not just a few vastly wealthy jerks at the top. Any new model needs to consider how to compensate the "worker class" people that put themselves into bringing you music that doesn't suck. Hopefully Last.FMs announcement is a step in the right direction.

Now if we could just get the average joe thinking about the people that make music as being worth supporting.

Is only 18% of people who download an album paying for it bad?

In a word...Yes.

Recently an interview was posted with Trent Reznor and in it he expressed his disappointment that people had not supported the direct distribution of the The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust project he had worked on with Saul Williams. Digg and the talkback forum went nuts with people doing napkin math and claiming that the record had made $140k in 2 months.

*sign*

People don't seem to know or care what goes into making a record... The recording and distribution cost is a big point. studio time and hiring people to put out what is considered a "Pro" product still costs a lot. if you do it all yourself and forego those costs then you have to invest a hell of a lot of time. Another point is that this project was promoted by Trent Reznor, a very popular artist with lots of fans. Imagine being a small or new artist without that support? Your costs are still the same... but the percentage of people paying will likely be much lower because someone well respected isn't essentially asking fans to support it.

Now do that same napkin math on a new artist without a record company or a big name behind him or her it looks pretty dismal. For future independent artists to hope for this model to work the sales would have needed to be dramatically better.

Once again people are only seeing the tip of the iceburg and ignoring all thats underneath. If friggin Radio Head or a project promoted by Trent Reznor can't sell enough to make it worth wile, then what chance do the thousands and thousands of talented independent recording artists have... not to get rich mind you, just to make a modest living.

People Show Failing Respect For Creatives

Recently I came across a story through Digg about Creative Commons and photographers.
http://rising.blackstar.com/why-photographers-hate-creative-commons.html

The posts in the comment thread were somewhat brutal and many people seemed to be adamant that photography and creativity no longer had value because it was so commonly available for free. One person even insinuated that if people expected to be paid for creativity then they should be paid for bodily functions... nice.

This was my response that immediately started getting buried by negative ratings one would assume because I dare to want something in-between "only pros get paid" and "all information should be free".

***snip***

I am not sure that CC is really working to foster and protect creativity. Actually, I have not seen much work done as it relates to the web to promote a photographers ability to earn fair compensation for what they do. Honestly, I think we have a deeper problem here, as reflected in these comments. Creativity is losing value in the minds of people.

The line between pro and amateur is the real outdated concept here... We had a great opportunity to bring in hordes of new contributers and content generators and allow them to be good at what they do while earning a modest income from...*shock* art! There is no reason people shouldn't make some portion of their income from creativity even if it never becomes their main source of income. Saying a work has no value depending on who the creator is and what title they have is ridiculous.

Talented people should be informed that their work has value. Often I think they just assume it doesn't and others take advantage of that. Maybe thats the real issue. Even if you take one great image in your whole life... its still a great image.

***snip***

I understand why people would want to share and I certainly don't mean to imply that they are wrong to do so, But I think there are also a lot of talented non-pro people that are not being given an opportunity or encouragement to use their skill to help pay their bills because the current vibe seems to be "set it free or you are being antisocial"

We are spending lots of effort on sharing content and not enough effort on creating a system/attitude that supports creatives throughout the range of skill, equipment, and creativity. All I am wishing for is something in between "no value" and traditional "over priced pro". A range of "creative middle class artist" supported by licensing system that allows much of the freedom of CC but also encourages modest compensation when it makes sense. I have spent quite a bit of time at Creative Commons trying to figure out if it would fit that goal and honestly I just haven't found a way that I think it could. Someone here mentioned dual licensing and I need to put some thought into that before closing the book on CC though.

If we are going to tear down the status quo, maybe we should consider finding ways to include the talented people that have traditionally been left out. Do I want to continue to pay Getty $500 for a rights managed image? Hell no! But I would be glad to pay $10-$50 to a struggling person who is studying photography at night and managed to get a great shot that was similar to the $500 one.

***snip***

This person had some good points... but still he was sort of an "all or nothing" advocate... summed up by this statement. "You seem to be suggesting that 'creative output' deserves some form of income. It does. It deserves the income that their customers are willing to pay for it. No more, no less. "

Yes, and I am trying to encourage people to be honest with themselves about the value of that output... lets say someone makes a decent living and also has a popular blog on the side that promotes them and therefore indirectly increases their income. One day you see an image on flicker that you think would be perfect to communicate the "feel" of a post. Instead of just taking it because the person has put it up under a CC license and you are in the "gray area" perhaps they should offer to pay a small fee for it. I would like to change peoples minds in a broad way about what that value for creativity IS. (crazy I know) We don't seem to be talking about a scale of worth... either its free, nearly free, or it is prohibitively expensive. There could be a huge range of value and affordability.

Content creators and content users could ultimately benefit from a system that made it simple and convenient to freely share, or pay on a sliding scale depending on the quality and the usage. I see this as one of the largest wasted online opportunities of the last decade. Call it "having a micro job" or "The Creative Middle Class" but the trading and exchange of digital content for (very small) payments never evolved the way I had hoped it would and it seems to me that just people that use the content or want to make money distributing / organizing of that content are getting most of the advantage, while people that are good at making images, music, etc... have not. You mentioned that the worth of "creative output" is set by the market and competition – I would say that the worth is set by the market and competition and modified by the tools available to deliver and license it. Its easy to leave a tip for a waitperson because the system and the social standard is in place. It is a huge pain to try to pay a small fair fee to a web based creative.

I am not advocating things returning to the way they were... I was just hoping for something different and perhaps better than what has happened.


*****Snip*****

I don't know why I still fight it... Its not new, people have always had a low opinion of "artists". The idea that you should be able to make a living doing art is still foreign and confusing to most people. Its just that now the web has uncovered so many people with artistic leanings and since we all are so convinced of our own worthlessness by all the lack of respect... we are just giving away all we create even if it does have modest commercial worth. Nothings going to stop the landslide... Soon the dream of the web allowing for an "creative middle class" will be fully crushed and only the very rich or people willing to live in poverty or off the kindness of others will have the time to develop artistic skill... much like its always been.

The "Incident”

The time frame of this story is around the mid-1990s, and this is how I remember it, although I’m sure that some of the details are getting a bit fuzzy...

So, one of the many things that I’ve done to support myself while making art and music all these years was selling high-end recording systems and synthesizers at a shop here in Dallas that catered to studios and professional musicians.

One day, a local producer came in with two guys I’d never seen before, and they were trying to find a really good piano sound for a project they were working on. We had just gotten in the Kurzweil Micropiano, and at the time it was a hell of a deal for such a cool little box. I think we had them on sale for like $279, which was a great price.

I hooked one up for them, and let them play with it for a while, and they really seemed to enjoy it. The guy who was sitting at the keyboard kept saying “Yeah, this is it, this is the sex!” All the while, they kept hassling me about the price, trying to get it for cheaper than the $279 that we had it on sale for.

I explained to them that it was an excellent price, and that was as low as we were going on those because they were selling so fast. But they wouldn’t shut up about getting a little extra off. They kept asking for the “Portuguese discount,” saying things like “Hey, what’s the Portuguese price on this?” I had NO IDEA what they were talking about.

So, to try to get their attention away from the price, I casually asked, “So, what kind of music do you guys do?” The guy at the keyboard responded, “Oh, pop rock.” I said, “Oh, yeah, really, like what? Does it sound like something I may have heard?” He responded, “Well, do you know Journey?” and I said to him, “Oh, yeah, sure,” with a less-than-enthusiastic tone in my voice. I guess as he picked up on this and said, “What, didn’t you like them?”

Being a very diplomatic guy, I simply said, “No, not really, it just wasn’t my thing,” to which one of them responded, “Well, they were more of a chick band.” I said, “Well, not any ‘chicks’ I hang out with.” They kind of smirked at that. Then he said, “So, you really didn’t like Journey?”

At this point, they’d been hassling me for so long about the price, and they seemed really oddly intent on just giving me a hard time, so I decided to give them a hard time back. I responded, “What are you, some kind of Journey freaks?” They all had a great laugh about that, and the guy at the piano looked at the other guys and said, “Well, yeah, we kind of liked them!”

Then he turned to me and said, “No, I’m really curious: what didn’t you like about them?” At this point, I was in full Smartass Mode, and didn’t see any reason to hold back. So I said, “What, you mean you like that guy’s voice?” And in my most shrill Steve-Perry impersonation I sang “Ooh, he’s lovin’, ooh he’s touchin’, anothaaaaaaaaah!” For some reason they found this incredibly amusing. They were slapping each other on the back, laughing, and I thought that the guy at the keyboard was about to fall off the stool.

When he had calmed down enough, he said, “So, you didn’t like his voice?” And I said, “Well no, I like men that sing like MEN,” which brought on another round of thunderous laughter and backslapping.

I couldn’t figure out why they kept asking me about Journey. Before I could figure it out, he asked me, “You didn’t like ANYTHING that they did?” So I said, “Well, there was that solo stuff that he had,” and sang a few notes of my mock-version of “Oh Sherrie,” to which he replied, “Oh, so you liked that?” I said, “No, that pretty much sucked too.”

It was about this time that I noticed that the local producer was turning beet-red and quivering with anger. I made a lame excuse and excused myself to go check on something in the back room, knowing that I had said something terribly terribly wrong, but not able to figure out what it was. One of the other salesmen came into the back room and I asked him, “Hey, do you know what I might have said to make John [not his real name] so pissed off?”

And it was at that point that he said, “Well, that’s Steve Perry you’ve been saying all those things to.”

I felt like somebody had punched me in the stomach. I mean, I was being honest, I don’t really care for his voice and wasn’t ever really into Journey, but just the idea of insulting anyone so badly made me feel ill. It’s not the sort of thing I go around doing. I have a lot of respect for talent in general, and he’s obviously a talented man… just not my cup of tea.

So I steeled myself and came out of hiding in the back room, and walked up to him and said something completely lame like “I’m sorry, Mr. Perry, I didn’t realize it was you.” And he said, “That’s OK, [XYZ] Record Company has the same opinion of my voice that you do. Maybe you could go work for them.”

He ended up buying the Micropiano… for the $279. And I was thankful that he was very gracious about the whole thing. I only hope that he didn’t take it too personally, and thought it was funny, and gets a kick out of telling the story about the goofy guy in Dallas who was mocking him right to his face.

I’ve NEVER been able to live this down with the people I used to work with, and it came to be known as “The Steve Perry Incident.”

Creative Middle Class, Part 1

I have been reading online arguments regarding DRM/copyright and it has me thinking about this touchy subject again.

I wish that in these arguments people would consider all content creators, not just big studios/record companies. As a self published photographer, musician, and short film maker, it seems like no people don't stop to think about the new "creative middle class". People just want digital content to be free even if it means hobbling someone who relies on a modest income from digital works.

I know that the model is to "set it free" and hope for a return... but I only see that working on a very large scale. For example, if I made a well produced instructional video for a rarely used art technique and the 5000 people in the world who where interested in using it could either pay me a modest $10 or download a hijacked version of it... I hate to say it but the number of people that would choose to just snag it for free would most likely make the project not worth doing and thus a valuable bit of fairly priced content would never be made. If you are a well established and famous band with a very devoted fan base you may be able to get a minority portion of them to pay a modest price for your works and that would be OK because of the scale. The rest of us... good luck with that.

Is "A" Jethro Tull's Worst Album? Hell No I Say!

I visited the iTunes music store to check if I had all the tracks for Jethro Tull's "A" and found it was victim of some pretty hateful reviews. Well feeling that the record didn't deserve that much spite, I decided to pen my own review. Here it is saved for all time in case it gets dropped off iTunes for people rating it unhelpful.

*******snip******

Not So Fast...

Take another look folks. People afraid of change have been bashing this record for decades but I think it has a lot to offer in the lexicon of Jethro Tull. Several songs influenced me as a young man. "Uniform" weaves a wonderful dark texture that owes a lot to the fantastic playing of Eddie Jobson; what a wonderful counterpoint to everyone's favorite rock flutist. My main issue with the track is that they fade out the stunning riffing at the end too soon.

"Batteries Not Included", "Crossfire", and "Protect And Survive" touched on something in me as a young person and helped cement my love for JT as I was really too young to have appreciated previous records when they came out. "A" was not my introduction to the band as my father was a rock DJ and brought home records for us all the time. But "A" was the first Tull album that I bought with my own money and it sealed the deal. I often wonder if people that don't like this record have really given it a chance. "And Further On", "The Pine Marten's Jig", and "Fylingdale Flyer" all strike me as tracks that are very much in line with the traditional sound of the more classic version of the band. Is it "Thick As A Brick"? no... But these are talented people. Even if they just pass wind into a mic it would likely sound better than 80% of popular music.

I agree that the record company made a mistake releasing it as a Jethro Tull record; chances are that if they had stuck to the original plan, more people would have been able to accept the record for what it is and there may not have been such a backlash.

Synthesizers don't kill albums... closed-minded people that hate them do. heh.

**********snip*********

Seems I am obsessing on music a lot recently, maybe that means I need to get back to writing some of my own. : )

Doc's Ever Growing List Of Perfect Albums

I have been thinking about music recently as you might have been able to tell from my posts. I was involved in an online discussion about "perfect" records recently. Albums that have no "filler". As fun as this sounds, but also very hard. So few rock albums were created with the intention of every track being great. Thats just not how the economics of the industry has worked usually. I think most record companies would have preferred to spread 11 great tracks over 3 albums. : )

As Katy and I have been playing this game and mentioning it to other friends I find myself wanting to make suggestions and then removing them from my list due to one or two dud songs!

Here is all I have so far...
Filigree In Shadow - This Mortal Coil
UK - Danger Money
The Clash - London Calling
Traffic – Traffic
David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust
The Police - Synchronicity
Public Image Ltd. - Album (man, I love this record)
The Who - Whos Next
Elton John – Madman Across the Water
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
Elvis Costello – My Aim is True
The The - Mind Bomb
Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick
Aim is True - Elvis Costello
Untitled #3 "Melting Face" - Peter Gabriel
The Who - Quadrophenia

If you read this and want to play... just remember to be honest with yourself... don't put "Madman Across The Water" on you list unless you would REALLY be willing to listen to "Tiny Dancer" every time. : )

The Greatest Record Ever Made

So many great albums... so many true works of art...

The Clash - London Calling
Traffic – Traffic
David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust
The Police - Synchronicity
Public Image Ltd. - Album (man, I love this record)
The Who - Whos Next
Elton John – Madman Across the Water
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
Elvis Costello – My Aim is True

All frigg'in great... So much great music to choose from. So what is the all time favorite of some freak like me who's musical tastes span across acts like XTC, Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel, Jethro Tull, This Mortal Coil, The Damed, Laurie Anderson, UK and Radiohead???

No question.... Its Lamb... Always Lamb, I will never falter in my love for this record or change my mind that it is the greatest rock album ever made. It is pure genius. The stars really had to be aligned for such a perfect thing to have been created.

Hard to believe that anyone that played on Lamb could have gone on to suck so very hard as they did a hand full of years later on crap like Invisible Touch. *shudder* I think it just goes to prove just how much PG oozes creativity. But to be fair I really like Trick Of The Tail too, so even after he left I guess they still COULD do good music but eventually choose to cash in. *sob*

If for some reason you have not heard Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, please seek it out. It really should be listened to from start to finish if possible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lamb_Lies_Down_on_Broadway

It made it into this list of the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
Nice list... I may need to explore it more.

More Early MTV Nonsense

That first critical year...

According to something I read attributed to Nina Blackwood, in the early days of MTV they only had around 300 clips to choose from total (125 at the time of launch). Even though some videos were already a few years old, they wound up in major rotation because there was just not a lot to choose from and little or no competition for airtime amongst the artists.

1982 seemed to be the year that it began to change and the music industry started seeing MTV as a promotion tool mainly due to the success of J. Geils Band's "Centerfold". The song went to number one after being in heavy rotation on MTV in early 1982. Also notable was the Go-Go's "We Got the Beat". The song was a year old but due to the popularity of the video started climbing the charts and got to number 2 in early 1982... I can visualize the record industry "sharks" starting to gather around the sent of money in preparation of the frenzy that would soon devour my beloved eclectic video music channel.

So it seems that the slide into what quickly became a 24hr ad campaign for easily consumable top 40 pop music started a lot sooner than I remembered or was aware of at the time. I was a smart kid, but I doubt I could have perceived the underlying forces that where redirecting the course of the creek I was floating down as it became a rushing river of commercialism.

Its no wonder that when I talk about early MTV to people that they don't remember bands like The Buggles. By the time most kids had done a month of chores and raised their grades enough to finally convince their parents to get cable, the tide had most likely already turned. People only remember Talking Heads because by that time they where firmly entrenched and I suspect MTV picked a hand full of unique acts from the early days to carry forward in order to not be seen as selling out.

I never really realized how small MTVs audience was in that first year... In hindsight I feel very lucky to have been exposed to it before it became corrupted. Elvis Costello, Kate Bush, Talking Heads, Pretenders... Man I shudder to think what my musical tastes would be like had I been listening to the RADIO during that time. It was like having a (somewhat) cool late night DJ at a college station you could barely pick up playing weird and wonderful stuff you would never have heard otherwise. I am still searching for a list of everything that was played during that first year. I know there are so many gems I have forgotten from that hazy magic time...

A few years later I would be deeply engrossed in playing in avant-garde bands, re-discovering progressive rock and uncovering the punk music from the late 70's that I had missed being somewhat musically isolated in Wichita KS at the time. Its hard to say how much of my musically vocabulary came from that first year of MTV but I would say it had a substantial effect on the direction of the music I make and enjoy.

My favorite videos aired on the first day of MTV

On the day MTV went live I was really just a kid, I was actually very poor but I was fortunate enough to be living in the basement of a house that was wired for cable and I was glued to the set. The music was necessarily eclectic as the idea of making videos was still new. What I saw changed my musical tastes forever and broadened my horizons in a way that I don't think is possible now, I mean you HAD to sit through the April Wine video to see Elvis Costello and along the way you got a dose of Kate Bush, Iron Maiden and The Specials! Oh how the times have changed...


August 1, 1981:

"Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles
"You Better You Bet" by The Whol
"Brass in Pocket" by The Pretenders
"Time Heals" by Todd Rundgren
"Message of Love" by The Pretenders
"Double Life" by The Cars
"In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins
"Looking For Clues" by Robert Palmer
"Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" by Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
"One Step Ahead" by Split Enz
"I Wanna Be a Lifeguard" by Blotto (So bad its good?)
"Oliver's Army" by Elvis Costello
"Is it You?" by Lee Ritenour
"Tusk" by Fleetwood Mac
"Rapture" by Blondie
"Don't Let Go the Coat" by The Who
"Talk of the Town" by The Pretenders
"Can't Happen Here" by Rainbow
"The Man with the Child in His Eyes" by Kate Bush
"Ashes to Ashes" by David Bowie
"Rat Race" by The Specials
"Once in a Lifetime" by Talking Heads

I am still looking for a list of everything that was played the first year or two... MTV was struggling to fill up the playlist and it forced some odd and wonderful choices. Once more and more commercial music started to "clue in" and infiltrate the programing, it started to loose its luster for me... hard to think of the Talking Heads as being "unknown" but if other bands that where popular on the radio at the time had also produced visual content so early, then I doubt most people would have never heard of them as they would have just never made it on the air. Those first 12-24 months of MTV was a rare moment in the history of popular music.

Note: The dates of the music releases can be a little confusing as a lot of these where shot as promos for the band and the videos got shown before the record was released.

The Ever Growing List Of Doc's Favorite First Year MTV Videos

Ultravox - Vienna

Wall of Voodoo - Mexican Radio

Elvis Costtello - Oliver's Army

U2 - I Will Follow
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Spellbound
Split Enz - I Got You and One Step Ahead
Gary Newman - Cars
Madness - One Step Beyond
Thomas Dolby - Europa And The Pirate Twins
Devo - Satisfaction
The Clash - This Is Radio Clash
David Bowie - Fashion
Adam and the Ants - Ant Music (guilty pleasure? 2 drummers gotta earn them some points. )

Squeeze - Tempted

The Fixx - Stand or Fall

Please comment about videos that you think should be on the list keeping in mind that they should have first aired in 1981 or 1982 at the latest.