Alison Krauss' new album with Union Station, Arcadia, is pure Bluegrass and I love it!... New co lead vocalist, Russell Moore sings this traditional song of the 1874 Fall River Fire disaster...
Dave Allen, bassist of the great Post Punk band, Gang of Four has passed away aged 69... https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-...-allen-death-cause-gang-of-four-b2728647.html This is superb... R.I.P. Dave...
Clem Burke Blondies Drummer , and so so much more ,has passed away following a private battle with Cancer . He was 70 . Saw him at the Tivoli with Bootleg Blondie . I don’t have many heroes in Music , but he is one of my 2 joint favourites . Donald Rosier being the other one . R.I.P. .
I once interviewed Clem Burke for a magazine - he brushed off my amateur hour questions like the pro he was. The interesting part though, was that it was a phoner he was taking from the back room of a pub, where he was waiting to play drums for a Blondie tribute band. Just for the love of it, as he didn’t have another gig that evening. One of the understated, underrated greats. RIP.
Ah no, two in one day... Love Blondie and Clem was vital to their overall sound, a real powerhouse... R.I.P. Clem...
So this is a real treat, it just popped up on my Youtube and I thought i'd share it. It features the legendary guitarist and godfather of Punk and Metal, Link Wray...
It is salutary where many American artists get their music education. Debbie Harry atarted off in jazz wheras Cyndi Lauper started her singer career with blues bands. Many black singers came out of gospel. I find it fascinating that there appears to be gulf between American bands and their British counterparts when it comes to musical nous. I sometimes feel John Lennon made it fashionable for British bands to take this route. I have seen Clem Burke's name cited in this respect but there does seem to be a lack of trust amongst the British mainstream audience to accept more technical playing as if formal musical education is suspicious. Wondered if anyone else posting here plays an instrument ?
Not sure that's quite true. I'd rather listen to Annie Lennox than Cyndi Lauper any day of the week, and twice on Sundays. I'd rather listen to one note played by David Gilmour than a million by Eddie Van Halen. Clem was a great drummer, but there are plenty of other technically proficient drummers from the UK. This is a slightly odd take, Ian. Give me character, feel and soul over technique, always.
I think it was the pianist Paul Bley who made the comment about nusic with no emotional content is pointless. This is something i agree with. Annie Lennox came through music college and chose a career in pop music to classical music which was where she was destined. The suspicion of technique probably has it's antecedents with Lennon but certainly grew legs with punk. I always felt this was because of a desire to recognise the authenticity of British pop as being akin to American blues. The notion cintinued with Oasis. If you have more musical knowledge , you are equipped to say more with the music. E g. Thom Yorke in UK.
Sure, but then there are musical movements wherever you look that wouldn't fall into the technically proficient category, from the US, anywhere. Punk was the movement that opened the door largely to working class folk, saying that "hey, if we can do it, you can too" and a whole raft of great bands, who would never have made it otherwise, started to believe that they could forge a career in music. It wasn't technically proficient, but it had power and anger and was of its time. The actual lifespan of punk music as a dominant force was pretty short, but it enabled a great deal more. There's a heck of a lot of great bands who grew up with punk music.
You could see punk as pop music's equivalent of the New Thing in the second half of the 1960s. This was when jazz reflected the political turmoil of the time. There was some great stuff at this time such as Albert Ayler but it also facilitated a lot of charlatans too. There is a good documentary on Youtube about one of these musicians (Arthur Doyle) who tried to resurrect his career in 2000s after serving time in France and performing in the street. It was pretty clear that he had severe mental health issues and the film gave the impression of him being exploited. There was nothing musical about his playing other than the fact you could argue the music came from the street. It was just screeching. The parallels with punk are obvious. The whole movement had burnt out by the early 70s but it is interesting to me that future generations since 80s have ploughed the same furrow but with far more technique . The resultant music has been fascinating. It is far superior than what the New Thing back in the 1960s because the musicians are more switched on. I can still listen to stuff like Albert Ayler (New Grass is a fun album if you can track it down ....free jazz meets trippy soul music) yet newer players like James Brandon Lewis sound like they have fulfilled Ayler's potential. Ayler was found in the Hudson River in 1970 in circumstances that have never been explained.
I don't look at this thread often, had a bit of a catch up and apparently, one type of music is better than another! Who knew. I've been listening to Bear Ghost this morning and a rather splendid song called Big Town Banky Blaine's Rockabilly BBQ. I'm not a musician, and I don't know what musical 'education' any of the band had but I know I like it. Music appreciation like any art form is surely down to the ears that hear it, not the hands that played it. In art, some people like Van Gogh, others think dogs playing poker is a great image. They're both right. Anybody who tries to sell a different idea about what music I should and shouldn't like is frankly wasting their time with an artistic pleb like me Anyway...
Seventy years ago around this time of year something was happening in the USA that was about to bring Rock & Roll music into the mainstream. The film Blackboard Jungle was in cinemas with it's depiction of youth culture and a radical soundtrack including this song... . Then Bo Diddley released his self named first single with an innovative guitar sound... And then that other great R&R pioneer Chuck Berry released his breakthrough hit...
That's pretty cool, never seen a banjo synth before, that's a great sound considering there is only 3 of them.
Here are some fantastic songs that were inspired by literature (maybe I should've posted on the art & lit thread!..) Dalton Trumbo's 1939 anti-war novel, Johnny Got His Gun... George Orwell's 1984... J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord Of The Rings... Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust... Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray... Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho... Franz Kafka's 1914 short story The Penal Colony... Penelope Farmer's Charlotte Sometimes... Bret Easton Ellis' Less Than Zero... Aldous Huxley's 1937 novel, Brave New World...
Sad news about Mike Peters today - amazing battle for the past 30 years with cancer, and raised a huge amount during the fight. RIP Mike.
Chilco On post on another jazz board and one of my colleagues would throw a fit seeing this array of banjoes. The clip made be wonder if you had ever listened to Bela Fleck and the Flecktones ! He is a virtuoso too and has worked with the likes of Chick Corea. Love their track 'Sinister minister' which is great fun. Sorry i cannot post a link.
