Absolutely fascinating to those of a certain age

ODE TO BOBBIE GENTRY

The mysterious star who gave us the “Ode to Billie Joe” is revived if not rediscovered.

Stuff Rolling Stone can't say anymore

Michael Bane:

If this was really a sane world, if we lived in a sane world, a no-talent hack like Taylor Swift ... would be washing dishes for Tom Russell.

Found here.

Kind of Blue

This is an incredibly interesting BBC report on Miles Davis's epochal album. Especially liked the interview with drummer Jimmy Cobb, the last surviving member of the sextet.

Miles Davis and Kind of Blue

Why pop music sucks

#1 RSMcain's Bonham thesis:

Neutral Objective Fact that no genuinely great rock and roll music was recorded after Sept. 25, 1980, the day John Bonham died.

#2

The Rolling Stones lost all claim to the title of "World's Greatest Rock 'n Roll Band" soon after Studio 54 opened.

When faux art flops

What happened to Lady Gaga?

On Nov. 6, amid the kind of hype not seen since Michael Jackson floated a statue of himself down the Thames River, Lady Gaga released her third studio album, “ARTPOP.”

And not since Jackson has such a globally famous, white-hot pop star had such a rise and precipitous fall: “ARTPOP” is on track to lose $25 million for her label, Interscope, prompting ­rumors of imminent layoffs.

But it’s not just album sales. When Gaga opened this year’s MTV Video Music Awards, her performance was eclipsed by the twerking Miley Cyrus. Gaga’s work as both host and performer on a recent “Saturday Night Live” was underwhelming, and her recent ABC special, “Lady Gaga and The Muppets’ Holiday Spectacular,” had a dismal 0.9 rating among viewers ages 18 to 49, with just 3.6 million viewers total.

For those keeping score, that means the average episode of Duck Dynasty has three times the audience of the much hyped Lady Gaga special.

I am intrigued by this:

Just five years ago, Lady Gaga exploded on the scene with her debut album, “The Fame.” She had an invented backstory as an art-school freak (in reality, she was a rich private-school graduate from the Upper West Side)

I’m not surprised that the biography was created out of whole cloth. That is just part of the star-making machinery in a decadent age. Rather, I’m intrigued about the journalistic decision-making that turns hype into “buzz.”

When does the crusty editor tell the reporter to confirm the facts in the PR handout? And when do they just decide to run the legend and promote the story the PR people created?

A deal and a half

A classic album collection at a bargain price.

I've been listening to it the last couple of weeks.

Garry Wills-- philistine hipster

When Brubeck Wasn’t Cool

It is worth mentioning, as well, that the Brubeck who is a hapless punchline here for Garry Wills is the same Brubeck who, four decades later, was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors, and of whom Barack Obama said at the time, “You can’t understand America without understanding jazz, and you can’t understand jazz without understanding Dave Brubeck.”

Highly recommended

I've had it for a year and it spends most of its time in the stereo.

Remembering Stax

PBS recently previewed a documentary on Stax Records. Great movie, great story, great music.

Any studio that gave us Otis Redding and Isaac Hayes has my heartfelt gratitude.

There is a remarkable irony in the Stax saga. The studio was founded by a white guy (Jim Stewart) in a segregated Southern city in the era of Bull Conner and Orval Faubus. They recorded some classic R&B and soul artists. Yet their house band (Booker T. and the MGs) was made up of both black and white musicians.

Stax was an integrated operation in a segregated city. Nonetheless, it thrived. Jim Crow was helpless in the face of raw talent and great grooves.

The irony is that Stax did not survive the 70s. Southern bigotry could not kill it, but the studio was no match for the sharp business practices of the New York record companies. Atlantic Records ended up with the rights to the classic recordings and calmly watched Stax sink into bankruptcy.

The music business, which takes such pride in their liberal and progressive attitudes, had no qualms about letting Stax die. it was just business after all.

A vast, vast wasteland

My Sirius radio in the truck is on the blink. (OK, i had a little accident with the antenna.) Terrestial radiosucks even worse than i remembered.

How do these people get record deals? And who listens to this crap?

Big thumbs up

Tom Dowd was the producer/ sound engineer for the Allman Brothers Live at the Fillmore East. That alone is enough to earn him the eternal gratitude of every real fan of rock and roll. Dowd's career, however, spans decades and genres and may be unparalleled in the record business.

He did not work with every important artist of the post-war period, but he seemed to come close: Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Eric Clapton, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, The Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd...

I just watched a remarkable documentary on Dowd and his career. It's one of the best pieces of non-fiction movie-making i've ever seen.

Tom Dowd had a genius for record-making and he was a true pioneer when it came to recording technology. What made him really special, though, is that he put those talents to work on behalf of the artists instead of his own legend. You can't watch the movie without being stunned by his self-effacement and generosity of spirit.

Radio

Howard Kurtz writes:

The reason these two companies have 13 million subscribers willing to cough up $12.95 a month for something we all grew up thinking should be free is that commercial radio has self-destructed.

All these folks (including me) are paying for satellite because they're tired of cookie-cutter radio formats stuffed to the gills with commercials. They're also fed up with focus-grouped music stations that play the same 60 songs until you start hearing the chords in your sleep.

Very true. I've had Sirius for over two years. My reasons for getting it are (in order of importance) 1. to get NFL games, 2. to have radio reception when i drive through the big empty that is Central Pennsylvania, 3. to have some choice when it came to radio even when i was around home.

Sirius is not a panacea, but it does provide listening options. On the other hand, their talk stations are loaded with commericals for the same handful of advertisers (gotomeeting.com, ditech.com, etc.) which makes it hard to listen to them. There is too much sameness on the talk stations ( I can't tell Mike Church from Glen Beck from Alexander Willkow from Colin Cowherd.)
There are lots and lots of music options. All that choice has allowed me to come to a couple of realizations about my musical tastes.

1. I can live a long and happy life without ever hearing another Beatles or Who song.

2. I don't ever want to hear anything by Pink Floyd ever again.

3. Jimi Hendrix is timeless. I never get tired of hearing any of his songs.

4. The Allman Brothers fall into the same category.

5. For the last thirty years the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan have been competing to see which one wins the coveted title of Greatest Artist who Produced the Most Bad Albums and Songs.

Joe Carter asks

Question for Country Music fans: Is it too earlier to begin the backlash against Big and Rich and Gretchen Wilson?

Short answer: No.

Long answer: See Jack Sparks.

Music blogging

Michelle remembers Disco days.

Jack Sparks watches the CMAs.

Everyone becomes their parents

Jack Sparks has a few words about Ashlee Simpson on Saturday Night Live. (Talk about a fat pitch thrown down the middle of the plate.)

The sad truth of the mainstream music business is that the talentless are rewarded for their good looks (natural and otherwise) and their willingness to whore themselves out to a particular style or schtick. The use of guide vocals, Pro Tools in the studio, and flat-out lip synching is the dirty little secret they don't want anyone to know

I wonder if Lorne Michaels still thinks his show is edgy and unpredictable? In terms of musical guests it has become about as edgy as American Bandstand circa 1974. And the "performances" are every bit as authentic.

If Michaels really wanted to rock his audience back on its heels, he'd listen to Jack and book the Drive-by Truckers.

Good news

Jack Sparks says Son Volt is recording a new album. While you're there read what the man says about Junior Brown.

For a few months Comcast offered alt-country as one of their digital music channels. (Then they took it away the scum.) It was an oasis in the radio desert here in the big empty. Junior Brown, the Jayhawks, Son Volt, Amy Rigby...

It put the crap coming out of Nashville to shame. I am forever puzzled by corporate country's unerring bad taste. Big and Rich, Lone Star, kenny Chesney, Shania-- they get promoted while much better artists get lost in the shuffle.

Not that this is unique to country. Pop/rock stations and labels are worse.

So any way, here is a random list of artists/albums that beat 99% of the stuff on radio/MTV/CMT.

The Flatlanders Wheels of Fortune

The Jayhawks

Dave Barry wrote once that the typical guy's idea of the perfect love song is John Lee Hooker's "Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom." I think he's right. My favorite version is John Lee and Big Head Todd and the Monsters on Beautiful World

When Shelby Lynne released Temptation, it seemed possible that Country Swing was poised for a comeback. Instead, we got Shania/McGraw swing- your-ass- pseudo-country. Nevertheless, it's a great record.


A post-Hendrix Merle Haggard. That's the best way to describe Chris Knight, especially his debut record, Chris Knight

The Bottle Rockets, Blue Sky

Not exhaustive. Not necessarily the tip-top best. Just what came to mind.

Alanis the Brave

Michael Williams on another celebrity who felt the need to make a statement.

It may be hard to believe, but we're not afraid of you, we just don't like you. We find your nakedness and superfluous cursing to be aesthetically unpleasing. We don't want our kids to grow up to be like you, because absent the publicity machine of the fading music industry you're a pathetic, angst-ridden loser. You've written some music some people like, and that's a nice accomplishment, but it gives you about as much moral authority to pontificate on war, censorship, and politics as Humpty (pronounced with an "umpty").

Great Discovery

The Other Side of Country. A sample:

Back when Coltrane was blue, Dylan was freewheelin', and TV was 3 networks and UHF, people read books and listened to music. Don't get me wrong, they still do that. But, back then, MANY people did that. Now, many people read bullshit blogs, watch end-of-civilization, reality TV shows, and have every album Britney Spears ever released. Hey, St. Augustine had a hard time looking away when the lions ate the Christians

Found it thanks to The Fat Guy.

Great site

If your think Shania Twain is what country music is all about, well, sorry, you're wrong. If you know better than that, check out That Ain't Country.