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The Castrato and His Wife – The Story Of Opera Singer Giusto Ferdinando Tenducci by Helen Berry

Wilfried F. Voss — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 13:14:36 +0000

The opera singer Giusto Ferdinando Tenducci was one of the most famous celebrities of the eighteenth century. Mozart and Bach both composed for him. He was nothing less than a rock star of his day, with a massive female following. He was also a castrato.

Ranging from the salons of princes and the grand opera houses of Europe to the remote hill towns of Tuscany, Helen Berry’s compelling account of the unconventional love story of the castrato and his wife offers fascinating insight into the world of opera and the history of sex and marriage in Georgian Britain. Berry vividly describes how women flocked to Tenducci’s concerts and found him irresistible. Indeed, his young singing pupil, Dorothea Maunsell, found him so irresistible that she eloped with him. A huge scandal erupted and her father persecuted them mercilessly.

Dorothea joined her husband at his concerts, achieving a status she could never have dreamed of as a respectable girl. She also wrote a sensational account of their love affair, an early example of a teenage novel. Embroiled in debt, the Tenduccis fled to Italy, and the marriage collapsed when she fell in love with another man. There followed a highly publicized and unique marriage annulment case in the London courts. Everything hinged on the status of the marriage, whether the husband was capable of consummation, and what exactly had happened to him as a small boy in a remote Italian hill village decades before.

Telling the remarkable story of Tenducci for the first time, The Castrato and His Wife is both an exhilarating read and a perceptive commentary on the meaning of marriage, one that still resonates today.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

About Helen Berry

Helen Berry is Reader in Early Modern History at Newcastle University. She is the author of numerous articles on the history of eighteenth-century Britain, and is the co-editor (with Elizabeth Foyster) of The Family in Early Modern England (2007). This is her second book.

Editorial Reviews

“By using classical opera and the life and loves of a prominent castrato as a lens, Berry explores the themes of romance, sex and marriage, and, more broadly, 18th-century European social life and customs. Recommended for readers who enjoy opera, classical music in general, and European history.” – Library Journal

“Writing clearly, judiciously, and sympathetically about all the dramatis personae, especially the heroic but improvident Tenducci, who retained his professional stature throughout, historian of the family Berry rescues an eighteenth-century scandal from oblivion. Utterly enthralling.” – Booklist

“Berry addresses a topic we still find mysterious, and Tenducci’s distinctive situation is surprisingly relevant to the ongoing question of what constitutes legal marriageEL An intriguing story of a castrato’s unprecedented marriage and its implications for society at large.” –Shelf Awareness

“The Castrato and His Wife” by Helen Berry

The Washington Post Book Review – January 20, 2012 (Excerpt)

In 1775, Dorothea Maunsell and her new husband, William Long Kingsman, went to court to show that they were indeed legally married. They had already had two wedding ceremonies (one in Italy, the other in England), but there was a problem: a long, public record of Dorothea already being married to opera singer Ferdinando Tenducci. Those two had eloped in 1766 and had lived as a couple in England and then Italy. But Dorothea and William went to court to argue that the earlier liaison was in fact no real marriage. Tenducci had been castrated as a boy so as to preserve his pure voice. As a eunuch, he was deemed physically and legally incapable of being married.

Helen Berry, a gifted historian with a great story to tell, relates that the intentional removal of testicles was banned by the pope in 1587, as was the marriage of eunuchs. But the surgical mutilation continued for the next two centuries because, as Berry writes, “The fully trained castrato voice epitomized everything about Baroque style — artifical, sensuous, luxurious, and exotic.” As a youngster Tenducci was singled out for his lovely voice, and “someone in authority” probably suggested that having him castrated could lead to some money for his poor family. [Read the full article...]

This Is a Call: The Life and Times of Dave Grohl – A Biography by Paul Brannigan

Wilfried F. Voss — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 14:50:35 +0000

This Is a Call, the first in-depth, definitive biography of Dave Grohl, tells the epic story of a singular career that includes Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, and Them Crooked Vultures. Based on ten years of original, exclusive interviews with the man himself and conversations with a legion of musical associates like Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, DC punk legend Ian MacKaye, and Nevermind producer Butch Vig, this is Grohl’s story. He speaks candidly and honestly about Kurt Cobain, the arguments that almost tore Nirvana apart, the feuds that threatened to derail the Foo Fighters’s global success, and the dark days that almost caused him to quit music for good.

Dave Grohl has emerged as one of the most recognizable and respected musicians in the world. He is the last true hero to emerge from the American underground. This Is a Call vividly recounts this incredible rock ’n’ roll journey.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

About Paul Brannigan

The former editor of Kerrang! magazine, Paul Brannigan is a respected authority on the punk scene in Washington, DC, where Dave Grohl cut his teeth. He has written about Grohl for Mojo and Q magazines and lives in London.

Editorial Reviews

NeonTommy.com, 11/30/11
“[Brannigan] manages to paint a picture of the musical atmosphere that tracks Grohl’s beginnings in punk, through his place in grunge history with Nirvana and up to the Foo’s latest album, ‘Wasted Light.’ The book is filled with vivid details of the different worlds while following Grohl’s growing influence on them…Brannigan throws color into moments and sets musical scenes that you can actually hear…Brannigan knows exactly where to put in a quote and when to use his own knowledge and criticism to push the story forward. His writing has the rhythms and attitudes of the music he describes…A book worth reading for its scope as a series of snapshots of a legendary musical journey.”

New York Journal of Books, 11/29/11

“Brannigan’s biography of musician Dave Grohl and his era, reaches ambitiously out of bounds for the conventional pop bio, cradling its subject in layers of context, political and social history…Brannigan’s excellent segues, characterizations, and lyrical zip ensure This Is a Call occasionally tips but never topples under its own weight. The result is an educational and highly entertaining read…Brannigan loops a fascinating narrative around a compelling and likeable character…This is high quality, street cred music journalism, artfully meshed with undoubted musicological and cultural history grunt.”

New Music Michael, 12/6/11
“Brannigan’s book is an exceptional companion piece to the documentary, though certainly has the ability to stand alone as an extraordinary work of the history of Dave Grohl, the Foo Fighters, and Nirvana, as well as a host of other local scenes and the music world in general…Most of us already know a lot of the stories that go along with Nirvana, but certainly not to the extent, and not to the depth that Brannigan covers…if you’re a fan of Dave Grohl, the Foo Fighters, Nirvana, punk music, hell just music in general, you’ll want to get this book for yourself and dogear the pages.”

Dave Grohl: From Antsy Student to Nirvana to Foo Fighters

The New York Times Book Review – January 20, 2012 (Excerpt)

Among musicians, drummers are a breed apart. On the one hand, the drummer is the timekeeper, the one who counts off the song and keeps the other band members on the beat. On the other, the drummer sits behind everyone else and usually doesn’t write songs or sing them, so often he’s “only the drummer.”

Actually, Dave Grohl was in the habit of smiling and saying, “I’m only the drummer,” as a way of sidestepping conversations about the financial affairs of his most famous band, Nirvana. By all accounts, though, he’s one of the best in the business; if you look up Grohl on YouTube, you get a sense of just how good a musician he is. He’s also, according to Paul Brannigan, the Nicest Man in Rock.

That would present a problem for any biographer: it’s hard to write about nice guys. Wisely, Brannigan — a music journalist who first interviewed Grohl 15 years ago, and spoke to him both on and off the record while writing this book — fills his pages by turning “This Is a Call” into a rich history of recent pop music as it moves from punk and hard-core to grunge to indie bands, many of which, like Nirvana, ended up signing with major labels. For his part, Grohl flits in and out of this world like Candide, landing on his feet and making new friends at every turn. [Read the full article...]

Irish Songbook: Inishbofin Ceili Band – The Dear Little Isle

Wilfried F. Voss — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 16:02:08 +0000

Wilfried F. Voss is the author of The Bleeding Hills. For more information see his website at http://wilfriedvoss.com.

As I had written in a previous post (see: Ireland: Inishbofin – The Island Of The White Cow) we have a family connection to the island of Inishbofin off the coast of County Galway in Ireland, and two of my wife’s cousins, Geraldine and Paddy Joe King, are gifted musicians. They are also members of the Inishbofin Ceili Band, and, of course, we do have some of their recorded works at our home here in New England. I am referring specifically to their CD The Dear Little Isle, and my favorite is their rendition of the title song.

Note: The CD is only available through the Inishbofin Community Centre (see: http://www.inishbofin.com/music.html). So, if you need a copy, you need to take the ferry at the pier in Cleggan, Ireland. First of all, it is well worth the visit, and secondly, Desmond O’Halloran’s rendition of The Dear Little Isle is absolutely striking. I have heard versions from other, very talented Irish singers, but none of them reaches the great beauty of Halloran’s voice paired with an extraordinary song.

Desmond O’Halloran, who arranged and sang the song in the Inishbofin Ceili Band’s version, wrote: “I first heard this song from Johnny Joe Pheáitsín in 1983 on Inishbofin, the words of which he wrote for me.” Unfortunately, they didn’t include the lyrics in the CD’s booklet. Another resource I found even stated: “I have found zero transcriptions of this song anywhere. If you want to actually learn to sing this song, simply learn it from a fellow singer or from a recording.”

In fact, the confusion originates in the different titles used for the same song. After all, the song and its lyrics were passed from generation to generation merely through mouth-to-mouth, and there are numerous little variations. Usually known in Ireland as The Dear little Isle or There’s A Dear Little Isle, it is commonly referred to as My Own Dear Native Land. Presumably written abroad by an exile in the early to mid 20th Century, it is now accepted as traditional.

The lyrics as shown in the following represent one version, but, again, renditions may very slightly.

My Own Dear Native Land

(Traditional)

There’s a dear little isle in the Western Ocean
An island of purity, holy and grand
Whose name fills its daughters and sons with emotion
When heard on the shores of a far distant land.
It’s Ireland, God bless her, the birthplace of heroes
The home of the patriot, warrior and sage
Of bards and of chieftains whose names live in story
May they live forever on history’s page.

For I love every blade of grass, green on your mountain,
Every leaf on your tree, every rock upon your strand
I love your green hills and your murmuring fountains
I love you, acushla, my own dear native land.

You once were a proud and a glorious nation
Your name and your fame were known all o’er the world
‘Til misfortune came o’er you and sad desolation
And the emerald banner in slavery lay unfurled.
They tortured your children, despoiled your green bowers
They tried to exterminate you long, long ago
But the Irish are somehow like wild, creeping flowers
The faster you pluck them, the quicker they grow.

Note: “acushla,” a short form of the anglicized “acushla machree,” is from “a chuisle mo chroí,” “the pulse of my heart.”

References:

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

One Day It’ll All Make Sense – A Memoir by Common and Adam Bradley

Wilfried F. Voss — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 14:06:43 +0000

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Common has earned a reputation in the hip hop world as a conscious artist by embracing themes of love and struggle in his songs, and by sharing his own search for knowledge with his listeners. His journey toward understanding—expressed in his music and now in his roles in film and television—is rooted in his relationship with a remarkable woman, his mother, Mahalia Ann Hines.

In One Day It’ll All Make Sense, Common holds nothing back. He tells what it was like for a boy with big dreams growing up on the South Side of Chicago. He reveals how he almost quit rapping after his first album, Can I Borrow a Dollar?, sold only two thousand copies. He recounts his rise to stardom, giving a behind-the-scenes look into the recording studios, concerts, movie sets, and after-parties of a hip-hop celebrity and movie star. He reflects on his controversial invitation to perform at the White House, a story that grabbed international headlines. And he talks about the challenges of balancing fame, love, and fatherhood.

One Day It’ll All Make Sense is a gripping memoir, both provocative and funny. Common shares never-before-told stories about his encounters with everyone from Tupac to Biggie, Ice Cube to Lauryn Hill, Barack Obama to Nelson Mandela. Drawing upon his own lyrics for inspiration, he invites the reader to go behind the spotlight to see him as he really is—not just as Common but as Lonnie Rashid Lynn.

Each chapter begins with a letter from Common addressed to an important person in his life—from his daughter to his close friend and collaborator Kanye West, from his former love Erykah Badu to you, the reader. Through it all, Common emerges as a man in full. Rapper. Actor. Activist. But also father, son, and friend. Common’s story offers a living example of how, no matter what you’ve gone through, one day it’ll all make sense.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

About Common and Adam Bradley

Rashid Lynn, aka, Common, a film and television actor and award-winning music artist, lives in Los Angeles. An independent publisher/author of books for children, including The Mirror and Me and I Like You but I Love Me, this is his first book for adults. Adam Bradley is the co-editor of The Anthology of Rap and the author of Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop, among other titles.

Editorial Reviews

Common distinguishes himself here as a true artist and a writer of deep talent. This book is the story of an artist in constant evolution, one who embodies the strength of the brilliant woman that raised him, the love of the Southside Chicago land that spawned him, and the raw spirit of the pro basketball player who fathered him. I’ve always heard that the people of Southside Chicago were special. I’m glad their native son Common shows us why. –James McBride Author of The Color of Water

“Common is a 360-degree human being, and I don’t say that about many people. He never needed to “pimp the hood” to achieve his deserved success. He is an eloquent and honorable role model and his memoir is a perfect example of his depth as a human being. In addition, reading about his childhood and upbringing in Chicago is really a trip – because we went through so many of the same experiences albeit decades apart. Chicago is still the roughest and primary “Institution of Hard Knocks,” and if you can make it there, you can truly make it anywhere!” –Quincy Jones

“Raw in its honesty, profound in its insights, One Day It’ll All Make Sense establishes Common as a voice that is as compelling on the page as it is on a record. This is not simply the story of an individual artist but a crucial page the history of hip hop itself.” –Jelani Cobb, author of The Substance of Hope

‘One Day It’ll All Make Sense’ by Common with Adam Bradley

The Chicago Tribune Book Review – December 19, 2011 (Excerpt)

When I first heard that former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin had said it was “too easy” to criticize the White House for inviting rapper Common to an event, I thought, “Of all the rappers proudly repping the most negative aspects of their backgrounds, she picked Common? Is there another rapper named Common I don’t know about? And when did she start listening to hip hop anyway?”

Although I don’t get the impression that she’s heard many of his lyrics outside of the song* she believes would “glorify cop killing during Police Memorial Week,” while reading this book my first thought was, “Man, I hope she never gets a copy.”

The problem with memoirs is when a reader, or a fan, has built up in his or her mind how an artist should be and it turns out they aren’t like that, it can be sobering.

Some of the major disappointments in Common’s book were his borderline bragging about being in a gang, leaving a boy threatening answering machine messages because he was wealthy and smart, prowling for fights with drunken friends, recalling how his clique beat up some guy in an elevator for throwing up a pitchfork (gang symbol) and being held back by his friends so he wouldn’t attack someone for verbally making snide comments. [Read the full article...]

A Natural History of the Piano: The Instrument, the Music, the Musicians–from Mozart to Modern Jazz and Everything in Between by Stuart Isacoff

Wilfried F. Voss — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 19:32:31 +0000

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A beautifully illustrated, totally engrossing celebration of the piano, and the composers and performers who have made it their own.

With honed sensitivity and unquestioned expertise, Stuart Isacoff—pianist, critic, teacher, and author of Temperament: How Music Became a Battleground for the Great Minds of Western Civilization—unfolds the ongoing history and evolution of the piano and all its myriad wonders: how its very sound provides the basis for emotional expression and individual style, and why it has so powerfully entertained generation upon generation of listeners. He illuminates the groundbreaking music of Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, Schumann, and Debussy. He analyzes the breathtaking techniques of Glenn Gould, Oscar Peterson, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Arthur Rubinstein, and Van Cliburn, and he gives musicians including Alfred Brendel, Murray Perahia, Menahem Pressler, and Vladimir Horowitz the opportunity to discuss their approaches. Isacoff delineates how classical music and jazz influenced each other as the uniquely American art form progressed from ragtime, novelty, stride, boogie, bebop, and beyond, through Scott Joplin, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Cecil Taylor, and Bill Charlap.

A Natural History of the Piano distills a lifetime of research and passion into one brilliant narrative. We witness Mozart unveiling his monumental concertos in Vienna’s coffeehouses, using a special piano with one keyboard for the hands and another for the feet; European virtuoso Henri Herz entertaining rowdy miners during the California gold rush; Beethoven at his piano, conjuring healing angels to console a grieving mother who had lost her child; Liszt fainting in the arms of a page turner to spark an entire hall into hysterics. Here is the instrument in all its complexity and beauty. We learn of the incredible craftsmanship of a modern Steinway, the peculiarity of specialty pianos built for the Victorian household, the continuing innovation in keyboards including electronic ones. And most of all, we hear the music of the masters, from centuries ago and in our own age, brilliantly evoked and as marvelous as its most recent performance.

With this wide-ranging volume, Isacoff gives us a must-have for music lovers, pianists, and the armchair musician.

About Stuart Isacoff

Stuart Isacoff, a pianist and writer, was the founder of Piano Today magazine, which he edited for nearly three decades. A winner of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for excellence in writing about music, he is a regular contributor on the arts to The Wall Street Journal and has written for The New York Times, Chamber Music, Symphony, Musical America, Stagebill, and The New Grove Dictionary of American Music. Mr. Isacoff is also the author of Temperament: How Music Became a Battleground for the Great Minds of Western Civilization. He is on the faculty of the SUNY Purchase College Conservatory of Music. He lives in Closter, New Jersey.

Editorial Reviews

“An encyclopedic and argumentative overview of all things piano . . . [Isacoff’s stylistic] groups—combustibles, alchemists, rhythmizers, and melodists—shape a piano gestalt through which readers will be impressed . . . by the depth and diversity of Isacoff’s research and references.” - Publishers Weekly

“Dizzy Gillespie used to tell his musicians, whatever their instruments, to come to the piano with him as he said, ‘The music is all there.’ In Stuart Isacoff’s A Natural History of the Piano, never before have I learned and enjoyed so much about the instrument and its most distinctive practitioners—transcending so many categories of music. Whether the subject is jazz or classical music, the writing is unfailingly engaging and revealing.” - Nat Hentoff

“Every page of this book is filled with the poetry of Isacoff’s writing as he outlines the fascinating development of the piano and its effect on music tradition throughout the centuries. The research is of great depth: how Isacoff weaves what he has discovered into a gripping and entertaining narrative is sheer magic. Essential reading for anyone who embraces not only the piano, but music, history, and culture. Bravo, Maestro Isacoff!” - Frank Brady, author of Endgame

“A Natural History of the Piano : The Instrument, the Music, the Musicians — from Mozart to Modern Jazz and Everything in Between,” by Stuart Isacoff

The Washington Post Book Review – December 23, 2011 (Excerpt)

“I love a piano!” was the hit song of Irving Berlin’s 1915 Broadway show, “Stop! Look! Listen!” It’s with a similar exclamatory devotion that pianist and writer Stuart Isacoff has given us “A Natural History of the Piano.” As his subtitle promises, Isacoff explores the evolution of what he calls the “most important instrument ever created.”

Rather than following a linear timeline, this natural history winds in and out of centuries and genres, introducing a stream of personalities, facts and ideas. Appearing like pop-up delights within the text are boxes containing related information and short essays written by world-famous pianists from Alfred Brendel to Billy Taylor. The cumulative result is like listening to a fascinating raconteur who informs and entertains and really knows his stuff.

Descended from the psaltery, a plucked instrument using feather quills and originally from the Far and Middle East, the piano is today made of “wood and cast iron, hammers and pivots, weighing altogether nearly a thousand pounds — and capable of sustaining twenty-two tons of tension on its strings (the equivalent of about twenty medium-sized cars.)” Along the path of piano development, we are introduced to wondrous and wacky keyboard creations, such as the “giraffe” piano with “an outlandish case that rises high above the keyboard” to a “convertible bedroom piano complete with foldout mattress and drawers.” [Read the full article...]

Beethoven in America – An Image Of American Culture by Michael Broyles

Wilfried F. Voss — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 10:29:32 +0000

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Beethoven permeates American culture. His image appears on countless busts and coffee mugs; his music is heard in movie scores, TV soundtracks, commercials, and pop songs; he is Schroeder’s god in Peanuts and Chuck Berry’s freaked-out parent in “Roll over Beethoven.” In this book, Michael Broyles seeks to understand the composer as he exists in the American imagination and explores how Beethoven became a cultural icon. Broyles examines Beethoven’s appearance in a variety of contexts: American commercialism, the Afrocentrist and black power movements, and the modernist critique of Romanticism. He considers portrayals of Beethoven in American film and theater and the uses of his music in film scores, as well as references to Beethoven and his music in disco, country, rock, and rap. In the end, he shows that to examine Beethoven on American soil is to examine America itself.

About Michael Broyles

Michael Broyles is Professor of Music at Florida State University and former Distinguished Professor of Music and Professor of American History at Pennsylvania State University. His most recent book, Leo Ornstein: Modernist Dilemmas, Personal Choices (IUP, 2007), written with Denise Von Glahn, won the Irving Lowens Prize in 2007.

Editorial Reviews

“This book fills a great gap in our understanding both of Beethoven and of American culture. The panorama of this narrative encompasses antebellum rice plantations in South Carolina and the film studios of Hollywood, music critic John Dwight and rock star Chuck Berry, Theosophy and Black Power, Beethoven’s sketches, and YouTube videos.” — Christopher Reynolds, University of California, Davis

“[Broyles] serves as an intellectual, hyper-informed but genial tour guide to a potentially sprawling subject. Though the book is dense in research, it is never pompous; it could serve as a model for how serious musicological study can be generously shared with interested parties who don’t happen to be in the same profession.” — Santa Fe New Mexican

Don’t Scowl, Beethoven, You’re Loved

The New York Times Book Review – December 18, 2011 (Excerpt)

If we are to believe the Beethoven mythology, which is based mostly on his letters and reports from his inner circle, Beethoven had an unshakeable sense of his own importance. Unlike Mozart and Haydn he refused to defer to nobility, asserting that a composer is of greater value, in the cosmic scheme of things, than a prince. And though he had patrons among the aristocracy, he revered Napoleon, their nemesis, and dedicated his Third Symphony, the “Eroica” (“Heroic”) to him, only to remove the dedication when Napoleon crowned himself emperor.

Beethoven was probably much as history painted him: the deaf painter in sound, ingenious, embattled and defiant, but also a disheveled, scowling force of nature whose unpleasantness and irritability people suffered for the sake of his brilliance. In his music he tweaked conventions and was undaunted when works like the “Eroica” were criticized for their wildness, harmonic adventurousness and, for the time, outrageous length. Such criticisms aside, an enormous constituency regarded him reverently, and unlike Mahler, who believed that his time would come long after his death, Beethoven knew that he had seized his day.

But even Beethoven probably would have been surprised at the place his name and image have found at the heart of American culture, including popular culture. Yes, it’s true that millions of Americans get through their days, weeks and months without hearing a note of Beethoven or giving him a thought. But as Michael Broyles points out in his fascinating but uneven “Beethoven in America,” just about everyone knows Beethoven’s name, if not necessarily his music, and for millions — particularly those with little interest in the symphonic world — he is synonymous with the classics. [Read the full article...]

“Beethoven in America” by Michael Broyles

The Washington Post Book Review – December 23, 2011 (Excerpt)

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be the ghost of a dead classical musician, looking on while the rock and rollers get all the credit for bringing music to bear on pop culture. You might start cursing your luck that you didn’t have a guitar and amp available in your century of yore. Or, if you’re in a somewhat more hopeful mood, you might turn your attention to Beethoven, as Florida State professor Michael Broyles has in “Beethoven in America,” which makes the case that not only was Beethoven the all-around musical stud of musical studs, he might be the greatest of all musical ingratiators, turning up in our American corner of the universe, again and again, and more than most of us realize.

Even though most music fans are not classical music fans, the term “classical composer” tends to suggest the same things to a whole litany of people who don’t know the difference between a bass guitar and a bagatelle. We’re apt to conjure up someone possessed of a fiery and intractable temperament, a severe and draconian guy who’s probably poor and who works feverishly into the night, inspiration coursing through him as he scribbles out his runic notations before banging away at his keyboard. In other words, you probably arrive at an image of Beethoven as he has come down to us through the years in myriad tales, accounts, films, cartoons, lampoons, drawings and history books. [Read the full article...]

Blue Notes in Black and White: Photography and Jazz by Benjamin Cawthra

Wilfried F. Voss — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 13:02:36 +0000

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Miles Davis, supremely cool behind his shades. Billie Holiday, eyes closed and head tilted back in full cry. John Coltrane, one hand behind his neck and a finger held pensively to his lips. These iconic images have captivated jazz fans nearly as much as the music has. Jazz photographs are visual landmarks in American history, acting as both a reflection and a vital part of African American culture in a time of immense upheaval, conflict, and celebration. Charting the development of jazz photography from the swing era of the 1930s to the rise of black nationalism in the ’60s, Blue Notes in Black and White is the first of its kind: a fascinating account of the partnership between two of the twentieth century’s most innovative art forms.

Benjamin Cawthra introduces us to the great jazz photographers—including Gjon Mili, William Gottlieb, Herman Leonard, Francis Wolff, Roy DeCarava, and William Claxton—and their struggles, hustles, styles, and creative visions. We also meet their legendary subjects, such as Duke Ellington, sweating through a late-night jam session for the troops during World War II, and Dizzy Gillespie, stylish in beret, glasses, and goatee. Cawthra shows us the connections between the photographers, art directors, editors, and record producers who crafted a look for jazz that would sell magazines and albums. And on the other side of the lens, he explores how the musicians shaped their public images to further their own financial and political goals.

This mixture of art, commerce, and racial politics resulted in a rich visual legacy that is vividly on display in Blue Notes in Black and White. Beyond illuminating the aesthetic power of these images, Cawthra ultimately shows how jazz and its imagery served a crucial function in the struggle for civil rights, making African Americans proudly, powerfully visible.

About Benjamin Cawthra

Benjamin Cawthra is associate professor of history and associate director of the Center for Oral and Public History at California State University, Fullerton.

Editorial Reviews

“To Cawthra, jazz photography genuinely captures a moment in time–these images are ‘benchmarks’ in the metamorphosis of music. He probes the portfolios of some of jazz photography’s well-known operatives–Gjon Mili, Herman Leonard, and William Claxton–whose individual styles mirror a musical genre that is just as dynamic.” -Down Beat

“Benjamin Cawthra, writing with grace and a formidable command of jazz history and American culture, makes us see the sounds, the social relations, and the myths of jazz as he ably uncovers the personal and institutional networks of musicians, writers, magazines, and record companies in which jazz photography developed. Even asBlue Notes in Black and White casts a sharp eye on photographic aesthetics—its pages brim with bracing insights into Gjon Mili’s informal but magisterial style, Francis Wolff’s use of chiaroscuro, and Herman Leonard’s concept of the sculpted face—it also works as a groundbreaking history of jazz criticism. At its best, this excellent book serves as a model for a multisensory music criticism: while reading it, I often felt I was hearing the music more deeply.”—John Gennari, author of Blowin’ Hot and Cool: Jazz and Its Critics

“This is a highly engaging and deeply engaged meditation on the development of the modern jazz photography tradition. Cawthra’s probing analysis of how ‘the photographic culture of jazz’ helped make jazz visible perceptively illuminates and contributes significantly to the fascinating, revealing, and ongoing debate surrounding not just the jazz image, notably the African American jazz image, but also jazz history, the meanings of jazz, and indeed the role of jazz in the making of modern American culture.”—Waldo E. Martin, Jr., author of No Coward Soldiers: Black Cultural Politics in Postwar America

They Put the Face on an American Sound

The New York Times Book Review – December 15, 2011 (Excerpt)

Benjamin Cawthra’s “Blue Notes in Black and White: Photography and Jazz” is not entirely, or specifically, about its subtitle. That would be a book with a lot more images, or at least with more concentrated information on the history of all kinds of jazz photography over the last century, in newspapers and magazines and in the promotional campaigns of record companies.

Instead, this occasionally powerful but uneven book is a selective and essayistic history on how the still-image camera conferred cultural legitimacy to jazz as black music, for the most part between the late 1930s and the mid-1960s. It analyzes the early photo spreads on jazz in Life magazine, as well as the writing and the layouts; the development of bebop, with its own visual code, as rendered by the jazz press; and the diverging looks of late-1950s jazz as suggested by album covers released by independent labels in New York and Los Angeles. (Shadows and cigarette smoke versus sunlight and oceanfront.) It deals at length with Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins, and how pictures of them on and off stage helped build or maintain their personas.

The book focuses on art photographers, or photojournalists with a serious interest in photography as art, and it shows you their relationships and lines of influence. (Dennis Stock, who took the book’s cover photo of Miles Davis in 1957, worked as an assistant to Gjon Mili, the innovative Albanian-American photojournalist; Herman Leonardworked for Yousuf Karsh, the Armenian-Canadian portraitist; William Claxton studied the images of Leonard; Roy DeCarava benefited from the patronage of Edward Steichen.) It considers aesthetic, ethical and political questions engaged by photographers including William Gottlieb, Mili and DeCarava. It is to a lesser extent about the individual photographers’ technique and visual style: Leonard’s, glamorous and backlighted; Mili’s, stark and stroboscopic; DeCarava’s, shadowy and suggestive. [Read the full article...]

Love Goes to Buildings on Fire: Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever by Will Hermes

Wilfried F. Voss — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:54:53 +0000

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Punk rock and hip-hop. Disco and salsa. The loft jazz scene and the downtown composers known as Minimalists. In the mid-1970s, New York City was a laboratory where all the major styles of modern music were reinvented—all at once, from one block to the next, by musicians who knew, admired, and borrowed from one another. Crime was everywhere, the government was broke, and the city’s infrastructure was collapsing. But rent was cheap, and the possibilities for musical exploration were limitless.

Love Goes to Buildings on Fire is the first book to tell the full story of the era’s music scenes and the phenomenal and surprising ways they intersected. From New Year’s Day 1973 to New Year’s Eve 1977, the book moves panoramically from post-Dylan Greenwich Village, to the arson-scarred South Bronx barrios where salsa and hip-hop were created, to the Lower Manhattan lofts where jazz and classical music were reimagined, to ramshackle clubs like CBGBs and The Gallery, where rock and dance music were hot-wired for a new generation. As they remade the music, the musicians at the center of the book invented themselves: Willie Colón and the Fania All-Stars renting Yankee Stadium to take salsa to the masses, New Jersey locals Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith claiming the jungleland of Manhattan as their own, Grandmaster Flash transforming the turntable into a musical instrument, David Byrne and Talking Heads proving that rock music “ain’t no foolin’ around.” Will Hermes was there—venturing from his native Queens to the small dark rooms where the revolution was taking place—and in Love Goes to Buildings on Fire he captures the creativity, drive, and full-out lust for life of the great New York musicians of those years, who knew that the music they were making would change the world.

About Will Hermes

Will Hermes is a senior critic for Rolling Stone and a longtime contributor to NPR’s “All Things Considered.” His work also appears in The New York Times, the Village Voice, and elsewhere. He was co-editor of SPIN: 20 Years of Alternative Music (2005).

Editorial Reviews

“A fascinating book that covers not only the new rock music of the day, but looks back at New York between 1973 and the end of 1977, a time when hip-hop was being birthed, salsa was finding its voice, the avant-garde scene was being heard, and the new loft jazz scene was being born.”
-Bob Boilen, NPR’s All Songs Considered

Although the 1970s appeared to be a musical wasteland (remember Debby Boone?), senior Rolling Stone critic Hermes reminds us forcefully and refreshingly in this breathtaking, panoramic portrait of five years (1973-1977) of that decade that music in New York City was alive, flourishing, and kicking out the jams.
–Publishers Weekly

“Hermes’s attitude, sharp ear and smart big-picture view turn what could have been a small book into something special. A hip, clever, informative look at an unjustifiably dismissed musical era that will have readers scouring iTunes for the perfect accompanying soundtrack.”
–Kirkus Review

When Dreamers Were Breaking the Music Apart

The New York Times Book Review – December 5, 2011 (Excerpt)

You have to admire Will Hermes’s “Love Goes to Buildings on Fire” — the reference is to the first single by Talking Heads

Mr. Hermes, a senior critic at Rolling Stone and frequent contributor to The New York Times, has isolated a crucial, if sometimes awkward, period of transition in American music, hitherto dismissed as “a cultural dead zone,” and his painstakingly nuanced preface argues only that the figures he discusses “were breaking music apart and rebuilding it for a new era,” not that such an era had yet arrived.

His principal figures include the uptown D.J.’s Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash; the downtown club D.J.’s David Mancuso and Nicky Siano; the punk-rocking Ramones and New York Dolls; the so-called minimalist composers Philip Glass and Steve Reich; the salsa musicians Willie Colon and the Fania All Stars; and the post-Coltrane jazz players David Murray and Anthony Braxton. They were all “young iconoclasts on the edge of the mainstream,” whose “DIY moves,” Mr. Hermes writes, “would grow into movements that continue to shape music around the world.” Like Louis Armstrong or Hank Williams or Elvis Presley before them, they were engaged in “taking the lousy hands they’d been dealt and dreaming them into music of great consequence.”

— for refusing to oversell the importance of its subject. True, the subtitle calls the period from 1973 to 1977 “Five Years in New York that Changed Music Forever,” but that’s actually a modest claim: what five years of the 20th century didn’t change music forever? The five years previous, for instance, saw “Bitches Brew,” “Abbey Road,” “Exile on Main Street,” the Velvet Underground and James Brown’s “Sex Machine.” The subsequent five produced “Off the Wall” and “Thriller”; hip-hop’s first hit, the Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight”; and the debuts of R.E.M., the Replacements and Hüsker Dü. [Read the full article...]

The CBGB Effect

The New York Times Book Review – December 9, 2011 (Excerpt)

The first record made by Talking Heads, a single released in February 1977, was called “Love → Building on Fire.” If you knew about Talking Heads then, you might have been the kind of person who thought the formula-like vector tucked into the title was inspired by the deadpan propositions that the conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner was stenciling at that time on the walls of SoHo galleries — which, in turn, might have made you think that the song itself was some sort of self-conscious concept art, sonically and lyrically examining the idea of a soulful pop song even as the insistent beat and David Byrne’s strained shouts and warbles made the song a real one, exuberant, funny in its way, and infectious.

I heard it for the first time when I played it on the jukebox that winter at a place called the Lower Manhattan Ocean Club, on Chambers Street in TriBeCa. It was the only way to hear that kind of single then — unless you went to one of a handful of downtown record stores, like Bleecker Bob’s. (The radio was playing a lot of the Eagles’ “Hotel California.”) I was waiting around at the bar for the live music to begin — a band like the Cramps, maybe, or someone who made music but not exactly, like Meredith Monk, or some experimental art-music composer like Arthur Russell (who would go on to do some fascinating things with disco), or one of the loft-jazz players like David Murray. The young women were mostly in Danskins and stovepipe slacks and Capezio jazz shoes, and the guys in secondhand sweaters and worn Levi’s and scuffed, canvas Sperrys like the ones the Ramones wore. Everybody below Houston Street, it seemed, was making some form of art, or trying to, or looking as if he or she did. And when you left the Ocean Club early in the morning, you would look up at block after block of old manufacturing buildings and see here and there a milk carton on a window ledge, because those lofts had no refrigerators (or stoves), but mostly you would notice that so many lights were still on — so many people up working to something untried and provocative. [Read the full article...]

Book review: ‘Love Goes to Buildings on Fire’ by Will Hermes

The Chicago Tribune Book Review – December 23, 2011 (Excerpt)

Every city of any cultural import has its moments — so-called golden eras when seemingly unconnected factors and personalities combine to give rise to artistic movements.

By any measure, the musical life of New York City throughout the 1970s was one of these eras, a swath of time and real estate rich with innovators hellbent on pushing music forward. Those then composing and/or performing across genres and musical philosophies included Patti Smith, Steve Reich, Talking Heads, DJ Kool Herc, Philip Glass, the Ramones, Arthur Russell, Meredith Monk, David Mancuso, Anthony Braxton and Grandmaster Flash.

While the city was struggling to fend off bankruptcy, an influx of cheap heroin and a serial killer named Son of Sam, it also was flush with inexpensive housing, especially on the Lower East Side. It’s this combustible combination that’s the backdrop of Will Hermes’ musical history “Love Goes to Buildings on Fire: Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever,” which chronicles the period between 1973 and 1977 when musical worlds were melding and experimenting, when a few visionary figures spun magic. [Read the full article...]

Look, I Made a Hat: Collected Lyrics (1981-2011) with Attendant Comments, Amplifications, Dogmas, Harangues, Digressions, Anecdotes and Miscellany by Stephen Sondheim

Wilfried F. Voss — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 11:28:14 +0000

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After his acclaimed and best-selling Finishing the Hat (named one of the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2010), Stephen Sondheim returns with the second volume of his collected lyrics, Look, I Made a Hat, giving us another remarkable glimpse into the brilliant mind of this living legend, and his life’s work.

Picking up where he left off in Finishing the Hat, Sondheim gives us all the lyrics, along with excluded songs and early drafts, of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, Assassins and Passion.Here, too, is an in-depth look at the evolution of Wise Guys, which subsequently was transformed into Bounce and eventually became Road Show. Sondheim takes us through his contributions to both television and film, some of which may surprise you, and covers plenty of never-before-seen material from unproduced projects as well. There are abundant anecdotes about his many collaborations, and readers are treated to rare personal material in this volume, as Sondheim includes songs culled from commissions, parodies and personal special occasions over the years—such as a hilarious song for Leonard Bernstein’s seventieth birthday. As he did in the previous volume, Sondheim richly annotates his lyrics with invaluable advice on songwriting, discussions of theater history and the state of the industry today, and exacting dissections of his work, both the successes and the failures.

Filled with even more behind-the-scenes photographs and illustrations from Sondheim’s original manuscripts, Look, I Made a Hat is fascinating, devourable and essential reading for any fan of the theater or this great man’s work.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

About Stephen Sondheim

Stephen Sondheim has written award-winning music and lyrics for theater, film and television. He is also the coauthor of the film The Last of Sheila and the play Getting Away with Murder. Sondheim is on the council of the Dramatists Guild of America, having served as its president from 1973 to 1981. He lives in New York City.

Editorial Reviews

“Sondheim is a national treasure, a giant in the world of musical theater who changed the structure and sound of the form in 20th-century masterpieces. Speaking of heaven, though, here’s Look, I Made a Hat, the second part of Sondheim’s two-volume collection of lyrics, this one spanning 1981-2011, with additional bits and pieces. Talmudically thorough and devilishly diverting with what the author refers to as ‘attendant comments, amplifications, dogmas, harangues, digressions, anecdotes, and miscellany,’ the book is divine. It’s also even more magnanimously authoritative than the first book. The handsomely designed book, like the first volume, contains illuminating reproductions of pages from the author’s beloved legal pads on which he works out rhyme schemes, as well as annotated scripts and pages of musical notations. And the second volume is brimming — a word Sondheim would probably dismiss as ‘infelicitous’ — with precise, vigorous, instructive, sharp-tongued, and often very funny comments. Look, I Made a Hat, together with Finishing the Hat, makes an enormously satisfying journal by one of the great theatrical minds of our time, a guide and touchstone for who knows how many future great theatrical minds. A” —Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

“While the book technically covers Mr. Sondheim’s output from 1981 to the present, aficionados will delight in all the bits and bobs from early in his career that Mr. Sondheim didn’t make room for in the first volume . . . The extensive miscellany also includes a drawerful of lyrics Mr. Sondheim wrote as birthday gifts for friends like Harold Prince, Mary Rodgers and Leonard Bernstein. One of the choicest pleasures of the first volume was in Mr. Sondheim’s sharp-minded analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of musical theater lyricists from the past. He’s covered most of that territory already, so the new book features essays on ‘Awards and Their Uselessness’ and ‘Critics and Their Uses’ — savory reading.” —Charles Isherwood, New York Times

Eavesdropping on Sondheim

The New York Times Book Review – December 8, 2011 (Excerpt)

“But then I met James Lapine.” Thus ends, on a cliffhanger worthy of an artist who cherishes a passion for mystery tales, the first volume of Stephen Sondheim’s collected lyrics, published last fall and already well thumbed and argued over by this composer-lyricist’s legion of passionate admirers, second only to Wagnerians in their obsessive dedication.

The second volume, “Look, I Made a Hat,” deposits us comfortably at the bottom of that cliff, with intriguing new vistas ahead for Mr. Sondheim, who describes his collaborations with Mr. Lapine as a vital artistic renewal after the troubled gestation and brief Broadway run of “Merrily We Roll Along.” Lyrics from the three musicals Mr. Sondheim wrote with Mr. Lapine — the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Sunday in the Park With George,” “Into the Woods” and “Passion” — compose the formidable (and weightier) first half of the new book, along with the equally significant “Assassins,” written with John Weidman.

Although he confesses to a powerful affection for writing pastiche — songs that intentionally evoke previous styles of music — Mr. Sondheim’s later works more potently illustrate the continual reach of his musical and lyrical imagination. Each of the four is as unalike the others as can be imagined, and each required Mr. Sondheim to plunge in a risky new direction, even when, as in “Assassins,” he was intentionally employing familiar song forms to radically unfamiliar ends.

Mr. Sondheim, who comes across in both books as remarkably clear-eyed in assessing himself, makes a telling observation about the evolution of his writing under the influence of Mr. Lapine. “When I look back as objectively as I can at the shows I wrote before James and contrast them with ‘Sunday in the Park With George’ and the others I wrote with him,” he says, “it seems clear to me that a quality of detachment suffuses the first set, whereas a current of vulnerability, of longing, informs the second.” [Read the full article...]

Sondheim on Sondheim

The New York Times Book Review – December 16, 2011 (Excerpt)

Stephen Sondheim claims to dislike most opera, and I guess I believe it. He also says he avoids serious fiction, and I suppose I believe this, too, even if his new book, “Look, I Made a Hat,” which collects his lyrics for the musical theater written from 1981 to 2011, does conclude with a quotation from James Joyce’s “Ulysses.”

He makes it difficult to take his denials altogether seriously. Ever since he wrote the lyrics for “West Side Story” (in the mid-’50s, when he was only in his mid-20s), Sondheim has been pushing the essentially bright and slap-happy American musical toward tragic opera’s darker and more unrelieved terrain. And he seems to possess a born novelist’s passion for delineating dense but believable motivation. “What lasts in the theater is character,” he once observed — a conviction underpinning many of the outflung reflections in “Look, I Made a Hat.”

His new book is a follow-up to last year’s “Finishing the Hat,” which assembled lyrics from 1954 to 1981. Both books carry long subtitles. “Finishing the Hat” promised “Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes,” while “Look, I Made a Hat” offers “Attendant Comments, Amplifications, Dogmas, Harangues, Digressions, Anecdotes and Miscellany.” These are overlapping lists with instructive differences. The “grudges” of “Finishing the Hat” often involved score-settling, mostly with critics but also with a few impossible colleagues. By contrast, “Look, I Made a Hat” feels less bristly than resignedly rueful (“The desire for failure emanating from people who presumably love musicals is persistently baffling to me”). Sondheim once briefly served as a visiting theater professor at Oxford, and “Look, I Made a Hat” exhibits a donnish ease while blending amusement with edification. [Read the full article...]

The Worst Rendition Of “Silent Night” In The History Of Christmas Pop Music

Wilfried F. Voss — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:52:10 +0000

Wilfried F. Voss is the author of The Bleeding Hills. For more information see his website at http://wilfriedvoss.com.

It happens rarely that I yell “Woo Hoo!” while sitting at my computer, but this morning it happened, thanks to my wife who finally managed to identify the perpetrator, the one who is responsible for the worst rendition of Silent Night in the history of Christmas pop music.

It also happens rarely that I howl when I hear Silent Night on the radio, or that I force our dog out of the house in order to keep her from howling, but it happened during the last three Christmas seasons. It is incomprehensible that somebody who deems himself a professional musician (and actually makes money with it) can destroy the beauty of Silent Night in such a cruel manner. Yes, it happens that my wife and I discuss James Taylor and Aaron Neville and their renditions of popular Christmas music (she loves them; I don’t), but I don’t run to get some TUMS when I hear them.

I had asked everybody I know, and I googled, and I searched on YouTube, but without more detailed information, neither could help me to identify the perpetrator. Finally, my wife had the idea of contacting Jay Fidanza, the morning show host of our local radio station WHAI. She wrote:

Leave it to my wife to find such kind words describing such a horrible rendition. And leave it to Jay Fidanza (who, I believe, is not responsible for Christmas music programming) to answer quick and plain: “It was Five For Fighting.”

And here we go, Five For Fighting, whoever they may be, win the price for the worst rendition of Silent Night in the history of Christmas pop music – and, please, don’t give me a lecture on personal taste; it won’t work.

If you don’t know what I am talking about, start the video below. Just make sure, you have a sufficient supply of TUMS while watching and listening.

In the meantime, after Five For Fighting proved that you can make it in the musical industry without as much as a singing voice, I will consider my choices of starting a musical career. Step back, Josh Groban and Andrea Boccelli! Here I come!

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

The Christmas Sprit: Do They Know It’s Christmas?

Wilfried F. Voss — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 16:14:53 +0000

Wilfried F. Voss is the author of The Bleeding Hills. For more information see his website at http://wilfriedvoss.com.

Every year the Christmas spirit comes to me as soon as I hear Do They Know It’s Christmas by Band Aid, even though I cringe every time when I hear the line “And there won’t be snow in Africa at Christmas time.” After all, the song is about hunger in Africa, and, believe me, the last thing they need is snow. And don’t forget that a great portion of Africans are Christians, and yes, they know when it’s Christmas. Nevertheless, it is one of my all-time Christmas favorites.

“Do They Know It’s Christmas?” is a song written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in 1984 to raise money for relief of the 1984–1985 famine in Ethiopia. The original version was produced by Midge Ure and released by Band Aid on 29 November 1984.

In October 1984, a BBC report by Michael Buerk was aired highlighting the famine that had hit the people of Ethiopia. Irish singer Bob Geldof saw the report and wanted to raise money. He called Midge Ure from Ultravox and together they quickly co-wrote the song, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”.

Geldof kept a November appointment with BBC Radio 1 DJ Richard Skinner to appear on his show, but instead of discussing his new album (the original reason for his booking), he used his airtime to publicise the idea for the charity single, so by the time the musicians were recruited there was intense media interest in the subject.

Geldof put together a group called Band Aid, consisting of leading Irish, British and some American musicians who were among the most popular of the era. The 1984 original became the biggest selling single in UK singles chart history, selling a million copies in the first week alone. It stayed at Number 1 for five weeks, becoming Christmas number one, and sold more than 3.5 million copies domestically. It remained the highest selling single in UK chart history until 1997, when Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind 1997″ was released in tribute to the late Diana, Princess of Wales, which sold almost 5 million copies in Britain.

Following the release of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” in December 1984 and record sales in aid of famine relief, Geldof then set his sights on staging a huge concert, 1985′s Live Aid, to raise further funds.

Respected producer Trevor Horn was approached by Geldof to produce the song, but he was unavailable. Instead, he gave use of his studio, Sarm West in London, free of charge to the project for 24 hours, which Geldof accepted, assigning Ure as the producer instead. On 25 November 1984, the song was recorded and mixed.

Geldof and Ure arrived first at dawn so that Ure could put the recorded backing tracks (put together at his home studio), into the system at SARM. He also had vocals recorded by both Sting and Simon Le Bon of the song which he had acquired from the artists early in order to provide a guide for the other singers.

The world’s media were in attendance as artists began arriving from 9am. Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Paul Young, Culture Club (without Boy George, initially), George Michael of Wham!, Kool and the Gang, Sting, Bono and Adam Claytonof U2, Glenn Gregory of Heaven 17 (whom Ure personally ordered down) and his bandmate Martyn Ware, Phil Collins of Genesis, Paul Weller of the Style Council, Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt of Status Quo, Jody Watley of Shalamar,Bananarama, Marilyn (who was not invited but arrived anyway) and some of Geldof’s bandmates from the Boomtown Rats all arrived. Only one of Ure’s Ultravox colleagues, Chris Cross, attended. Geldof, noticing Boy George’s absence (despite phoning him in New York the day before, demanding he sing on the record), called the Culture Club frontman again to get him out of bed and onto Concorde.

Ure played the backing track and guide vocals to the artists together, then decided, in a way of getting all involved straightaway, to record the crescendo first, which also allowed the ‘team shot’ of the day to be photographed. The artists were put in a huge group and sang the ‘Feed the world, let them know it’s Christmas time’ refrain over and over again until it was completed.

Then Ure sought a volunteer to be first into the studio to sing the main body of the song. Eventually Tony Hadley of Spandau Ballet took the plunge, with plenty of rival artists watching him, and sang the song straight through. The other assigned singers then did likewise, with Ure taping their efforts and then making notes on which segments would be cut into the final recording. Le Bon, despite having already recorded his bit at Ure’s house, re-recorded it so he could be part of the moment. Sting also recorded his words again, this time to provide harmony.

Phil Collins arrived with his entire drum kit and waited until Ure was ready to record him over an electronic drum track that had already been put in place. The song ended up as a mixture of Collins’ drums and an African rhythm that opens the song, taken from a sample of The Hurting by Tears for Fears.

Not all went smoothly …

Ure stated in his autobiography that he was constantly battling with Geldof, the song’s lyricist but not renowned for his melody skills, and telling him to leave when he would come into the production booth and wrongly tell the artist behind the mic what to sing. Ure also had to shelve an attempt by the two members of Status Quo to record the “here’s to you” harmonies because Parfitt could not hit the note. Rossi afterwards told Ure that Parfitt never sang in the studio, only onstage, and he should have kept him away from the mic. This section was eventually taken on by Weller, Sting and Gregory. However, Quo were able to contribute in other ways, according to the journalist Robin Eggar:^[4]

“Once Status Quo produced their bag of cocaine and the booze started to flow – I brought six bottles of wine from my flat, which disappeared in a minute – it became a party.”

Boy George finally arrived at 6pm and went immediately into the recording booth to deliver his lines. He was rather vocal in his dislike of fellow singer George Michael, some of which is caught on video during the filming of the Band Aid collaboration. While recording harmonies, Boy George openly confused Michael’s recorded vocals with the voice of “Alf” (British singer-songwriter Alison Moyet, who did not participate in the charity single). When the engineer correctly identified the voice as that of Michael, Boy George replied, calling the kettle black, “God, he sounded camp. But then he is.”

Once Boy George had finished his tracks, Ure had all the vocals he needed and, as the artists began to party and then drifted away, began working on the mix. A B-side, featuring messages from artists who had and hadn’t made the recording (including David Bowie, Paul McCartney, all members of Big Country and Holly Johnson from Frankie Goes to Hollywood) was also recorded over the same backing track. Trevor Horn arrived back to his own studio to put this together.

Despite being singers themselves, neither Geldof nor Ure had a solo line on the song, though both took part in the ‘feed the world’ finale.

Ure worked on the mix through the night and finally completed the task at 8am on the Monday morning. Prior to departing SARM, Geldof recorded a statement: “This record was recorded on the 25th of November 1984. It’s now 8am on the 26th. We’ve been here 24 hours and I think it’s time we went home.”

The song was quickly dispatched to the pressing plants who had promised to have the single pressed and ready by the Tuesday. A spell of publicity and final legal details followed, then it hit the shops on Thursday 29 November in a sleeve designed by Peter Blake. It went straight to #1.

Source: Wikipedia.org

Happy Xmas (War Is Over)

Wilfried F. Voss — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 17:32:14 +0000

Wilfried F. Voss is the author of The Bleeding Hills. For more information see his website at http://wilfriedvoss.com.

Happy Xmas (War Is Over) is one of my favorite, modern Christmas songs. Well, there are many of them that I like, unless, of course, our local radio station WHAI, due to lack of funds but the presence of a single tape, plays them ad nauseum. I am talking the same songs several times a day. See also my post How The Local Radio Station Stole My Christmas…

Our solution at home is now installed and running, meaning we listen to the great variety of the Pandora Christmas station. I don’t mind hearing John Lennon and Yoko Ono every now and then, and I always call out “The voice of an angel,” when Yoko sings. That’s part of my Christmas.

“Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” is a song written by John Lennon and Yoko Ono and released in 1971 as a single by John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band with the Harlem Community Choir.

The song did not chart in the United States, but reached #4 on the British singles chart (where release was delayed until 1972). Ostensibly a protest song about the Vietnam War, it has become aChristmas standard and has appeared on several Christmas albums.

The lyric is based on a campaign in late 1969 by Lennon and Ono, who rented billboards and posters in eleven major cities around the world that read: “WAR IS OVER! (If You Want It) Happy Christmas from John and Yoko”. In 1971, the United States was deeply entrenched in the unpopular Vietnam War. The line “War is over, if you want it, war is over, now!”, as sung by the background vocals, was taken directly from the billboards.

The melody and chord structure are from the folk standard “Stewball”, about a race-horse. Lennon and Ono added the key changes (shifting back and forth between A and D) and the “War is over” counter-melody.

The song was recorded at Record Plant Studios in New York City in late October 1971, with the help of producer Phil Spector. It features heavily echoed vocals and backing vocals from children of theHarlem Community Choir.

The recording starts with spoken Christmas greetings from Ono and Lennon to their children: Ono whispers “Happy Christmas, Kyoko”, then Lennon whispers “Happy Christmas, Julian”. The lyric sheet from the 1982 album The John Lennon Collection erroneously gives this introduction as “Happy Christmas, Yoko. Happy Christmas, John”.

The single was released on Apple Records in the United States (catalogue Apple 1842) in December of 1971, being too close to Christmas to make any commercial impact. Due to a publishing dispute, the UK and worldwide release of the single (Apple R5970) was delayed until the following November. The single peaked at #4 in the UK in late December 1972. The song was re-released in the UK on 20 December 1980, shortly after John Lennon’s murder on 8 December, peaking at #2.

The song’s first appearance on album was the 1975 compilation Shaved Fish; it has also been included on several subsequent Lennon compilation albums and several Christmas-themed compilations.

Le Freak: An Upside Down Story of Family, Disco, and Destiny by Nile Rodgers

Wilfried F. Voss — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 12:36:36 +0000

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Today’s pop music—genre-crossing, gender-bending, racially mixed, visually stylish, and dominated by dance music with global appeal—is the world that Nile Rodgers created. In the 1970s and 1980s, he wrote and produced the songs that defined that era and everything that came after: “Le Freak,” “Good Times,” “We Are Family,” “Like a Virgin,” “Modern Love,” “I’m Coming Out,” “The Reflex,” “Rapper’s Delight.” Aside from his own band, Chic, he worked with everyone from Diana Ross and Madonna to David Bowie and Duran Duran (not to mention Mick Jagger, Debbie Harry, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson, Prince, Rod Stewart, Robert Plant, Depeche Mode, Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, Grace Jones, Bryan Ferry, INXS, and the B-52’s), transforming their music, selling millions of records, and redefining what a pop song could be.

But before he reinvented pop music, Nile Rodgers invented himself. He was born into a mixed-race, bicoastal family of dope-fiend bohemians who taught him everything he needed to know about love, loss, fashion, art, music, and the subversive power of underground culture. The stars of the scene were his glamorous teenage mom and heroin-addicted Jewish stepfather, but there were also monkeys, voodoo orishas, jazz cats, and serial killers in the mix. By the time he was sixteen, Nile was on his own, busking through the sixties, half-hippie and half–Black Panther. He jammed with Jimi Hendrix, rocked out at Max’s Kansas City, toured with Big Bird on Sesame Street’s road show, and played in the legendary Apollo Theater house band behind history’s greatest soul singers. And then one night, he discovered disco.

During pop’s most glamorous and decadent age, Nile Rodgers wrote the biggest records and lived behind the velvet rope—whether he was holding court in the bathroom stalls at Studio 54, club hopping with Madonna, or scarfing down White Castle burgers with Diana Ross. Le Freak is the fascinating inside story of pop and its tangled roots, narrated by the man who absorbed everything in his topsy-turvy life—the pain and euphoria and fear and love—and turned it into some of the most sparklingly ebullient pop music ever recorded. Nile Rodgers is a brilliant storyteller who gives readers the surprising behind-the-scenes tales of the songs we all know, and lovingly re-creates the lost outsider subcultures—from the backstreets of 1950s Greenwich Village to the hills of 1960s Southern California to the demimonde of New York’s 1970s and 1980s discos and clubs—that live on in his music and in the throbbing, thriving world of pop he helped to set in motion.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

About Nile Rodgers

Nile Rodgers is an American musician, composer, arranger, and guitarist, and is considered one of the most influential music producers in the history of popular music. His recordings have sold in excess of 100 million copies.

Editorial Reviews

“This book is an absolute knockout: exhilarating, warm, and courageous, deeply moving and deeply funny. Le Freak is as much about the greatness of life as it is about Nile Rodgers’s extraordinary musical journey. As Rodgers well knows, the best music is the stuff we feel, the stuff that speaks to us and won’t let go. Le Freak does all that and much more. This is truly one of the best books ever written about art, music, life, and the way we grow to be exactly who we are. Actually, one of the best books period.”
-Cameron Crowe

“Nile Rodgers taught me the meaning of CHIC at a very young age. His rollicking life story-from an outrageous childhood straight out of Pulp Fiction through his rise to create some of the biggest hits of our time-is an addictive read. All told in inimitable Nile-style with humanity and humor. The story behind the music is nothing compared to the story behind Nile Rodgers. The music industry finally has its own ‘The Kid Stays in the Picture!’”
-Darren Starr, Creator of “Sex and the City”

The Rock Days of Disco

The New York Times Book Review – December 2, 2011 (Excerpt)

Although Nile Rodgers makes the grade as a B-list celebrity, he isn’t as famous as the musical record warrants. A longtime co-leader of the so-called disco band Chic, he’s best known for the bass line his partner Bernard Edwards devised for the monster single “Good Times,” which later drove the seminal “Rapper’s Delight” and several lesser records. But many A-listers have capitalized on his talents and quite a few valued his friendship. And as this eventful and engaging autobiography emphasizes, that was how he and Edwards planned it. Chic cultivated anonymity. They saw their way to success as an “opening act.”

In fact, one of the surprise gifts of “Le Freak” is that a third of it covers Rodgers’s own opening act — a coming-of-age tale every bit as impressive as the musical insights and star-time chronicles that follow. Born to a hip 14-year-old beauty in 1952, Rodgers was raised among bohemians, criminals and drug addicts in Lower Manhattan, the Bronx and Los Angeles by his African-American mother, his white Jewish stepfather and both biological grandmothers. His sporadic relationship with his biological father, an addict first and a musician second who died before reaching 40, also made its mark.

Most of these people were highly intelligent, rather unstable, and good at getting by. Rodgers, an up-and-down student schooled more usefully by television and movies, could get by on several instruments before he taught himself guitar from clarinet études he had lying around. At 15 he brushed with such A‑listers as Frank Sinatra while helping a grandmother’s boyfriend clean private jets at Van Nuys Airport. By 1968 he was a street hippie whose professional base was Greenwich Village — a practiced panhandler who slept in crash pads and on the subway. For a while he was a Black Panther. For a while he took up residence in the “Park Avenue pied-à-terre” of the filmmaker-heiress Cinda Firestone. [Read the full article...]

Zabadak! Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick, And Tich

Wilfried F. Voss — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 17:30:28 +0000

Wilfried F. Voss is the author of The Bleeding Hills. For more information see his website at http://wilfriedvoss.com.

You may know the feeling… The strangest thoughts come to mind when you relax under the shower. This morning – my four-year-old was just leaving with my wife for pre-school – I couldn’t get Puff, the Magic Dragon out of my head. Usually, I concentrate and hum the tune to Electric Light Orchestra’s Can’t Get It Out Of My Head, and that helps most the times. It didn’t this morning, though. For unknown reasons my mind switched over to… Zabadak!

Zaba… what? Oh, you don’t know the song by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick, and Tich?

Who? Okay, I get it. It was a long time ago (1967), and British pop music hadn’t made it entirely into the US.

Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich (also known as DDDBMT), were a British pop/rock group of the 1960s. Two of their single releases sold in excess of one million copies each, and they reached Number One in the UK with the second of them, The Legend of Xanadu.

If you listen to one of their earlier singles, Hold Tight, you will immediately be reminded of the Bay City Rollers’ Saturday Night (Well, if you’re old enough). However, Saturday Night, which made it big time into the US, was released a mere nine years later, but it’s not a case of plagiarism. The rhythm to the spelling of “S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night!” is originated in English football stadiums. Well, it’s called soccer here in the US, but as all of my English friends and I agree, there is real football and American football.

Well, Zabadak is still my favorite DDDMBMT song. The lyrics go so well with a morning shower… Well, I hope, nobody overheard my singing…

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

How The Local Radio Station Stole My Christmas…

Wilfried F. Voss — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 19:56:40 +0000

Wilfried F. Voss is the author of The Bleeding Hills. For more information see his website at http://wilfriedvoss.com.

Yes, it wasn’t the grinch who stole my Christmas. It was the local radio station, WHAI.

I don’t know about you, but I frequently turn off the radio after the news are done. Our local station WHAI calls their program “the best variety,” referring to a mixture of oldies and contemporary pop music. The matter of the fact is, they play the same songs EVERY SINGLE DAY. Sometimes you can even adjust your clock to a certain song.

It even leads to a point where I dread Christmas. This is the time, starting right after Thanksgiving, where our local station plays Christmas music on the weekends 24 hours a day. Don’t get me wrong, I have a four-year-old, and that makes Christmas the best time of the year. However, our radio station numbs that feeling with utmost efficiency. I used to love John Lennon’s “XMAS – War is over” or any other Christmas favorite, but hearing it multiple times a day for several days just kills it. It is the same every single year, and I can take only so much.

I get it, though. Radio stations suffer from economic restraints as any other business in the United States, and they simply cannot afford to provide better quality radio.

But I do have a choice, and it’s a good one. I go back into my office, update my blog, and listen to… Pandora! For those who don’t know (you’ll be surprised how many there are), Pandora (http://www.pandora.com) is basically Internet-based radio, playing only the music you like by allowing you to create your own program. You can give specific songs a thumbs up or thumbs down. Favorites are being played more often, and the thumb downs will disappear. If particular artists or bands receive too many downs (I believe the number is 3) they will be removed entirely.

Here is not only the music I like; I also discover “new” artists that I’ve never heard of and I LOVE them. When I list “new” names like Evanescence, Missy Higgins, Plumb, Regina Spektor (I’m currently listening to “Soviet Kitsch”), and many more great artists, I can imagine people rolling their eyes.

“What rock are you living under?” they might ask. Well, my excuse is valid: Our local radio station plays only standard music they can actually afford, and that includes “Say what you need to say, say what you need to say, say what you need to say…” Yes, it’s the extraordinary prose of John Mayer, and that’s the maximum level of sophisticated music you get from our local radio station.

And guess what, now that we’re (at least business-wise) close to Christmas, I will create my own Christmas radio station on Pandora and listen to a true variety of Christmas favorites from past and present.

As I said, The Local Radio Station Stole My Christmas… But I’ll get it back!

The Last Sultan: The Life and Times of Ahmet Ertegun by Robert Greenfield

Wilfried F. Voss — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 12:26:41 +0000

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The Last Sultan is the definitive biography of a man who changed popular culture throughout the world. As the founder and head of Atlantic Records, Ahmet Ertegun signed and/or recorded many of the greatest musical artists of all time, among them Ruth Brown; Big Joe Turner; Ray Charles; Bobby Darin; Sonny and Cher; Eric Clapton; Buffalo Springfield; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; Led Zeppelin; the Rolling Stones; Bette Midler; and Kid Rock. Working alongside his older brother, Nesuhi, one of the preeminent jazz producers of all time, and the legendary Jerry Wexler, who produced great soul artists like Wilson Pickett, Solomon Burke, and Aretha Franklin, Ertegun transformed Atlantic Records from a small independent record label into a hugely profitable multinational corporation. In successive generations, he also served as a mentor to record-business tyros like Phil Spector, David Geffen, and Lyor Cohen.

Brilliant, cultured, and irreverent, Ertegun was as renowned for his incredible sense of personal style and nonstop A-list social life as his work in the studio. Born into great privilege as the son of a high-ranking Turkish diplomat during the last days of the Ottoman Empire, Ertegun spent his life bringing the black-roots music he loved to the world.

A larger-than-life figure, always hip, Ertegun lived in the grand manner but was never happier than when he found himself in some down-and-out joint listening to music late at night. Blessed with impeccable taste and brilliant business acumen, he brought rock ’n’ roll into the mainstream while creating the music that became the sound track for the lives of multiple generations.

With supporting characters like Steve Ross, Henry Kissinger, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Jann Wenner, and a host of others, The Last Sultan is the fascinating story of a man who always lived by his own rules.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

About Robert Greenfield

An award-winning journalist, novelist, playwright, screenwriter, and former associate editor of the London bureau of Rolling Stone, Robert Greenfield is the author of nine books of fiction and nonfiction, among them the classicSTP: A Journey Through America With the Rolling Stones, and critically acclaimed biographies of Jerry Garcia, Timothy Leary, and Bill Graham.

Editorial Reviews

“Ahmet Ertegun was a man who loved his music and wanted others to hear what may otherwise have gone unheard. . . . We first met when the Stones signed up with Atlantic. The stories began to flow and a lot of them are in these pages. Robert Greenfield has done a masterful job of relating them. . . . I shall miss Ahmet. He was a great man and a great friend!” —Keith Richards

“Ahmet Ertegun was a man of passion, loyalty, generosity and fun, both sacred and profane, who could target like a laser what was authentic and worthwhile in the many worlds he bestrode so seamlessly and successfully. Greenfield’s fascinating biography, The Last Sultan, gets it right, and I envy readers their opportunity to experience the life and times of this extraordinary man.” —Henry Kissinger

“Robert Greenfield has written a loving, vividly detailed and utterly compelling history of one of the most fascinating lives of the twentieth century. Not only do you get an insider’s account of the building of the record industry and the high times of the rock and roll circus, but of the worldly education of a young man in the diplomatic world of the European capitals and Washington D.C., and American high society in New York’s modern heyday. The Last Sultan is the remarkable odyssey of a truly remarkable man.” —Jann Wenner, Editor, Publisher and Founder of Rolling Stone

Reader Review

As a professor of music at an ivy league institution, a huge fan of early R+B and soul music and a total Stones freak, I pre-ordered ‘The Last Sultan’, was up all night reading it and am currently considering making it required reading for my course on popular music.

I have followed Greenfield’s writing since his STP: Stones Touring Party book, and fell in love with his oral biography of the great rock promoter Bill Graham from reading ‘Bill Graham Presents’, which I consider to be the Bible of what used to be known as the music biz. I also enjoyed his bios of Jerry Garcia and Timothy Leary and of course Exile on Main Street: A Season in Hell with the Rolling Stones.

I’ve always appreciated Greenfield’s writing because he tells it like it is, and isn’t some fanboy poseur impressed by fame or stardom. At the same time, he isn’t a muckraker. I’m about 3/4 through ‘The Last Sultan’ and I think its his most readable book to date, and pleases much like the great pop music which Ahmet Ertegun himself produced.

The stories in this book are utterly priceless. My favorites include a scene in which a large woman wearing a muumu happily greets Ahmet at some social function only to have him respond, ‘sorry, but I don’t think we’ve met’, to which she responds, ‘Well, I’m your ex-wife’. In another scene, an extremely hungover Kid Rock (whom Ahmet refers to as his ‘young elvis’) comes over to Ahmet’s house for lunch and complains that he hasn’t slept and is having girl trouble, to which Ahmet responds ‘You want a Baby Ruth, man? That’ll make you feel better’, at which point a butler brings out a silver platter of Baby Ruths and Butterfingers.

On a more serious note, the amazing history of Ahmet’s father, a Turkish diplomat to the United States, and Ahmet’s childhood with his brother Nesuhi (a jazz fanatic who ran his own label and recorded and produced everyone from Ornette Coleman to Sonny Rollins and even designed their album covers) is extremely interesting and noteworthy.

Of all the people Greenfield has written about, Ahmet Ertegun is the most fascinating and unbelievable personality of all, trumping even Bill Graham IMHO. To be able to have lunch with Henry Kissinger and then ‘do coke with the bass player’ in the same day is hardly understandable. As Kid Rock notes, Ahmet had more energy and partied harder at 75 years old than people half his age. But more importantly than the sex and drugs was the music. Ahmet was one of the few ‘record men’ who actually wrote songs and produced them in the studio. (Ray Charles’ ‘Mess Around’ comes to mind) In another great scene, a young Andy Johns (who recorded ‘Exile’) is mixing a Stones song in the studio when ‘some old guy walks in and says Hey, kid, you should turn up the bass and add some bottom to the guitars’, and as Jonhs says, ‘I did, and the thing gelled’. Asking Keith Richards ‘who was that?’, Keith responds, ‘that’s Ahmet Ertegun and he’s been producing hits since before you were born’.

Anyhow, I’ve written too much, but as someone who loves and teaches the history of this music for a living, all I can say is, this book ROCKS. – sbdangerfield, Amazon.Com Customer Review

A Dapper Music Magnate and the Empire He Built

The New York Times Book Review – November 20, 2011 (Excerpt)

Robert Greenfield is the author of “S.T.P.: A Journey Through America With the Rolling Stones,” one of the most rollicking accounts ever written about a rock band at the peak of its powers. But Mr. Greenfield’s latest book is much more respectful and sedate. No wonder: the subject of “The Last Sultan” is Ahmet Ertegun, the Turkish-born record company executive who set the high-water mark for personal panache and who remains a sacrosanct figure to most who knew him. Much of “The Last Sultan” is devoted to hyping and preserving the Ertegun legend.

The early part of the book, about Mr. Ertegun’s privileged upbringing as a son of the Turkish ambassador to Switzerland, France and the United States in the 1920s and ’30s, is perhaps its most unexpected. Mr. Ertegun was born a week after the Treaty of Lausanne was signed on July 24, 1923, and the Republic of Turkey was created. His elegance and diplomatic skills were ingrained early. So was the outsize personality that would sometimes cause him to be referred to as Ataturk (after the republic’s first president) by the tour manager of the Rolling Stones.

Ambassador Ertegun was powerful enough to stop MGM from making a film out of Franz Werfel’s “Forty Days of Musa Dagh,” an impassioned novel about the Turkish mass killings of Armenians during World War I. (Turkey has adamantly rejected the label of genocide.) And Ahmet, his younger son (the older was Nesuhi, who also became a music executive), inherited that same force of personality. According to Mr. Greenfield, Ahmet in his later years considered making a public acknowledgment of Turkey’s role in the massacre as a way of reducing the stigma attached to it, but he never got the chance. (He died in 2006 after being injured in a freak accident at the Beacon Theater, just before the Rolling Stones played their concert for former President Bill Clinton’s birthday and Martin Scorsese’s film “Shine a Light.”) [Read the full article...]

Soul Man

The New York Times Book Review – November 25, 2011 (Excerpt)

Ahmet Ertegun was the first person to ask Ella Fitzgerald for her autograph, in 1935. He lived long enough to party for days on end with Kid Rock and Pamela Anderson, and died in 2006, after falling backstage at a Rolling Stones show on the Upper West Side. It wasn’t the prettiest, most dignified death. But Ertegun — who appreciated good jokes, bad women, booze, bad jokes and good women, in any given order — would have enjoyed the obituaries.

Ertegun was born in Istanbul, in 1923. His father, Mehmet Munir, was Ataturk’s legal adviser, a practicing Muslim who helped to build secular Turkey and became its ambassador to France, the Court of St. James and the United States. Ertegun — who’d fallen in love with black music after seeing Duke Ellington’s band perform in London, in 1933 — grew up in Washington and, together with his older brother, Nesuhi, put on a series of jam sessions and jazz concerts that were among the city’s first integrated events. He stayed on after his father’s death, in 1944, studying philosophy at Georgetown and hanging out at Waxie Maxie’s record store. In 1947 he moved to New York and formed Atlantic Records, with money from the family dentist. [Read the full article...]

The Doors: A Lifetime of Listening to Five Mean Years by Greil Marcus

Wilfried F. Voss — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 12:23:31 +0000

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A fan from the moment the Doors’ first album took over KMPX, the revolutionary FM rock & roll station in San Francisco, Greil Marcus saw the band many times at the legendary Fillmore Auditorium and the Avalon Ballroom in 1967. Five years later it was all over.

Forty years after the singer Jim Morrison was found dead in Paris and the group disbanded, one could drive from here to there, changing from one FM pop station to another, and be all but guaranteed to hear two, three, four Doors songs in an hour—every hour. Whatever the demands in the music, they remained unsatisfied, in the largest sense unfinished, and absolutely alive. There have been many books on the Doors. This is the first to bypass their myth, their mystique, and the death cult of both Jim Morrison and the era he was made to personify, and focus solely on the music. It is a story untold; all these years later, it is a new story.

About Greil Marcus

Greil Marcus is the author of Bob Dylan by Greil Marcus, When that Rough God Goes Riding, The Shape of Things to Come, Mystery Train, Dead Elvis, In the Fascist Bathroom, Double Trouble, Like a Rolling Stone, and The Old Weird America; a twentieth anniversary edition of his book Lipstick Traces was published in 2009. With Werner Sollors he is the editor of A New Literary History of America, published last year by Harvard University Press. Since 2000 he has taught at Princeton, Berkeley, Minnesota, and the New School in New York; his column “Real Life Rock Top 10” appears regularly in The Believer. He has lectured at U Cal, Berkeley, The Whitney Museum of Art, and Princeton University. He lives in Berkeley.

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Editorial Reviews

San Antonio Express-News, August 28, 2011
“With an astounding breadth of knowledge, Marcus unmasks The Doors in his latest missive from the cultural trenches.”

Publishers Weekly, September 5, 2011
“Music critic Marcus offers a relentlessly beautiful and insightful evaluation of the music of the Doors … but also a complete rethinking of the Doors’ work as an entire story that captures the 1960s as ‘a place, even as it is created, people know they can never really inhabit, and never escape’…. He contrasts a fascinating range of official and bootleg live recordings of such hit singles as “Touch Me” to show that by 1970 ‘a war between the band and its audience was underway, a war whose weapon were contempt on both sides.’ This is an impressive tribute.”

Reader Review

With a cover of Joel Brodsky’s Elektra publicity photo of The Doors dressed in unexpectedly warm colors of the sun, Greil Marcus’ “The Doors: A Lifetime of Listening to Five Mean Years” is an unexpected look at selected songs of The Doors and pop culture.

Marcus’ book is a fans’ book, he says that it started at the Avalon Ballroom with his wife and seeing The Doors and on their way out, took a handbill of the show and after a lifetime they still have them. Marcus, best known for music criticism and pop culture, is a Doors fan, but an objective one, he is well versed in all aspects of music and the artists but also the language of music and focuses his lens on The Doors.

Marcus’ “The Doors: A Lifetime of Listening to Five Mean Years” is about twenty critical essays on Doors songs, his prose weaves in and out of the songs to where his thoughts take him, either in relation to the lyrics themselves or some aspect of pop culture. The chapter on “Twentieth Century Fox” is a take off point for an extended essay on 50′s-60′s pop culture and how The Doors fit in. In the essay on “L.A. Woman” he makes the case that it could be used as a soundtrack for Thomas Pynchon’s recent novel, “Inherent Vice,” and the song is a pop art map of the city. Marcus isn’t an easy ride through The Doors, you’ll find yourself agreeing with some of his conclusions, such as on “Take it as it Comes” “seemed to start in the middle of some greater song.” Or even disagreeing with his conclusions, such as Morrison’s tribute to Otis Redding, “poor Otis dead and gone/left me here to sing his song”, “…was beyond arrogant, it was beyond obnoxious, it was even beyond racism…” which always seemed a heartfelt tribute to Redding to me.

As you read you’ll find yourself wanting to listen to the songs to see for yourself whether Marcus’ critiques are apt or not.

Jim writes The Doors Examiner. – Jim Cherry, Amazon.Com Customer Review

Listening Again to Rock’s Wild Child and Finding Grandeur and Dread

The New York Times Book Review – November 15, 2011 (Excerpt)

The best piece of advice I’ve heard someone give an aspiring rock critic is this: For God’s sake, don’t try to write like Greil Marcus.

It was meant as a compliment. Mr. Marcus’s style — brainy but fevered, as if the fate of Western society hung on a chord progression — is nearly impossible to mimic without sounding portentous and flatulent. This voice is so hard to pull off that 15 percent of the time even Mr. Marcus can’t do it. He takes a pratfall in the attempt.

But, oh my, that other 85 percent. Reading Mr. Marcus at his best — on Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Sly Stone, the Band, Sleater-Kinney, Dock Boggs or Randy Newman, to name just a few of his obsessions over the years — is like watching a surfer glide shakily down the wall of an 80-foot wave, disappear under a curl for a deathly eternity, then soar out the other end. You practically feel like applauding. He makes you run to your iPod with an ungodly itch in your cranium. You want to hear what he hears. It’s as if he were daring you to get as much out of the music as he does.

Mr. Marcus’s acute and ardent new book, “The Doors: A Lifetime of Listening to Five Mean Years,” is his 13th and among his best. I say this as someone who has never cared deeply or even shallowly about the Doors, a band that to my ears (I was 6 in 1971, the year Jim Morrison died in Paris) has always been classic-rock sonic wallpaper. “The End” sounded ruinous and sublime in “Apocalypse Now.” But please don’t make me listen to “Hello, I Love You” or “Touch Me”again. I’m pretty sure Jose Feliciano will be singing “Light My Fire” in hell. [Read the full article...]

Book review: ‘The Doors’ by Greil Marcus

The Chicago Tribune Book Review – November 22, 2011 (Excerpt)

At first glance, the Doors seem to be an unusual object of study for Greil Marcus, the music critic and cultural historian who likes to draw connections between punk music and world history (“Lipstick Traces”) or Elvis Presley and the American myth (“Mystery Train”). The Los Angeles band is, after all, an act that these days mainly gets airplay for a few scattered hits such as “Light My Fire” and “Break on Through (To the Other Side).” They wouldn’t seem substantial enough for Marcus’ intense gaze. And besides, didn’t Oliver Stone already spend too much time engaging us in a discussion about the Doors’ legacy?

But as he often does, Marcus dives deep, in this case into rare tracks, seminal performances and offhand interviews. The band of Morrison, Manzarek, Densmore and Krieger — referenced by last name only, like old high school friends (they are of course the late frontman Jim Morrison as well as keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robby Krieger) — is in fact worthy of the author’s scrutiny. As he makes clear, this is a band “at war with its audience,” and thus merits a paradox-riddled Marcus-ian exploration. [Read the full article...]

Listening to the Doors

The New York Times Book Review – December 2, 2011 (Excerpt)

Within an electrifying few years during the 1960s, rock ’n’ roll was transformed from a brash diversion of antsy teenagers into a serious genre that threatened to rival the traditional fine arts. Instrumental in this swift development was a Los Angeles band, the Doors, whose charismatic but tormented and self-destructive lead singer, Jim Morrison, attained cultlike status after his mysterious death at age 27 in Paris in 1971, only four years after the release of their first album.

Whether rock ever completely fulfilled its early promise is arguable. What seems incontrovertible, however, is that rock’s fabulous commercial success could be ruinous to young bands, which were pushed by record companies into the artificial environment of punishing tours in cavernous arenas designed for sports. The gifted Doors were among the first victims of this still near-universal corporate strategy.

No one seems better positioned to write about the Doors than Greil Marcus. A native and longtime resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, he witnessed the convulsions of the 1960s firsthand. As a music journalist and historian, he has mostly remained outside academe, a rarity among American public intellectuals. His 12 previous books include “Mystery Train” (1975), a pioneering appreciation of the then-derided Elvis Presley; “Lipstick Traces” (1989), a genealogy of punk rock that became canonical for postmodernist academics here and abroad; and several studies of Bob Dylan. Marcus has served as editor or co-editor of five projects, including “A New Literary History of America” (to which I contributed the article on Tennessee Williams). [Read the full article...]

Sweet Judy Blue Eyes: My Life in Music by Judy Collins

Wilfried F. Voss — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 10:56:35 +0000

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A vivid, highly evocative memoir of one of the reigning icons of folk music, highlighting the decade of the ’60s, when hits like “Both Sides Now” catapulted her to international fame.

Sweet Judy Blue Eyes is the deeply personal, honest, and revealing memoir of folk legend and relentlessly creative spirit Judy Collins. In it, she talks about her alcoholism, her lasting love affair with Stephen Stills, her friendships with Joan Baez, Richard and Mimi Fariña, David Crosby, and Leonard Cohen and, above all, the music that helped define a decade and a generation’s sound track.

Sweet Judy Blue Eyes invites the reader into the parties that peppered Laurel Canyon and into the recording studio so we see how cuts evolved take after take, while it sets an array of amazing musical talent against the backdrop of one of the most turbulent decades of twentieth-century America.

Beautifully written, richly textured, and sharply insightful, Sweet Judy Blue Eyes is an unforgettable chronicle of the folk renaissance in America.

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About Judy Collins

JUDY COLLINS has recorded more than forty albums over her illustrious career. With several top-ten hits, Grammy nominations, and gold- and platinum-selling albums to her credit, she has also written several books and has her own music label, Wildflower Records.

Editorial Reviews

“…a fascinating and even harrowing musical and personal reflection.” –Kirkus

“Collin’s improbable and utterly charming tale of assuming iconic status as a popular music star from the early 1960’s onward also proves a tremendously valuable chronicle of the early folk music scene…[A] forthright, radiant work.” –Publisher’s Weekly

Reader Review

First, there are those riveting blue eyes on the cover, surely as famous as those of Paul Newman. The photograph is by Francesco Scavullo and similar to one that appeared on the album “Judith.” Then the title SWEET JUDY BLUE EYES, a play on the words of the song Stephen Stills wrote for her, draws you in; and you are by that time taking the book to the counter to purchase. For the next several hours you are reminded of all the things you have always loved about this great performer, her superb talent, her sense of style, her grace, her commitment to civil rights, peace and diversity. But there are surprises. Judy Collins is totally candid about her struggle for many years with alcoholism and other very personal aspects of her life including several affairs– she names names– before she met Louis Nelson, her partner now of over thirty-three years, and got sober.

What is so refreshing about this book is that Ms. Collins, even when she is being so brutally honest about her own shortcomings, is always gentle with most of the many people she has known in her long career spanning over fifty years. On Joan Baez, that other great female folk singer and her contemporary: “I never felt that competitiveness was helpful or warranted. . . But if she was Ceres. . . I was Diana. . . And the forest is a big, thriving place, chock-full of gods and goddesses.” While she does not understand what happened to her friendship with Joni Mitchell, who of course wrote “Both Sides Now,” one of Ms. Collins’ biggest hits, she nevertheless, “can say thank you. She [Mitchell] gave me a beautiful song, and sometimes that is all one can expect–or, should I say, more than anyone has any right to expect.” Bob Dylan, after his early success, “Sometimes. . . seemed to take up all the air in the room,” but he is “of course, a genius.” Leonard Cohen, whose music Collins first sang in the U. S., is a person she is grateful she did not fall in love with the way she fell in love with his songs. “I adored Leonard, but thankfully it wasn’t the kind of passion that got me into trouble. Instead, his songs would let me fly.”

Ms. Collins is not so kind to her several therapists– nor should she be– many of whom gave her bad advice while being well paid. Her long-time therapist Ralph Klein, for instance, told her that when they got to the bottom of her emotion problems, that her drinking would become “manageable.” He even suggested it might stop. “I realize today he had not one single clue about alcoholism. I did not drink because of my problems. I had problems because I drank.”

Ms. Collins’ descriptions of her bigger-than-life father, for whom she wrote the beautiful song “My Father,” will break your heart. Totally blind since the age of five but fiercely independent– he never needed the assistance of a dog or cane– Chuck Collins was also an alcoholic but both loving and lovable when sober. She says of their relationship: “I think I have been trying all my life to get my father to see me.” Ms. Collins, however, got her passion for liberal politics and her belief that music can change the world from her father, certainly a rare gift for any child to receive.

It is always a delight to witness Judy Collins’ way with words. Her mother Marjorie had big eyes “in which I used to say I saw pieces of fruitcake.” Josh White she describes this way: “He seemed to carry the sun around with him, and if you were anywhere near him you felt that warmth.” Eric Weisberg “has a smile that is usually slow in coming but is worth waiting for.”

Finally, in addition to the four and twenty other reasons to love Judy Collins, add one more when you learn that she keeps the ashes of her seven “beloved” cats on the window sill of her New York apartment. – H. F. Corbin, Amazon.Com Customer Review

Legendary Gaze Burns Through Time and Trouble

The New York Times Book Review – November 13, 2011 (Excerpt)

Albert Grossman, who had put together Peter, Paul and Mary as a folk-singing trio, once suggested to Judy Collins that she become part of a trio too. She would sing with two other women, Judy Henske and Jo Mapes. “We can call you the Brown-Eyed Girls,” he said.

The problem with that idea is apparent both on the cover and in the title of Ms. Collins’s lilting new memoir of a great musical career, five decades old and still going strong: she has the most transfixing, otherworldly blue high-beams ever seen above an acoustic guitar. She has eyes so blue that her onetime lover Stephen Stills once put them in a song title. Some combination of her eyes and voice once prompted Richard Fariña, the poet, songwriter and hell raiser who was her great friend, to write about her with the words “If amethysts could sing. …” Anybody who has ever heard Ms. Collins — and it’s hard to imagine anyone who has not — knows exactly what he meant.

As she writes in “Sweet Judy Blue Eyes” (a play on Mr. Stills’s “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” which became a hit for Crosby, Stills and Nash), Ms. Collins decided against wearing brown contact lenses and singing with two partners. She had a strong sense of her own identity, even during the troubled and tumultuous times that her book describes. [Read the full article...]

Judy Collins: Sweet Soprano

The New York Times Book Review – December 2, 2011 (Excerpt)

“Gentle voice amid the strife” is how Life magazine described the folk singer Judy Collins on the cover of its May 2, 1969, issue. The label accompanied a photo of a young woman whose distant, blue-eyed gaze hinted at strife of her own. Just months before, Collins had scored a top-10 hit with Joni Mitchell’s pained lament “Both Sides Now.” The record broke through in an age of Vietnam protesters and social revolutionaries, out to save the world but often floundering personally; of young Americans caught between the conformity of their parents’ generation and the pressure to rebel. Collins spoke to the lost soul in all of them when she sang, in Mitchell’s words, “I really don’t know life at all.”

A few joyful songs appeared in her repertory, notably “Amazing Grace,” the 18th-century hymn that she took to the charts in 1970. But one didn’t listen to Collins to feel good. Hurt was etched into her voice: a soprano with an earthy sweetness, floating forlornly like a stray balloon. Onstage, she ventured with her guitar to places that few folk singers went. She voiced the cries of French revolutionary peasants in a medley from “Marat/Sade,” a 1965 Broadway production; she walked the gangplank to suicide in Leonard Cohen’s “Dress Rehearsal Rag.” Later Collins recorded “Send in the Clowns,” an actress’s archly formal swan song from Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music,” and made it the unlikeliest of disco-era hits. At the piano she delivered her original songs, full of lush storybook imagery and longing for the unreachable. “Albatross” asked, “Will there never be a prince who rides along the sea and the mountains / Scattering the sand and the foam into amethyst fountains?” [Read the full article...]

Musical Blast From The Past: “Take On Me” by A-Ha

Wilfried F. Voss — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 17:05:59 +0000

Wilfried F. Voss is the author of The Bleeding Hills. For more information see his website at http://wilfriedvoss.com.

Click on image to buy from Amazon.Com

Living in 1980s Germany, and loving contemporary pop music, I saw the release of a great number of songs that have not lost their popularity up to this day. One of these songs is Take On Me by A-Ha, which was also a great hit here in the United States (A-Ha is from Norway).

First, let me shock most Americans who grew up during the 1980s (that includes my wife, but she already knows):

A-Ha was NOT a One-Hit Wonder!

A-ha were a Norwegian pop band formed in Oslo in 1982. The band was founded by Morten Harket (vocals), Magne Furuholmen (keyboard), and Pål Waaktaar (guitars). The group initially rose to fame during the mid 1980s after being discovered by musician and producer John Ratcliff and had continued global success in the 1990′s and 2000′s.

Also, the title song of the James Bond Movie, “The Living Daylights”, was co-written with Paul Waaktaar-Savoy of A-ha and recorded by them.

The band have sold over 36 million albums and 35 million singles worldwide. In less than a year, during 2010, the band earned an estimated 500 million Norwegian Kroner on touring tickets, merchandising and release of a greatest hits album, making them one of the 40-50 largest grossing bands in the world.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

A-ha achieved their biggest success with their debut album, Hunting High and Low, in 1985. That album peaked at number 1 in their native Norway, number 2 in the UK and number 15 on the U.S. Billboard album chart, yielded two international number-one singles, “Take on Me” and “The Sun Always Shines on T.V.”, and earned the band a Grammy Award nomination as Best New Artist. In the UK, Hunting High and Low continued its chart success into the following year, becoming one of the best-selling albums of 1986. In 1994, after their fifth studio album, Memorial Beach which failed to achieve the commercial success of their previous albums, the band went on a hiatus.

Following a performance at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in 1998, the band returned to the studio and recorded their sixth album, 2000′s Minor Earth Major Sky, which was another number-one in Norway and resulted in a new tour. A seventh studio album, Lifelines, was released in 2002, and an eighth album, Analogue, in 2005, was certified Silver in the UK — their most successful album there since 1990′s East of the Sun, West of the Moon. Their ninth album, Foot of the Mountain, was first released on 19 June 2009 and returned the band to the UK Top 5 for the first time since 1988, being certified Silver there and Platinum in Germany. The album peaked at number 2 in Norway (their first not to reach number 1 in their home territory). On 15 October 2009, the band announced they would split after a worldwide tour in 2010, the Ending On A High Note tour. Thousands of fans from at least 40 different countries on six continents congregated to see A-ha for the last time.

Stay On These Roads

And here comes my favorite A-Ha song, Stay On These Roads. I have both videos, Take On Me and Stay On These Roads on my iPhone, and my wife loves it. Yet another reason for astonishment that a band like A-Ha never really made it big in the United States.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Musical Blast From The Past: “Eloise” by Barry Ryan

Wilfried F. Voss — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:30:17 +0000

Wilfried F. Voss is the author of The Bleeding Hills. For more information see his website at http://wilfriedvoss.com.

Growing up as a teenager in Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and loving contemporary pop music, I saw the release of a great number of songs that have not lost their appeal up to this day. One of these songs is Eloise by Barry Ryan.

I was unable to find any information on how the song did here in the United States, but my guess is, it didn’t do well at all, even though it was a HUGE hit in Europe at the time. Everybody I asked just shook their head. Who? Barry Ryan! Never heard of him. Well, they are also under the impression that a hugely successful band like A-Ha – Think “Take On Me” – was a one-hit wonder, and thereafter disappeared into nothingness (Time for another article to dissolve the myth).

“Eloise” is a pop song first released in 1968. It was sung by Barry Ryan, and written by his twin brother Paul Ryan. Running for a little over five minutes, it featured strong orchestration, strong vocals, and a brief slow interlude. In that it is similar to the same year’s hit ”MacArthur Park” – See also my post Dumbledore Left The Cake Out In The Rain.

“Eloise” sold 3 million copies worldwide, and reached number 2 in the UK Single Chart as published by Record Retailer, but hit number 1 in the NME and Melody Maker charts. It topped the chart in seventeen countries.

Barry Ryan (born Barry Sapherson, 24 October 1948, Leeds, Yorkshire) was an English pop singer. He is currently a photographer.

The son of pop singer Marion Ryan, Ryan and his twin brother Paul began to perform at the age of 16. In 1965 they signed a recording contract with Decca and, under the name of “Paul & Barry Ryan”, brought out singles such as “Don’t Bring Me Your Heartaches” (1965), “Have Pity on the Boy” (1966) and “Missy Missy” (1966). His stepfather was the American agent and music promoter Harold Davison.

When it turned out that Ryan’s brother was unable to cope any longer with the stress connected with show business, the brothers decided that Paul would write the songs which Ryan would interpret as a solo artist. Their greatest success as a composer-singer duo, now for MGM Records, was “Eloise” (1968), melodramatic and heavily orchestrated. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. Later singles included “Love Is Love” (also 1968), “The Hunt” (1969), “Magical Spiel” (1970) and “Kitsch” (1970).

“Love Is Love”, written by Paul Ryan and released in the United Kingdom during February 1969, was not a great success in his own country. However combining sales from Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, “Love is Love” sold a million copies by August 1969, the second million-seller for Ryan.

Ryan was also popular in Germany. Promoted by Bravo, the German youth magazine, he also recorded a number of songs in German, for example “Die Zeit macht nur vor dem Teufel Halt” (“Time Only Stops for The Devil”).

Ryan stopped performing in the early 1970s. There were rumours that he had had an accident in the recording studio. Supposedly he suffered serious burn wounds in the face and could no longer appear in public. However, he made a comeback in the late 1990s when a two CD set with his and his brother’s old songs was released. Ryan was also part of the ‘Solid Silver 60s Tour’ of the UK in 2003, singing “Eloise” backed by The Dakotas.

Well, talking about Barry Ryan’s great popularity in Germany; it brought us the following video, which is an excerpt from the German TV Show “Beat Club” (Yes, Beat Club, because English was “in”, and nobody would have watched it if the title was Schlagverein…).

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Pandora Kills The Radio Star… And I Like It!

Wilfried F. Voss — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 13:17:16 +0000

Wilfried F. Voss is the author of The Bleeding Hills. For more information see his website at http://wilfriedvoss.com.

I don’t know about you, but I frequently I turn off the radio after the news are done. Our local station WHAI calls their program “the best variety in the valley,” referring to the Pioneer Valley in Western Massachusetts. The matter of the fact is, they play the same songs EVERY SINGLE DAY. Yes, you do have the right to change the station, but I don’t enjoy listening to Country & Western on the radio. I do fancy a live performance, though.

The problem really is, there is no good morning show in the neighborhood, and even when I travel through New England listening to the radio in my car, the mindless blabbering teamed with heavy commercial exposure and little music doesn’t do it for me.

It even leads to a point where I dread Christmas. This is the time, starting right after Thanksgiving, where our local station plays Christmas music on the weekends 24 hours a day. Don’t get me wrong, I have a four-year-old, and that makes Christmas the best time of the year. However, our radio station numbs that feeling efficiently. I used to love John Lennon’s “XMAS – War is over” or any other Christmas favorite, but hearing it multiple times a day for several days just kills it.

I get it, though. Radio stations suffer from economic restraints as any other business in the United States, and they simply cannot afford to provide better quality radio.

Here is not only the music I like; I also discover “new” artists that I’ve never heard of and I LOVE them. When I list “new” names like Evanescence, Missy Higgins, Plumb, Regina Spector (I’m currently listening to “Soviet Kitsch”), and many more great artists, I can imagine people rolling their eyes.

I started off on Pandora with my “Moody Blues” station, which may indicate to you that I am into oldies. Nevertheless, Pandora not only suggested artists that, as I explained previously, are new to me, but it also allowed me to block John Mayer permanently. It’s well worth the $36 I pay per year, but you can also get it for free. Their commercials are not as invasive as the majority of regular radio stations.

And guess what, come Christmas, I will create my own Christmas radio station on Pandora. Well, now it’s time to walk the doggie. Time to put those earphones on and start the Pandora App on my iPhone.

As I said, Pandora Kills The Radio Star… And I Like It!

Prince: Inside the Music and the Masks by Ronin Ro

Wilfried F. Voss — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 11:58:16 +0000

Click on image to buy from Amazon.Com

A fascinating, authoritative biography of one of the most commercial, controversial, and influential musicians of all time

In his three decades-long of recording, Prince has had nearly thirty albums hit the Billboard Top 100. He is the only artist since the Beatles to have a number one song, movie, and single at the same time. Prince’s trajectory—from a teenage unknown in Minneapolis to an idol and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer—has won him millions of adoring fans.

Prince is the first book to give full treatment to this 30-year career of epic proportions. Acclaimed music journalist Ronin Ro traces Prince’s rise from anonymity in the late 70s, to his catapult to stardom in the 80s, to his reemergence in the 21st century as both an artistic icon and a starmaker. Ro chronicles the music, showing how Prince and his albums helped define and inspire a generation. Along the way, Prince confronted labels, fostered other young talents, and took ownership of his music, making a profound mark on the entertainment industry and pop culture.

In this authoritative biography, Ro digs deep to reveal the man behind some of the most important music of our time.

About Ronin Ro

RONIN RO has written for USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, Vanity Fair, MTV, Rolling Stone, and Playboy. He has written eight books about the entertainment industry.

Editorial Review

“Did 10 years of researching the enigmatic Prince pay off? You bet.

For much of the 1980s, Prince was arguably the most important pop musician on the planet. He wasn’t an originator, however, but a sponge who could take bits and pieces from different genres and manage to create something uniquely his own. The fact that he could sing well, play expertly on several instruments and wear the hell out of skin-tight leotards didn’t hurt either. Considering his sales figures, influence and huge, albeit admittedly inconsistent discography, it’s surprising that nobody has delivered a noteworthy Prince bio…until now. Veteran journalist Ro (Dr. Dre: The Biography, 2007, etc.) spent a decade researching this book—which shouldn’t surprise Prince’s fans, as the man is notoriously private—and it was worth it, as he was able to get vital information, opinions and anecdotes from Prince’s close and not-so-close associates, everybody from sidemen to record-label execs. (Unsurprisingly, the man himself did not grant Ro access.) By utilizing verbatim dialogue, the book often reads like a novel; granted, some readers may doubt the veracity of every piece of dialogue, but it’s enjoyable nonetheless. The author has an obvious affection for Prince’s work, but he maintains enough objectivity to be credible.

An energetic, detailed balance of reportage and criticism about an icon of his era.”—Kirkus Reviews

Reader Review

his is yet another largely non-exclusive look at Prince that doesn’t stand out of the pack. Spending more time on the fat years of Prince and far too little time on the lean, this book reveals almost nothing that a fan of Prince – the most likely candidate to even pick up this book in this day and age – doesn’t already know or have access to. There is virtually nothing distinguishing this book from the last five books about Prince that came out in the last ten years. Information is largely culled from the same sources as every other book, the anecdotes are largely old hat at this point, and there isn’t the promised revelation of Prince’s influence on much more than himself and his audience.

The biggest disappointment is that the opportunity to make a book that stood out is lost by committing the same crime that almost every other book about Prince makes: it acts like the last 15 years didn’t happen. It spends 290 of its 356 pages of actual text on the albums leading up to 1996 (12 total, not counting soundtracks) and a practically scant 66 pages on the TEN albums that followed. It covers the early, more successful (and, not coincidental I am sure, thoroughly picked over) period of his career almost song by song, but then almost dismisses the last fifteen years of his career by comparison.

At this point I’d rather just read a book about all of the other acts Prince has launched, or a treatise that genuinely attempted to parse out his influence on culture and art during his tenure. if there’s anything left to say about Prince, no one but Prince is likely to write the book compelling enough to warrant purchasing (and we all know how likely that is to happen). I’d say this is fine for people who are looking for an entry into Prince’s world, but that’s the same thing you can say about every other book about Prince. – Scott Woods, Amazon.Com Customer Review

Prince bio underscores need for Prince autobio

The Washington Post Book Review – November 4, 2011 (Excerpt)

Will anyone ever crack the purple force field that surrounds Prince?

This new biography of pop music’s most brilliant mysterioso doesn’t even try. The author is Ronin Ro, a music journalist who made his name in 1999 with “Have Gun Will Travel,” a book that dove into the nitty-grit of ’90s gangsta rap culture. “Prince: Inside the Music and the Masks,” on the other hand, seems to have been written in the peaceful solitude of the public library. Instead of the penetrating reportage his subtitle promises, Ro offers a snoozy chronology of the guarded singer’s complicated career, culled largely from old newspaper and magazine reports, too many of them unattributed.

The story Ro tells begins on June 7, 1958, with the birth of Prince Rogers Nelson in Minneapolis and quickly moves on to the details of his career without turning up new information on his life. As the prodigy blooms into a pop star, his albums move up and down the sales charts. The critics react. He squabbles with his label, Warner Bros. It’s all garnished with tiresome details from sources who live light-years outside Prince’s social orbit. If you’ve ever wondered what Tower Records Chairman Russ Solomon thought of Prince striking a deal with Best Buy to sell his 1998 album, “Crystal Ball,” as a four-disc set, rejoice.

At 356 pages, “Prince” reads like a metastasized Wikipedia entry, only without all the attribution. And once the book settles into its lifeless rhythm — which is to say, immediately — the idiosyncrasies really jump out. At one point, Ro reminds us that Stevie Wonder is blind, but later expects us to know that Prince’s jouncy tune “Cindy C.” is about supermodel Cindy Crawford without actually mentioning her by name. [Read the full article...]

Irish Songbook: Clannad – Irish Musical Group From County Donegal

Wilfried F. Voss — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 14:28:33 +0000

Clannad at Meteor Awards

Clannad are an Irish musical group, from Gaoth Dobhair, County Donegal. Their music has been variously described as bordering on folk and folk rock, Irish, Celtic and New Age, often incorporating elements of an even broader spectrum of smooth jazz and Gregorian chant. They are known for performing in various languages, including English, Latin, Scottish Gaelic, Mohican and most of all in their native tongue, Irish. They have won several notable awards throughout their career, including a Grammy, a BAFTA, an Ivor Novello and a Billboard Music Award.

Clannad comprises siblings Moya Brennan (Irish: Máire Ní Bhraonáin), Ciarán Brennan (Irish: Ciarán Ó Braonáin), Pól Brennan (Irish: Pól Ó Braonáin, who left in 1990 and rejoined in 2011) and their twin uncles Noel Duggan (Irish: Noel Ó Dúgáin) and Pádraig Duggan (Irish: Pádraig Ó Dúgáin). Sibling Enya (Irish: Eithne Ní Bhraonáin) left the group in 1981 to pursue a solo career.

Clannad first made their mark in the folk and traditional scene in the 1970s in Ireland and mainland Europe. They subsequently went on to bridge the gap between traditional Celtic music and pop music in the 1980s and 1990s with albums such as Macalla and Anam. During their career they toured the world extensively and gained fans in every major territory. Lead singer Moya Brennan and her sisterEnya have also enjoyed significant success as solo artists. The band won a Grammy Award in 1999 for Best New Age Album, and their record sales exceed the 15 million mark. They are also widely regarded as the band which, for the first time, put Irish traditional music and the Irish language on the world stage and paved the way for many other Irish artists.

Ten years after “taking a break“, the five original members of Clannad reunited on stage at the Celtic Connections Festival in February 2007 in Glasgow, Scotland. Moya, Ciarán, Noel and Pádraig embarked on their first UK tour in over 10 years in March 2008, starting in Gateshead. In 2009, the band’s Pádraig Duggan announced that the band were recording a new album.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Musical upbringing

Siblings Ciarán, Pól, and Máire Uí Bhraonáin (Brennan) and their two twin uncles Noel and Pádraig Ó Dúgáin (Duggan) grew up in Gaoth Dobhair, a rural village in County Donegal, in the northwest corner of Ireland. The village is in the Gaeltacht and they were an Irish-speaking and Roman Catholic family. The Brennans’ mother, Baba, was a music teacher, and their father, Leo, was a former member of a cabaret band. Leo was travelling extensively in the early family years. Later, they bought a pub with a stage called Leo’s Tavern (Tábhairne Leo). The children would occasionally do cover versions ofBeatles, Beach Boys and Joni Mitchell songs at home and in their family pub.

The children were performing late at night in the pub (the story was recounted by Máire, TG4, 17 March 2007, Clann as Dobhar & Clannad Beo) when the local police sergeant walked in. They feared a summons, but instead the policemen had a form to enter a local music competition. They didn’t have a name at the time, but had to find one for the competition. Someone suggested Clann As Dobhar (Irish for “the family from Dore”), which was provisionally blended into Clannad in 1973.

The young Brennans’ and Duggans’ passion for the traditional music of Ireland soon expanded beyond their native Gweedore. They would later visit such outlying communities as Tory Island off Donegal’s coast. Armed with some 500 Gaelic songs, they would later begin to arrange these songs for a full band.

Traditional years

The first album was recorded in 1973, simply called Clannad, and it showed a band aware of contemporary Irish music of the day. There were hints of modern influences, most notablyPentangle’s, in songs such as “The Pretty Maid” and “Morning Dew”, but it was the Irish songs, particular an early arrangement of “Níl Sé Ina Lá”, a drinking song they found on one of their Tory Island expeditions, that really showed the band’s ability to form contemporary, jazz-influenced versions of traditional material. This album was also released under the name The Pretty Maid. One of the tracks, “An Pháirc”, was performed by Clannad in the 1973 Irish heat of the Eurovision Song Contest. The second album followed in 1975 on Gael-Linn records and was titled Clannad 2. Produced by Planxty and Bothy Band founderDónal Lunny, it showed a tremendously more mature band that was quite committed to singing mainly in Irish. Their arrangements were still experimental for the times, but their increasing skill in the use of traditional acoustic instruments kept the music well within the boundaries of folk music. Clannad 2 featured some ground-breaking traditional music, including Máire’s harp playing on the O’Carolan song “Eleanor Plunkett” and ensemble work on songs like “Rince Briotánach” and “Teidhir Abhaile Riú”, an Irish matchmaking song.Clannad entered a local folk festival in Letterkenny, County Donegal, and won first prize, a record contract with the Irish arm of Phillips, when they were still in college and school. They did not make the record until 1973 because the record company did not like the idea of them doing half the album in Irish, as it was not heard of to sing Irish in mainstream music.

The following year they produced Dúlamán. The title track was a song about two dúlamán, or seaweed merchants, one of whom is trying to win the hand of the other’s beautiful daughter. It has been a favourite of Clannad’s live shows for a very long time and is still performed in a rock version which captures the flavour of the original recorded acoustic version.

The band in 1976 still consisted of Máire on lead vocals and harp, Ciarán on double bass, electric piano and vocals, Pól on flutes, guitars and bongos, Noel on guitar, vocals and Pádraig on mandolin, guitar and vocals. They still kept the Gaelic spelling of their surnames of Ó Braonáin for the brothers, Ní Bhraonáin for Máire and Ó Dúgáin for Pádraig and Noel. During their first tour of Europe in 1976 a standing ovation after an eight-minute version of “Níl Sé Ina Lá” convinced them to become full time professionals. The band’s next album was Crann Úll (Irish for apple tree) released in 1978 on Tara Records. It featured a stronger emphasis on Máire’s harp-playing. “Ar a Ghabháil ‘n a ‘Chuain Domh” featured a particularly full band arrangement reflective of their live jams at the time. “Lá Cuimhthíoch Fán dTuath” (“A Strange Day in the Countryside”) showed the first hints of the more atmospheric side of the band’s arrangements. On “Gathering Mushrooms” they included their sister Eithne Ní Bhraonáin (now known as Enya) on supporting vocals.

Clannad in Concert was released in 1979, featuring excerpts from their 1978 Swiss tour and a now world-famous version of “Down by the Sally Gardens” and a 10-minute version of “Níl Sé Ina Lá”. It served as a base for various solos by the individual members. The year 1979 also saw a 36-concert North American tour — the most extensive ever undertaken by an Irish group to date. In 1981 with the album Fuaim (pronounced foom, meaning sound), recorded in Dublin’s famed Windmill Studios, Clannad began to experiment with a more lush and electric sound. Enya became, for a short time, a full member of the band, adding keyboards and harmony vocals as well as lead vocals on two songs, “An tÚll” and “Buaireadh an Phósta”. This album marked Clannad’s first experiments with synthesiser. It also had guest Neil Buckley on clarinet and saxophones plus a percussionist and electric piano. The following year Enya left to pursue her solo career and the band was about to record the album which would forever change their career as well as their sound, Magical Ring which appeared in 1982.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Musical Style

When Clannad first started out in the early 1970s their music and sound stemmed solely from their traditional background. Despite this they managed to popularise such old songs as “Dúlamán”, “Teidhir Abhaile Riú” and “Coinleach Glas An Fhómhair”, and these songs have remained popular numbers at their concerts. On the departure from their folk and traditional background in 1982, they created a new sound that would define the meaning of New Age and Celtic music forever. When “Theme from Harry’s Game” and “Newgrange” were first heard, radio stations all over the world became fascinated by the earthly and spiritual sound that they had never encountered before. One critic said “the tunes were seeped in the old ways, but the production and the arrangement was fresh and inventive”. This transition in Clannad’s career is often seen as the birth of Celtic music, and to this day they are regarded as the pioneers of that genre. They are also noted for their melodiousharmonies, which have been at the heart of their music since their first album. Legend (1984) was based on English folklore. With later albums, Clannad delved further into the realms of electronica and even pop. Due to this, many of their singles entered pop charts all over the world, and widened their fan base once again. Despite their success with this genre of music, the group managed to maintain a link with their Gaelic roots throughout their career, giving traditional Irish songs such as “Tráthnóna Beag Aréir” and “Buachaill Ón Éirne” the Clannad treatment.

Even though the rock-infused Sirius and the pop-inclined Macalla have become huge successes for Clannad, it was their breakthrough style that they created themselves that has left the greatest legacy. One of the places where Clannad’s influence can be seen is in the film Titanic, where James Horner admitted to basing the soundtrack on Clannad’s style. The soundtrack was so like Clannad’s work that it has been incorrectly credited to them for many years. Clannad’s ‘Celtic mysticism’ is a recurring theme in the film Intermission. The “otherworldly” and “ethereal” Clannad sound comes from the ancient hills and glens that surround Gweedore, according to lead singer Moya Brennan. Also, when asked to describe the group’s style, Ciarán said, “There’s a feeling in all our music an ambience that stems directly from where we were brought up and to have to define our sound I always say that if they were to visit Gweedore they wouldn’t need to ask.” Traces of Clannad’s legacy can be heard in the music of many artists, including Enya, Altan, Capercaillie, The Corrs, Loreena McKennitt, Anúna, Riverdance, Órla Fallon and U2.

Source: Wikipedia.org

I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution by Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum

Wilfried F. Voss — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 10:17:31 +0000

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You will receive one of the two covers. We cannot guarantee which one.

Remember the first time you saw Michael Jackson dance with zombies in “Thriller”? Diamond Dave karate kick with Van Halen in “Jump”? Tawny Kitaen turning cartwheels on a Jaguar to Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again”? The Beastie Boys spray beer in “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party)”? Axl Rose step off the bus in “Welcome to the Jungle”?

Remember When All You Wanted Was Your MTV?

It was a pretty radical idea-a channel for teenagers, showing nothing but music videos. It was such a radical idea that almost no one thought it would actually succeed, much less become a force in the worlds of music, television, film, fashion, sports, and even politics. But it did work. MTV became more than anyone had ever imagined.

I Want My MTV tells the story of the first decade of MTV, the golden era when MTV’s programming was all videos, all the time, and kids watched religiously to see their favorite bands, learn about new music, and have something to talk about at parties. From its start in 1981 with a small cache of videos by mostly unknown British new wave acts to the launch of the reality-television craze with The Real World in 1992, MTV grew into a tastemaker, a career maker, and a mammoth business.

Featuring interviews with nearly four hundred artists, directors, VJs, and television and music executives, I Want My MTV is a testament to the channel that changed popular culture forever.

About the Authors

Craig Marks was the top editor for two influential music magazines, SPIN and Blender. He is the editor in chief of Popdust.

Rob Tannenbaum has been the music editor at Blender, a columnist at GQ, and has written for The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, Details, New York Magazine, Playboy, Spin, and The Washington Post.

Editorial Reviews

“MTV changed America and this book will change how you think about MTV. It’s a fascinating look deep inside how MTV became what it was from the mouths of those who made it. Everyone who loved or hated MTV will love this story filled with fights, drugs, sex and music.”
-Toure, author of Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness?

“Before Google and before Apple, MTV was the one post-60s American enterprise that really transformed the culture. And now we have this definitive, riveting, revealing, amazingly well-reported insiders’ account of how an improbable group of visionaries made it up as they went along. You want I Want My MTV.”
-Kurt Andersen, author of Heyday and Reset, and host of public radio’s “Studio 360″

“I Want My MTV is such a big, wild joyride of book, made to be read with glee and nostalgia and marvel. It’s also a thoughtful and astonishingly well-researched historical document, of course, but mostly it’s just a total gas. It’s all in here, folks! Girls in cages! TV executives on blow! Dudes in eyeliner! Chicks with guitars! Pyrotechnics, consumerism, fame, destruction and shamelessness! Anyone who came of age during the glory days of MTV will be-page by page-steadily transported right back to your boyfriend’s parent’s wood-paneled den, to savor once more the life-changing lessons of decadence and magic we learned from cable TV.”
-Elizabeth Gilbert, bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love and Committed

“I Want My MTV is the definitively funny-yet loving-chronicle of music video’s golden age: the hopes, the dreams, the drugs, the hair, the legacy of Tawny Kitaen. And for gossip, it’s packed tighter than one of Heart’s spandex bustiers.”
-Rob Sheffield, author of the national bestseller Love is a Mix Tape and Talking to Girls About Duran Duran

When Video Killed Radio Stars

The New York Times Book Review – October 24, 2011 (Excerpt)

Like almost everyone who was a teenager in the early 1980s, when the Music Television network first went live on cable, I wanted my MTV. I’d glue myself to the channel for hours, losing body mass, muscle control and self-esteem, the way my son gives himself over to video games today. MTV demanded that you linger in front of it for entire afternoons, because it tucked its few good videos amid so many horrible ones. You had to learn Zen couch potato patience.

Before MTV, scanning for new music on television was mostly a thankless task, even if you stayed up late, and stayed home, on weekends. There was “Saturday Night Live,” then as now hit or miss musically. There were the greasy, bell-bottomed bands on “Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert,” many past their prime. MTV delivered not just new music, constantly on tap, but also a jumpy new visual aesthetic. Directors began editing footage the way Edward Scissorhands trimmed hedges.

It’s been said that the music you listen to when you first begin steaming up car windows is the music you want to hear for the rest of your life. This explains why I and so many people I know still cock our heads wistfully at songs by — and especially acoustic cover versions of songs by — iffy bands like Men at Work, Tears for Fears andThompson Twins. It’s a generational cross we bear, and we’ve come to terms with it.

All of this is a prelude to saying that I’m smack in the center of the target demographic for “I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution,” by the music journalists Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum. The book is an oral history, like Jean Stein and George Plimpton’s “Edie: An American Biography,” and a volume this one more closely resembles, Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller’s excellent “Live From New York,” about “Saturday Night Live.” [Read the full article...]

The Golden Age of MTV — And Yes, There Was One

NPR Book Review – November 6, 2011 (Excerpt)

“Ladies and gentlemen, rock ‘n’ roll.”

MTV went on the air with those words, a minute after midnight on Aug. 1, 1981. The first video was, of course, “Video Killed the Radio Star,” by the Buggles.

Few people saw the fledgling network; it was carried by cable operators in Kansas City, but not New York or Los Angeles. But within a couple of years, MTV had grown into a behemoth of the music industry.

Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum have compiled a new oral history of the network, I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution.

Tannenbaum tells weekends on All Things Considered host Laura Sullivan that when MTV was launched, music videos were almost unknown.

“In fact, if you had said to someone in 1981, ‘Do you want to watch a music video?’ the person would have said, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ because the phrase didn’t actually exist.”

MTV struggled during its first few years. Conservative cable operators often refused to carry the channel. [Read the full article...]

Music CD: Someone To Watch Over Me by Susan Boyle

Wilfried F. Voss — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 13:36:32 +0000

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Susan Boyle’s third album, ‘Someone To Watch Over Me,’ sees Susan and world acclaimed producer Steve Mac reunited to present a sensational and contemporary album that will span the generations. Featuring breathtaking renditions of ‘Unchained Melody’ and ‘Both Sides Now’, Susan fearlessly takes on iconic songs ‘Enjoy The Silence’ and ‘Mad World’ giving them a new identity. Original material includes ‘This Will Be The Year’ by Emeli Sande and Naughty Boy with Josh Kear and ‘Return’ by Steve Mac and Wayne Hector.

The album heralds a new era of music for Susan Boyle. New material and classics combined with a variation of tempos from the ethereal to the dramatic, the music is stripped back and showcases the voice the world fell in love with.

Susan’s song choices were inspired by the life stories and inner most thoughts from people who wrote letters to her from around the globe.
“There are certain songs that I liked that resonated with the letters that people had written and sent to me.” Susan said, “I knew that s what my record needed to be about. They wrote about grief, love, happy and sad times, it was all deeply moving and the songs mirror the emotion and life experience.”

Comprised of her signature big numbers as well as the unexpected this album will cement her credibility in the music world.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.