Art is the music we make from the bewildered cry of being alive. ~Maria Popova
26 Sep 2012 2 Comments
in General Posts Tags: beach boys, brian wilson, mike love
(Reprinted from Reverb music blog)
The band’s frontman Mike Love announced that the group will split after this week in the U.K. and three members — Brian Wilson, Al Jardine and David Marks — have been dropped from the group. The three did not find out they had been dropped until Love and Bruce Johnston released a public statement.
The statement announcing the big shake up reads: “The post-50th anniversary configuration will not include Brian Wilson, Al Jardine and David Marks. The 50th Reunion Tour was designed to be a set tour with a beginning and an end to mark a special 50-year milestone for the band.”
The exiting Beach Boys will be replaced by the group’s long-time backing band, which includes Love’s son Christian, according to the Telegraph. Love added that the decision to drop the three members was financially motivated. “You’ve got to be careful not to get overexposed. There are promoters who are interested [in more shows by the reunited line-up], but they’ve said, ‘Give it a rest for a year’. The Eagles found out the hard way when they went out for a second year and wound up selling tickets for $5.”
Wilson was blindsided.
“I’m disappointed and can’t understand why he (Love) doesn’t want to tour with Al, David and me,” he told CNN. “We are out here having so much fun. After all, we are the real Beach Boys.”
If the five members of the Beach Boys do not rekindle their bond, the September 28 concert at Wembley Stadium may be the last show they play together, CNN noted.
There is already a petition on iPetition.com asking for Love, who owns the rights to the band’s name, to rethink the decision to break up the original Beach Boys.
The petition, addressed to Love, reads: “In order to preserve the validity of ‘The Beach Boys’ as a whole, and not as a ‘money saving, stripped down version’ that only contains 1 original member, and 1 member that joined in 1965, we ask you to re-instate the 3 other members to the touring group for your final years performing.”
“It’s the right thing to do, and it’s what the fans want,” the message concludes.
Jardine linked to the petition in a tweet. As of Wednesday morning, it had over 2,000 signatures.
In December 2011, the Beach Boys confirmed 50 shows to celebrate their 50th anniversary, Rolling Stone previously reported. The band formed in California in 1961. The reunion tour marks the first time the Boys have toured together in more than two decades.
Although the group had problems in the past, like nasty comments in the press and numerous lawsuits, Love swore that all the negativity was behind them. “All that stuff is long forgotten,” he told Rolling Stone.
Back in June, Rolling Stone had reported that Love booked shows for his version of the Beach Boys without consulting the other members.
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In retrospect I’m glad I missed this tour. As much as it would have meant to me to see one of my top two or three living musical idols in Brian Wilson, I really don’t want one more dollar to change hands between me and Mike Love. The ego of the man defies belief. Seriously, when the band’s resident genius, muse and living legend is up to touring and they’re fortunate enough to have a fiftieth anniversary to celebrate, who the hell is Love to disband them and tour with an imposter band under the Beach Boys name–for financial reasons, no less? Haven’t you made enough money in the last fifty years, Mike?
It should make their long time fans nauseous. Rock and Roll has a lot of villians, creeps and douchebags, but for my money Mike Love is number one.
26 Sep 2012 2 Comments
in General Posts Tags: andy williams
A friend’s thoughts on the passing of Andy Williams:
Andy Williams is gone and who out there under 65 gives a scratch. Well for some unknown reason to me, I do. He was everything that is nauseating about music. The clothes, the covers of whatever was the big song of the day, the whole Branson, Missouri thing that I’m pretty sure he created. But I can’t help myself every time I hear the guy sing but to stop and listen. I could never help myself every time I saw one if his records lying in the dollar bin. Now as a result I have 30 or so Andy Williams records and an embarrassing knowledge of what’s on them. And finally, truth be told, if I had to choose my favorite song I’ve ever heard, after not going a day since I was 5 without sitting by a stereo for at least an hour, I’d choose A Time for Us. Thanks Andy. I’d say see you in hell but you just spent the last 30 years doing 2 shows a night in Branson.
“A Time For Us”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1aPEL__96U&feature=youtube_gdata_player
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In my opinion you have nothing to apologize for or be embarrassed about. I think it’s a good sign when someone hangs on to the music of their youth, or the music of their father, or the music of times past that they never even lived in. And who can say today’s music is superior to that of the besweatered Christmas Special-Having Crooner? It’s complicated. And if I revealed some of the stuff I have a soft spot for, the potential for embarrassment would be huge. But I know you’d say, “It’s all good”, or words to that effect. Because it is. Music is all good for something. Complicated human beings have many moods and emotions that must be paired up with it at different times.
Hope you get down this way soon pal, cause there’ll be a bed and a beer with your name on it. And I happen to have a double-disc Andy Williams compilation to pass a couple of hours to.
p.s. I’ll need you to be there for me when Engelbert Humperdinck goes…
26 Sep 2012 Leave a comment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vrO7DZSYinQ
Of the above video—an hour and a half long bass lesson and interview with the late, great jazz bassist Jaco Pastorius—one youtube commenter writes, “this isn’t a bass lesson… this is a bass humiliation!” It’s an apt description—for the aspiring player of any instrument, watching Pastorius at work is a humbling experience. Even Jerry Jemmott, no slouch on the instrument, seems a little overwhelmed as he interviews Jaco. But the articulate—and personally troubled—bassist was a humble guy, more than willing to share his skills and knowledge. As a player, composer, and producer, Pastorius towered over other progressive jazz players in the 70s and 80s, accompanying names like Pat Metheny and Wayne Shorter. He was also a member of fusion powerhouse Weather Report, a solo artist, and one of the most in-demand session players and producers of his time.
While bass players get too little recognition in rock, in jazz, the instrument has always commanded a degree of respect. But Pastorius took electric jazz bass to a place that belongs entirely to him, playing bass and melody parts at once on the instrument and incorporating mind-blowingly nimble solos and high runs into original compositions and standards alike. I came to Pastorius late in my musical education thanks to his influence on English bassist and electronic producer Squarepusher (Tom Jenkinson), who, since the mid-nineties, has fused his own frenetic Pastorius-like bass licks with the stutter and clatter of drum-and-bass. In 2009, Squarepusher had the effrontery to release a live solo album consisting only of electric bass compositions, a move that would have been impossible without Pastorius’ precedent-setting solo work. Pastorius turned the electric bass into a lead instrument. His first solo album, the self-titled Jaco Pastorius (1976), broke ground with original compositions for bass guitar and bass transcriptions of songs like Charlie Parker’s “Donna Lee.” At that time, no one had heard anything like it.
Pastorius, who suffered from bipolar disorder, died of wounds sustained in a bar fight on September 21st, 1987.
(by Josh Jones. Reprinted from Open Culture)
25 Sep 2012 Leave a comment
in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: bruce springsteen, girls in their summer clothes
Bruce Springsteen: “Girls in Their Summer Clothes” (2007)
Let’s get one thing straight at the outset: Bruce ain’t the boss of me.
The appreciation of an artist can be a very subjective thing, and this man has never really spoken for, or to, me. I can’t quite pinpoint what leaves me cold exactly, except that I perceive him as a guy who can’t get out of the way of his own songs.
But with “Girls in Their Summer Clothes” Bruce did something I can get behind: a Phil Spector homage brimming with nostalgic wistfulness–not to mention a meaty melody. Even the video is wrong, but the song is so right.
She went away/She cut me like a knife/Hello, beautiful thing/Maybe you could save my life
No chance. The song is meant to be a fantasy. The narrator can see the beauty in the aforementioned “girls”, but the look is not returned. It’s a sad thing. And it calls to mind other songs of fading summer and advancing years such as Henley’s “The Boys of Summer” and the Beach Boys’ “Breakaway”. If this type of song doesn’t feel real to you, well, give it a few years.
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“Girls in Their Summer Clothes” also brings to mind a couple other Spector homages I thought I’d mention:
Billy Joel’s “Until the Night” is pure Righteous Brothers melodrama:
And Alan Parsons Project’s “Don’t Answer Me” faithfully duplicates that Wall of Sound, complete with the percussive style of the Spector recordings:
Oddly enough, all three songs are in the same key–they’d make a nice medley.
Every Moment Has A Song 